95 of people who tried it agreed that it relieved their headache fast. Visit fastreliefchallenge. Com today for a special trial offer. Thanks, everybody, around this table for the conversation. Before we go, quick programming note. Tomorrow on today, former basketball star Dennis Rodman speaks out about what . Yes, his fascinating trip to north korea, if you can believe it. Also, for this weeks press pass conversation, i sat down with popular author of the secret of happy families, bruce filer. Very good advice for those of us with kids at home. You can watch it at meetthepress msnbc. Com. That is all there is for this week. Well be back next week. If its sunday, its meet the press. A good sunday afternoon to you. You are watching msnbc, the place for politics. Today it is business as usual in washington, d. C. There are smarter ways to cut spending. Our hope is that as more republicans start to see the pain in their own districts. As the sequester kicks in can the two sides come together to form a more perfect solution . And silence in st. Peteers square as the vatican begins the process of picking the next pope. Meanwhile here Vice President joe biden joined civil rights leaders to commemorate bloody sunday as the landmark Voting Rights act faces an uncertain future. Plus this. I tried to keep from crying. And i accepted the apology. It was a very easy decision to make because it is the right thing to do. Nearly 50 years after almost being beaten to death by police a leader gets an official apology and a gift. Right now a live look at the bridge in alabama as leaders gather to commemorate the 1965 civil rights march to montgomery. Roughly 600 folks made that 54 mile trek. It is also known as bloody sunday. Vice President Joe Biden is there with civil rights leaders. John lewis among them. Also House Majority leader canter is there. And a few hundred folks have gathered. They will be doing what they do just about every year at this time, marching that bridge. Joining me from atlanta, the daughter of one of the men who led one of the marchs down the bridge, burn s king. Good to see you. Thank you. Good to see you. First of all, lets start with your thoughts as you see folks gathered today. Well, you know, i think about a quote my mother said. She said a struggle is a never ending process. Freedom is never really won. You earn it and win it in every generation. As they gather for bloody sunday its a reminder that every generation has to be vigilant to ensure that the freedoms that we have fought for are preserved. And so this is important. We have to keep this before peoples memories because we dont want our memories wiped out and we dont want to go back to the horrible time period. All of this happening this year as one of the organizers of the jubilee as it is called and organizers pointed out that this years event has special significance because of what is happening at the Supreme Court. Hearing arguments for and against keeping a key provision of the Voting Rights act. As we watch the events unfold ont that bridge there talk to me about the striking irony of it all. Well, i think its very ironic that it occurs at this time period. I think it just reminds us of what i just said that we have to be very vigilant in this nation to ensure that we dont go back to this horrible time period. The fact that we have a justice that will talk about a racial entitlement when this is an entitlement that is given to all citizens. Because the constitution did not guarantee it we have to have the Voting Rights act to ensure that people did have full participation and not blocked from being anyone to vote. So i want to really commend both justices for their stance. My mother said women if the soul of the nation is to be saved you must become their soul. Thank them for being the soul of the Supreme Court and reminding us of the need for title 5 and the fact that you know there were 240 discrimenatory voting laws blocked by title 5. My father used to remind us that if you did something against the people for hundreds of years then you have to do something for them as well. We are not there yet. There is still a lot of racial hostility and animosity in our nation. And we need to get to a place where we can have political and social discourses not as hostile and racial. That is why we have the king center to teach people how to resolve conflicts so we dont go back to such a horrible period of time. Yesterday kevin murphy app l apologized of the abuses. And passed his badge to congressman john lewis. What do gestures like this do for wounds of the past . You know, interestingly enough at the beginning of this year i called this a year of healing and reconciliation. I am so glad and also commend the police chief in montgomery for extending that apology to john lewis because i think it is healing. I think it appeals to other people who may be out there and have been afraid. Hopefully it will bring them forward. It helps to begin to forge a new relationship. They are not people that are as contrite as he was as he extended this apology to john lewis and we must continue to remain vigilant and ensure that we protect people that need to be protective in this society as we continue to move forward towards freedom and participate in government for all people. Daughter of the reverend