on the other hand, there's darrell issa and elijah cummings, a totally different tactical example. as chairman of a key oversight committee, darrell issa launched hearing after hearing and investigation after investigation after investigation, all of which the democrats think are shams. one of the ways they made their strongest case that darrell issa isn't really investigating anything, he is just grand standing and doing so in a way that's partisan, pointless, classless. one of the ways democrats have expressed that about darrell issa is by having the ranking democrat, elijah cummings, say that at all of the committee hearings. having elijah cummings in the hearing room is a critical way democrats made their case that darrell issa in their view is a clown and his supposed investigations should not be taken seriously. >> ladies and gentlemen, seeking the truth is the obligation of this committee. i can see no point in going further. i have no expectation miss lerner will cooperate. therefore we -- >> mr. chairman, i have a statement. i have a procedural question, mr. chairman. i ha

i think we can look at what darrell issa did. you showed in your intro those wonderful clips of him cutting the mike on elijah cummings like a thug. slit his throat, cut the mike. >> shut it down, shut it down. >> you know, the way that congressman cummings has been treated is very telling. he's been treated with disrespect. the way their investigation and interviews have been selectively leaked to make the white house look bad and leave out things that have exonerated the white house on various scandals. so i see no reason for the democrats to participate. and that amazing tweet that you showed -- >> from the speaker's office. >> from speaker boehner, with kind of pin-up photos of the super seven, the magnificent seven, there's no reason from anything that we've seen so far to think that that's going to be -- that this is going to be any kind of a fair process. >> it's like an nfl draft but it is actually an investigative committee that is looking into deaths of four american citizens abroad. luke, let me ask you about this sele

darrell issa exit stage right. this is "now." >> benghazi. >> benghazi. >> benghazi. ♪ >> let's start with benghazi. >> the scandal house republicans can't get enough of. >> house speaker john boehner is forming a select committee. >> another select committee? another investigation. and more partisanship. >> there've been 13 hearings on benghazi, 50 briefings, 25,000 pages of documents released. >> there may be other documents. >> what we really need to do is get our hands on the documents that the white house has been withholding. >> benghazi. >> benghazi. >> benghazi. >> peter king acknowledged that there is kind of an overreach danger. >> republicans could be seen as somehow encouraging a political fight over the fact that four americans were murdered. >> it is a political stunt. >> benghazi seems to not have resonated other than on fox and a couple of other groups. >> everybody knows it's a political stunt. >> it's a conspiracy theory without a conspiracy. >> they're all tried and true red herring. >> benghaz

after all, this is darrell issa, a man who loves to waste all of those things. if you listen to issa's crowd, the gop open season has begun. >> we now have the smoking document. >> we have a major, major scandal. we have lies that are perpetuated by this white house. >> in his letter today calling on the secretary of state to appear before his committee on may 21st, congressman issa warned, quote, compliance with a subpoena for documents is not a game. but games or at least partisan hijinks are exactly what the committee's ranking democrat, congressman elijah cumming, sees happening here. less than an hour later, he called issa's action, shockingly disrespectful to the secretary of state. but it is unclear at this point whether conservatives can even hear those kinds of allegations, because minutes after issa's subpoena, house speaker john pain, who himself called on kerry to testify about benghazi yesterday, speaker boehner announced the house of representatives will now form a special select committee on, wait for it, benghazi, led by this man, south carolina

darrel issa called out somebody else's slippery tactics. it's the resistance to the subpoena for may 21st, a day when the secretary was scheduled to be in mexico, working. yesterday, secretary kerry happened to be in london. given this was the second time in two weeks he was issued a subpoena while traveling overseas doing the nation's diplomatic business, the folks at state struggled to stay measured to chairman issa. quote, this is not the way legitimate oversight is conducted around it is a departure from the days representative issa la meanted the secretary of state should not be distracted to testify at the barrel of a subpoena. the state department says they are working to offer witnesses, quote, better suited to answer issa's questions, like say, perhaps, someone who was actu actually working at the state department when the benghazi attacks happened. this comes as more republicans look to get a piece of the benghazi action. a letter signed by 37 republican senators is calling for a benghazi select committee of their own. darrel issa

