He later spoke out against the war and promised to bring that experience to the white house as commander in chief. What conservatives did next was shameful. They launched a swift boat ad smearing his war record, trying to drag him down into the mud. A few years later, they tried it again against another democratic nominee, but it hasnt worked. You can keep trying to smear and lie, but after a while, truth will rise again. Im al sharpton. Hardball starts right now. Impeach me. Lets play hardball. Good evening. Im Chris Matthews in
washington. Let me start tonight with what could be a battle between president obama and the republican congress. The stakes are these. Can congress destroy a president s ability to destroy the vital problems facing the country, a broken immigration system, aging and decaying infrastructure . Can a partisan house of representatives sabotage the working of the democracy, kill a presidency in broad daylight . Uh now to the weapons. The speaker of the house is suing the president trying to eliminate his flexibility in carrying out the signature act of the administration the Affordable Care act. They are asking the courts to put him in an administrative straitjacket. The president has his own threat in the wings. Someone leaked and hes planning to issue work permits to millions of people who entered the country illegally. In other words hes planning to take over immigration policy personally placing whats normally a congressional power into his own hands. The war between the president and congress escalates as the hours pass. The question isnt just who will win but what is the fight doing
to the country . I cant think of anyone it makes happy. Can you . Jonathan capehart is an opinion writer and msnbc contributor. Robert costa is a reporter with the washington post. President obama may be writing a major policy offensive on an issue guaranteed to incite the Republican Party base. Here it is. The Associated Press reports white house officials are making plans to act through executive action before novembers midterm elections to grant work permits to potentially millions of immigrants who are in this country illegally allowing them to stay in the United States without threat of deportation according to advocates and lawmakers in touch with the administration. Hes throwing down the gauntlet. All right, you dont like Affordable Care, how about this . I will issue work permits. Saying i decide who stays in this country. Its a bold move on the president. Is it legal . Constitutional . We have to see what hes
going to do. A leaked story isnt about what the president may or may not do. Its not reality until he steps before the American People and says this is what im doing and why. Immigration reform and the issue is going to start with barack obama. What does it say in political terps to the speaker of the house . Hes getting back at the speaker for not doing immigration reform. He says if the house wont act he will. He can get the progressive activists out in 2014. Hes sending a signal to them. What does it say to the republican right when he says, you think youre the boss . Im the boss. It riles boehner, rile it is republican base. It says to the American People that things are so broken here in washington that i have to do something. Its part of the message from 40 , 50 of the country. Who will buy the message besides the liberal base . Good question. Look, we are basically a 50 50 country. Until the president stands up there and says what hes going to do we dont know what the reaction is. Its a dangerous game. We dont know how it will play out until he does it. So smart. Let me ask about impeachment. The republicans have their foot on the gas. Some of the right wingers pushing this. You talked to scalise. At the same time the speaker is not exactly known for calling the shots on capitol hill and is trying to hold it back. Republicans in the congress and those running for office have impeachment. Now the Republican Party base wants president obama gone. 57 , a Strong Majority of republicans in this country want him prosecuted and removed from office. That anger will only grow as he acts alone on immigration. Today House Speaker john boehner
tried to douse the flames of impeachment which backfired in historic fashion. In the midterms they tried to get rid of bill clinton. Here is boehner trying to put water on the fire. This whole talk about impeachment is coming from the president s own staff and coming from democrats on capitol hill. Why . Because they are trying to rally their people to give money and show up in this years election. We have no plans to impeach the president. No future plans. Listen, its all a scam started by democrats at the white house. Apparently speaker boehners own top Leadership Team didnt get the message. We showed you the new whip, Steve Scalise refused to take impeachment off the table two days ago. Here he is refusing to say where he stands. Will you consider impeaching
the president . You know, this is the First White House . History trying to start the narrative of impeaching the president. We want the president to follow the laws. The president took an oath to faithfully execute the laws. Impeachment is off the table . Can t white house wants to talk about impeachment. They are trying to fundraise off that, too. Im asking you, sir. The white house will try to do anything to change the topic from the president s failed agenda. Chris wallace was mannerly and they wouldnt answer. I talked to scalise and asked him three times did he stick by the comments on sunday to chris wallace. He said he did. I said do you refuse to rule out impeaching the president. He wouldnt give me a clear answer. He said at this moment we are not trying to impeach the president. It leave it is door open. If the speaker speaks for the house which he doesnt, so im setting up a joke that hes calling the shots and the
