Transcripts For MSNBCW Up WSteve Kornacki 20140503

Good to be here in d. C. This weekend. The president of the United States addressed members of the White House Press corps in a joint briefing yesterday. He talked about matters important to both countries, the situation in ukraine, surveillance, big domestic news here at home, the latest job numbers unemployment plunging to its lowest level in six years. In an hour from o now, the president will be addressing members of the press corps in a highly anticipated annual speech. One with a lot more punch lines than the annual state of the union address. Thats right, tonight is the white house response dinner. Maybe you love it, hate it, somewhere in the middle, but you know what its about. Its the one night a year when the reporters who cover the president , the president s themselves get together socially to break bread and crack jokes at their own expense. Every president has put himself through this ritual at least once, although it wasnt always quite the spectacle. It used to be a Scholarship Fundraising dinner. Then about a half a century into it in 1987 a baltimore reporter attended. Back then was in the middle of the scandal. The next year that same reporter brought donna rice to the dinner who helped ensure that gary heart would never get to speak at a Correspondence Dinner. Then Ellen Degeneres just two weeks coming out in once a sleepy get together has evolved into a celebrity studded event. Stars lining up for a chance to see and hear the president. Reporters clambering for the chance to mingle with the stars, which in recent years has produced a backlash of its own. With critics and reporters saying the event has become too big. This will be the seventh year the New York Times will not be in attendance at the dinner. The bureau chief at the time in 2007 saying we came to the conclusion it evolved into a very odd celebritydriven event that made it look like the press and government all shucked their roles for one night of the year, sing together and have a grand old time cracking jokes. It feels like it sends the wrong viewers like we are all in together and it is all a game, it feels uncomfortable. One of the press corps made this case, we should get rid of the White House Press corps altogether. All too often the White House Briefing room where is news goes to die. A major story broken, a thorough debunking of the bush case, newspaper state department, even watergate came off the Washington Post metro desk. The dinner will go on tonight. President obama will be on stage listening to a comedian. It will be joel mckale and he will get a chance to do a comedy set of his own and will be watching to see how funny the president is this year. Here we are for the biggest day of the political worlds year in d. C. Should we feel guilty if we enjoy this dinner or at least enjoy parts of this dinner . Or are the critics right . Has it crossed over from being a harmless night of fun to a display of whats wrong with washington. Here to talk about the dinner and all the political news, we have with this morning the chief National Correspondent for the New York Times magazine whose takedown book has been rereleased. This is the perfect day to have him on the show. And political analyst kathleen parker, a columnist with the Washington Post. And jamal buoy, a staff writer. The set looks different. This is the first time we have had two pastry plates. The dress code is more serious so i put a jacket on. But lets talk about this dinner. Im not going to be going to it tonight, but i will be watching it. You wrote the book sort of explaining why this thing is bad for politics. Make that case. I think the dinner itself is a sleepy dinner. It raises money. That in and of itself is innocuous. What i object to strenously is the fiveday, 30party decadence over a long period. What message are we sending . The notion that were celebrating ourselves, what are we celebrate exactly . Were talking millions and millions of dollars spent on this. Its great that scholarship money is raised, but i would advocate for in lieu of flowers at the end of an obituary, certain media organizations should say in lieu of the 2th party this weekend, give to their own Scholarship Fund or something. You talk about the culture around the dinner, the preparty, the pre, preparty. Im feeling sad for both of you. Im getting you didnt get invited to the dinner. Are you going to the dinner . Im a guest of someone. Ive been almost every year. I didnt go last year. I had this conversation with tom brokaw via email. He made the big statement that he was not going again after having viewed kardashian and lindsay lohan. And so i agree with everything he said. Its superficial and gives the wrong message. Its all those terrible things. But im a reporter. I like to go and watch. Im there to see the president of the United States. Since hes there, i feel its okay for me to be there. Its a fun night if you dont mind standing in line. Everyone is sweating, its uncomfortable. Every year, i have a column about this, i say im never going again, this is it. But gretta is an icon of the class. She shows up every year in the same tux. Shes really mocking the whole thing in a way to her credit. Im still going. It sounds to me like a football game. I hate the lines, they search you when you go, so i watch it on tv. The view is better from home. How do you look at this . Are you going tonight . Im not going. You and me are watching on tv. I think im too young to get invited. I think its worth saying my experience of the White House Press core prior to being in washington is being a College Student watching the run up to the iraq war. So for me seeing this really does give me the hee byby jeebys. Stephen colbert used that platform to Say Something important. But i find it unseenly because you have this mixing of people who are supposed to have an adversarial relationship with the president kind of hanging out like hes a buddy. As much as i think obama is a good guy, that makes me feel uncomfortable. So what do you make of that . Can you go to a dinner like this, laugh at the jokes, and still be an adversarial reporter . Sure. The last time i went was when karl rove got drawn into a hip hop number and played a character called m. C. Rove and it seemed very strange, although i was laughing, i confess. It seems perfectly natural. Theres a great line that politics is hollywood for ugly people. I can argue this one either way. I feel like a high school debater. On the one hand, theres something obvious corrupt about this intermingling and the other hand is get over it school, which is the politics are funny, if nothing else people write really good jokes for them. The comedian is really funny. Stephen colbert moment, that was great. Whats interesting about that and maybe that kbets to both sides of this. There was outrage at colbert for kind of breaking a code because he was so up front in being kind of angry within that humor. On the one hand it was great he was up there and its good to have president s make fun of themselves, but that showed theres something odd. The interesting thing about that colbert one is in the writeup the next day, the New York Times didnt mention it at all. They mentioned george bush had a double with him. They wrote about that and then they realized most of the attention outside of washington had been on Stephen Colberts speech so they corrected themselves. We kind of missed this one. So thats the dinner. I will be watching it tonight. But were going to move on to a couple things in the news this week. Theres a lot going on. We have all these things to get to. People are are talking about. The clintons overnight tim kaine became the late toast throw his support behind hillary clinton. This came a few days after bill clinton spoke at Georgetown University and delivered a deflgsz of his economic record as president. To head off trouble on the left for hilary. How many times i have read from the left bitter criticism about what a slug i was to sign the balanced budget of 96 lowering the Capital Gains rate. I did it but we had the money to do it and it was the price i paid to e get the Childrens Health Insurance Program and all that education stuff and i would do it again tomorrow in a heartbeat. So the legacy of bill clinton on Economic Issues and domestic issues, it plays a role in how the Democratic Party looks at him and i found that speech so interesting because when i look at the clinton years, i think the speech was two hours, which was short for bill clinton. I think you could make a case to be satisfying to the liberal base but he forged this alliance. Talk about what happened in 2008. How does the left look at bill clint clintons legacy as president . Im not going to speak for the entire left just half of it. A quarter of the left, i think for labor oriented liberals, they see the Clinton Administration as a disaster. You have the gutting of organized labor or the continued gutting of organized labor. You have the emergence of this real relationship between the Democratic Party and wall street and sort of the corporate world. U and even if some of those liberals and folks on the left may have seen the longterm effective it has been new to the Democratic Partys ability to speak on populous issues. Its been to orient the Democratic Party towards a set of policy as definite reduction and make cuts to Social Security that they view as disastrous and counter productive and had a hindrance when what the economy needed was the opposite of those things and instead you had prominent figures in the party say, now its time to cut definites and they would draw a