Righteous citizens must step up and make the country work. Justice is something we should all expect and stand by police to make sure justice is done, even if other police are the ones we question. Thanks for watching. Im al sharpton. Hardball starts right now. The return of mccarthyism. Lets play hardball. Good evening. Im Chris Matthews in san francisco. Let me start with the return of mccarthyism. I speak of the behavior of senator ted cruz who accuses president obama of undermining the relationship with israel. It is cruz once again with the reckless charges of joe mccarthy
in the 1950s. As he once suggested future secretary of defense chuck hagel was taking hundreds of thousands of dollars from north korea or saudi arabia he now accuses barack obama of working mischief against israel. Didnt this country have enough of this stuff 60 years ago . When the reckless communist mccarthy was brought down . Is senator cruz trying to mimic the bad old days or just so ignorant are of what those tactics did hes not aware of the horror of mccarthyism all over again. It makes cruz someone who doesnt care what he says as long as it rings the bell at the county fair, makes noise on the right. The place where he set his willful ambition. Have you no decency . Apparently not. Joining me is joe klein and ed rendell, former governor of pennsylvania. Senator cruz objected to a temporary f. A. A. Ban on flights by u. S. Airlines to israel
yesterday, a ban put in place tuesday as cautionary measure after hamas rocket landed near the israeli airport. The decision also came in the wake of downed malaysian flight mh17 last week. While some in israel and the u. S. Objected to the ban because of the Economic Impact on israel senator cruz implied a for nefarious motive saying, the facts suggest that president obama has just used a federal Regulatory Agency to launch an economic boycott on israel in order to try to force our ally to comply with his Foreign Policy demands. Here is houma rhee harf responded to the allegations yesterday. Senator cruz said the flight suspension is economic blackmail and the Obama Administration is doing this to punish israel. Thats ridiculous and offensive. The f. A. A. Takes these responsibilities seriously. They make decisions based solely on the security and safety of american citizens, period. For anyone to suggest otherwise is just ridiculous. In turn senator cruz doubled down on the allegations on fox news last night. Yesterday we saw the f. A. A. Make an unprecedented decision to ban all air travel to the nation of israel. I have asked today the very simple question did president obama just unilaterally launch economic boycotts on the nation of israel . Is this a political decision . Was it driven by the white house . By the state department . If it was based on airline safety, as they said, why did they single out israel . Why not ban travel to pakistan or yemen or ukraine where a commercial airliner was shot down. Instead they targeted israel. They did ban travel to ukraine. Flights to israel were restored this morning after the f. A. A. Lifted the short ban which
lasted about 36 hours altogether. Let me go to joe klein on this. Let me say this. I know what cruz is up to. Hes shouting from are the rooftops in a reckless way. Making charges. He doesnt feel the need to substantiate. Tell me what you think of this guy, what hes doing. Its gotten worse over the last few hours. Cruz is now saying he will hold up all state Department Appointments until there is an investigation that gets to the bottom of this. We need our state Department People out in places like israel and the palestinian area. This is just gamesmanship. You look at the larger picture, all the noisy investigators in the Republican House like darryl issa. What have are they come up with . They have been talking about benghazi for years. Nothing. This is a major smoke screen. Its a major smoke screen at a time where we have to be very clear about whats going on in gaza and in that region. Also in ukraine. But, there is one difference between cruz and mccarthy so far. Cruz is going after big fish like obama. Mccarthy ruined the lives of a lot of average americans. I suspect cruz will be ringing the bell until he gets anywhere near a president ial primary at which point hell be dismissed quickly. You and i grew up with this as did joe. I first caught this guys act when he went after chuck hagel whose nomination was a problem. He wasnt going to be a slam dunk. Not when he was most vulnerable cruz impugned his motives by saying he was out there taking money from the north koreans. Thats a classic mccarthy charge. Now accusing the president of me the nefariously going after israel. For better or worse we are israels best friend at least in this incident of fighting with hamas. Its all over on their side. All over. Whats shocking is number one hes made the charges without a shred of evidence as he did against now secretary hagel. Number one. Number two, its idiotic to think a temporary two or threeweek boycott of u. S. Planes in israel would have a major impact on the israeli economy that would force them to do anything. It doesnt make sense. 