facebook, why the hell not? all of our friends on facebook join us at facebook.com/billpressshow. after his big lunch with hillary yesterday, after welcoming the world series san francisco giants to the white house yesterday, president obama goes on the road today down to chattanooga, tennessee, to an amazon plant. amazon fulfillment plant to talk with workers there and to talk about jobs and the economy. i just ordered a new book from amazon. i hope he doesn't interfere with the delivery of that book. meanwhile, civil war has broken out among republicans. chris christie is accusing rand paul of being soft on national security by raising questions about the use of drones and about nsa's big spying program. and rand paul is using chris christie of being soft on national security by spending too much money helping the victims of hurricane sandy. wouldn't you know it? they are both wrong. chris christie and rand paul, they are both wrong. that and more coming up just for you on current tv. minutes we're going to do the young turks! i think the number 1 thing than viewers like about the young turks is that were honest. they know that i'm not bsing them for some hidden agenda, actually supporting one party or the other. when the democrats are wrong, they know i'm going to be the first one to call them out. cenk on air>> what's unacceptable is how washington continues to screw the middle class over. cenk off air i don't want the middle class taking the brunt of the spending cuts and all the different programs that wind up hurting the middle class. cenk on air you got to go to the local level, the state level and we have to fight hard to make sure they can't buy our politics anymore. cenk off air and they can question if i'm right about that. but i think the audience gets that, i actually mean it. cenk on air 3 trillion dollars in spending cuts! narrator uniquely progressive and always topical, the worlds largest online news show is on current tv. cenk off air and i think the audience gets, "this guys to best of his abilities is trying to look out for us." only on current tv! if you believe in state's rights but still support the drug war, you must be high. >> i think the number one thing that viewers like about "the young turks" is that we're honest. i think the audience gets that i actually mean it. >> you're putting out there something that you're proud of. journalists want the the story and they want the right story and the want the true story. >> you can say anything here. >> i spent a couple of hours with a hooker. >> your mistake was writing a check. >> she never cashed it! >> the war room. >> compared to other countries with tighter gun safety laws, our death toll is just staggering. >> the young turks. >> the top bankers who funneled all the money to the drug lords, no sentence. there's just no justice in that. >> viewpoint. >> carl rove said today that mitt romney is a lock to win next pope. he's garunteeing it. >> joy behar: say anything. >> is the bottom line then that no white person should ever, ever, ever use the "n" word? >> yes! >> only on current tv. >> bill: hillary and joe sit down for breakfast this morning. wonder what they're going to be talking about. good morning, everybody. what do you say? i would love to be a fly on the wall there. for that little meeting. great to see you today. it's tuesday. tuesday, july 30. here we go. up on the "full court press" this tuesday morning. coming to you from our nation's capital. that's where we start out this morning. we'll cover a lot more than that. we will tell you what's going on here in our nation's capital. and then all across this great country of ours. and take a hopscotch around the globe as well. lots to talk about this morning and lots you are going to want to sound off about and give us your comments on and you know how to do so at 1-866-55-press. our toll free number. on twitter at bpshow. we await your comments and look forward to hearing from you as well on facebook at facebook.com/billpressshow. 30 days hath september, april, june and november so we have one more day of july, right? this summer is really flying by. >> it really is. >> bill: here we go. and just about ending the month of july with the team here. peter ogborn and dan henning. hello, guys. >> hey, hey, hey. >> good morning. >> bill: everything good? >> everything's great. >> bill: okay. alichia cruz has the phones covered, standing by waiting for your calls. cyprian bowlding -- the phone is uncovered? we are on tv, right? >> we are here. >> bill: we are on current tv and on the radio on your local progressive talk radio station and we salute you whether you're listening or watching this morning. it was big news yesterday. the president had a lot going on, meeting with the secretary of state, welcoming the san francisco world series winners to the white house. but the big event was lunch with hillary clinton. former secretary of state. who stopped by and all the buzz at the briefing yesterday was what's this lunch all about? what are they talking about? is this where she's going to tell him she's running in 2016. jay carney had the day off take his son to camp. deputy press secretary said relax. it is just two friends. >> it is not a working lunch. it is an opportunity for the two who saw each other on a pretty frequent basis over the course of the last four years to get a chance to catch up. >> bill: there was a little news made that the lunch was originally scheduled for the private dining room just outside the oval office. instead, it was a nice day. so they went outside on the patio. >> it was a nice day yesterday. >> bill: not too hot. went outside on the patio to relax and then the big news, josh was ready to tell us, what they had for lunch. >> the white house whipped up some grilled chicken, some pasta jambalaya and pasta for them to enjoy. i haven't had lunch myself so it sounds pretty good. >> bill: there it is. jambalaya. >> it doesn't sound all that good. >> bill: pasta jambalaya? >> jambalaya with pasta in it. >> i hope they don't put rice and pasta together. >> it doesn't sound very good. >> it sounds like something you would get at a t.g.i.friday's. you have pasta or jambalaya, you don't have both. >> it might be jambalaya, the same recipe but they use pasta instead of rice. >> yeah, but that's not jambalaya. >> it is pasta jambalaya. >> you don't even know what pasta jambalaya is. >> bill: let me resolve this. talk to the white house chef, okay? don't talk to me -- don't complain to me about it. [ laughter ] >> bill: give hillary a call. she if she liked it. coming up, it is tuesday. tuesday with igor. from think progress will be along. congresswoman marcia fudge, head of the congressional black caucus will be joining us later as well and the reverend jim wallis, head of sojourners to talk about poverty and immigration and the pope making a lot of news on his way back to rome. but first... >> announcer: this is the "full court press." >> other headlines making news on this tuesday. the san francisco giants visited the white house for the second time in three years yesterday. president honoring the baseball team for winning the 2012 world series last fall over the detroit tigers. the hill reports the season ticket holder house minority leader nancy pelosi was there along with san francisco mayor ed lee plus hall-of-famer willie mays who made for the giants from the '50s to the '70s. viewers of nbc's today show got quite the surprise yesterday when they saw who was sitting in with matt lauer alongside al and savannah. carson daley who hosts the voice. industry insiders suspect it was a way for the nbc show to get buzz over abc's "good morning america." daley didn't do a lot of talking. he stayed away from the serious news segments. >> i'm okay with him not doing a lot of talking. >> bill: i don't really know him. >> he's a douche. >> he's an entertainment -- he's like a ryan seacrest. >> like i said, he's a douche. >> olympic gold medal swimmer michael phelps who is now trying his hand at become being a professional golfer, got injured playing golf over the weekend. he fractured his foot. washington post reporting he somehow hit his foot in his house and after four straight days of golf which equates to 20 miles of walking, he ended up with a stress fracture. he's now in a walking cast. >> bill: that's why they have golf carts. here we go. yes, indeed. pope francis, he is making -- i have to say, making quite an impact worldwide. and showed a lot of what he's become already famous for in his week-long trip to brazil. of course, this is a pope who has adopted a much more down-to-earth style than any of his predecessors. we know some of the signs of that. he refuses to wear the red shoes. >> that's red pradas. >> bill: the red prated das. he refuses to live in the papal apartments because he doesn't like being alone. he likes being around people. so he's still living in this guesthouse where, inside the vatican, where he checked in when he came in then as a cardinal to vote for the next pope. he doesn't like the big limo and instead just likes to ride in the backseat of a regular car. that got him in trouble down in brazil. and of course, not just his personal style, also his emphasis on the poor. he talks about that, getting back to what the mission of the church should really be all about. our concern for the poor and certainly showed that in brazil by going into one of those -- the famous flavelle las there. he really displayed his -- you know, he's comfortable in his own skin, just by being who he is. he showed that on the flight back from brazil to rome when he walked in -- no pope has ever done anything like this. and most presidents don't do anything like this. he walked into the back of the plane where the press was gathered. and very friendly, said hello to all of them. said he would be glad to take their questions and he did so for an hour and 20 minutes. imagine. obama does do that once in awhile. >> it is a gaggle, right? >> bill: the gaggle is when the press secretary does it. the president will go back and informal remarks for 10 or 15 minutes from what i've been in, from my friends in the white house press corps who have traveled on air force i with him. but for the pope, it is an hour and 20 minutes, the previous pope, you had to write down your questions and submit them in writing and then one of the pope's handlers would decide which questions the pope would answer. this pope, pope francis, he just stood there and took questions, any question was welcome. people throw the questions right to the pope and he unscripted just gave his answers. and it was -- he made a lot of news, at least on a couple of points. here, for example, is the pope on the first question about women priests. [ speaking foreign language ] >> well, that clears it up. >> bill: actually, i was wrong. there he was talking about the gay lobby -- priests and the gay lobby. he was saying you have to distinguish -- you didn't understand that? [ laughter ] >> you could have told me he was talking about the san francisco giants being at the white house yesterday and i would have believed you. >> bill: i do not speak italian. he said you have to distinguish between the priests -- the fact that they're gay and the fact that they're lobbyists. i love his italian. >> sure. very nice. >> bill: the first thing he did make news on is women priests and he said ah, women priests, no, the church has already spoken on that. slammed the door to that. so, you know, he's not modern on every issue. he's got a ways to go on that issue. on the issue of gay priests, however, the pope did make some news and he said look, who am i if a person -- i'm paraphrasing but if a person is willing to accept the lord and they happen to be gay, then he said who am i to judge. which is certainly different from the previous pope who said the gays -- it was morally reprehensible and unacceptable and just, you know, like can't even be considered or tolerated. the previous pope. but the pope -- >> how are we supposed to function without some religious figurehead judging us? this is such a bizarre thing. i don't understand. >> bill: it really is. he said who am i to judge -- here's the exact quote. who am toy judge if they are seeking the lord in good faith. they should not be marlin nallized. the tendency to homosexuality is not the problem. they are our brothers. so said pope francis which has gotten a lot of positive comments, rightfully so around the world. although it is important to point out as several have, that while the pope is taking -- i don't mean to be too critical here. look, this is very, very welcome change. and change comes about in the catholic church like glacially. it takes a long, long time. but for the pope not to condemn the -- members of the lgbt community, just to say that we have to accept them as our brothers and sisters is a big step forward. it is a big advance. it really does represent progress. so his reaching out and his tolerance, if you will, but it's important to point out that the church's official doctrine hasn't changed and several members of the vatican were quick to point that out. the church has always said, i'm quoting here, "that people with deep-seated homosexuality tendencies must be accepted with respect, compassion and sensitivity." at the same time, the church still teaches that homosexuality is a sin, that gays are welcome in the church as long as they are not practicing their sexuality. and of course, it still holds that among straight people, any sex outside of marriage is a sin and inside of marriage, it is only for the purpose of procreation. so while the official doctrine hasn't changed, what has changed is this acceptance, this openness, if you will, to members of the lgbt community. mary ann duddy brook who is a spokesperson for dignity u.s.a. pointed out hey, welcome but this really doesn't go far enough. >> there's nothing to be forgiven about being gay or lesbian. it is who god made us. it is a great blessing. >> bill: and she just says now that the pope has spoken out, i hope that american catholic bishops were listening. >> church management looks to the pope for some indication about where these conversations should go. and if pope francis indicates a more willingness to openness or to mediate his statements, on lgbt people in the same way he has shifted the focus on the poor, that is going to have an impact. >> bill: yes. let's just hope the catholic bishops were listening. what do you think about this pope in general? 