Martin Luther king jr. Always good to see and hear from you. Thank you. We are going to continue to keep an eye on the event over the next hour or so. As we mentioned congressman john lewis is expected to speak. When that does happen at the bridge we will bring it to you live. Meanwhile here are todays other top political headlines. Secretary of state kerry meets are mohamed morsi. After the meeting the United States released nearly 200 million of promised u. S. Aid to help egypt. The American Israel Public Affairs committee begins its conference in washington today. Senat its mitt romneys first tv interview since the election. Governor romney telling fox news that he wishes he was part of the action on the fiscal talks. Take a listen. I still care. And i still believe that there are principles that we need to stand for. I look at what is happening right now. I wish i were there. It kills me not to be there, not to be in the white house doing what needs to be done. Joining me now with more on mitt romneys resurge anance. Let me start with you. We just heard governor romney say that it kills him not to be in washington during this time of financial peril. How different with the sequestration show down would have been if at president romney were in the white house . It is a good hypothetical. Probably not very different in that there would be severe cuts either way. We see the republicans deciding something designed to change policy became the policy itself. That is why people around the country are so confused. John boehner said last week it was a bad thing and now republicans are celebrating to some degree that it happened. Mixed messaging. Karen, governor romney conceded that he does not think he is a republican leader now but does have ideas about how the party should move forward. Take a listen to what he said. I lost. And so im not going to be telling the Republican Party come listen to me. The guy who lost is going to tell you how to win. You must have some ideas. Among the ideas clearly we have to do a better job bringing minority voters in to vote. How active will mitt romney be in shaping Party PoliticsGoing Forward . He is going to have another coming out party later this month at the annual conservative Political Action conference. But i dont think that republicans are looking to mitt romney for the future. And it was interesting because he said one of the main things that he had to do was reach out to minorities. In that same interview he seemed to not understand how damaging his own comments were about immigration where he called for self deportation. He said basically the reason that low income latinoes voted for president obama was because they like health care. I think the party sort of understands what it needs to do but what it still doesnt understand is how to get there. Romney ran on his business credentials but House Speaker john boehner now taking the lead on how the Republican Party deals with fiscal challenges. Listen to what he said about how the budget cuts will take effect. Is this going to hurt the economy . Will it hurt economic recovery . I dont know whether it will hurt the economy or not. I dont think anyone quite understands how the sequester is really going to work. Peter alexander joining me from the white house. What might be behind boehners strategy implying the sequesterer might not be as bad as promised. I feel like i am reliving the last months of my life. I think we heard from House Speaker boehner that while he and the president frankly agree that these are dumb cuts john boehner is trying to please the sort of right wing of his party and they are maybe dumb cuts and are cuts and a lot of republicans are satisfied by that feeling this is a victory for republicans against this white house insisting it was a miscalculation perhaps by the president. The question remains to be seen how this will be resolved Going Forward. The next looming text versus spending show down over thekening resolution. How they pay to fund the government through the fall. Both sides insisted that they do not want to see a government shut down but remains to be seen how this will be resolved likely not for several more months over another budget battle. Peter alexander good to see you, sir. Thank you. I want to bring the panel back in. Let me come to you. I know you campaigned with governor romney, travelled with governor romney for more than a year covering the campaign. What has he been doing since he lost . We know that he has been spending a lot of time out here in california at his beach front retreat here in lajolla. He has been working in the boston offices and the firm that his son, tag, runs. It is really unclear what his next steps are. He has refocused his attention on his charity that he founded. And that is a big focus right now and a lot of down time. In the interview this morning ann romney said she was happy to blame the media. What kind of access to do you feel like you had to the real mitt romney . I think that was a debate throughout the campaign. I think a lot of the reporters felt the Romney Campaign had a puzzling communications strategy. When he wanted to talk about the chartable work he was doing and the kind of person he was they rarely let people in. They gave very few interviews. It wasnt until the convention that we saw him