tv The War Room Current March 14, 2013 3:00pm-4:00pm PDT
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because nobody thought we could win this. we didn't think we could win. david beat goliath! david beat goliath! david beat goliath! the city council of monroeville, pennsylvania handed wal-mart their hat today. wal-mart packs its bags in cobb county, georgia. community resistance paid off in hickory, north carolinan. wal-mart hit the road. anti-wal-mart candidates sweep the helotes, texas, election. another trip down the long and dusty for wal-mart in biloxi, mississippi. when you have a group of people, a small group of people, who don't want you in the community, does that mean you're not gonna go there? thornton, colorado, defeated wal-mart. wal-mart beaten... wal-mart loses to plainfield, illinois. las vegas, nevada, defeated wal-mart. victory in maine... when you have a group of people, a small group of people, who don't want you... don't want you in the community... wal-mart loses to charlevoix michigan. neighborhood fights off proposed wal-mart store.
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wal-mart beaten. wal-mart loses to chicago, illinois. wal-mart zoned off from flagstaff, arizona. arlington, texas, rejects wal-mart. victory in colchester, connecticut. success. centerville, utah. victory. harrison, new jersey. an anti-wal-mart slate was elected to city council in deptford, new jersey. voters rejected wal-mart in lebanon, pennsylvania. the wal-mart man? defeated... in glendora, california. wal-mart beaten in medford oregon.
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[ ♪ theme music ♪ ] >> michael: coming up tonight two-year-old screech. college students have the harlem shake, and republicans have the cpac speech. tonight we find out which of these attention-grabbing stunts is the most annoying. i'm michael shure, and you are in "the war room." [ ♪ theme music ♪ ] >> michael: attention is like oxygen in d.c. politicians seem to need it to survive. nowhere was that more evident than cpac, the far right logical la paloozalow,lowlollapalooza.
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ted cruz tried to get attention any way he could and the best he could do was give a lecture on guns. good luck on that one. mitt romney's 47% comment, the one he was hoping would get no attention at all, and the man who shot that video finally out from behind the camera. first we go to our nation's capitol where the right wing's cream of the crop bring out their wacky ideas. first, should we shoot all of the consultants now? and then trump the race card, are you sick and tired of being called a racist and you know you're not one? right, i'm sure that panel won't be racist at all.
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then finally stop this: threats, harassments intimidation slander and bullying from the obama administration. the best thing from this slander panel is that it features ben shapiro who gave the fabricateed friends of hamas story, the one that slandered chuck hagel by implying that he had terrorist ties. i guess you teach what you know. then for entertainment its called mine, dig and climb your way back to prosperity where they use a claw to grab at tiny toy globes. as for souvenirs nothing can beat a marco rubio water bottle. yes, $25 for this. then actual attempts at substance, and the thirsty man himself made an appearance today. here he is on science. >> the people who are actually close-minded american politics are people who love to preach
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the certainty of science with regard to our climate but ignore the absolute fact that science has proven that life begins at conception. >> michael: and speaking of attention-seeking science bashers, rand paul got his 15 minutes today. that's better than 13 hours i guess. he used this chunk of time to bash medical research. >> does it really take $3 million to discover that monkeys like humans act crazy on meth? >> michael: well, that's rand paul sober, i would hate to see like he would be like on meth. paul didn't go after life-saving research but senior members of his own part. paul has been engaged in a war of words with senator mccain and had some choice ones today. >> the g.o.p. of old has grown steal and moss-covered.