i tried to find out today, how many hearings darrell issa has meld on benghazi. they can't even tell you. they lost count. >> they want to do this because of the bin laden anniversary, reminding you of that, and because of the failed iraq war that ended up being on flawed to false is premises. they're desperate to make something that's just not there. >> i ghaurn tee you john kerry is going to clean issa's clock. i guarantee you that. they have picked on the wrong guy. enos how that senate works. he's going to clean their clock. they're priming the pump. >> have a great weekend. >> coming up, you won't believe what republicans are up to this weekend in the land of scott walker. and if you think some of these gop attacks are laughable, you're in good company. so does the president. how he uses humor to take down his critics. these don't look clean. [ doorbell rings ] the johnsons! stall them. first word... uh...chicken? hi, cascade kitchen counselor. stop stalling and start shining with cascade platinum packs. over time, platinum fights cloudy residue 3x better th

this news comes to us court sit of the chairman of the house oversight committee darrell issa. they wanted their viewers to be alerted. unfortunately i've got some bad news. this story isn't new and it wasn't a secret. the white house announced that it asked youtube to review the anti-muslim film. and they announced it on september 14, 2012. over a year and a half ago. and just days after the attack. no secret cover-up. just more proof that the white house thought that video sparked the attack. but if you think about congressman issa's actions, it's kind of laughable. as republicans gear up for yet another committee to investigate benghazi, he's trying to gin up another angle to their phony scandal. and the more republicans grasp to find a cover-up, the more desperate they look. joining me now is "the washington post" dana millbank. dana, thanks for being here. >> hi, reverend. >> you wrote recently that the benghazi investigations, house republicans are abandoning any pretense of legislative in favor of unremitting hostilities with the white house. is that what's going on with

>> the former press secretary to darrell issa. issa was about to be the chairman of the house government oversight committee -- government reform committee. kurt was this incredibly transparent operator, someone whose ambitions he wore on his sleeve. he joined the workforce at 17, didn't go to college. i thought he was refreshing, kind of a naked operator. for some reason, he let me follow him around. i was interested in him as a subject of the book. in the course of our dealings together, he forwarded me a bunch of e-mails that he was receiving on a day-to-day basis to try to give me a fuller picture of how he was spending his days. a little unusual. "political" got wind of it, and they wrote a story. it became a scandal, that he was sharing e-mails from people who didn't know their e-mails were being shared. he was eventually fired and then eventually rehired. >> why was he rehired by darrell issa? was he fired because he became the issue? >> i think he was fired because he messed up. at the time, it was decided [indiscernible]

darrell issa's committee or the special committee. the up shot, john kerry will be before darrell issa's committee june 12th. democrats see this as a political witch hunt but they do not want to leave republicans to the field to have all attention focused on them without defense in particular the defense of their presumptive although not declared 2016 candidate in hillary clinton, who of course was secretary of state at the time. >> boy, have we seen this fight over bengahzi over and over again. so it will play out again. thank you. >>> president obama has been making changes to his cabinet. the president formerly nominated san antonio mayor julian castro to be secretary of housing and urban development. and shaun donovan to be the director of management and budget. he'll replace sylvia burwell. castro and donovan will need to be confirmed by the senate. >>> tennessee is looking for ways around the nation-wide shortage of lethal injection drug using the electrocution share. >> reporter: we've been following this issue for a while. sev

elijah cummings is from his perspective trying to keep darrell issa honest. adam smith, ranking member of the armed services committee, adam schiff from the subcommittee on state and foreign operations, permanent member of the intelligence committee. linda sanchez, member of the house ways and means committee, subcommittee on oversight, tammy duckworth, a member of the armed services committee, also the committee on oversight and government reform. all of them are deeply experienced. they have all spent a lot of time looking into earlier investigations into benghazi. the argument, as mike points out, was very simple. if you don't participate, the seven republicans are going to do whatever they want. that won't be a defender, if you will, of hillary clinton when she comes to testify if they call her or others who come to testify. so in the end, nancy pelosi decided better to be at the table than to be away. >> gentlemen, stay with me. i want to bring in one more voice, our chief congressional correspondent dana bash. dana, as we await speaker pelosi, we've see

