League or the boston bruins. Whatever said that will get dealt with, but it doesnt reflect the fans or the organization. Rise above it. I used to answer every attack and criticism. As i got older, i understood if you show your best face and your true self, thats answer enough to haters, critics and those envious and jealous. Thanks for watching. Im al sharpton, hardball starts right now. Voodoo politics. Lets play hardball. Good evening piem Chris Matthews in washington. Let me start off the week with this. The enemies of Hillary Clinton, by that i mean the partisan enemies have got their voodoo doll. Its called benghazi. Every sometime they put the pin in, they hope it hurts hillary. Every time they say the word, they hope it scares her. And now they have got a select committee, an official committee of the congress devoted entirely to putting in the pens. It will endure for months and quite plausibly years as they stick it to benghazi. And they want to hurt the person they fear is unbeatable in 2016. Just listening to the chapting as they dwell on the incident they hope will puncture the political brand of the former secretary of state. They want her and every voter in the country when they hear the word benghazi to think Hillary Clinton. Its become an obsession bordering on cultism among republicans with even john boehner falling under its spell. You can almost smell the incense. Benghazi, benghazi, benghazi. They keep chapting the word until it gets hillary to fall. Could the cause of this bizarre right be a secret republican fear that while Hillary Clinton may be strongly positioned on the center left, theyve got nobody on center right to stand up to her . Now that christie got stuck on the bridge and jeb doesnt know whether hes going or coming. Howard fineman is the editorial director of the huffing pon post. And Michael Hirsch is with political magds. In an article for politico, you called it the benghazi industrial complex, quoting your piece. Its already too late for the truth. Benghazi has taken on a cultural life of its own on the right. Its become embedded in the demonology of the conservative base. Its now short hand for a new generation of right wing conspiracy theorizing about the clintons that republican candidates know will excite conservative voters. Benghazi has come to the 2010s what vince foster and whitewater were to the 1990s. You also say its partly about making Hillary Clinton so disgusted with this nonsense she just decides to stay out of the race. Tell us about your reporting, michael, how you gotten into
this, i think so well, but tell me what you know. Well, first of all, chris, i dont think that benghazi has an issue would have much impact on hillary were she the nominee for president. I think the polls show that. To ple the bigger question is this week, her principle ambivalence about running at all is getting back into this ugly political game that she has been dealing with for 20 years since she was first lady and the vince foster allegations first came up. Theres no accident that some of the conspiracy theorists are hawking back to vince foster and did he really commit suicide in the park and so forth . I think thats really the question. The question is she has not committed herself to getting into the race yet. Does she really want to jump back into what she knows is going to be very, very ugly. I think thats where all of this benghazi conspiracy theorizing could have some impact on her. This almost near religious
thing, howrd what, of this benghazi thing. And i have this weird sense about this, and everything is open to inquiry, its like they dont want to inquire. They just want people to think bad, dark stuff. Things evil happened here. And they dont really want to get to the bottom of it, if there is a bottom. If they got to the bottom of it, they would find there wasnt much there and they would have to have think of Something Else to run 2014 and 2016 on. They want this to go on forever. They want a list of potential witnesses for this new select committee as long as the dictionary because they want to keep it going all the way through. Theres some other elements here. I think mikes piece is absolutely terrific, but dont forget, the guy whos head of this new committee is a Tea Party Guy from south carolina. Hes all tea party. The tea party loved this from the beginning. Its a great fundraising thing. What does say . Right before the election, kissinger said peace is at hand. A little bit early. But nobody is sitting around thinking about this. At worst, what the obama people are guilty of, at worst, and this is taking the toe pal republican argument, that i spun it a bit more in one direction than the other. Okay . A. Thats all it is so far. They have to try to somehow prove there was premeditated intent to mislead based on actual knowledge of exactly what was going to lap and what happened. Theyre never going to find it. I think they know theyre never going to find it. But as you say, its a matter of faith, especially with the tea party and especially given the sort of demonization of hillary tradition that mike talks about. I will say this, though. I dont think based on the people i know and the reporting ive done that its going to scare hillary off in the least. I think her view is shes seen
the worst of it, she survived the worst of it and she will roll over these people especially because theres every possibility that the treys of the world are going to overplay their hand. Hillary is a strong person. She ran for senate up in new york. Can she walk away and say i quit because of benghazi . Benghazi has become a code word of sorts for the right. Theyre setting up a word association. Hear the word benghazi, think Hillary Clinton. Jason chafitz referenced clinton multiple times in regards to this i dont even want to call it a scandal. This thing. Lets watch. I have a document in my hands, an internal state Department Bottom that Hillary Clintons chief of staff on september 12, the state department told the president in the Libyan Congress that it was a terrorist organization that had committed these attacks. What happened, for instance, as journalist, uh yo do not know the answer as to why was the ambassador there . What happened, for instance, on