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i don't think we need to name any names. >> michael: no, rand, no names necessary. steal and moss-covered describes the entire republican party. here is the evidence, rick perry was booed today when he dared to utter the words of hispanic outreach. today he went after senator dianne feinstein who introduced the assault weapons ban. >> it seems to me that all of us should begin as our foundational document with the constitution. and the second amendment in the bill of rights provide for the right of the people to keep and bill arms shall not be infringed. >> one, i'm not a sixth grader. senator, i've been on this
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committee for 20 years. i was a mayor for nine years. i walked in, i saw people shot. i've looked at bodies that have been shot with these weapons. i have seen the bullets that implode. in sandy hook youngsters youngsters were dismembered. it's fine you want to lecture me on the constitution. i appreciate it. i've been here a long time. i studied the constitution myself. i am reasonably well educated, and i thank you for the lecture. incidentally, this does not prohibit--you use the word prohibit. it exempts 2,271 weapons. isn't that enough for the people in the united states? do they need a bazuka. >> michael: senator, you're no jack kipped. cruz is not winning any popularity contests. he has been on the losing side of every
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single vote taken and today was no different. the assault weapons ban passed on a 10-8 party line vote. with jonathan easley coming to us from skype. welcome inside "the war room." >> thank you for having me. >> michael: will this endear cruz to the far right? i want to me if there is a down side for him if he acts like this with feinstein. >> i don't know if there is a down side. i don't think there is much more he can do to endear himself to the right of his party on. but tea party freshman, a tea party favorite, he was sent to washington to do this. last week you were talking about rand paul and john mccain back and forth. ted cruz picked up on that filibuster and john mccain called rand paul and ted cruz wackadoo birds or something like that.
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he said he considered it a badge of honor to be criticized by the establishment wing of the republican party. it's part and parcel for him. it's happened again and it will it happened before. >> michael: i don't remember any precedence for this. i don't remember a senator coming in two months in his term and causing this much wave. can you think of anything off the top of your head? >> not the way ted cruz has done. chuck hagel that was ted cruz at his most pointed. he came in and started ruffling feathers. everybody expected it, but he's taking advantage of the moments that he has been given i think. >> michael: yes, no question about that. so senator sheldon also remained on the attack on cruz and made this argument. >> it is hard to image that it can be violation of the first
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amendment for somebody to yell fire in a crowded theater, but it's not a violation of the second amendment to prevent someone from bringing a hundred-round magazine into a crowded theater in aurora, colorado. >> michael: you know, it's a very apt turn of phrase when talking about the first and second amendment the way he's doing it, but is it fair to what cruz is saying? is he making that argument? >> that actually came up in the panel hearing. ted cruz would provoke that exchange with dianne feinstein saying you can take a look at the first amendment. are there books you want to ban the way you're trying to do with the second amendment? and feinstein's argument was look, we have limits on the first amendment. child porn is illegal. and then look at the
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controversial of textbooks and what's going on in your home state of texas. grassley made the point that the burden is on those who are trying to limit constitutional rights and not those who are trying to defend the rights. that's a counterpoint but an interesting argument. >> michael: the bill passed committee, but will it pass the senate? >> no, this bill won't pass the senate. there are too many red-state democrats democrats who are up for election in 2014. west virginia is a case study in that. this is the most controversial gun measure that has gotten out of committee and it will probably not pass the senate. >> michael: and ultimately do you think we'll get anything? what do you think will come out of the congress? >> yeah, i think we will get something. there were three--they've been working on this to two weeks holding hearings. there have been three bills and
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there is the chuck schumer bill which he has some republican support at first but then some republicans have backed away since then. all the republicans said they were hopeful they could back the final bill. there is going to be an amendment that will be allowed on the floor. then you have chuck grassley supported in committee a bill that cracks down on straw purchasers and illegal transfer of guns. that's got a chance. then the least controversial one is the bill that ramps up school safety and security. so three of the four measures--there seems to be optimism that three of those could make it through the senate. some of those possibly the house. we'll have to see. >> michael: for a lot of people who are against guns, the most important is the assault weapons ban. jonathan easley from the hill. thank you so much. now from attention seeking to attention shirkers. mitt romney did his best to keep his views under wraps but then a video leaked that said he
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thought 47% of of americans are moochers. scott proudy was a bar bartender was there that night. and the night before he worked at a dinner for president clinton. he was impressed with how nice bubba was. >> i felt an obligation to release it. i felt an obligation for all the people who couldn't afford to be there. you shouldn't have to be able to afford $50,000 to hear what the candidate actually thinks. >> michael: just amazing. here is the story that has the county's attention. the tsa has announced it will lift it's ban on small knife and sports equipment like baseball bats and hockey sticks. that means the weapons used on 9/11 will be allowed on planes again. three house members formerly objected to the tsa decision but
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the tsa is standing firm. i guess it's approaches is i hope our passengers pay attention to who is carrying small knives and baseball bats on to planes because we aren't. coming up, the american people are mad as hell, and they're just plain over it. our collective disappointment with congress is reaching historic levels. but is there hope? elizabeth warren sounds--how should we put this? i guess a little different and people are starting to pay attention. plus cpac is more than a bunch of people saying crazy things. it's an opportunity for ambitious politicians to destroy their national appeal. it's "the war room." we will be right back.
