i have never been involved in a felony. >> three's company in this fight for the white house. ♪ and it is game on 2012. we begin with president obama launching a three-day tour across key election states. after drawing a clear line against his republican foils in his state of the union address. the president began his tour in iowa today, resounding as he did last night, the central issue of his presidency. preserving the american dream for all in this country. >> they do believe that if they work hard, they should be able to achieve that small measure of an american dream. that's what this country's about. that's what you deserve. this country only exists because generations of americans work together and looked out for each other. and believed that you know, we're stronger when we rise together.

>> and if you heard the suggestion of a certain challenge there towards particular republican candidates, well, the president was even more pointed in his language last night. >> we don't begrudge financial success in this country. we admire it. when americans talk about folks like me paying my fair share of taxes, it's not because they enve enenvy the rich. it's because they understand when i get a tax break, i don't need or the country can't afford, it either adds to the deficit or sboid else makes up the difference. >> of course, cameras may not have the captured the grimace on mitt romney's face but you can bet it there. this morning he blasted the president for being out of touch in an interview with cnbc's larry kudlow to be broadcast tonight. >> he is completely detached from the reality of what's happening in america. his prescription that somehow we

need to find someone to blame, whether it's the bankers or people who make a lot of money, we've got to find someone to blame. >> the president detached from reality? that's a bit rich from someone who pays 14% tax on $27 million. and wants to cut his own taxes by half. try telling that to your swiss banker, mitt. i'm sure anders could lend an ear. the fact is your wealthy peers like bill gates agree with the president. >> the united states has a huge budget deficit. so taxes are going to have to go up. and i certainly agree they should go up more on the rich than everyone else. that's just justice. i don't feel like people like myself are paying as much as we should. >> smart guy, bill gates. as for newt gingrich, he went further, donning his professorial mortar board for his friends at fox and suggesting the president is intellectually challenged on his own policies. >> what you don't know with

obama is whether he has a clue what it meant when he said it. but he said he wants a 30% minimum tax on people with a million dollars income. if you have capital gains, that would double it your capital gains tax. >> we're pretty sure he understands that, mr. gingrich. of course, we know that according to newt, nobody understands anything as well as him. least of all, anyone in the media. as gingrich proved today, blasting you know i vision's jorge ramos for asking pertinent questions. >> when you were speaker of the house, you criticized president clinton for having -- >> i criticized president clinton for lying under oath in front of a federal oath. >> but people think that's hypocritical to criticize president clinton for doing the same thing that you were doing at the same time. >> okay, there's some place where there's a mental synapse missing. i didn't do the same thing. i have never lied under oath. i have never committed perjury.

i have never been involved in a felony. he was. >> we have got a triple panel to kick things off. in washington, democratic strategist julian epstein and here in new york, a special guest appearance live by ana marie cox, correspondent for the guardian and the always welcome and more local joy ann reed, msbc contributor and managing editor of the agreeio.com. julian, the president is detached from reality. isn't that a bit rich coming from mitt romney? >> i think it's a time-worn and increasingly silly argument. if i had one complaint about there president, it would be he has not taken enough credit for his own economic successes. if you look where we were when he came into office the economy was shrinking at almost 8% a year. it's now growing at almost 2, 2.5% a year. we were losing 800,000 jobs a month, now gaining a couple hundred thousand. 22 months of consecutive private sector growth creating 2.3

million jobs. the stock market was at 6,000, now closer to 11,000. look at all the successes in terms of saving the financial and auto industry, the bin laden success, the successes in foreign affairs. if there's one complaint i have is that this administration has not done a good enough job in taking the credit for rescuing this economy from the brink of economic disaster. the white house has been worried it's hard to do that when you've got 8.5% unemployment. the american people are smarter than that. i think they understand the trends are in the right direction and that credit goes to obama for the intelligent use of government when the country needed most. >> anna marie in the world of newtopia, of brain science, history. >> space. >> no lobbying whatsoever, newt gingrich, is he the superior species? >> he's the giant brain that controls everything. i think he kind of looks like a giant brain. it's a stretch to call him an evil jennious. at least half that equation is right.

