america's place in the world as much as the guys who do care very much, and who will push him and shape him to their needs and ideologies once he's in power. and that's "hardball" for now. thanks for being with us. "the ed show" with ed schultz starts right now. good evening, americans, and welcome to "the ed show" tonight from new york. wall street fat cats are asking president obama to apologize for being so mean! tonight, i'll prove how the 1% should apologize. this is "the ed show." let's get to work. for way too long, we've had a financial system that was stacked against ordinary americans. >> brand-new income inequality numbers are out. it's ugly for middle classers. but wall street bankers are whining about class warfare. the middle class will not survive a mitt romney presidency. vermont senator bernie sanders is here. >> this is absolutely huge.

a homosexual activist in a very prominent place in mitt romney's campaign has stepped down. >> republican homophobes claim victory after a gay romney aide quits. >> i will flat-out guarantee you, he is not going to make this mistake again. >> why is mitt romney silent on this issue? karen finney and chris kofinis are here. the republican assault on public education is getting uglier in pennsylvania. that report tonight. and new polling in wisconsin shows scott walker is in deep trouble. i'll ask robert greenwald if the koch brothers can bail him out. good to have you with us tonight, folks. thanks for watching. it's still all about jobs and all about the economy. and that's why i want to start the show tonight with a few charts. because they're so unlike mitt romney, they don't lie. the economic policy institute has a new report out. it's called the state of working america. whoa, we've got some information

here tonight. this is the growth of worker productivity in hourly compensation going back more than 60 years. take a look at what has happened as we entered the 1980s. don't you see these two lines starting to split a little bit? see the republicans, they love to talk about reagan and reaganomics, here's the split. productivity continued to skyrocket. since 1980, we have increased our workload and productivity on workers by 120%. but the hourly compensation for american workers, what has it don? it has flat lined over those years. now, according to epi, the gap between the very highest earners, the 1 percenters, and all other earners, including other high earners, reflects the escalation of ceo and other managers' compensation and the growth of compensation in the financial sector. keep that in mind.

but it reminds me of our vulture chart. we love to show this one all the time. it's amazing. income for the top 1% is really at its highest point ever average wages, where are they? they are stagnant. now watch what happens when you combine the two charts. it is absolutely amazing at how it all follows the average wages. well, they match up pretty close with the hourly compensation, don't they? and the people earning those wages are working harder and longer than ever before. now, according to the orange line, you know, hey, look who's reaping the rewards in all of this. son of a gun, it's the red liners, isn't it? look, the income gap is destroying the middle class in this country. these charts don't lie. these are trends. these are facts. this is not ideological speak right now. the man who will be the republican nominee for president

says it's president obama's fault, because he just doesn't have experience in business. here's the latest ad from the super pac supporting mitt romney. >> how many jobs did barack obama create as a community organizer? as a law professor? maybe now you see the problem. mitt romney turned around dozens of american companies and helped create thousands of jobs. >> well, of course, mitt romney has not had to contend with a do-nothing congress. now, check these numbers out. this is where our tax dollars are going. in the first 127 days in 2012, members of the united states congress have worked 41 days. they have passed fewer public laws than any congress in the last 40 years. would you like to have that vacation package? hell, you only work 127 days out of the year, you only have to work 41. but, of course, they're out raising all kinds of money. but according to mitt romney, oh, it's all president obama's

fault. >> what the president did was, one item after another, make it harder and harder for small business to thrive and to grow and to start up. it was the most anti-small business administration i've seen probably since carter. who would have guessed we'd look back at the carter years as the good old days, you know? >> it's really funny how mitt romney keeps jamming jimmy carter on just about everything. because look what happened when carter left office. trickle-down economics, anti-union politics, increased outsourcing, worker wages staying right where they are while productivity climbs, and president obama is the problem? no, he understands this election and what it is all about. it's about the middle class and it's about the working poor in this country. take a look at some of the speeches over the past month. >> choose which direction we want this country to go in. do we want to keep giving those tax breaks to folks like me who don't need them, or to give them to warren buffett.

