on i just i hello, i'm mario minimizing london with a look at our main story now. the delayed 2020 olympic games of officially opened with usual fireworks and fun facts. but no fans. the event is taking place as the host nation, japan battles and new wave of corona virus infections. i was spectacular, displays at the country's national stadium with the tennis donnelly, a soccer given, the honor of lighting, the olympic coltrane. the president of tokyo, 2020 says she hopes the games will bring an atmosphere of peace during the pandemic . but many people in japan resent having to stage the most expensive summer

olympics in history at this time. any 80 percent of people? question said they're against holding. the games in the middle of a pandemic were tested near the venue, showed that opposition to the games on richardson brings us more on this now from tokyo. but at least we now know why no, i me, i stuck his 1st tennis. much of these olympics was pushed back from saturday to sunday. the japanese stall, given the honor of lighting, the olympic colder and to get these tokyo games underway. during the opening ceremony, we also heard from the international olympic committee president thomas back. he said, amongst other things, this feeling of togetherness, this is the light at the end of the don't tunnel of this pandemic has to be said, that sentiment may not be shared entirely by the rest of the japanese population who perhaps remain to be convinced about the wisdom of these games going ahead. the athletes parade while it was scaled down socially distanced, somewhat subdued. several athletes from the countries of kurdistan. pakistan. and said jacob, on entering the stadium without wearing

a facial mask. clear contravention of the strict rules and regulations of these games athlete were warned that if they didn't follow all the safety protocols, they could risk being kicked out of these lympics. as for the ceremony itself, well opening ceremonies like them, a load them have always been a part of the games ever since. they came back in 1896, a chance for the whole nation to showcase all of that culture national identity, but rarely as a whole. nation had such itself balancing act to pull off like tokyo has and to try and get public opinion to turn and shift in favor of these olympics. now in all the headlines in haiti, please have 510 gas outside the funeral of present chauvinism ways. he was buried in the grounds of his family's home in the country. second 50. meanwhile, violence erupt. it outside between police and for testers, which sent us delegation on all the dignitaries in attendance rushing to that cause why he was shot dead on july 7th. and she's been experiencing mass protest under

political crisis more than 2 years now. driven illinois is widow martine, said he would don't have a family that a husband had been trying to free the country from corruption. for one more demo villa could you? why is wanting to democratize a sin? how has fighting for equal opportunities to enter the civil service? the com condemned to the station brothers. if you cross your arms and just look at the executioners, blood will not cease to flow. today it is jovan all movies to morrow, who will it be? it will be him, it will be may, it will be our residential. at least $44.00 people died when monsoon ryans triggered land slides and flooded low lying areas in west and india. thousands of people have been left stranded with rescue work is trying to evacuate people from vulnerable areas, at least 32 houses of collapse in one district alone. sources and now releasing water from dams at risk of overflowing. the taliban is one that they'll be no peace

in afghanistan until there's a new government spokespersons that they don't want to monopolize power, but they won't stop fighting either until the president should have gone is removed . the u. s. general said the group now controls half of afghanistan's district centers. i mean the national body over seeing the piece deal. the end of the bullying and conflict of the ninety's is banned the denial of genocide and he calls me and officials refused to accept that. the 995 massacre of more than 8000 bosnia entrapped bernita was a genocide, but genocide deny is now face up to 5 years in prison. the new law also forbids the glorification of war criminals. bottom line is coming up next on al jazeera to say was for that i'll see you later. i

i am steve clements. i have a question. you know how people always say us politics weren't so toxic in the good old days? well, really, or is it all pretty much the same, but our memories are shoddy. let's get to the bottom line. ah, spanish philosopher george pantheon a is famous for saying those who cannot remember the past are doomed to repeat it. even though really big surprises can happen and change everything. the truth is that if you hang around long enough, you'll see the same cycles repeat themselves. especially in politics. at least that's the message that i get from reading. the memoirs of my guest today who had a front seat well more like a front podium to decades of american history. he is chris matthews, long time roving d. c. bureau chief of the san francisco examiner speechwriter for president jimmy carter, former host of the tv show, hardball and m s. b c, which was a political institution for more than 20 years. he retired last year and recently published his autobiography, this country,

