Transcripts For MSNBCW Weekends With Alex Witt 20140510 : vi

MSNBCW Weekends With Alex Witt May 10, 2014

Welcome to weekends with alex witt. Heres whats happening. Severe storms across the nations mid section leaving a path of destruction behind them. In evansville, indiana, howling winds crushed a house. Heavy rains causing street flooding and wind gusts hitting 50 miles per hour. Nbc meteorologist dylan dreyer has the forecast. Hi, dylan. Good morning, alex. We are going to see a lot happen this weekend with storms and snow. It is strong across country. Showers and storms across western tennessee. Lighter snow showers in and around the denver area. Theyre very light right now, but as we go especially into sunday night, thats when were going to see heavier snow. Its basically going to turn into a snowstorm with accumulating snow in parts of the rockies. You can see possibly up to 6 to 12 inches of snow. More as you go up into the higher elevations. The white here across parts of idaho, thats 3 to 6 inches. It will be messy for the monday morning commute. As for severe storms this weekend, we will see the possibility of damaging winds and large hale in this area in yellow from Oklahoma City to illinois including most of missouri including southern iowa and eastern parts of kansas as well. Then on mothers day, the threat of severe storms spread from wisconsin all the way down into texas. Again, the biggest concerns will be for some strong winds, possibly damaging winds and large hail. Tornadoes are isolated. They are possible. Continue to spread eastward. Temperature wise, it will be warmer in the east. Washington, d. C. , about 80 degrees. For mothers day it should clear out. Temperatures like nice topping out in the 70s and 80s and a little bit humid. Dylan, thank you so much for that. A bit later for this hour, the white house Climate Change report and what could happen if we do nothing to stop it. Youll hear how miami could be especially hard hit. Thats coming up in 30 minutes. Politics and new this morning. First Lady Michelle obama is delivering the white house weekly address by herself for the first time. She began by wishing all moms a happy mother day and then addressed the situation in nigeria where nearly 300 school girls were kidnapped. I want you to know that barack has directed our government to do Everything Possible to support the Nigerian Governments efforts to find these girls and bring them home. In these girls, barack and i see our own daughters. We see their hopes and their dreams and we can only imagine the anguish their parents are feeling right now. Republican senator and possible president ial contender rand paul is intensifying his push to reach out to minority voters meeting with the africanamerican pastors in memphis. I want to take issues that i believe in strongly that i think will resonate in the Africanamerican Community and say, i want your vote. And i want to compete for that vote. And marriage licenses could be handed out to samesex couples in arkansas perhaps as soon as today. A Circuit Court judge threw out the states ban on friday. The states attorney general says he plans to appeal. Lets bring in Washington Bureau chief for the chicago sun times, lynn sweet and eric blake. Lynn, ill begin with you. Lets go first to the big old partisan divide over benghazi. There is a seven member panel thats been selected to investigate. Democrats are considering a boycott. My question from an objective stand point, what are the questions that remain unanswered or is this all political . Well, the answer is, yes, its political. There have been multiple investigations by congress. The House Select Committee is gearing up in an election year. Democrats in the house have a big decision to make because if they dont participate, then witnesses will be questioned without anyone to watch their back. So, you know, right now theres negotiations going on between House Minority leader nancy pelosi and House Speaker john boehner. As of last night they were exchanging a memo of understanding whether or not the democrats could have a say in subpoena power or not, but the facts that may still need to be going through triggered by the white house stumbling and not having earlier turned over a memo about the talking points still remain to be seen if there is a line of questioning, if there are documents that will be uncovered that truly turn up something new. But, again, that still remains to be seen if there is something to turn up. Aaron, the democrats have five seats to fill on the special committee. They are considering these three options. They can fill five of them. As lynn was saying, they can boycott the committee entirely or just fill one seat as a token. How do you see this playing out . What do you think the strategy is here for the democrats . Theres not a whole lot of good options. As lynn points out, the white house kind of stumbled here without releasing all the documents initially so they kind of have fed into this. I dont think that this is necessarily a great thing for republicans right now. I think that the base has kind of forced the party to form this committee to come and agree. I think the party was doing pretty well as far as the 2014 elections as it was where they were focusing on obama care. Benghazi throws a whole nother variable on top of this process. Republicans could risk some overreach on this whole thing. I dont think this is something necessarily that the Party Leadership wants to be doing right now. Okay. Lets switch gears here, lynn. As you know, senator rand paul met with africanamerican past horse in memphbe pastors in. Most of the pundants say they start out minus 240 electoral votes. Thats not a good way to start. The only way to change that is make our Political Party bigger. You name the population other than the white population, were not doing very well. Asian americans, jewish americans, hispanic population. We