Uprising. The word is that the one of ukraines largest cities could mark the disintegration of the entire state. Its that crisis as well as the ongoing ones in the middle east that are fueling a debate over whether president obama, the president who can take credit for the capture of Osama Bin Laden and an increase in drone strikes in the war on terror and who will preside over the end of the wars in iraq and afghanistan, whether that president obama is projecting american weakness around the world. Just a short time ago john mccain made that case to nbcs casey hunt regarding ukraines fight against the separatists. They dont have night goggles. They dont have light weapons, and to not give them the ability to defend themselves as this continues to go on is incredibly shameful. Okay. So the fact that a republican who really wanted president obamas job would attack him is not exactly a surprise. What is surprising to some, however, are editorials like this one in sundays new york times. In it the times Editorial Board spends a lot of time critiquing mr. Obama in detail on several points, including offering this conclusion. Too often mr. Obamas ambition seem in question. It does not feel as if he is exercising sufficient American Leadership and power even if he is, many of the, working to solve a problem. But the question is do the American People who wanted a more sober rationale approach to Foreign Policy to follow the shoot first policies of george w. Bush now want something other than the no drama obama they voted for twice. Does american Foreign Policy need more force to be effective. David rode is an Investigative Reporter with reuters and the recipient of two Pulitzer Prizes and jack jacobs is the recipient of the medal of honor. I will start by saying i feel completely inadequate with the two of you that are so accomplished. I want to get to the question with you, david, first, on whether the president , overall, when you look at his Foreign Policy in total, has diminished the appearance of American Power . I think American Power has changed. You know, postiraq and afghanistan, any president is going to be constrained in what they can do, but i also think the president is not doing the best job of selling his own Foreign Policy. There was the famous quote during his trip in asia where he talked about hitting some singles and some doubles. Thats not the kind of leadership americans expect from a president its not just about i think one of the things that the president sort of gets beaten up for is the tone. The president also doesnt project sort of the threat either. I think theres a general perception that we have not just drawn down sending our troops over to the middle east. We just have drawn down, period. Thats concerning. Part of it is tone. Part of it is a mismanagement of expectations. Part of it is that we are terrible at diplomacy. I think its safe to say that a lot of the problems we currently have could have been more easily resolved earlier rather than now, and because were no good at diplomacy and because we wait to exercise our economic instruments of policy, were almost drawn inexerably into the box where we have our default incident being the use of military power, and thats not where we want to be. Its interesting, though, because you talk about that default in that box. There is this suggestion at least by some of the president s critics, want the critics like john mccain and marco rubio, and others in the Foreign Policy sphere that he has developed a false zero sum game. We either invade or do absolutely nothing. I read an interesting article in Foreign Policy right now on the president. He says this. He says it doesnt take much psychological insight to suggest that obama is trying to obscure a painful truth from himself. This would be ease where i enough if had he the gift for believing whatever was useful for him to believe, a trait which george w. Bush and Ronald Reagan had in spades. Barack obama does not. He must recognize how incongruace it is, the man sworn to the principle of the responsibility to preblgt has chosen not to stop mass slaughter, whose death toll has topped 150,000. He is talking specifically about syria, and a lot of the criticism started then when we were hesitant to intervene in a really robust way to stop whats happening there. That hes the real problem and the contradiction for the administration. The fact that the how are we going to do it . We are not going to send american troops into these regions. The American People dont even want it. It leads to the question what do they want . Well, they want what they voted for, and that is for a world that doesnt really exist, never exists, has existed. Nor will exist in which we live in isolation in Enormous Economic success and happiness. Thats not going to exist. With respect to troops, were sending troonz. I mean, weve got troops in Eastern Europe and were going to have more troops in Eastern Europe, at least partially because of our failed diplomacy. Putin has, if you want to use the term won, he has gotten what he wants, and he may, in fact, get more. He will continue you know, we think that because were standing up to putin the way we are, he is going to become persona non grada because much the pain and suffering our actions have caused. Exactly the opposite is true. He is an enormous hero inside russia, and to be honest with you, the economic instruments and policy weve used, the restriction that is we placed on a very small