my life in politics and history. chris matthews is terrific that have you with us today. let me just ask you about the frame you have. what i read about you getting into politics coming out of the, you know, the catholic scene and in, in pennsylvania and, you know, getting a patronage job, you know, all of the inner workings of those political forces at the time. you know, it kind of reminded me that it had kind of a tribal dimension. and so as i look at new tribes emerging in american politics the day, you know, i'm just interested in whether or not we're just at the front end of what it was like when boston catholics were, or philadelphia catholics came in. and how you know, whether or not we're just reliving history and aren't yet quite really realizing it well, i was, i was on chip o'neil's last junket code. you know, back in 86. it was all over latin america. we went everywhere. went away. is aries, we went to brazil. yeah. we went to read the rio we went to what but when his way

la, we went to dominican republic. it was quite a trip or a lot of business meetings at all. but it was fun. and i wasn't till i when we got to easter sunday in dominican republic and cars with a competent golf tour that golf resort. but i noticed that everybody was at mass. i mean the republic is the democrats, jolly wrangell was there was african american. everybody was there and i said, what does the group haven't com and i knew her all catholic. so i don't know how much the chip and with that put into that. but that's the way it turned out. and i, oh, this is interesting. and i think about his power, they were no catholics, but certainly the trinity reject mirth in the charlie rangel and people like that. and it was interesting. so i guess there was tribes. i know when i 1st went knock on the, you know, not your doors when capitol hill and you're getting back to the peace corps. i started with the irish catholics come with i got one, it was my up. i will give his name, but he was clearly marked up. they had

a terrible experts on him about a body being taken out of his basement. it was a loan shark. this guy was in try and real deeper with the hudson county democratic machine, which was corrupt, certainly then and, and he was much and they had the tape record. he's on him working with a local cargo, helping him protect his gambling interest opperation syndicate. so i was a smart move, but that was the way i began looking for a job. i thought the peace corps holy cross where went to college would help me get the door open in those cases. it didn't particularly help. i ended up, i ran a tip o'neill for 6 years. we certainly fit the bill. i ended up actually in that case, working for a very developed mormon from utah bueno. and it was top a the frank marsh, the last liberal senator from utah. but that's how i started off. so yeah, i guess i had a little bit of trouble as amendment. it's really what i really enjoyed about your book in the stories you tell is you tell the great and good you talk about america

at its best. you talk about american patriotism, but you have this frame. i mean, you are a cop. got to walking along pennsylvania avenue at night, which i found amusing and we may reflect on that in a minute. but i think there's another side to it, which is if you look at the other myth of american politics, is that it's a melting pot, that we've got people from all backgrounds and races that can come to you. talk about the magic of america being a place that people can come to and be accepted and b and b here, i found it very powerful. but at the same time, when you get into this town in washington, d. c, we've got, you know, right now the democratic party divided into different factions. you know, we've got the left, we've got folks in the center. we've got a jo mansion. we have an ag sandria across here, cortez. we have the black and brown communities as you write in your book that are finding their places. and i guess what i'm trying to figure out is where it comes out, or whether this kind of, you know, bumper cars of these different groups is really a lot like what you started out in,

in the seventy's. and whether there or, or how we evolved. so that we can actually you know, better. i think the rich question because i remember when you said these democratic retreats, greenbrier, west virginia, that wonderful. so any bell on resort and i love the fact that we had sort of amateur so i mean, it's your entertainment nights and you have the country western guys, the country guys miss south sing along when you had a dan glickman who's jewish doing al jolson, he was pretty good out just not great, but pretty good al jolson, you had a gay member who is openly gay there. and in a wardrobe i selection, i would say is choices. it was a great mixture, windows concerted, or northern southern is all kinds of people. they are all democrats, they were not all homogeneous league politically together. that's for sure. they were southern democrats, meant in those days still. so it was

a coalition party. no other than a party of identity or the party of what was read, the right word of ideology was not a party by the algae today. it's increasingly becoming a party of ideology. the progressive group is getting noise you're appropriately. so they come from the big cities generally, they come from minority groups, people of color. generally, they are being heard in every newspaper article. you read it, but in the restructured today, you can't pick up an article. but infrastructure or police, or integration certainly doesn't have voices from that no progressive wing from the minority if you will, wing. and that's all there. now let's do that, or certainly, no, they're not just keeping, you know, showing up in the office servers time servers. they're there to make a point and say it and make it message, and in fact they're very urgent about it. so that's different. i think we have allowed or less than we did back then. we have a disappeared right, and there's no more right wing democratic party. then there's no more real moderate

