responders in afghanistan and iraq. he is an american hero, and that's why the press hates him. it's time to free right now. [ ♪ music ♪ ] >> eliot: good evening i'm apple eliot spitzeri'meliot spitzer and this is "viewpoint." >> obama: governor romney's experience has been investing in what were called pioneers of the business of outsourcing. >> eliot: romney insists he had nothing to do with bain between 1999 and 2002 when it outsourced u.s. jobs, shut down plants and.

>> they are dishonest. they're misdirected and i think the american people recognize that kind of politics as something in the past and it may work in chicago but it's not going to work across america. >> eliot: rom emmanuel, the president's former chief of staff may have anticipated that when he offered advice. >> stop whining. if you want to claim bain capital as your calling card to the white house then claim what happened when those jobs went in bankruptcy. >> eliot: romney seemed more comfortable demanding an apology from the president. >> he sure has heck ought to give an apology for the attacks from his team. >> obama: we won't give an apology. mr. romney claims he's mr. fix-it for the economy because of his business experience. he is now claiming he wasn't

there at the time. >> eliot: stead of fighting back romney found timing to boating, leaving ed gillespie flounder as he explained the departure. >> he took a leave of absence and he ended up not going back at all and retired retroactively to february of 1999 as a result. >> eliot: could anything be more ridiculous. if bernie madeoff have stepped down could he claim i retired retroactively, could he be absolved. >> romney: john mccain released two years of tax returns. john kerry his wife who has hundreds of millions of dollars she never released her tax returns. some how this was not an issue.

>> eliot: with jobs an issue the president is leading romney by two points. but the president also leads romney by two points when the public is asked who would lead better the economy. let's go to political reporter joe williams. thanks for joining us, tonight. >> always my pleasure. >> look, i just got to ask you. i never heard this phrase "retiring retroactively." does it make sense to you? i'm trying to work this one through. >> he had to retire before he left the company. they're claiming he left the company and then retired. so retiring reretroactively a trick that won't work. >> eliot: it's one of those phrases that just doesn't make sense. things are not going so well, so i'll pretend it just didn't happen, i don't know. they got to do better than that. ed gillespie go home and think this one through. it's much more a disaster. more to the point is romney flailing defense between bain

and the taxes? he seems to be going in where. is this the first time he's facing a campaign that he cannot stand up to it. >> that's my assessment. we talked about the republican primary as a withers process. it seems that he struggled to put away a has been newt gringrich and a rick santorum, and could not do it but for the money bombs he lit on florida south carolina, michigan, and even then it was close until the final days. this time he's going against a campaign that is an efficient machine. the people in chicago know what they're doing. obama for all his faults as a president is a very good campaigner. in effect they're using an old republican tactic, the sort of

jiu-jitsu. you see that they're using stop-gap measures that that don't make sense and it's not working. >> eliot: it's interesting when you look back at the primary process, and you look back at one prism, romney lost to candidates he should have been able to defeat with some conclusive matter but never quite did. he would always retreat into a shell and survive by being there. woody allen's line, 90% of life is showing up. he showed up and was there but he did not win by manifesting any great theory, any great momentum in the party. that is now beginning to come and hurt him. >> it's come to go hurt him and the fact that that he discuss does not have an affirmative policy to rise above. he does not have an affirmative message saying vote for me and i will do this for the economy. i will do this for the middle

class. all he's basically run on so far is the fact, hey guys, i'm not obama. i look like a president. i think i can do the job because of my business experience. short of the business experience what else is there? he doesn't have a master stroke of a foreign policy. he also doesn't have a domestic policy that anyone can recite with ease in a single sentence. so that's part of the problem is that there seems to be no there when you get right down and drilling down to what mitt romney is about. they're having an effect because there is nothing else to point to if you're him. >> eliot: the etch-a-sketch candidate is becoming injured by the fact that his image is disappearing every night. he is as you say a merely the anti-obama. he's the anti-matter to barack obama's matter. even the republican party is looking around saying, we don't care so much. and i gather you're hearing within the republican party there are deep fissures, and