he definitely doesn't need them. >> in fact, one in four millionaires pays a lower tax rate than millions of hard-working middle class households. >> now's the time to double down on smarter investments to build a strong and secure middle class. now's the time to double down on building an america that lasts. i believe our economy is stronger when workers are getting paid good wages and good benefits. i believe all of us are better off when we've got broad-based prosperity that grows outwards from a strong middle class. this is a make or break moment for the middle class. and everybody who's aspiring to get into the middle class. >> i agree with the president. this is the last great stand of the middle class in america. this election. if the middle class and the poor lose their advocate in this election, this chart behind me will continue to go down. as union membership goes, so goes the middle class. you can't deny it. president obama needs to stand with this portion of the population, because the other side of the population just is

not going to stand with him. according to "the new york times," an obama campaign official met with wealthy wall street donors. get a load of this. some of these wall streeters, they asked for the president to give a healing speech about class and inequality and urged, in quotation, urged an end to the attacks on the rich. give me a break! i mean, these guys are sitting on the top of the red line, they want a healing speech about class and inequality in this country, when it comes to incomes?! give me a break! now, the top 1% in this country, they ran this country into the ditch with their philosophy. they profited from an economic catastrophe and they made more money than ever. they lobbied to kill dodd/frank. they don't want any oversight. and they say they're under attack right now. hold it right there. remember what i just said? the top 1 percenters feel like they're under attack right now and they want president obama to

give them a special speech about how tough it is in this country. later on in this broadcast, i will bring you a story from pennsylvania. i'll show you who needs a break. and i'll show you what they're doing to the poor and the middle class in this country when it comes to education. because this is where all the breaks are going. mitt romney's policies will protect these wall streeters. he wants to return to the supply-side economics of ronald reagan. reagan was a nice guy. he was just wrong. the unpaid tax cuts of the bush administration, of 2001 and 2003, and hold it right there, we did a story on this the other night and we're going to do a lot more on it. the territorial taxes in the paul ryan budget. now, let's face it. people that watch msnbc are smart. we're lefties, we like to research, we love facts, we love charts, we want interviews, we want people saying stuff. here's your assignment, folks. go dig into the ryan budget. it's fun. do it.

dig into it. and find out what the territorial tax really will do to this country and to the vultures at top of that chart. i mean, it is going to grease the skids like you've never seen before, for the top 1% to own our government. that with citizens united, the middle class right now has a very special in american history to stand up and to support a man who undoubtedly cares about your well-being and cares about your future opportunities. now, as far as romney, it's only going to separate these lines even further. his policies, more jobs are going to go overseas. that's what the territorial tax will do. more tax breaks are going to go to the wealthy, as if they need them. the blue line will sink further to the bottom. is that where you want to go? you're damned right this is a make-or-break moment for the middle class in this country. and i want to ask you independents out there who just aren't sold. i know that there are a lot of independents that are on that blue line.

what is it that you don't like about president obama and the democrats? well, let's see. he hasn't raised your taxes. in fact, he's given you tax cuts. he's killed the number one terrorist in the world. he's killed more terrorists than george bush ever did in his administration. we're on our way out of iraq. we're going to shut down operations in a couple of years in afghanistan. he saved the automobile industry. he was handed the worst economy in some 70 years. he's protected the middle class. he wants women to advance in our society and has legislation to back it up. what is it about president obama that you don't like? oh, it's those guns, isn't it? you know, this thing about guns started about when bill clinton started coming into the national scene. i just want you to know, i own more firearms now than i ever did before bill clinton came on the scene. they ain't going to take your gun, okay? they're not going to do that.

