the organizing for america organization. the obama campaign s offshoot, sort of drew energy away from other democratic groups so you have a case where republicans don t just have the white house and congress but have state governments across the country making a difference and putting in place policies giving democrats a lot of heartburn. you got a lot of heartburn? the old-timers tell you barack obama during the eight years of his presidency, the first did a huge amount of fundraising. the command center of the electoral war machine, a large use of it, studio in the basement, he did fill the promotional package.
soaking rains this morning. off towards fort pierce heading northwards. flood watches right along the coast so the melbourne area, indian river, back up to daytona beach, on and off downpours. this area of rain now trying to approach the coastline around fort myers. further to the north, severe weather threat about 8 million people at risk of severe storms. haven t had a lot of severe weather in the last month, minneapolis, quad cities, des moines, ames, back up toward madison, may even see an isolated tornado or too. keep an eye to the sky late this afternoon. how about the heat in the east? expecting a record high today in burlington, vermont, mid to upper 80s. near record heat in areas like new york city. d.c. you re not near your record but you re still very, very warm. we have mid 90s still. dallas, 97 today. so summer doesn t want to end. no, that s still hot down there. bill, thank you so much for that. former daily show host jon stewart is fighting congress on behalf of fir
this president time and time again. well, look, yes, they ve been going at it, trying to find something, anything, say something, anything that would sort of chip away at his legitimacy. if there s one thing you can sea about this president and his administration, it s that they don t listen to that noise. and they let the facts speak for themselves. when his critics, republicans, were saying he was being lawless by saying he was going to go around congress, the very congress that s made it clear from moment one that they didn t want to work with him to begin with, you know, charts came out showing just where does president obama fall in the row of presidents who have used executive orders to go around congress, and he is last. but of course, they never let facts get in the way, jonathan. well, no, never. and we have some sound actually from paul ryan this morning. he talked about the lawless presidency, but one of the other concerns that both he and eric cantor talked about wa
scope. obviously, again, if you look at the scope of how executive orders have been used in the past as opposed to how the president is using it, again, he s very much in the mainstream. let s listen to paul ryan. we have an increasingly lawless presidency where he is actually doing the job of congress, writing new policies and new laws without going through congress. presidents don t write laws. congress does. jonathan, congress writes laws, but when they don t, somebody s got to do something. exactly. i mean, you re looking at a president who s in his second year of his second term who s done battle with a congress that doesn t want to work with him. at a certain point, the president and his administration has to look and say, look, we were sent here to do something. we were sent here to accomplish something. so what can we do that doesn t force us to deal with congress because they ve made it clear they don t want to work with us. also, don t you think part of the strategy h
about ideas, talking about what he can do. there are certainly things he can t do without congress, but trying to get done the things he can do. seems to me the strategy here is to put pressure on congress. they should be embarrassed at the fact they are the least productive congress in the history of the country. yes, well, what the president s doing is, again, what he s always done, looking like the most reasonable person in the room. he s fighting congress because he s trying to close the income gap, trying to get people back to work, trying to create jobs, trying to get them health care, trying to do all the things that the american people sent him to washington to do in 2008 and 2012, and yet the message still hasn t gotten to congress. well, hopefully they ll get it. if they don t, he has his own message. jonathan, thank you so much. that does it for me. you can find us on facebook and tweet us @msnbcdisrupt. i ll see you back here next weekend at 4:00 p.m. eastern.