All americans to vote and participate in this countrys government . Or the party chair who supports bills for making it harder for minorities to young people to vole . Who are you going to call . Colin powell or Reince Priebus, the field marshal of the rnc. Who vastly reduced the number of black voters. James peterson is a director at lehigh, an engineer, and clarence page, a columnist for the chicago tribune. Lets start with colin powell, and what he said in his own words. He was speaking in raleigh, where he criticized republican efforts to limit voting. The news and observer quotes him as saying, quote, i want to see policies that encourage every american to vote, not make it more difficult to vote. It immediately turns off a voting bloc that the Republican Party needs. These kinds of actions do not build on the base, it just turns people away. You can say what you like, but there is no voter fraud. How can it be widespread and undetected . What it really says to the minority voter is we really are sort of punishing you. Clarence page, youve been covering politics as long as i have. Colin powell only comes from from olympus, or wherever he reigns from, and everybody hears every word he speaks, because he is a republican. He is, and its not not just republicans were pushing him to run for president , a reflection of the level of credibility he has. But you know, chris, ive often thought that powell was in the military for the second half of the last century, almost like being encased in ice while all these crazy changes have happened in the Republican Party. Its moved farther right. He still represents whats left of the old rockefeller republicans, the eisenhower republicans, the jake javis republicans, thats his sensibility. He was one of the chairs in new york. Dina merrill, theres an interesting duo. Thats right. Youre right. Not to be too comical, but thats the Republican Party i grew up watching and my party was part of. Professor, this thing is a battle writ large, i think. You have the most respected republican across party lines and Reince Priebus, who has a job. Hes a partisan. Somehow he got the idea with this 30some state effort to reduce the chance of a black vote, that the way to diminishing white percentage of the country and diminishing republican portion of the country will survive, is to make it harder for the other portion, the growing portion, to participate. Its pretty blatant, especially when well have in quotes on this segment of republicans saying thats what theyre up to. Youre right. Its blatant, and it is quite. Cynical, kind of a lastditch effort to play to that shrinking base over chris, youre right about general powells sort of measuredness in terms of when and how he makes interventions, and part of the reason why hes able to retain some of his credibility is because he does it so rarely, and so we does it, we want to hear what he has to say. Every time hes made any of these interventions, hes been challenging his party to be more reasonable, and i think thats kind of the pathway to the future. Unfortunately Reince Priebus is in a tough situation where the candidates and the politicals within his party that want to have a certain kind of campaign sort of stretch into the mid terms and ultimately into the president ial election are very much interested in continuing to play to his base. Not everyone in the Republican Party is trying to do this, but Reince Priebus is following the lead of the ted chris wing of the party right now. Let me tell you, youre sitting in philadelphia with the cityscape behind you. It reminded me i grew up in pennsylvania, youre a professor at lehigh, with hugh scott, arlen specter, both republicans, and arlen would get like 35 of the africanamerican vote, a huge chunk, which is the historic percentage the Republican Party used to get, before it started to get 10 of the black vote, which is why it loses a net 80 of the black vote in the big cities, because 90 minus 10 is 80. It used to be two thirds minus a third was a third, and the Republican Party could win statewide easily. About you when you start losing a net 80 , youre in the not in the business anymore. Here is pennsylvania republicans, speaking out openly about using requirement to limit the vote. Heres Pennsylvania House republican leader mike turzai in june of last year. Lets listen to him admit theyre using this requirement to screw the black voter out of voting. Lets listen to him. Voter i. D. , which will allow governor romney to win the state of pennsylvania done. Romney wins, and just this summer, the pennsylvania Republican Party chair bragged that voter i. D. Helped republicans shave some points, like point shaving in basketball, shaved some points from obamas win last year. Lets listen to this guy admit it again. Were not making this up. Reporter do you think all the attention to voter i. D. Affected last years elections . I think it did. Think about this. We cut obama