All in starts right now. Good evening from new york. Im chris hayes. Tonight Rudy Giuliani continues to stand by a claim he made at a closed door dinner with Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker that president obama does not love america. The growing controversy is shaping up as the first test case in what promises to be a nasty republican president ial primary fight. Critics accused Rudy Giuliani of racism including democratic congressman steve cohen who quipped on twitter that maybe giuliani thinks america loves america threefifths as much as giuliani and his pals. Giuliani told the New York Times he couldnt have been racist because the president was brought up by a white grandmother, white grandfather and went to white schools. Most of this he learned from white people. Fox news last night, giuliani was asked if he wanted to apologize for his comments. He said hed rather repeat them. The reality is i from all that i can see of this president , all that ive heard of him, he apologizes for america. He criticizes america. He talks about the crusades and how the christians were barbarians. Leaves out the second half of the sentence that the muslims were barbarians, also. Former new york city mayor also went on Sean Hannitys radio show last night where he invoked september 11th to claim he understands terrorism better than the president. President obama didnt live through september 11th. I did. President obama didnt almost have a building fall on him. Myself and my Police Commissioner and my fire commissioner did. The white house today, press secretary josh ernest did the obvious the president does in fact love his country before launching into a lament for the man once known as americas mayor. Its sad to see when somebody who has attained a certain level of public stature and even admiration tarnishes that legacy so thoroughly. And the truth is i dont take any joy or vindication or satisfaction from that. I think really the only thing that i feel iscy feel sorry for Rudy Giuliani today. The current mayor of new york, bill de blasio was not so overstrained. I think it is pitiful. I think it is unfair for anyone to question our president s patriotism. I find it a cheap political trick for Rudy Giuliani to question the president s love of country. That is just stooping very very low, even for him. In the New York Daily News today, it was noted giulianis claim the president was not brought up the way you and i were, the way you was brought up, through love of this country and pointed out giulianis dad served jail time for a loan sharking operation. Lets just charitably say it would have been a much bigger political obstacle for barack obama than it proved to be for Rudy Giuliani. Joining me now, james peterson, an msnbc contributor, from lehigh university. James, is there any method here do you think . I cant figure out, the fact that hes doubled and tripled down on this and seems very comfortable spouting this is this some sort of strategy thing or is it just wounded pride that he refuses to just say that was a dumb thing to say . Chris, it is a little bit perplexing. I kind of feel like same kind of deal with like boehner around the Republican Congress around the whole netanyahu speaking thing. I dont understand whats to be gained politically here besides the sort of retrograde republican red meat base sort of motives that i thought died out at the last president ial election. Its really troubling. I think there are many people on the right who take personal issues with this particular president. Sad and tragic that six years in, two years into his second term that networks, radio networks, Television Networks will still give former mayor giuliani a platform to espouse this kind of misguided unfortunate criticism of the president. It doesnt make sense politically to me beyond the fact that giuliani is given an additional platform to speak out against these things. Sadly, chris, that red meat base still exists. There still is an appetite for this type of negativity directed at president obama. One thing that struck me was that line where he said look he was raised by white folks who went to white folks so this cant be racism. It is socialism or anticolonialism. Chris comment on that first. Chris, first of all, i hope that we are all anticolonialists thats the point. I have no idea what world mayor giuliani is living in. I mean we know what the consequences are of colonialism all over the world. By the way, some of the deepest and most profound problems that we have around the world right now are the consequences and side effects of colonialism. We should all be anticolonialists. I dont understand that as a critique. By the same token, chris im not sure i understand socialism as a critique from the right either. There is plenty of socialism in this country for their corporate friends and for the corporate welfare system that exists here. The reality is if you want to critique socialism, you should go right to wall street. On this anticolonialism note. Just want to note as a historical matter. The notion that american patriotism is the opposite of anticolonialism is a bit odd given the fact that the original patriot Founding Fathers hello were anticolonial based who represented the first anticolonial revolution on the planet it is literally the foundational doctrine of the country chris, chris. By american historical definition, Founding Fathers were anticolonialists. Im sure giuliani has to agree that the Founding Fathers, even though they allowed slaves and didnt allow women the right to vote or people to own property for the most part mr. Anticolonialists. How in the world is that somehow antipatriotic . I have no idea. It is yore wellian double speak. The question becomes i dont flow. There is something about this that is remarkable insofar as weve come to expect it it is part of whats been the tenor of conversation about barack obama for six years. That