number of people, those have had absolutely positively no affect whatsoever on russia, and, in fact, you could argue has emboldened putin to do other things which he never would have thought of before. Its interesting because his sort of putin sort of style has not only in a lot of the same way not comparing it to george w. Bush, but it was the same thing, right, when george w. Bush was saying were going to go around the world and kick the behinds of every terrorist on the planet. It felt good to americans. He got high approval out of it. That sense that were responding robustly, putin is doing the same thing, and its winning him fans among some in our own you know, in our own conservative movement, which is highly ironic and different for us to have a faction in american politics that seems to think that Vladimir Putin sin a stronger leader. Vladimir putin is an oughto accurate, and is he challenging this idea, and its fascinating. Putin and assad are showing if you are willing to use force and massive propaganda, is it it will work, and that stirs up the prorussian separatists in Eastern Ukraine, and the west doesnt really know how to respond to this. If were not willing to use military force, we talk about sanctions, and you are absolutely right. The germans wont agree to really serious sanctions. Right. You dont have a way to respond to these autocrats. We sort of forget the elephant in the room, which is europe, which is there in the region closer to the middle east and also right there near russia, but they also have a red sense about doing anything that would deprive them of their own gasoline reserve. Yeah, theyre economically intertwined with russia. They have very little interest in cutting that off. There may be something we can do over the longer term, and that is to guarantee deliveries of fossil fuels to the europeans, but just the europeans are not very much interested in there being any conflict for their economic recovery. You know, the europeans had, like,. 1 growth. They got 1. 6 coming up. Theyre very happy the way things are going, and they dont want anything to stand in their way with stretches that were putting on russia wra. They dont like that. Russia is not exactly doing great guns in terms of their economy either. Its sort of the feel good that putin is giving for his observe standing among russians and it isnt playing out in the economy. Is there Something Different that the president , that the United States could do to make a difference in this situation . I think pushing harder on economic sanctions, and tougher rhetoric. I mean, talk not about american military, but american and European Economic might. In the longterm, this is a very serious threat to putin. Their economy is falling apart. They have the stock market down. Its going to be a upon for him in the longterm. I would argue that at that point i would imagine his Approval Rating is there, and also here amongst some of his fans. David rode, thank you very much. Colonel jack jacobs, msnbc analyst. Thank you to you. Now an update on a very Important Supreme Court case that was decided today in a 54 decision split along partisan lines. The court today upheld the government meetings, in this case a town hall meeting in greece, new york may include an opening prayer. One of the supporters of that verdict, dr. Rob shake of the evangelical faith and Action Ministry led a prayer in front of a Supreme Court hours after the decision. He also had this to say about the decision. This case is a victory for every american citizens godgiven First Amendment guaranteed rights of speech, assembly, and especially the free exercise of religion. In his majority opinion, just as kennedy wrote in part, the inclusion of a brief ceremonial prayer as part of a larger exercise in civic recognition suggests its purpose and affect are to acknowledge religious leaders and the institutions they represent rather than to exclude or coerce nonbelievers. However, in her disenting opinion, Justice Kagen wrote the clergy put some of us in an unenviable choice like pretending to pray like the rest of its majority or declining the activity. Coming up, theyre still there, theyre still armed, and theyre heroes still not paying his bill. Now, lawmakers are trying to kick Cliven Bundys militia friends off the federal land theyve been hanging out on for weeks. Plus, the story of nearly 300 Abducted Nigerian School Girls gets even worse as a leader of a terrorist and then announces his plans for the girls. This is the quicksilver cash back card from capital one. Its not the limit your hard earned cash back card. Its not the confused by rotating categories card. Its the nocategorygaming, nolookpassing, clearthelaneim goingupstrong, backboardbreaking, cash back card. This is the quicksilver cash back card from capital one. Unlimited 1. 5 cash back on every purchase, every single day. Ill ask again. Whats in your wallet . Its eb. 