tv The Last Word MSNBC May 30, 2012 10:00pm-11:00pm PDT
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it's taupe. he knows it's taupe. he's just from new zealand. he's chipping at the bit to spell it. that's champing, by the way. this 13-year-old is in the face of people who would judge you who don't understand is you obviously the best new thing in the world today. now it's time for "the last word" with lawrence o'donnell. have a great night. it's official. mitt romney has won enough delegates for the republican presidential nomination, and the general election is just about under way. but the candidates really would like just another minute to raise that billion dollars each one of them is going to need. >> i can assure you that if i get elected, with your help, i will make things better. >> the president placed a call to mitt romney at 11:30 this morning. >> called governor romney to congratulate him. >> finally clinching the delegates needed. >> officially becoming the
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projected republican nominee. >> welcome to the general election. >> what's on his campaign's checklist. >> for the romney campaign -- >> he's willing to take the big money. >> the super pac money. >> they're writing very huge checks. >> another priority is avoiding gaffes. >> check and check. >> governor romney put an iphone app out. it misspelled america. >> as people get to know me better, some will like me, some won't. >> romney will want to reintroduce himself to voters. >> i'm not familiar precisely with exactly what i said. i standby what i said, whatever it was. >> thank goodness we've got that cleared up. >> i standby what i said, whatever it was. >> this is a presidential race. >> people don't want to know what you're against. >> presidential races are about choices. >> his main calling card for why he thinks he should be president -- >> i speak the language of business. >> is his business experience. >> 25 years in the private sector. >> he's not touting his
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experience in massachusetts. >> people don't want to know what you're against. >> i like being able to fire people that provide services to me. >> if you don't vote chris christie, romney will be the nominee, and we'll lose. >> hours after president obama phoned mitt romney to congratulate him on virtually securing the republican presidential nomination, david axelrod released a memo showing the obama campaign will broaden their attacks on mitt romney and expose mitt romney's darkest secret, his record as massachusetts governor. ten years ago, mitt romney told the people of massachusetts that his experience in business uniquely qualified him to strengthen the state's economy. when he left office, however, state debt had increased. the size of government had grown. and over his four years, massachusetts record of job creation was among the worst in
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the nation. the obama campaign quotes promises that romney made to massachusetts voters during his 2002 run for governor. promises like this. >> i'm the only candidate in this race who has a lifetime of experience in the private economy. i speak the language of business. i know how jobs are created and how jobs are lost. i'm going to do everything in my power to get our economy back working again for the people of massachusetts. >> doing everything in mitt romney's power to create jobs left massachusetts 47th in job creation among the 50 states, which is why mitt romney does not cite his experience in government as a job creator. >> i think my background of 25 years in the private sector gives me credibility on the economy and on creating jobs. >> the obama campaign is also highlighting this romney promise from 2002.
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>> i will fight taxes at every turn. the problem with increasing taxes is that it puts a burden on working families. they can't afford it. >> the obama campaign today pointed out romney's record of raising fees and taxes in massachusetts of over $700 million a year, imposing more fee increases in his first year in office than any other state how is that for number one? if you're wondering why mitt romney is polling 25 points behind president obama in his home state of massachusetts, it's because massachusetts voters have heard him say this kind of thing before. >> i'm not going to raise taxes on the american people. >> today mitt romney took his fund raising tour to silicon valley with the help of former bain executive and current hewlett-packard ceo, meg whitman, who announced her company plans to lay off a mere
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27,000 workers. >> i like being able to fire people. >> not as much as meg whitman. a new politico report describes just how much money mitt romney and the outside groups supporting his candidacy plan to spend in addition -- in addition to the $800 million the romney campaign and the republican national committee intend to spend. republican super pacs and other outside groups shaped by a loose network of prominent conservatives, including karl rove plan to spend roughly $1 billion on november's elections for the white house and control of congress, according to officials familiar with the group's internal operations. john's latest report in new york magazine. he quotes, white house political adviser david plouffe saying, quote, from a political standpoint i'm almost worried
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about that, that meaning the money, as i am about the question of what the economy is going to do over the next three or four months. joining me now is new york magazine national affairs editor john heliemann and steve kornacki. it sounds like he's got a calculator out there. it worries him almost as much as the economy. >> yeah, lawrence, it's true. and it's one of the big takeaways from, more or less, month i spent between chicago and the white house talking to all the senior people running the obama election effort. they are convinced, as are most republicans, that the president is going to get outspent, when you take all the money together. what the president raises, what the dnc raises, what the super pacs raise, what the labor unions raise and spend. then you take all the republican money. again, the super pacs, the
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they're going to get outspent by a reasonable amount. maybe a billion on the democratic side. a 1.3 billion on the republican side. on the presidential race alone, you know, lawrence, as everybody following politics knows you never want to get outspent in a contest. when you're an incumbent president, you're never going to get outspent. it's never happened. they know they're going to get outspent. you're going to see $2.5 billion get spent in nine or ten states. it's like a test tube experiment. nobody has any idea what the impact will be on the ultimate outcome. >> steve, you can see that the republican money has the obama campaign scared. so scared they decided the to not play fair anymore, and they're going to massachusetts tomorrow apparently, and they're going to have a press conference with democratic legislators in massachusetts to talk about mitt romney's secret, his big secret,