1-866-55-press. what do you think about pope francis saying who am i to judge? and who am i to judge members of the lgbt community? that's a far cry from the condemnation we heard from the previous pope and previous popes and certainly from the catholic bishops which we hear all the time. 1-866-55-press. let's talk about it on the "full court press." >> announcer: this is the "bill press show." real immigration reform? >> with a distinctly satirical point of view. if you believe in state's rights but still believe in the drug war, you must be high. >> only on current tv. 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(vo) true stories, current perspective. documentaries. on current tv. >> announcer: this is the "bill press show." >> bill: 25 minutes after the hour. think progress with igor volsky in the next half hour here of the "full court press." as we do every tuesday morning, coming to you live from our nation's capital, talking about the pope who is really making a lot of friends around the world with his new style, his openness and, as demonstrated in his comments on the way back from brazil, a great openness to the lgbt community that we have not seen from any other pope. still got a long ways to go in terms of the catholic church on this issue. but you know, some significant progress. peter? >> let us know how you feel about that story on twitter at bpshow. we're reading your comments all throughout the show. a quick follow-up because friday morning we woke up to find out there was some vandalism at the lincoln memorial. somebody put green paint on the statue of lincoln. >> bill: not only the lincoln memorial it turns out. >> four different places around washington, statue of joseph henry outside the smithsonian, luther place memorial church, thomas circle. then the national cathedral, someone went in and splattered green paint. good news is -- >> bill: on the organ. >> on the organ. >> the good news is, an arrest has been made. jamie teahen, 50 years old. she was arrested yesterday afternoon. and so hopefully that's the end of this. >> bill: she did all of this by herself? >> that's what it looks like. >> bill: what was the thing with green paint? >> she's only charged with the cathedral one. they don't know about the others. but one would have to assume. >> bill: or copycat. >> yeah. >> bill: back to the pope and eric from atlanta, georgia, what do you think about it, eric? >> caller: thank you, bill. what people need to realize, you need to go back to the history of the roman catholic church during the time -- the roman empire, homosexuality was common. the romans -- to have sex with. it has been in the history of the catholic church. they also have been involved in laundering money for drugs. if you really face the facts of the roman catholic church, it is one of the creepiest societies and homosexuality has been existent since the beginning of this. >> bill: i don't know about -- exactly what point you're trying to make. i think you could take the ancient practices of the romans and greeks and tie that to today's catholic church, i don't know about that. but i understand it has been centuries long, the catholic church's condemnation of homosexuality. i think the condemnation is wrong. i think it will change. i think they'll take a long, long time to change. probably not in our lifetime but this pope, this pope, francis, has made more outreach than anybody -- any other pope. >> announcer: this is the "bill press show." they should self-deport? >> no, they said "make us a turkey and make it fast". >> (laughter). >> she gets the comedians laughing. >> that's the best! >> that's hilarious. >> ... and the thinkers thinking. >> okay, so there is wiggle room in the ten commandments is what you're telling me. >> she's joy behar. >> ya, i consider you jew-talian. >> okay, whatever you want. >> who plays kafka? >> who saw kafka? >> who ever saw kafka? >> (laughter). >> asking the tough questions. wouldn't let one of your daughters go out with him. >> absolutely not. >> you would rather deal with ahmadinejad then me? >> absolutely! >> (singing) >> i take lipitor, thats it. >> are you improving your lips? >> (laughter). >> when she's talking, you never know where the conversation is going to go. >> it looks like anthony wiener is throwing his hat in the ring. >> his what in the ring? >> his hat. >> always outspoken, joy behar. >> and the best part is that current will let me say anything. what the hell were they thinking? >> only on current tv. >> announcer: this is the "bill press show." >> bill: get social here on a tuesday morning. july 30. how about it. the "full court press." we are live on your local progressive talk radio station. we are live on current tv. we are live in washington, d.c. we couldn't do it without igor volsky. we don't know how he does it. up early every tuesday morning for us. we were talking yesterday, igor, you've been doing this for like about a year now. >> at think progress. >> bill: here. >> here for about a year. in novemberish. >> bill: we don't think you have missed one tuesday. >> i was very close to missing today. i have to confess. >> what? i have to be at the bus foy 5:45. it is a wonder how i look so good. >> i surprised myself. >> he came through makeup on his way in. >> starting to get some ideas. >> bill: my point was don't you ever take a vacation? >> well, i will very soon. i'm getting married august 10th then for a week, on vacation. >> we'll have to figure out a way to get you in here. >> if just so happened that judd who is the editor-in-chief of think progress who you know well, a friend of the show, is going to be on vacation that same week as me and it just so happens he is also going to the same place as me. so really, i'm kind of honeymooning -- >> you're going on your honeymoon with jut. >> that's how we do it. >> we all go together. >> bill: if i were going on my honeymoon and i knew my boss -- i think i would change venues. >> shock to me. >> bill: dare we ask where? >> don't ask him where. then everybody is going to go. >> a little privacy. >> bill: we do want a little bit of privacy. goodness. what were we talking about? >> go to national harbor. >> bill: there are a lot of rooms available. so, we have been talking -- started talking about a story that think progress has written about where pope francis is stirring things up a little bit with his comments on his willingness to accept gay people as long as they're not sexually active of course and not to judge them. this is a step forward? >> a tremendous step forward for this pope. a break from the past where pope benedict has certainly moving in the other direction, his entire career spent in this conservative social order and ensuring his existence. you know, pope francis, i think for many people has been somewhat of a surprise. he's very approachable. he takes his time to work with the poor directly. he took questions on this airplane which is really kind of not necessarily unprecedented but very rare. an hour and a half, he sat with these reporters and this was one of the questions they asked him. and he gave them this really honest accident. >> bill: not to be -- not being -- he actually stood, leaning on the seat of the airplane. visiting -- they'll see a friend on a plane. they'll walk down the aisle to say hello. they stand there leaning on the seat. the pope did that for an hour and 20 minutes. >> to give you an idea, pope benedict used to -- his questions were prescreened by his aides. he would come back to the press section of the plane with little index cards and read off the answers they had written out for him. this pope took candid questions and gave a very candid answer saying that if you are a gay priest, who am i to judge? the question was about this idea that there's a group of gay priests who are forming -- >> bill: gay lobby. >> to change things within the church. he said my problem isn't with you being gay. it is with the lobby trying to pressure them. >> bill: that was interesting, too. i don't care whether you're gay or straight. but this lobby, he didn't have good things to say about the lobby. on the other side, on the gay side -- very -- historic shift, i think on the part -- doesn't change basic church doctrine but his attitude and acceptance of the lgbt community certainly historic among popes. what caught my attention from think progress most this week is your story on here we are, this big decision on the keystone pipeline coming down which is going to carry the tar sands from alberta all the way to the gulf coast and yet you report there's already a problem with tar sands in alberta. >> this is really -- there has been this spill going on in alberta, canada, for the last ten weeks. tar sands oil has been spilling out and -- >> bill: out of the ground? >> out of the ground there. and nobody knows why. and the canadian oil company is trying to figure it out. and it is just -- it is really remarkable to me. they're investigating the matter, i suppose. but it's been spilling for the last ten weeks and you have protests going on. some of the native communities saying that this is causing some real devastation. we want to know what's happening and the company has been mute about it saying we're trying to take care of it. but you're right. it feeds into this entire discussion about keystone, the decision that's coming up and which way obama's going to go. >> bill: the president in his interview with "the new york times" last friday, michael sharon and jacki collins out in galesburg, illinois, talking about keystone pipeline. he's been really kind of very distant from the decision making process because it is -- we've been told so many times at the briefing, the state department is doing this referral, questions to them, sort of above this process. but yesterday, i mean friday, he got into it and saying first of all, about the pipeline, the republicans claim it is going to create so many jobs. he said basically, baloney. maybe 2,000 jobs during the construction. during the construction. after that, he said 50 to 100 jobs in a work force of 150 million people. basically, he called it a blip, a blip on the screen. and he also said it was wrong to say that it would reduce gas prices in this country. >> it would have nothing to do with it. >> bill: for the president -- does that tell you that the president's already made up his mind? >> well, it tells me he's leaning in a certain direction. remember, he gave that speech out in gw or georgetown, i believe, where he touched on the environment. it was actually considered a large address about the environment and he laid a very high standard for keystone saying that look, we gotta make sure it doesn't set us on the path toward contributing global warming. >> bill: that was the first indication. >> the follow-up here. >> bill: i think it's safe to say that even if he hasn't made up his mind, he certainly is into the subject and is aware of the arguments and has been exposed to all of the criticism about the pipeline. >> absolutely. it is a hot political issues. the republicans, this is their jobs plan by the way. ask you them what they're going to do for jobs, their answer is approve the keystone pipeline. >> bill: if you asked me two weeks ago or even a week ago, what the president was going to do, i would say he would approve the pipeline. after that interview, i think you're right. it is an indication where he's going. and now this story. i mean if you're -- whatever the pipeline company is called and you're trying to sell this pipeline and you've got massive leak in alberta that's been going on for ten weeks, don't you think you would try to keep the leak secret? >> they have. i haven't seen too many stories on this. >> bill: one other story, think progress -- so much this week. rush limbaugh and sean hannity, wow. >> who? >> bill: yeah, right. losing stations. >> 40 stations, the biggest, wabc in new york, their big affiliate, both limbaugh, hannity, maybe us. they couldn't reach a deal between the distributors and cumulative -- cumulus. 