votes was the key to winning in 2008 and it will be begin in 2012. they need to keep the peace through november. that's "hardball" for now. thanks for being with us. "the ed show" with ed schultz starts right now. >> good evening, americans. welcome to "the ed show." it is immoral when it comes to the poor in this country. paul ryan's speech did nothing to prevent that. >> the president's fail economic policies have driven policy rates to record highs. tonight, richard wolf on ryan's address to the catholics that call his budget immoral, and the right wing conspiracy to make america think poverty is nothing.

the republican embarrassment on the student loan debate gets uglier. >> the president keeps attempting to make these fake fights. the emperor has no clothes. >> we will set john boehner straight. >> we can't go back to a policy that has america go it alone. >> vice president joe biden is lighting him up on the stump, and scott walkers december picture ration is reaching a new level. >> small business doesn't want uncertainty and we saw it back then. >> good to have you with us tonight, folks, thanks for watching. leave it to the church to find the underbelly of the republican party. paul ryan tried top defend his budget. one day after 90 faculty members wrote a letter of protest. i also brought a copy of my

budget with me, so that we can have a fact based conversation on the facts as they are, not as some have reinterpreted it. >> ryan says he wanted a fact-based conversation. he should know that 60% of cuts come from programs like food stamps, medicaid, pell grants and job training. ryan has run right into a conflict with the catholic church. leaders understand how draconian these cuts are. keep in mind this budget was passed in union -- this is what they want. protesters were outside toot, they said the dignity of the he was sharply critical of president obama today.

here is what ryan said about his plan to end medicare as we know it. >> our idea is to force insurance companies to compete to better serve seniors. as president obama likes to call it, social darwinism. >> of course, we disagree with that characterization. >> balm has called it social darwinism. >> it is thinly vailed social darwinism. it is -- >> the president is back by the catholic church and leaders, the organize niedser said, i'm afraid chairman ryan's budget reflects the values of his favorite philosopher. rather than the gospel of jesus christ, survival of the fittest may be okay for social darwinist, but not for followers of the gospel of compassion and love.

ryan is directly at odds with the catholic church, and he tried unsuccessfully to deal with it today. >> i feel it's important to discuss how as a catholic in public life, my own personal thinking on these issues has been guided by my social teaching. >> the letter criticizes his misuse of catholic teaching. ryan's budget trashes the poor, but he used specific catholic principals to defend it. >> in this war on poverty, poverty is winning. we need a better approach. to me, this approach should be based on the twin virtues of solidarity. >> but the later from the

prominent catholics says you are profoundly misreading church teaching, it's not a free pass to dismantle programs and abandon the poor to their own devices. ryan sidestepped questions about the moral debate surrounding his budget. >> can you say a few more words as you see it? >> you can't lift people out of poverty if you don't have a growing economy, and we have to put in policies that we believe are best to maximize growth. >> you know what congressman ryan needs to do? call a hearing on the hill. bring in poor people. i don't think he's talked to any as of late. in fact, i don't think any congressional members come face to face with the poor and their circumstances in this country. it would at least show that there is an attempt on ryan's part to understand what poor people in this country go through. maybe he can bring in sean hannity and do counseling how you eat when you're poor since they're experts at that. the bottom line, there is a serious disconnect between the budget and the reality what is happening in this country. it is radical, wrong, immoral

and even the catholic church is calling him out on it. get your cell phones out. i want to know what you think. tonight's question, is the ryan republican budget immoral? text a for yes, b for no. you can always go to our blog at ed.msnbc.com. we encourage and enjoy your comment, we'll bring you the results later on in the program. joining me tonight is msnbc political analyst, richards wolf. great to have you with us on this subject tonight. has paul ryan run into a buzz saw here? he has people in his own party in sensed. they are soft walking this now that they see the stance of the catholic church anthropology how radical this budget is. how does he keep going? it's never a good position to say, really, my policies are moral. you're starting with a good position there. it's not a new debate and not something they haven't faced