now it becomes this kind of test case. I mean this is to me were seeing a little window into what the 2016 campaign is going to look like. That is very disturbing to me, chris, because remember this is the Republican Party that had dissected their problems. This is the Republican Party that felt like the kind of faux pass that rick perry had made and that mitt romney had made around these issues of race around poor folks were mistakes they didnt want to make. Theyre supposed to be expanding the tent thinking more globally thinking about shifting demographics. This kind of petty inaccurate ignorant attack on the president is not indicative of the kinds of things that they as a party have said they were prepared to do postthe last president ial election. It doesnt make political sense in any way, chris. James peterson thanks so much. It is fascinating to watch how the likely republican president ial field has responded to giulianis comments. Scott walker rand paul and ted cruz all punted. Chris Christies Office did not respond to our request for comment. Bobby jindal jumped in yesterday with a statement of support for giuliani. Marco rubio, to his credit said he believes the president loves america. Jeb bush whose sent sent this Statement Governor bush doesnt question president obamas motives. He does question president obamas disastrous policies. Next week bush is heading to the conservative Political Action conference but he wont give a stead hell sit for a 20minute question and answer session. His place in the party architecture mean that while his rivals are engaged or field they have to engage in pandering, he can try to run a Campaign Like his brothers in 2000. If you recall then conservatism was passionate and the middle did not seem quite so toxic. Joining me political reporter from the New York Times. Heres my theory. The reason that jeb bush is going to be strong here has nothing to do with jeb bush. It simply has to do with the fact that the institutional weight that he brings to bear means that he can ignore the impulses of this primary. Like this stuff. Right . Not saying the president doesnt love the country, punting on revolution, because he has the resources and name to get him through and that becomes a selffulfilling prophecy for his own elect ability. If youre bobby jindal the reason you are out of the box with the answer to a question no one asked you thats all you got. You cant raise that much money at this stage. Youre in the second or third tier of candidates. You are from a small state. You got some problems at home. I think that what well see for most of the candidates is look this guy giuliani is not going to run for president. Im not going to defend his remarks. Im running my own campaign. It is actually a very easy thing to do as rubio showed today whether he said, i think the problem is the policies not the person. Then the question about jeb to me is he amassed a huge amount of gravity in a short period of time. Part of that has come at the expense of Chris Christie. Great piece about Chris Christie thats sort of remarkable. Becausically it says Chris Christie is having a problem right now with his donors not for any bridgegate reasons but because his people skills have been terrible. I heard from one donor who said i think chris has been watching too many of his own youtube videos. Theres a sense that like he believed in his own charisma, his own hype and he takes a little bit for granted or he has with some of these people his own base of support. He doesnt think he has to work as lard. Jeb bush hes working very hard. Hes making four and five phone calls to the same people over the course of weeks. He is wooing them hes sending notes. Hes being a very aggressive and assiduous in courtship which is quickly giving him a big. Advantage among this existing pool of big money people in the country. As we discussed before at the current moment there are only about like 300 or 400 of them. And maybe 200 at the very top level. Jeb bush probably has half of them. You know . Its crazy to imagine, it is like this election in miniature. This sort of 1 election that happens before like the rest of us can get anywhere near whats great about cpac is well finally see a jeb bush talk to some actual activists and voters. Hes been talking to donors for a month and a half in dozens and dozens of closed door meetings. Question is what happens on First Contact with a bunch of activists on the does he go the route of repudiation . Right . Because hell get read meaty questions. Right . My feeling is always what you say to the bush people the people around george w. Bush are the last people to engineer a victory for a republican to get them to 270. Got them by the hair of their Chinny Chin Chin in 2000. They didnt win the popular vote. They had to have florida delivered to them by the supreme court. That said that race people forget was run to the center. It was all about dont balance the budget on the backs of the poor compassionate conservatism, humble foreign policy. I think thats the kind of race that jeb wants to run this time. He wants to run it on immigration and education but i think a big thing here is that he has a party to attain. This wasnt true for his brother. His brother pretty much shut out all the contenders. There also wasnt this cleavage in the gop back then that you see quite in the same way now. Jeb bush has said over and over again im not going to run if i have to change who i am. Well see in the next couple of weeks how true that is. You also i think the giuliani thing is indicative of the issue thats going to bedevil the republican primary field which is, when you run for president you have to be in front of cameras all the time. Sometimes things pop up and well contact offices. They just dont get back to us. Right . But when youre out and theres reporters around you have to answer for everything. Right . So everything that crops up casey