40 big markets. it is tough. if you don't have the new york market, it is tough to sell ads, right? >> bill: tell me about it. >> i think it also speaks to sort of the waning power of guys like limbaugh and hannity. these guys used to be titans and a lot of people got their news exclusively from these sources. >> now they can go to think progress. >> bill: it's important to point out, limbaugh and hannity are still going to be on hundreds of stations. they will still be number one and number two among right wing talk radio but this is a significant decline in their listenership. there was a time, peter, the point you're making not so long ago when no station would ever consider dropping rush and being able to survive the fact that these 40 stations think they can go on without either rush or hannity is really significant. >> you'll remember during the last presidential campaign when rush made those comments about sandra fluke and it was a firestorm in republican presidential primary politics. romney was very camey on condemning it. you had republicans coming on the show, praising him saying he's the voice of the grassroots of the party. he's very influential. during the start of the obama administration, he was the face of the opposition. will he have the same strength moving forward? >> bill: didn't sean hannity start at wabc? not his career. >> yeah, i think he did. >> his first big break. >> flagship. >> bill: that's what they call it. igor volsky is here from think progress covering lots of issues here this morning. you know what we've talked about so far. we've talked about the pope and about the tar sands, about lush limbaugh. 1-866-55-press. more coming up as well as your comments always welcome. >> announcer: this is the "bill press show." john fugelsang: if you believe in states rights but still support the drug war you must be high. cenk uygur: i think the number one thing viewers like about the young turks is that we're honest. i think the audience gets that i actually mean it. michael shure: this show is about being up to date so a lot of my work happens by doing the things that i am given to doing anyway. joy behar: you can say anything here. jerry springer: i spent a couple of hours with a hooker joy behar: your mistake was writing a check jerry springer: she never cashed it (vo) the day's events. four very unique points of view. tonight starting at 6 eastern. >> "viewpoint" digs deep into the issues of the day. >> has the time finally come for real immigration reform? >> with a distinctly satirical point of view. if you believe in state's rights but still believe in the drug war, you must be high. >> only on current tv. >> announcer: heard around the country and seen on current tv, this is the "bill press show." >> bill: 12 minutes before the top of the hour. there is a new documentary out about made in america. it's called the american-made movie and the directors of the movie will be here in stud of studio with us at the top of the next hour. about time somebody celebrated made in america. president obama's been trying to do that and looking forward to hearing more about this movie. also talk to "buzzfeed's" ruby ruby cramer next hour. igor volsky, managing editor of think progress here with us as he is every tuesday morning. thinkprogress.org is where you keep up on everything happening here in washington and around the globe. they've got it all covered. important to check it several times a day. >> make it your home page. >> bill: there you go. peter? >> we mentioned earlier to give us your tweets on pope francis. at bpshow is where we're tweeting at bpshow. black cat says the pope is not making any sense with me. of course, i'm a woman. tracy byrd said pope francis gave the middle finger to the westboro baptist church. >> bill: yes. >> phil says pope francis does one thing and the church does another. don't actions speak louder than words. let's see where this goes. you can find us at bpshow and share your comments there. >> it is worth mentioning that catholics in general are far more progressive than this pope -- than this church even when it comes to issues of same-sex marriage and gay quality, so on and so forth. the majority of catholics saying they support the freedom to marry for gay people and so francis is catching up but he is so far behind his congregation. >> bill: the catholic bishops are even further behind. we try not to spend too much time talking about anthony weiner and bob filner but particularly in the weiner case. but you have reported this week on a lot of people are still trying to drag huma abedin, of course, she was there alongside of anthony weiner, she is married to him and has stood by him. to a certain extent she will always be part of the story. fox news has gone beyond this. >> well, the real goal here, of course, to attack huma abedin is to attack hillary clinton and to attack what could be -- who could be the likely 2016 presidential nominee. that's the ultimate objective to tie the two together and to kind of sink her approval numbers a little bit. here, we heard this back in 2012, maybe even 2011, some of the real kind of right wing conservative web sites had begun making this connection between huma and other people in the government and the muslim brotherhood in arguing that the muslim brotherhood was secretly controlling huma and some of the other people, infiltrating the government. >> bill: she's not a member of the muslim brotherhood. >> no, no. there's no evidence for this at all. but it was -- argument that was carried by michele bachmann, by louie gohmert of texas, maybe six or seven other house members who wrote letters to all of these different departments of government asking them to investigate, to make sure there's no infiltration. there's no muslim brotherhood. and now, they're using this candle as another opportunity to bring that whole thing back up. fox news is, of course, broadcasting and echoing that message. we'll see how far they get. i don't think folks are going to catch on because there's nothing there. the overarching scandal of weiner is so much interesting for folks. this is somewhat complicated. but they are making the effort, tying her to the muslim brotherhood and ultimately tying the muslim brotherhood to hillary clinton. >> bill: right, to me, the craziest thing about this whole weiner scandal, he's now fourth in the polls, the people of new york have said enough is enough. even eliot spitzer last night on hardball said he was not going to vote for anthony weiner for mayor. but the most absurd thing is they're really using this as you point out to attack hillary and to tie anthony weiner to bill and hillary clinton. there is no connection. he was never part of the -- he -- he's the guy that did this. she didn't. he was never part of the hillary clinton or bill clinton group. never worked with them. was never close to them. his wife happened to have worked for hillary. that's the only possible connection. but they keep bringing -- and the reporters keep asking about bill and hillary clinton. only because they're trying to knock down hillary clinton for 2016. because they know if she runs, they can never beat her in 2016. >> their entire crop of stories about clinton's trying to distance themselves from huma and weiner and clinton aides, very worried about could this damage hillary. you know, i think huma, a close aide to hillary, widely profiled in a lot of magazines, prominent, how will this reflect on hillary? at the end of the day? >> bill: not at all. >> not at all. >> bill: all right. hey, igor, glad you made it this morning. thank you. next time, don't try that again. don't forget, thinkprogress.org. check it out. because igor can't be here every day but you can be with him every day. see you again next week. >> thanks, guys. >> announcer: this is the "bill press show," live on your radio and current tv. documentaries that take you inside the headlines. way inside. (christoff) we're patrolling the area looking for guns, drugs, bodies ... (adam) we're going to places where few others are going. [lady] you have to get out now. >> lots of terrible things happen to people growing marijuana. >> this crop to me is my livelihood. >> i'm being violated by the health care system. (christoff) we go and spend a considerable amount of time getting to know the people and the characters that are actually living these stories. (vo) from the underworld, to the world of privilege. >> everyone in michael jackson's life was out to use him. (vo) no one brings you more documentaries that are real, gripping, current. >> occupy! >> we will have class warfare. (vo) true stories, current perspective. documentaries. on current tv. you know who is coming on to me now? you know the kind of guys that do reverse mortgage commercials? those types are coming on to me all the time now. (vo) she gets the comedians laughing and the thinkers thinking. >>ok, so there's wiggle room in the ten commandments, that's what you're saying. you would rather deal with ahmadinejad than me. >>absolutely. >> and so would mitt romney. (vo) she's joy behar. >>and the best part is that current will let me say anything. what the hell were they thinking? this show is about being up to date, staying in touch with everything that is going on politically and putting my own in reality it's not like they actually care. this is purely about political grandstanding. >> announcer: this is the "bill press show" live on your radio and current tv. >> bill: here we go. again, we're going to find out all about the new american-made movie in the next half hour here of the "full court press." and then take a look at what's happening, the latest in new york with ruby cramer from "buzzfeed." speaking about anthony weiner, robert has had a change of heart. he says in light of the recent revelations concerning anthony weiner, my retort of so what in his defense seems now inappropriate. if he can't govern himself, how can he be expected to govern a city? my apologies. on the keystone pipeline, susan brewington says besides it being the worst idea for our planet, we, the u.s.a., will be taking all of the risks and be left with all of the toxic waste. once the tar sands get to texas, it will be refined then shipped to other countries and game over for the planet. it looks like president obama's going in that direction. [ ♪ theme ] >> bill: good morning, everybody. what do you say? good to see you this morning on a tuesday, tuesday july 30. it is the "full court press." and we are booming out to you live from our nation's capital. and our studio right here on capitol hill. just down the street from the united states capitol building where the congress and the senate are in town this week for one more week before they go off on their holiday. the whole month of august break. well, after his big lunch with hillary clinton yesterday and after welcoming the giants to the white house, president obama takes off today, back on the road to chattanooga, tennessee and amazon fulfillment plant. he will tour the plant and talk about jobs, jobs, jobs and the economy. meanwhile, a civil war has broken out among republicans. chris christie is accusing rand paul of being soft on terror. soft on national security. because he's been raising questions about drones and about the nsa spying program. and rand paul has turned around and accusing chris christie of being soft on national security because, he says, christie is spending too much money on hurricane sandy relief. guess what? both of them are wrong. you want to talk about that issue or anymore, give us a call at 1-866-55-press. any time during this program. and send us your comments on twitter at bpshow and on facebook at facebook.com/billpressshow. all of that and more coming up right here. on current tv! iq will go way up. 