36 hours now. Thats all it was. Joe made a good point. Its part of the republican assault on virtually anything the president does. Whats disconcerting to me is two things. One we are doing it in the midst of tough times. We used to bind together, put partisanship aside when there was difficulties like whats going on in the middle east now. Number two is this unrelenting assault on whatever president obama does. You know im not a guy who says president obama is right all the time. But they are holding him to such a standard. Imagine for a second he didnt impose such a ban and a hamas rocket brought down a u. S. Commercial flight into israel. The republicans would be screaming blody murder. Why didnt president obama protect our citizens . Look, if president obama discovered a cure for cancer today, tomorrow republicans like cruz would be saying s done nothing for heart attack victims. This is standard f. A. A. Behavior. Cruz comes from texas. Hes been spending too much time in washington. If he were traveling back and forth to texas he would know that the f. A. A. Cancels flights on the nearest suspicion of a tiny thunderstorm. They have become very, very cautious over the last decade. Its baloney. Take a look at the guys in action. First of all, cruz attacking hag haguen. Then mccarthy. I will point out this committee knows absolutely nothing about the personal compensation chuck hagel received in 2009, 2008, 2010. It is relevant to know if the 200,000 he deposited in his bank account came directly from saudi arabia, from north korea. I have no evidence to suggest it is or isnt. Here is senator cruzs role model, senator mccarthy. He says hes not concerned about low level spies in the state department. Hes saying communists are making policy at the highest levels of government. Lets listen. I am speaking of the group sabotaging Foreign Policy. You can bias bias. Meaning the little fellow who will sell his country for 30 pieces of silver. Its the men in the top level of government and the second echelon who do the planning and shaping of Foreign Policy. They are the dangerous men whether they get 30 pieces of silver or not. Does that sound familiar . Absolutely. Easiest tactic in the world to throw it out there and say, well, we dont know. It is mccarthyism. No question. The American People are better than this. I think republicans are hurting themselves with all of the
shenanigans, antiobama venom. They are trying hard to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory in the november elections. Lets look at a reasonable person who disagrees with the president and the f. A. A. Decision but did so in a reasonable way. Heres Michael Bloomberg offering up a defense basically. The former new york mayor offering a defense of at least a character in good will of an administration he disagrees with on this point. If you dont feel safe here i dont know where you would feel safe. I think the state department is just over reacting in typical bureaucratic fashion. Political reasons for that . Why would you think that . Im asking you. Dont be ridiculous. Its an outrage for you to im just asking by asking the question, you are implying our government does things for political rchblt maybe once in a while they do. It is your job to prove it. Just the allegation i take as an offense. That was well done, joe, wasnt it . Yes. It shows you how the process works. Cruz spews poison into the media atmosphere. People like wolf have to ask the question at that point. So cruz accomplishes what he wanted. The difference between cruz and mccarthy is that cruz is brilliant. If you listen to the way he used the words when he was kind of accusing hagel of taking money from the wrong places the construction was absolutely brilliant. You couldnt pin anything on cruz other than the overwhelming charge hes raising this ridiculous nonsense. Its innuendo. Yeah. But cruz is a brilliant lawyer. Mccarthy was not so brilliant. I disagree with that a little bit cruz might be a brilliant
lawyer and may have phrased it in legalese but to the American People he looks like a jerk, acting against the country at a time we should be coming together. I think they are making big mistake. All i can say is hes making his opponent on the right, rand paul look like pope francis. Thank you, joe cline and ed rendell. Coming up, marco rubio calls a fake foul. Remember those tricks . Accusing people who support samesex marriage as intolerant and opponents as victims. Thats a tactic for you. Plus, the story in iraq no one is talking about. The persecution of christians by islamic fundamentalists who have taken over a third of the country. Im talking about isis. And a long shot Senate Candidacy got longer. There are charges of plagiarism against john walsh who was
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the c. E. O. Giving an honest answer to a question about his religious beliefs. Even before this speech is over i will be attacked as a hater or bigot or someone who is antigay. This intolerance in the name of tolerance is hypocrisy. Supporting the definition of marriage as one man and one woman is not antigay. It is pro traditional marriage. If support for traditional marriage is bigotry then barack obama was a bigot until just before the 2012 election. The country has been moving toward embracing samesex marriage. Everyone knows that. Marco rubio and his allies may be losing it. I think they are. Have they been victimized for their views . Howard dean, former chairman of the Democratic National committee. Michael steele is a political analyst and former chair of the Republican National committee. Let me go to michael steele. Let me ask you a couple of