you head shakers out there, don't worry about it. they're not going to take your gun. oh, it's that socialized medicine. you blue liners, there's a united states senator who is doing pretty good with the health care. in fact, his daughter is benefiting from his health care plan, what's in the provision, in the health care law. what is it that infuriates you about the democrats and what infuriates you about a party and a president who only wants every american to have a fair chance and doesn't want the government to be squeezed by a few? get your cell phones out. i want to know what you think. tonight's question, can the middle class in america, can it survive a mitt romney presidency? text "a" for yes, text "b" for no to 622639, you can go to our blog at ed.msnbc.com and we'll bring you the results later on in the show. this man is a fighter for the working folk of america, and that is senator bernie sanders of vermont. senator, great to have you with us. >> good to be with you. >> will mitt romney's policies mark the end of the middle class

if he gets in? >> well, given the fact that under the bush administration, we lost 500,000 private sector jobs, worst economic performance in modern history, that bush administration policies left this country and the entire world on the brink of financial collapse, and given the fact that mitt romney has nothing new to say, other than the same old trickle-down economic theories, more tax breaks for the rich and large corporations, more deregulation, more unfettered free trade, i can't help but believe that a middle class today that is suffering will only be much, much worse off under the romney policies. >> senator sanders, do you think president obama should give a speech to the wall streeters and the 1 percenters because he's just been too tough on them and it's time now for a healing speech? what about that? >> well, i think you've heard me say, ed, that quite the contrary.

i think that president obama has been much too soft on wall street. and certainly, if there's an apology, which is due, and there is one, it is from the crooks on wall street, the people whose recklessness and illegal behavior drove this country into the horrible recession we're in right now. millions of people lost their jobs, lost their life savings, lost their ability to send their kids to college, lost their homes. and you know what? interestingly enough, ed, i have not heard any of these guys on wall street say, you know what, i'm sorry for my greed, i really am sorry that we destroyed so many lives. so i think if there's an apology that is due, and it's long overdue, it's from these guys on wall street, certainly not obama. and from obama, what we need is to begin to stand up and be even tougher on these guys. right now, ed, you've got six financial institutions in america who have assets equivalent to two-thirds of the gdp in america.

you know what i think? and you know what some many other people think? maybe it's time we started breaking these babies up so we had some real competition in the marketplace. so we got some real capital out to the product economy, so businesses can start creating real jobs. so, again, if an apology is due, it's certainly not from obama, but it's from wall street. >> this election is all about the middle class and all about the working poor, if we are going to have some prosperity in this country, where everybody's going to have an opportunity to succeed. vermont senator bernie sanders, great to have you with us tonight. thanks so much. remember to answer tonight's question there at the bottom of the screen and share your thoughts on twitter @edshow. coming up, new details about the gop's efforts to obstruct president obama. i'll talk to the author robert draper. and the republican assault on public education continues in pennsylvania. this is a story i was telling you about.

and poor school districts are hurting the most and they are getting squeezed. what about their families? and two people who are battling against governor tom corbett's cuts will join me in that fight tonight on this program to save those schools. stay with us. we're right back.

coming up, the republican plan to stop president obama, like you have never heard it before. author robert draper is next. a campaign aide to mitt romney says he was run out of town because he is gay. the candidate has been silent. i think he needs to smack down the homophobes of the republican party. and for years lefties has been trying to blow the whistle on the koch brothers. today a big-time righty joined the cause. find out who it is and filmmaker robert greenwald has all the info on the kochs. share your thoughts on twitter using the hashtag #edshow. we're coming right back. those surprising little things she does still make you take notice. there are a million reasons why. but your erectile dysfunction

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welcome back to "the ed show." president obama was in office less than a day when his opponents were literally plotting against him. on the night of the inauguration, republican leaders gathered in a washington restaurant to lick their wounds, share their stories of sorrow. but you know what, they hatched a scheme to regain power. keep in mind, the country was facing the greatest economic crisis of our time. according to a new book, newt gingrich, eric cantor and paul ryan were among the republicans plotting against president obama on the night of the inauguration. pollster frank luntz was also there. this is far worse than mitch mcconnell saying his top political priority is to make president obama a one-term president. the country was shedding.

