Push for criminal justice reform. That same senator obama became president and convinced Newt Gingrich and i to go on the road together around education. If you have a big enough vision you can work with people that dont agree with you. Thanks for watching. Im al sharpton. Hardball starts right now. When in doubt, throw em out. Are lets play hardball. Good evening. Im Chris Matthews in washington. Let me start with this. Out, out damn spot. How do we rid this country of president obama, erase his name from the history books from the history of our president s. How did we put a giant asterisk next to him so future generations will never believe
the name barack obama believed in the list of american president s. First they tried to say he wasnt born here. Then they set about ruining a chance he had to build a president ial record. They wanted barack obama to do one thing leave. Then of course they tried defiting him for reelection. They got down on their knees, nominated a kennedy to oppose him who they didnt like. Didnt trust. His one selling point was he was the best bet to do what they set their hearts on. Get barack obama out of the white house. Now with the years of the second term passing away comes the last gasp of obama haters. They want to impeach him. Certainly smear him with a mark of oh personal condemnation. They are changing the reasons. There is no surprise. The reason for wanting obama destroyed wasnt a question of it but who. Its not that he brought us back from the economic abyss, getting Osama Bin Laden but that he dared enter the office and sit
in the chair. For his nasty enemies and those that cheer him that moment can never be forgiven or forgotten. The the quest to bring down barack obama will never come to an end, it seems. Michael steele is an msnbc political analyst. Michael tomanski is a correspondent for the daily beast. This impeachment thing. Lets look at the numbers there. This is not a small rogue group of republicans. Right now according to to the cnn poll, should president obama be impeached . Look at this number. 57 when im kicked to the curb. The rest of the country, as a whole, 65 dont agree with that thinking at all. How do you put it together . I think the difference between the Republican Party and the American People. We are clearly out of step. My attitude is there are enough
other things to talk about with foreign policy, the economy, jobs, all of that that dont rise to this level of impeachment. If you want to give the house back to the democrats, dont want the senate back and want to take yourself out of any contention for president ial politics in 2016, file the articles of impeachment tomorrow. Go ahead and do it. You want to see that. If youre sitting on the congressman well get to example a. If you are sitting in office do you want to say as you go into a general election and a district thats fairly even, not a slam dunk republican district, do you want to announce for impeachment now . No. This is the last thing you want to talk about. Unless your district is bleeding red, this is the last thing any republican in elected office wants to talk about going into the fall campaign. Why . Because the American People dont give a damn about this issue. They are concerned that they dont know what obamacare will look like. Its worse. They dont want you to say it because you dont want to say it. Before primaries, fine. Once the primaries are behind them, they are facing a general election. According to our numbers, 65 of the people which may include a majority in tough red states, they think this is jackass behavior, some guy on a bar stool. Give me another beer and impeach that bastard. Somebody in your carpool. Thats not what you are supposed to behave like as a congress person. 57 of the base voters. John boehner doesnt want to say it and other republicans running for senate in nonconservative states dont want to say it. Steve scalise was on television. We have the tape. Oh, you do. Lets watch the tape. We love it. Writes in the post, however
republican candidates come down on impeachment they are doomed to alienate either the gop base or moderate voters ahead in the november midterms. Well said. Take a look at the newly elected whip Steve Scalise on yesterdays Fox News Sunday doing what he can avoid to avoid taking a clear position. Chris wallace did a good job. Lets watch. Will you consider impeaching the president . You know, this might be the First White House in history thats trying to start the narrative of impeaching their own oh president. Ultimately we want the president to follow the laws. The president took an oath to faithfully execute the laws of the land and hes not. Impeachment is off the table. The white house wants to talk about it. They are trying to fundraise off that, too. Im asking you, sir. The white house will try to change the topic from the president s failed agenda. I like the way chris did it po litly. Im asking you, sir. I would have said, answer the question. That makes my point. He was standing on a beach ball. Its a hard thing to do. He and others recognize the idea of impeachment, one, furthers the narrative for the base and, two, is a fundraising tool. Beyond that it doesnt have serious traction. As i go back to my point if you want to do it then file the articles of impeachment and sew see how the American People respond. The mere talk about it which they are all doing and people believe is to smear the guy. Sure. Its smearing the president. 67 of voters who dont want it to happen. Its their nature. Why does a scorpion sting . This is why. They are going to do it. They are going to do it at some point. I used to think maybe if they got the didnt get the senate back they probably wouldnt bother because they couldnt get