before. in 1999, there was a guy running for president, who took on people just like paul ryan. house republicans and the gingrich mold. what he said at the time, this republican candidate was he wasn't going to balance the budget, in his own words, on the backs of the poor. that republican candidate was george w. bush, talking about something called compassionate conservativism. that was the philosophy he was trying to say to the country. look, i have other values than just making money here. set aside what happened in his presidency for a minute, that debate is going on right now. the question is, can you be compassionate when what require doing is overwhelmingly disproportionately cutting programs that help the poor to justify an balance out taxes on the super wealthy. that doesn't make for compassion. >> you talk about crucial states republicans have to win, ohio, indiana again, they lost it in

the last election. michigan is going to come into play, pennsylvania. there's a lot of catholics in those states. i wonder how this is going to play out if this continues and he doesn't back away from his budget. he is trying to defend massive cuts to the poor, which is totally against catholic church teaching. is this going to be a campaign issue? >> well, the catholic vote they care about is the blue collar catholic vote in the rust belt. it's one thing to promise opportunity for everyone. paul ryan is right, the best way out of poverty is growth. unless you believe in some kind of utopia, there will always be people who need food stamps in this country. you won't be spreading the wealth around equally, i don't believe paul rye -- ryan supports that. his budget proposed more than

$100 billion cut to food stamps. if you are in the beans advocacy program you need food stamps at the end of it. paul ryan's proposal, you're earning less than the average wage in a rust belt state, you know people who are on food stamps. i don't know how you go out and win an election on that. >> the republicans are amazing. they are in denial of the number of children that go to bed every night hungry, 16 million kids in this country go to bed hungry, a number they don't address. they say we have to have a good economy to take care of them. you know what? not everybody in our economy will make it. there will always be a certain number of people out there who are going to be in financial straits. that's the way it's always been, that's the way it's always going to be. what the republican party wants to do is they want to take the boot and kick them right under the table and never let them get up. i tell you, forever the american people can't see how radical is the and how mean spirited it is, to the point where the catholic

church would come out and basically call out one of their own of their own faith. it looks like these drastic cuts have gotten the attention of catholic leaders. here's ryan talking about the ending of corporate welfare and strengthening aid to the poor. >> as we end welfare for those who don't need it, we strengthen welfare programs for those who do. government safety net programs have been stretched to the breaking point in recent years, failing the very citizens who need help the most. >> is the empty rhetoric. your comments on that sound bite. >> the language part of it sounds great. ending corporate welfare and taking out benefits from those who don't need them. at the same time, paul ryan's spending has to justify huge tax cuts for the super wealthy. he said the overarching threat to the society, is the federal debt, federal deficits. if you believe that's true never

mind the moral side, how do you justify big across the board tax cuts? it doesn't make sense, not the reagan area with 17, 18% marginal rates here, wealthy should be helping the threat to society, not putting it on the backs of the poor like george w. bush said was the wrong idea. >> i wonder what his definition is or identified what corporate welfare is. is he talking about oil subsidies going to companies that don't get a return back. he hasn't identified corporate welfare, what he is talking about at all. withed, thank you for being here. remember to answer tonight's question. share your thoughts on "the ed show." we want to know what you think. coming up, republicans are on the losing end of the student loan battle. now, speaker of the house, john boehner is attacking the president's travel schedule and use of air force one. we'll weigh in on that and more

we'll weigh in on that and more good news. actually, i'm wrong, great news for the american automobile industry. the numbers are fantastic. all the success is making life really hard for the guy who wanted to let detroit go bankrupt. stay with us.

pushing to keep student loan interest rates low. now, republicans are trying to change all of that and change the subject. details ahead. joan walsh will join me and biden schools and foreign policy. share your thoughts on twitter using the hashtag "the ed show." new tone rehab 2-in-1 foundation. covers spots, lines... and wrinkles. and helps improve skin tone over time. new tone rehab from easy... breezy... beautiful... covergirl! covergirl! you walk into a conventional mattress store, it's really not about you.