by 5 , which is big. A lot of people lost sight of that. He beat mccain by 10 , romney by 5 , i think probably photo i. D. Helped a bit in that. What is this guy, under sodium pentothal . Clarence, i dont get it. I dont even know why they admit it. What is the world they live . Some people are tonedeaf to how they sound. His party is denying that photoo i. D. Has anything to do with, when everyone knows the opposite. He kind of gave the game away, kind of like when lee atwater said we dont use the n word anymore, now were more abstract. Use words like School Bussing or crime in the streets, blah blah blah. Thats the same kind of thing happens here. But hes saying the mere word spreading in the black community, when people live in row houses and dont have drivers licenses, and people who get old and lives into their 90s theyre not driving around in cars, and they get the word, because the republican effort out there, hey, theres this new requirement, you dont have the right paperwork, a lot of people, according to this guy, 5 , didnt bother voting, because they thought they werent allowed to, so they won by just the bad noise. Its absurd, though, chris, because what the data shows is this tactic backfired at the president ial level. It galvanized voters and charged them up to wait longer and sort of pursue through it. But why arent they talking about voter fraud, which is supposed to be the reason behind this . Theyre talking about shaving points and try to reduce and diminish, but we live in a democracy. Were trying to make it a great democracy where more people participate or were not. So youre pulleting in laws, instituting supporting laws that are again it. Listen, this is not just against the black vote. This is against elderly voters, as you just pointed out, against latino, hispanic, against college students. The i. D. Laws and other laws sort of shrinking the window to vote, basically reduces our democracy to less than what it can be. This is why its intolerable. The general is so smart. Hes not denying theres fraud, of course it happens. But it doesnt change the results of statewide election. Results of stayedwide elections. Or anything like that. As powell points out, the great irony, its a bit sarcastic, if theres so much of it that affects elections, how how can nobody find any if thats right. Even more movement today. In addition to general powells comments, the Justice Department filed a lawsuit against the state of texas to block that states voter i. D. Law that went in effect a mere hours after the supreme courts decision essentially gutted the in a statement here, eric holder said we will not allow the supreme courts recent decision to be interpreted as open season for states to pursue measures that suppress Voting Rights. In fact, within hours of that comment, senator john cornyn of texas, who is one partisan paul, issued his own statement, saying facts mean little to a Justice Department bent on inserting itself into the Sovereign Affairs of texas and a lameduck administration in trying to turn our state blue. Excuse me, senator. Lame duck . We are six months into a fouryear president ial term, but thats the way they want us to think, isnt it, clarence . Theyve been really good at it. Make people think that obama is on his way out the door. Sure. The irony of this is, as was mentioned earlier, while the republicans have put so much attention on voter i. D. They had a problem getting white and blue collar male voters to turn out. Thats probably what sunk romney. When you look at the low turnout among reliable Republican Voters in reliable districts, especially rural districts, that made a big difference, because romney was not connecting with the base. This is he connected once when he said 47 . Thats the thing. Everybody in america heard that one. That apparently had a bigger impact than anything else. A lot of republicans are below the average income. Right. Theyre regular republicans, my family. Regular republicans are not all rich. Thank you. Thats where the reagan democrats came from. Ronald reagan connected with the blue collar white voters, but theyve not had that connection since in the gop, so theyve turned to tactics like voter i. D. Tell me, professor, ive only seen you do such great things on this network and i mean it. Thank you. But tell me what you tell to school guys up at lehigh, and how do they see this, the Republican Party after all these years after being damned good on Voting Rights in the 60s. I check it out. Only two republican senators in the entire senate voted against the act. John tar row of texas and of course strom thurman. That was it. Thats right. Every republican senator was gung ho for Voting Rights. Today what would the vote be . It will be almost the opposite of that, and what i try to tell students, chris is we have to be students of history, but also understand this particular moment. It gets real tricky, when you think about the