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(vo)only on current tv. cenk off air alright in 15 minutes we're going to do the young turks! i think the number 1 thing than viewers like about the young turks is that were honest. they know that i'm not bsing them for some hidden agenda, actually supporting one party or the other. when the democrats are wrong, they know i'm going to be the first one to call them out. cenk on air>> what's unacceptable is how washington continues to screw the middle class over. cenk off air i don't want the middle class taking the brunt of the spending cuts and all the different programs that wind up hurting the middle class. cenk on air you got to go to the local level, the state level and we have to fight hard to make sure they can't buy our politics anymore. cenk off air and they can question if i'm right about that. but i think the audience gets that, i actually mean it. cenk on air 3 trillion dollars in spending cuts! narrator uniquely progressive and always topical, the worlds largest online news show is on current tv. cenk off air and i think the audience gets, "this guys to best of his abilities is trying to look out for us." only on current tv! >> announcer: broadcasting across the nation on your radio and on current tv, this is the "bill press show." >> bill: and after having lunch with president obama, hillary clinton, breakfast with joe biden this morning. wonder what they're going to be talking about. i would love to be a fly on the wall in that room. good morning, everybody. what do you say? it is tuesday, july 30. here we are on the "full court press," coming to you live from our nation's capital and bringing you the news of the day. wherever it's happening here in our nation's capital, around the country, around the globe, we've got it covered. we'll give you a chance to sound off at 1-866-55-press. that's our toll free number. you can join us on twitter. looking for your comments on twitter at bpshow and of course, on facebook for all of our friends, it is facebook.com/billpressshow. president obama spending a lot of time out there talking about jobs these days, particularly bringing manufacturing jobs back to the united states. and how to reward companies that do so and maybe penalize companies that continue to shift jobs overseas. making products in america so important and that is the focus of a new documentary that will come out at the end of next month. it is called american made movie and the director is in studio with us this morning, vincent and nathan. good to see you. >> good to see you. >> bill: congratulations. >> thanks so much. >> bill: are you still working on this or is it already finished? >> it's done. we're on the midst of a 32 day bus tour, we're going to different cities, to have a direct connection to the motion picture or direct connection to the topic. this is city 27. we just left new york yesterday. >> bill: you didn't start here? >> no. >> had to work our way up. >> bill: thank you. this is 27. wow. >> we're screening the film, advance screening before it goes theatrical on august 30th as you alluded to. >> bill: we want to find out more about the movie. always have to say hello to our team here. peter ogborn who had to leave the studio. we only have two chairs. dan henning as well. alichia cruz has the phones covered and cyprian bowlding is the one who keeps us looking good on current tv. our videographer. you were in new york yesterday. didn't you know there is a mayor's race going on in new york? you might have heard something about one of the candidates, anthony weiner, not known for the public policies that he's proposing for the city of new york necessarily as he is the parts of him that he's exposed to. anyhow, eliot spitzer who's had some troubles of his own, was on hardball last night with chris matthews and chris pressed him as to how he's going to vote. here's what that sounded like. >> if you had to vote for mayor right now, who would you vote for? >> i would vote. chris, it is a great question. >> answer the question. >> look, you know -- >> show -- just say you're going to vote for quinn or whoever. you're not going to vote for anthony weiner? just say that right now. >> fair point. that's correct. >> he should not be mayor of new york. >> that is correct. >> bill: threw anthony weiner under the bus. you know, when eliot spitzer won't vote for you, right, for moral reasons, you're really in trouble. i think the guy who's benefited mostly from this whole scandal is eliot spitzer. he used to have his own show on current tv because nobody's talking about spitzer's troubles anymore. and besides, he's been behaving himself. everyone is just talking about anthony weiner. let's talk about manufacturing -- you've made the movie. what did you find? are we making stuff here? >> yeah. i think it's good to start, you know with where we kind of came up with the idea to sort of do this. we were look at actually a different area. we were looking at the way people were buying their food and we started to notice that you know, they wanted produce that was fresh from their local farmer's market and that organic label. it has become so popular. as that demand grew, we saw it filling entire sections of grocery stores, starting to designate shelves to organic goods. it made us think back to the family that we've had in manufacturing. whatever happened to the made in the u.s.a. label? >> bill: there used to be a time -- where stores make a big thing about made in the u.s.a. made in the u.s.a. so what did you find? >> yeah, we basically kind of forgot of what -- where things were made. it became less important, you know, in terms of the branding and you know, the production became less important. the branding became more important. what was cool started to influence consumers a little bit more and so we saw, as we were 50% of the world's manufacturing base after world war ii, after a few years of decline, increased competition from foreign countries, america sort of forgot. the consumer forgot. that's where we wanted to put the focus of our film was what if consumers, what is the relationship we have to the products we make. >> bill: do people care where things are made? >> definitely. going back to why we made this. it comes to be that politics changes on a daily basis. that clip you just heard, it might have been different a couple of days ago. you felt more confident about anthony getting that vote. but at the same time, with documentaries, you can kind of extract some of the politics and make it something that's a little more timely to give people the basis for understanding why manufacturing went away. why people stopped caring about it or stopped looking at it. and bring it back to the facts of understanding the two perspectives, look at opening the markets as opposed to being a protectionist. through that, were able to get people to understand what role they play at consumers. i think people do care about buying things in this country, buying things within their local economy. it is how deep can they go to understand it. we think of ford as being an american company but then you find one made in mexico or canada and you might say oh, that's not american. at the same time, there are so many pieces from so many other places. >> bill: i'm glad you mentioned ford. i know we make cars. we're making damn good cars. but we're not making tv sets. we're not making computers. we're not making iphones, right? what else are we making? >> apple just announced that they're going to make an emphasis to make things in country. big retailer walmart saying they'll put billions of dollars toward american-made goods so if people demand those and the consumers go to the store and buy everything that walmart offers when it comes time, then they're going to do more of it. i think that really is where we feel that this film can be powerful to open people's eyes to change their spending habits. i can make a difference and not have to complain about x, y and z. >> bill: you know one of the areas -- again, i'm totally ignorant about this other than cars. i know we make airplanes, too. and damn good ones. both the big commercial jets and also business jets as well. but clothing. i'll bet you everything that the three of us are wearing right here were made in benghazi -- not benghazi -- bangladesh is what i was thinking of. >> these were made in maine. new balance is the last athletic shoe manufacturer in america. >> bill: let me see that shoe again. there it is. new balance. >> 100% made in america. so, you know, the idea is there's more stuff -- >> bill: i don't know where mine were made. >> you have to look. >> you know what? >> hold on. >> it has an n on it? you're wearing new balance? this is unplanned. >> bill: no. >> the tension is building. where are his shoes made. we're going to look. >> made in the u.s.a. >> bill: made in the u.s.a. i didn't even know it. i'm so proud of myself. wow. >> absolutely. >> bill: so we're making new balance here but shirts and pants, we're not making much clothing in this country anymore, are we? >> no. the apparel industry got hit very, very hard in terms of the years of decline. but folks are trying to make things now. so in new york, they're trying to do things. when we were in nashville, they have garments coming back. california makes a lot of stuff. my blue jeans are made in california, true religion jeans which most people buy because of a fashion or long-lasting -- i think quality is still so important. so it is not just where it's made. also how it's made and you know, we really want that made in the u.s.a. label to equate to a quality product more than anything. these guys in maine that are making these shoes, i mean they're passionate about it. they've been making shoes in maine for over 100 years. they've gone from a base of 30,000 workers down to about 1,000. once you have the relationship, you realize there are people behind your products, real people that put their hands and made that shoe, that's kind of the connection we want to build with consumers again. to realize that wow, there is a relationship that i have to a product that i maybe never thought about. so easy to think about a hand-made good or crafts when you go to a farmer's market or trade thing or something in your neighborhood. there is a lot of -- it affects both sides. there are a lot of liberal folks that would appeal to that buy local mentality that may not think about that when they go to buy duracell or energizer. then you have conservative folks thinking about jobs are made in the u.s.a. they're wearing the red, white and blue. it matters to both of us. all of us. >> bill: if there's anything that ought to transcend partisanship, it is tho we ought to be making goods here in this country for all kinds of reasons, right? do you have a web site? >> yes. theamericamademovie.com. it will have more information when the film comes out to theatres, which markets we'll hit first as far as information about who's in the film. >> bill: is there any information on there. i love this idea. i think you're on to something about creating a consumer demand base for goods made in america. and i must say, david muir at abc news has done a lot of this, too. >> he should call us. >> if he's listening right now. >> bill: david muir, it is the american made movie.com. and he's gone on to a lot of little plants, i've seen him do these things on the evening news with diane sawyer where they're making american flags. some apparel factory. my point is that you guys are really -- really want to build consumer demand base saying we want to buy goods made in america. >> if we can demand that, there's so much that can change on a policy level. there's so much that can change in terms of the economy on a day-to-day basis but supply and demand doesn't change. if we demand more of something, we hope that companies will listen to that, that they'll decide to make more stuff here, provide more jobs and the politicians will also listen, too, in terms of making that easier for their constituents to produce things in those local areas. >> if you're sitting here, let's say you have to go to the big box store. it is thanksgiving and the crock-pot broke, right. you have to pick two crock-pots, you're probably just going to use it, might stay at your relative's place. you've got two options. one made in america. might be $9 or $10 more and then one made overseas, would you personally make that decision to buy the american one? >> bill: yes, yes. but here's -- i think you're jumping over a beat there which is most people, including me, don't know where the hell the thing was made in the first place. so you go looking -- you need a crock-pot, you kind of look at which one do you like better, right? maybe the color, maybe the shape. maybe the manufacturer without taking the next step which is to find out where is it made? how many times do we really do that? if i go to the kitchen store across the street to get a new casserole dish or something, i'm more interested in the one that's the right size, right color or whatever than where it is made. i think what your movie can do is get people to think about that next step, ask that question. make that demand. and even tell people at the store, hey, why don't you have one made in america? >> right. >> bill: do a little homework and find out. >> that's the great part about it. in a day and age where we're all complaining. it is so easy to complain about the issues and the economy but here's a case where we can actually do something about it. and if, you know, concerned about jobs and unemployment, hey, we ought to look at this. >> bill: we're talking about bringing jobs back to america. manufacturing jobs back to america is a way we can make it happen. at least help make it happen. and that's what vincent vit oro and nathan are trying to tell us with american made movie. your calls welcome at 1-866-55-press. i'm so proud of myself for wearing these shoes that i've been wearing for a couple of years now. made in the u.s.a.! how about that. >> announcer: go mobile with bill press. download podcasts at billpressshow.com and listen any time, anywhere. this is the "bill press show." the issues of the day. >> has the time finally come for real immigration reform? 