april 6, 2012 when our facility was bombed. It was bombed again on june 12. The British Ambassador has an assassination attempt. Chris stevens, the ambassador was there because he wanted to be there. It was his call. Thats the way the world work, congressman. Ambassadors make their own decisions. Fox news host erik bolling made this accusation about why Hillary Clinton didnt go on the sunday shows that weekend. Hillary clinton was the supposed to a, testify, and then b, go on those talk shows. And we asked the question, whats the reason for the terror attack and she was the one who would have had to have said well, it was the video that caused the attack. They knew she couldnt do that because shes going to she was going to run in 2016. And they could not throw her under the bus at that point. So she hits her head. She has to spend two weeks out of commission, cant testify, cant go on the talk shows and they send susan rice to do her dirty work. Amazing how someone can talk with that blabber and no information. Bolling didnt even get the timing right. The head injury occurred months after the sunday show appearances by rice. Months after. And by the way, she did testify before congress. Of course, some on the lunar right like that guy go even furtherer. One tea partier blogged, this is how far they go now. Hillary clinton, the butcher of benghazi. Youre right on point here. This seems to be the only cartridge they have in their belt here, because i would go back to this. Hillary clinton is a notch or two to the right on Foreign Policy from the president. Especially on middle eastern politics. Shes very much in the Democratic Center on thingings like trade where shes not so big for it, like bill. Shes very much positioned right where you want to be in the sweet spot. They dont have a republican even close to the sweet spot to beat her. The closest was christie, and hes stuck on the bridge. Yeah. I think their best shot frankly is to try to knock her out of the race before she decides to get into it. In other words, to deter her from entering because i do think, you know, theres no democratic field that can challenge her. I think everyone is in agreement on that. And you have others on the republican vied, with no one able to take up the flag nationally at least yet. I do think that benghazi industrial complex, as weve called it, is largely about smearing her as best they can before any decisions are even made. But michael, why would this threat of a poo storm, to use a terrible phrase that shes just going to have to walk tlo this crap, basically. Theres no way to work your way through it. If it isnt the failure to plan for more security or the incidents that night or the later spin, they just keep going from one issue to the other. Theyre never going to stop. I guess shes just going to say to herself, this is something i dont have to deal with. She is going to deal with it. Her book, as mike books come much faster than the campaign. Her book is coming. Shes going to give as detailed an explanation as she ever has or ever will give. Thats going to be the orthodoxy in that book. I think shes prepared for it. By the way, her editors and publishers, theyre going to vet it. Theyre going to say this has to directly hit the public concern here. And the right wing crazy as well. In fact, the investigations, the investigations have already taken place have said, in fact, there were administrative problems in the state department about security. And hillary has owned up to that. And she has said that her worst concern, her biggest regret as secretary of state is the fact that they didnt do more. But the republicans are going to have to try to prove that somehow she willfully, deliberately was not on her watch, which is imfobl show. Im just saying. Chris, its for fundraising ultimately in the tea party. In oversea situations, especially in the countries like libya, still at war, had no real government, we were getting protected by militias in that area of benghazi. We have outposts that have been attacked in ways that were not prepared over in afghanistan. Months after months would go with these terrible situation where is gis were stuck out in the middle of nowhere and overrun by taliban. This is life in a dangerous world. What do you think benghazi was like . It was a dangerous place. The chris stevens, who everybody loved had the guts to go into. And things broke bad. The militias werent there to help them. They were on the other side. How many soldiers are we supposed to have following around diplomats in dangerous areas . You cant bring soldiers into those areas. Those situations will not permit it. But anyway, thats too much common sense. Its been debunked. Even the House Armed Services committee, majority republicans