darrell issa is comparing president obama with president nixon. but the freakout once again doesn't square with reality. here's what got things going. rhodes refers to a prep call with susan rice ahead of her appearances on those five sunday talk shows the weekend after the tragedy. rhodes calls one of the goals for the interview should be, quote, underscore that these protests are rooted in an internet video and not a broader failure of policy. how is that different from what we now know actually happened? according to the bipartisan senate intelligence committee report from earlier this year, in fact, from january, some intelligence shows the attacks were likely put together in short order. following that day's violent protests in cairo against an inflammatory video. what's more, the first draft of the cia's talking points for susan rice participants an even clearer picture. we believe based on clearly available information that the attacks in benghazi were inspired by the protests at the u.s. embassy in cairo. michael steele and david corn join

my prediction, he better hope that darrell issa is in the audience. he's ready. >> it's a ripe target. that's like them going after cantaloupes. thank you liz winstead. you're a genius. we'll be right back after this. around here you don't make excuses. you make commitments. and when you can't live up to them, you own up, and make it right. some people think the kind of accountability that thrives on so many streets in this country has gone missing in the places where it's needed most. but i know you'll still find it when you know where to look. when you didn't dread when youbedtime becausenner with anticipaof heartburn.itation. when damage to your esophagus caused by acid reflux disease wasn't always on your mind. that's when you knew nexium was the prescription medication for you. because for over a decade nexium has provided many just like you with 24-hour relief from heartburn and helped heal acid-related erosions in the lining of the esophagus. and now the prescription nexium you know can be delivered directly to your door with nexium direct. tal

you mention congressman darrell issa, he's already gone on to the next scandal. today, issa threatened an epa official if he failed to produce certain documents. listen to this. >> it is my intention to bring to this committee a contempt if that is not done. it is clear that the president you work for and the administration you work for has a delay and deny capability and plan and has since the beginning. we've recently seen white house documents as to the false and misleading statements after benghazi. >> i mean, would they hold the whole obama administration in contempt if they could, congressman? >> they could -- they would if they could, rev, but, you know, they are just grasping at straws, and darrell issa specifically has struck out on benghazi, so he's moving on to the irs, he's moving on. they keep playing politics, instead of doing their jobs, rev, instead of doing the right thing, they continue to do the wrong thing in politics, and that's just -- that's why they have such a low approval rating, frankly, and why americans are disgusted. >> record low. f

>> the former press secretary to darrell issa. issa was about to be the chairman of the house government oversight committee -- government reform committee. kurt was this incredibly transparent operator, someone whose ambitions he wore on his sleeve. he joined the workforce at 17, didn't go to college. i thought he was refreshing, kind of a naked operator. for some reason, he let me follow him around. i was interested in him as a subject of the book. in the course of our dealings together, he forwarded me a bunch of e-mails that he was receiving on a day-to-day basis to try to give me a fuller picture of how he was spending his days. a little unusual. "political" got wind of it, and they wrote a story. it became a scandal, that he was sharing e-mails from people who didn't know their e-mails were being shared. he was eventually fired and then eventually rehired. >> why was he rehired by darrell issa? was he fired because he became the issue? >> i think he was fired because he messed up. at the time, it was decided it has a very cl

you know, already got darrell issa doing all this stuff. this does not make the republican party look statesmanlike. here's the dynamic, most people have a positive opinion of hillary clinton and admire, most admired woman in america, i think, four years in a row, so when you attack that person, and nobody knows who you are, and believe me, nobody knows who these republicans are on this committee, or the democrats, for that matter, except inside the beltway, it diminishes you. so i keep thinking the republicans are diminishing themselves by doing this, and i'm trying to figure out why. i'm sure it will help them in their home districts. this does not help the republican party get a majority. >> well, and that's, i think, what you're saying actually goes to the connection between the two points, governor. you're talking about whether this helps the republican party as a collective body, and its interests may be very far from, i think, what joy's eluding to, individual re-election, and john boehner who's always caught between those things and