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(vo) true stories, current perspective. documentaries. on current tv. >> announcer: get social with bill press. like us at facebook.com/billpressshow. this is the "bill press show." >> bill: here we go. 25 minutes after the hour now. american-made movie is the name of the documentary. it premiers nationwide on august 30. and you can find out where you can catch it at their web site, theamericanmademovie.com. vincent vittorio and nathan mcgill are the directors, here in studio with us. guys, thank you again for coming in today. so in terms of president obama now is out on the road again in chattanooga, tennessee today, talking jobs, jobs, jobs. this is one way to really bring jobs back to america, right? and get more people working, making stuff. >> without a doubt. we're a country that was found on the innovators, the people making things. it doesn't just stop with the ideas. there are a lot of jobs that can come from manufacturing and it will never be what it was after world war ii, we're still making so much that i think people are missing the point. we hear stuff about unemployment or jobs, people can't get jobs in these communities but it's a little much to do with the skills gap. i think there's a lot of jobs that are available but we don't have the workforce to put people in that. we've been doing a lot of travel thog these different cities and doing tours of factories and getting to know the story of different communities. i can't tell you maybe two or three times we've been in factories and the plant manager says see the two machines there? they should be running but i don't have someone trained to do that. to hear that with the other statistics, these are good-paying jobs, $50,000, $60,000 a year. so there is definitely a skills gap. >> bill: tell us the story about some plant you know where they're making things. we talked about new balance. >> inside the film, we tell the stories of several manufacturers, one of my favorite stories is a viking range, the way that was founded out of greenwood, mississippi. >> bill: beautiful piece of equipment. >> yeah, it was up to the entrepreneur who decided hey, look, if i can't make it in greenwood, mississippi, i'm not going to make it. what had happened there, in his community was you know, it was an agriculture society in the late '70s, industry was booming. there was about 7,000 industrial jobs there making things. and then as manufacturing declined, foreign competition kind of took its hit on the country. all of those manufacturers left. you've seen them go to canada, go to mexico. go overseas and the town was left as a ghost town. so while that was sort of happening, he decided we're going to make these ovens and he found a niche in the appliance industry and started creating these. now there's four plants there and so while manufacturing was declining, you know, he was sort of lifting everybody's boats by providing jobs, largest employer in the area and almost single-handedly used manufacturing to save his hometown. it is an incredible story you don't think about when you go to buy an oven but it is really cool. >> bill: back to what we were talking about before the break, how important it is that we should know where things are made and we ought to demand that things be made in america. we can make a difference that way. you guys have made a big difference already, even more so once the movie comes out. it is "american made movie," americanmademovie.com is the web site. thank you so much for coming in. thanks for make us part of your tour. >> announcer: this is the "bill press show." >> bill: it is 33 minutes after the hour now. good to have you with us today on the "full court press." coming to you live from our studio here on capitol hill. on to some of the political news of the day. but first, little suggestion about something you might want to keep in mind. think of it this way. imagine you're driving, have an accident, you're unconscious. medical professionals arrive but they can't communicate with you. can't find anything about you, all of that important information they need to make sure you get the right kind of help. here's something to avoid that problem. that's called emergency link i.d. it is a small i.d. tag you attach to your key ring or put in your wallet or purse that tells emergency responders everything they need to know. your medical history, your meds, allergies, doctor's contact information and most importantly, whom to notify. could make the difference between life and death. so sign up now for emergency links, emergency response service. costs you $10 a year. you receive your i.d. kit free. just $10 a year. your i.d. kit free. you have to hurry for this limited offer. the way to take advantage of it, go to emergencylink.com. and enter press. that's emergencylink.com. emergencylink.com and enter press at emergencylink.com. yes, the biggest political news of the day is, of course, new york city. that very crowded mayor's race and all of the attention to anthony weiner and what happened because of the latest revelations that he didn't stop sexting when he left congress. he has continued to do so with, i've lost count of how many women. ruby cramer has been covering this race for "buzzfeed" and we've talked to her before. she's back on our news line this morning. hey, ruby, good morning. >> hi, thanks for having me. >> bill: nice to have you back. so tell us about the latest polls in the mayor's race and weiner's response. >> well, yeah, anthony weiner has dropped from the front of the pack to fourth place in the latest poll. and it is not good news for him. although, you know, this is a race where polls are coming out quite frequently now and there is a lot of movement. people are up and down and you know, it is not horrible but he has dropped quite a bit. this is someone who was in first place before and second place before and now he's behind someone like public advocate bill de blasio and bill thompson and you know, he's in fourth place now. so he's fallen quite a bit. >> bill: as you pointed out, yes, it's true he's in fourth place. but he's not that far behind. like bill de blasio and bill thompson, 21 and 20 and anthony weiner at 16, right? >> right. exactly. >> bill: so he's still in the hunt. >> he's still in the game. miraculously. the reason that anthony weiner was able to come in and shake things up so much, like everyone said, it is a weak field. so you know, there's still a chance he'll be able to compete here and he is still far enough out from the primary in september that he -- you know, i sound like i'm crazy but he might have a chance. >> it is amazing. >> bill: i don't think you're crazy. there is six weeks to go before the primary, right? unless a dozen more women come forward, right, we cannot -- people cannot continue to talk about the sexting for -- the latest for six more weeks. it will get back to who's going to do what for the city. if it gets back to that, weiner is a contender, i think, on the issues side. >> sure. he, for one, is very committed to staying in this race. he did an interview over the weekend with a local paper on staten island and told them "you're stuck with me." so he's not going anywhere. his campaign manager who quit over this recent development in the scandal is out. but that's not going to stop someone like anthony weiner who has been well-documented. is micromanaging and essentially runs his own campaign. >> bill: right. the most unkindness cut of all, i thought, was eliot spitzer last night on hardball saying that he would not vote for anthony weiner. >> this race couldn't get more ridiculous, we have eliot spitzer judging anthony weiner. go figure. so that's the thing. anthony ween-- weiner has all kinds of people calling for his withdrawal. we had "meet the press," all of the papers, it is not very good. i think it will kind of be toned down as time goes on and people will move on. if you think about it, two weeks ago, all anyone was talking about was eliot spitzer. now everyone's talking about anthony weiner. in two weeks who knows what people will be talking about. this race has become the kind that's just -- >> bill: yeah. it is incredible. fun to watch even from this distance at buzzfeed.com, ruby cramer, political reporter on our news line this morning. now, i am even more interested, ruby, in another story you've been writing about which is the civil war that has broken out or i guess i should say started by chris christie against rand paul chris christie telling republican group last weekend that rand paul is basically endangering our national security by raising all of these questions about nsa and about drones. and then rand paul firing back and saying no, chris christie is the one who's wrong because he wants to spend all of this money on hurricane sandy. what is chris christie up to, first of all? is this really like the first shot for 2016 for him? >> i guess so. i mean, i think this is someone who -- chris christie kind of said this one offcomment about libertarianism at this event. and i don't think that he was planning on making it such a big deal. i think he was pushed by the moderator at this event to kind of say well, you're talking about libertarianism in a bad way. do you mean rand paul? and chris christie said that's one name. yeah. and was talking about how it is a danger to the republican party. rand paul seizes on to this comment and you know, makes it into this -- tweets about it. tweets about it the next day. kind of makes it into this interparty war and absolutely, it is something that -- i mean rand paul is the one republican candidate who hasn't been shy about his interest in 2016, right? he's clearly trying to make it into some kind of first shot, well out from the race. >> bill: but it does show or does it, that he may not be talking 2016 because he's up for re-election this year. but clearly, chris christie enjoys playing at that level and sort of trying to chart his course? >> well, yeah. i mean chris christie hasn't -- hasn't -- whether or not he's interested in running for president in 2016, plenty of people assume he is. plenty of people assume that he was in 2012. and you know, i would be surprised if we didn't see him during that. but like you said, he's got a governor's race to focus on this year. >> bill: but then the other one who jumped into this, rand paul singled him out for criticism is peter king, congressman from long island, head of the house intelligence committee. not intelligence -- national security committee, i guess it is. and rand paul took a couple of shots at him and even peter king said he's looking at 2016. he probably enjoys this. >> it is a free for all. everyone is getting in on it. i don't know. i guess if you spar with ron paul, you can get yourself an article in politico. i don't know. like you said, peter king is in on this now. >> bill: it is fun to watch. i know a lot of democrats enjoy watching the republican -- potential republican candidates for 2016. forming a sick lar firing squad which used to be the specialty of democrats, you know. to see republicans do it makes a lot of democrats happy. it is pretty crazy up there, ruby. enjoy it. have fun with it. keep writing and talking about it. we'll come back and talk with you about it soon. thanks, ruby. >> thanks a lot. >> bill: ruby cramer, really good political reporter up in new york with certainly the most exciting political race going on. and again, it's "buzzfeed." what a good site "buzzfeed" is. buzzfeed.com. >> announcer: connect with the "bill press show" on twitter. follow us at bpshow and tweet using the hashtag watching bp. this is the "bill press show." this show is about analyzing, criticizing, and holding policy to the fire. are you encouraged by what you heard the president say the other night? is this personal or is it political? a lot of my work happens by doing the things that i am given to doing anyway. staying in tough with everything that is going on politically and putting my own nuance on it. not only does senator rubio just care about rich people but somehow he thinks raising the minimum wage is a bad idea for the middle class. but we do care about them, right? vo: the war room tonight at 6 eastern (vo) current tv gets the converstion started next. >> i'm a slutty bob hope. >> you are. >> the troops love me. the sweatshirt is nice and all, but i could use a golden lasso. (vo) only on current tv. >> announcer: on your radio and on current tv, this is the "bill press show." >> bill: in the next hour, the chair of the congressional black caucus, congresswoman marcia fudge from ohio will be joining us as well as jim wallis, the president of joe -- sojourners to talk about immigration reform and poverty, latest stats on poverty in this country. right now, couple of news stories to bring you up to date on, peter. >> you remember this guy, you may remember this name, mitt romney. remember him? remember that name? vaguely familiar? >> bill: something about the olympics maybe? >> yeah, yeah, i think he might have run for some office. >> bill: got a lot of kids. >> anyway, here's the thing. he sat down for an interview recently and he talked about the infamous 47% remarks that were caught on tape. and he says that he never said that. he never said the 47% of the -- 47% of americans that are never going to vote for him so he doesn't really care about them. he said that was never said. >> bill: the people who believe that they're entitled. >> right. >> bill: he never said it? >> nope. that whole thing is all just -- >> bill: guess, big blown up controversy. let's go back to september 2012. >> 47% of the people. 