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you know who is coming on to me now? you know the kind of guys that do reverse mortgage commercials? those types are coming on to me all the time now. (vo) she gets the comedians laughing and the thinkers thinking. >>ok, so there's wiggle room in the ten commandments, that's what you're saying. you would rather deal with ahmadinejad than me. >>absolutely. >> and so would mitt romney. (vo) she's joy behar. >>and the best part is that current will let me say anything. what the hell were they thinking? [ ♪ music ♪ ] >> michael: welcome back to the war room. i'm michael shure. in an interview with "the new york times" today speaker john boehner perfecterred showed how
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out of touch he is. he told the times coat, there are a lot of things that decide an election, especially the two candidates that you have. the person amounts that they have positions they have taken i don't know that that's the issue. way to under estimate the american people. mitt romney did lack a bit in the personality department but the republican policies of extremist and decision did not do them any favors either. a gallup pull out today backs that up. americans are more dissatisfied with the government now since the watergate scandal. that's not good. here to discuss this is strategist kkiki mclean. welcome back inside "the war room," kiki. >> glad to be here. >> michael: boy, if you don't have personality, you could make it as far as speaker of the
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house. he shoots himself in the foot with that logic. >> well, personalities are in the eye of the beholder. >> michael: that's exactly right. the republican policies aren't popular theater are their person amountpersonalities. do they have anything to lose by dragging the president down with them? >> the biggest problem for congress is the desire for individual elected officials to pursue their own benefits, what will help them in their short term until the next election. that shortsightedness is bringing down the whole house. if you as an institution aren't delivering people don't want to be a part of you and that's frankly where congress sits today. >> michael: let's talk about it as it pertains to the president. today was the third and final day of the president's charm offensive. he met with senate republicans and house democrats. his strategy does not seem to be working either. >> well, that's different.
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you're talking about the charm offense. this is getting open lines of communication. you can have tough negotiations, and you can have an outcome when there is trust. right now people on both sides of the aisle have felt so safe to throw barbs, throw up nasty blog posts and call other elected officials names there is no trust left. when you get around the table how do you have those conversations. i belong to a group called "no labels" where republicans, democrats come together to push back against partisanship and focus on problem solving. there are members of congress who recognize this is their job and they need to move forward. they're beginning to grow in numbers. there are 50 of them already. but what we label a term offensive is opening lines of communication with the other side and trying to develop some core group of folks where there is trust in the middle.