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Mattress discounters has the Largest Selection of memory Foam Mattresses under one roof comforpedic. Icomfort. Optimum. And wow four years interestfree financing on the entire tempurpedic cloud collection dont miss the Memorial Day Sale. Mattress discounters az general rule things dont end well if the sentence starts, let me tell you something i know about the negro. [ laughter ] you dont really need to hear the rest of it. Dont start your sentence that way. That happens to be true. So cliven bundy has extended his 15 minutes of fame all the way to becoming a president ial punch line, but when president obama made a pretty good joke out of the what bundy knows about people of color, what bundys armed supporters continue to do to his neighbors in nevada isnt funny at all. The Associated Press reports that in encamp meants around the bundy ranch selfdescribed militia members from around the country continue to camp with handgun on their hips and heavier weaponry within reach of a show of support for bundy. I mean, within reach of a show of support for bundy. That may not be sitting well with the citizens of bunkerville who increasingly are complaining to their local officials that they would prefer that bundys armed militia friends go home. Speaking at a clark county democratic convention, nevada congressman Steven Horseford said he is calling on governor sandoval, senator dean heller, and the sheriff to do their part to get rid of these armed separatists. Congressman horseford said people in his district, including a fifth grade girl, are coming up to him and asking what are you going to do to get the militia out . So far theres been a fair amount of buck passing but no action. The governor said i rely on sheriff gillespie. I trust in his judgment. As for republican senator dean heller, he is previously referred to bundys armed supporters as patriots, but did distance himself from the rancher after those racist comments, but theres no indication he is weighing in on whether the militias should leave. Bundy still owes more than 1 million in fees at penalties for letting his cattle graze on federal land over the past 20 years. The question is how long will an armed militia be allowed to set up camp in a u. S. State to defend a man whose stand against the government is about bilking taxpayers. Joining me now is Nevada Assembly man david bobsian. Assemblyman, first of all, are you hearing from nevadans that this situation where you have basically an armed camp set up outside the bundy ranch is causing them discomfort . Well, i am, joy. Hearing from nevada residents, but im also hearing from people outside the state, and thats what concerns me as an assembly man. I had a breakfast with the ceo of a company that just expanded the operations in nevada, and the topic that dominated at the table was trespass cattle and armed militia members, and thats embarrassing. It is it does make us a bit of a punch line, but even more importantly and this is what the congressman is responding to is that, yes, there are residents of the bunkerville area that feel very unsafe in this current climate. I think its really uneasing to those of us who live out of nevada that you can actually have basically armed militias roving public lands with guns and in some cases highpowered weaponry in plain view. Theres a famous sort of picture of one guy laying on his stomach camped out pointing what looks like a highpowered rifle. That this situation could go on in the United States and that there not be some sort of police response. Is this legal to do . Well, this is kind of the problem. It definitely seems like an atmosphere, more reminiscent of Eastern Ukraine than it is clark county, nevada. It is a problem. Certainly we heard that the sheriff is now working with congressman horseford and the governor has made some statements, but i agree with the congressman that all elected officials in the state from the governor on down and also senator heller, we all need to now join together and call for these groups to leave the state. It is calling for them to go all that can be done. I really do find it shocking that you simply have to ask nicely for these people to leave and that you really could have people intimidating fellow citizens. You know, there could be children in the area. There could be people trying to do business as you mentioned in the area. This cant be good, and there is really nothing more legally that can be done to make them leave. The call is important because i think the call comes on the heels of our comments from elected officials that pretty much embrace these folks. You we now have an obligation to make it clear that theyre not william here. Again, it is a Law Enforcement issue, and as i understand, talking with the congressmans staff and his office that they are coordinating with the sheriff to look into this matter and see if we cant find some ways to resolve this issue. And, finally, sir, is this starting to impact things like tourism . You said its bad for the image of nevada, but are you starting to see those kind of ripple effects . Absolutely. I think were starting to see some numbers coming in from the mesquite area, from the bunkerville area about hotel nights that have been canceled, folks not wanting to come here. It was quite a powerful symbol to see i15, the major route into las vegas close down at the height of these tensions by this group. Thats not okay, and as far as im concerned, the fact that so many folks are asking me about it, even from out of state, its first on everyones mind. That has to have an impact on us, and not in a good way. I cant imagine that your public officials, including the governor, your senators, could go on much longer not doing anything about it or at least saying anything about it. We do appreciate you doing so today. Nevada assemblyman, thanks. Thank you. All right. Still ahead, scientists claim they found the fountain of youth, but as you might expect, theres a catch. Passenger road trip buddy. Lets