Straight Line from that to clinton. You know what i think is that bill clinton is such a peculiar figure. When you look back on his record, he made a bunch of c concessions to wall street. Some of the deregulation happened on clintons watch. Im told he regrets some of that. At the same time, he was a heck of a populous politician. Everybody forgets when he ran in 1992, he ran on raising taxes on rich people in order to balance the budget. So the clintons have a populous streak in them thats really important. The reason i think he was successful as a politician is he handled both sides of this, but above all, the economy grew and it was the one period when you actually had, there were a couple years where the bottom was coming up as fast z at top and youll hear that a lot from hillary clinton. I would say whats striking is in 2008 he lost a big part of his populous base because it went over to obama. That was the shiny new things. I see this as an effort to win back the luster they might have lost. You can see the energy of the Democratic Base seems to be connecting with Economic Issues in a way maybe it wasnt five or ten years ago. We have a lot more to talk about with this great panel. [ female announcer ] theres a gap out there. Thats keeping you apart from the healthcare you deserve. But if healthcare changes. If it becomes simpler. The gap begins to close. When frustration and paperwork decrease. When doctors are better connected. When grandparents get to live at home instead of in a home. The gap closes even more. And you begin to live a healthier, happier life. So lets simplify things. Lets close the gap between people and care. Mattress discounters Memorial Day Sale d care. Whats this . A queensize sealy gel memory Foam Mattress for just 497 . 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 it only took me 17 seconds to put my foot in my mouth. Im going to try to correct it. The title of your book is not our town. Its this town. Not yet a play. There it is, this town. Maybe it will be a play. Do i get a turn . It came out so quickly that i didnt realize i put my shoe in my mouth, i didnt mean the kardashian harem. I write about literal interpretations. I meant there were more than one. There was more than one. There is more than one. Im going to eat some cake. There is do you want to make a clarification . Theres fresh news this morning. The Donald Sterling saga, the woman on the voice recordings that led to sterlings lifetime ban spoke to Barbara Walters and said sterling should apologize but that hes not a racist. Heres what she had to say. Through his actions, hes shown that hes not a racist, through his actions hes shown to be a very generous and kind man. If he was a real racist then why would he help the world the way that he has . And that came earlier in the day. There was a report from the website that Donald Sterling said who knew they would be breaking the big story on this. He said i wish i had just paid her off. Then theres also some fresh polling data. The New York Times was asking if you think that the punishment was too len yent, too hard, or about right . Widespread agreement that this is about right. But then this was interesting. Do you think Donald Sterlings comments are representative of other attitudes of owners . Suddenly you see it emerging. Three quarters of wiets said its not widespread. But that sort of jumped out at me. What do you make of how this story has does this story reveal something more about American Culture and how we talk about race . Everybody was universally outraged about Donald Sterling, but when you break it down, you see some Division Start to emerge. I think the comment his girlfriend made is very striking about how americans talk about race. He did these nice things, hes such a great guys, hes not a racist, which seemed to invoke some horrible monster of a creature. When in fact, plenty of racists throughout history have been perfectly lovely people. Being a nice person has nothing to do with it. Its about your willingness to accept a certain view of the world. So i think you see a lot of the times whenever racism comes up, you have this response. This is a great person, they are not a racist. That has nothing to do with it at all. As for the division, i think that what were seeing really is another instance of being dramatic different in perception between africanamericans and white americans. Africanamericans still see lots of racial bias throughout society. And i think theres a lot of contention about that because in my own writing, i have been accused of being too sensitive to race. From where i stand, how i look, to me its very obvious that so much of American Society still is saturated with this bias. I guess thats what that poll is really getting at, the question is, not just in the professional sports world, is that an isolated case that we can all say, terrible, lets banish him from public life or is it more widespread . I cant speak exactly to the position, but i agree on the nice position. Its the good german syndrome. Everybody averts their gaze from horrible things that are taking place and pretend that they are not participants by their silence. So i think that the fact that were all so outraged is at least a positive sign. Whether that punishment is appropriate, it does raise other questions such as this is not a a popular thing, but i try to think about all the ramifications of such things. You have this person talking on the phone to another person and he thinks hes having a private conversation. Regardless of what the content of the conversation was, it became public and hes been punished for his way of thinking. I dont know where that goes. Thats interest iing. I dont think we have it on the screen, but there was another question asked 234 in the poll. So you saw widespread agreement, this was the right punishment. Then it asked, was it right that hes being punished for something said in a private conversation. This was shared, black and white, right down the middle. People very conflicted on that. I think thats part of the divide here. The process here is quite problematic and a separate issue. The problem is to separate these issues, you have to not look at what he actually said, which is extremely offensive. But what i think a lot of the white respondents are talking about having relatives at a certain age at their thanksgiving table who they are fond of on many levels and probably heard talk like that and thats uncomfortable. I think one of the most powerful statements on this was from kareem abduljabbar, who had a good piece in time magazine. There were knowings about mr. Sterling before any of this happened that he was sued for discriminating against tenants twice. It appears he said some really racist things then. He settled those suits. The notion is tenants dont have any power. Nba players in the middle of the playoffs have an awful lot of power. And the whole game was in jeopardy at the time of the year when most people were watching. If youre africanamerican, but not just if youre africanamerican, you ask, wait a minute, this comment is going to create all this trouble. Why werent these questions asked at an earlier stage . That gets into Donald Sterling was one of the most litigious owners and so it was the calculation a lot of people think the nba was making is the media is not blowing these stories up too much. Not lets make an issue because we dont want to get stuck in ten years of litigation. Now were going to see how the vote goes with the owners as they try to force him to sell the team. No one thinks hes going to take that lying down. This is a saga that is not going to unfold completely for a long time. I want to thank my panel. Well see you in the next hour. House republicans refuse to give up on benghazi. Their latest move and how nancy pelosi fired back. Thats next. Us to expect it. Intercourse thats painful due to menopausal changes. The problem isnt likely to go away. On its own. So its time we do something about it. And theres help. Premarin vaginal cream. A prescription that does what no overthecounter product was designed to do. It provides estrogens to help rebuild vaginal tissue and make intercourse more comfortable. Premarin vaginal cream treats vaginal changes due to menopause and moderatetosevere painful intercourse caused by these changes. Dont use premarin vaginal cream if youve had unusual bleeding, breast or uterine cancer, blood clots, liver problems, stroke or heart attack, are allergic to any of its ingredients or think youre pregnant. Side effects may include headache, pelvic pain, breast pain, vaginal bleeding and vaginitis. Estrogen may increase your chances of getting cancer of the uterus, strokes, blood clots or dementia, so use it for the shortest time based on goals and risks. Estrogen should not be used to prevent heart disease, heart attack, stroke or dementia. Ask your doctor about premarin vaginal cream. And go to premarinvaginalcream. Com this is worth talking about. Smoke . Nah, im good. [ male announcer ] celebrate every win with nicoderm cq, the unique patch with time release Smartcontrol Technology that helps prevent the urge to smoke all day long. Help prevent your cravings with nicoderm cq. That helps prevent the urge to smoke all day long. 