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you got to take this bomb throwing from both sides out it out of it. as long as that goes on you won't get anywhere. >> michael: i hear you the problem is the labels, and how big do their numbers have to grow before they're able to influence the rest of their colleagues? it seems like obviously we know the problems aren't being solved. >> well, we know a couple of things. we know there are people who may have won re-election last time who got in trouble because they went home and had nothing to show for their effort in congress. they came back looking wow, we got to do something. people expect something from us. i'm not sure that every has learned that lesson, but do you the math. you have a block of 80, 90 congress who want to do something, you'll be able to move it forward. when people come together who want to solve the problem rather than draw the line, you know, in 2010 when large numbers of tea partyers were elected this is not an indictment on their
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position just an observation. they were elected to draw a line in the sand and stop president obama from doing anything. that was their soul argument. now they went back and said we didn't get anything done for you american people? and the american people said not so fast. we expect something. >> michael: and that's a really good point kiki. that was their policy and it takes a while to move back. but how much of a toll has it taken on president obama? >> he has to be able to deliver something, too. leadership requires cooperation. but failures rest on the shoulders of leaders. there is a price that he pays on a daily basis for this. if he needs get the lines of communication open, kick that door open, get it going then that's his job as president. if he doesn't do it, that responsibility comes down on his shoulders. >> michael: that's very true. i agree, that's part of the problem has been for this president. it's just been such a frustrating place he finds
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himself. another gallup poll found worldwide approval of american leadership has dropped. is the president responsible for that? >> the president has a role in that relationship but we in this nation have to take take a stature of what we're doing. if we have a growing economy but if the leaders of congress can't come together and deal with the sequester and the possible shutdown and we continue to live in these short- short-term crises, it diminishes our strength around the world. it does. >> michael: that seems to be happening. you told us straightforwardly and exactly what it is democratic strategy kiki mclean, thank you for coming in to "the war room" today. undeterred from the angry stares and slack jawed confusion
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from the media, elizabeth warren continues to speak truth to power. the latest on her introduction to this unique phenomenon in washington that story next. with award winning documentaries that take you inside the headlines. real, gripping, current. documentaries... on current tv. you're invited to take the lysol wipes challenge. try lysol dual action wipes and see the cleaning power. lysol dual action wipes have 2 sides instead of one.
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[ ♪ music ♪ ] >> michael: the progressive movement has always sought to regulate corporations and reform banking. but now there is a fight brewing among washington liberals and how do you punish banks that are considered too big to fail? this has been a contentious issue between the left and president obama for the last four years. so when eric holder told a senate hearing this last week. >> i am concerned that the size of some of these institutions become so large that it does become difficult for us to prosecute them when we are hit
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with indications that if we do prosecute, if you do bring a criminal charge it will have a negative impact on the national economy, perhaps even the world economy. >> michael: well it got tongues wagging because this is one of the president's lieutenants admitting that dodd frank wall street reform won't actually stop too-big-to-fail. there are still banks that are too big to prosecute. the president's nomination of mary jo white as the next chair of securities and exchange commission has gotten progressives even more riled up. >> federal prosecutors are instructed by doj that they have a long line of factors to consider and one of them is that the collateral consequences of a criminal indictment to inspect shareholders employees or the public. >> michael: meanwhile, on the very same day that white also admitted some institutions are too big to prosecute senator
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elizabeth warren had choice words for republicans on the senate banking committee who tried to block richard cordray's appointment to the consumer financial protection bureau. liberals take on corporate fat cats, and the president is in the crosshairs, i go to david sirota. how are you david? >> i'm doing well. let's go to the new sheriff of wall street mary jo white. doesn't her statement prove why every-day americans are so distrustful of the relationship between government and banks? >> absolutely. you're absolutely right. i think it reinforces the idea that there is one set of laws for big corporations, wealthy people the politically connected, and another set of laws for everybody else. that was a really radical testimony that mary jo white engaged in. she admitted, and remember she's a former prosecutor. she admitted that she's taking
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in account the outside economic impact of prosecutorial decisions. the precept that justices are supposed to be blind to the questions of economics, the questions of impact on other things outside of the justice system. instead she's saying essentially that prosecutors should be thinking--shareholders whether to prosecute lawbreakers. shareholders should determine in part whether a law-braking company should be prosecuting. that's a radical notion. >> michael: that's crazy. people within the corporation deciding whether the corporation should be prosecuted. where in the world does that sit in legal terms? she has a diverse resumé. she has worked as a federal prosecutor. she has worked on the defense of morgan chase, bank of america. and don't we want people who knows the inners of how banks
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work but laws when you talk about shareholders taking the law in their own hands, that's ridiculous. >> you're absolutely right to ask the question, what kind of people do we want in these positions? what we're seeing with the obama administration a willingness to put people in these position who is are connected mary jo white was a defense lawyer for some of the biggest wall street ceos, the people she's supposed to be regulating at the sec. let's look at her career for a second. she admits when she was a prosecutor chevetteed certain prosecutorial decisions before economic political appointees in the clinton administration. she called up political appointees in the economic department and asked essentially should i prosecute these people or will it have an affect on the economy? the fact that a prosecutor was doing that suggests that the focus was not on busting people who were breaking the law but the focus was somewhere else, somewhere else that it should not be.