need to do better with all of these groups. We dont do better unless we go out and try. Now the New York Times says that senator paul is breaking with fellow republicans who advocate the stricter voter i. D. Laws. Hes quoted as saying they alienate and insult the africanamericans and they hurt the gop. We heard this there. Does this surprise you, lynn . Does it strike you as a purely political calculation or is it reflecting whats in his heart . I think its consistent with the rand paul that we see. Hes already more of a libertarian than by the book conservative republican. That is, he didnt get to the heart of whether or not theres voter fraud in this comment or whether or not theres a problem that needs to be stopped, which a lot of people think its really just suppression of africanamerican votes when you have these restrictive voting laws. And so by going to the heart of how people react its insulting. Its demeaning. Its purely going after one target population. It sounds consistent with the rand paul weve been saying. The New York Times has this quote that mr. Pauls remarks seem certain to stir up concern from republicans over whether the senator can appeal to the conservative voters who have so much influence in selecting the nominee. How do you see this . How do you think this fits into the big picture 2016 wise . It is an interesting thing to be talking about. Voter i. D. Is something that polls popularly nationally but within the Republican Party this is something that theyre very much on board with. For him to break with something that so many of husband party are stressing right now is quite interesting. Theres also the matter of the fact that republicans in so many state legislatures across the country have been passing these laws in recent years. So hes not only kind of differentiating himself from his party, hes kind of speaking out against something that a state legislature has passed in recent years. I dont think hes creating many friends within his party by doing this now even as he thinks hes reaching out to new c constituenci constituencies. I want to ask you both quickly about mitt romney being back in the news. He was weighing in on minimum wage. Here he is on morning joe. I, for instance, as you know part company with many of the conservatives in my party on the issue of the minimum wage. I think we ought to raise it because frankly our party is all about more jobs and better pay and i think communicating that is important to us. Wait, did we all know that he was for raising minimum wage . Im looking at information here that would suggest otherwise. One stance in february when he was running and one different stance in march. What do you think, lynn . I think that he made it look like it was no news but maybe it was news. Its interesting because its part of he had he is making an appeal there to hispanics with what we talked about with rand paul and that appeals to blue collar republicans, all kinds of ethnic republicans, too. And it comes from a man who after all gave the living face to the 47 story. Even though he says hes not running again, maybe he looks at his own personal history of saying, wait a minute, i am about trying to help people who are not as rich as i am. Unfortunately, aaron, we have to go. Hes not running for president in 2016 but who knows after that. Anyway, all right, aaron, lynn, good to see you both. Thank you so much. Thank you. About an hour from now the Virginia State police will hold a News Conference on yesterdays hot air balloon crash during a festival. A pilot and two passengers were aboard after catching fire after hitting a live power line. Witnesses tell us they heard two explosions from the hot air balloon. At one point the gone dole la and the balloon separated and the balloon took off. Police are searching for the balloons occupants and as well as the wreckage. Luke russert joins us. What an accident, a freak accident. Reporter yeah, freak accident that created a social media firestorm, alex. Last night around 8 00 p. M. Is when this tragic accident occurred, at the beginning of a threeday hot air Balloon Festival here about an hour and a half south of washington, d. C. Witnesses reported that there is an explosion after the balloon upon trying to land hit a power line. There is a pilot with two passengers in that balloon. The gondola or the basket as they like to call it became separated and absolutely terrifying eye witness accounts were told. One lady reporting that she heard someone in that basket screaming out, oh, god, im going to die. Then her daughter in fact saw a figure fall to the ground. Now the police have not released the identities of the victims. Its unclear if they have been found yet. Well find that out around 8 00 a. M. , but the search has been a little bit more difficult than i shall usual last night and because of the crash site. Take a listen for what they say. At this time we are searching for two wreckage sites, where the gondola landed and where the balloon landed. Reporter and the reason why you have those two sites, alex, is because when the balloon hit the power line, thats when the separation happened. So a lot of people had saw that floating balloon on fire and were worried that people were in that basket that kept on floating out. In fact, they were not. There was a separation there, but because they want to get to the bottom of it they have to find the crash site of the basket and the crash site of the actual balloon itself. Unclear if they could s hahave that. Thanks so much. The deal that could make dr. Dre the first deal maker in hiphop. This morning, more outraged family members are calling for action. Your independence. Insures support. A breakthrough. And sooner than youd like. Sooner than you think. You die from alzheimers disease. We cure alzheimers disease. Every little click, call, or donation adds up to something big. Alzheimers association. The brains