put some music on. Woman welcome to learning spanish in the car. Passenger youve got to be kidding me. Driver this is good. Woman vamanos. Driver passenger vamanos. Woman gracias. Driver passenger gracias. Passenger trece horas en el carro sin parar y no traes musica. Driver mira entra y comprame unas papitas. Vo get up to 795 miles per tank in the tdi clean diesel. The volkswagen passat. Recipient of the j. D. Power appeal award, two years in a row. Tigers, both of you. Tigers . Dont be modest. I see how youve been investing. Setting long term goals. Diversifying. Dip you got our attention. We did . Of course. Youre type e well, i have been researching retirement strategies. Well thats what type e s do. Welcome home. Taking control of your retirement . E trade gives you the tools and resources to get it right. Are you type e . And it feels like your lifeate revolves around your symptoms, ask your gastroenterologist about humira adalimumab. Humira has been proven to work for adults who have tried other medications but still experience the symptoms of moderate to severe crohns disease. In clinical studies, the majority of patients on humira saw significant symptom relief, and many achieved remission. Humira can lower your ability to fight infections, including tuberculosis. Serious, sometimes fatal events, such as infections, lymphoma, or other types of cancer, have happened. Blood, liver and nervous system problems, serious allergic reactions, and new or worsening Heart Failure have occurred. Before starting humira, your doctor should test you for tb. Ask your doctor if you live in or have been to a region where certain fungal infections are common. Tell your doctor if you have had tb, hepatitis b, are prone to infections, or have symptoms such as fever, fatigue, cough, or sores. You should not start humira if you have any kind of infection. Ask your gastroenterologist about humira today. Remission is possible. Coming up, we reid between the lines on the gram at cal challenges you might encounter while visiting your local starbucks. Fist, its time for we the tweeple, and the stories you cant stop buzzing about on social media. When you think of stories involving the blood of the young, theyre creepy fairy tales like this. Lips red as blood. Hair black as night. Bring me your heart, my dear, dear snow white. That, of course, being the big screen adaptation snow white and the huntsmen. Today you are buzzing about the new studies showing that the blood of young myself may make the cells of older myself useful again. Scientists think could be true for us humans as well. If are you young and vibrant and happen to be strolling through the enchanted wood, watch out for wicked witches and apparently scientists. Now to the world of sports. Craig robinson, older brother of First Lady Michelle Obama is trending on twitter. He was fired sunday as head coach of the oregon state universitys mens basketball team. Some are whispering that robinson was kept on for six seasons because of his close connection to president obama. Some of you are sending tweets about the timing of his alleged separation, like this one. The question for osu isnt why fire Craig Robinson . Its why fire him now . Many of you are tweeting about the reported terms of his separation, noting that robinson might still collect 4 million on his contract, as if that kind of thing never happens in the world of sports and big name coaches. Well have more on this story soon. Now something festive. You cant stop tweeting about Cinco De Mayo. Unfortunately, this Cinco De Mayo a lime shortage might put a damp other your festivities. Bad weather was an initial cause of the crisis. The price of limes has skyrocketed from 15 to 100 a case. Bars and restaurants are, of course, passing the cost on to their customers. Reports say growers are any being threatened by mexican drug cartels who want to cut of the farmers lime production, making the situation even worse. You might not get a lime in your corona today, but not to worry. Weve heard that lemon margaritas are just as tasty. Enjoy. Do join the conversation with fellow reiders on facebook, instagram, twitter and msnbc. Com. Now this news. Vice President Joe Biden and his wife jill hosted a special Cinco De Mayo breakfast this morning where he made a push for immigration reform. When we pass immigration reform, it is going to happen not only in mexico, but throughout the entire hemisphere. Well be saying, hey, all these folks we treat with respect, view them as citizens, and they are as competent and capable and welcome as anybody else. Heres more on the origin of Cinco De Mayo by the numbers. Vo once upon a time there was a boy who traveled to a faraway place where villages floated on water and castles were houses dragons lurked giants stood tall and the good queen showed the boy it could all be real avo whatever you can imagine, all in one place expedia, find yours we know were not the center of your life, but well do our best to help you connect to what is. Welcome back to the reid report. Its now been three weeks since hundreds of young girls were kidnapped there their school in nigeria. It had been a foregone conclusion that the Islamic Terrorist Group boko haram. They threaten to sell the girls as slaves. As nigerias government comes under increasing scrutiny for not doing enough to find the missing girls, new reports say the countrys first lady Patience Jonathan is lashing out against leaders of last weeks protest. According to the