and they tell me it can happen. 18 and a half minutes of missing tape in the mixon administration led to the resignation of the president, to the indictment and the felony convictions and imprisonment of some of the highest officials in the united states. i cannot imagine that a special prosecutor wouldn t be able to find some criminal activity here. we don t know. but every time we ask for something, a person either shows up with a fifth amendment or they just conveniently found out their dog ate their arizona drive, and people hard drive. and people aren t buying and it paul ryan said i don t believe it. i just don t believe it. this is the irs and they don t lose anything, and as to paul ryan s point, we keep seven years of record and not lose them. they can hang on to everything and anything to go after us and then to lose this stretches the bounds of credulity. now we re talking bat potential coverup here, which is why you want a prosecutor involved.
pi president has been quick to dismis comparisons with watergate. i want to get your quick take on his take on this. how do you feel about comparisons by some critics of this week s scandals to those that happened under the nixon administration. i ll let you guys engage in those comparisons, and you can go ahead and read the history, i think, and draw your own conclusion. neil: what too you think? well, he was very smart not to mention nixon. notice, he denied the reporter and all the reporters assembled a sound bite, which they would have had, had he said mixon. he avoided the i am not a crook moment, it is interesting that so many comparisons are being made. maybe it s unfair. nothing is fair in politic. he is getting a grilling he never had in the first term, at least not in the scandal arena.
gender. we appreciate it. on behalf of all women. i say thank you. that s it for us. this is first look on msnbc. stay tuned. way too early starts right now. obama is being compared to president nixon. how does he feel about that? again, i don t have a reaction from president obama. people who make those comparisons need to check their history. you know the white house is in a bad spot when the mixon comparisons start playing. it s wednesday, may 15th. here s what you need to know. critics on the right and left reacting to the plan for dealing with the targeting of political groups of the irs, and the far-reaching probe into the associated press. also, spy games in russia. an american diplomat obtained in moscow. and what he s carrying.
wasn t being respected for all he could wasn t being respected for all he could bring to the ticket and bring to the country. well, and you seem to indicate part of ike s disdain is he had a general disdain for politics and politicians in general. did that impact his ability to govern effectively, that sort of contempt for the game? i don t think you re talking about eisenhower now. i don t think eisenhower had contempt for nixon but he didn t think much of professional politicians. he was much happier with businessmen and his former military pals and people he could play golf with at the augusta national golf club and mixon really wasn t that sort. but he had lots of respect for nixon and his intelligence and loyalty. he didn t believe nixon had the maturity to be president. well, and professor, steve kornacki was telling me that also nixon s daughter was set to marry ike s grandson, and nixon thought this is finally going to seal the deal. we re going to be this one big
greg: mike emanuel live on capitol hill. thank you very much. just ahead, we will ask kyle harrington about what could happen if we do end up going over the fiscal cliff. weill discuss the extraordinary measures being taken by treasury secretary tim geithner to make sure the u.s. does not reach its parliament. and end up defaulting on its debt. at roughly the same time. heather: that s a one-two punch. new developments in the growing crisis in syria. u.n. envoy calling for a transitional government run the country in order to end the conflict. russia s foreign minister mixon grimmer marks of such a plan actually working, saying that it still necessary to reach a peaceful solution. leland vittert has more on this. reporter: the russian foreign minister said that he feared that syria could turn into a