people are fund fundamentally dissatisfied for how he's running his campaign. >> we saw support for rick santorum because he was not mitt romney. we saw newt gringrich surge to the front of the pack because he was not mitt romney. those two candidates had an ideal core and fire. it may not have been right for the times but certainly it was something significant that the true believers really latched on to. mitt romney had nothing other than the fact that he was the next guy in line and he has a lot of money and he had experience running a state a blue state to a lot of true red conservatives. >> cenk: let me sound a voice of skepticism since we're one note so far in the couple of minutes. there is still a real question whether any of this will matter come october or november. the president is still only two points ahead given everything that has been negative for mitt romney over the past couple of weeks and if the economy teeters

it is the committee. so the question is will this matter to voters come october? or november? >> it will in a sense that there is always the danger of peeking to early. there is always the danger of getting ahead of the campaign. this won't matter because this is an attempt to define--a very successful attempt so far--to define mitt romney before the public generally gets to know him. the dog days of summer, what will they remember? not much about this fight unless mitt romney finds a way to counter it. right now defining mitt romney as an elite businessman and romney is giving him a lot of help in that department. >> joe williams, great to have you on the program. >> my pleasure. >> eliot: for more on the political wars i'm joined by a major player who coined the phrase, it's the economy stupid." we have a book that put the

beleaguered at the heart of the complain. what does this mean? he did it, but oops--what is going on here. >> i know ed gillespie is a good friend of his. he's a friend of mine. the truth of the matter is he leaves in 1999. he owns the company. he picked the people to run the company. he said he was going to be involved in personnel and investment decisions. who cares. it's done. bain has been defined. >> eliot: well, which comes to the other point. he has been defined by bain over the last month. this has become sort of the weight around his neck that he can't avoid. >> look at in. he doesn't--the man has had a

fairly complete life but he can't talk about any part of it because bain. so he put bain at issue. so he makes it at issue. as good of a lawyer as you are if somebody puts one thing at issue. >> we're going to pick at it, bang at it from now until november, but mitt romney has talked about nothing. the etch-a-sketch candidate has said nothing of substance. >> not only has he said nothing of substance he has told us that he is not going to tell us his immigration plan. he said how he's going to pay for tax cuts. he refuses to. and he refuses to name a single government program he would cut if he dade the government would just demagogue it. >> eliot: he's an empty vessel and he thinks that people will not come after him for all these tax returns. he said i'll give you a lot of information.

release them and be done with them he's making freshman mistakes. >> if i were a republican, okay, and romney knew he was going to run for president. he ran in 2008. he knows he's running. if you want to be president, get rid of the swiss bang accounts. you know you got to do it if you want it bad enough. why do you do that? why do you think you're going to get away with it? that's what i don't understand. i would be i did livid if i was a republican. >> eliot: he won't give his tax returns, every step makes me say that he's not a good manager. >> i don't know that he's not a good manager. what it tells me is that he wants it both ways. he wants to make the money on the offshore accounts. he wants to be president. you can't do it both ways. it's one set of rules that applies to mitt romney. and then the same set of rules that applies to everybody else.

that's his life, if you will, i'm mitt romney. i do things the way that i do them. other people do things the way they do it. >> eliot: why do these issues seem to be metastasizing now and it's harming him. >> newt gringrich. >> all he had was adelson. they didn't have the resources. right now we have the obama campaign. it's very good. they did all this research. he's going from single a pitch pitching to-- >> eliot: they've playing a cy young award game. >> the whole level has been kicked up. >> eliot: no question. they run a picture-perfect campaign, but can mitt romney

change the topic by picking a vp? is that a sarah palin moment that redefines it. >> there are is reason why people wait until the convention to pick the vp. you want to build up suspense. you want someone new. you want some element of excitement. this story has gotten so bad that they get this bridge to leak condoleezza rice. that's so amateur it's laughable. now they are saying they'll pick a vice president in july to stop the hemorrhaging on the bank story. that goes to show you how bad the story is. they're going to go to tampa and everybody is going to know the guy. there will be no excitement. they'll lose all that. >> eliot: and your point is they don't have anything substantive to say. they can't talk about immigration, the economy where they're going to cut the budget, where they are going to go with

taxes. they're completely vacuumous, there is nothing to talk about. >> the only part of his bio to talk about is the fact is he's very accomplished in his own faith. he was a mormon bishop. as governor of massachusetts he did a big important thing. >> eliot: healthcare. individual mandate. >> he can't talk about it. >> eliot: you're so right. i said a couple of weeks ago he should have embraced the individual mandate taken it away from the president. >> well, he couldn't do it. but look he has to fill out his whole life. the tragedy of romney to some extent is that he's kind of in a sense he's clueless, but he has done some things in his life, but he can only talk about one bain, which is kind of a mess. >> eliot: he has put himself in a position that is the least interesting and is unfortunately, most vulnerable. we have