i'm sure he would probably think the whole thing is right. >> he tells the president he doesn't know what he's talking about and he can ennen tell us where fidel castro is going in the after life because he tells us he's going to hell. is there anything that newt doesn't know? >> i think thattet apparently does not know his wives very well. he can't successfully predict their reactions to his behavior. but other than that, if not what everyone is doing and thinking, he's on top of what they should be doinging. >> joy ann, the president yesterday sfoek about the issue of inequality and he spoke about a taxation system that needs to be changed. a taxation system that warren buffett and bill gates, you just heard him, believe is unfairly beneficial to the rich. >> right. >> why doesn't eric cantor, newt gingrich, mitt romney, john boehner -- why do we reject that simple notion that the taxation system should be fair for

everybody? >> i mean i think, martin, this is a case where you have to know a man who he works for. eric cantor and john boehner and these guys, their client is the plutocracy, the 1%. the guys on wall street who are angry at barack obama becauset wouldn't fete them at the white house will not tolerate him doing something like that. the chamber of commerce will not tolerate the republicans walking away from them. they are joined to the hip by the 1%. they're not just creeding to barack obama the fairness issue but ceding to him the optimism issue, the values issue and letting him have all of that. all they've got is the negativity. >> i'm nodding. i feel like when you hear obama's speech compared to the speeches of the gop candidates, what you hear from obama is working together, trying to raise each other up. it's a very -- a common goal kind of theme. >> fraternal. >> what you hear everywhere almost all of the candidates, except i would say rick santorum

does not really sound like this, you are out for yourself. what we need to do is let each other fight to the death. it's survival of the fittest. >> julian. >> gingrich for all his pontificating and talking down to people, he's wrong when he talks about getting rid of the capital tax. the rule is if you earn your income, if you earn $1 million or even more or less from instinct that's known as private equity, your income is treated as capital gains. it's a loophole in the tax law. it's a giant loophole. that's what the president is trying to close. gingrich is taking credit for the incredible jobs record we had in the 1990s and saying he's the one that brought about the economic growth. anybody that experienced it, and i was there up close for each of the three major budget battles, 1993 when not a single republican voted for the budget, 1995 when gingrich tried to close down the government and he lost that fight and then in 1997 when gingrich was talking about having medicare wither on the

vine. the three major budget phis in the 1990s that gingrich now tries to take credit for, he actually lost all of those fights. >> julian, how dare you correct the historian. don't do that! >> the news media is not -- with all due respect to john king, it wasn't exactly a tim russert moment. when we went through impeachment and again i was there, i was the counsel at the committee, gingrich repeatedly made an issue of clinton's is private and personal misconduct. and he constantly made that an issue. his hypocrisy is absurd. this idea on the lobbyists, the reason he can claim he's a lobbyist is because of another loophole. if you represent fannie mae and devote less than 20% of your time to lobbying, you can say you're not a registered lobbyist. >> julian, i'm sick of you correcting the world's finest historian. and a final question. >> i want the news meed to do more of this. >> final question to you, anna.

what about arithmetic romney. if newt gingrich has everything out there, he's fairly nasty. all the public polling suggest that the majority of people loath the man. mitt, people just don't know the man. >> what this they do know they're apparently not liking him much. swing voters and middle class voters, his disapproval rating is 20% in the past two the months. i think they're getting to know him and not liking him or more likely is they're feeling like they're not getting to know him. all they see is this very rehearsed guy who when when he is somehow pushed off message fumbles into the truth somehow like i only paid 15%. i earn ed a little bit of money from speaking fees. i'm unemployed. i feel kind of bad, i feel almost bad for him if he wasn't so extremely wealthy because i don't think he's a bad man. >> you might be just envious of him. >> please, we've had enough of this. julian epstein, joy ann reed and

anmamary cox. coming up, more on the president's battleground blitz. stay with us. >> when we come together as a country, there's no reason why we can't restore that will basic american promise that if you work hard, you can do well. [ todd ] hello? hello todd. just calling to let you know i'm giving you the silent treatment. so you're calling to tell me you're giving me the silent treatment? ummm, yeah. jen, this is like the eighth time you've called... no, it's fine, my family has free unlimited mobile-to-any-mobile minutes. i can call all i want. i don't think you understand how the silent treatment works. hello? [ male announcer ] buy unlimited messaging and get free unlimited calling to any mobile phone on any network. at&t. prego?! but i've been buying ragu for years.