history and how they have sort of switched sides, and a lot of progressives think the Democratic Party is kind of the Republican Party of the immediate future, so there is some confusion, but these particular cases, we have to pay attention. What attorney general holder is looking at is the section of the Voting Rights act that hasnt been gutted that prohibits any kind of voting practices that discriminate or what they refer to as linguistic minority. Congress in the 80s added certain addendums, so the courts could use important information, to look at the history of a particular state or district, to look at racial polarization, to look at representations, so we have to share that and teach young people to look at the details around these issues, and thats how we wrestled thus these kind of complications. That reminds me Reince Priebus quick. Chris, one more thing, were not engineers anymore. Were the mountain hawks now. Okay. Like the stanford cardinal, with its Christmas Tree mascot. Anyway, its like the little kid who takes his ball home, because he cant win the game. It was once the Republican Partys great challenge to compete for the africanamerican vote, and they did a decent job for years. Thats my coach get back in the game. A programming note. Rachel maddow will broadcast her whole show tonight, live from Elizabeth City actually tonight a whole show tonight. North carolina is getting hit on this stuff. Coming up, the latest idea from the republican fever swamps. Here it is, lame duck, and heres the bigger word, impeachment, as one gop congressman put it, impeachment would be a dream come true. Its just that we dont have any evidence. Isnt that backwards . They start with the verdict and try to come up with a crime. Also, it looks like bob filner is finally out as mayor after 18 women. I guess thats enough that its time to get out of there. He is leaving this friday. Plus something you have to hear, an incredible this is heartwarming, a 911 call from a school clerk down in atlanta who talked down an armed young guy with an ak47 and 500 rounds of ammo and got him to not kill anybody. The creator of west wing is on tonight, aaron sorkin gets a News Organization in real life to set the record straight. Does it live on our show. This is hardball, the place for politics or at least taped. Dramatic new poll numbers in the hot governors race in virginia. Lets check the hardball scoreboard. According to a new poll, muck all live has a real sixpoint lead over cusp necessarilyi. Who say they are likely to vote in the november election. According to nbcs first read, no one in either camp believes mcauliffe is up this much, as suggests, but both might be an outlier or may not be. Well be right back. Were back. In case you ever doubted the republican hatred of president obama, theyre now calling for him to be impeached. Lets watch. If i could write that bill and submit it do it. Excuse me. It would be a dream come true. I feel your pain. I went back to my office and ive had lawyers come in, ph. D. S, tell me how i can impeach the president of the United States. Heres the issue, you tie that into a question i get a were back. In case you ever doubted the republican hatred of president obama, theyre now calling for him to be impeached. Lets watch. If i could write that bill and submit it do it. Excuse me. It would be a dream come true. I feel your pain. I went back to my office and ive had lawyers come in, ph. D. S, tell me how i can impeach the president of the United States. Heres the issue, you tie that into a question i get a lot. If everybodys so unhappy with what the president has done, why dont you impeach him, and ill give you a real frank answer about that. If we were to impeach the president tomorrow, you could probably get the votes in the house of representatives to do it. You saw them, theyre hardly the only ones who have publicly discussed now the matter of impeaching obama. Members of Congress Like mish bachmann, steve, james inhofe, has advocated for it. And now buzzfeed, the website, is reporting that senator tom coburn, said yesterday that obama was getting perilously close to the constitutional standard of impeachment. The fringe voices have been magnified by town has and wacko birds, called by some, like ted cruz. Cruz has offered his sympathy and implicit support to those looking to impeach obama. Heres cruz at a town hall this week. Its a good question. You need the votes in the u. S. Senate. Can harry reid and the democrats controlling the senate i think the stage is said for 2014 to be a fantastic year for republicans. I believe in 2014, we can take the majority of the u. S. Senate and retire harry reid. Ed rendell, and john braybrenner, a strategist. With many impressive clients, i must say, i learned that today. Let me go to the governor on this one. This attempt began way back with the you lie and birther iism and sort of an attempt to put an asterisk next to his name, so