700,000 jobs a month and we needed bipartisanship if we ever did. whatever happened to the country-first attitude? well, it went out the door. let's turn to robert draper, contributing writer for "the new york times" magazine and author of, "do not ask what good we do: inside the u.s. house of representatives." robert, great to have you with us tonight. great book, appreciate you being here. just what happened and what was their motivation? take us back to that conversation among these gop leaders that night. >> sure, it was the evening of january the 20th, 2009, the evening of the inauguration, and 15 republicans gathered together. frank luntz had put the program together in the caucus room, which is a washington, d.c. steakhouse, and it was -- he sort of described it to the others as saying, look, we're ul irrelevant now, we don't control anything, so let's just be irrelevant together. but luntz, in fact, did have a

scheme in mind. he wanted everyone to bear their souls and them come to a kind of solution and that's in fact what transpired. newt gingrich led off the talk and had gingrich, like several of the others, had been at obama's inauguration. it was a depressing spectacle for them to see 1.8 million people out there on the mall. and so they began to talk about how the republicans had lost their way and what had gone wrong. and in the course of that, they began then to develop a strategy of how to pull themselves out of it. and that strategy was basically to oppose, in unity, all of president obama's policies, to attack his cabinet members, such as tim geithner, to attack vulnerable democrats. at this point, they couldn't attack obama, because he was too popular. >> so the first one he went after was tom daschle, on the use of some car. and that kind of gave them a little bit of momentum, when they got daschle's head, did it not? because he was going to do health care. that kind of gave them a little mojo on what they wanted to do. >> it did. what gave him the most mojo, i

think, was being able to be united in opposition against obama's stimulus plan. when they realized that they could actually get unanimous votes against that, they realized that as long as we can keep our numbers together, keep our opposition pure, then we can start to develop a narrative, and start both with what the republicans stood for and what the democrats stood -- >> was it obama? was it the man? was it the first black president? was it his agenda? what was it? >> ed, i really think that the democrats walked right into the trap that was laid for them. it was, you know, after this $780 billion stimulus and then the democrats led off with the energy legislation, cap and trade, which was destined to die in the senate, but which nancy pelosi insisted as speaker was her signature issue. the people in the white house didn't want pelosi to push it, but she insisted she had the votes. then after that came the affordable health care act. so what's the republicans were

able to say is, here's the narrative, folks. democrats don't care about joblessness, they don't care about helping people pull out of the recession, they care about their own big government agenda. >> so when senator jim demint of south carolina said about health care that this could be obama's waterloo, that really was a culmination of what they were trying to get to. >> absolutely. >> that was expressing the sentiment of all republicans at that time. >> sure. but i think that in particular, the cap and trade bill was such a heavy lift for the democrats, that by the time they got around to health care, already a lot of political capital had been expended and already this narrative was developing. and in swing states, people were asking, why with unemployment are we talking about greenhouse gases? so the republicans began to use this to their advantage. and of course, then their plan, ed, was to win back the house and to use the house then as a point of the spirit against the obama administration, which, of course, is what we've seen over the last year and a half and what the subject of my book really is.

>> and you document the record number of filibusters, all of that was all part of the plan, so the democrats actually had it right. it was just the party of no. >> well, the thing is, actually, they had an agenda. the problem is that the agenda was so far to the right of anything that could plausibly be passed by a democratically controlled senate and signed by a democratic president, that what it guaranteed was paralysis in government. so you can't say quite that it was a do-nothing congress, but it was a do-nothing, you know, plausibly passable congress. >> all right. robert draper, great to have you with us. social conservatives are claiming victory after an openly gay member of the romney campaign resigns. chris kofinis and karen finney will weigh in next.