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at the risk of sounding like an auto salesman, what does the president have to do to put you in a new car or at least sell you on his auto bailout? he proudly mentioned it again today in iowa. a day after doing so in his state of the union address. his speech today struck similar notes to his state of the union

address. he even name checked the same electorely important western cities like cleveland and pittsburgh. but wherever the president goes this campaign season, you can expect to hear him singing the same heldy and for good reason. sales were up double digits last year and thecration says over 100,000 jobs have been created since the 2009 managed bankruptcy. even mitt romney says that like health care, this is one more area where the president has followed his example. >> general motors and chrysler went through a managed bankruptcy exactly as i said back i think it was in november. it took the president five or six months to come around to that. that's what they had to do. >> hang on a minute. wasn't that the same mitt romney who said the government should not have the intervened in the motor industry? yes, it was, but as always, mr. romney claims both sides of the coin. democratic senator sherrod brown of ohio whose state is at the heart of this renaissance in

manufacturing joins us right now. >> i like the way you say the motor industry. we don't say that that way in ohio but i like the way it sounds with your accent. >> that's kind. you know i mean the same thing as your good self- >> i understand. >> mitt romney is storming around the country at this moment telling everyone his time at bain capital wasn't just about overleveraging companies and putting millions in his own bank account but it was actually about creating jobs. you live and you serve a community that was on the vet precipice of disaster. so how is the government's approach to the auto industry paid off in your area? >> well, everybody in ohio knows that my state would have the likely been in bankruptcy, it would have been in depression if we had not rescued the auto industry. you know, when some say, well, we should have just let them go into bankruptcy and restructure, well, there was no capital available. every small businessperson in america knew in 2008 and 2009 there was no capital available for anything.

certainly no group of investors would have put the money in to resuscitate and rebuild and restructure chrysler and gm, not to mention the tier one, two, and three suppliers in the supply chain. and so if the government hadn't invested, these people wouldn't be at work. i'll give you the best example. chevy cruise is one of the best selling cars in america. the engine is made in defiance, the bumper in northwood, ohio, the transmission in toledo, the steel and aluminum come out of cleveland. the spring broef ohio provides the sound system. it was assembled in lordstown, three shifts. 5,000 workers. those people wouldn't be working today, overwhelming majority would not be working if we hadn't done the auto rescue where the government invested and the government pulse out so private industry takes it over as they should. gm today as you know, is again the biggest, the largest auto company in the world. that will never would have

happened if the president and congress hadn't stepped up and created that partnership with the industry and the government. >> and yet, you know, sir, republicans have previously criticized the president, john boehner's spokesman. june of last year said and i'm quoting, the bailout was nothing to celebrate. even john kasich, the governor of your state has said "contrary to popular opinion, the auto industry is getting stronger." and yet, these are people who philosophically believe that what should have happened as mitt romney has said in terms of housing, just let the thing fall apart, collapse and capitalism will somehow resolve the problem. >> yeah, people here, they're so stuck and entrenched in their philosophy of something of government, of economics that they miss the practical aspects of what they do. the best example perhaps of overall au in addition to what i mentioned about the cruz is that in the last six months, ford which was not part of the

rescue, chrysler and gm which were, and honda which of course was not, all four.cans, ohio centric in many ways and michigan, those four companies all announced multi100 million investments in ohio alone. if that doesn't tell you about the growth of the auto industry and again, don't forget there's thousands of that work for the big companies but there are hundreds of thousands that work in the supply chain and those are all over ohio and pennsylvania and michigan and indiana and wisconsin and illinois, too. and the rest of the country. i mean down to tennessee and all now with the transplant. so this was a huge success. governor romney, you know, he knows that there would have been nonreal financing. bain would not have invested. it would be interesting to debate if reporters would say governor romney if you had been at bain recently, would you have invested in the auto industry if the government hadn't step up. be interesting to hear an answer to that question. >> i think we know he wouldn't