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our country's facing some major economic and fiscal challenges. yet, here has the president wasting time on a fake fight. it's as simple as this. the emperor has no clothes. >> fake fight? well, speaker boehner, it's in your budget. you voted for it. republicans are on the losing end of the student loan battle and they know it. now, in a continuing effort to distract from the issue at hand, speaker of the house john boehner is hitting the president on his travel schedule. how weak. boehner says president obama's trips to discuss keeping student loan rates low, something that would benefit millions of americans are beneath the presidency? boehner wants the obama campaign to reimburse the treasury. >> frankly, i think this is beneath the dignity of the white house.

for the president to make a campaign issue out of this and then to travel to three battleground states and go to three large college campuses on taxpayer's money to try to make this a political issue is pa ethic. >> president obama is out there talking about a serious economic issue with young people in this country. those trips were official business and the gop is trying to play games here. the "associated press" reports the democrats have already reimbursed $1.5 million for president obama's political travel. that's more than $1.3 million the republican party paid for the entire 2004 bush re-election campaign. how about that speaker? any comment there? tomorrow, the house will vote on a gop bill for interest rates on student loans. it will be paid for by gutting health care. how clever they are. boehner wants to raid a preventive care fund something he calls a slush fund. house democratic leader nancy

pelosi is calling boehner out on it. >> it may be a slush fund to him but survival to women. that just goes to show you what a luxury the thinks it is to have good health. >> she is absolutely right. the fund helps provide immunization, birth defect treatments and cancer screenings. the gop already took a chunk of it by demanding offsets for the payroll tax cut. now, leader pelosi is telling her caucus to vote against the gop bill and their attack on health care. lots of minutia going on, on this subject. it's also terribly necessary. keep in mind, folks, in the ryan plan, which they voted for across the board in unison, the republicans did, it calls for a rate increase to 6.8% to students and it will be fixed. they've also cut out $1.7 billion worth of student aid in

that budget. they want to take it from everybody and give it to the wealthy and they also want to gut the health care bill, which the majority of americans want. when do we matter? when do we matter as americans. let's turn to joan walsh, editor of salon.com. clearly boehner is frustrated here. will he succeed or have a tough time getting his own caucus together vote on this? >> he doesn't sound good, does he? i don't know. those sound bites were pretty interesting. i don't think he can believe in what he's saying. i have been a little bit worried about youth turnout and really hoping that young people turn out for the president in the fall. it's not a slam-dunk. but speaker boehner is helping democrats. he is -- it's not just taking the money, it's actually saying that these students don't deserve the president coming to their campus. that this issue is ginned up and it's not a real issue. it's so outrageous.

i also have to say, as you said, they did vote for the ryan budget. they don't care about this and now they claim to be the party of family values. what they're saying to students, okay, we'll subsidize your loan for a little longer but your little brother can't get his immunizations and your mom can't get her breast cancer screening. >> the latest gallup poll shows the president has a 35 point lead with voters under 30 years old. you bring up a great point. are they going to be motivated and come out and support president obama. how do republicans narrow the gap with the very thing you're talking about. here's boehner going out there sticking it to the young people and trying to pin it on the president. what is their plan to narrow the gap, do you think? >> i'm speechless because they don't have one. they can't do it. to jump in on this issue, obviously, they get the politics of this, they do.

their answer, a, insulting the students the president spoke to, really good answer and b, stealing the money from mothers of breast cancer screening and children immunizations. i guess it's plan but it won't work. >> nancy pelosi said raiding this health fund to lower student loan rates is an assault on women's health care, no question about it. unless people follow this closely, the bullet point was we had the vote and the democrats didn't vote for the stint loan thing and is the how they will turn it around because the war on women has now been pulled into this. how do you sort this out? >> you know, i have a lot of faith in the intelligence of the american people. i think that we can explain this to them. it's clear that's what they're doing. with somebody like boehner stepping over their message the way he is, i think the american people, students are going to see through it.