republican party left what's called moderate republican de is certainly conservative denmark conservative republicans like appointment to me of the northern arizona. maybe i guess my susan collins could are many rakowski from alaska, but generally anybody who's not trump in the bag with trump is called a moderate republican now. but the parties are much more like the british parties now today, right, more i didn't want to part the liberal. brittany i got to live, they reported which is left with tony blair one time or twice johnson on the concern that went tory tory, when you sort of a moderate conservative but clearly the parties are becoming more logical. that's different. you are deep into covering politics. you are also in politics. i want to tell my viewers that you actually ran for congress once you lost the primary. but you gave it a good go and you went knocking on every door that you could get. get near. you kind of look at that, you know, one of the things you were aware of all the dimensions. and one of the things you

write about in the book is, you know, that the rise of trump was related to earlier movements like ross perot and pat buchanan. i would have gone one step further and raised george wallace, who was one of the big race peters in america, and looking at that at that dimension of the george wallace dimensions. but that's been with us for decades and decades and decades. so given your experience yeah, i know it has a number of pieces to it. part of it is is race nativism. yeah, that's all there also has some new pieces of it that are actually go back to mccarthy. joe mccarthy in t lead as an anti ivy league, a resentment of people who think they're better than us because of their academic success. i think that's a big, big draw among the trump, people making fun of the academic lead, even though he talks about going dependent on the word school parent. he has a wonderful, i mean, politically wonderful undertone, a grievance, a resentment. you look at the,

the biggest bar in the mar cation point in american politics. today is probably education. if you've had an ira, higher education and university college, you are probably not trump, you probably know general rule. if you haven't had a higher education, if you work in their hands or your skill craftsman, for example, you're probably with trump. so that's, that's because i remember not loyal really one of his speeches on kate, about those who live in our finance houses. those who went to our best universities there, there was basically defending the communist so very much he was always tired and there's a little bit of an eye semitism in it to put it lightly with there was a kind of an anti academic elite that trump plays on and then of course joe george was to make your point. steve would talk about the point, the pony headed bureaucrats with their shade cases, with filled with peanut butter sandwiches. you know, he had a way of putting down there or, or bureaucratic elite ism make it look like fraud,

which is what he wanted to do. they weren't really that smart, but they were carried out to shake his around to make themselves looks martin official. yeah, this, these are common strange databases of racism, certainly, ethnic credulous and anti lee in the academic lead. are in the strange going back to pappy cannon. i mean, i would say things like how said brandeis football team during this year. he had very clever way to get to get a lot of people don't know what he's talking to. you know, there was a pro life crowd that had a lot of that they got to get along with their own pro life position. it's donald trump, a patriot no. the great thing our country has going for it has been, has been the much miraculous marriage, honest elections every 2 years for congress going back to 1789. and president

election every 4 years. this absolute belief in our electoral system, electric college, to the point where hillary clinton would lose by when by 404000000 votes the project. but just next morning now she lost with great grace, said with gore. same with jack with the nixon that i can 60 when he met with jack kennedy up. you're very tricky. elation in chicago over there are questions about dead people voting, instill he's new for the go to the country. how you should meet with kennedy did that following monday. they drag, coax, they go down the key miss game, this game hotel. and my god, he just gave it to jack case. it's all yours. you have one, but there be no interruption or leadership during the call or was grand. even ted kennedy came out, said after dixon, guides of what, what grace next and showed in that election and accepting its results. and he had reasons for complaint because texas had no procedure for re re counting. and there's certainly questions about cook county under dick daily. so of all the

family fathers just didn't put that in. they didn't. you must concede defeat, you can, but it's almost like he has broken the unwritten rule. american politics. i have love that glory didn't concession speak a stories? are you with our producers and abortions on cover? please make appoint to show as many concession spaces as you can. i'll actually because it's what makes elections of the sacraments because they're, they're absolutely faithful to the democratic will. and even the guy or woman who lose the said so that i last i let down my supporters. i accept the verdict, the majority i lost. he or she won. and hillary, don't everybody, john kerry john mccain. everybody has done that dutifully going back that certainly in my life and stevenson, when he said beautifully, i'm too old to cry. but too, it hurts too much to laugh. well, that's what we want from our leaders, his grace, under pressure, and defeat. well, what chris?