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>> eliot: saturday night saw some rock-n-roll history--briefly. paul mccartney took the stage with bruce springsteen at a london concert and they managed to sing two beatles songs before the plug got pulled. it was one of those classic moments when a bad law had to be

enforced and no one was happy. the show was supposed to end but the mics cut out and springsteen had to shout his good night to the crowd without amplification. knowing the boss, it's a wonder that he didn't keep playing any way. from the wanted they went on tweeter and said. when did england become a police state. but the police did not pull the plug, the promoters did. that's one of those times when a bad law had to be enforced and nobody was happy. but look at it this way it wouldn't be rock-k-k-k-k-k-k-k-k-k-k-k-k-k-k-k-k-k-k-k-k-k-k-k-k-k-k-

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>> eliot: coming up, president of the new york fed treasury secretary and self-regulator timothy geithner does it all. but first kathie lee calls out hoda and obama calls out fox

news and sean lennon and yoko call out the frackers. when it doesn't fit anywhere else we put it in the viewfinder viewfinder. >> 70% of adults are not able to handle the effects of wine. >> do you ever regret you used to be an emmy winning fantastic none was better than you. no one won more awards than you do you regret your decision to join me, hoda and start drinking. >> this is much more fun. >> obama notion how to punt. he knows how to let things settle down. >> just in case some of your friends or neighbors or uncle jim who is a real southern and watching fox news. he thinks that some how i raised taxes. >> the obama rule of raising taxes. >> jobs, none. taxes up. >> he will increase taxes. >> let's just be clear. we've lowered taxes.

for middle class families since i came into office. >> the federal government trying to insert itself in with fracks, we always regulated fracking for decades at the state level. do these energy policies create jobs? you're right ♪ there ain't no place ♪ left on this earth ♪ to discover ♪ so please ♪ don't frack my mother ♪ don't frack me ♪ don't frack me ♪ don't frack my mother ♪ cause i ain't ♪ got no other ♪ >> as you listen to sarah palin she said a couple of days ago she didn't think that mitt romney was going to pick a candidate for vice president such as herself. >> governor palin. >> obama is nothing but a socialist, and he'll drive this country into socialism. we need to stop the socialism before we all become socialists. >> you're saying socialism an awful lot. you would need more than that

even if we were considering you. what is your position on north korea? >> socialism. >> get out. >> this ain't your father's republican party. [applause] >> got to love joe. the treasury of secretary warned us of libor but did the banks write that warning for him? plus my response to

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>> eliot: when the person who is the most important regulator of the financial industry relies on giant financial institutions to write their own regulations something is terribly amies. that's why tim geithner is about to be asked a lot of questions. as the scandal continues to spread geithner tried to prove that he was ahead of the curve by drawing attention to a memo that he sent out in 2008 warning banks about the need to reform libor. but it was a regurgitation of recommendations made by, you guessed it, giant banks.

if that sounds like a paradox it is. one that is at the heart of the depressing state of affairs of our current financial regulatory system. we haveher and president and ceo of better markets and matt taibbi, contribute be editor to rolling stone magazine. thank you for joining me. this memo that tim geithner wrote was nothing more than a sequence of cut and paste from the banks memo. what do you make of all this? >> well, sadly it's hardly news that the new york fed was doing the bidding of the banks. one of the promise that we had to the lead up to the crisis was that all these regulators were captive to wall street generally and they understood their job as serving the banks and being their advocates. it's just another example of one of the fundamental problems that we had that created the crisis.