republican majority says lets impeach the guy. This is real. You hear the people in the back water people talking it up. What Michele Bachmann talking it up, sarah palin. They dont think the boehner lawsuit is enough. There are a lot of them. I spoke to king. He was talking about impeachment if obama moved on immigration supposedly on work permits hell move forward. Here we are, tuesday. They have only a few days before they go home and try to relax somewhere, i guess. The president is saying, okay, sue me which im not sure is a cool thing to say. But hi said it. Now threatening impeachment, hes saying the number one issue, immigration, i will do on my own and issue work permits. He knows how it will play out. Does he want to fight . Hes spoiling for a fight and
knows republicans will fight. Conservatives wont accept this. They will go at him ahead of the midterms. This is base politics. It will activate the progressives. They are already. P. T. Barnum said if you want a crowd, start a fight. Hes trying to have a big fight. They have been fighting, chris. This ratchets it up. I know, but they have been fighting since the debt ceiling craziness in 2011. If you give your neighbor a mean stare in the morning you pay for it. Thats different from suing the guy. A lawsuit prelude to impeachment, i never believed the lawsuit was anything other than a first step its not an alternative. Hes hitting the republicans in the sore spot. He knows this divides the republican ranks. Hes going at it ahead of the midterms. So where are we going . Youre out there watching. Boehner says we are not getting anything past congress on immigration. Nothing. Nothing. They have decided to screw the guy to use common vernacular so he gets nothing done. Just to be fair and clearminded here, the democrats are exploiting this. Look at the money. Democratic fundraiser love the impeachment fever. The Congressional Fund raising arm brought in 2. 1 million in online donations over the weekend. The best fourday haul of the current election cycle. A million 24 hours this monday. The white house may not have started the fight, but it is clear they dont want it to go away. Josh ernest was asked about boehners comments that he has no plans to impeach the president. Here is the response. I suspect there may be members of the republican conference that didnt receive the memo. We have seen comments in recent months from congressman steve king from iowa, congressman ted
yoho from florida, congressman lou barleta, Steve Stockman from texas. Blake farenthold raised the prospect. We have seen kerry bentavolio oh from michigan call it a dream come true. That was the manifest from the clown car. Steve king and barleta. The idea that the dccc and democrats are raising money over impeachment fever, it would be malpractice if they didnt do this. Explain why the core democrats shell out money because there is an impeachment drive. Why does it make you give money . Its about embarrassing the president , embarrassing their guy. As you have been saying putting an asterisk next to his name in
the history books. Besmirching him. They have long viewed president obama as under siege by republicans and certainly since republicans took over the house in the midterms then. They will do everything they can to protect their guy, have his back. If they will talk impeachment. We all know it. You can have the ability to write comments to columns in the post. Your power is unlimited. You write a column. Someone has a comment all over the wires. Whas to stop the people in the clown car that was mentioned by the White House Press secretary . Who says they wont make more noise than boehner makes . And 57 of people agree with the clown car. Its a strategy to run
against steve king, taking a few of the right wing congressmen and trying to run a whole Midterm Campaign strategy. Thats why they have a voice. When he made the comments hes a birther. That wasnt this week. That was last year at a town hall meeting. August of 2013. Do you think its possible to impeach someone whos not in the country legally . Thats logical. Youre thinking logically. A lot of them have never been logical. Your question is a fair one. Do you want to have the kids in school . Grandkids, great grandkids. They want to see pictures of the president and george w. Bush and then the next republican
president. They dont want obama on the list. They dont want him there. They dont want him on the list of american president s . Whos they . The haters who want him out of office, to say he wasnt here legally, birthers, people that dont want him passing anything. They want to say he was a complete and utter failure because they cant stand that hes president. Thank you jonathan capehart. I appreciate the opportunity to tutor guests. Coming up, joni ernst, the hog castrater from iowa thinks states can nullify federal law. The idea was nullified by the civil war. Democrats hope they have found another todd aiken in the pen, so to speak. And new audio of nixon. Agreeing to give Teddy Kennedy secret Service Protection until the 1972 president ial election was over. After that he said, if he gets