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>> michael: you know, when i hear you say that i agree, but who are they going to select at the security exchange commission. they just picked the pope yesterday. they didn't pick out a guy out of a mall in milwaukee but they went to a group of cardinals who chose who the next pope was going to be. who else would take a job like this? >> look, there are plenty of people. elizabeth warren came out of academia. there are people who have had real world experience in regulatory issues. there is william black, a federal reserve board chairman. my point is if the only people qualified to do law enforcement jobs in the financial industry are not only people from the financial industry. people who have connections to the financial industry. there are people with expertise outside of the regulators. but the paradigm in washington
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seem to be the only people who can guard the hen house is the fox. that's the wrong pair time especiallytime--paradigm especially at this point. >> michael: let's go on to elizabeth warren. this is elizabeth warren speaking about senate republicans trying to filibuster the nomination of cordray. >> brocking rich cordray is about keeping the game rigged. keeping the game rigged so that consumers stay in the dark and a few can rake in billions in profit. >> michael: is elizabeth warren proving she is the great hope of progressives? >> i think so far absolutely. elizabeth warren has refused to play the hillary clinton game. there is an idea when you come into the u.s. senate you should follow the hillary clinton model of not making too many waves not speaking up. there was a fear when elizabeth warren with such a national
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profile, would come into the senate and keep her head down. she has proven week after week that she will not do that. that is very good news. that's what we need right now. >> michael: you wrote on that that the democrats need to decide between president obama and liberalism. very quickly explain what that means. >> well, look, president obama endorsed cuts through social security. he's a guy pushing for the expansion of the amuf resolution allowing the president have war all over the place. it's time for progressives in the congress to say this is unacceptable. and this is the good news. this week we've seen a some of progressives in the congress stand up and challenge the white house. i think that may finally move the debate back to the progressive agenda. but it's a weird situation where you have a democrat challenging the democratic agenda. it's rare. >> michael: nothing that anyone would have predicted in 2008. syndicated columnist, david
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sirota thank you for all the provocative writing. we'll speak to you soon. relevance rally around the base of cpac. this the is the equivalent of the seventh cavalry riding around custer. hey, it's their party. we'll be right back. question whether i'm right, but i think that the audience gets that this guy, to the best of his ability, is trying to look out for us.
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>> michael: even though they don't behave as they know, the republican party has to know it needs to broaden it's base to get the white house back. mitt romney handily won the white vote but the party has been buryied by minority voters. take a look at what exit polls showed president obama took. 94% of the plaque vote.