because he wouldn't be making his $24 million a year. thank you very much for joining us, sir. >> always glad to. thank you very much. >> when we come back, much more on the presidents' day and, of course, our top lines. >> one more question about this. your wife, your ex-wife mary ann said that you proposed to her to have an open marriage but you blamed the media for posing the question. isn't that a fair question about your character? >> sure and the answer is it's not true. we offered several witnesses to abc who said it was not true. abc did not want any of the witnesses. >> you blame the media. >> i blame the media for two days. [ male announcer ] this was how my day began. a little bird told me about a band... ♪ an old man shared some fish stories... ♪ oooh, my turn. ♪ she was in paris, but we talked for hours... everyone else buzzed about the band.

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the union address, the president received word that an overseas hostage rescue that he authorized had proved successful. and again, navy s.e.a.l. team six executed the mission. today an american foreign aid worker and her danish colleague are now free after being held captive for three months. our white house correspondent mike viqueircqueira joins us no. do we have any more details how this mission was carried out. >> you mentioned the fact the fabled unit s.e.a.l. team unit that the overcame and killed osama bin laden, it was a nighttime raid. there were nine outlaws killed in that raid in somalia. the american jessica buchanan. word had reached the administration, the secretary of defense and the president that her health was failing. she was running out of medicine. also a danish man, poul thisted. they had been abducted at knife point october 25th. isn't it remarkable just as in the case of the osama bin laden

raid, the president gave a very high profile speech. back in may, it was something of less significance, but knowing this operation was undergoing at this time. you point out the president knew just before entering the chamber that it was a success. off wards he called jessica bu can fan's father. they released a photograph. the president not yet departing the capitol, making the call from one of the suites inside the capitol. in a statement today praising the courage and capability of the american military s.e.a.l. team 6 although it was not the same individuals of that unit who the executed that rescue last night. >> indeed. mike, you're seeming to forget though that it was also at the last time in may after another pretty relevant of speech by one donald trump. but in the president's state of the union address last night, he mentioned the flag that he was given following the successful take-down of bin laden. this is becoming something of a habit with this president, isn't it in he issues the order and the navy s.e.a.l.s go in and get it done. >> well, absolutely.

it's something that the president doesn't need to brag about. others will do that for him. but certainly something that the white house and dare we say it the obama campaign is going to point to. not only with regard to these twos missions, these two very high profile missions but the obama campaign hopes to create a narrative of a president very competent if not excelling the capabilities that were expected of him in the areas of foreign policy and, of course, they point to afghanistan and they point to libya to bolster that case. >> mike viqueira, thanks so much. when we come back, money for nothing. mitt's for free in today's top lines. >> he is completely detached from the reality of what's happening in america. and his prescription that somehow we need to find someone to blame whether it's the ban r bankers or people who make a lot of money.

in a world where president obama will face the millionaire or the professor, here are your top lines this film has not yet been rated. >> the state of our union is getting stronger. there are no americans fighting in iraq. osama bin laden is not a threat to this country. >> the gap between president obama's words and his deeds to be sort of astounding. >> these achievements are a testament of america's armed forces. imagine what we could accomplish if we followed their example. >> last night he seemed to be setting up an entire year of divisiveness. >> trying to divide america and try and say that republicans are all about the rich people. >> none of this can happen. unless we also lower the temperature in in town. >> when i was in congress, i was known as a bomb thrower. >> when americans talk about folks like me paying my fair share of taxes, it's not because they envy the.

>> rich: >> i've been extraordinarily successful. i didn't inherit that the money. >> i wish i made a gazillion dollars last year. >> that's the kind of money that might lead a man to make impulse bets. >> 10,000 bucks. >> i'll bet you whatever i make in the time it takes me to finish this sentence. >> you can call this class warfare all you want. most would call it common sense. >> if we don't get off this course, we could sink the american economy. >> send me these tax reforms and i will sign them right away. >> he is completely detached from the reality. >> it was worth crying over spilled milk. >> i was just shaking my head as i watched the tv last night. >> poor people have [ bleep ] lobbyists. >> mr. president, things aren't going so swimmingly. >> america is back. anyone who tells you otherwise doesn't know what they're talking about. >> let's get right to it this afternoon. joining us from washingtoning is