Associated Press, one of the women leading that demonstration was arrested and several others are missing. The first lady is said to have expressed doubts that there was any kidnapping, accused them of belonging to the terrorist network, and a fabricating the abductions to give nigerias government and her husband a bad name. President Goodluck Jonathan spoke out in his first on camera interview since the kidnappings asking for maximum cooperation from parents who he says have not been able to give police clear identity of the girl. The president also vowed everything is being done to bring them home. Well surely get them out. Ive discussed with president obama at least two times. As supporters gathered in d. C. To rally for the girls safe return home over the weekend, secretary of state john kerry was in africa on a previously scheduled trip and promised u. S. Help. Let me be clear, the kidnapping of hundreds of children by boko haram is an unconscionable crime, and we will do Everything Possible to support the Nigerian Government to return these young women. U. S. Officials say aid could come in the form of intelligence help to fight boko haram, whose appetite for violence and bloodshed appears to be on the rise. Joining me now to discuss the controversy surrounding the search for these missing girls, nigerian writer lola. Lola, thank you so much for being here. I wanted to talk to you today because of two parts of this. You wrote in a leent college for the sunday times the following. You said, if this had taken place in the u. K. Or anywhere else in the west, there t would be no doubt that it would have been considered an international crisis. You also wrote, while nigerians have come to expect inept tud from the Nigerian Government, in this kind of case its unacceptable. Address for me those two parts of this story, equally tragic. One, this isnt stofr a bigger story around the world, and, two, the Nigerian Governments own role in it. Well, the first is that what it has tang to get to the point where people are now discussing the story in the way that we are today is really everyday people on twitter saying hold on a second. Whats going on . Why isnt anyone talking about this . Why isnt anyone reporting it . Because obviously there was a story with the Malaysian Airlines flight that disappeared. Then there were the Korean Children and the ship. Meanwhile, this other story came up, and it was kind of floating around but it wasnt being taken very seriously, and it took some people using facebook and twitter to say, hold on a second, what about these girls . Yes, they might be in nigeria. You know, maybe you dont know where theyre from in particular, but isnt this as important as the Malaysia Airways story . Isnt this as important as the korean story . Imagine if this had happened in america. Nearly 300 young women abducted from a school. I mean, it would be everywhere. Theres that aspect of it. When it comes to the government issue, the fact that it took the president nearly three weeks to speak out on Something Like this is absolutely disgraceful and unacceptable really. Were talking about young people, innocent people, women who basically have been driven off into the night to basically seemingly to be trafficked if theyre alive at all. Did it surprise you to hear, as it did me, the comments from president Goodluck Jonathans wife, herself a woman, a mother, and her reaction to this abduction of these girls to essentially blame it on the families and to sort of dispairage the families. Is that surprising to you as an observer of the nigerian first family . Its not surprising in the way that to me it seems like the president and his wife are not very good at taking responsibility, so, you know, she is saying that, you know, theyre trying to make him look bad or trying to disparage the president. That to me just sounds like someone that cant accept the role of, you know, listen, youre here to lead. Thats what people want. Its not for you to start blaming anybody else. Im not surprised from that perspective, but what surprises me is the lack of empathy, the insensitivity, and the sort of complete, you know, lack of urgency, this looks days cal, oh, yeah, well find them sometime. Right. That is shocking to me. Talk a little bit about boko haram and what level of a threat they pose to the government . How stable is this government . We noticed since 2010 there have been 2,300 deaths associated with boko harams activity. Muslimchristian clashes have risen during that time. How much of a threat are they to the stability of the Nigerian Government . Very threatening because they are increasingly audacious. Theyre attacking civilians all over the place. They dont have a concern. The thing is theyre shadowy group. You know, we dont necessarily know exactly who they are. Theyre in different areas. They might be linked to al qaeda. We dont really know how wellfunded they are, how much equipment and weapons they have and that sort of thing. The other thing is this particular point in time nigeria is growing in prominence on the International Stage as a country that has, you know, the potential to be an economic powerhouse in the future, but the only way that can happen is if theres political stability. Now, the government itself has its issues with corruption and that kind of thing, but the threat of a militant group who are, you know, unscrupulous and can attack any time is not good for countries either political stability or the economic