he was released by darrell issa in replacement of the commit kbri probing that attack. secretary of state hillary clinton suggests in her upcoming book that a lot of the investigations are political and also seems to not want have any part of it any more. sharon is the politics editor for roll call. so you have a new book coming out calling this a political slug fest and we have john kerry not testifying before the committee. do you think they'll raise their right hands and eventually testify. >> i think it is more likely than not. especially in the case of kerry, like you said, darrell issa has released him but that just leaves room for the new committee to subpoena him again and have him testify. his office and administration said he would eventually do this or he wasn't against it. at first time he was in mexico and the second time he did not meet their request. so i think kerry at one point will probably show up there. hillary clinton is a tbd. >> a tbd. to be determined? >> i think so. on one hand if they subpoena her again and goes up there and gives him an answer

compare that with darrell issa who suggested that might be criminal. repor>> the speaker is under pre to step things up. this will intensify. but i will point out this illustrates how failed the administration's policy of trying to diminish this has been. they got past the election. the president won reelect. that was what they wanted. but this will not go away because they failed to make a clean breast before things at the beginning and john kerry will find himself having to answer for things that happened long before he started on the job. bill: there is a lot more for this coming up throughout the show. five minutes past the hour. we move on now. martha: we have some jobs numbers that just came out. we'll get those for the move april. the unemployment rate dropped to 6.3%. that's the lowest number we have seen in five years. it's part of the story, it's not the whole story. the real unemployment number, that is more like 12.3%. stuart varney is host of varney and company. good morning to you. what do you make of this report? >> two headlines create

this coming on the same day when darrell issa issued a subpoena to john kerry. we have more on what that may mean as this investigation gains new momentum. >> with john boehner announcing a special committee to investigate and a key panel -- john kerry to testify, the benghazi investigation is gaining steam. top republicans say those e-mails should have been released to congress months ago and boehner indicated that changed his mind about forming this committee. one republican said the fact these documents only came to light this week and not through the regular committee document request to the white house is deeply troublesome. >> the predicated line of thinking that was politically protecting the president and the state department instead of coming up with the facts about what is happening with benghazi. you have to remember, too, tucker, that the president is involved in this. he's talking about this video at the united nations. this is a smoking gun that's locked and loaded. >> by and large, the american public appears to agree with that assessment. a fox n

darrell issa has raised $2.5 million in cycle. he will make more this cycle at this pace than his first what is it four terms. >> caller: bine combined. >> he's making more of on this than the low jack or whatever the heck it was. >> it kind of doesn't matter what the facts are -- >> but it does. >> but for the republicans who are leading the charge on this, it didn't really matter what the facts are. >> it ultimately does. >> if it comes out and looks line transparent fund raising or campaigning or that they picked it up because of the attacks on obama care were seeming futile, then it will have a blow back. >> look at the polls. our regular voters, people who will really impact elections apart from the cul de sac, are people really focused on this testify? when you keep asking question after question, the deeper you get into the weeds, you lose even more people. what percentage of the american electorate is focused on this. >> just in terms of who is giving money to darrell issa for his benghazi investigations, the new republic

darrell issa was -- this is what he said after the latest round of issa hearings. the armed services committee has interviewed more than a dozen witnesses in the operational chain of command that night, yielding thousands of pages of transcripts. e-mails, and other documents. we have no evidence that department of state officials delayed the decision to deploy what few sources dod had available to respond. this is the leading republican saying this. but, again, dave, now here we are about a week after he say this looking at a select committee. can you play this out a little bit? let's sea democrats do join the committee? let's say they have the back and forth they have with eli cummings and darrell issa. that plays out itself. i just remember the lewinsky thing. it took -- what did they end up with? did they have any democratic votes for that? they might have had one or two. >> no. the question you're talking about, the buck mckeon argument, i remember talking to republican voters about benghazi. they would bring it up without me mentioning i. they would show up ou

issa tried to cut the microphone when elijah cummings was talking. i think your question is a good one. why participate in that? why legitimize that? i come down on the side of recommending that we not do that. it's not as if this was our first hearing, first committee on this. i think, joy, you used exactly the right word when you used the word appeasement in terms of the speaker appeasing his base. let's not forget just a month ago the speaker was against this and said what's the point of having another committee to do months and months and months of more hearings. the republican chair of the armed services committee, buck mckeen said at a certain point you've got to say when is asking the same questions over and over and getting the same answers, when is enough enough and when do we move on? you know, there's been no there. it's time to move on. >> to your point, and we put up a little while ago the number of hearings there have been. at least four reports of dozens and dozens of hearings that have turned up nothing other than a lot of fund-raisin

