Used to extort a president or a governing party and trying to force issues that had nothing to do with the budget and had nothing to do with the debt. There you have it. Lets go straight to new York Democratic congressman Charles Rangel and he sits on the house, ways and means committee. Representative, always good to see you here. As you well know, youve been around those halls a long time here and one might ask why are folks on your side of the aisle now causing whats happening right now basically crazy town. Because it just doesnt make any sense. I we are not going close on the government. I wish i was a fly on the wall when these republicans get together, but what they have done because of their madness in opposition to National Health is to put this as a poison pill as to whether or not the president of the United States can tell the International Community who bought our debt that were going to pay them. The other thing is that in a couple of weeks the government, if it doesnt get an extension of the present budget because we havent come up with a budget, then everything closes down. So what the republicans are saying now that theyre going to put the repeal then. Please believe me. They cannot constitutionally, legally repeal the Affordable Care act. They know it. We know it. The American People know it so at some point they have to slow down this train because its nothing but a train wreck and they are driving the engine. It wont make it past the senate and it wont make it past the president s desk is what youre saying. One thing theyre asking for. According to the New York Times is a list of things that they wish the house would do. This is the republican wish list, raise the borrowing limit, delay obamacare by one year and increasing debt ceiling for one year and expedite excel pipeline and federal tax code timeline as well. As you know, the majority of americans in a recent nbc newswall street journal poll dont approve of the aca and so when you look at that wish list from the republicans what do you say to representatives like Marshall Blackburn who well be talking to later on in the show, who say well just delay this and try to drive more support from the americans to see if we should continue with the aca . Well, some of mr. Blackburns people want to strip the interpretation of the constitution and the separation of house and make it clear about what the courts are supposed to be doing and so therefore, when we deal with the legislative part, believe me, you can look as long as you want and theres nothing in there where legislative wish lists become the law. I mean, its just not there. So what youre telling the president is we cant get these things passed, but if we can get you to change all of the philosophical reasons why people reelected you and get you to accept what we could not sell to the American People then well be responsible, but having a wish list is like a going to a president ial press conference and sneaking something over to the president saying this is what i really want. And its not constitutional and its not legal and i know its not moral. Congressman. While were talking about things, republicans would like to defund, the house is set to vote later today on a measure that would slap funding for food stamps by nearly 40 million. The number of people on food stamps exploding since the financial collapse. When you look at this, is this just more evidence that lawmakers are out of touch with reality here . No. They believe that just saying that youre cutting dramatically, the federal budget through sequestration and any other means that youre saving money. This doesnt make sense whether youre talking about a business or a household. If you cutoff Health Care People are going to sick and youll pay for it anyway, if you cut off food, nutritious food kids are going to go to school hungry and theyre not going to be able to comprehend their studies and if you talk about people that are working and at the same time theyre still below the poverty line and they need subsidies and they need food stamps and you cut that out they may have to quit and go on welfare and its going to cost money. Im forgetting all of the spiritual reasons why we should help the poor, the sick and the disabled and the vulnerable. Im just talking about sound, Accounting Practices dictate that when you supplement working peoples food allowance through food stamps it makes a lot of dollars and it makes a lot of sense. Congressman, i want to move on to something that youve been working on for some time here. The Navy Yard Shooting reing nieth the debate that youve seen over gun control, mayors are holding a News Conference on capitol hill today this morning. The Newtown Alliance is lobbying for lawmakers as well and senatorses begich are resurrecting a bill raising the issue and youre trying to get support for a bill that you sponsored to enforce existing gun laws. Can you blame americans who look at this and say here we go again, though we have some energy at the moment. This is not going to go anywhere . Well, it used to be somewhere. It used to be the law. The congress has never been completely ignorant of the fact that responsible people have to show that theyre responsible if theyre going to have a firearm. What has happened over the years before these massacres and before kids were able to get guns is that they already pulled their teeth out of the alcohol, firearm and tobacco agency. Weve got 300 million guns in the United States of america, but we only have 2500 agentses. So we know that while we need a national and International Concern about changing the whole thing, what about going back to what we used to have before the National Rifle association said the little we did have was too much for them to digest . The fact that they prohibited from using electronic records and they prohibited from centralizing offenses and they prohibited from reporting and investigating suspicious gun holders and really what theyve done is theyve demoralized the aft. So this is not something to stop these things when we have massacres. This says that theres no reason for this great nation to have 300 million gun, a gun for almost every citizen here and that there was responsible thinking before people awakened and found out theres mass murders. Theres 30 murders every day under existing law and we can only we can change that without having a massive uproar in terms of checking the background. This used to be the responsibility of the aft and now theyre prohibited from even transferring nothing from the fbi or other agencies that have investigated power. All im saying is weve got a lot of fixing to do in existing law before we go national. Congressman charlie rangel, thank you for your time today. Thank you for having me. Back at the washington nafty yard, the inspiration reopened except for the building where the