a senate conviction. I have changed that. They dont have to impeach. There would be an a asterisk by his name. They have used benghazi, the death ceiling, gitmo, the border crisis, syria, you name it, to threaten president obama. People in the white house never appeared to take them seriously. Its changing. This is dan pfeiffer friday speaking about the Republican Partys impeachment fever. A lot of people in town laugh that off. I would not discount the possibility. Speaker boehner, by going down the path of the lawsuit has opened the door to considering impeachment at some point in the future. I think the president acting on Immigration Reform will up the
likelihood that they would contemplate impeachment at some point. Wow. White House Press Secretary josh ernest isnt laughing it off. Hes sparring with reporters on friday who openly wondered if the democrats used impeachment to raise money by themselves. Do you believe the president could be impeached . I think there are senior members of the republican political party, certainly prominent voices for exactly that. It sounds like a fund raising, political ploy, not a real thing. You dont think the president will be impeached, do you . There are some republicans including some running for office hoping to get into office to impeach the president. That is a view they have because its one they have repeatedly expressed publically. Well, one of my favorite columnists from the new york
times attacked the crusade against president obama. He described this. There is an insatiable vengeance lust for the haugty president who refuses to bend under pressure or fold under duress. He must be brought to heel. He must be chastened. He must be broken. So House Republicans are throwing the red hemeat into th cage. They are. This is not what the country wants. The country doesnt want you throwing red meat. They want you solving problems. You keep telling me this. Why is your former confreres on that side doing it . You talk about two different strata of activism here. You have the congressional leadership who as you saw with scalise, they are not feeling it. Why not answer the question . Hes on the beach ball. If he goes, no, im not for impeachment, three minutes after that the tea party has a new
candidate. If he says, we are for impeachment, guess what happens testimony fredo. Lets talk about fredo. Sitting there. John boehner said when luke russert asked him rather than suing the president he said, i disagree. At least fredo stood up. He has to. What else will he do . Im talking about the brother in the godfather. Fredo was the weak brother. Hes my brother, but hes weak. He was the only one who has to say no. I guess mcconnell has to say no. They can dance on the vehicle as much as they like. Steve king comes back to say if he tries to deal with it unilaterally i will support articles of impeachment. This is the game that will be played. We have to finish this up. Lets be prophets. Will the boehner going with the
alternative to sue the president satisfy the right wing . It should. It likely wont because they will stoke the flames on impeachment. Still . Still. Right wing will stay quiet through november but absolutely not ultimately. It will come up at town meetings before the election and they will stand on the beach ball. We have created a metaphor. Thank you. Coming up, senator rand pauls pitch for africanamerican votes. We havent seen a republican do this since the days of jack kemp. He was a great man. Can the libertarians turn blacks against Big Government . Interesting stuff. Also, 99 days to go for the midterm elections. Can the democrats hold the senate . And have women in both parties broken the Glass Ceiling . I believe its true in many states. Plus, barack obama thrilled democrats where the keynote
speech. I covered that in boston. This was my immediate reaction. I have seen the first black president there. The reason i say that is i think the immigrant experience combined with african background and incredible education, his beautiful speech not every politician gets help with a speech but that was a piece of work. Tonight, how reality collided with hope. Finally what happens when a congressman lectures two people he thinks represent the government of india only to find out they are americans. Oops. This is hardball, the place for politics. They think salmon and energy. But the energy bp produces up here creates Something Else as well jobs all over america. Engineering and innovation jobs. Advanced Safety Systems technology. Shipping and manufacturing. Across the United States, bp supports more than a quarter million jobs. When we set up operation in one part of the country, people in other parts go to work. Thats not a coincidence. Its one more part of our commitment to america. You pay your Auto Insurance premium every month on the dot. Youre like the poster child for paying on time. And then one day you tap the bumper of a station wagon. No big deal. Until your Insurance Company jacks up your rates. You freak out. What good is having insurance if you get punished for using it . Hey insurance companies, news flash. Nobodys perfect. For drivers with accident forgiveness, Liberty Mutual wont raise your rates due to your first accident. See Car Insurance in a whole new light. Liberty mutual insurance. Well, look whos back at the top of the republican field for 2016. New Jersey Governor Chris Christie leads the pack in the latest research poll. Despite his troubles at home including perhaps some legal problems. Hes polling at 13 . Not high but just ahead of rand paul and Mike Huckabee who are tied at 12. Rick perry and paul ryan round