michael eric dyson, an msnbc political analyst and professor at georgetown university, good afternoon, sir. >> good afternoon, mr. bashir. >> thank you. the president clear had i has decided that he wants to put an end to the innen equality within our society but even as he attacked the do nothing congress, wasn't it really mitt romney that he had in his sights as he talked about insuring a fair system of taxation and equal opportunities regardless of whether one's born into a very wealthy family like he was? >> no doubt about it. it may have been congress that was in the cross talk but mitt romney was in the crosshairs. i think that obama brilliantly and shredly focused in on mitt romney's discourse and the discourse surrounding him. all this rhetoricing about wealth and earning his own way up and not being ashamed of what he's got to pay in taxes because he's done all of this on his own is poppy cock. the republicans speak about class warfare anytime you try to

talk about equality. president obama is talking about giving relief to those in the middle class and god shows knows who are working and working poor need to be relieved, as well. he was aiming at mitt romney and taking a page from the republican playbook to suggest we're going to preemptively strike even before romney tries to launch missiles against mr. obama. >> that's a brillianttis tillation. i want to play a piece of sound and get your reaction. last night nancy pelosi was asked about the chances of newt gingrich being president. take a listen to her response and then to newt's response this is morning on the today show. listen to this. >> let me just say this. that will never happen. it isn't going to happen. >> why are you so sure? >> there's something i know. >> she lives in the san francisco environment, a very strange fantasies and very strange understanding of reality. i have no idea what's in nancy pelosi's head. if she knows something, i have a

simple challenge. spit it out. >> newt gingrich said san francisco is a place with very strange fantasies. and strange understanding of reality. we know that tony bennett left his heart in san francisco. where did newt gingrich leave his manners, in the toilet? >> obviously so. was he speaking about haight-ashbury where he's takinging about truggals for gay and lesbian and bisexual people? i don't think so implying nancy pelosi is high on something. the reality is that she's rooted firmly in the ground of common sense that really nurtures the lives of most americans. newt gingrich is an exceptionalist person, a person away from the mainstream of america and dismissive, rude, and brutal. i think that kind of politics doesn't play well. what people have to ultimately understand is ta newt gingrich is used to this kind of bullying politics, used to this put your fist in the face of your opponent and i think we can be civil while disagreeing.

newt again gingrich shows again he not only left his manner in san francisco, he left his brain there, as well. >> i'm sorry, i should make a correction. i said earlier it was senate minority leader. it's not, it's the house minority leader, nancy pelosi. it's interesting the majority leader eric cantor said this morning that the only thing he could praise about the president's speech were his comments about the military. but isn't that actually one of president obama's greatest assets? he keeps his promise to bring the troops home from iraq. he authorized killing of bin laden. we just had news today of another navy s.e.a.l. successful operation in somalia. >> yeah, it's pretty ridiculous here. the only praise i can find for this basketball team is that they won the nba championship. yeah, that's the point. and you know, for mr. cantor to renews to acknowledge that's such a big pillar of the opposition to obama, especially the one put forth by the republicans. he can't take care of business. he won't have the foreign policy

credentials, he won't be able to exercise control over the military or direct them in ways that are productive and helpful to america and yet, here this man time and again you know, for ray after foray shows he's capable of being laser like in his focus to execute his plan with dispatch and get the american military to cooperate in eight productive fashion. so why in one sense besmirch his character when this has been an extraordinary strengthing. >> very quickly, isn't the fact that when they president is allowed to execute action as he's been able to do in the area of foreign policy, he's success 23ful? the fact is he can't do anything domestically because of the congress. >> in it is. the congress has prevented him from being able to execute with comparable and laser focus here his plans here.

while we've seen it in war, we can't find it in america. if america would allow him to do what he's doing in the world, he would be equally successful here as he is there. >> professor, thank you, sir. >> next, the coach brothers and keystone. why republicans are afraid of the very question. ta with us. >> lobbying is a perfectly legitimate business if that's what you're in. lobbyists find clients whose interests he represents. i gave people strategic advice and said what i believed period, without regard to any people who happened to be involved in our companies. >> jerry, just remember, it's not a lie if you believe it. [ male announcer ] yep that's your mouth. and it's surprising what it goes through in the course of a day. but what's even more surprising is that brushing alone isn't enough to keep it clean.