i think it's clear they're trying to pit us against one another and say, we'll do this for the students but the women and children have to suffer. we can all walk and chew gum at the same time. between president obama and nancy pelosi they have a winning mess sang. john boehner has a rough road to hoe. >> they don't understand young people struggling economically and trying to start their careers. i had a guy on the radio show, is the five grand to me and if you're in and out of a job, this will hold me back somewhat. the republicans, five grand, like a 25 cent piece to them. they don't get it, don't have a clue. joan walsh, great to have you tonight. next, another success story from the american automobile industry. this is something mitt romney should really like. this time, it's chrysler. congressman gary peters will

join me on this. scott walker, he doesn't tell the truth when he's talking to people on cable news. now, he's publishing the lies. i'll show you some outrageous scott walker propaganda landed here in the big apple. stay with us.

you may have heard that i was successful in business. yep, that rumor is true. but you might not have heard that i became successful by helping start a business that

grew from 10 people to hundreds of people. you might not have heard that our business helped start other businesses. and after 25 years, i know how to lead us out of this stagnant obama economy and into a job creating recovery. >> really? mitt, i heard you were pretty good with other people's money. is that true? i just heard that. mitt romney's only claim to the presidency is he's got all this business experience. but his success in business didn't help his judgment on the automobile loan which saved hundreds of thousands of jobs. see this. this is the op-ed that mitt romney wrote back in 2008. here's the headline. let detroit go bankrupt. mitt romney published november 18th, 2008. mitt romney, with all this business experience he should be president, he could not have been more wrong. the good news for the automobile industry, it just keeps on

rolling in, chrysler announced today it had its best quarterly profit in 13 years after being left for dead in 2009. they raked in a first quarter profit $473 million up 300% over last year. hold it right there. i wonder if mitt romney thinks 300% is enough profit or increase or would that be headed in the right direction? their net revenue was $16.4 billion, a 25% increase. in the net debt, they love to say that it was a bailout, it wasn't, it was a loan. a loan was a debt to the industry. where is that at? down to $1.3 billion. that's right. 1en $3 billion, down from $3.4 billion. less than a year ago. the automobile loan worked. if mitt romney is really a business guy, if he had any vision whatsoever, he ought to be able to understand these numbers. they're damn good.

instead, this was his plan. >> that's exactly what i said, let detroit go bankrupt. >> let detroit go bankrupt. president obama, you know what, he ought to get re-elected just on this issue alone. i can't wait for the debate when president obama can turn to mitt and say, what do you think of that automobile industry? how's that working out for you? you were against it. how could mitt romney with all this business experience, how could he have been so wrong? don't give me this garbage about it was a philosophical argument and disagreement. no, no, no. you are either a believer in the american worker or you're not. you're either a believer that this country can do big things and it's going to take a gamble and a chance to get there or you don't believe it. president obama believed it. i'm joined tonight by congressman gary peters of michigan. he knows what this is all about. great to have you with us. first it's gm and then chrysler.

how has this recovery of the automobile industry helped your district? >> it has helped my district and about the country. middle class jobs, manufacturing sector, today's news on chrysler, the best earnings in 13 years is very exciting. you have to look at it just not in profits, job creation from the fact president obama stepped up and did what was unpopular at the time. since june of 2009, chrysler has added 9500 jobs. they have made a commitment to invest over $4.5 billion investment in american factories, with american workers. you look at 9500 new jobs since june of 2009, we all have to remember that those auto jobs actually have a pretty good multiplier fact. for every auto job, there's probably five to six other jobs created. you're talking tens of thousands of jobs, not mention chrysler

has 60,000 jobs saved as a result of this. this has been a great success, a great success for american workers. >> let's reverse this a little bit. let's do a hypothetical. what if it were the democrats against helping out the automobile industry and the republicans were the ones that helped out the automobile industry and republicans were the ones who voted to make sure this industry was going to have a chance to live another day when they were on the verge of death in 2009. with these numbers today, what would we be hearing? imagine what would we be hearing from the other side? >> i would be applauding it. as a congressman from michigan, this has been a major positive for our region. without it, it would have been absolutely catastrophic without this kind of help. we should celebrate success and of the american worker. when you invest in american workers, you win every time. >> the trickle down effect and