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 confent retirement today. For nearly two years now since terrorists attacked benghazi, republicans have kept up a steady political attack against the Obama Administration accusing it of misleading the public. Yesterday that quest continued when Speaker John Boehner announced he would be calling for a vote to establish a select committee to investigate. So naturally when i sat down at the capital with nancy pelosi it was the first thing i wanted to get her reaction to. This is what she told me. I have not been informed by the speaker of his plans to establish such a commission, is it . Benghazi is such a very sad event, more than an event, a tragedy. Ambassador stevens, shawn smith, glen dougherty, we pray for their families and for the exploitation of it to be never ending by the republicans is really hard to understand. That was just the beginning of what nancy pelosi and i had to talk about. You can catch the rest of our interview tomorrow morning, sunday, including a frank conversation about how she deals personally with the republican attacks that keep coming at her. Well be right back with a Surprising New crusader on the war on poverty. If i can impart one lesson to a new business owner, it would be one thing ive learned is my philosophy is real simple American Express open forum is an online community, that helps our members connect and share ideas to make Smart Business decisions. If you mess up, fess up. Be your partners best partner. We built it for our members, but its open for everyone. Theres not one way to do something. No details too small. American express open forum. This is what membership is. This is what membership does. Nowchoose one option fromith red lothe woodfire grill,trios one signature shrimp dish, and a pasta. All on one plate. Three delicious choices. All for 15. 99 for a limited time only come sea food differently today back in november that the Washington Post first responded on paul ryans plan for a big makeover. He was moving beyond the previous years loss on the president ial ticket. He wasnt going to be associated with that anymore and he was setting his sights on fighting poverty and winning minds. That was the headline back in november. But for paul ryan and in the months since, winning minds has been the hard part. In march when he appeared on a radio show and criticized the culture of the inner city and its relationship to work. We have got this tailspin of culture in our inner cities, in particular, of men not working and just generations of men not even thinking about working or learning the value and the culture of work. A lot of ryans fellow lawmakers were outraged. Barbara lee put it this way. My colleague congressman ryans comments about inner city poverty are a racial attack and cannot be tolerated. Lelgts be clear when he says culture and inner city, these are code words for what e he really means, black. Since then ryan has been trying to undo the damage and to craft an image as Something Like the next jack kemp. As buzz feed has documented, paul ryan visited a dozen groups combatting urban poverty. Wednesday he convened for a hearing on urban poverty. After that he stop ped by a meeting of the black caucus saying they agreed on little but they were determined to do something. We all have to do a better job at challenging the status quo on how best to fight poverty. We have shared a lot of ideas on how to do that. What were trying to accomplish is improving the tone of debate so more people are invited to the debate so we can do a better job of getting a control of our problems with poverty. So what are those ideas . Many people, not just some of ryans colleagues, question the effectiveness of what hes proposing to do when it comes to fighting poverty. Paul ryan made headlines with a poor boy who didnt want a Brown Bag Lunch from the government. About a month ago he released a new budget to propose cut spending by 5 trillion, specifically by targeting social services that benefit americans on the low end of the economic scale. So lets talk paul ryan, talk poverty, joining me is charles rangel, a democrat from new york, one of the founding members of the black caucus. And ezra klein, and e. J. Is still with us. Congressman, ill start with you. We saw you showing some of the footage, we saw you in the shot there meeting with paul ryan this week. I guess my question is, did you hear anything from him that surprised you, that made you say i didnt know this about paul ryan, didnt know this about what he was proposing, did you learn anything new . Theres no member in congress that has known paul ryan longer than i have. But i know jack kemp. And Something Like this was said before, but paul ryan is no jack ke kemp. It is unfortunate the utter contempt that a small group of people in the Republican Party have for the poor and middle class. First of all, the budget is not going anywhere and the reason they have this blueprint of, i guess, whats going to be the 2016 campaign is they want a basis to explain that they are going to favor the rich, which unfortunately 1 owns about 43 of the wealth and really the middle class is slipping into poverty. This makes no sense for the Republican Party, a nation, or those people who really want to work and have been said whether they are black or white have a culture not wanting to work. That is holding these people in utter contempt and its really painful. So im wondering, you have some strong thoughts about what paul ryan is proposing. Take us inside this meeting a little bit. Did you express those thoughts to him . What kind of dialogue happened . What did he say in response . He talked about how one of the goals is to promote a bipartisan dialogue. What was the conversation like . Congresswoman glen moore asked the question early on, could you tell me do you understand what your budget, the impact it would have on the poor and the lower middle class. And i guess, everyone and especially me, said, paul, we understand the philosophy, you have expressed it so many times, but were asking you today about the budget. And he gave his ideology that amounts to what so many think. If you give tax breaks to the rich and really cut back the programs that the poor and the middle class depend on that sooner or later it will level up. So the cuts are in medicaid, d medicare, education, infrastructure, all of the things. But i dont put as much attention to what paul and the republicans in the Budget Committee. The truth of the matter is the mission initially was not the budget, but to get rid of obama. So everything in there is really to make certain that nothing is going to be done except through executive order. Back to the table here for a second. Ezra, the Congressional Black Caucus came out with its own proposed budget. There was a basic comparison of the two. The cbc put out a budget with a 500 billion jobs plan and raises 2 trillion in revenue through tax increases on wealthy americans and corporations. Ryans budget would cut spending, 69 of those programs that serve low income americans. Do you see any potential for Common Ground between where paul ryan is and where the black caucus is . Not unless they are going to move tremendously. Its worth zooming out on ryans budget. It doesnt get this way by accident. They have made a series of commitments and forced this outcome. They wont raise any taxes. Thats a core commitment. They wont cut defense. They want to increase it in the budget. They will not cut retirement programs for those at or near retirement. When you have knocked all that out, when you cant do those things, pretty much the other big thing the federal government spends money on is the poor. If youre going to have to cut so much out of the budget, cutting more than 5 trillion, youre going to have to cut tremendous amounts of money for programs for the poor. That in every one of these budgets is what ryan has done. In this buzzfeed profile, ryan got asked about this. He basically waved his budget away. I have to do that for the republican poverty. Im going the poverty thing for me. Somehow he does not have to stand behind that its a genuinely pretty shocking. So perhaps hes planning to make a big swerve and say i never thought the budget was good any way. Within the budget, within the framework he has adopted, theres absolutely no math he can do except for massive cuts to the poor to make the other promises work out. Kathleen, i wonder what you make of what paul ryan is up to. If you take the new republican orthodox, never, ever any new tax increases. If you take defense off the table, if you take Social Security off the table, you are left with deep cuts to the social safety net that affect poor americans. Do you think thats the right way to go or do the republicans need to rethink this especially in terms of the old school jack kemp style outreach. They listen to me. I found that double personality sort of problematic too. I thought it was awfully strange to say the budget is one thing, but im trying to be a good person here. I do think he means well. And theres a possibility that paul ryan has experienced some sort of a transformation here. He quoted the pope, talked about how we have to balance the kempen form of balance, programs that will help people become more selfsufficient. The republicans absolutely have to change what they are doing. I dont think you cant tell me theres no way to cut defense. You cant tell me that theres some big problem with means testing or adjusting some of the programs for people in retirement who may be able to afford a little more selfmonetizing, im stumbling here because i need more coffee. But i think they have to change. But they cant. Their constituents will never let them change any of those pillars. I am dying to hear what e. J. Has to say. Im dying to hear from the congressman. Were going to do all of that right after this break. [ female announcer ] who are we . 