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71% of the hispanic vote and 73% of the asian vote. today the republican base opened three days of meetings and pep rallies at the conservative political action conference outside of washington, d.c. c-pac turned to mario lopez for help. sorry, not that mario lopez from "saved by the bell" but the head of the hispanic leadership fund. here's his idea about how to save the jon from g.o.p. from ms. . >> i believe if we focus on doing a better job of not just small businesses, issues the small business owners but the people that work for small businesses that work for small businesses that represents a huge opportunity for conservatives to make ahead way and start winning national elections. >> michael: lops does have a point. if republicans stopped worrying so much about ceos they just might get more votes. joining me now to break down weather the republican party's base helping or holding the
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party back is jamelle bouie. welcome inside "the war room." >> thank you for having me. >> michael: the republican base by definition isn't moderate. is this the wrong place to expect a broad national movement to start then? >> i think at the moment that's exactly the wrong place to expect a change in the republican party. remember the base is still mostly whiter, mostly older and mostly very conservative. neither people who have no real interests in adopting the kind of views necessary to move to the middle and maybe to win more votes. right now i think the republican reform project ought to be concentrated on elites in politicians. if you take a step back and look at what the democrats said after the 1988 election, in 1988 michael do you dukakis loses big time to bush, and they led the charge to moderate the democratic party
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and bring it back to center and win elections. right now for the g.o.p. they have to take the same approach. more on that, did the base do itself any favors? >> i don't think they did itself any flavors. favors at all. with the christie exclusion mcdonnell exclusion is puzzling. christie is not a liberal. they hold similar views on marriage, labor, they're the same politicians that republicans should want. men who can win in blue or purple states using a moderate techno cratic mention and has the personality to hold voters. you would think they would have the appeal to try to make new
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appeals, again to go back to the 90s. bill clinton would the equivalent of this type of politician. arkansas democrat. by no means lib liberal. christie and mcdonnell smacks of an attitude that we don't need to change our views. whatwe don't need to change what we're doing. we just need to go back to the failed approach of the past. >> michael: they're focusing on the approach at the expense of electability which is puzzling to me. maybe they wanted to make it curbcucinelli's coming out party. and imagine a candidate from virginia, what could that do for their party? but they seem to make bad decisions. today marco rubio one of the other people that we talk about
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for the future by pasted immigration in his speech, focused on conservative principles instead. did he miss out on starting a dialogue on immigration reform? >> i think so. marco rubio has had a hard time convincing the most conservative members of the g.o.p. the people who kind of control the house of representatives, and will be the veto point. the veto vote on immigration should it come to that. this was an opportunity for rubio to make the case in terms that they can understand. but part of the problem might be that it's actually very hard to make the case for immigration reform in a way that will apeep to conservatives. the main case that rubio is making if we reform immigration, not only can we provide workers for low income industries, but also we can begin to appeal to latino voters
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again. but latino voters don't vote democratic just because of immigration. it's difficult for them to say that they vote democratic because of immigration. they vote democratic because they are liberal on a whole host of issues. and where immigration comes in is that immigration is a point of affinity because democrats show themselves open to it. it's not--you can't just be on the right side of immigration and then win the latino votes. >> michael: you're right about that. that's something that we forget. it's not a single-issue group. just that one issue applies to them more than it does to most americans. jamelle bouie, thank you so much for coming into "the war room." >> thank you. >> michael: now that the smoke has cleared what are americans to make of the new pope? the host of the catholic guy which is a best name for a radio show i've ever heard joins us right after this.
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[ ♪ music ♪ ] real immigration reform? >> with a distinctly satirical point of view. if you believe in state's rights but still believe in the drug war you must be high. >> only on current tv. stop looking at car interiors. get inspired by other stuff. yep. yep. ok. sure. why not? woah. touchscreens. put that in your dash. now, luxury stuff. make your seats like that. that thing has wifi, why doesn't your car? you can't do that. ignore that
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[ ♪ theme music ♪ ] >> michael: never has so much fuss been made about how a pope gets around town. as archbishop of buenos aires argentina, then cardinal bergoglio decline a private car and driver in favor of buses and the subway. according to "the new york daily news," in one of his visits to one of the city's slums, a bricklayer stood up and said, i'm proud of you because when i came here with my companion i don't knows in a bus i saw you sitting in one of the last seats like one more of us. i told them it was you but no one believed me. yesterday after after the papal
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conclave that selected the pope, pope francis took a bus with the rest of the cardinals shunning the private popemobile. he went back to the hotel where he had been staying to pay his bill and thank the staff. then he walked out to the main rode and hailed a taxi by himself. even when he weighed in on the travel choices of his parishioners. when he was anointed as cardinal by popedown ball ii he learned that some of his flock planned to go to rome for the ceremony. he asked them to give their travel money to the poor instead. joining us from new york is father bob keighron. he is a priest in the diocese of brooklyn and co-hosts "the catholic guy" radio show on the catholic channel on sirous xm. how long do you think the poem francis will be able to remain so seemingly humble.