stability whereby you might want foreigners to come in and start businesses and that kind of thing. They do pose a grave threat, and its just terrorizing the people as well, which is, of course, frightening. And, lastly, do we know the status of the of one of the protest leaders, one of the mothers who was reportedly arrested . Do we know if she is still being held, or do we know what her status is . I heard that she and someone else may have been released, but i cant verify that for sure, but that is what i heard. This is certainly a story that weve been following and will continue to follow and one that is being driven a lot by social media, and hopefully will start to get more attention from traditional media as well. Thank you so much for being here. Thank you. All right. Up next punch lines and zingers. The best jokes from the weekends white house Correspondents Dinner and some think Comedian Joel Mchale may have gone too far. Also, the snl joke thats causing even more outrage. meow mix jingle right on cue. Its more than just a meal, its meow mix mealtime. With wholesome ingredients and irresistible taste, its the only one cats ask for by name. Nineteen years ago, we thought, wow, how is there no way to tell the good from the bad . So we gave people the power of the review. And now angies list is revolutionizing local service again. 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Sometimes, lets just say, not everyone will be laughing. Community and the soup Comedian Joel Mchale spared no one in his mono log. Could you hear the growns in the room as he gave the business to everyone from president obama to hillary clinton, to vice President Joe Biden, and even senator ted cruz. The tea party, antisocialism and antiimmigration so, it makes sense that their hero is a cuban from canada. Poignant. That one was poignant. Its crazy to think that joe biden is only one heart beat away from no one taking him seriously as president. Im sorry for that one. Speaking of digestive systems, Chris Christie is here. He is actually here tonight. Wow. Sir, you are a glutton for punishment. Here we go. At about the same time on saturday night live writer leslie jones was making her on screen debut. Jones, writer laqendra, were all hired by snl earlier this year after the show came under criticism for its lack of a black woman cast member. On saturday this is how jones was introduced to the snl audience. The way we view black beauty has changed. Look at me. See, see, im single right now, but back in the slave days, i would have never been single. Im 6 feet tall, and im strong, college, strong. I mean, look at me. Im a mandingo. Youre not saying you would rather be a slave, right . I do not want to be a slave. Hell, i dont like working for you white people right now and yall pay me. Im just saying that back in the slave days my love life would have been way better. Master would have hooked me up with the best brother on the plantation, and every nine months i would be in the corner having a super baby. Every nine months. Every nine months i would be in the corner just popping them up. Just shaq, kobe, lebron. The reaction on twitter was quick with some people saying you just dont joke about slavery. Jones isnt backing down. She lit up her own twitter account with a pointed rebuttal. Im a comic. Its my job to take things and make them funny. To make you think. Especially the painful things. Why are yall so mad . This joke wasnt even written this joke was written from the pain that one night i realized that black men dont really [ bleep ] with me and why am i single . And that in slave days i would have always had a man because of breeding. If anybody should be ochbtd offended its white folks because its what they did. As a comic, it is ms. Jones job to make people laugh, but did she go too far by also making them cringe . We reached out for a comment from snl but did not hear back. Joining me now to discuss is comedian and actress jackie fabulous and chris witherspoon, the entertainment editor for the greo. I want to go back to the correspond ebts dinner. I was in the room listening to it. You were there as well covering it. It sort of felt like it was funny in the room, but on twitter people might have had a different reaction. What was the reaction like to joel mchale . I think people were a little shocked. There were a couple of jokes that he did that went sour, but heres the thing, he is young. He is kind of now. He is trending. The White House Correspondents Association knew what they were getting when they got him. He is brilliant on the soup. Im a fan of the show. He makes you kind of draw your jaw or clutch your pearls. He made if any of himself from the beginning. He said im on a show thats not that highly rated on nbc. Im also on a show on e. He did what president obama did. He made fun of himself as well. You have to make of yourself and then go and make fun of the audience, and did he it well, i thought. I want to play you joan rivers who is not known for being a shy and reticent person. Take a listen. Do you draw the line anywhere . Of course. Of course. You dont talk about something that ended in a tragedy, but you know what comedians are for . To make life palettable, and you laugh at things, and move on. This country has become so scared to say anything that its very sad. You know, jackie, one of the things that joel mchale was criticized was the joke at Chris Christie. At the after party they took pictures together. It was