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. Turning dreamers into business owners. And im his mom at the dog park. The kids get trail mix, and heres what you get after a full day of chasing that cute little poodle from down the street. Mm hmm delicious milos kitchen chicken meatballs. They look homemade, which he likes almost as much as making new friends yes, ill call her. Aww, ladies man. Milos kitchen. Made in the usa with chicken or beef as the number one ingredient. The best treats come from the kitchen. Today were going to learn about what it takes to fight poverty. I think we can all agree that washington isnt making anybody proud these days. Thats congressman paul ryan on wednesday opening up the Budget Committee hearing on poverty. E. J. , you wanted to get in right before the break. We were talking about this during the break. The comparisons are being made to jack kemp in terms of outreach to constituencies that dont normally vote republican. But a big difference between jack kemp and paul ryan was that jack kemp did not care about defici deficits. Paul ryan wants to make deep cu cuts. Jack kemp wanted the tax cuts and wanted to keep spending what it took to help poor people. Ezra made the point that ryan is saying that the ryan budget is for them. Ryan is saying the ryan budget is not mine is like cocacola saying we dont make soft drinks. Its an odd distancing. And i think his problem is i dont doubt that at some personal level he doesnt care about the poor and has gone to visit some of these areas. What i think his ideology does not allow him to face is that if you want to lift up the poor, some significant degree of public spending is required. And i dont think he wants to come to terms with that fully. The brown paper bag story that you referenced at the conference, it turned out the story wasnt even true, but lets just take the story. The kid who was on the School Lunch Program wanted lunch because it showed his parents cared about the other kids but not me. And that was an outrage because it implied that all the poor parents who care enough about their kids somehow didnt care as much as parent who is didnt need public assistance of any kind. Its that kind of contradiction that no matter how often he visits poor neighborhoods, he still hasnt come to terms with. Im smiling because only when you come to the brown lunch bag. They dont taste good. Congressman, i want to bring you in. Just about the poverty tour that paul ryan has been on. Hes been visiting some of these neighborhoods. Were talking here about the contradiction about how hes talking about his own budget versus the last three or four years. I asked if you learn anything new about paul ryan at that meeting. Did you get the sense that he learned anything from meet iing with you, with the black caucus. He learned that just given the rhetorical response and not dealing with the response is mot going to work with 43 africanamerican members of the congress. But i know paul ryan. He got his education from Social Security as a Survivor Fund when his dad passed away. And john boehner knows poverty. He came from the middle class. What they are doing is destroying the middle class. It is true that black africanamericans, hispanics have more than that. Were talking about the United States of america. Were talking about the disparity between the wealth and the poor. Were talking about the middle class which is the heartbeat of america not being able to have purchasing power. Tlrvegs were talking about small businesses. Its a tragic thing to think. But i tell you this. When you take a look at the Republican Party, it could be that paul ryan is trying to find a way to appease the extremists in his party at the same time to have some credibility because right now, i dont want to be a part of just a oneparty system in america. But they are doing this. I want to pick up on the other side. If there is something about what paul ryan is doing now in terms of rhetoric that could potentially open up some kind of avenue for a change on the, the other side of the break. Havoc nows the time to send in the scotts turf builder weed feed, man it kills weeds while it feeds and strengthens your grass. Feed your lawn. Feed it i want to pick this up on the point the congressman was making about making this more than a oneparty thing. The most recent example is another attempt to raise the n minimum wage gets filibustered o death. When you look at what paul ryan is doing, does it suggest to you any avenues that might be opening up for any kind of compromise . This is why i focus on policy. When you look at what paul ryan is doing, when you look at what hes saying, its many avenues. He could go in any direction he would like. But talking is cheap and listening is cheap too. Going on a poverty too is an important thing to do, but it doesnt matter at all unless it shows up somewhere afterwards. The Republican Party has locked itself into a set of other commitments. And what im not seeing is a willingness to revisit those commitments. Im not seeing paul ryan saying i have decided that doing more to help the impoverished is more important than keeping taxes at exactly the rate now. Or its more important than keeping defense exactly where it is now or higher. These things need to fit together. Theres a great line about budgets where budgets are where we show our values. Where we have to make the tradeoffs. Until the Republican Party is willing to make a different tradeoff somewhere other than poverty, they cant do anything different. Thats the trap for them right now and thats what im not hearing it get revisited. Hes going to put money where he wants his heart to be. Thats the choice he cannot stick with this particular budget or a view that the government cant do anything to raise the minimum wage. If you want to cut food stamps, have people pay enough so they dont need food stamps. He has to make some shift and we can say, all right, maybe hes changing his mind. Go ahead, kathleen. The one thing they could have done, but the problem always is their constituents wont let them. They are really trying to keep the tea party quiet. The one thing they could have done is raise the minimum wage. They should have done it long ago, not now as a last resort. But because their argument is it wont create jobs and it will cost jobs at the lower rungs. If that is true, so what. Have at it. Give the people a raise. Let them spend a little extra money if they have it to help the economy. Even symbolically it was the right thing to do and they missed it. I dont really think that paul ryan is addressing this budget to the country. Hes e addressing it to the conservative part of the Republican Party. He really believes that in order to republicans to succeed, he needs these people. So all of the things hes doing is not directed to become law, but its really to try to show that he is not as conservative as they are, but hes going to meet them halfway and try to bring them on board. This budget is born dead. But like they said, it is a reflection of where the Republican Party wants to go. And right now, they are out of business nationally. All right, congressman, i want o to thank you for joining us this morning. Usually we have to go to d. C. Now we come here and get them from new york. Thank you for joining us. As well as ezra klein. Democrats and republicans working together in congress, the effort that is uniting them. Hast just ahead. Nobody told us to expect it. Intercourse thats painful due to menopausal changes. The problem isnt likely to go away. On its own. So its time we do something about it. And theres help. Premarin vaginal cream. A prescription that does what no overthecounter product was designed to do. It provides estrogens to help rebuild vaginal tissue and make intercourse more comfortable. Premarin vaginal cream treats vaginal changes due to menopause and moderatetosevere painful intercourse caused by these changes. Dont use premarin vaginal cream if youve had unusual bleeding, breast or uterine cancer, blood clots, liver problems, stroke or heart attack, are allergic to any of its ingredients or think youre pregnant. Side effects may include headache, pelvic pain, breast pain, vaginal bleeding and vaginitis. Estrogen may increase your chances of getting cancer of the uterus, strokes, blood clots or dementia, so use it for the shortest time based on goals and risks. Estrogen should not be used to prevent heart disease, heart attack, stroke or dementia. Ask your doctor about premarin vaginal cream. And go to premarinvaginalcream. Com this is worth talking about. On thursday the Obama Administration unveiled a list of 55 colleges and universities currently under federal investigation for the possible mishandling of Sexual Assault complaints o on campus. This is the First Time Ever an administration is publicly unveiled a full list of schools under investigation. It follows the announcement that toughs university in massachusetts failed to comply with antidiscrimination law. They are disputing that finding. All of this is part of a bigger white house effort to combat Sexual Assault on College Campuses that was unveiled on tuesday. Colleges and universities can no longer turn a blind eye or pretend rape and Sexual Assault doesnt occur on their campus. We need to provide survivors with more support and bring perpetrators to justice, and we need the colleges and universities to step up. Most recent statistics available on this come from the department of justice found that 1 woman out of 5 is sexually assaulted while in college. The figure is 6 for men. The White House Task force to protect students from Sexual Assault launched a new website to serve as a resource for rape survivors to learn their rights, file complaints and track the