one of the things that gave me chills reading your book was the part the part of history that i didn't know. i guess it was in the sixty's. you can correct that if i'm wrong, when there was a bomb placed in the rotunda of the capital, and that there were protests at that time. and protesters coming up the capital and that a congress person at that time told you, wow, i was worried what the police would do to these young kids out there out there, protesting. but it reminded me of just, you know, a flashback. but in that time, they did not break through to the capital. they did not bomb the rotunda that didn't come through. but we saw another point in history with a very different outcome. yeah, that was bill. actually the very anti were women who were the had for where you had from the west side. she was very nice. she came up to me. she said, how like a regular person working person said my feet are killing, be to just chatting with me and you were you were you were you say, i mean, you know, for my party miller haircut my short here and everything and. and she was very warm

and friendly, very friendly. and there also was a guy, a tourist, in that same vein who came up to me when i was, i was sort of controlling the west front of the capital red before the demonstration. this is a made a demonstration of 1971 and he said he wants for me. i couldn't, i can't tell you how much contempt to add to that person. he thought i was so that we'd like batting people over the head with a night stick. i don't know what he thought, but he thought that was cute to come up to be in to him once for me. but in tribute to the police leadership and notice day it was better than it is this year, january sets because to be prepared. i remember going down in the lower floor of the cab, i forget whether it was the mezzanine or it was the basement. there was a whole force of the shred team, people, all in riot gear. how much shields everything ready to go to work. if anybody did something really cause trouble, they kept them in reserve. just think they've done that simple thing. of having

a cavalry really ready on the hill, it says on january 6, then they could have rushed to the doors with their shields, their right, you're stopped everybody calling in the capital and prevented the whole thing. but the leadership and as the charges at arm and the leadership of the house, the senate didn't do that. they didn't prepare for the worst. and then they left their patrol and their regular officers to face that frightening mob with their regular civilian. that's their day to day, uniforms, day to day equipment. you know, they need to have night clubs. they know that he was gone. they really couldn't use . and so they weren't supposed to can. you can set fire with window, mob americans like that. you can use it, fire power, you can, you, you can use that kind of violent force against americans who are demonstrating even if so forcefully. you can't just shoot people down, but they're not going basically disarmed. effect will be disarmed. the face that bob, the training mom and i play with the leaders, i want to see the best

a geisha. i know why should i know why the leaders wouldn't want investigation? why didn't you equip your rank and file police officers with the equipment and the backup? they needed that day. they need it back up, right. and they did it back in 71. they didn't do it this time. they didn't get back up. okay. one of the question i want to get to and it kind of addresses in part, you know, when you left m. s m, b, c. and there was some, you know, turmoil around that at that moment. but i want to ask you quick when you read your book and you were john paul seconds, you know you were when the berlin wall came down. you were, you saw hungry, went and hungry, but the soviets were, were doing this. you saw these moments in an american life where, which were tense and lot of things happening. i'm just wondering if somehow the framing that our newer generations are bringing to america and a lot of the debates where we have right now are somehow they've got amnesia about all these other contributions of what it took to become an american. and whether or

not we're brand more fragile is a nation that we think and in terms of referencing, you know, the case of how we compliment each other or something. it seems to me to be so trivial compared to, you know, how we dealt with the vietnam war or how we deal with afghanistan and rock and hard choices out there that you covered. do you think we are falling into a trap becoming too self serious and lost when it comes to some of the big issues that america has to contend with? why do some issues the time has come that we address them? you know, is addressed in maybe the best possible way, but certainly one each a gender equality at work which is i guess, the sort of the context in which i found myself in a situation back last year was i've been a big proponent of that. i mean, i always make sure my sunday shows that 5050 is arbitrary about a nasty nate. and we've created this sunday chris matthews show we insisted that every single sunday to be to manager,

when we said we're not going to do that. we're not that we couldn't find the right well, right game like that. we're not going to play games. there's always be equality here on the set, right? when i went to pick executive producers, i pick women generally really smart, best executives. i could find they were women, so i know we needed to move in my wife as you want. when that was an anchor went to d. c. for 15 year she understood there was an inequality in the way they paid people the way they dealt with people. you could even anchored banker people. and so i was very sensitive about that. where i was out of date was recognizing really personally recognize that there is something truly wrong about complimenting someone's appearance at work. now everybody from every generation has their own view on it. and my view was it was a legitimate complaint. and i could, i said, well i'm out of here, i was going to leave it to m b c. or i mentioned a, b, c to try to put some sort of snake on me some punishment, some kid i wasn't gonna get involved in that place. and okay, there was a complaint, it was honest, it was accurate, it was wrong. what i did was wrong. so now you know, there's never been

