are affected that his background and his experience doesn t fit the requirements of the job. i m going to look very seriously at that issue. all right. senator kirsten gillibrand, always good to have you on the show. thank you very much. kasie hunt stay with us if you can. chuck todd what s coming up on meet the press this weekend we re going to do a lot on eric garner. i ll have the new york city d.a. on the show and then do a little on immigration, greg abbott who filed the lawsuit new governor or incoming governor of texas on immigration. thank you very much, chuck. we ll see you sunday. up next nasa this moaning successfully launched the orion spacecraft. first step into the new era of deep space exploration. we ll go live next to cape canaveral.
grand jury. let s talk about this grand jury. we can debate what happened in ferguson. let s talk about this case. he didn t die from obesity. it s important for viewers to know we re not talking about finding the officer guilty we re talking probable cause. it s the lowest standard. everybody always jokes you can indict a grapefruit. you can. what d.a. in america look at that videotape and not immediately go you know what? there s another question in both cases and that is whether the d.a. deviated from standard procedure by not recommending a charge to the grand jury. this is exactly the point. that s the problem. which is that if you simply put the evidence in front of a grand jury you may get one answer. if the d.a. goes in which what
there s great teachers and bad teachers. okay this is for the cops. there s great cops and there s some bad cops. look at that video, this was not a model cop. first of all, here s the other thing you need to understand. that police response that s why d. a. sshould not prosecute police officers. when they run for office they try to get their endorsements. mayors are afraid of police unions. not all mayors but they have lobbyists and money and know when the police union comes out against you when you re running for office the public goes oh, oh, what s going on. the history these federal prosecutions have been more successful. when we talk about policy changes we have to look at state grand juries and state investigations of police uses of excessive force and misconduct and ask if that s really the way
it was more complicated. but in 23 years the d.a d.a. mcculloch has never indicted a police officer. regardless of the facts in ferguson or staten island we have a conflict of interest. john crawford those two cops were indicted. we have a conflict of interest and we have to underline this because you all are saying the same thing. when we have a conflict of interest, guys, between cops and the d.a. and the justice department and eric holder. but the problem is the federal government cannot dictate a state prosecution. this see put the pressure on holder or the president that s federal cases. pressure in new york needs to be on andrew cuomo and changing the state law. that s the problem.
christie s defense there that s a lawyer, there are a lot of times i heard a verdict and i said oh, my god that s the worst verdict ever. let me finish my sentence. and then you talk to the lawyers in the case and they tell you oh, it s not that simple. i m not talking about these two case. i do understand as a prosecutor and i m sure you ve talked to prosecutors too where we see a headline and then everybody rushes out and decides something different. i want to respond to that. the thing is mcculloch invited second guessing by releasing the evidence. the d.a. in staten island invited second guessing by saying i want to release evidence. when you say put it in the court of public opinion you re inviting people to form an opinion. don t we want to be transparent. let me say this. grand jury proceedings are typically secret. my question is why in these cases did prosecutors deviate.