shot, too damn bad. Thats a quote you will hear. Could you live on a minimum wage for a week . Ted strickland received a lot of attention for trying and failing. What do you get when you combine funny or die, canada and me . The sideshow which you wont want to miss tonight. Youre watching hardball canada. We begin to discuss all things canadian and get to the bottom of what its all about. Let me explain thats not how i speak. This is hardball, the place for politics. We have a new batch of polls in the 2016 president ial race. No one within Single Digits of hillary clinton. Lets check the hardball score board. She leads Chris Christie by 10 points 5040. Rand paul, trails by 11. 5241. Jeb bush is down 13. Clinton, 52, bush 39. Well be right back. 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. Thats why i always choose the fastest intern. R slow. The fastest printer. The fastest lunch. Turkey club. The fastest pencil sharpener. The fastest elevator. The fastest speed dial. The Fastest Office plant. So why wouldnt i choose the fastest wifi . I would. Switch to comcast Business Internet and get the fastest wifi included. Comcast business. Built for business. Im joni ernst. I grew up castrating hogs on an iowa farm. So when i get to washington i can cut pork. That was the ad that launched a political career for the nomination to u. S. Senate seat in iowa. In 2014 Republican Party leaders have been intent to avoid the 2010 and 2012 races when extreme candidates like Christine Odonnell and sharon angle cost winnable seats not to mention todd aiken and Richard Murdock whose comments about womens reproductive systems led to them being known as the rape candidates. Ernst military career and folksy background was supposed to
inoculate her but the longer it goes on the less main stream she seems. Shes open to impeaching president obama and called him a dictator before walking it back. She cosponsored a personhood amendment to the iowa constitution to give human embryos full rights at conception. She told the Des Moines Register she has reason to believe there were weapons of mass destruction in iraq. New video shows she believes states can nullify federal law. You know we have talked about this at the state legislature before, nullification. Bottom line is, as a u. S. Senator, why should we be passing laws that the states are considering nullifying . I mean that is thats, bottom line, is our legislators at the federal level should not be passing those laws. And we are right. Thats right in that aspect is
that we have gone 200plus years of federal legislators going against the tenth amendment and states rights. We are way overstepping bounds as federal legislators. So, bottom line, no, we should not be passing laws as federal legislators, senators or congressmen that the states would even consider nullifying. Bottom line. In that video she references the tenth amendment which says generally powers not specifically delegated to the federal government are reserved to the state. Thats a popular amendment on the far right. In Iowa Democrats hope republicans may have another sharon angle or todd aiken. Joining me is msnbc analyst joan walsh and republican strategist john braybender. We reached out for her campaigns reaction and got this reaction from a campaign spokesperson. Bruce b are raley is so
desperate that hes once again waging a dirty and false campaign. Joni has not and does not endorse or support nullification. She said in a couple of references in the tape that she does believe states can nullify a federal law. Now shes put out the word that her opponent leaked it when we have it on tape. What do we make of her position on nullifications which was a reason for the civil war . The south believed they could say state by state, south carolina, georgia, the federal government pass as law on slavely for example they could ignore it, nullify it. The whole question in a sense is a clay citiness of washington. Well have the conversation. What does she mean about nullification. What do you think . I dont know. Does the word mean something . The context shefts saying to people in iowa was youre not going to do this. No, no. The word has a particularly
historic meaning. According to the dictionary its the action of a state impeding or attempting to prevent the operation and endorsement within its territory of a law of the United States. It has a particular meaning but ernst wasnt specifically referring to race. Nullification has racial overtones because it was over the issue of slavery and nullification of antislavery laws in the civil war. You want to get into constitutional law of what she was saying about nullification. The truth is in a common sense way she was saying, you know what, in iowa we shouldnt have to li by everything they do in washington. Its the federal government. When they do something stupid and know nobody wants to live by it they shouldnt do it. Youre saying shes saying something different. Im not. John, you just said something completely common sense. Im a democrat. Youre a republican. You put it in a clear way. Thats great. You are entitled to say that. When you leap out and start talk thing about nullification you either know what you are doing
or youre stupid and you dont. Nullification has a particular meaning. States rights has a connotation. Nullification came back into vogue under barack obama when states started saying they were nullifying obamacare. Do you know what happened . This is hilarious. The heritage foundation, of all places, had to say, hey, guys, stop calling it nullification. We know you like that word. But thats unconstitutional. States cant nullify federal law. She may know what shes doing. Shes using a buzz word. Shes getting a thrill from it. Now shes been caught. You say we are not allowed what she meant. Youre off, john. There is every right is she deceiving voters saying the states can nullify federal law. I dont think that was the conte context. You can ask her anything she wants but she has the right to say what she wants. You do not have the right to put in context how she said it. Thats the part i have a problem
with. Your saying heres what she meant. [ speaking simultaneously ] this is what americans mean by nullification. In kins great speech he said i have a dream. He spoke of nullification saying i have a dream that one day down in alabama with its vicious raci racists, with its governor having the lips dripping tt words of interposition and nullification, one day little black boys and girls will