a clear the reporting on it was, i think, somewhat clear, but not that clear. well, certainly in my book, i make it clear what happened on charleston company to south carolina primary, the next day i'm out of there. right. so it was going to affect why i think you did a great job explaining what happened there, but it also raises interesting question of where are we as a nation, are we, are we tribes that are all fighting each other or we are trying to understand each other have empathy and kind of, you know, build a thing and i comes in, i'm going to ask you a question. your chris matthews, run hardball the night. i thought of some topics, you know, maybe you might cover, you know, biden's, belly flop on, you know, the infrastructure deal or might cover, you know, pulling out of afghanistan. or you might cover, you know, the role of jo mansion and whether or not centered or did you do those? i think if restrictions the key thing and as howard baker, the great former republican leader, the senate was you know, all you need to know about the, from what you learned in arithmetic about 3rd grade. you need 60 votes to break the

filibuster. and so by need 60, he may have 55 now, but he need 60 and my question is, can we get the all the way, which is all part? because while go, if i were running the show in the ban schumer's office right now in the white house, i would play hardball. and i would get 1st to make sure that every democrat was aware of all the projects, the roads, building, tunnels, bridges, all that stuff that needs work. is that right now in bad shape and they're state they're aware of and they tell their people about get the list county by ken, that's what i did with frank boss and utah. i went through, i didn't so like i went through every county and i list and i said, how many projects were shovel ready, ready to go and should be done into sequentially getting funded. and then i tell everybody in my state, this is why i'm quoting for the restructure bill, because i need this work done here in my state in your state. i bring the issue home to people don't make it's theoretical big spending. it should democrats,

democrats always lose that argument, they are expanders, don't let the issue be spending, make the issue when needs to be done at home. david guards the great number, credit consult the new york. got everybody like cautioned everybody. lindsey, everybody. he said, replace the smell kid, the k with the smell of construction smell a 3rd being moved. that's where people like, that's not about democratic republic, it's about stuff getting done in the public interest. don't let it be a radical argument over spending, or the democrats could well lose the scene a quite none the bill they have to pass, which is the bipartisan infrastructure bill. if they lose that, i think they, the republicans roll the table from here to next election november when this, when you're going to, we've got about 45 seconds to answer. yeah. it's a great and very good. well, i will talk about your mansion next time, but i was going to go just a few seconds up, but i just want to ask you one big hardball question. are you a politician? it basically deep down in journalist clothing trying to burst out and how it is,

you know, to our viewers who are thinking about politics and journalism. how do you keep those lines? right? and what is chris matthews really? well, what do you do? do is the difference i look at here. i was like mary mcgrory, peggy noonan. you can have a point of view that coincides a lot with one of the 2 political parties. when you have to be honest to your point of view, not the party you have, you want to take them down when they're bad, when it's watergate or whatever it is, or monica, whatever it is. you have to be willing to separate your views, which normally coincide. with the political party, one political party from loyalty to the party itself. you have to be independent a party, so and to its people. but you can be generally aligned with their points of view. but that's a big difference between being a partisan hack, right? slack working for the d. n. c or the are and see if you're just knocking out press releases. right. one of the political partners you are a hack. that's what i think. well listen, i think that's pretty strong. the book is this country, my life and politics in history and the author is chris matthews. legendary former

tv host of hardball and m s and b. c. chris, thank you so much for being with us today. we've clemens, thank you so much for the big audience. so what's the bottom line? my guess today deeply believe that us democracy has its fragile moments, but then in the long run it's only going to get stronger. i love to share his and shaking faith in this country's ability to correct itself and appeal to a higher angels. the truth is that america and what it stands for has come close to crashing down. so many times before the contest is real folks. there is no hollywood ending where the good folks are guaranteed to win and justice prevails. i hope chris matthews, his right. wouldn't that be nice? but trump ism is winding up for another chance, a bad q and on is america's biggest online conspiracy game. in reality show, it will take all the will and focus and work of americans to keep a country moving in a direction that we could really call democracy. and that's the bottom line, ah,

the seed by violent crime and drugs confronted by racism and integration out there, a trace of the history of 1st generation lebanese australians. exploring the conflicts and the struggle for except once upon a time in punch bowls on our 0, i know when a french soldier was murdered in a so called terrorist attack, his mother retaliated with love, speaking out against intolerance and alienation. she travels the world with the result of a grieving mother who loved her son, but adopted

a generation latifah. witness documentary on al jazeera. ah, ah, hello, i'm mariam nemiah's in london, l main story this hour. the 2020 olympic games have opened with fireworks and fine fare, but no fans. the event is taking place as host nation japan battles a new wave of corona, virus infections that was spectacular, displays at the national stadium with tennis tanami, a soccer lighting, the olympic cauldron, president of tokyo, 2020 says she hopes the games will bring an atmosphere of.