romney campaign spokesperson richard grinnell abruptly resigns, and the far right wing is taking all kinds of credit for it. but the problem isn't grinnell's misogynistic tweets, or his word as a mouthpiece for the warmongers, the problem is that richard grinnell is openly gay. grinnell was hired two weeks ago to speak on foreign policy and national security matters for the romney campaign. well, progressives, they took issue with grinnell's twitter feed, in which grinnell personally attacked michelle obama, hillary clinton, callista gingrich, and even our own

rachel maddow. but brian fisher is claiming social conservatives got together and put pressure on the romney campaign to get rid of this gay guy named grinnell. well, here's fisher doing a victory lap on his radio show. >> ladies and gentlemen, this is a huge win and it's a huge win for us in regard to mitt romney. because mitt romney has been forced to say, look, i overstepped my bounds here. i went outside the parameters here. i went off the reservation with this hire. pro-family community has called me back to the table here. and here's what's important. this is why it was important that i take governor romney on, that we as a pro-family community take governor romney on. is that i will flat-out guarantee you, he is not going to make this mistake again. there is no way in the world that mitt romney is going to put a homosexual activist in any position of importance in his campaign. >> yeah, i bet you rick santorum

fills in for that guy. the romney campaign telling a different story on the of grinnell's departure. they say grinnell quit before his official start date. romney adviser dan senor says grinnell was exceptionally qualified for the position and claims the campaign begged grinnell to stay on. >> was he pressured to be forced out? >> not at all. he was being pressured to stay on. when the campaign learned that he was considering stepping down, the campaign went out of its way to try to persuade him to stay. everyone from the campaign manager to senior foreign policy advisers to the campaign. i mean, outside advisers to the campaign. >> everyone except mitt romney. grinnell personally thanked romney in his resignation. but it seems that grenell's sexual orientation was an issue for mitt romney and his team. they allowed social conservatives to call the shots on personnel issues.

romney's silence on the matter speaks volumes on who mitt romney is as a leader and as a person. let's turn to karen finney, msnbc political analyst and former dnc communications director and democratic strategist chris kofinis. chris, good to have you back with us. it's about time. >> thanks, ed. >> i want to play this for you. here's romney's senior adviser, with eric fernstrom, moments ago, talking about this. >> yeah, and that's disappointing. whenever there are voices of intolerance within the party or the democratic party, for that matter, it doesn't matter where it's coming from, it's disappointing. and the governor has taken the opportunity in the past to denounce those voices of intolerance. >> karen, can we believe this? >> of course not. i mean, they sent a very clear message that their party and their campaign is hostile to people who are openly gay, in the way they've sent the message they are hostile to women in the war on women issues, they are hostile to immigrants on the sb-1070 issues they are pushing,

they are hostile to americans. and andrew sullivan is reporting last week on a conference call that was supposed to be in response to joe biden, grenell was told to be quiet. he was specifically told to be silent on the call while this, kind of, blows over. so what eric fernstrom just said, doesn't match up at all. >> chris kofinis, you've run staffs. how out of the box is this and out of the norm is it to handle a situation like this? >> it's pretty extreme, to say the least. i mean, i think what's really bad here for the romney campaign, it just builds on this narrative that they are so out of touch. and on top of that, that they're kind of beholden to this extreme right-wing agenda, and this is kind of a bad hangover from a republican primary that went

really far, far to the right. >> chris, do you think that mitt romney has said enough on this? >> i haven't heard him say anything. at some point, he's going to have, if you will, for lack of a better way of putting it, a sister souljah moment where he'll have to stand up and say to the right, these are not my values, i don't believe in what you're saying. he hasn't done that, and until he does that, this is going to continue to haunt him. and when you look at some of the recent polling i was looking at today, he's got demographic problems with young voters, his pentagon voters, women voters. and when you're talking about gay americans, they're not a big demographic, but we have gay americans in families and who are friends of ours, and they're a key group. so the notion that you're going to alienate this body and not going to have political consequence, it doesn't make a lot of sense to me, you know, for someone who wants to actually win. >> but you know what, ed? >> go ahead, karen. >> this is a preview of what a romney presidency would be like. because you heard the guy saying it on the radio. they said, we reined him back

in, we yanked his chain, right? so the deals that romney is willing to cut with the far right wing are such that he is going to be beholden to all of these interests. and what chris was saying, he won't be able to have a sister souljah moment, he won't be able to stand up to those folks, because he's so in bed with those people, he's cut so many deals with those people that he's really sort of given away the farm. >> but, karen, doesn't this put mitt romney really in a tougher spot? because now he would have to come out and denounce that talk show host. and where is that going to put the right wingers? where is that going to put the social conservatives? that's going to alienate them even further. i mean, he has to get in lockstep with these folks, so he does damage either way, doesn't he? >> that's exactly right. and like i say, that's what a romney presidency would be like. he's got to get so much farther in bed, as you say, with these guys, he would be so beholden to them. and it's really sad, ed, because i think we all know moderate republicans who don't like what's happening to the republican party, but they are not standing up and saying, guys, enough is enough!