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>> he didn't come out as this newly humble man. you said it yourself. he has done this back in argentina. he has done it for many years. he is a humble man by nature. we saw a glimpsed of that. there would be many who would be telling him no, you have to dress differently and you have to do things differently now that you're the pope. he said, no, i'm not going to do that. i think we have to look forward to this kind of behavior and humility throughout his papacy. >> michael: you make a pretty good point. he is 76, and he is probably set in his ways. but he has been pope only for a day, and some of the trappings of the papacy is not so humble. if that stays with him that will be fabulously successful. but when cardinal bergoglio were not toppling the leaders.
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when did he start to to attract notice from? >> he wasn't that well-known. but back in 2001 he was part of the senate of bishops, something that happens every two or three or four years where the popes comecall together representatives from all over the world to talk about the issues of the church. back in 2001 then cardinal bergoglio was there for this senate of bishops. one of the cardinals was in charge of that senate was edward egan who we know here in new york was archbishop of new york for many years. he was called back because of the tragic events of 9/11. cardinal bergoglio took his place as one of the chief leaders of that senate, and people started to see then someone who had a servant heart yet at this point could very easily instruct people, including his own bishops, on what was important about our faith. >> michael: you know, let's listen to him talk a little bit about the faith and also the
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society over which he's going to be. a meeting with latin american bishops in 2007 cardinal bergoglio expressed his concern over the growing income inequality in latin america saying quote the unjust distribution of goods persists creating a situation of social sin that cries out to heaven and limits the possibilities of a fuller life for so many of our brothers. do you think he has the power to bring about real change on issues like this, and if so, what steps can he take? >> power for the pope is different than what we would expect as americans. he's not going to be able to pass any laws or force any legislation through any particular government but what he can do is set an example. if we think back to john paul ii who was our pope, he did a lot in his homeland of poland in trying to promote social equality, and particularly with the solidarity movement there. he was influential in how to move things forward. so as pope francis he might not
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be able to do anything in one particular country or another he can set the example. the example he sets by his own life and in bringing leaders together and talking about things that do unite a good part of the world. while it may not always play well to our ears in america, he coming from latin america and other parts of the world that need these new measures i think his message is going to ring in their hearts, their minds and their ears very well. as he continues to spread that message as he did while in argentina, i think it will be hard for world leaders to ignore what he's saying. >> michael: let's talk about what you just said there. let's talk about not just american ears but the ears of american catholics. should american catholics feel good that pope francis was chosen instead one of the other cardinals? >> i think we should. we should see it as a fresh perspective. so many times in in the vatican people who work there for a long time, they may have great
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intentions but they feel is disconnect. even catholics who don't go to church on sunday, we know in america, 70% of catholics don't go to church on sundays, they can feel so disconnected from where those catholics are at. we have a man who for the last 15 years was bishop of buenos aires, argentina and had a connection with people on a daily basis. we as americans have to feel comfortable with that, someone who comes from our side of the world, and with a mentality of where people are, and by his example and words, he will try to reach out and bring back as many people as he possibly can can. >> michael: fantastic. that's a great insight by rob keightron, host of "the catholic guy." honest. they can question whether i'm right, but i think that the audience gets that this guy, to the best of his ability, is trying to look
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>> michael: before we get to brett we have to get to the best of the rest. first, from the "we watch fox news so you don't have to" file, fox news is all over the closing of white house tours story. so when megyn kelly started her "america live" show with a fox news alert on that pressing issue if it got our attention. here is chris stirewalt explaining the political optics of the tour shutdown. >> the president or whoever chose to do this has put the president in a corner. >> stevie wonder can't see it, either. i'm just sayin'. >> i did not say that. i did not say that. >> i'm say going to you want to get technical. >> michael: really megyn?
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really. the sequester coverage is one bad joke over 12,000 new hits christ white house tours while 1,000 cite cuts housing assistance. now heading to the college campaign front. this is when political am missions on university campuses are ignited. rick santorum's son ran for class president at the citadel. he declared, i love america and i love guns. another campaign slogan asked voters, help me finish what my dad couldn't. turns out the santorum charm is limited, even at a conservative school at the citadel. he lost his election yesterday. as they say like father like son. they also say like rodman like un. when surrounded by world leaders there is only one
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