47% who are with him. who believe they're victims who believe government has responsibility. they're entitled. government should give it to them and they will vote for this president no matter what. >> bill: ah-ha, as first reported of course in "mother jones." you know, maybe it is just -- he just forgot. here's the deal. how stupid, right? he said what he said. he paid the price at the time. two years later, you can't deny you said what you said. now, you can say i'm sorry. i shouldn't have said that. it was wrong to say it. but in this day and age of the -- right here, this little -- this iphone, you cannot -- you cannot deny you said what you said. can't get away with it. >> we saved the tape. >> bill: whatever happened to mitt romney anyhow? >> who? i for got who we were talking about. >> bill: another story, you might have seen this. this has been an internet youtube sensation. a new book out and it's called zealot. it's about jesus christ and it is written by a biblical scholar by the name of riza aslan. he was on fox news the other day and the anchor, loren green, asked him a pertinent question but he's very -- he's got an answer for her for sure as to what the hell are you doing writing a book about jesus. here's how that interview went. >> this is an interesting book. now, you're a muslim so why did you write about a book about the founder of christianity? >> well, to be clear, i am a scholar of religions with four degrees including one in the new testament and fluency in biblical greek who has been studying the origins of christianity for two decades who also just happens to be a muslim. so it is not that i'm just some muslim writing about jesus. i am an expert with a ph.d. in the history of religions. >> it still begs the question why would you be interested in the founder of christianity? >> because it is my job as an academic, i'm a professor of religion, including the new testament. that's what i do for a living, actually. >> so embarrassing for fox. >> bill: i know. "buzzfeed" is the one who put this up. under the headline perhaps the most -- or is this the most embarrassing interview ever done on fox news, right? >> which, by the way, is a pretty high bar. >> bill: exactly. that's really saying something. the thing just went wild! people watching this. but what an impertinent question and of course, here's a guy, four degrees, one of which is in sacred scripture. the idea that because he's muslim and a professor of religion, that he's not allowed to look at anybody other than other muslims, you know, such an old-fashioned, uncanny, stupid, silly, narrow view of the whole field of religious studies. it is stunning. but she was pushing. i thought he did a great job. >> he told her what time it was. make no mistake. >> bill: he sure did. he didn't say you idiot. the fact he did. >> she couldn't poke holes in the book. you're a muslim, boogidy, boogidy, boogidy. that's all it was. he happens to be a muslim. >> bill: but it was on fox news. president obama on the road again today. we'll tell you where he's going and why when we come back and don't forget, jim wallis with sojourners kicks off the top of the next hour on today's "full court press." >> announcer: this is the "bill press show," life on your radio and current tv. cenk on air>> what's unacceptable is how washington continues to screw the middle class over. cenk off air i don't want the middle class taking the brunt of the spending cuts and all the different programs that wind up hurting the middle class. cenk on air you got to go to the local level, the state level and we have to fight hard to make sure they can't buy our politics anymore. cenk off air and they can question if i'm right about that. but i think the audience gets that, i actually mean it. cenk on air 3 trillion dollars in spending cuts! progressive and always topical, the worlds largest online news show is on current tv. cenk off air and i think the audience gets, "this guys to best of his abilities is trying to look out for us." only on current tv! john fugelsang: if you believe in states rights but still support the drug war you must be high. cenk uygur: i think the number one thing viewers like about the young turks is that we're honest. i think the audience gets that i actually mean it. michael shure: this show is about being up to date so a lot of my work happens by doing the things that i am given to doing anyway. joy behar: you can say anything here. jerry springer: i spent a couple of hours with a hooker joy behar: your mistake was writing a check jerry springer: she never cashed it tonight starting at 6 eastern. >> "viewpoint" digs deep into the issues of the day. >> has the time finally come for real immigration reform? >> with a distinctly satirical point of view. if you believe in state's rights but still believe in the drug war, you must be high. >> only on current tv. >> announcer: heard around the country and seen on current tv, this is the "bill press show." >> bill: all right. talk about the president's schedule but you know, the most important thing happening today is the vice president's schedule at the naval observatory, the vice president's mansion out on massachusetts avenue. he has a special guest for breakfast this morning. he will be welcoming his former colleague in the united states senate, his former running mate, not running mate but the two of them were both running for president together in 2008. and potentially, his challenger, competitor in 2016, joe biden and hillary clinton having breakfast this morning. then the vice president will be over at the white house at 10:00 to get the daily briefing with the president. after which president obama takes off out to andrews air force base and then down to chattanooga, tennessee, and big amazon fulfillment center down there. he'll be touring that plant and then making remarks, heading back here to washington in the afternoon in order to be there for a meeting with secretary of defense, chuck hagel at 5:10 this afternoon. no briefing today. jay carney will be doing his gaggle with reporters on air force i. we'll come back with reverend jim wallis and congresswoman marcia fudge in the next hour. [ ♪ theme ] >> bill: good morning, everybody. happy tuesday. it is tuesday, july 30. good to see you today. we are the "full court press." welcome to the program. thanks for being part of the program as we come to you live across this great land of ours from our studio on capitol hill in washington, d.c. just down the street from the united states capitol building where we've got our eye on what's going on here in washington. what's going on around the country. what's going on around the globe. we'll tell you all about it with some good guests in this next hour. we'll take your calls first of all at 1-866-55-press. if it works better for you to join us on twitter, we're waiting for you. at looking for your comments on twitter at bpshow or on facebook at facebook.com/billpressshow. here we go on this tuesday morning. yes, after his big lunch with hillary clinton yesterday and after welcoming the san francisco giants, world series winners to the white house, on the south lawn, president obama today goes back on the road. he'll be heading down to chattanooga, tennessee, touring an amazon fulfillment center and talking, giving a talk there about jobs and the economy. meanwhile, civil war has broken out among republicans. chris christie accusing rand paul of being soft on national security because he dared raise questions about drones and nsa. don't you love it? all of that and more on current tv. compelling true stories. 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>> only on current tv. >> announcer: broadcasting across the nation on your radio and on current tv, this is the "bill press show." >> bill: guess what. hillary clinton having breakfast this morning with joe biden. oh boy. that ought to be fun. you know what they're going to be talking about. good morning, everybody. what do you say? tuesday, tuesday july 30. great to see you this morning. here we are on the "full court press." we are gearing up, ready to go here, right in our studio on capitol hill in washington d.c. and reaching out to you all across this great land of hours on radio and on television. on radio, on your local progressive talk radio station. thank you for joining us there. also on tv on current tv. still for another couple of weeks here. all across this great land of ours and wherever -- whether you're watching or listening, we look forward to hearing from you on our toll free line at 1-866-55-press. on twitter at bpshow or on facebook at facebook.com/billpressshow. the congress in session for one more week before they go away and among the many issues that they will be considering or are considering is immigration reform, of course. an issue that some people believe is a moral imperative for this country. one of the leaders in that movement. good friend of ours, love to have him on the show. the head and founder and head of sojourners, the reverend jim wallis. thanks for coming in. >> always a delight to be with you, bill. >> bill: to join our team, peter ogborn and dan henning with alichia cruz with the phones covered and cyprian bowlding keeping us looking good on television. >> god bless john kerry. >> bill: the secretary of state admitted, it wasn't going to be easy. >> it's no secret that this is a difficult process. if it were easy, it would have happened a long time ago. >> bill: but john kerry said we've got to get to it. >> i know the negotiations are going to be tough but i also know that the consequences of not trying could be worse. >> bill: the only way to get there is to start hammering out on these issues, right? >> i've been over there. i've been at the checkpoints, i've gone through all of that. what's interesting is a new generation of palestinians and young israelis have been working together so politics change is always last at the top. always. tremendous courage by a lot of groups on the ground, young people, trying to change the culture. you gotta change culture before politics changes. john kerry, bless his heart, again, he's pulled the top together here. but there are pressures from the bottom on both sides for a new generation to find a way to live in peace. in this beloved land. we'll be praying for him and wishing him all the best. >> bill: what you said about people -- the people bring about change and politics change. ghandi said there go the people. i must follow them because i am their leader. >> on every issue. the common good comes last to washington. it really does. we build it, this last book did i, people are saying i want to work for the common good. bill, they're so cynical about washington. i have to almost pastor them to believe that their personal decisions can make a difference. history shows personal commitment is what changes places like washington. >> bill: you can't blame them for being cynical, watching washington these days. but change is possible. >> skepticism is very healthy. you help us with that every day. cynicism though can become spiritually dangerous because it can really make us not want to make decisions and makes us back away. if it disempowers us, it is dangerous. be skeptical. it is really important. but we make our personal commitments in young palestinians and young israelis have been doing that on immigration. outside movement, social movements are what always change washington. >> bill: it is important people know that so they don't lose sight. >> exactly. >> bill: reverend jim jim wallis with us and we'll be joined by marcia fudge, congressional head of the black caucus. we'll get right to immigration reform as you mentioned but first, dan has the big headlines of the day. >> other headlines making news out of hollywood, johnny depp might be retiring from acting. the pirates of the caribbean star said his latest flop, the lone ranger might be one of his last movies. he said when you realize you've said more words that have been written for you than words that are your own in life, that's sort of an insane option for a human being and it might be time to think about doing something else. he wants to move on to quieter things but it is currently contracted to star in at least two more films. >> bill: he's not that old, is he, peter? you saw "lone ranger," i didn't. >> i didn't see it. >> bill: jim, you saw it? >> it was crazy, it was nuts. if you liked the old tv series, you enjoyed the fun of watching it but it was nuts. the william tell overture was great. >> and nfl quarterback donovan mcnabb retired from the game as a member of the philadelphia eagles yesterday. playing 11 seasons for philly and having been drafted second overall by the eagles back in 1999. he was then traded to the redskins in 2010 and played a season with the minnesota vikings. he will be honored at an eagles game in september when the kansas city chiefs visit philadelphia because, of course, andy reed, their coach, is a former long-time coach of the eagles. he coached mcnabb. mcnabb led the eagles to five nfc championships and