results of previous cases. The white house also put out a starstudded psa in an effort to push witnesses of Sexual Assault to step in and to intervene. If she doesnt consent or if she cant consent, its rape, its assault. Its a crime. Its wrong. If i saw it happening, i was taught you have to do something about it. If i saw it happening, i speak up. If i saw it happening, i would never blame her. I would help her. Because i dont want to be a part of the problem. I want to be a part of the solution. We need all of you to be part of the solution. This is about respect. Its about responsibility. Its up to all of us to put an end to Sexual Assault. And that starts with you. That you includes your elected leaders. In the Senate Kirsten gillibrand expanded efforts. On thursday we learned that reports of Sexual Assaults by members of the military rose 50 last year in the wake of increased attention to the issue. That means more victims are coming forward and reporting their abuse. In the house members of congress have proposed an outside the box approach to raise awareness of Sexual Assault on campus. A dozen members asked u. S. News to include data in their college rankings. The magazine hasnt commented on the specifics of the proposal, but they said they would meet with members of congress to discuss the issue. Joining us is congressman pat mean from pennsylvania who signed that letter. And carol maloney. Also we have kathleen parker, columnist and jamal buee a writer for slate. Com. Congressman, i want to start with you because you signed this letter. 12 members of congress sign ed it. Im really interested in what youre trying to do here. When i was applying to college, everybody was looking at the u. S. News rankings. I remember my School Reading about the extraordinary efforts they would take to raise their rankings to try to rise. This is such a thing that colleges care so deeply about. Can you tell us what specifically you want to incorporate Sexual Assault into these rankings. How would you incorporate that into these rankings that come out every year . I would like to see the colleges be responsible not just for identifying the amount of rape that occurs and to allow there to be the kind of anonymous reporting including sort of surveying the school to see how much might be there. But the key is to be able to have some kind of a standard that will allow the schools to be judged on how they are performing across the board. Were talking about 55 names were named this week, 55 colleges and universities. When you start looking at the statistics and you look at the importance, its really been an eye opener how much colleges care about their rankings. So in a way, this is a logical way to put pressure on them. Are you expecting a lot of resistance, pushback on this idea just given the magnitude of the problem and the effect it could have on something they care so deeply about. I have been a prosecutor before i went to congress. The fact of the matter is a lot of colleges want to do this right, but theres been a failure to respond appropriately to the issue. They have been afraid to get into the middle of what they felt were circumstances between effectively were two adults. But thats not sufficient because we know that often times sometimes alcohol is part of the issue, but still its not a consensual relationship. Statistics speak for themselves. Its an overwhelming issue and the colleges have a responsibility not only under the act, they have a responsibility to be responsive, to create an environment that allows that victim to retain control over her destiny once she determines how she would like to proceed and to be able to understand how the school will be responsive and supportive in that effort. And legislatively, if you could speak about the efforts underway or going to be undertaken. I know theres a bill thats going to be introduced soon that would compel colleges to do annual, anonymous surveys to get data to find out the true extent of the problem on their campus. Can you talk about the prospects of that and other bills actually passing on this issue. Earlier i authored the campus safe act. And the campus save act requires and was incorporate d into the violence against women act which was passed and is now law and it requires the colleges and universities to clearly spell out what their policies are for domestic violence, sexual violence, Sexual Assault and stalking. It also requires them to come forward with the numbers in this area and more transparency. Transparency in a sense is prevention. Earlier jackie spear and i wrote a letter to the task force asking them to come forward with a required survey from the campuses and a not alone website that they have started similar to the bullying. Com website that they started earlier in another area. But the survey will be required by 2016. It requires the universities and colleges to make public the number of assaults and attacks and reported incidents that come forward. We know that universities and colleges have not treated it with a seriousness that they should. And truly no responsibility of government is more important than protecting our citizens. We know from the numbers we have to protect our young men and women on College Campuses. The numbers are troubling and its a crisis the amount of people that report that they have been hurt. In one university, the young women organized a protest march and a website appeared saying that the leaders of this march should be raped. Well one of them was raped. The minute this website came apparent, the fbi should have been called in to close it down, to arrest whoever called for violence against women and to end this. Violence against women, as my colleague pat knows, and we have worked together on a number of important initiatives, it should be treated like a crime with a seriousness of a crime. Im pleased the white house has made it a top focus now. I certainly join in supporting their efforts. Im curious what our panel here in washington makes of this. We gave in the interim, the numbers really are staggering when you start looking at one rape a day taking place on large size College Campuses. We had in the introthe number of reports in the military grow in in the wake of the new attention being focused on Sexual Assault in the military. Is there a culture change that maybe is taking place now more broadly in society in general that is encouraging women to come forward more . Do you sense any of that . I have two comments on the culture question. I want to first of all say this is a brilliant idea to tag violence and the way universities and colleges handle violent reports not only rape but in other areas as well to the rankings. Why not . That makes perfect sense to me and it will force colleges to step up to the plate and deal with these situations more fully. And one of the situations they have to deal with is the alcohol abuse and the binge drinking. I hope thats part that has to become part of it because they are tied closely together. Thats one of the cultural questions. The culture in general is sexually hostile. I think the rampant pornography plays a role in all of this in terms of lack of respect for other meem and the dehumanizing of women particularly. I think thats a factor. Alcohol is a factor. That we are talking about this in open ways and without reserve is certainly helpful to young women and girls because these are really children. Anybody who has been a parent e knows an 18yearold is a child. But to have us be able to talk about this in the open is very helpful to the victims and those who do feel that they have been i want to make one little quick point and i would direct this as a question to both of you. When we talk about Sexual Assault, i would caution you to Pay Attention to how these things are determined. I wrote about this years ago so im not up to date on what questionnaires are being used, but in the past they have been somewhat vague and one question might be as simple have you ever had a sexual advance that you did not want. That gets conflated with Sexual Assault. Can you speak to that . Theres going to be legislation, youre saying, on these surveys that colleges should be taking. What kind of questions how specific are the questions going to be . Is that something youre thinking about . Well, some of the colleges that appeared on the 55 targeted list that was released by the white house in the state im privileged to represent and our district and i have already reached out to them on what are they doing. We need to e see how they are framing it. I have a meeting set up with one of the College President s. How are they trying to help . So often its not even whether its an unwanted advance. Its absolute rape. And often times students are afraid to even report because of the confidentiality. And often times, as we know from the cleary case, the victim becomes the victim again as they attack her for even report iingt it. As you saw on one campus, they did not take down the website. They were calling for a public attack against women. And one did occur. And how insensitive can you be to protecting your students and young people. A lot of work needs to be done, and the questionnaire absolutely needs to be appropriate. But it is a crisis at this point given the statistics. I certainly agree with that. And i have heard that from young women in college now and its appalling. The fact that sometimes these parties a girl will be under assault and no one does anything about it or films it for distribution. And i have heard too that the girls feel not only afraid to report it because they dont want to go through the ordeal, but they will be