ripple effect it has through the entire industry. look at all the automobile advertising that takes place in the media, how many jobs that supports. chrysler's success is mainly due to a 39% increase in u.s. sales. come on, you buy a car and you buy a vehicle when you feel pretty confident about your situation and the economy and where your family's going. this is a real positive sign in general for the economy, isn't it? >> it is a positive sign. people are getting back in the showrooms and buying. what is exciting. a big part of their business is in the united states and they're increasing market share from some of the foreign manufacturers here. this is an american company with american workers selling more cars to americans. it is nothing but a positive start. >> knocking down the debt is a big, big story in all of this. they only have $1.3 billion to pay back now. with numbers like this, the

united states treasury will end up making money on this whole deal. i want to ask you, this op-ed that mitt romney wrote back in 2008, how much of a problem is this going to be for him on the campaign trail when he goes into these states? >> i think it will be a problem. there's a problem in the michigan primary, when he came in. the curious thing about it is he actually doubled down on that appealing to the far right wing in michigan in order to try to win the michigan primary. quite frankly, he was turning off independent voters scratching their head, saying, is the a big success, don't you understand that and attacked the uaw. the uaw made significant sacrifices. they were part of the success and instead he attacked them. you should not be attacking folks who stepped up to the plate and made sacrifices, as a result of the sacrifice, it's been a huge success. it shows mitt romney is out of touch. >> out of touch. i would like to see mitt romney

go into one of those factories and look at those workers in the eye and say, congratulations, you got the job done. i wonder if he has the character to do that, if he really cares about workers, because there are people sitting around dinner tables tonight saying, i got a job, i'm going back to the plant tomorrow. look at our sales numbers. the company's doing well. they will think, who was with them and who wasn't? i wonder if he has the character to go to the plants and say, great job. >> coming up, the righties are attacking sandra again. she will be here in a moment to respond. a lot more coming up in the next half hour of "the ed show." scott walker's latest direct mail stunt backfires. i'll show you how. later, martin bashir on the osama bin laden remarks coming back to haunt the republican nominee. >> he then went on to say,

quote, it's not worth moving heaven and earth just to catch one person. that bundling thing? let's see what you got. rv -- covered. why would you pay for a hotel? i never do. motorcycles -- check. atv. i ride those. do you? no. boat. house. hello, dear. hello. hello. oh! check it -- [ loud r&b on car radio ] i'm going on break! the more you bundle, the more you save. now, that's progressive.

if you're looking for a bumper sticker to sum up how president obama has handled what we inherited, it's pretty simple. osama bin laden is dead and general motor is alive. >> vice president joe biden laid out a clear cut message for president obama's re-election today. the former chairman of the senate foreign relations committee also handled mitt romney's retro foreign policy team. >> governor romney would take us to a past we've moved hard to get beyond. we can't go back to the policy that would have america go it alone. shout to the world, you're either with us or against us. waste hundred of billions of

dollars and waste thousands of lives on a war unnecessary and see the world through a cold war prism totally out of touch with realities of the 21st century. >> a romney advisor proved biden's point on a campaign conference call this morning attacks president obama's foreign policy. >> russia is another example where we give an russia gets and we get nothing in return. the united states abandoned its missile defense in czechoslovakia, yet russia does nothing but obstruct us in iran area. >> he is wrong in many levels. czechoslovakia has been a country in 20 years and in 2009, then defense secretary robert gates made it clear america was strengthening missile defense systems, not abandoning them. in 2010, the obama administration convinced russia to vote for the u.n. security resolution to impose sanctions on iran.