one super bowl though he did not win. >> i thought he already retired. i hate to put it that way. >> and many mcdonald and other fast food workers took a one day strike looking for a living wage. what would it be do if mcdonald's doubled salaries and benefits of every employee from the $7.25 an hour workers all the way up to their $8 million a year ceo. and they want to double them to $15 an hour for the regular everyday workers, university of kansas study found it would increase the price of a big mac by a whopping 68 cents from $3.99 to $4.67. also according to the "huffington post," every item on the dollar menu like a mcchicken sandwich which costs a dollar would go up just 17 cents. if they doubled everyone's salary according to this university of kansas study. >> bill: jim wallis, if we're to start talking about moral imperatives, the living wage is a good place to start, isn't it? imagine these workers are making -- they're lucky to be making the minimum wage. $7.25. they're making $15,000 something a year. >> i had a pastor ask me -- a pastor who said i worry about dependency. food stamps. i said you know, most people who get food stamps are families with kids and somebody in the house has a full-time job. they're just not making enough money to buy their food. he said you've got to get that out. so people are working -- the poor are working and not making enough to pay for food for their kids. >> bill: i wanted to talk to you about some of the latest poverty numbers. poverty, the poverty level for family of four is $23,021 a year. okay. so these fast food workers making minimum wage, working full time are at $15,000. they're living in poverty. >> no benefits. >> bill: no benefits come with it, too. right. >> so when -- living family wage, think of that term. families have to live and so if you're working hard, if you're working hard and full time in this country, you shouldn't be poor. it is a simple principle we have to embrace. if you're work hard and full time, shouldn't you be poor. particularly people running the company are making more than anyone who works hard and full time, really justify what they should make. >> bill: absolutely. this idea that if you pay them $15 an hour, doubled it, it would only increase the price of a big mac by 68 cents. >> i was teaching at harvard. there was a living wage campaign among the harvard employees and a dean told me, we waste more time every year than it would take to raise their wage -- they wanted $10 an hour at cambridge which wasn't very much. only when the students supported them, students went in to occupy the president's office, i get a call. student says jim, i'm -- one of my top students from the last semester. i'm in the president's office. yeah? there are 50 of us here. actually, he's left. yeah? actually, we've taken over the office. yeah? we're calling about strategy. but the students got the faculty involved and harvard got the press attention and they passed a living wage for workers and housekeepers and security people because they said we're harvard students. they ought to make at least $10 an hour at cambridge. it is a simple, moral principle of what shared prosperity is supposed to mean. the bible says prosperity is fine if we're sharing it. if we're not sharing it, we have a religious problem. >> bill: if the ceo is making 400 times what the average worker is making, we have a problem. >> it used to be 30 to 1. now it is like 415 to 1. something very wrong about inequality. when the gap is this extreme. something is terribly wrong. >> bill: you have talked about, here on the program, you've written a lot about immigration reform, the latest article i saw calls it the moral urgency of immigration. that raises this debate to a whole other level. why? >> it is very interesting, paul ryan called me two weeks ago. said i want to help with immigration reform. so last week, we had evangelical leaders here in town up on the hill. had 110 visits on the hill. paul ryan met with us. met with the speaker, met with democrats and republicans. miss pelosi this week. all sides. this is finally something that could happen in a bipartisan way. could bring us together across all of the boundaries because 11 million people living in the shadows, we heard stories last week when women are raped, they can't call the police. if you're shot and wounded, i heard stories from pastors about people curling up in the corner hoping they don't die because they can't go to the e.r. because they'll call the police. they'll be deported. families are being broken. kids are being separated. this is a family issue. it is a moral issue. it is an economic issue. it is a law enforcement issue. so we've got bibles, badges and faith community, business and law enforcement saying this system is broken. has to be fixed. let's heal this nation. so only thing standing in our way is politics. how do you overcome politics? again, movement is outside. come to washington, say it is time to fix this thing and paul ryan said to us, this time, it's different. we didn't have a grassroots movement that can influence the right and republicans like evangelicals can do. >> bill: what reaction did you get from the speaker? you did have movement, as we know in the senate, republicans and democrats did come together. they passed a bill which may not be perfect but it is a -- it has a path to citizenship. and yet so far, speaker boehner has said he won't even bring that up for a vote in the house. did you get a sense of movement from him? >> i think there is movement in the house. i'm feeling better about things now than i did a week ago. again, we've had 100 in the house. we heard -- they heard us say that this is a moral imperative. you've got evangelicals who have been biblically converted when jesus says as you have done to a stranger, you've done to me. pastors now believe that means as we have done to 11 million undocumented people. we've done to christ himself. that's a big thing for evangelicals. now in their -- brothers and sisters are undocumented. when you worship next to somebody, it changes your stereotypes. you get to know those people. we become converted biblically and relationally and now we're saying to republicans and democrats, we've got to fix this system. so there is only political battles. there is a big chance to say welcome people out of the shadows, yes, support the rule of law. people will will be here. they deserve long-term, it will be a long process, they deserve to be citizens among us. >> bill: do you think this is a message that this is the way you can reach some of the tea partiers who might not otherwise vote for immigration reform? >> the obstacle is going to be republicans in very narrow gerrymandered districts who have less than 10% minority in their districts and if they have all white districts and they don't even know any hispanic people and they don't care even -- we're winning the public on this. overwhelming majority. want to fix the system. how do you turn public opinion into change in those very narrow districts where people only look at their own constituencies. what i hear bill is a lot of fear. i hear from republican -- a lot of leaders there that a lot of their colleagues would like to vote for this but are afraid to because of being primaried and attacked by the tea party. so i've said and i'll say it again, we replace political fear with personal faith. some of them say they're people of faith. now is the time to exercise your faith and overcome this. take a risk and do the right thing. >> bill: reverend jim wallis here with sojourners. it is sojo.net. you can find out more about his great work. we'll be back. you can join our conversation at 1-866-55-press on the "full court press." this show is about being up to date, staying in touch with everything that is going on politically and putting my own nuance on it. in reality it's not like they actually care. this is purely about political grandstanding. we have a big, big hour and the iq will go way up. 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(vo)only on current tv. >> announcer: this is the "bill press show." >> bill: 26 minutes after the hour. the faith community very much in the lead on immigration reform. and the reverend jim wallis who helped get this movement started in studio with us. he's the founder and leader of sojourners. you can find out all about this and exciting meetings they're having with members of both parties in the house, pushing for immigration reform at sojo.net. jim, about another minute. i've got to ask you. numbers i saw last week, we talk about the minimum wage. poverty, 46.2 million americans living in poverty in this country. and a.p. reported that 80% of americans, four out of five americans have experienced some kind of economic insecurity in their lives. is this stunning for the richest country on earth, right? >> it is historic. and what it could do is bring us together. this is across racial lines. it is poor families, working class families who are working and not making enough money. white, black and hispanic. and this -- it goes to show us we've got to look at this as something happens to not just them but to us, to all of us. and if we can get behind something that really looks at how to change our infrastructure, the infrastructure of our country and of our families, these are mostly single mom families and they're struggling just to survive. they're all us now. no them anymore. it is all us. that's where this is a matter of solidarity and loving our neb as ourselves. it is very simple. >> bill: an issue you've been talking about for a long time, too. thank you for your great work and leadership and thank you for coming in this morning. young turks! i think the number 1 thing than viewers like about the young turks is that were honest. they know that i'm not bsing them for some hidden agenda, actually supporting one party or the other. when the democrats are wrong, they know i'm going to be the first one to call them out. cenk on air>> what's unacceptable is how washington continues to screw the middle class over. cenk off air i don't want the middle class taking the brunt of the spending cuts and all the different programs that wind up hurting the middle class. cenk on air you got to go to the local level, the state level and we have to fight hard to make sure they can't buy our politics anymore. cenk off air and they can question if i'm right about that. but i think the audience gets that, i actually mean it. cenk on air 3 trillion dollars in spending cuts! narrator uniquely progressive and always topical, the worlds largest online news show is on current tv. cenk off air and i think the audience gets, "this guys to best of his abilities is trying to look out for us." only on current tv! >> announcer: this is the "bill press show." live on your radio and current tv. >> bill: on a tuesday. july 30. it is the "full court press." we are live from our nation's capital at 33 minutes after the hour on your local progressive talk radio station and on current tv. president obama in the wake of the verdict in the trayvon martin case has said we need a conversation about race in this country. that conversation starts today in washington, d.c. headed by congresswoman marcia fudge from the -- chair of the congressional black caucus and democratic leader nancy pelosi in the house of representatives, conference this afternoon on race and justice in america. and we're pleased to welcome congresswoman marsha funnel on our news line this morning. congresswoman, thanks for joining us. >> good morning, bill. it is my pleasure to be with you this morning. >> bill: what is the agenda today? >> well, basically, what we're going to do, we have some speakers that i think are going to be very, very good to start to get us thinking and talking about race and justice in a way that's going to be productive and constructive. so we're going to have our committee sit down and talk about how we address some of the issues that are confronting our country today. it is going to be an open dialogue once we get some remarks from our speakers. we're going to talk. something we haven't done in a very long time. >> bill: right. how do you -- how would you assess the status of race relations in this country today? i mean obviously we've made a lot of progress, right, but when you see something like the trayvon martin -- the george zimmerman verdict, you think maybe we still have a long way to go. >> we have a very long way to go. yes, we have made some progress. no question about it. but as we sit this year, realizing that we are now 50 years from the march on washington for jobs and justice, 50 years from the bombings in birmingham and the killing of innocent people in the civil rights movement, we really need to assess how far we've truly come. we don't have the situations going on anymore. what we do have are things like trayvon martin. we also have attack on the voting rights act. we also have things that are -- you know, the cutting of food stamps from the farm bill. the cutbacks on education. the cutbacks on training, job training programs. we talk about the budget. if you look at the budget that was passed by the house of representatives, it not only cut education