darrell issa is issuing a new subpoena to secretary of state john kerry. he's trying to compel the then senator to testify about what he knows about the 2012 attacks. earlier today, it was senators lindsay graham and mayock that took the stance that they already answered about benghazi. why was susan rice and not then secretary of state hillary clinton dispatched to the sunday show after the assault on the diplomatic compound? >> if you believe susan rice, it was a request of secretary clinton to appear on tv. she declined. and if you believe susan rice, it was because secretary clinton had a grueling week. is that important? i think it is. >> hmm. now, sunday talk show bookings are important. don't get me wrong. but that's one of the big unanswered questions about benghazi? regardless, mr. graham and his counterparts in the house might want to watch how loudly they bang this particular drum. specifically, as the house prepares to launch its new select committee to appease the republican base and reinvestigate benghazi. in a new piece in "the daily beast,"

at the same time, darrell issa has subpoena john kerry to appear before the committee. >> that is what the select committee is supposed to be doing. in my understanding, it has largely been reconciled. >> kerry wood not go before the committee? >> the benghazi select committee will be dealing exclusively with these jurisdictional questions in the house. i think that was more of a procedural snafu than anything house. tragedy.is a four people died but there has been a dozen congressional hearings, five reports, 25,000 pages of best positions -- the depositions. a roughs really is is up hillary clinton exercise, a lot of people say. >> i don't think that is true. he said i want the facts out. family phone call from a member who asked me the same questions and iran -- and i explained -- we ask american citizens as it laments the go into dangerous things in dangerous places. the understanding is they are willing to do that and if they get in trouble, there is a certainty that the united states is going to come and rescue them. they may be rescued and maybe not but the diplomat has a certai

issa subpoenaed john kerry, who during the benghazi time was a member of the united states senate. when is he due to be in mexico ding some serious work. this is a circus. >> wait. >> this is  -- >> but, excuse me, the reason they have asked him to testify is because of the fact that last august the issa committee -- can you argue whether or not john kerry should be subpoenaed, but it wasn't about the attack. it was about something he was in control of. >> he shouldn't be subpoenaed, and i don't know whether this all leads to hillary clinton or some way to embarrass her during the election. >> since you brought it up, can you explain why it was that when the house committee subpoenas all the benghazi documents, they didn't turnover the rhodes memo, but when a court judge orders them to do it, they turnover the ben rhodes document. >> no, i can't explain it. there may be some claim of executive privilege. i think it's posed a political opportunity right at the moment. let me make a couple of comments on benghazi. i know something about this, and the day after the susan rice appear

they were jeanal elderly guys who seemed fair and darrell issa has screwed benghazi up terribly. it's one of reasons that boehner did this is to get this thing away from issa and he gave it tie young second term congressman who out of the blocks on today's show did a good job. >> you are talking about trey gowdy. he's also a veteran prosecutor. roger barnhart says on twitter if democrats fail to participate, to us americans it shows a sign of guilt for a cover-up. >> my take is that could well be the case, if the republicans do a fair minded factual inquiry without political spin, yes, it could redown to the democrats detriment. >> let's talk about that. john, i want you to get you in here, but i also want to hear from representative trey gowdy from earlier today. let's watch that and i'll get your response. >> for me, i will not raise money on benghazi just like i never raised money using crime victims when i was a prosecutor, and i've asked my colleagues to follow suit, but it would be helpful if our colleagues on the other side of the aisle did not have selective amnesia when

jay maier makes the incredible point, imagine what darrell issa and fox would do if president obama said the same thing. >> well, yeah, it's a different time altogether. that reflection of how far we have come in the poisons of our politicses that you do have speaker of the house who is holding hearings, administration that's cooperative. i mean, remember, despite that comment, ronald reagan felt very deeply about what happened there. >> yes. >> and made the commitment to work with the speaker. the question that's out there, okay, how's the administration prepared to move forward on this? is the administration advising, you know, the democrats to stay away? or, yeah, let's try to get to the bottom of this. that tells you. >> can i just -- >> yes. 13 hearings later. i mean, the notion that tip o'neill would have convened 13 hearings. and the white house handed over 25,000 pages of documents, if that's not cooperation, i don't know what cooperation looks like. sam, i'll let you get in there. >> yeah, i think one of the points that jay maier was pointing out in that piece was that the heari