open up more and tell us more personal stories. It is all well and good to blame the media but you have to look at your own actions, as well. Governor Romney Campaigned on the promise of cutting deficits. Republicans have long trumpeted balancing our national budget. Speaker boehner stopped short of saying that the automatic sequester cuts were good for the country. Take a listen. There are smarter ways to cut spending than this silly sequester that the president demanded. And so we need to address the long term spending problem. We cant cut our way to prosperity. While he is doing that you have other Republican Leaders who are high fiving and celebrating the sequester cuts. What kind of cuts would the gop rather see take effect . I think the gop would like to see domestic spending cuts and certain entitlement programs. The paul ryan wing saying you have to go after the way we deal with health care and Social Security for eldererly americans. The pickle therein is the Older Americans form the core of their voting block and people are pretty happy with Social Security. We are doing a little reruns today which isnt our fault because john boehner and mitt romney are doing reruns. These were the issues that didnt work well for republicans. The other thing i will say about romney is i think it is unfortunate that he is blaming them for the loss. It does go to Something Else which is the role that he plays now. He does not have to stay on the sidelines and only speak to cpac. He can engage on certain issues on policy, not trying to make himself look good or do politics and be a responsible elder statesman in his party if he wants to. Lets go back to boehner because Democrat Congressional Campaign committee has issued a press release this morning. In that release say they in part, quote, fact check, Speaker Boehner faultily claims democrats have no plan to replace sequester. It was the president was the one who proposed this sequester mechanism. It was the congress that approved it. I think everybody has ownership on this. I thought Something Else was interesting that Speaker Boehner said where he said you cant cut your way to prosperity. The republicans see spending cuts as only part of the equation. They are also and we see it in their governors around the country. They believe tax reform is also crucial. You see governors like sam brown in kansas and bobby jindal in louisiana are controversially trying to reshape their states tax structures. I believe that this is only part of the equation for both parties i think. Thanks to all of you. Enjoyed it so much we will do it later in the show as well. The tragic end to a nightmare scenario in florida. Also the news man getting a lot of ink. What is a press corp to make of it all. Carl rove telling the gop to take over the biggest state in the union. This is the place for politics even on a sunday afternoon. [ lisa ] my names lisa, and chantix helped me quit. I honestly loved smoking, and i honestly didnt think i would ever quit. [ male announcer ] along with support, chantix is proven to help people quit smoking. It reduces the urge to smoke. It put me at ease that you could smoke on the first week. [ male announcer ] some people had changes in behavior, thinking or mood, hostility, agitation, depressed mood and suicidal thoughts or actions while taking or after stopping chantix. If you notice any of these stop taking chantix and call your doctor right away. 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It seemed like governor romney was very much coming to terms with his loss but that his wife might be having a harder time. On a personal level how have he and ann been coping with the loss . Losing a major race like the race for president is very difficult. He was disappointed. Him and ann were very concerned with the staff, all of the people that had helped him and helping to find them jobs and move forward. If you saw the interview today i think he is coping with it well. He is rededicating efforts towards his charity. Congress woman, governor romney was plagued by the 47 video that was released by jones where he said 47 of americans were reliant on the government. This is what he said this morning. Take a listen. I didnt express myself as i wished i would have. When you speak in private you dont spend as much time thinking about how something can be twisted and distorted and can come out wrong. I did and it was harmful. What i said is not what i believe. He then said the Health Care Plan was an insurmountable advantage for the president. How was he reconciled and Still Believes that government handouts were a major factor in his defeat . The overall interview was a great interview. I think anyone who has run a campaign and lost a campaign will do an analysis of everything that went right and everything that went wrong over and over and over. I think whether or not his comments are reconciling right now, losing an election is a grief process. That was clear in the interview. I think he is still working on a lot of it. Do you think it can be reconciled . We all know that was a tough, difficult moment in the campaign. Of course, it is still hard to analyze what went wrong, why he said it and how to fix it. Governor romney asked about how much the long republican primary process hurt his run. Take a listen to how