on the list of president s someday theyll be able to say he was never really president , because he was some some other country, and the bill he hassed was never really really an act of government. They are using tissue rejection to try to get him out of the american body politics. Ive never seen it. They didnt like clinton. We all fought over different people. This is an attempt to say you aint even there, obama. Well, chris, i love it, and the reason i love it. Love it . I tell you, i love it, because it is costing them supporters. The normal people, the moderate republicans, the conservative democrats who may have a tendency to vote republican, might have had a tendency to vote for mitt romney, they think its crazy, meanspirited and divisive, everything they hate about american politics. Theyve come to the conclusion they cant support republicans, because even if the individual is a good guy, hes controlled by the wacko faction of the party. I think its selfdestructive and from the standpoint of a loyal democrat, i love it. Theyre wacko. Let me asking you john, the politics. Its people given opportunities by the press at the time. You walk up to a guy and say what is this like and everybody goes, well, theyre entitled to their opinion. Well, its really a symptom of a bigger problem. We have no republican messenger running or message where were all behind it. So whats happening is different elements of the Republican Party are trying to raise money, theyre talking only to the base, and what theyre doing is very counterproductive. What theyre really doing is shrinking the base, only talking to the most passionate supporter who frankly want to get rid of obama. I think that this is counterproduct i have been. Counterproductive. I think the governor is right, if we dont change it, it could hurt us in the 2014 elections. What is this thing about impeachment . Its an attempt to have a revote. I think thats a misuse certainly with gray davis and others, and we can argue about scott walker and the rest. But the fact is you shouldnt i go to you, governor. If somebody commits a high crime, then you have an impeachment, but i dont know what high crime is even being pushed by the republicans. They keep saying even a gill as smart as cruz is saying, im trying to find some historians, or its not that we dont have enough votes in the senate. How about the more cardinal question, is there grounds for impeachment . Even darrell issa, were going to find some grounds and then im going to get the guy. Thats exactly right, chris. High crimes and misdemeanors is the constitutional standard. Theres not a scintilla of evidence anywhere that the president has doing anything against the law, but it doesnt matter. It doesnt matter. As john said, theyre trying to feed the base in many cases for their own political purposes, and by feeding the base, or the extreme part of the base, they are absolutely shrinking it. You know, when we campaign against a good guy like pat meehan next time, were going to say pats okay, but hes controlled by the Republican Leadership and theyre controlled by these wackos, the divisive, hateful people who you dont like. The only way to change it is to get rid of republican control of the house. So that sort of 34idles him, doesnt it . It forces him to say absolutely. Forces him to say, well, im not one of them. That puts him in a bad situation. But there are certainly districts where it is just the base, so a congressman Delaware County is not like that. Very modern. But you have to be careful. He said, number one, i am not calling for impeachment. I am saying there are people calling for them. I dont think hes done anything unethical. I think hes incompetent, but he also a friend of mine. Who is more powerful this is loaded. Heres the question. Is boehner more powerful, or is the angry guy in the last row at the next town meeting . Whos the more powerful . Ill be honest, i think its the angry guy as long as hes also writing checks to candidates. Whats happening is were being driven by candidates who want to run in 2016. What theyre trying to do is compete for is the outside rail the best place to be . Its not. Theyre not all that way. Theyre fighting for the outside rail. Lets face it, rand paul is fighting to get out as far as he can. And nobodys willing to say that. I agree. I think you have ted cruz and rand paul talking about libertarian, but you do have people like Chris Christie going the normal route. Or Rick Santorum said we have to Start Talking to hardworking blue collar america. Not the 1 . I dont think anyone can beat Hillary Clinton in pennsylvania, but i do think that Chris Christie would be an awesome candidate if the democrats didnt have hillary. Except even Chris Christie, who i admire, even hes tacking toward the base. You saw after proposing a law to ban 50millimeter rifles that can be accurate at a mile and pierce kevlar, he put that forward as an idea. When the