trying to figure out how to put strong teeth in the laws and regulation so that over time we wouldn't revert back to what we see here, which is not even scribes. they just copy it and send it in, and you don't have to follow up unless one of the banks rings you up and say, why don't you do that again. >> eliot: matt, you've written--i don't think this is one of these guys who sees conspiracy behind every event of life. but you've seen the reality of the convergence of power. when you look at what the new york fed did sending out one memo and then nothing after that how do you interpret it? >> i think it's striking that the new york fed and the bank of england were both informed of this scandal directly in 2008. we know that at the very least and this illegal activity continued for a year, year and a half after that. that should scare a lot of people that the pro prime regulators

of the financial activity anding there was nothing dong with done about it. >> eliot: we don't know how to interpret the evidence in the conversation, barclays is affirmatively saying that the bank of england told them to do this. we should separate this out. there are two separate rationales going on. one, to make them look stronger in the '08 context. and the other is to manipulate the libor rate so that their betsen on whichbets on which way the interest rates should go. there is no justification. >> well, right. i mean it's very important that we keep it clear that there really are two phases to what is an egregious broad base scandal among the biggest banks of the

world. before the crisis they were doing it for no purpose other than to defraud their counter parties. it's not that it's a rate-rigging scandal. this is a criminal conspiracy and you know how these things work eliot but a criminal conspiracy among the biggest banks in the world for no other purpose but to rip people off across the world. yes, at a point in time we had a financial crisis and then trying to avoid a run and all these excuses and smoke to justify the behavior or excuse it to some extent. but the core of this is a criminal conspiracy among people knowingly violating some of the basic laws outlouing fraud conspiracy, wire fraud etc. that's why the next step we better see very soon. if we don't it's a sad day for this country because they ought to be slapping handcuffs on some of these traders and putting them in federal court.

you know what you have to do. handcuff them. arrest them, squeeze them, get information and handcuff, squeeze and move up the chain. >> eliot: there was an article over the weekend some presume a weakness because one person saidnal cases. they're trying to say that they're being tough. by the end of the year, how it's time in terms of the election, we won't get political equity yet. how can there be only one criminal case? >> well, first off it can't be just one bank. by it's very nature the scandal has to involve multi banks. if it's only one company or one individual that tells you that the scandal, the scope of this investigation has been artificially narrowed. but if you can't put someone in jail for manipulating a 800 trillion-dollar market, what can you put them in jail for. and the rest of america outside of wall street, it's pretty easy to go to jail in america. if they can't send someone to

jail for this, that's an incredible statement. >> eliot: matt said right. this is an open and shut case. first year law students ought to be able to wrack up a bunch of convictions. you don't even have to be that smart. the e-mails and voice mails can get convictions across the board and up the chain. >> cenk: and you're a lawyer. you have spent a fair number of years practicing. you're saying there is a well-founded understanding. >> i wish i had cases that were slam dunks like this when i practiced law. this is egregious criminal conduct that needs to be hit hard and fast. one of the reasons that this keeps happening because there has never been an accountability on wall street. wall street is a high-crime area and the criminals are left to run free. this would not be tolerated anywhere else in america and it's time to end the two sets of laws. we apply laws to everybody in this country and we pamper wall

street. we don't apply the criminal and civil laws. it's time to stop. the american people get it. they know they're getting special treatment. this is one of the times that the facts are so outrageous, even though this administration and others have not been interested in enforcing the law they'll be forced to do it. >> eliot: we have laws and recidivism and going out. why don't we do that, you do this again and than cuffs go on. >> they let them off with a promise never to do it again then they do it three four five times and it's the same time. i don't know how they keep getting the same deal. >> eliot: next time we'll take bets of how many indicts between now and the end of election day. dennis kelleher and matt taibbi, thank you for your timimimimimimimimimimimimimimimimimimimimimimimimimimim