>> so, chris, he could forget the gay community. i don't know how he's going to step forward and fix this. he's either going to be at odds with the gay mustn't or be at odds with his own social conservatives, i don't know. how do you fix it? >> no, he's not going to fix it. and listen, i'm not sure they're counting on gay americans as a key voting bloc for republicans, but it's bigger than that. it really, i think, speaks to the fundamental problem the romney campaign has in terms of speaking to the american people, and to a wider audience. and if you're going to actually compete to win in a general election, you know, this is not the way to do it. and i'm not sure they've figured out this puzzle. and until they do, i think they've kind of dug their own grave. >> the in-silent doesn't work. karen finney, chris kofinis, thanks so much. there's a lot more coming up in the next half hour of "the ed show." stay with us. >> i want to be the nominee. >> newt gingrich is not going to be the nominee. he's calling it quits. tonight, we're looking back at some of his finest moments.

>> are you calling mitt romney a liar? >> yes. scott walker is in the koch brothers' pockets. >> thanks for all the support and helping us moving the cause forward. >> absolutely. and you know, we have a little bit of vested interest as well. >> filmmaker robert greenwald has the details. and republicans are destroying public education in pennsylvania. we'll bring you the shocking story, next.

the assault on public education by radical republican governors is still going very strong. for instance, in pennsylvania, governor tom corbett is systematically putting forth an effort to dismantle the public school system. look at the numbers. in 2011, he cut $860 million in public education. this year, he wants to cut an additional $100 million from the public schools, which brings his grand total to almost $1 billion of cuts since he's been in

office. and the poorest school districts are being hit the hardest, like york city school district, where 79% of the students come from low-income families. almost 90% of the students are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch, which is exactly the kind of thing republicans have had enough of all over the country and they want to cut that too. look at the ryan plan. this is an attack on the poor as much as it is anything else. last year, tom corbett cut the york city school district budget by $8.4 million or 15.7% the district is now facing a $19 million budget shortfall. they may have to close a couple of middle schools and combine those grades with elementary schools. eighth graders going to school with fourth graders. you want that as a parent? meanwhile, governor corbitt is in the tank for the school vouchers and charter schools, even though last year a study from stanford university reported mixed results on the quality of charter schools. the study ultimately concluded

pennsylvania charter students on average are lagging behind students in regular public schools. but corbett's buddies in the private sector, they make huge profits from charter schools, so the governor continues to support them at the expense of public education. i'm joined tonight by pennsylvania state representative matt bradford and also kim schwartz, she is the president of the york education association and a fifth grade teacher in the york city school district. great to have both of you with us tonight. matt, you first, what is this governor doing? what is he trying to do? >> ed, it's pretty disturbing. and over the last to years, the last two budget cycles, we've seen devastating cuts. k-12 education, higher education, at all levels. unfortunately, after having governor rendell really invest in education and seeing great returns on those investments in education, we've seen, unfortunately, a real pitting of school districts against each other and really a defunding of our most vulnerable school

districts. >> so is he trying to kill public education in pennsylvania? >> i sure hope not. but what we're seeing here really is just bad news for so many of our school districts. cuts in my own districts of up to a quarter of their state funding has been removed. and what's really disheartening is some of the districts that need it most are getting hit the hardest. >> kim, what is the governor trying to do, in your opinion? >> i think he's trying to destroy public education and he's too totally vested with the charter schools. >> what do you mean by that? >> i think he would prefer all students go to charters as opposed to public education. i don't think he has any -- go ahead, i'm sorry. >> no, go ahead. you don't think he has any what? >> any faith in the public school system. >> well, he's take $1 billion out, he's hurting the low-income districts, and you as a teacher, what is that going to do to