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which of course is his record in government in massachusetts. it seems like about the right time to make that shift, doesn't it? >> yeah, no. i think so. it followed up nicely from the obama standpoint. basically, what the obama campaign is up against is obviously the economy is not in a good place. it's not likely to be in a better place come november. as romney said in the clip, he's playing on, look, the economy is a bad place. you want to get rid of the incumbent president. i have all this experience. there's a natural tendency of people to link competence and success in the private sector with competence in the government. if you can blow it up on the bain side, that helps. he took the business experience. he became governor of a state, of a major state, and the results were very, very unimpressive. if you can make that case on two fronts, you're really impeaching
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his credibility on economic incompetence. it's critical for the obama campaign that they do that. again, in this climate the tendency for swing voters, i really think is, don't ask questions. just vote the indumb bent out. the obama campaign really needs for there to be context. >> john, in your piece, your sources say the obama campaign, in addition to going after his public record in massachusetts, they believe they have an issue of character to go after here. you write it will -- the campaign will drive home the idea that romney is a skillful but self serving plutocrat who has never cared about bettering the lives of ordinary people. one tag line the campaign is considering using, he's never been in it for you. >> yes, and that's a very strong line. and now that it's been in this magazine piece, i don't know if they're going to feel comfortable using it or not. it does what steve kornacki was just talking about. it ties up everything.
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it ties up bain. it ties up massachusetts. it also ties up every faux pas that romney committed that made him seem like thurston hall iii and gordon gekko, out of touch wealthy guy, the tax returns, all of that. they want to make that all one big bundle of disqualification for swing voters, for those voter who is are the 8% or 10% in the eight or nine states who are going to matter, who are uncertain about the president. in an economy like this, especially if it gets rattled again by a european fiasco. if the job numbers are poor over the next few months, they must disqualify romney. they must speak directly to the voter who is would take a flier on somebody else. they want to make romney so unappealing and so not on their side they have to stick with
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obama, even despite their doubts. >> steve, the polls indicate there is room to create character doubt about mitt romney, that his favorability numbers have not been good. although the latest "washington post" poll shows they are improving. the president's favorability is now 52 in that poll. mitt romney's is at 41. romney's unfavorable is at 45, which, as they say, is underwater on that. it's a big jump, though. a big improvement for romney, who in april had a favorability of only 35. president had a four-point higher favorability of 56. so that favorability gap is closing. but the president still has a significant lead over romney with it. that is the polling that indicates there's a vulnerability for romney on character. >> oh, i absolutely agree. i mean, i wouldn't read too much into the jump in his favorability. a lot of that is just republicans who waited forever to get blind mitt romney. finally at this late day saying, yeah, we like the guy. we're with him. a lot of that is at work there. i'm thinking of the slogan you
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just quoted from john's piece there. whether they use it or not, there's another aspect of the massachusetts record that speaks directly to it. one of the reasons why romney left massachusetts and so unpopular is because he quit on the job half way through. he was elected in 2002. he was out the door by the end of 2004. he was using the office as a springboard. >> sarah palin had the integrity, if we can call it that, to at least leave the building and give up the the paycheck. john heliemann and steve kornacki, thank you both for joining me tonight. >> thank you, lawrence. coming up, 50 shades of mitt. karen finney and judith grey on how republicans are trying to win over republican voters. and 25 years ago today barney frank made history. he'll tell us what it was like to be america's first openly gay member of congress. and in the rewrite, newt gingrich pretends there's nothing ray cyst about the lies
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a new poll shows mitt romney gaining ground with women voters. is the republican strategy of 50 shades of mitt actually working? karen finney and judith gray join us next. and in the rewrite tonight, the lies newt gingrich uses to diffuse the lies of the bloviating ignoramus. newt insists there's nothing racist about the pied piper of racism himself says. that's coming up. ♪ [ male announcer ] every day, thousands of people are choosing advil. here's one story. i'm keith baraka and i'm a fire fighter. it's an honor to be a fire fighter. my job involves life or death situations
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today i'm proud to make it official. the plan parenthood action fund is endorsing president barack obama for re-election. >> today's endorsement by planned parenthood action fund for president obama comes just as the group rolled out its largest campaign ad ever. more than 1.1 million ad against mitt romney calling him wrong for women. >> when mitt romney says -- >> planned parenthood, we'll get rid of that. >> he'll deny the birth control women depend on. >> -- he's saying he'll deny women the right to make his own medical decisions. and when his campaign can't say if he can support equal pay protections, romney is putting your paycheck at risk. >> planned parenthood's campaign
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against mitt romney comes just as the senate is gearing up to push for the paycheck fairness act that would combat wage discrimination against women. it's an issue romney has been silent on. according to the conservative newspaper, the "washington times", mitt romney's campaign didn't respond to five messages left over the last week seeking his stance on the paycheck fairness act. despite his silence on this issue, mitt romney is sounding better to some women voters. a new "washington post" poll shows romney's favorability improving with women. in april, 58% of women said they had a favorable view of president obama, compared to just 27%, who then said they had a favorable view of mitt romney. today 51% of women say they have a favorable view of president obama. and now 40% of women in the "washington post" poll say they
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have a favorable view of mitt romney. but still, 44% of women say they have an unfavorable view of mitt romney. romney has seen the greatest improvement among republican women. last month 59% of women had a favorable view of romney. today 80% do. a 21-point gain. joining me now, judith grey, contributing writer for the daily beast, and karen finney, former dnc communications director and msnbc analyst. judith, in your piece in the daily beast, titled gop to women: obama is your guilty pleasure, you explain how republicans are trying to win the women voters. how are they doing it? >> well, what they're doing, and i think they're being extremely clever, is they're painting barack obama as a guilty pleasure that you indulged in 2008. he made you feel wonderful. he made you feel euphoric.