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discuss all medicines you take, even eye drops. stop taking spiriva and seek immediate medical help if your breathing suddenly worsens your throat or tongue swells you get hives, vision changes or eye pain, or problems passing urine. other side effects include dry mouth and constipation. nothing can reverse copd. spiriva helps me breathe better. does breathing with copd weigh you down? ask your doctor if spiriva can help. >> eliot: coming up, i'll respond to commentary by maria bartiromo. but first let's check in with jennifer granholm in "the war room." >> i can't wait to see your commentary going after maria bartiromo and about her going after you. tonight we have got more secrets, more lies from mitt romney. we'll detailty latest on

governor romney's selective disclosure, when was he, or when wasn't he at bain and does america really want him to be their president. we'll get into details with former strickland, and the president was in ohio today. we have those guests and a ñcu >> eliot: so now the records are beginning to seep out. the n fed knew about the libor games being played out by the banks year ago. and seems to have done precious little about it except perhaps send a memo parroting the sow called reform ideas proposed by the banks themselves. then nothing more. no prosecutions, no inquires of the banks to see if the illegal behavior stopped. just a live and let live attitude. of course, this was the new york fed led by tim geithner who testified that he had never been

a regulator. huh? as president of the new york fed he was the most important regulator out there and he didn't even know it. simply amazing. but at least he was consistent. because he certainly didn't act like a regulator. he led a fed that paid back goldman sachs 100% on the dollar in the middle of the crash with your money when goldman was going business with aig. chenthen they bailed out aig with hundreds of millions of our dollars. this has never been explained. and then these companies that were bailed out were on the new york fed who made tim geithner their president. look who on the boulder. nick gold, and of course, jamie dimon of jpmorgan chase whose

bank's london derivative trade makes his role on the board even more absurd. we need an investigation of the fed and it's board by someone we can trust. and so far that does not seem to be existing government agencies. let's get a special prosecutor, maybe louis freeh to find out what happened, who spoke to whom, and why the fed once again did nothing. and maybe the prosecutor can forget one thing. if tim geithner was it's go time! >>every weeknight cenk uygur calls out the mainstream media. >>overwhelming majority of the county says: "tax the rich don't go to war."

>>(narrator) we are the trailblazers, the truth seekers. we are the idea no one wants to hear until it grabs you and won't let go. we push, we prod until the truth reveals itself. we are fearless, independent trendsetters, problem solvers, and above all, we are politically direct. the young turks with cenk uygur at 7, viewpoint with eliot spitzer at 8, the war room with jennifer granholm at 9, the gavin newsom show fridays at 11. and there's only one place you'll find us: weeknights on current tv. . what happened to george prescott bush. >> no, he was jeb bush's son. >> oh, that one. >> the ricky martin look-alike yeah. >> going in another direction.

the direction away from his father. >> eliot: on friday afternoon i had the pleasure of joining maria bartiromo on her show on cnbc to discuss the false allegations that hank greenberg the disgraced former chairman of aig was some how brought against personal reasons. in fact, it was only relateed to fraudulent business practices. in case you missed it here is a

portion. >> new explosive allegations surrounding your charge surrendering hank greenberg. you grout eight charges, six is been dropped two-- >> eliot: eight bin. >> six charge have been dropped. >> eliot: let's deal with facts. we brought a charge that aig accounting was fundmently admitted that. the board removed hank greenberg. because of the silliness attached to this claim people saying that i did this out of personal-- >> that's right. >> eliot: can i tell you something very simple, i don't know if this will make hank feel better or not. i have no emotions about him one way or another. maria, he's one in a litany of corporate executives who frauded the market. >> in all these charges you throw away so cavalier, there is no evidence to support that, eliot. >> eliot: maria, look, i hate to

deal withsay this, deal with facts. this is the federal court opinion. 39 hanks. hank greenberg coconspirator in fraud. facts matter i know this is cable tv but factors matter. hank greenberg committed fraud. >> there is no evidence of that. there are no charge of fraud. >> eliot: you can say it over and over. here is the 39-page federal opinion. have you read this opinion? >> eliot. >> eliot: i'm waiting for an answer. >> what was your question. >> eliot: have you read this opinion. >> yes, i have much. more than i want to read. >> eliot: does this opinion say that he's a conspirator who's actions began the conspiracy which. >> let's get back to the facts eliot. step out of the hr and let's talk oaths. >> eliot: you're under oath. >> i'm not under oath for you and i'm not in your courtroom. you're on my show.