all fine. Do you think theres such a thing as too far at a roast . The point of a roast, you go to a roast knowing youre going to get your feelings hurt. Theres going to be tears. A lot of drinking. This is a comedians holy grail. Any roast, any speech that has to be made, this is amazing for a comic, and you make jokes that are going to hurt peoples feelings. You cant have a caucus every time a comedian offends someone. He was hilarious. It was a prayer come true for him. I thought he was amazing, and the deeper and the more he hurt anyones feelings, the funnier i thought he was. Thats our job. I want to go back to snls controversy, chris, because this is the context for this is that leslie jones, ashir and the third writer were actually hired because snl was criticized for not being diverse enough. Now they bring this diversity, and ironically, was it that maybe snls format was not really ready for what she was bringing to the table . I think what life people are outraged about is is it wasnt smart humor. She just came on and began talking about slavery, came shes really having her as i understand rela moment to being at a slave auction or being at a plantation. It was in poor taste. If she could have worked in Donald Sterling or cliven bundy and somehow made it smarter, we have a story on the grio that said it would have been a hit. It was a big miss. The timing right now, were in a really racially sensitive heightened time with all of these things happening. Snl probably should have known better. Its a comedy show. Its a comedy show. We actually reached out to some xhidians to get their reaction as well. Claudia wal yashgs one of the folks that sent us back a statement. This is what she said, i wasnt as offended, but it did make me uncomfortable. The energy of that piece didnt fit the show. It made snl look desperate to show, hey, we can be as edgy at key and peete, but they cant. Its a little different than say a cable format or even live sketch comedy . You do have to be more careful on network television. I disagree with you. I have seen leslie before hundreds of times. She was aggressively funny. Thats her job. Theyve said way worse things on weekend update throughout the years. She was amazing. She was hilarious. Being a juicy woman myself, i know im going for a top dollar in the slavery day because i had birthing hips and birthing boobs. Her father told her what the world was like back then. Black people were like the way you buy shoes in macys and in order strom. We were on display. Thats the truth. The fact that its funny now, were making light of something that was horrible. Thats the reality. I think a lot of folks, though, are outraged because we havent seen black women on snl that often. We see her on for the first time making history. This is the first time weve seen a black writer on snl in a long time, and this is what she comes out saying. She came out like, bam, im here. Lets do it. Take the opportunity. A black woman is on it. Now youre going to hear how funny we can be, and im proud of her. I want to see what else she can do where. You cant contain that in the writing room. This is how she is all the time. I see the edge. This debate im sure will continue on twitter. And we can take it off line. We really appreciate you both being here. Swraky fabulous. The fabulous chris witherspoon, great seeing you in d. C. Too for the Correspondents Dinner. Thank you both. Coming up, reid between the lines. We are going to take you to Grammar School or maybe just expose one of my personal pet peeves. music defiance is in our bones. Defiance never grows old. Citracal maximum. Calcium citrate plus d. Highly soluble, easily absorbed. [ female announcer ] we eased your back pain, you turned up the fun. Tylenol® provides strong pain relief while being gentle on your stomach. But for everything we do, we know you do so much more. Tylenol®. We know you do so much more. Ameriprise asked people a simple question can you keep your lifestyle in retirement . I dont want to think about the alternative. I dont even know how to answer that. I mean, no one knows how long their money is going to last. I try not to worry, but you worry. What happens when your paychecks stop . Because everyone has retirement questions. Ameriprise created the exclusive confident retirement approach. To get the real answers you need. Start building your confident retirement today. We are the thinkers. The job jugglers. The up allnighters. And the ones who turn ideas into action. Weve made our passions our lifes work. We strive for the moments where we can say, i did it we are entrepreneurs who started it all. With a signature. Legalzoom has helped start over 1 million businesses, turning dreamers into business owners. And were here to help start yours. Okay. Im going to depart from the usual reid between the lines tradition, which is all of ten weeks old, and end todays show way pet peeve, or as my producers put, it i have hijacked the fblock to engage in a little grammar policing. This weekend my husband and i drove down to washington for the white house Correspondents Dinner. Thats us there. On the road as we passed through multiple states i discovered that an annoying phenomenon that i thought was confined to new york city is actually far more pervasive. Following guest, as in may i help the following guest has become not my little language bugaboo, but it seems to become the way that people who work in the Retail Business from the drugstore to the coffee