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we are not going to be subpoenaing the koch brothers

and we're not asking the koch brothers to appear because the koch brothers had nothing to do with this project. at this time, at this time, i would like to. >> point of order, mr. chairman. you've made a statement where you were not recognized for the time. you cut me out in the middle of a sentence. >> we're going to recess this hearing for ten minutes. and then we're going to come back. >> are you calling the koch brothers during the recess? >> despite rejection by the obama administration, it seems that the fight surrounding the keystone pipeline on capitol hill clearly wages on. and it seems once again our friends the koch brothers, those deep pocketed republicans are back in the spotlight. for more on this now, we're joined by congressman ed markey, member of the house natural resources committee who joins us from capitol hill. good afternoon, sir. >> good afternoon to you. >> things got a little bit testy when congressman waxman called upon the brothers to be subpoenaed over their interest in the keystone xl pipeline. how have they managed to get

themselves mixed up in this fight? >> this whole issue of citizens united versus the federal election commission has allowed for vast amounts of unlimited money, undisclosed come into our political process. and we know that a huge percentage of this is flowing in from the oil industry, flowing in from the coal industry in order to slowdown and in fact stop if they could this clean energy revolution which the president talked about last night. and so the koch brothers, pea body coal, you go through that whole litany, this for them is a matter of life and death to clean energy revolution is moving so fast. the reduction in the amount of oil that we're using in america is proceeding so quickly, that they are an endangered species if they can't stop this new technological revolution. >> so, sir, are you suggesting that the koch brothers have been

lobbying hard for the keystone pipeline or indeed, they may we'll be direct beneficiaries through one of their industrial companies? >> i think what we're saying in general is that the oil industry wants to take the dirtiest oil from canada, bring it through a pipeline in the united states with no guarantee that it stays here in order to export it to the thirtiest markets across the planet with almost no benefit to us. it's in the interests of the oil industry generally have this extra large keystone xl pipeline approved. and i think it's just a general interest of the entire industry because there are so many companies involved in it to make sure that it gets approved no questions asked about the impact on our economy, our environment, or the benefit to the american people could actually get out of it if the oil stayed here.

because if the oil doesn't say here, what's the point of it? all we get is the pollution. all we get is the worstening of our own conditions while the rest of the world the canadians of the oil industry derive all the benefits. >> newt gingrich, the world's finest historian was on the today show on nbc this morning and i'm quoting him, he said the president rejected the keystone pipeline which would have created at least 50,000 jobs. >> well, you know, at least 50,000 jobs into there's a very high hyperbole coefficient in things that speaker gingrich utters. this is just another example probably by a factor of ten in terms of what the benefits are. but of course, they don't talk about what the downside is. they don't talk about the pollution. they don't talk about the worsening environment. they don't talk about the asthmas. they don't talk about the health effects. they don't talk about how this

would take us away from a clean energy agenda that creates tens of thousands of jobs here in the united states. far many more jobs have been created by the renewable energy industry, upwards of 100,000 over the last five years than in the oil industry which has been play laying people oven mass. so their goal is to stop the good revolution in order to keep this old technology continuing on its last gasp as long as it can. that's what this whole debate is about. it's the past versus the future. it's clean energy versus dirty energy. it's pollution versus progress. and hopefully, as this campaign unfolds, the american public will see it because i think they want the wind, the solar, the geothermal, plug-in hybrids, the way in which we tell not only the saudi arabians that we don't need their oil any more than we need our sands but we tell the canadians clean up that oil. don't expect us to allow the

dirtiest of all oil on the planet to come through our country for your benefit with no guarantee the oil ever stays in the united states at all. all we are is a conduit to the rest of the world. >> congressman ed markey. thank you so much. i've never heard such an elegant evis ration of newt gingrich in my life. >> i appreciate it, thank you sir. >> we'll be right back. what is this shorty? uh, tissues sir, i'm sick. you don't cough, you don't show defeat. give me your war face! raaah! [ male announcer ] halls. a pep talk in every drop.