>> that's almost exactly what chairman darrel issa said about the irs. we know there's a scandal and we're getting around to proving it. it's almost alice in wonderland here that you have the sentence before the verdict. >> we have the answer, let's go find the facts. >> congresswoman, the real thing that really, really troubles me is the important work that's not being done. since the gop took the house, we've seen a steep decline in congressional productivity. this chart dates back to 1947. so far the 113th congress has passed just 98 bills, the fewest ever 37 i mean, are republicans more interested in creating scandals than creating laws, congresswoman? >> they're on their way to breaking another of their own records. last year they set the record for the lowest productivity. they're trying to beat that record this time. the country is crying for policy. another of my committees is the transportation and infrastructure. due to come up with a service transportation bill. when you go out there, everybody -- that's the kind of all-american kind of bill.

. >>> also, is darrell issa going rogue? the benghazi force is out of control. tonight we'll talk to democrat e elijah cummings about how he plans to fight back. >>> also, could the horrific school shootings in california have been prevented? some new hope tonight about what can be done to stop the next tragedy. stay with us. this is interesting. it says here that a woman's sex drive increases at the age of 80. helps reduce the risk of heart disease. it seems that 80 is the new 18. grannies, bless your heart, you are bringing sexy back! eat up. keep heart-healthy. live long. for a healthy heart, eat the 100% natural whole grain goodness of post shredded wheat. doctors recommend it. alright, that should just about do it. excuse me, what are you doing? uh, well we are fine tuning these small cells that improve coverage, capacity and quality of the network. it means you'll be able t post from the breakroom. great! did it hurt? when you fell from heaven (awkward laugh) ...a little.. (laughs) im sorry, i have to go. at&t is building you a better network. >>> today's

issa how he got the better of him again and again. i think you want to know, because they will be putting out every little memo they can find with any sentence or phrase and i think it's good for the democrats to know this. i think the event, the hearings, the investigation have already been so polite sized that the republicans are starting in a very bad position and it's not as if the democrats are being seen as legitimizing this if they participate knowing that, you know, in a way which they're saying we're doing this under protest. we think this is a circus. >> okay. so -- >> i say better to be -- >> you say don't show? >> i say boycott. history shows -- recent history shows the party that mucks up the process in washington, which mostly has been republicans these last six years, doesn't really pay a price for mucking up the process in washington. >> they did in '98. >> they did in '98. most people get confused by these questions though. i don't think the democrats would pay a price for boycotting. i think there are other ways they

darrell issa says a classified email he received, within hours the attack the white house warned youtube about consequences of posting an anti-islam video. that was before the intelligence community came up with those controversial talking points portraying the attack as response to the video and a narrative which turned out not to be true. so bob, i know you have been sort of defending the administration on this and this, on one hand the white house says, oh, this shows we always thought it was video but on the other hand it also suggests that it wasn't the intelligence community at that told them that. >> i have been defending administration for several years as have you on occasion and sometimes -- >> not on this i haven't. >> i feel like only fire plug at westminster dog show. the fact is that, i think what issa's mistake although issa makes a lot of mistakes. he is lousy chairman. he should be gone. had 25 hearings. haven't come up with anything. there are no more smoking guns. >> keeps rolling her eyes while you're speaking. >> political decision made during the campaign. no questi