and training, it cut research and infrastructure. it cut things that people depend on, things like medicare. when you look at where thisco country is going, we hear people often say we're now a country of haves and have nots and we really are. civil rights is not just about race. it is also about economics. it is also about opportunity. and those are things i think are being eroded slowly in this country. >> bill: the president had a meeting yesterday with civil rights hireds and with attorney general eric holder on the question of -- you just alluded to, the question of voting rights. making this a priority. do you think there's a possibility that congress will be able to act after the supreme court basically gutted the voting rights act? >> i do. i'm really very hopeful. i'm almost confident that we will get something done this year. i think that all people of goodwill know that there are some issues that need to be addressed. this is one of them. i think that my colleagues, on the other side of the aisle, at some point will understand how important it is to get this done. i think we will get it done. >> bill: at a meeting yet, i think it was -- the national bar association meeting down in miami, the mother of trayvon martin, sabrina fulton spoke and she issued a challenge to them, congresswoman. let's hear from her and i would love to get your reaction. >> the thing about this law is i just think it assisted the person who killed my son to get away with murder. >> bill: she was talking of course about stand-your-ground law in florida. will that be part of your discussion this afternoon and do you think that should be on the agenda for this congress again? >> yes, it should be on the agenda for this congress. because what people don't realize is these stand-your-ground laws increase racial profiling. they protect those who would not only racially profile but but incite violence. if you remember when you looked at the trayvon martin trial and even if you looked at bits and pieces of it, george zimmerman was never on trial. trayvon martin was on trial for being a black kid in a neighborhood where george zimmerman did not believe he should be. there was never at any time during the trial, any real effort to look at it with outrage. even though people said race had nothing to do with it, it was clear race had something to do with it just by the fact that he was profiled by george zimmerman. we have to look at the stand-your-ground laws. it is not just stand-your-ground laws that they're putting in place. it is voter i.d. laws. it is the assaults against women. this country has become a country not working for the people we represent but working against us. i ask you about whether congress can do anything because this is state by state by state that have passed the stand-your-ground laws. >> bill, it is state by state. we can do something about racial profiling. that is what started this. so that is something we can do. and we can address that at the federal level. you're right. a lot of these are state law but we have to work at helping those in states repeal laws like stand your ground which actually increase violence as opposed to decrease it. >> bill: well, this is an important conversation. again, the president has wanted to get it going. i'm so glad that the democratic policy committee under your leadership is taking this up, congresswoman. we'll be watching with great interest. nancy pelosi will be there as well and hopefully this will stimulate similar conversations all across this country. and thank you for joining us. thank you for joining us this morning. >> thank you, my pleasure. >> bill: congresswoman marcia fudge, head of the congressional black caucus with that big meeting at 1:30 this afternoon. we'll be back here on the "full court press" with some of the other news of the day. >> announcer: like politics? 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(vo) only on current tv. >> announcer: heard around the country and seen on current tv, this is the "bill press show." >> bill: here we go. 16 minutes before the top of the hour. tuesday, july 30. the "full court press" here. with the whole gang, the whole team. and a couple of big stories that we haven't had a chance to spend enough time on. we talked in the first hour a little bit about pope francis. he is really shaking things up! first of all, this is a guy with a total different style than we've seen of any pope at all. he really comes across in so many ways as someone who is very comfortable in his skin. he's very humble and he doesn't like all of the trappings and the tra la la that normally goes with the papacy. he refuses to wear the red pradas that benedict loved. he will not live in the papal apartments because he said he doesn't like living alone. he likes being around people. and living in all of those fancy apartments just by himself is not his idea of fun. i think it's great. he takes his meals -- he lives in the boardinghouse, guesthouse inside the vatican where he checked in as a cardinal when he came in to vote for the new pope. he takes his meals with the people who are there. likes hanging out with them. we know -- he shuns the official limousine and favors a regular car, sitting in the backseat. that got him a little bit of trouble when he landed in brazil the first day. but that's who he is. and so that came across maybe more than ever on his flight back from brazil -- of course, the whole focus of his papacy, forget that is this focus on the poor and alleviating poverty and that's the mission of the church. that's what the church ought to be all about which is so true. so true to the gospels and which the church has really gotten away from. by all of this focus on the sex issues. so in many ways, it is so refreshing to see pope francis and as i started, on the trip back from brazil to rome is where he really showed what a different kind of pope he is when he walked to the back of -- what do they call it? pope i? papal i? i'm not sure. where the press was gathered. he just stood up and said -- greeted everybody and said hey, i'm here to take your questions on any topic. before, they always used to have -- submit -- reporters would have to submit their questions in writing. papal aides would decide which questions the pope would answer. they would write out the answers and the pope would come back and read from his little index cards the answers to the questions that the papal aides had decided the pope would answer. it was so stilted and artificial. this pope stood there for 80 minutes and there's video out, picture on the front page of "the new york times" this morning leaning against the front of an airline seat and answering questions on any topic. unheard of. most -- i don't think -- i don't think the president of the united states has done the same thing. president obama will meet with reporters and take questions off the cuff like that for 10 or 15 minutes but it is all off the record. this was totally on the record for the pope. and they could ask him about anything. and reporters did. they asked him about women priests, whether he would ever see women being ordained as priests. on that one, the pope was pretty closed-minded. the pope said hey you're not going to get me on that one. the church has already spoken. this issue is basically resolved. it ain't gonna happen. so then they asked him an interesting question about gay -- whether or not he has discovered that there really is a gay lobby meaning a lobby of gay priests inside the vatican. and the pope, on that, was very clear. [ speaking foreign language ] >> bill: all right. there he is. >> was that obama or was that the pope? i'm confused. >> bill: i like his italian. of the point the pope was making there is by the way, you hear the word gay which again, no pope has ever used that phrase. it is a fairly modern phrase. gay. he uses that. but the first point he makes is he has to distinguish between with the gay lobby, the gay priests, the fact that gay, that's one thing and being part of a lobby is another. so he said the lobby thing, he didn't really want to talk about. but on the gay side, the pope really kind of made history. he said in terms of they're being gay, who am i to judge? if they're seeking the lord in good faith, who am i to judge? they should not be manner nallized -- marginalized. the tendency is not the problem, they are our brothers. which really is historic because the pope -- the first time that any pope has not just simply condemned members of the lgbt community. when the pope says lgbt -- >> huh? >> bill: then you know he's up to date. first time a pope has said this is wrong. this is immoral. this is abhorrent, we shouldn't talk to them. or kind of whatever. and this pope is saying again, what a difference. who am i to judge? again, the pope is not saying health is great or it's okay to have homosexual sex. for same-sex marriage or whatever. but just this openness and tolerance and acceptance is a big difference from where the catholic church has always been and it is a big difference from where the catholic bishops are in this country. and it got a very positive response. dignity u.s.a. is a group of lgbt catholics who are working for change within the catholic church. mary ann dunnny brook is the head of that. she pointed out yesterday that the homosexuality should not be considered something which is abnormal. >> there is nothing to be forgiven about being gay or lesbian. it is who god made us. it is a great blessing. >> bill: she also expressed the hope that the catholic bishops, american catholic bishops, who have been some of the most negative when it comes to outreach to the lgbt community and not accepting or open-minded at all toward the issue, even of civil unions, remember back to pope francis, when he was cardinal, in south america, he actually was urging his catholic bishops to support civil unions which was -- again, really revolutionary. so back to dignity u.s.a., they just hope that the catholic bishops will listen to the leader. >> church management looks to the pope for some indication about where these conversations should go and if pope francis indicates more willingness to openness or to mediate his statements, on lgbt, people in the same way he has shifted the focus on the poor, that is going to have an impact. >> that's what i was going to ask you. you know about this as much as anybody that i know. so now what? the pope has spoken. does that mean the church has to go that direction? >> bill: i don't think it means the church will change its doctrine. the doctrine officially still is it is okay to be gay as long as you don't have sex. right? >> right. >> bill: just like it's okay to be straight as long as you don't have sex outside of marriage but if you're gay, can't have sex ever at all. that's not going to change. yet. but his outreach and his acceptance and his attitude of tolerance and openness is a good step in -- good step in the right direction. with that, wrap it up with the pope and we'll come back here and wrap up the show with today's parting shot. >> announcer: heard around the country and seen on current tv. this is the "bill press show." ç] john fugelsang: if you believeç] in states rights but still support the drug war you must be high. cenk uygur: i think the number one thing viewers like about the young turks is that we're honest. i think the audience gets that i actually mean it. michael shure: this show is about being up to date so a lot of my work happens by doing the things that i am given to doing anyway. joy behar: you can say anything here. jerry springer: i spent a couple of hours with a hooker joy behar: your mistake was writing a check jerry springer: she never cashed it (vo) the day's events. four very unique points of view. tonight starting at 6 eastern. >> "viewpoint" digs deep into the issues of the day. >> has the time finally come for real immigration reform? >> with a distinctly satirical point of view. if you believe in state's rights but still believe in the drug war, you must be high. >> only on current tv. >> bill: my parting shot for today, tuesday, july 30th, syria is not the only country torn by civil war. we've got one here. civil war has broken out in the republican party between conservatives chris christie and peter king and libertarian rand paul. christie started it. accusing rand paul of dangerous talk by raising questions about drones and the nsa. rand paul fired back that christie and peter king are the ones really putting this country in danger with their reckless spending and recovery from hurricane sandy. who's right and who's wrong? the truth is they're both wrong. rand paul's wrong on sandy. of course fema should help victims of hurricane sandy in new jersey. just like it helped the victims of tornadoes in kentucky. and chris christie and peter king are wrong on drones and the nsa. both of these programs are out of control. both of them are massive invasions of privacy. and both of them demand that some limitations be put on our government. but the best part is, enjoy it, folks. republicans are waging war against each other. how sweet it is! melanie sloan and neil king from the "wall street journal" join us here tomorrow. have a good one.