shop to the supermarket summon the next customer in line. The following guest. Remember when people behind the counter used to say next guest. Occasionally truncated the less customer friendly next. At some point, some genius corporate marketing suit must have decided that the way to impose high case snobery on the everyday Retail Experience and dress up their branding in the process was to get their employees to say following guest instead. A few years ago slate. Com Nathan Heller pinned the blame on starbucks writing that the grammar blog had been put on edge by the coffee shops grat atically dubious customersummoning language, quote can he help the following guest a hideous phrase thats off mark from its first word to its last. Particularly as it raises the question, following what . The post detailed other barrista crimes against the language, like using grande to mean medium. Believe it or not, there is a vigorous online debate over whether following guest is a grammatical crime at all or just a misdemeanor. When used as an adjective, following does mean next in order or time, as in we met the following day bushgt when it comes to people standing in line, if you dont actually have the names of the customers, as in would the following customer joe please step forward, wouldnt next guest or next customer make more sense . Would changing it back be too, as in too not to much to ask. If you have a language beef, you would like to share tweet me at my bugaboo. That wraps things up for the reid report. Ill see you back here tomorrow at 2 00 p. M. Eastern, and be sure to visit us online at the reid report. Msnbc. Com. The cycle is up next. Okay, cyclists. Tell me your buggaboos or whats coming up on the show. It drives me up a wall when people misuse the word literally. It is fingers on a chalkboard to me. Most of the time its not thats lots of words. Most of the time people use the word literally not to mean something literal. It drives me nuts. I do appreciate you on the grammar cop beat. I want to see more of that. Were going to have kind of a monster themed show today. Okay. Were going to talk about Donald Sterling. Were going to talk about Vladimir Putin, and im going to talk about the real origin of godzilla. The movie will be coming out, but six years ago god zila was introduced to japan as a living nuclear bomb to deal with their atomophobia. That is fascinating. Monsters inc on the cycle today. Coming up next. [ woman ] ive always tried to see things from the best angle i could. Its how i look at life. Especially now that i live with a higher risk of stroke due to afib, a type of irregular heartbeat not caused by a heart valve problem. I was taking warfarin but wondered, could i focus on Something Better . My doctor told me about eliquis for three Important Reasons. One, in a Clinical Trial eliquis was proven to reduce the risk of stroke better than warfarin. Two, eliquis had less major bleeding than warfarin. And three, unlike warfarin theres no routine blood testing. [ male announcer ] dont stop taking eliquis unless your doctor tells you to, as stopping increases your risk of having a stroke. Eliquis can cause serious, and in rare cases, fatal bleeding. Dont take eliquis if you have an artificial heart valve or abnormal bleeding. While taking eliquis you may bruise more easily and it may take longer than usual for any bleeding to stop. Seek immediate medical care for sudden signs of bleeding like unusual bruising. Eliquis may increase your bleeding risk if you take certain medicines. Tell your doctor about all planned medical or dental procedures. Those three Important Reasons are why im shooting for Something Better. Eliquis. [ male announcer ] ask your doctor today if eliquis is right for you. [ male announcer ] ask your doctor today who would have thought masterthree cheese lasagna would go with chocolate cake and ceviche . The same guy who thought that small caps and bond funds would go with a merging markets. Its a masterpiece. Thanks. Clearly you are type e. You made it phil. Welcome home. Now whats our strategy with the fondue . Diversifying your portfolio . E trade gives you the tools and resources to get it right. Are you type e . Right now Los Angeles Clippers face their next big test tonight. The Oklahoma City thunder. Trying to shut down Donald Sterling once and for all. Cycling now, another setback in the search formal asian flight 370. Im krystal ball, and searchers are starting from square one. In politics two super tuesdays in a row. Krystal ball can barely contain herself. Im jonathan capart in for ari. Sir, its all fun and games until the msnbc jokes start flying. I love that election music. Primary season starts manana. Were excited about using that track every week, and, yes, election day is six months away, but the may mayhem is already starting tomorrow. Primary voters come out in indiana, north carolina, and ohio. Its our very first super tuesday, krystal. Another eight states vote by the end of the month before the june and july madness begins and just in time. A new poll shows the state of the race is tilting slightly toward republicans. The gop has a fourpoint advantage on the generic congressional ballot. Doesnt seem like much, but at this point four years ago the parties were dead even, and we all know what happened that november. Republicans picked up 63 seats on the hill in a wave on that ship. Right before we get all serious this monday afternoon, the tone in d. C. This weekend was much