things to set it up. Do you think the Republican Party will keep its platform, its plank which opposes samesex marriage next time around . Will they run on that platform of opposing samesex marriage . I think in large measure they will, chris. It depends who the nominee of the party is. As you know for both parties, what is or is not in that platform. I would think right now given the current landscape, i dont see that plank being removed just as i dont see, for example, the pro gay marriage plank being removed from the democrats. Let me go to governor dean. Do you think thats a winning issue for them to come out in 201 . Thats almost three years from now, well into the 21st century that marco rubio seems to be playing the champion of. At that point, still coming out against it . Well, first of all, it depends who the nominee is. If rob portman who made noise
about running for president is the nominee and i suspect that plank will no longer be in the platform. Secondly, what marco rubio is doing is a sophisticated are version of what cruz is doing. Its a flop, as you called it earlier. There is no foul here. He took a flying leap. What hes doing is something quite sophisticated. The Christian Community has long felt victimized. They felt like they were a minority. That people didnt treat them with with respect. Thats what marco rubio is playing to here. The truth is many religions discriminate against people. They feel gay people arent full citizens and some felt black people werent full citizens. The Mormon Church changed their views in 1974 on this. Youre a catholic, i was baptized catholic. It doesnt permit women to be priests. There are limitations on the roles of women in the church. Thats church doctrine. It discriminates against women. The problem is marco rubio is trying to make a religious argument for the civil matter. We have equal rights under the law. He may endorse a religion that doesnt dpree with that. It doesnt mean people oppose him are intolerant. I think hes right. I will give you time after my interjecti interjection. The republicans know they cant champion traditional marriage in 2016. So they will play the victim and say, its not about whether you are for or against gay marriage. It is whether you are intolerant toward people opposed to it. I dont think the Democratic Party is ever going to attack people with a different view. 42 of the country oppose it. Why would any party kiss off 42 . Marco rubio gave examples. Im talking about the Democratic Party. Im including them. There were those on the left who supported to chickfila and various ceos who have a personal view on this matter. Not how they run their companies. Not what they say is part of their business. But what they view personally. They have been villified. One ceo lost his job. I think there is a basis for concern about how the pendulum is swinging here. I think you are off base here. Marco rubio wasnt arguing for or against the subject of gay marriage. He was talking about a political position, number one. Number two the moral components of that political position. Thats not endorsing a position, saying its a catholic or protestant view. Hes saying there are those of
us in this country who hold the traditional marriage has value and right now there is a tendency for those folks to be vilified or criticized because of it. If you taken a position this is why i signed the first civil union bill. Not because i had a big jones for gay rights. Equal rights under the law means every individual in america has the same rights. True. Unless people who fall in love who are the same sex cant get married they cant are have federal rights. Thats the argument. I have no problem with a religion who says you cant have samesex marriage. I have a problem with any kind of format that says equal rights under the law should not be allowed. Thats the argument hes make. We should go after him. Go ahead, chris. Why do republicans keep getting back into the sex
question when it has worked against them so often. I dont understand this kind of youthful ambition. Maybe i have forgotten it. But he wants to be president so bad hes willing to pick up an issue and run with it today. Why doesnt he relax a little bit, this guy . Hes desperate. Hes down 12 points to hillary. In his dream world he thinks hes a candidate for president against hillary. Nothing could be further from the truth. I think marco rubio and i have to give him credit for a very sober well thought out argument he made. He was at a catholic institution, talking about a moral principled position. It was good. I dont think there was this category call leap to jump into the president ial race. Yes. Is he carving out new space . Absolutely. My impression was that was not the driver here. I thought he was playing for the hard cultural right, the Rick Santorum crowd. He