legislature sent it to him, he vetoed it. Why . For only one reason. Hes playing to the base. Its what mitt romney did. If mitt romney had run as the governor of massachusetts, he would be president of the United States today. You know what i do in those debates . I call those bullets cop killers. Absolutely. Nobody needs those guns. Anyway, thank you. Governor rendell and john, for your insights. Ive said before and ill say it again, starting monday i have to keep saying it. Its nigh job. Hardball is at 7 00, you have to watch us at 7 00. For those of you who always watch at 5 00 eastern, you need to tune in at 7 00. Im asking you to change your habits. I know its a great time of night, as the sun goes down, we like to relax. Hold on until 7 00. This is hardball, the place for politics. [ female announcer ] made just a little sweeter. Because all these whole grains arent healthy unless you actually eat them multigrain cheerios. Also available in delicious peanut butter. Healthy never tasted so sweet. Honey, we need to talk. We do . I took the trash out. I know. And thank you so much for that. I think we should get a Medicare Supplement insurance plan. Right now . [ male announcer ] whether youre new to medicare or not, you may know it only covers about 80 of your part b medical expenses. Its up to you to pay the difference. So think about an aarp Medicare Supplement insurance plan, insured by unitedhealthcare Insurance Company. 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Remember, all Medicare Supplement plans help cover some of what medicare doesnt pay and could really save you in outofpocket medical costs. Youll be able to choose your own doctor or hospital as long as they accept medicare patients. And with these plans, there could be low or no copays. You do your pushups today . Prepare to be amazed. [ male announcer ] dont wait. Call today to request your free decision guide and find the aarp Medicare Supplement plan to go the distance with you. Go long. Just go to truecar. Com, configure your car, and get connected. To a truecar certified dealer. For guaranteed savings. Save time, save money, and never overpay. Visit truecar. Com you may have missed this, and its not something we normally do on this show. It has nothing to do with politics, everything to do with citizenship. We got the 911 audiotape today from the School Shooting in atlanta. No one was injured when the gunman enter the school and exchanged fire with police, and many are attributing that outcome to a brave school clerk, antoinette tuff, who succeeded in calming down Michael Brandon hill, who police say was carry an ak47 rifle and 500 rounds of ammunition. In the 911 tape, you can hear tuff convince hill to stand down. Let me talk to them and see if we can work it out so that you dont have to go away with them for a long time. No, it does matter. I can let you know that you have not tried to harm me or doing anything, if you want to. That doesnt make any difference, you didnt hit anybody. Let me ask you this. He didnt hit anybody. He just shot outside the door. If i walk out there with him if i walk out there with him, so they wont shoot him or anything like that, he wants to give himself up. Is that okay . They wont shoot him . Yes, maam. On the ground with his hands tell the officers dont come in shooting or anything. Ill buzz them in. Okay. Hold on. Sit right there. Im going to buzz them in, so you know when theyre coming, okay . Just stay there calm. Dont worry about it. Im going to sit here, so theyll see you did not try to harm me. Okay . Okay. Its going to be all right, sweetheart. I just want you to know that i love you, though, okay . And im proud of you. Im veronica de la cruz. New photos show Hosni Mubarak moments after he was released to prison today. He was flown to a Military Hospital where he remains under house arrest. Revelation from bradley manning, who says he wants to live as a woman. He was recently sentenced to 35 years for leaking classified document. And Aaron Hernandez was indicted on a firstdegree murder charge in the death of his friend odin lloyd. Now back to hardball. He would come in and try to kiss me on the lips. And i would have to squirm to get away. He got very close to me, and ran hi finger up like this, and he whispered, do you have a plan man in your life . I was placed in the filner headlock and moved around as a ragdoll while he whispered sexual comments in my ear. Welcome back to hardball. Those were just 3 of the 18 women who have accused san diego mayor bob filner of unwanted sexual advances. Or inappropriate sexual behavior. Well, today we learned that he has agreed to resign as part of a deal reached this week with city officials 679 filner was spotted, by the way, leaving city hall with packing boxes wednesday night. Always a sign youre leaving, but will formally vacate the Office Following a closed session of the city council tomorrow. Hes also expected to speak