we begin today as a house rules committee continues to argue thursday s scheduled vote to hold attorney general eric holder in contempt. but as that continues, a report this afternoon could throw the very facts of the fast and furious case upside down. and explosive investigation by fortune magazine that took six months to research, reports much of what republicans have been telling us about fast and furious may be entirely wrong. two weapons found at that point scene of agent brian terry s tragic death were allegedly bought by a manuel known to agents. trance subsequent and drug user who purchased them with cash. the report states that the man was a fast and furious suspect. but that the guns in question were not allowed to, quote, walk over the border into the hands of drug gangs. in fact, fortune reports atf agents were aware of at least 20 suspects who paid cash for 650 guns. the problem, the story says is with prosecutors who wouldn t charge suspects because of t
which raises the bigger question, then why is eric holder and the obama administration failed to kill the story? didn t they learn from the charges against john kerry if you don t knock down a story, it knocks you down. our guests tonight are matt miller and msnbc political analyst david korn. help me out here. it is great to have you on tonight. how did i and so many of our viewers and so many people in the country believe for the last 18 months that the united states government was so risk-prone that they sent guns allowed guns to fall into the hands of the bad guys in mexico, cartel people, and as a tactic that somehow tracked them down. according to fortune, having interviewed a bunch of agents at atf, that never happened. i think there are two things. first, the department of justice is trying to conduct its investigation in a responsible manner in the way the departments do. they interview the people and it takes a long time. a.g. appointed the asked the inspector
to fast and furious provides this withering assessment about the political sound and furry that now surrounds fast and furious. republican senators are whipping up the country into a psychotic frenzy with these reports that are patently false. but still today less than an hour ago, congressman darrell issa was asserting the attorney general and whi house have been involved in a conspiracy to cover up an operation that went badly wrong. something the ranking member of the oversight committee strongly objected to. why are we steamrolling on matter of such gravity? in my opinion, the answer is plain and simple. politics. i believe that when history looks back at this moment, this will not be a pretty moment for this country. that in today s political fever, the nra has written a letter saying it will issue a black mark against any member of congress who won t find the attorney general in contempt. handful of democrats fearing the wrath of the nra have indicated that they may
around. fortune magazine blockbuster says darrell issa s investigation is built on lies. it reads there s a fundamental misconption at the heart of the fast and furious scandal. nobody disputes that suspected straw purchases under surveillance by the atf bought guns and eventually fell into criminal hands. issa and others charge that the atf intentionally allowed guns walk, to walk, operational tactic. five law enforcement agents directly involved in the fast and furious effort, tell fortune the atf had no such tactic and insist they never purposefully allowed guns to be illegally trafficked. the opposite. they say they seized weapons wherever they could and were ham strung by weak laws which stymied them at every turn. part of the malarky about this. second amendment fanatics out there say you can t stop trafficking and even semiautomatic weapons going drug dealers. you can t do it. let me get your take on this. how did we believe for 18 months the atf was stupid enoug
social spending. the big question is how does he now connect with voters over the next six months and bob cusack has thoughts on that, managing editor of the hill. good morning to you. that process of connection is already starting as you will soon see. what s his chal stphepbg. i think that is the chat evening. the challenge. he s got to let his guard down a bit, make people think what makes him tick. ann romney has been talking about myth but mitt but i think mitt has to be likable, connect with voters, have a little of the bill clinton in him to win the like ability or close this gap between president obama and mitt romney. bill: the message on the military delivered in san diego, you say that is tailor-made for him and they can be expecting cuts at the end of the year. explain that. come the end of the year hundreds of billions in cuts because the supercommittee did not succeed, so i think you re going to hear a lot from mitt romney on that, saying we can t afford