>> the newt gingrich has been a walking dictionary of racially charged code words throughout his campaign. referring to barack obama as the food stamp president as often as he describes himself as the world's greatest historian. indeed, he used the language once again today. but instead of condemning the use of such terms, some republicans have actually followed gingrich's lead. case in point, indiana governor mitch daniels who gave the republican response to the president's state of the union draez and offered this remarkable assertion. >> the extremist that style ofs the development of homegrown energy or cancels a perfectly

safe pipeline that would employ tens of thousands or jacks up consumer utility bills for no improvement in either human health or world temperature is a pro poverty policy. >> ben jealous is president and ceo of the naacp. good afternoon, sir. >> hi. it's good to be here. >> what did you think of the president's address and more to the point, with the naacp have ever heard this level of blatantly false rhetoric about assistance, about the poor, about a foodstamp president, which many feel is outright racism? >> yeah. so last night we heard obama really put out a call for this country to raise itself to a higher form of cooperation, for us to actually get back together as a country and get our neighbors back to work. what comes after that is more of this pandering. and the reality is that, you

know, folks in this country are smart enough to know pandering when they hear it and it's got to stop. i mean, yes. i've seen this my entire life. i've certainly seen it the past three or four years i've served as ceo of this great group. we saw it in 2010 with the rise of the tea party. you know, we see it now in 2012. fear of course that we're just going to see more and more of it. >> indeed. >> the sad part is this. both newt and mitch are capable of being bigger, better people. but, you know, they seem to both kind of just sort of veer toward what's easy. it is easy to pander. we need our leaders right now to do the hard work of pulling us back together as a nation because we all know there is greater strength in being united rather than divided. >> to your point, sir, about unity, in your statement, your own statement about the president's address, you said this. congress is dominated by obstructionists who are all too willing to let millions of

families and children suffer endlessly if it advances their petty political purposes. just yesterday we had a tea party congressman on this program who made it clear he and his colleagues have no intention whatsoever of working with the president for the rest of his term until november. so given the deep animosity between the two parties, what hope do you have for the millions of families who need, frankly, the nation's help at this time? >> you know, my hope is in those people actually doing the hard work to organize, to come together, and to raise their voice. right now the naacp and north carolina is crisscrossing the state taking people to, you know, far eastern parts of the state and far western parts of the state where people have to drive 20, 30 miles just to search for a job. as the president outlined last night if congress would just work together we could get

beyond this moment when frankly a very long moment when corporations are incentivized to export jobs. where corporations are incentivized to import workers and train those workers once they bring them here rather than train workers who are idle, right here. there was a time, you know, when i was a young page in congress back in the late 1980s, when people across the aisle would work together to actually get things done because they understood at the end of the day as tip o'neill used to say that all politics was absolutely local and that people in all the localities that they represented were suffering and that's what's going on right now. you know, when people say that they're just not going to work until they can run the country, then they're patient with the suffering of their neighbors. it is a moral shame and it's just bad politics. >> remarkable truth isn't it? the president and ceo of the naacp, ben jealous, yourself, seeks unity whereas a number of these republican presidential

candidates use code language. it is a terrible state of affairs. thank you for joining us. >> thank you, martin. >> we'll be right back to clear the air.

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her as well as i do that the one thing that has not been said is that gabby wants her constituents to know, her constituents who she loves so much in southern arizona, that it has been the greatest professional privilege of her life to represent them, that she loves them as a fifth generation tucsonian, that her public service has meant a great deal to her and that this is only a pause in that public service and that she will return one day to public service to represent them as she has so capably for the last five and a half years. and let me just say a point of personal privilege that for the last year it has been one of the honors of my life and the most

important thing to remember that no matter what we argue about here on this floor or in this country that there is nothing more important than family and friendship. and that should be held on high above all else. and i will always carry that in my heart and even though i know we won't see each other every day, gabby, we'll be friends for life. for life. >> thank you. >> that's what you call public service, political leadership, and a deep commitment to the people of this country. we extend our warmest good wishes to gabby giffords as she continues with her remarkable recovery. thanks so much for watching. dylan ratigan is back on the road with his 30 million jobs tour and the show starts right now. miami,