tomorrow after that closeddoor session. Anyway, the question a lot of people are asking now, how did he get away with it for so long. A. B. Stoddard is with the hill newspaper. She does cover capitol hill, where he was a congressman for so many year, and joan walsh is editor of salon and a analyst here. This didnt leak out, this problem he was there for 20 years. If this was happening in washington, he would have had a reputation about this, and he wouldnt have gone away with it for so long. He managed to have a longtime career, not as a standout congressman, but im still amazed. I mean, you listen to those women. There were women who served in our armed forces that had been raped during their service that he tried to put the moves on. This is really bad stuff. Im just amazed that he admitted and still wanted to hang onto his job until tomorrow. Yeah, he resisted with this, joan, with this therapy two weeks thing, which was obviously a timedelay tactic. It wasnt goods to get him off. Only two weeks we dont know this thing hasnt gone to trial, and may well go to a civil court. Well know more about how he was able to intimidate people. Did he threaten their jobs . I dont know what he did to avoid people. The headlock one jumps right out at you. Its horrible. He treated me like a ragdoll. Its horrible. This isnt anything on the border. This is way over, almost criminal. Yeah, and its been awful, too, to listen to him claim age as an excuse, like times have changed, he didnt get the memo. When was the headlock era . Yeah, right. I dont know, chris. Im just not that old. When the headlock was okay on the job. I shouldnt be making light of it. Its awful. I know. Were not. That was awful, because it presumes that men havent learned, most men, the vast majority of men have learned what is acceptable. You know, its a bipartisan thing. Earlier last spring thank you, thank you, joan. I love that you said that, because its everything in our Business Today that recognizes that financial corruption and sexual misbehavior are not rampant, but they are bipartisan. They are, sadly they are bipartisan. Ive been a progressive for too long to pretend this doesnt happen among democrats or good enlightened progressives. It happens, but weve also seen our friends on the right try to hang filner and Anthony Weiner around the necks of democrats and pretending this some strange democratic malady. Im of the opinion now that weiner is not really in the running, at least according to the polls. He may make a comeback, but not good for the party. He was used as sort of the doppelganger it was filner and weiner, used like a brace of trouble, you know what i mean . It was being used partisanwise. Yes, it was. I think george will made some comments about it. We had the spectacle of herman cain who i think was the leading republican candidate in 2012 going down in a scandal like this. So it is something that happens on both sides. I hope hes really leaving. You have a memory like an elephant. How did you remember . Herman cains existence . It was just last week. We spent way too much of our lives talking about that man. You are so smart. Back into the stack of golden oldies. I was going to bring up congressman foley, and the reason democrats were hammering the republicans at that time is because there was a sense that republicans had known about it. And failed to stop it. But i dont think that filner and weiner reflect on their party. I think it reflects badly on politicians who think they can do this. Thank you, a. B. And joan. Up next, the great aaron sorkin, the genius behind the news room on hbo, but he has something to straighten out, and i think hes right. This is hardball, the place for right the place for politics. Maybe it is. Let me again remind you to theres a new way to buy a car. Its called truecar. And truecar users. Save time and money. So when youre. Ready to buy a car, make sure you. Never overpay. Visit truecar. Com today. Let me again remind you to please remember starting on monday, hardball will be on exclusively at 7 00 eastern time. I know it means adjusting your evening rituals and habits, but im asking you to make the move with me. Were moving to 7 00 eastern, just one showing of hardball every night. Well be right back after this. Welcome back to hardball. Aaron sorkin made politics romantic in the west wing and now is doing the same thing on for television news. Hbos the newsroom takes you behind the scenes of a nightly news show. A tad bit more dramatic than the reality, but not much. As it did in the first season, it covers reallife stories like the election, the George Zimmerman case and benghazi, but season 2 also includes a story arc about the investigation into a military blackop known as genoa, where the network accuses american troops for using sarin gas on civilians. In pakistan. But the story turns out not to be true, and on this weeks episode, that reality comes crashing down. We dont think