behind saving yours. When folks think about wthey think salmon and energy. But the energy bp produces up here creates Something Else as well jobs all over america. Engineering and innovation jobs. Advanced Safety Systems technology. Shipping and manufacturing. Across the United States, bp supports more than a quarter million jobs. When we set up operation in one part of the country, people in other parts go to work. Thats not a coincidence. Its one more part of our commitment to america. Overseas Vladimir Putin is taking a victory lap in his first visit to newly annexed crimea. The victory day celebration. Mean child, deadly clashes are breaking out. Seven people were killed and dodss wounded in some of the serious fighting yet. They plan to press ahead with tomorrows referendum on independence despite putins call for delay. The faa has a second bird strike. Last night a u. S. Airways jet bound for d. C. Hit a bird shortly after takeoff and was forced to turn back around. Wednesday, a United Airlines jet struck a bird before landing safely at laguardia. No one was hurt in either incident. The l. A. Clippers has a new boss this morning. Richard parsons will take over in the wake of the Donald Sterling scandal. Hes the former ceo of time warner. Shelly sterling endorses the nbas choice of parsons. The clippers lost to Oklahoma City. The game is tied at 11 apiece. Thats the interim director. The Health Scandal rocking the Veterans Affairs facility has spread to six states as whistle blowers continue to come forward exposing what could be a widespread problem. At issue, allegations that vets have been dying while enduring long wait times for medical care and that hospital officials have been falsifying documents to try to cover up the problem. Nbcs Kelly Odonnell joins me now from phoenix where the scandal began. Kelly, an early good morning to you. Whats the latest from there . I imagine a lot of angry folks . Reporter we have certainly seen that, alex. We have been talking to veterans here in phoenix who have their own experiences dealing with the va. Many say once they get in to see their doctors theyve been happy with them. This is all about trying to give the appearance of shorter waiting times for patience. Those are the allegations. Were waiting into a very high stakes week for the secretary of the Veterans Administration because he will be on capitol hill testifying about this, first about what was happening here in phoenix, but as you pointed out, similar allegations are now coming to the surface about va centers around the country. Are you going to do whats right for the veterans, sir . Reporter veterans and their families are demanding answers and accountability. It took months for them to see him. They wouldnt call us back. Reporter this widening scandal first surfaced at the phoenix Veterans Affairs hospital with allegations that records were secretly altered to show shorter waiting times for patient appointments to meet va standards. We were betrayed, myself, other veterans. Reporter senator john mccain, who held a town hall meeting on the controversy friday, said this could lead to criminal charges. This is the first time ive ever seen an outright what apparently allegedly is an outright coverup. Reporter going beyond arizona, a texas va medical clerk, brian turner, tells nbc news that clerks in the san antonio and austin offices were coached to change numbers and dates, to erase wait times of weeks or months. If you had a longer time frame than the 14day window, you would receive a report and it would tell you, you need to change this. Reporter va officials said turners claims were not substantiated. Turning to wyoming nbc obtained an email where a va staffer described a practice of altering dates saying, yes, it is gaining the system a bit but you have to know the rules of the game you are playing, adding, the front office gets very upset when wait times go past 14 days. Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki ordered an investigation of the wyoming office and put an employee on leave. Im very disappointed in the evidence that we have so far. Its tragic and its unacceptable. Reporter and, alex, we can also tell you that the American Legion here has been bringing together veterans and their families giving them a public place to talk about their concerns and to try to seek out help for their individual cases. Part of what weve learned from whistle blowers who have come forward to nbc news is this idea that because the va tracks the waiting times for patients around the country trying to monitor how long does it take and to keep those waiting times at a reasonable level, that these practices that have been talked about here in phoenix and around the country were designed to circumvent that monitoring. Those are the allegations at this point and so theres a lot more investigation underway. A House Committee in washington is looking at this. Certainly Eric Shinseki is saying that hes begun inspector generals investigations of the practices in different offices, and theres still more time for other potential whistle blowers and veterans and their families to come forward with their own specific examples of things that they believe were not handled properly. As you said, well be hearing from Eric Shinseki himself when he testifies in front of the committee this week. Thank you so much, Kelly Odonnell. Appreciate it. Office politics of ronan farrell. Why he takes issue of slacktivism in the missing nigerian girls. Were working deals all day. You get 10 gigabytes of data to share. What about expansion potential . Add a line anytime for 15 bucks a month. Low dues. Great terms. Lets close. New at t mobile share value plans. Our best value plans ever for business. [ girl ] my mom, she makes underwater fans that are powered by the moon. She can print amazing things, right from her computer. 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