came to the conclusion that there was no way to militarily say stevens and the three other americans who died. The so even the republican right is divided on this question. Youre right, stevens was in a very unusual situation. He knew a lot of these people because he had been there before. And so, you know, it was a unique situation. But, you know, she does have to answer some questions about security procedures. There are legitimate questions here. It just doesnt have anything to do with a scandal that the republicans are trying to gin up. Yeah. Im also imprezzed with george will comes out and says basically the democrats would be smart not to participate in this socalled select committee. It must have dit heartened some of them. Charles krauthammer, another huge brain on the right said basically they missed their chance on this baby the first time through. Thank you, as always. Howard, especially you. Coming up, want to talk about a real scandal . How about the hype that got us into iraq. The smoking gun was going to be a Nuclear Mushroom cloud . That still heckles members of the Bush Administration. And the great proxy war in North Carolina. Three senate candidate, each with his own bigname sup poerts. Rantd paul, Mike Huckabee and jeb bush for the accomplishment choice, of course. And the democrat, they love this fight. And the jokes at the White House Correspondent dinner tell us about some of the people who are thinking seriously of running in 2016. Lots of nooifs in those jokes. Lets face it, fox. Youll miss me when im gone. It will be harder to convince the American People that hillary was born in kenya. Finally, let me finish to night with my grand experience yesterday before 60,000 students, parents and grandparents at the ohio state university. And this is hardball. Really. So our business can be on at ts network for 175 dollars a month . Yup. All five of you for 175. Our clients need a lot of attention. Theres unlimited talk and text. Were working deals all day. You get 10 gigabytes of data to share. What about expansion potential . Add a line anytime for 15 bucks a month. Low dues. Great terms. Lets close. New at t mobile share value plans. Our best value plans ever for business. Would recommend you drive. There are cars your driving instructor, who taught you the finer points of parallel parking, would recommend you drive. And then there are the cars your crazy uncle, the guy who introduced you to speed metal and gave you fireworks for your birthday, would recommend you drive. [ tires squealing ] [ engine revs ] you wouldnt want to let down your uncle, would you . Republicans lead democrats by four points. 47 for republicans, 43 for democrats. That fourpoint margin may not sound like a lot, but its the highest at this point for republicans in usa todays polling in the past 20 years. Well see. Four years ago, the parties were tied at this point and republicans went on to win a net gain of 63 seats in the house. Thats why i got my surface. Its great for watching game film and drawing up plays. Its got onenote, so i can stay on top of my todo list, which has been absolutely absurd since the big game. With skype, its just really easy to stay in touch with the kids i work with. Alright, russell you are good to go alright, fellas. Alright, russ. Back to work
[ girl ] my mom, she makes underwater fans that are powered by the moon. She can print amazing things, right from her computer. [ whirring ] [ train whistle blows ] she makes trains that are friends with trees. My mom works at ge. That corporate trial by fire when every slacker gets his due. My mom works at ge. And yet, theres someone around the office who hasnt had a Performance Review in a while. Someone whose poor performance is slowing down the entire organization. Im looking at you phone company dsl. Check your speed. See how fast your internet can be. Switch now and add voice and tv for 34. 90. Comcast business built for business. The latest example of the maz security adviser at the time, Condoleezza Rice was invited to be the Commencement Speaker in new jersey, but students and faculty both protested her selection, citing comments like these from secretary rice. The problem here is that there will always be some uncertainty about how quickly he can acquire nuclear weapons. But we dont want the smoking gun to be a mushroom cloud. In a resolution calling for the university to rescind rices invitati invitation, faculty members wrote, Condoleezza Rice played a prominent role in the Bush Administrations efforts to mislead the American People about the presence of weapons of mass destruction. This weekend, rice backed out of the commencement writing, rutgers invitation for me to speak has become a distraction for the university community. I understand understand and embrace the purpose and im simply unwilling to detract from it in any way. Well, the state of the iraq war has not faded from those in the Bush Administration. You can see it right there. Rut gers is just the latest land mine, if you will, off by a former push team member. And more of these lurk in the near future. As we await the release of the Senate Intelligence committees torture report, not to mention
another bush president ial campaign. Both are msnbc political analysts 37 david, it seems to me theres a couple of issues here. One is a protocol, ive been lucky to be invited to. I dont like people canceling anticipate pulling back. It seems like the invitation is sincere and accepted sincerely. In this case, i think the issue focuses on the iraq war. If i were a student protester or faculty member, i would say show up and explain why we got into that war. Show up far debate on campus. In addition, yeah. Or on its own. But to pay someone 35,000 oh, they paid her . Oh, yes. 35,000. Theyre still paying her, even for not doing the speech. Why do they pay people to give commencement addresses . I dont know. You can ask Condoleezza Rice why
she didnt do it for free. But she was involved in this Public Policy disaster in which she herself was one of the key people who went out there and said things that either she knew was not true or it was her job to know was not true. She kept say, you know, the tubes indicated they were developing weapons of mass destruction when she knew there was after debate about this. I think you could really hold her responsible. Oh, i do. I like her personally, but i do. You know why . You missed the big baby. The big elephant in the room. When she said we dont want that smoking gun to become a Nuclear Mushroom cloud. She was saying we Face Nuclear War with iraq. Are you crazy . And after ten years, it doesnt go away because the people who are dead are still dead. Yeah. It will be interesting to see if there was a statute of limitations. Clearly it has not run yet. And people