the protest has anything to do with the movie. We dont think its a protest. What do you think it is . A planned coordinated attack. He has a source. He saw an email at the operations senator to white house and say shariah is claiming the attack. Well, the movie might just be a coincidence. Its not a movie avatar is the movie. How bad is this thing . Its been bad. Really bad. Youve been nothing but bad news since you raised your hand at northwestern. Don and jim have a source at state that says he saw an email. Ansar al shariah cease and it may have nothing to do with cairo and the 9 11 attack. What . Mac . We have to retract genoa tonight. All of it. Dramatic stuff, and its coming on sunday night. I spoke with aaron sorkin. The writererier today. While discussing his fictional show, he cleared the air on a bogus reallife headline. Aaron sorkin, the newsroom grabs people in the strangest way. Its on sunday night at 10 00. You think all weekend its coming up. What grabs people is its organic. Youre watching these characters, and you have no idea where theyre going to go. People really find it like its a live animal, that show, like its going to do something next. I can tell you that i feel like when im making it, i feel like im being attacked by wild animals. The show is a lot of fun to make. I want to work with a great group of people. I want for one second hijack this interview. Theres something i need to do. Im here in d. C. , did an event last night for the new republic, at the Motion Picture association. We screened this sundays episode, and there was a q a after. And mother jones a terrific outlet, posted a story this morning saying that i said the Huffington Post sucks. I certainly did not say that. The headline writer didnt take me out of context. The headline writer didnt exaggerate. The headline writer lied, and i just want to make sure that david corn and im sorry, that ariana and everybody at the Huffington Post knows i did never and would never say that. Great. Youve made news tonight. Lets go to the thing about truth. I think in that episode, i did see a screening of the show you showed last night, and theres a real bad guy in it. You have a bad guy whos a news producer, who cheats, and it makes him look like hes saying something about the use of sarin gas, poisonous gas, that he didnt say, deliberate lying by the media. Youre talking about jerry dantana, and he is a true believer. Hes not doing this for the money or the glory. He honestly believes that this happened, the story happened, the story has got to get out, that the general hes interviewing said it offcamera and just got cold feet when he went on camera. But did he say it offcamera . Were going to find out. I dont want to give too much away, but what he said offcamera it happened. But the it that hes talking about is not the it that jerry thought he was talking about. This is important to me in my business. I deal about it all the time with producers, finding truth. You can have an attitude on top of truth, but facts are facts. They edited the tape, he cheated. Yes. There is listen, im not a journalism expert and certainly not an expert on ethics in journalism. What he did is lying, straightup wrong, what he did is exactly what mother jones did when they said getting back to that point. Im going to try to hammer it home a couple times in this interview, because it is mindblowing to me that they simply invented out of whole closest the thing that i said, and then, by the way, i promise well get back to the subject, and then in the body of the article he contacts several people at the Huffington Post, what do you think . This is playground coat holding. I never said that. This is a kid sitting there going, fight, fight, fight. So they constructed a story on top of a lie. Theyre constructing an argument on top of a lie. But in jerry dantanas case, theres no question that in that interview hes lying. He not i he believes its for a righteous cause. Why did i dislike the character the second i saw him. And began to dislike him consistently. Is that in the writing . Where did that come from . Its a bit in the writing. First of all, we cast and hammish linkladder, a great actor, we cast one of the most likable, most inoffensive actors possible. Because we didnt want him riding in with a black hat and twirling his moustache. You didnt like him for two reasons. And theres a real bad guy in, and you have a bad guy whos a news producer who cheats. Its a film. Makes the general look like hes saying something about the use of sarin gas, poisonous gas, that he didnt say. Deliberate lying by the media. He is, youre talking about jerry, played by a great actor. And the thing is, hes a true believer. Hes not doing this for money. Hes not doing it for the glory. He honestly believes that this happened, the story happened. The story has got to get out that the general that hes interviewing said it off camera and just got cold feet when