hunts going to be there with a microphone in front of Chris Christie or marco rubio. Shes extremely good at doing that asking that question. You arent going to be able to avoid it. Good news again, if giuliani is not running for president and these other guys are going to have to deal with their own policies and their own issues. It is going to be hard. It is a thoroughbred thing. You have to be ready to take all comers. You cant duck and dodge questions when you run for president. Period. Thanks so much. Really appreciate it. Another disappointment for obamacare doom sayers today. Plus if you feel like this country is being sucked into yet another war, youre right. It is partly the medias fault. I will tell you why ahead. Shopping online is as easy as it gets. Wouldnt it be great if hiring plumbers, carpenters and even piano tuners were just as simple . Thanks to angies list now it is. Start shopping online from a list of toprated providers. Visit angieslist. Com today. Introducing danceallyouwant bladder leak protection. New always discreet underwear for sensitive bladders from always, the experts in feminine protection. New always discreet underwear absorbs heavy bladder leaks faster then the leading brand, so you can feel comfortably dry. Plus always discreet has a discreet fit that hugs your curves. You barely feel it. New always discreet underwear. Now bladder leaks can feel like no big deal. Because, hey, pee happens. I dont know w breaking news. There is a burning skyscraper in dubai. Dozens of people have been evacuated from one of the worlds tallest buildings. The building is actually called the torch tower. Flames shot out from two sides of the building as glass and metal fell down from a tower thats 79 floors above ground. Residents of two other nearby buildings were also evacuated, a witness said. Nbc news has contacted the marriott which is across the street from the torch tower. A member of the concierge said we can see the fire but have not been told to evacuate. We can see police and Fire Departments on the scene. Smoke and flames are billowing from the windows at the torch tower. Keep your windows closed. Well be right back. Would you be willing to give up sharing your moments . Sacrifice streaming all night long . Is it okay to drop a connection, when you need it most . If youre not on the largest, most reliable network, what are you giving up . Verizon. We were told by our good friends the republicans that our actions would crush us and sploet explode deficits and destroy the country. Grand deficits and doom and gloom and death panels and armageddon havent come true. Sky hasnt fallen. Chicken littles quiet. Speaking at democrats winter meeting today, president obama took a victory lap on the policy that was supposed to be his partys biggest liability. Quite possibly the most controversial item american policy of the last five years, even in a generation in certain ways obamacare. Now that it is the law of the land it is largely seen to be working, the president joked that republicans seemed to have forgotten the apocalyptic scenario they predicted obamacare unleashed. Lots of people remember including fox. Com saying republicans predicted that Health Care Costs would skyrocket and premiums came in lower than expected. Republicans predicted it would blow up the deficit but the deficit has dropped under obamas presidency even as the Affordable Care act has been implemented. As a percentage of gdp, the deficit is now below the average of the past 40 years. Republicans predicted that obamacare would destroy jobs but job growth has tipped as obamacares been rolled out and last year was the best year for job creation since 1999. After a disastrous website launch, republicans predicted government would never be able to pull it together and get millions of people enrolled in Health Insurance plans. But a surge in late enrollments basically made up for the troubled rollout. At one point republicans were predicting it wouldnt actually get more people insured. This is true they said this that it would just shift people on to different plans. New polling shows the uninsured rate is dropping quite significantly under obamacare. And perhaps the biggest, baddest prediction republicans made was that obamacare would destroy american prefree enterprise harm businesses and strangle with burdensome regulations. A new report from bloomberg today from the heart of enterprise tells a different story. As obamacare is putting such a small dent in the profits of u. S. Companies that many refer to its impact as not material or not significant, according to a bloomberg review of Conference Call transcripts and interviews with major u. S. Employers. Joining me now, jerry bernstein, former chief economist for Vice President biden. Where does whats happening now line up with your own personal predictions of where this law would be . It lines up very well particularly regarding the last part you talked about, the bloomberg piece today about businesses. When the law was designed i was there at the time. One of the things that we wanted to try to do was make this as least disruptive as possible for businesses because americas unique in this way, as you know. Most people of working age get their Health Insurance through the job. So thats a very big deal. If you want something to get over the legislative hurdles that that plan had to get over youll have to work with the Employer Community to make sure that it isnt disruptive to the business model. So in fact the way the law was written, it was to minimize the impact on businesses many of whom were already providing health care those who werent were not going to be required to do so in many cases. So i cant say im very surprised about that. Theres also the degree to which the cost curve is being bent. That is surprising. That is surprising right . This is something in some ways remains a little bit, sort of like the drop it crime it re