condemned and ostracizing by their own peer group. Theres another aspect i want to get to as well. We talk about change the culture to encourage women to come forward. Theres also the question that the culture of men and men sort of the messages that they receive now versus the messages that might discourage this kind of behavior. Its not always the case of men sexually women. But men being the perpetrators, there has to be a culture change taking place. Absolutely. We dont just focus on the victims. You need to report, you need to be proactive. We also say to people i think its to to say men living in a culture that doesnt respect females. They are entitled to Sexual Activity if they make an advance, it ought to be honored that they deserve womens attention. We need to be saying to men, this is obviously super simplified, dont rape. Ask for consent. The report from the white house that they are using men as spokes people. When you see something, stop it. When you see something, intervene which speaks to the cultural change of not just women but men speak out in defense of helping other women and men. Go ahead, congressman. I think we can go a long way by making progress against one particular group, which is among the men, they have been able to identify that theres a particular group that are serial actors in this behalf. Were talking often times about young women as kathleen said, 17 or 18 years old, first time away from home in college, and they are exploited easily. Alcohol gets into the situation and the selfreporting has identified that while there may be certain circumstances between a male and a woman, also people on the campus that have five, six, seven different incidents. They are the serial rapists. Those are the ones we clearly want to be able to go after. And often times the failure to investigate one act has enabled them to continue. I saw that as a prosecutor and thats the kind of thing we could make a real dent in. This is interesting. I have been doing this show over a year. We have potential legislation, we have a a democrat and republican on and theres actual discussion about bipartisanship and working together. A lot of people look at that and thats refreshing even though the issue is not a pleasant one. I want to thank pat meehan and carol mahmoloney. A major test for the Republican Party is just trhree days away. Thats next. Im their mom at the playground and im his mom at the dog park. The kids get trail mix, and heres what you get after a full day of chasing that cute little poodle from down the street. Mm hmm delicious milos kitchen chicken meatballs. They look homemade, which he likes almost as much as making new friends yes, ill call her. Aww, ladies man. Milos kitchen. Made in the usa with chicken or beef as the number one ingredient. The best treats come from the kitchen. For 175 dollars a month . So our business can be on at ts network yup. All five of you for 175. Our clients need a lot of attention. Theres unlimited talk and text. Were working deals all day. You get 10 gigabytes of data to share. What about expansion potential . Add a line anytime for 15 bucks a month. Low dues. Great terms. Lets close. New at t mobile share value plans. Our best value plans ever for business. To get your clients attention. From brochures to business cards to banners. Everything. Except your clients attention. Thousands of products added every day to staples. Com, even bullhorns. How much . [ male announcer ] staples. Make more happen. [ male announcer ] thats why theres ocuvite to help replenish key eye nutrients. Ocuvite has a unique formula not found in your multivitamin to help protect your eye health. Ocuvite. Help protect your eye health. That corporate trial by fire when every slacker gets his due. And yet, theres someone around the office who hasnt had a Performance Review in a while. Someone whose poor performance is slowing down the entire organization. Im looking at you phone company dsl. Check your speed. See how fast your internet can be. Switch now and add voice and tv for 34. 90. Comcast business built for business. In just three days theres going to be a major test for the Republican Party and its a test that democrats are watching carefully. We know the story of in 2010 and 2012 the gop blew golden opportunities to get back control in the senate by nominating fringe candidates. You remember them. Now its 2014 and once again republicans are in prime position to grab control of the senate. But there are plenty of ways they could blow it yet again and one of the most obvious would be nominating fringe candidates in key races. When brings us to theest thats three days away. The primary election in North Carolina, kay hagan faces a reelection fight. Its a state republicans badly need to pickup if they are going to win the senate. Who will they nominate to oppose . Thom tillis, his main opponent it a tea party insurgence. Tillis leads in the polls, but iffy he doesnt crack 40 o he will be forced into a runoff and things get unpredictable in runoffs. Which helps explain why the biggest establishment in the state of North Carolina felt the need to way in this week. Like i needed to be up front with the people and direct with the people and know that tomorrow im voting for thom tillis. Then came another endorsement from one of the biggest republicans in the whole country. Jeb bush, hes on tilliss side too, but the Tea Party Candidate reeled in the best endorsement a Tea Party Candidate can get with rand paul announcing hes coming to North Carolina this monday, election eve, to campaign for brennan. Is the Tea Party Revolt as big and strong as its been for the last two elections or has the gop tamped it down . If they have, have they done it by moving so far to the right that damages the candidate . Even if the Tea Party Candidate loses on tuesday in North Carolina, is the tea party already won . North carolina is one of the most Pivotal Senate races on the board. All of the eyes will be on it on tuesday and for months to come after that. Im joined by a Political Writer for the Charlotte Observer and a political producer for nbc news. Ill start down in North Carolina. The story of this race to me seems like obviously thom tillis needs to crack 40 on tuesday. He has an overwhelming advantage when it comes to money and ads that have been run on his behalf. Theres a poll here that asked people in North Carolina who have you seen the most ads from in the republican primary. 72 said thom tillis. So you get a sense of the imbalance there. On the other and you have greg brannon trying to tap into the tea party that was so powerful. You have rand paul coming in. What is your sense of where this race stands right now and what were likely to see on tuesday. Where it stands, you have seen tillis Building Momentum in the last few days. He has the jeb bush endorsement, a new poll came out that showed him breaking the race open. That may or may not be accurate, but theres a sense that he is breaking through that 40 . I think r57bd pauls visit on monday might be a little too little too late for greg brannon. I have to say that the freedom works, which endorsed brannon, is making a lot of effort around this area and around the state getting people out to vote and doing some lastminute voter turnout. So this is an interesting question. Jim is talking about it looks like tillis is favored to break that 40 mark and not have to deal with a runoff. On the surface, thats a victory for the establishment republica republicans. Have they figured out here looking at the race it seems to me brannon is the kind of candidate we would be looking at him surging right now. If he loses this thing, if he doesnt force the runoff, does that tell us that the establishment of the Republican Party has figured out how to tamp these things down, how to keep guys like brannon from getting nominated . To a certain extent, thats the case. They were aware of the problem way earlier than before. A lot of the candidates that you showed who ended up winning and going on to lose were people that the republican establishment wasnt paying attention to. Richard lugar was not paying attention to murdoch and thats definitely not the case here. Its also true that democrats, while now they are saying, no, were not trying to meddle in the primary as it looks like they are going to get the outcome of what they want, thats the opposite of what they were saying a few months. The person we dont want to run against is thom tillis. Even if he prevails, it goes to a runoff and they have failed to do that. If the establishment does prevail f they get their candidate through, did it come with a price . Brannon has all of the markings of another todd aiken waiting to happen. He talked about if we had state militias. On the other hand, to tamp down the tea party insurgency, to make himself acceptable, heres an example of what thom tillis had to do. This is from a Republican Debate on the issue of Climate Change. This is what tillis is talking like in the primary. Is Climate Change a fact . No. No. No, god controls the climate. No. So im wondering, theres an example of thom tillis avoiding a land mine in a republican primary, but if thats the thing hes had to do to keep the tea party from revolting to get the nomination, that seems like the kind of thing that will hurt him in the fall. Are there more examples where he set general election traps wsh. It does, there are. Hes kept a little space between him and the other candidates. Greg brannon and mark harris, last fall he came out in support of the shutdown against the leadership, which is supporting him and has been supporting him. Hes come across as a lot more