. >> speaker john boehner is forming a select committee to investigate -- >> darrell issa subpoenaed john kerry. >> over 25,000 documents. >> what else about benghazi is the obama administration still hiding? >> without trying once again. >> monument tally misleading. >> we know he has a long standing relationship with various characters. >> false and based on no intelligence. >> including the al qaeda organization. >> maybe this all does have to do with hillary running for president. maybe 20 months ago they anticipated that and they started covering up then. >> good to have you with us tonight, folks. thanks for watching. i've always been one to not take the bait. i'm the guy that likes to do the fishing. i'm the guy that likes to do the stories that nobody else is doing. but this one time tonight, i'm going to start with a story that i just don't think a lot of liberals in this country are terribly concerned with. but let's not be disfocused for a moment. i want to start tonight with a couple of numbers. the first number is nine. house republicans will form the ninth congressional

at the same time, darrell issa has subpoenaed john kerry to testify before the house oversight committee. i thought that is what the select committee was supposed to be doing. >> that is what the select committee is supposed to be doing. in my understanding, it has largely been reconciled. >> kerry would not go before the oversight committee? >> the benghazi select committee will be dealing exclusively with these jurisdictional questions in the house. i think that was more of a procedural snafu than anything. >> here is a tragedy. four people died, but there has been a dozen congressional hearings, five reports, 25,000 pages of depositions. a lot people say this really is is a rough up hillary clinton exercise. >> i don't think that is true. when i asked the speaker what he was trying to accomplish, he said i want the facts out. i got a phone call from a family member who asked me the same question and i explained -- we ask american citizens as diplomats to go and do dangerous things in dangerous places. the understanding is they are willing to do that and if they get in trouble, there i

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. >>> darrell issa is doing his very favorite thing in the whole world, wasting taxpayer money and issuing subpoenas. it's friday, may 2nd. this is "now" live from washington, d.c. >> benghazi. >> benghazi. >> benghazi. >> republicans will form a select committee. >> darrell issa was announcing on the hill that his oversight committee has subpoenaed the secretary of state to testify. >> benghazi. >> benghazi. >> which happened months and months before john kerry took over at the state department. >> it's the conservative media crowd. >> obsessed about benghazi. >> i cannot believe the explosive details we're finding out about benghazi. >> did you also change attacks to demonstration, in the talking points? >> maybe, i don't really remember. >> you don't remember? >> dude,s

and separately the republican chairman of the house oversight committee, darrell issa, subpoenaed secretary of state john kerry to testify about the administration's response to the attack. skipping the usual step of issuing an official invitation to appear. a release of internal white house e-mails with new details about the response to the attack has raised questions among republicans about whether the administration was truthful about its initial characterization of the attack. >>> and in afghanistan, a desperate search tonight after days of heavy rain triggered a landslide in a remote village in the northeast. at least 153 people were killed and more than 2,000 are missing tonight. about 300 homes were buried. that's about 1/3 of all the houses in the area. >>> in this country, the news on unemployment took just about everyone by surprise today. 288,000 jobs were added in april. and that helped drive down the unemployment rate from 6.7% to 6.3%. a 5 1/2 year low. but it is not all good news. a lot of americans have given up looking for work altogether. nbc's tom costello has more for us

i am telling you, i want to add that the postal workers know that darrell issa and the folks who want to privatize them have them in their sights. they are not staying in the sights. they are doing something about it. there is a move to privatize the post office by partnering with staples and allowing non-sworn, non-background check people to handle your mail. postal workers are not standing for it. they are protesting. you need to get in line and carry a sign. couple that with the immigration rights movement. we are in a populous moment. the question is, what are we going to do about it? i just want to add and build a little bit by pointing out that there are folks who thought they were not political, who thought, i am not into politics, who are now drowning in politics. they are not drowning in politics. they are swimming in politics. way above the water. one of them is a young woman who is 22. she worked at kfc and did not get enough hours, so she had to take the train to hours to work at another kfc. she lives in an apartment in new york city with four other adults and several chi

>> all of these questions, the fact that these questions are -- at this point -- >> when darrell issa gets up and said what he said today, i don't know, you guys be the judge. >> all right. does the white house have a firm understanding of what happened to those mitt romneys that night? >> -- to those americans that night? >> there is an active investigation to find the people responsible, there is an active investigation into the details. the answer broadly is -- >> 18 months ago. still no firm grasp as to what -- i'm just asking. >> well, no. as i said -- >> was it a video, was it protests? was it -- >> you should ask the intelligence community what their current assessment of what happened was. what we know is that there was an attack, that there were extremists involved, and four americans were killed. we have been saying that from the beginning. again, if you look at the language provided at the time by the ic to members of congress and the white house, that's what ambassador rice stuck to. and as i said and others, it was based on what we believed to be true at the time, and we,