biden wasn't kidding going back to the days of george w. bush. 15 of the 22 members of mitt romney's foreign policy team work nodar bush administration. like recycling baseball managers, isn't it? joining me, martin bashir here on msnbc. come on! >> it's hard to keep a straight face. >> all they're doing is putting on a different jersey. the same group. >> you make the point so well. is the world really ready for rambo romney? throughout this campaign what we've been hearing about iran is romney's willingness to go in and take. do you know what happened today? israel's top military chie said he believed sanctions are working and it's unlikely iran will develop a nuclear bomb in the near future. if you listen to rambo romney for the whole of this campaign, he's threatening to invade a country like iran.

that's the problem on foreign policy. >> these false attacks on the obama administration. this isn't going to go away. they have set their feet in concrete for the rest of this campaign, have they not? how do they retreat off their positions. >> here is a great study. i have to look at my notes. mitt romney on libya, march 21st, here's his position. the president was too slow to act and he wants immediate military reaction. april 2nd, gives a speech in las vegas and runs from the press up an escalator with his wife to avoidancer questions. april 21st he an accuses the president of acting too aggressive and he celebrates gadhafi and four positions in six months. he has more positions than working actors at the national porn convention. >> nation hall porn convention?

>> is that not the case? >> four positions in six months in libya. >> what are his foreign policy credentials? does he have any to speak of? >> you heard vice president biden talking about his pursuit of osama bin laden. here's where rambo romney becomes romney the rabbit. he said he wouldn't have moved heaven and earth to chase down osama and that america wouldn't necessarily be that saver if bin laden was dead. i asked you if romney was sitting in the war room and charged with making the decision for those navy seals to go into that compound, capture and kill, could he have done that? >> he could have done it but he's already advertised he would not have done it. >> that was on day one. his position changes so often, we don't know whether that would have been the case on the day in question. will the real mitt romney please stand up on foreign policy no

doubt. this will be a problem for romney. a history of statements about online and joe biden talked about it today. >> in 2008, while campaigning for the nomination, governor romney was requested what he would do about bin laden. let me tell you exactly what he said, and i quote, it's not worth moving heaven and earth, spending billions of dollars just to catch one person. here's how candidate obama answered that question. he said, quote, if i had bin laden in our sights, i will take him out, i will kill bin laden. >> that is exactly what he said in a debate, no question about it. he said it on the campaign trail numerous times. we will end the operations in iraq and afghanistan and go where the terrorists are to get the job done. romney is not ready for the 3:00

call. >> romney is such a suggestable individual. can you imagine him going to a g8 summit and holding any particular positions on behalf of america? can you imagine him being consistent when the lives of the military are at stake. i said previously and you said before many times changes his position often. that's dangerous when you're dealing with foreign policy and war. >> other kris are counting on you. >> right. that's why it's a problem. >> great to have you. scott walker is using every dishonest trick in the book to fight off a recall election. i have the latest lie from scott walker in my hands. i will show it to you next. stay with us.

up next, scott walker making more excuses for his state's poor job record. find out who he's blaming this time. right wingers are attacking sandra again.

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i was out to dinner with my wife last night here in new york. we struck up a conversation with another couple who were from wisconsin. they're staying with some folks up the road here in new rochelle, new york, 20 miles north of here. this is what came in the mail to that family, straight from madison, wisconsin, direct to new rochelle, new york? give me a break. scott walker is fighting for his political career and he needs all the help that you can give him. this flyer is absolutely filled with nothing but walker propaganda including this out right lie. wisconsin is gaining private sector jobs. i wonder when this thing was printed. they've been bad for a long time. wisconsin has lost 6,100,000 private sector jobs over the past year.