conservative than people think he really is. Thats a lot of bitterness among the Tea Party Types in North Carolina. They are going to remember that come fall. They will probably vote for him begrudgingly, but her going to remember it. Casey, the issue here of rand paul, we keep talking about how rand paul is laying the groundwork to run for president. It was a surprise to me when he decided to be in there on monday campaigning for brannon. Were talking about brannon losing this thing on tuesday. Did rand paul make a mistake here . Potentially. Hes not a politician who typically u takes quick steps away. A lot of of times hes reluctant to walk it back. Youre seeing the continuation o of that trend with him going down there for brannon. Its also interesting here that senator mcconnell endorsed tillis. But paul has been heavily endorsed. If anything hes been a center piece of his own campaign to win his primary later this month. The tension it pits them. North carolina, this is a state that president obama carried in 2008. He did not carry in 2012. This is a swing state. They dont have to win, but its very important to them. It would do them a lot of favors to win. My thanks to my panel. Still ahead, a special guest will be here to pump you up. Sco. Hey, i heard you guys can help me with frog protection . Yeah, we help with fraud protection. We monitor every purchase every day and alert you if anything looks unusual. Wow youre really looking out for us. We are. And if there are unauthorized purchases on your discover card, youre never held responsible. Just to be clear, you are saying frog protection right . Yeah, fraud protection. Frog protection. Fraud protection. Frog. Fraud. Frog. Fraud. I think were on the same page. Were totally on the same page. At discover, we treat you like youd treat you. Fraud protection. Get it at discover. Com reckless seeding. Failure to disappear. A backyard invasion. Homeowner takes matters into his own hands. Ortho weed b gon max. With the onetouch, continuous spray wand. Kills weeds without harming innocent lawns. Guaranteed. Weeds killed. Lawn restored. Justice served. Weed b gon max with the onetouch wand. Get order. Get ortho®. Weed b gon max with the onetouch wand. Nehey r [squeals] [ewh ] [baby crying] the great thing about a subaru is you dont have to put up with that new car smell for long. The versatile, 2015 subaru forester. Love. Its what makes a subaru, a subaru. Why do results matter so much . Its probably because they are the measurement of everything we do. For a wireless company, results come down to coverage speed and legendary reliability. So go ahead, stream, game or video chat. Thats why verizon built americas largest 4g lte network. Because the only thing that really matters are the results you get. So for the best devices the best network and for best results, use verizon. Developing news this morning in the scandal surrounding chris christie. David samson says he will no longer cooperate with the investigation into bridgegate. Samsons law firm has recently been subpoenaed by the u. S. Attorney for new jersey and the manhattan district attorney. The investigators are tight lipped about what they are looking at, but numerous reports say they are interested in potential conflicts o of interest between samsons Public Office and private business dealings. A lawyer for samson is the former Homeland Security secretary said, its apparent that the legislative committee is engaged in a political exercise, not an objective factfinding mission. Samson will not participate in a process that fundamentally jeopardizes his Constitutional Rights and which stands to wrong by ruin his reputation for public service. More on this as it develops. Defiance is in our bones. Defiance never grows old. Citracal maximum. Calcium citrate plus d. Highly soluble, easily absorbed. As a im still not going toall the pmake it to mars,o visit. But thanks to hotwires incredibly low travel prices, i can afford to cross more things off my list. This year alone, we went to the top of the statue of liberty. And still saved enough to go to texas to a real dude ranch hotwire checks the competitions rates every day. So they can guarantee their low prices. So we got our 4star hotels for half price. Next up, Hollywood Hotwire hotwire. Com save big on car rentals too, from 11. 95 a day. Trwith secure wifie for your business. It also comes with public wifi for your customers. Not so with internet from the phone company. I would email the phone company to inquire as to why they have shortchanged these customers. But that would require wifi. Switch to comcast Business Internet and get two Wifi Networks included. Comcast business built for business. 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. If president obama is like most of his predecessors hes probably feeling a sense of dread. There are plenty of people who turned on the white house Correspondence Dinner saying its become too glitzy. But it turns out that hating the dinner is a well established tradition among president s. Its a pleasure to know its over, it really is, Richard Nixon growled. I have done it for so many years, hated every one of them. Thats not just nixon being nixon. Carter and george bush sr. Had no use for the event either, nor did bill clinton. He said, ill be honest, he hated going to these things. These were the people who spent their professional lives kicking him around and being in his view extremely unfair. He did not relish going to these dinner and had to sit through comedians making jokes at his expense. You can understand. This is a taste of what e he dealt with back in the 90s. This is 1996 that he and his wife had to sit on stage as don imis said things like this. When kal ripkin broke the game record the president was at camden yards doing playbyplay on the radio with john miller. Hit a double and we all heard the president in his excitement holler, go, baby. I remember commenting at the time, i bet thats not the first time hes said that. Okay, to be fair, that was from a different annual dinner, it was the radio and Correspondence Dinner. You wouldnt be excited about any dinner. But as much as bill clinton hated it, he was pretty good at getting a laugh. At his final dinner, he was the star of the memorable veed vid owe that predicted him as a bored guy trying to pass the time as the second term ran out. Joe . Anybody home . I wish i could be here more, but i really think bill has everything under control. Honey, wait, wait, wait, you forgot your lunch. I think his legacy is going to be the natural environment. Improving the green spaces of our country. Clintons successor knew how to get a laugh. Heres george bush performing with an em percent nart back in 2006 after Vice President dick they cheney had accidentally shot someone on a hunting trip. I agree with the press that dick was a little late reporting that hunting episode down in texas. In fact, i didnt know a thing about it until i saw him on americas most wanted. Cheney, what a goof ball. Shot the only trial lawyer in the country whos for me. That routine got a great reception but by the time the night was over, bush was probably feeling a lot like bill clinton because 2006 was the same year that Stephen Colbert cra crashed the party. I believe the government that governs best is the government that governs least, and by these standards we have set up a fabulous government in iraq. Most of all i believe in this president. Now i know theres some polls out there saying this man has a 32 approval rating. But guys like us, we dont Pay Attention to the polls. We know that polls are just a collection of statistics that reflect what people are thinking in reality. And reality has a wellknown liberal bias. As for the current president shs the word is hes not too fond of the Correspondence Dinner either, but it was the scene of the most surreal moments of his presidency. It was three years ago in 2011, maybe you remember, donald trump was pretending he might run for president. He was running around insisting that president obama wasnt really born in america. He was also going to be a guest at the Correspondence Dinner. Just before the dunner, the white house took the step of tracking down and releasing the president s longform birth certificate and made trump look even more like a fool. You can only imagine the delight obama took when at the dinner he got the turn the screw. No one is happier, no one is prouder to put this birth certificate matter to rest than the donald. And thats because he can finally get back to focusing on the issues that matter. Like did we fake the moon landing . What really happened in roswell . And where are biggie and tupac . I dont know if donald trump has really gotten over that one, but the amazing part is what we didnt know that night. That president obama hadnt told that the Osama Bin Laden had been located and that a Navy Seal Team was making plans to take him out. His real job that night was to show up at the dinner and act like everything was normal so that no one would suspect anything was up. Without a doubt, that was the best performance any president has put on the white house Correspondence Dinner. In about 12 hours, president obama will be up on that stage again. This year it will be joel mckale making fun of him and all of washington. Well see how obama take s it and what he dishes out. Speech starts at 9 00 tonight. You can catch hem right here. Well talk to someone who knows about the art and anxiety that comes with standing on a stage and be told to Say Something funny. Hes a professional comedian. Well be right back. Hey there can i help you . whispering sorry. whispering