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if we cant offer faster speeds or save you money well give you 150. Comcast business. Built for business. Welcome back to hardball. Republican rand paul is doing something few in his party seem willing to do trying to reach out to africanamerican voters. Last year paul spoke to students at howard university. This friday he addressed the National UrbanLeague Conference and told the crowd he was teaming with cory booker to expunge nonviolent felonies from a persons record because it makes it harder to find a job and because it disenfranchises voters. Nationwide 5 Million People are prevented from voting because of their criminal record. Its the biggest impediment to voting in our country. I want more people to vote, not less. Senator pauls message,
government is not your friend is the message. The jury out whether it will sell with voters, especially africanamerican voters. As the photo showed there were quite a few empty chairs in the room. The paper describes it this way. Row after row of empty chairs. The space didnt look much fuller after one of the organizers urged people seated near the back to fill in the front row. He didnt get primetime billing. She spoke 589 30 on friday morning. Not primetime. Joining me is eugene robin sonde and michelle robinson. Gene, as a veteran of the wars and talking about the africanamerican vote in particular hes trying to make the case where Big Government has been helpful in economic programs and support programs. Theres times when it is your enemy. One is a felon for life. If you committed a crime, say a holdup at 18 and clean up your life, you are never a full citizen again. He says well get rid of that. He and booker. If they lost an appeal to africanamerican voters Big Government is bad. Not the way to do it. To make specific points. Why didnt a democrat think of that . We can get into the numbers but africanamericans have been voting democrat. Why didnt an official say this fe mon thing is too general, too permanent, kills hope. There are democrats working on it. Cory booker. And people in virginia. States around the case. You lose your Voting Rights more or less permanently. Democrats have taken the africanamerican vote for
granted. We know likely africanamerican wills vote the democratic ticket. Democrats have the big tent. This is smart for rand paul. Very smart. Do you think it will work . Next year at this time will he be saying it . Thats the key. Will he stick at it . Im going to bet this Time Next Year he will be saying the same thing because hes gone out. Saying the same thing over and over again. Hes a libertarian and believes it. There was a time when republicans got a fairly respectable slice of the black vote. In 1956, 39 of africanamerican voters went for the republican. It was dwight eisenhower. By 1964, following the signing of the Civil Rights Act the black vote had fallen off the vote for republicans. Republicans share of the black vote remained in the Single Digits for decades. In 2012 the republican share was at the dismal 6 . Its interesting. You and i know this. The forfeiting of the black vote, a third of the vote, then 10 because of the way they handled the 60s. That was the party of lincoln. Construction. Right. But that Republican Party allowed the Democratic Party the to be the party of civil rights. Democrats in my part of the country took a while. I wouldnt let the democrats off easy. The 1964 civil rights bill. The most important thing done by congress in our lifetime. Overwhelmingly for it. The democrats had a lot of people against it. Anyway. I dont have the numbers here. Look, those democrats were dixiecrats who were against desd desegregation. 27 of 33 republicans, all but 6 voted for the Civil Rights Act. Kennedy and johnson had to work hard to get the legislation passed. It was never a done deal. What happened to the Republican Party in the north that was all for civil rights . It was taken over by the loudest, most racist elements of the pear. When reagan talked the same language as George Wallace about believing in states rights, i think just about at that time they forfeited the africanamerican vote. Or the young buck using food stamps for vodka or gin. If that ever happened it was in Readers Digest somewhere. The southern strategy made the Republican Party the refuge for die hard racists and
segregationists. Thats where they went. Senator paul has been through a lot of debates. Here was paul. He has work to do to win the africanamerican votes. In 2010 when he was running for the senate in the first place, rand paul told the Editorial Board of the louisville journal he had concerns with the parts of the civil rights bill of 1964. Here is part of that. Under your philosophy, it would be okay for dr. King not to be served at the counter at wo woolworths . I would not go there. I would stand up in the community and say it is abhorrent. But the hard part is if you believe in the First Amendment, for example, you have to for example, most good defenders of the First Amendment would believe a group saying awful things. We are here at the bastion of newspaperdom. Im sure you believe in the First Amendment. People can say bad things. I