families in those districts? >> it's devastating. our students are taking the brunt of his cuts, and it's increasing class size. we are losing art, music, phys ed. we're losing guidance counselors, librarians. we're having, you know, maybe upwards of 45 students in a class. that's what's projected. we're losing two middle schools. our students will go to k-8 buildings. that could be a positive. >> and mr. bradford, this is all about the budget or is it about an ideology that public education isn't necessary and only a few are going to make it? what does it do to opportunity? >> i think it's about ideology and i think it's about priorities. for pennsylvania, a state that's always been a moderate state, to really see such an ideological spin put on education, with the defunding, really, of public education, where you've seen $1

billion in cuts. again, districts in my own legislative area, where i'm blessed with some wealthier districts and some that are challenged economically have seen funding for the accountability block grand, which funds full-day kindergarten for our most vulnerable students, completely eliminated. >> well, i've got to ask you, i understand that the state of pennsylvania has a budget surplus. is that correct? >> it doesn't have a surplus, per se, but we're running above revenue, for what the governor had projected -- >> well, that's a surplus. if you're running above revenue, why can't that money go to education? >> well, that's what we're certainly advocating for. we want to see restoration of these cuts, but not just the cuts he's proposing in this year's budget. we have almost $900 billion in last year's cuts. so when he talks about restoration, we don't just need restoration of the $100 million, we're talking about the $1 billion cumulative impact of two years of these cuts. >> well, this is happening in wisconsin, it's happening in michigan, it's happening in new

jersey. these radical governors are trying to balance the budget on the backs of next generation, the kids, and it is ripping apart opportunities. and it's hurting families. >> that's exactly right. >> we'll do more on this. matt bradford. and kim schwarz, great to have you with us tonight. i appreciate your time. this is why this is such an important election. you might have to forget who's still running, but today newt gingrich finally said good-bye to the campaign trail. we'll tell you more about newt's greatest hits when we come back.

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it's very hard to the no look at the recent polls and think that the odds are very high i'm going to be the nominee. >> not high enough. newt gingrich finally suspended his book tour today. but not before holding just one

more very long news conference. >> my wife has pointed out to me approximately 219 times, give or take three, that moon colony was probably not my most clever comment in this campaign. >> i've got the admit, i'm sad to see the newtster going. after all, he fired the first shot at the ryan budget. >> i don't think that right-wing social engineering is any more desirable than left-wing social engineering. >> but as time went on, the newtster served another purpose, taking on mitt romney. here are some of newt's greatest hits on the former governor. >> there's a huge difference between a reagan conservative and somebody who come office the massachusetts can culture with an essentially moderate record. massachusetts was fourth from the bottom in job creation under governor romney. what i find really frustrating, and frankly, irritating, as a man who wants to run for president of the united states, who can't be honest with the american people . >> is he still the most anti-immigrant candidate? >> i think of the four of us, yes. i don't know of any american

president who has had a swiss bank account. if he can't level with the american people about these ads, why can we expect him to level about anything. can we drop the pious bologna. >> are you calling mitt romney a liar? >> yes. >> with compliments like this, there's no word that this is all newt gingrich could say about mitt romney today. >> i'm asked sometimes, is mitt romney conservative enough? and my answer is simple. compared to barack obama? >> now it's hard to see a guy like newt gingrich leave the campaign trail. but gingrich sure made this guy's day. >> you're an impairment to our party. >> i'm sorry you feel that way. >> why don't you get out before you make a bigger fool of yourself? >> i'm sorry you feel that way. and in the big finish tonight, t. boone pickens takes on the koch brothers. robert greenwald has the story when we come back. [ female announcer ] women have made it the number one selling

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tonight, i asked, can the middle class survive a mitt romney presidency? 6% of you say yes. 94% of you say no. coming up, scott walker is getting a boost from out of state donors like the koch brothers, but it's not helping him in the polls. robert greenwald on the billionaire brothers' influence, next.