hi, uh we need a new family plan. whispering how about 10 gigs of data to share and unlimited talk and text. whispering oh ten gigs sounds pretty good. whispering yeah really good whispering yeah and for a family of 4 its a 160 a month. What get outta here whispering im sorry are we still doing the whisper thing . Or . whispering o sorry yes yes whispering well take it. Then youll know how uncomfortable it can be. [ crickets chirping ] but did you know that the lack of saliva can also lead to tooth decay and bad breath . [ exhales deeply ] [ male announcer ] well there is biotene. Specially formulated with moisturizers and lubricants, biotene can provide soothing relief and it helps keep your mouth healthy, too. [ applause ] biotene for people who suffer from dry mouth. Biotene disturbing the pantry. Ortho crime files. A house, under siege. Say helto home defense max. Kills bugs inside and prevents new ones for up to a year. Ortho home defense max. Get order. Get ortho®. President clinton wont be here tonight. Had i known that, i would have brought my wife. You didnt tell me. [ laughter ] i think were all a little disappointed that the president is not here. Its really not the same without him here. Im sure you agree with me. Theres no tension knowing hes not right there and getting worried and nervous and sweating. That was kevin neelan at the Correspondence Dinner as the Monica Lewinsky scandal was breaking. President clinton was away in africa and not up there on stage with him. He just looked at the pressure that president obama is probably facing, but what about the comedian that comes after him . What about performing in front of the president of the United States . Tonight that will be joel mckale. Hes not going to catch that break that kevin does back in 1998. Even if he didnt have to perform in front of president clint clinton, he knows a thing or two about using president s for punch lines. He was the anchor of saturday night lives weekend update, which was one of the premier venues for political humor for four decades. Tina and jimmy, norm mcdonald. They had to strike the balance between news and funny without going too far over that line. You probably know kevin neelan from some of the other characters he created. He was one of the pump you up duo. And more recently he played doug wilson on the series weeds. Hes had a long and varied career, but one constant, hes been given the task of trying to Say Something funny. Here to talk about what that is like, especially when your target is sitting right there, kevin neelan himself. Welcome to the show. Thank you, steve. Good weekend to be here. I had no idea. Youre performing elsewhere in the city. Would you want to be up on that stage . You dodged a bullet in 98. Would you want to perform in front of the president . You hope they are going to be there even though its a tremendous amount of pressure and people judging you and criticizing you. Its tough to get away with having a score of 100 on that evening. But it is a great experience. So what was that like . President clinton wasnt on the stage, but what you did is very similar to what joel will be doing tonight. Poking fun of washington, all of washington is there. What was it like to prepare for that, stand will and do that, did you have fun doing it . Not really. It wasnt a lot of fun. It was a lot of pressure. I was ready for it, just like im sure joel is ready. You put a lot of work into it and work with some writers. When i did it, the clintons were not there. They were in africa. So i had to get some cutouts. Id see the card boards around town. I said lets put one in the chair so i can feel like they are here. Okay. But leading up to it, youre sitting there and all youre thinking about is your act. Youre looking over your notes and trying to pretend youre having conversation with john mccain, who was sitting next to me. And then they finally call you up there and you do it. Whats that moment like when you get there and looking at the audien audience. Do you freeze . You know its not your typical audience. Its not the people that would come to see you at a theater. They are there and you happen to be the guest speaker. And i remember finishing my thing and in hindsight there was some jokes i wouldnt have done. But i remember Peter Jennings came up to me afterwards as i got back to my seat. He came up to me and he looked up and he goes, dont feel bad, the speakers werent working in the back. And i wasnt feeling bad until he said u that. Thats terrible. Let me ask you, this is probably true for whether youre performing at Something Like the Correspondence Dinner or comedy in general. Something i have always wondered, every joke you can sort of tell right away did it land or not. You can tell is there a murmur in the audience, did they explode with laughter. Its kind of like i liken it to being a boxer in a ring. You get a couple jabs cover up and keep going. So much going on in your head. Youre thinking about the next joke, how am i going over. Let that joke go that didnt work. You know another one thats coming up thats going o kill hopefully. Theres so much o going on. I wish they could just hook up some electrodes to a comic and see the way the mind is working. Its multitasking. What do you like best . We know you from weeds. I grew up watching snl and i still watch it. I grew up watching you as the anchor on weekend update. Its different when youre doing comedy on television where its scripted like that, less of performing in front of an audience. Do you like one over the other . Live versus television . I like the live venue. I was just thinking one of my favorite experiences was doing curb your enthusiasm. Its improvised and they have bulletpoints. It was not a letdown, but i think i like the improv format. You like the spontaneity. Thats a rush. Mr. Subliminal was my favorite u character on that show. You would Say Something with a straight face and Say Something under your breath completely contradictory. That was based on a few different things. There was a character in los angeles a friend of mine who did a thing called tagging. He says, watch what i do to the waitress. Im going to do a thing called tagging. He would slip them these profanity words. Im going to have the cheeseburger with some fries and why dont you give me the diet coke. And ill pick up the tab. Did she notice . He would bury it. I went to b school for marketing. And al franken and i wrote the first one. It was the first sketch i did on saturday night live. Im about to go on saturday night live, a show i watched for a long time growing up. Here i am about to do my first sketch and its subliminal. And were at commercial, the cameras are away and were coming back. 5 seconds to go and lo ren michael was standing next to me and he goes, are you sure this is what you want . Youre not getting much support. You wrote it with al franken, a u. S. Senator. He might be there tonight. Here you are in washington performing. If youre in washington and you dont have a ticket to the dinner, you can go see kevin. You can catch him later this month doing standup comedy at comedy off broadway in lexington, kentucky, and two new movies out this month. Well be right back. A more enjoyable way to get your fiber. Try phillips fiber good gummies. Theyre delicious, and an excellent source of fiber to help support regularity. Wife mmmm husband these are good marge the tasty side of fiber. From phillips. Ameriprise asked people a simple question in retirement, will you outlive your money . Uhhh. No, that cant happen. Thats the thing, you dont 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. Stick with innovation. Stick with power. Stick with technology. Get the flexcare platinum from Philips Sonicare and save now. Philips sonicare female announcer sleep trains interest free ends sunday. Its your last chance to get three years interestfree financing on beautyrest black, stearns foster, serta icomfort; even tempurpedic. Plus, get free delivery, and sleep trains 100day low price guarantee. But hurry sleep trains interest free for 3 event, ends sunday. Sleep train your ticket to a better nights sleep that is all the time we have for today. Thanks at home for joining us and keep is here for all your White House Correspondent dinner kumpl throughout the day. Live coverage of all the speeches, including the man of the hour, the read president , barack obama, beginning at 9 00 eastern tonight. Of course tomorrow morning well have complete postdinner analysis plus my interview with House Democratic leader nancy pelosi. Her thoughts on the midterms, immigration and herself. We covered it all, so dont miss tomorrows show. Coming up next is melissa harrisperry. Thanks for getting up. [ angelic music plays ] toaster strudel best morning ever [ hans ] warm, flaky, gooey. Toaster strudel if yand youre talking toevere rheuyour rheumatologistike me, about a biologic. This is humira. This is humira helping to relieve my pain. This is humira helping me lay the groundwork. This is humira helping to protect my joints from further damage. Doctors have been prescribing humira for ten years. Humira works by targeting and helping to block a specific source of inflammation that contributes to ra symptoms. Humira is proven to help relieve pain and stop further joint damage in many adults. 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. Take the next step. Talk to your doctor. This is humira at work. This morning, my question, is the outrage over Donald Sterling missing the point . Plus, this week in voter suppression, texas edition. And eric holder investigates racial profiling. But first, 43 minutes in oklahoma