and thank you very much for joining us, eliot spitzer. >> eliot: i'm asking you a question. >> what's the question. >> eliot: you said you read the opinion. does it say that language greenberg's actions led to fraud. >> no, it does not say that hank greenberg committed fraud. you say it. you say it all the time. i want to get to the facts. >> eliot: here is the problem. you want to repeat ad nauseam things that are coming outment pr machine of hank agreeberg. >> i'm not doing that. >> eliot: i'm asking to you give deference to a guest whos were cuted this. there is an inability on the leadership's part of wall street to acknowledge what happened. >> eliot: it was a spirited conversation, and i appreciated the ability to voice my side.

all of my facts got in the way of maria parroting the pr line. she went on this afternoon without anyone with to point out the facts. >> my heated conversation between myself and eliot spitzer. his persistent and continued attacks on hank greenberg. even though six out of the eight charges that spitzer's office has brought years ago has been dropped. and the remaining two were technical in nature. i made a point that it's irresponsible to keep saying publicly that greenberg committed fraud. there seems to be a personal animosity driving this and that his bullying tactics were inappropriate. idennis vaco said he heard spitzer speak in a personal nature about going after

greenberg. we were told by greenberg's law firm that spitzer called and played threats. i asked spitzer about that on friday. >> we are told that you faced a call to hank greenberg's lawyers allegedly you told them because your firm is in bed with someone like hank you will have to bear the consequences. i have the bazooka pointed at you, did you say this. >> eliot: here's where we are. david is a good friend of mine. david is representing hank greenberg. >> are you saying that you did not say it? >> eliot: i had a nice conversation with nick in which i said can you accepted me the statement that david has made. >> well, we edited that a bit because eliot spitzer did dodge the question and did everything but answer the question if he made the threat. if it these are the kinds of threats that he made now after his stunning fall from grace and

his own power is a show on a fledging cable network what kind of threats did he make as new york attorney general or governor. this is not about defending hank greenberg or discrediting eliot spitzer at all. this is empowering america. if it should be used by those who work on wall street or those who are supposed to monitor wall street this show will point it out. >> eliot: as much as i enjoyed appearing on your show, you seem to want to rewrite history the moment no one is there to bring you back to the facts. first, aig and hank greenberg were charged with fraud and deceptive accounting practices as well as a raft of other abuses. two. aig settled those charge for $1.64 billion. at the time the largest payment in history. let me quote "the new york times" reporting of the settlement. quote, under the settlement reached with the justice department the securities and

exchange commission, the new york attorney general's office, and the new york state insurance department aig acknowledged it had deceived the investigating public and regulators. three, i quote further from the "new york times." mr. greenberg, who was removed by aig's board last march remains under investigation by the securities and exchange commission and the justice department and face as lawsuit by attorney general eliot spitzer. let me quote from a bloomberg newsernews report, i quote last night aig announceed that greenberg 79, would stepped down as officer, and greenberg's resignation as ceo came in new york attorney general eliot spitzer zeroed in on a specific reinsurance and spitzer obtained n in the past 10 to 14 days that greenberg himself may have initiated the transaction. lest there be should any doubt about this or greenberg's role,

let me equity from a federal judge's opinion after a federal prosecution. the government presented sufficient evidence that started with greenberg's october 31, october 31, 2000, phone call to ferguson to artificially inflate aig's loss reserves and deceive investors that the amount of the company's loss reserves and the quality of earnings. and more. i quote this evidence provides an adequate basis for the rational jury to conclude that the conspiracy to artificially inflate aig's loss reserves and deceive the company's investors started with greenberg's call to ferguson. perhaps that's why greenberg invoked his fifth amendment right when we invited to to discuss these transactions. perhaps that's why when he was charged in 2009 for the actions relating to these same

transactions he settled for 17 million-dollar. this is our your network website covered it. greenberg settles charges with sec. maria, every statement i made about hank greenberg's role in these frauds is proven and accurate. it's too bad wall street's leadership cannot learn lessons from the past and move forward. maria, let's stick with the facts, not the press releases from greenberg's attorneys and press machine. as you know we would love to have you join us on this show. we've invited you but have not yet heard back. maria, you have an open invitation to join me on "viewpoint"," but based on the evidence, who really abused their power here.