and in the big finish tonight, well, it's a dead heat in wisconsin, just five weeks before the recall election. if it is the democratic nominee, milwaukee mayor tom barrett, he

does lead scott walker, 47 to 46% among registered voters. walker leads by a point among likely voters. well, today walker was complaining about money from outside the state. >> my opponent's always been and will continue to be after the primary the massive tens of millions of dollars in out-of-state special interests have spent in this state. >> excuse me? walker has raised $13 million for his campaign and two-thirds of it has come from out of state. like his oil billionaire buddies, the koch brothers. walker has surrogates from out of state, like chris christie, who headlined two fund-raisers. >> he will have affirmation of that course on june 5th. and when he does, that will not only empower him to continue to do the things that need to be done to move wisconsin forward, but it will send an extraordinary message to leaders all over the this country. >> christie is right about one thing. wisconsin is not alone. the effort by the koch brothers

to undermine the middle class is not limited to the badger state. here's stephanie cutter of the obama campaign talking about dirty tricks. >> they said we gave money to a solar plant in mexico. no, wrong again. our money is going to build a solar plant here in america, with american workers. these guys will say whatever it takes to tear down the president. they will literally say anything. they oppose clean energy, oppose higher fuel efficiency standards for cars and trucks. so we're going to call their bs when we see it. o ve you with us tonight. it's pretty amazing that scott walker complains about outside money when he's so cozy with the koch brothers and their influence. is it not just wisconsin? have they got their fingers into a lot of elections? yeah. they're going to spend probably -- well, we'll never know exactly how much, because you know, they were very clever. they got the citizens' united ruling passed. they invited the supreme court justices. let's not forget this, scalia

and thomas, to come to one of their hidden retreats before citizens united was before them. talk about a conflict of interest. and then walker was in oklahoma with koch industries sponsoring a fund-raiser for him. and tim phillips, head of americans prosperity, is saying that we're going to spend tens of millions of dollars just in the next couple of months. >> what is their philosophy? get their kind of legislators to do their kind of work and the profit goes to the top? >> yes. they're pretty clear that it's a combination of an ideology, so-called libertarianism, not true libertarianism, that serves their economic self-interests. so over and over again, ed, in the year and a half that we've worked on researching the film, we've seen story after story, and incident after incident where they literally are bribing officials they're paying for pundits so they service one need and one need only.

that's the koch brothers. you might think after "x" billion dollars, what do they need more money for and why. why are they destroying our democracy in the process? but greed is limitless. >> what's the most egregious thing that you've found in your research? >> you have an hour or two? >> well, i've got about a minute and a half. it's that intense in there, that enthralled in doing all this. >> yeah, it was a very tough year and a half finding all of this. i think probably the most upsetting single thing, and it's in the koch brothers thing, is that david koch, who's a cancer survivor and is giving money for, quote, a cure for cancer at the same time georgia pacific, they're one of the worst ten polluters in the country, and we have on camera a small community of people saying david koch, you are giving us cancer. david koch, you are causing this. >> here's t. boone pickens on the koch brothers.

>> the biggest deterrent to an energy plant in america is koch industries. they do not want an energy plan for america. >> now, t. boone's a pretty good righty. what's going on here? >> well, it's true. you know, again, they will do anything that serves their economic self-interest. and you know, you want to say to them at some point, ed, you want to shake them and say, hey, you're a member of this country. you're a citizen. what is in your mind? how much are you willing to destroy just to make more money that you don't need. >> what's the website, robert? you do some great work? >> thank you, ed. koch brothers exposed.com, and the film is being screened, by the way, thanks to you and your listeners and viewers, in hundreds and thousands of places all over the country. and it's driving them crazy. they're attacking me on twitter, they're smearing me with ads. but it means that we're having an impact. >> that's what happens when you tell the truth, my friend. robert greenwald, great to have you with us tonight. thanks so much. that's "the ed show." i'm ed schultz.