he went on camera. Did he say it off camera . Were going to find out. I dont want to give too much away. What he said off camera was it happened, but the it that hes talking about is not the it that jerry thought he was talking about. This is important to me in my business because i deal with it all the time with producers. We fight about this truth. Finding truth. You can have an awe today attitude on top. He edited the tape. Listen, im not a journalism expert and certainly not an expert on ethics in journalism. What he did is lying. Its straightup wrong. What he did is exactly what mother jones did when they said i said the Huffington Post suck, im going to try to hammer it home a couple times in in politics, staff politics like i was in. Romanced to the point where people said i want to be one of the Truth Tellers in journalism now i think because of the newsroom and the producers and the fights we have here about trying to get to the truth, with attitude, obviously. But the truth. Yeah, ive heard that. But it makes me so happy when i hear it because people are into Public Service. Yeah. And hows journalism fit into Public Service . I think journalism is a Public Service, and i think that its a calling. Listen, i want to be clear. Im no more an expert on journalism than i am, you know, i wrote the movie money ball. Im not an expert on how a small market team can make it to the world series either. Writing a show that takes the difference between writing a show that takes place in a newsroom and working in a newsroom is the same as the difference between drawing a building and building which is is to say theyre almost unrelated. All of my training, education, and background has been in play writing and not in journalism, not in politics, not in baseball, not in military law. And i ill have a number of consultants who kind of feed me phonetically sometimes the things i need to know. I think youre close to what we do. Lets take a look at a clip of two weeks ago. It involves one of your actors, thomas matthews. One of our finest actors. One of our most handsome experts. Lets take a look, a scene from an episode earlier this season. The news night staff almost gets bamboozled by prank callers trying to get on the air, claiming one is under the rubble of a bombed out hotel in syria. Take a look at what happens. Were all set. We want to wait for a commercial break. Mr. Curry . Yes, this is me, im here. Mrs. Curry, are you here . Im here. Is help coming for my husband . Will you put this call on television . Heres the thing, guys. Syrians dont commonly say thank god. No one names curry is registered. And when that building came down, it took the cell tower with it. Hes confessed to you still with me . Stewart . We have unblocked phone numbers and thats why your super is knocking on your door right now with a police officer. Its a raid. Can you open the door, please . [ bleep ]. Tonight we take care of all family business. Well, you got prank and you got even. Yeah, i also want to say that actor, thomas matthews, it took us quite a while to get the information out of him that his father was a very wellknown political pundit. Well, he owes his looks to his mama. Dont we all . But he got that part on his own. He came in and auditioned, and hes great and hes a great team player. Football players talk about being great in the huddle. Hes great in the huddle. Thank you so much. Good luck with the show. Newsroom sunday nights on hbo. Thanks for coming in here. My pleasure. Mother jones did withdraw the sucks headline. Let me finish with one of the greatest speeches in american history. Youre watching hardball. The place for politics. Let me end tonight with these words about the king speech. Of all the words spoken by millions of americans over the year, only a small number are remembered. Give me liberty or give me death. I only regret i have one life to give my country. We have nothing to fear but fear itself. High among them were the words spoken 50 years ago next week. The king speech. Whats always gotten to me is the finale, what came at the end, that powerful bringing together of the cause of civil rights with the very land on which this country sits, this grounding of the godgiven rights for the sons and daughters of former slaves, to the earth which this country stands and lives. So let freedom ring. From the prodigious hilltops of new hampshire, let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of new york. Let freedom ring from the heightening alleghenies of pennsylvania. From the survashs slopes of california, but not only that, how i love that that, but not only that, let from Stone Mountain in georgia. From tennessee. From every mole and mole hole. From every mountainside, let freedom ring, there is in the scope and grandeur and fragrance of those words the very picture of this land, and this remarkable man managed to raise up civil rights as american rights, as american as the land