23,900 jobs lost in wisconsin. that is the worst in the nation. i don't see that anywhere in this little folder but i did wonder when i got it, wonder how he feels about the post office. anyway, listen to how scott walker tried to spin the numbers last night on cnbc. >> a large part of it, you look what happened last march and april, that was the peek of the protest time in the state of wisconsin, you know any small employer, particularly small business doesn't want uncertainty, we saw it back then. >> who created that, scott. walker can blame protesters all he wants for the job loss. once again, somebody else's fault but he can't hide from the poor policies and opportunities driven people out of the state. responding to what walker said about him last march. >> we're building high speed rail from chicago to st. louis. because scott walker turned that

down in wisconsin, his predecessor, jim doyle, was all for it. we would have a route going from chicago to milwaukee on to madison. he turned it down. we got part of their money to put more people to work in illinois on rail. one company left wisconsin and came to our state of illinois to manufacture railway cars. >> there you have it. walker likes to complain about all the outside money being used to defeat him. he has no problem asking new yorkers for outside money, 950 miles away. this is a national election. no question about it. in fact, it does say the most important non-presidential election of the decade. walker didn't say that. the "wall street journal" did, back on january 28th of this year. this flyer has a donation form asking for big bucks asking to stand up to the big government union bosses. the stakes are very high in wisconsin and for this country

but it's a template to defeat citizens united. the right wing here proves that scott walker has no boundaries. this proves he has no boundaries when it comes to winning. he'll shake down anybody to save his political career, yet he talks about outside money. there's no outside money going into wisconsin to defeat him. hell, they don't have enough money to run too many commercials right now. we will stay on this story. once again, conservatives attack sandra. she joins me. stay with us.

ed show survey tonight, i asked is the ryan republican budget immoral? 98% of you said yes, 2% said no. in a brief note, we want to apologize for not bringing you tavis smiley and cornell west. we had a technical problem at their studio and we're unable to correct the problem in time. we apologize.

coming up, right wingers using engagement as an excuse to attack. don't forget to join me monday through friday. noon to 3:00 p.m. and follow mee ed show" on facebook.

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in the big finish tonight, georgetown law student testified before congress as a private citizen about women's health care. ever since, the right wing has repeatedly attacked her care. last week, she had happy news to share. she and her long time boyfriend are engaged. the announcement prompted monica crowley to tweet, to a man? question mark. monica crowley's remark is cruel and homophobic. she is saying if you support women's rights and access to health care, well, then, you must be gay and if you are gay, then you are a lesser person? i am joined tonight by sandra fluke.

she is speaking out for the first time about the monica crowley tweet. i call it attack. first of all, sandra, congratulations on your engagement. >> thank you. thank you very much. >> exciting times, no doubt. how do you feel about what you read when you saw monica crowley's tweet? >> well, you know, where i'm from when someone tells you you've become engaged, you say congratulations rather than engaging in hate speech. it's certainly not the way i wanted my engagement to be greeted. that said, i'm not going to let this kind of thing get to me personally. what really bothers me about it is exactly what you said, the blatant homophobia in the comment. the idea that's an acceptable thing to say publicly. >> you want an apology from monica crowley. she says liberals can't take a joke. what do you say to that? >> i don't want an apology from anyone personally. i think it's possible she owes an apology to the lbgt

community. i'm not offended to be asked whether i'm with a woman. it's not offensive to me to be gay, out in that way. it was clearly meant as an insult and that is homophobic and offensive. >> you referred to it as hate speech, did i hear that correctly? >> yes. >> what does it say about her as a person to do that? i think it speaks volumes of her character if there is no apology. her response was liberals can't take a joke. what difference does it make what your sexual preference is or orientation is with a question mark behind it. it was nasty and negative, is that fair? >> it certainly was nasty and negative. i don't want to characterize her personally. i don't know her. i don't really care if it was joke north. if it was a joke, it was a homophobic joke.

>> today, 31 republican senators voted against the violence against women act. the bill is expected to face further opposition in the house. your comment on that? >> well, i was really glad to see that the true violence against women act did pass and with bipartisan support this time. i worked with a lot of the advocates who helped to craft that bill and i know that they put years into making sure that it had the right types of provisions to protect and serve victims of violence. so i really hope that it will remain that true strong bill throughout the house and that that will be the bill that the president gets to sign. >> sandra fluke, great to have you with us tonight. congratulations again. when's the big date? >> well, i have to say, we've been dating about eight years. we decided we have another eight years to plan the wedding. >> okay. good for you. congratulations. thank you, sandra.