>> are you really telling me that you have no confidence in darrell issa who spent will all of these hours and days and weeks and months investigating this, that now you're saying you have no confidence in him so you have to bring in a new member to ahead up a new kmeetd to find the answers? >> will well, how many committees looked into funding and improprieties and lies and faulty intelligence into the iraq war? >> wre talking about benghazi. now, if you want to change and talk about the iraq war, we can do that. >> no. just think of this congressman. if the arguments then, republicans are saying you guys are making a big deal out of bad intelligence. and you say now the argument in this case, oddly on a much much smaller scale is arguing about faulty intelligence, why not be consistent? >> let me tell you this. i don't want to see the republicans destroy themselves. i don't want to be an american -- >> well, are democrats destroying themselves during the whole uproar over the iraq war? >> i don't think democratic or republicans are going to sleep over benghazi. and i really think t

chairman darrell issa of the oversight and government reform committee. chairman buck mckeon of the armed services committee. chairman ed royce and the foreign affairs committee. and chairman mike rogers and the intelligence committee for their excellent work that has advanced this issue and brought up new facts without their dill -- new facts. without their diligent work, we would not be where we are today. but mr. speaker, that work was thwarted and by this administration not proactively in an open and i believe transparent way addressing the issue equally themselves, they have placed us where we are today. it comes as a result of their -- of -- of their being an unwilling partner. it comes as a result of many, turns, the administration has put up roadblocks to the congressional incarery -- inquiry. whether it's not meeting with congress, delaying the delivery of important document, heavily redacting critical information and retroactively classifying previously unclassified files, this administration earned exactly the title that has been placed on them

darrell issa of the house oversight committee is subpoenaing secretary of state john kerry to testify later this month on whether there are other unreleased documents. >> we're still not getting documents as we have requested. we've turned all these things over as far as the subpoena. and we're asking them to turn over the documents that we have requested. these things are trickling out, we're asking the simple question, when will we get all of the documents? he obviously wasn't in the lead when all this occurred. secretary clinton was. but now he has the responsibility to make sure his state department is releasing all the documents we have requested. >> marie harf said yesterday there are no unreleased documents and that the entire exercise is a fishing expedition. >> what the republicans allege that there was attempts by this administration to cover up or spin what happened is 100% false. >> a fox news poll shows that by a margin of 61% to 26%, voters believe the white house is trying to cover up what happened in benghazi rather than being open and transparent. those views are most

that's after darrell issa revealed he had subpoenaed secretary of state john kerry to testify in front of the committee later this month. issa is accusing the department. of quote failing to meet its legal obligations saying the new subpoena will compel kerry to, quote, answer questions about your agency's response to congressional investigation of the benghazi attack. david corn has been following this. he's an msnbc political analyst. he's also washington bureau chief for mother jones. and michael tomasky is a special correspondent for "the daily beast." gentlemen, you know your stuff here. is there anything here? i've been arguing and watching this thing. i do have a file cabinet in my head. i can follow this thing. it's not like every day is brand-new thing. consistently we've gotten reports that what happened was there was a copycat kind of thing. there was terrorist -- i mean there was protests all over the middle east at that time. cairo was obviously all over the media. that led to kind of a copycat operation in this benghazi facility out there. and, of course, the whole thing

issa. the concern is that republicans believe a lot of them believe they have not really drawn much blood from the white house yet and if there is a selected committee digging and digging they'll get to the bottom of how this happened and the white house and administration's ex-plangs of what happened afterwards and bring people forward like hillary clinton in the middle of the election year and can drive that up. >> that's what makes the white house decision and i get it, they have contecht for congress, period. lot of democrats say the white house doesn't even like them, don't like the oversight process. they could make a case issa overstepped but you have a document that talks about this, know what it's going to do, why not put it out for everyone? why give the republicans this? >> to your point about transparency you can't selectively decide what in a subpoena you're going to respond to and not respond to. he was right this little bit of both. it remains to be seen what else they'll dra