shootings took place and we now know more about the gun aaron alexis used in the rampage. Authorities say he scratched two phrases into the shotgun. One said, quote, better off this way. The other etching, my elf weapon. Officials dont know what either of those two mean. Also to the investigation after complaining to the police in rhode island that he was hearing voices, alexis went for treatment at a va hospital, but only said he was having trouble sleeping. Nothing about hearing voices. Nbc News National investigative correspondent Michael Isikoff is joining us now. Michael, you have a new, exclusive report about the doj probe into the contractors who the government use to vet people for security clearances there. Tell us about that. Exactly. In addition to the Defense Department review announced by secretary hagel, the just is doing its own investigation. Theyre going to be looking at the alexis clearance process, how did he get that security clearance . How did he obtain it . Who did the background check . And this is part of a much broader investigation done by the u. S. Attorneys office in washington into these background checks. They have found multiple examples of fraudulent, fabricated background checks being presented to the office of Personnel Management and a let of this is done by outside contractors in which they are pressured to churn out reports and the volume is so staggering there have been Something Like 19 who submitted to have done ridiculouses that were never checked and so this is part of a much broader probe that will get attention in the coming weeks. Thank you so much for that, nbc News National investigative correspondent Michael Isikoff. We appreciate it. Senator john mccain is blasting back at putin. Whats his goal here . An american minister, not only backing, but taking credit for russias lgbt ban. His role in whats becoming a Global Culture war and heres todays big question. Shut down showdown. Smart move by the gop or political suicide . Weigh in on twitter or on facebook. Wisest kid in the whole world . How can i be a more fun mom . Hmmm. Can you dance . 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This developing news coming from russia where president Vladimir Putin just said he could not be 100 certain the Syrian Government would comply with the plan to destroy its chemical weapons. However, putin does say he cease reason to be hopeful. That just in to msnbc in the next hour. The National Assembly convening here in new york in a week and the syria issue will be front and center, no doubt and writing today on a russian news website arizona senator john mccain slamming Vladimir Putin for the president s oped in the New York Times. Quote, he is not enhancing rushss reputation, he has made her a friend to the tyrants and untrusted by nations that seek to build a safer and more peaceful and prosperous world, end quote. Ambassador, thanks for joining us today. Mccain also writing here that he is and hes alluding here, of course, to the syrian leader, quote, more prorussian is alluding to himself that he is more prorussian than the putin government itself. Whats the practicality of this oped that was written by the senator and published in this russian news website . Isnt president obama lucky that he has john mccain saying all of the things that the president of the United States could not say in response to mr. Putins New York Times oped which is, mr. Putin, if you think that were buying what you say to us about our country, let me tell you what we in america feel about your role of your country. It was so well written and so completely accurate portrayal of the Human Rights Violations that russians have to live in day in and day out under putins role. If the president would have written it would it have been different some. It would have been so diplomatic and not so much in your face. Lets understand, mr. Mccain has the license to write that. Lets move over to what we started this block with and that is syria. Former democratic congressman and new fox news analyst Dennis Kucinich sat down for a oneonone interview with bashar al assad. Do you have chemical weapons or dont you . When we joined the treaty last week it means that we havent and we said that. So its not there anymore. So weve got that. We also have the news of Vladimir Putin saying hes not sure whether the Syrian Government will follow through 100 . What do you make of that . Look. This will be a situation of making sure that the decay of the commitment that the president and secretary kerry obtained from the russians and from the syrians is not slow walked to a point where the entire pressure to get rid of those chemical weapons evaporates and i know it and you know it that in the laws of the jungle of the United NationsSecurity Council and the need to get the inspectors on the ground in a conflict where a civil war will make it very difficult. This will be an extraordinarily important task. The president and the secretary of state want to persevere and theyll have to hold the feet to the fire of mr. Putin and mr. Assad and they have to maintain the threat of force over them. If that threat of forces, vap rates, you can be one thing guaranteed, richard. There is not one way that mr. Arc sad will give up the chemical weapons. I want to move over to wmd of a different sort. Ann curry sits down with irans new president. Take a listen to part of that. Can you say that iran will not build a Nuclear Weapon under any circumstances whatsoever . Translator the answer to this question is quite obvious. We have time and again said that under no circumstances would we seek any weapons of mass destruction including Nuclear Weapons nor would we ever. So rouhani will be coming to new york for the unga, the unga, as they call it, and he is now doing this interview. A Charm Offensive . What do youic ma of this interview . I am all in favor of seeing whether or not an accommodation can be reached with the United States and its allies in iran. I dont want to see a conflict. I dont think the israelis would like to see a conflict, but lets understand, a Charm Offensive can have an Atomic Energy program that suggests that iran is engaged in every effort to construct a Nuclear Weapon. If they come clean and say were going to stop and were going to open up all our facilities and well abide by our responsibilities under a nonproliferation treaty. You and i both know this is a theocracy, this is run by the ayatollah and that remains atop the pyramid of power. Former white house middle east adviser Mark Ginsburg for stopping by this morning. Former first daughter Caroline Kennedy testified. Shes before the Senate ForeignRelations Committee at her confirmation hearing and you can see her entering earlier. President obama nom named kennedy to be the next ambassador to japan. 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