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you were moved by his lofty speeches. but now given your economic situation, it's time to atone for that indulgence. it's time to consider a candidate like mitt romney, someone who doesn't feel very good right now. someone who isn't as instantly as gratifying as barack obama felt in 2008, but in the long term, if you vote for someone like him, your life will be much, much better. i think that's what they're doing. and it seems to be working, according to new polls that are coming out. >> karen, now as we know, i'm not a woman. but i am a feminist. and pardon me, but i felt condescended, too, when i was hearing judith's explanation of the way they want to appeal to women voters you know, you were so superficial in your assessment. you fell for his smile. you fell for the fancy words. >> that's right.
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you wanted that pint of chocolate ice cream and you took it, didn't you? in a political context he's making a great point. the way we would talk about it from a political strategy is voters don't like to be told they were wrong. we know that. so you have to make it okay. part of the way you make it okay is in part this idea that it's okay, you were seduced. it was the smile. it was the lofty rhetoric. but you know, now we've got to get down to brass tax. so part of this is about showing women who look like the women articulating the decision that, gee, maybe, and also it's not just you made a bad decision. he fooled you with his rhetoric. he made you believe his promises. it's a way to go after his character without doing so so directly as you'll see in some of the other ads he'll do. >> let's listen to an add last
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year that is using some of the elements that judith identified in her piece. >> lately i worry a lot about my kids. what is their future going to be like? i supported president obama because he spoke so beautifully. since then things have gone from bad to much worse. >> judith, they're now releasing longer versions of that, but that kind of ad, but it still includes that thing about he spoke so beautifully. saying i supported him because he spoke so beautifully. and no other reason. that's the only one they identify. >> yeah, when i heard it the first time, i had a very negative response to it. i thought, how could this be working? but it seems to be working. you see this woman. her gaze is downcast. she's full of self reproach, self-blame. what the republicans have found is that women are very comfortable with this. they're comfortable with the idea that if you indulge in
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something, you have to atone for it shortly afterwards. they're really taking advantage of that. they are poring so much money into running the ads. they've done various itirations of the same ads. >> i don't know yet that they're working. part of what we saw in the last round of polling is there was still room for romney to begin to define himself. if this was august i would be more concerned. you can't win without winning women voters. obviously they cannot afford to let up on the pressure on their messaging on romney on all the reasons why romney is not good for women. i'm not sure if i'm convinced he's closed the deal with women voters. >> if you think about the
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negative press he's been getting. the bullying story that came out a couple weeks ago. i thought it would have had a lot, you know, the repercussions would have been a lot worse. i'm thinking, in light of all the negative press that's been coming out, the numbers are rising. >> we have seen the favorability movement in the "washington post" poll in mitt romney's direction. judith grey and karen finney. thank you both very much for joining me tonight. >> thanks. >> coming up, barney frank joins me on the 25th anniversary of his coming out as our first openly gay member of congress. how 25 years later we still live in a country where children are taught to sing hate songs about gay people in church. you will hear a 5-year-old spewing hatred in church to the rapturous joy of all in attendance. and the lies of newt gingrich about the lies of donald trump are in tonight's rewrite. and later, emmy winning writer
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discuss how america has changed and not changed since he came out 25 years ago. you will see a video of a child singing a hate song about gay people in church. and in the rewrite, newt gingrich's lying defense of the republicans -- of who the republicans are counting onto help turn out the racist vote for mitt romney. follow the wings.
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the best protection now looks, fits and feels just like underwear. hey lisa, who ya wearing? she's wearing the new depend silhouette. (growl) we invite you to get a free sample and try one on too. i just want to thank all the people in this room for what -- that made this possible for me. no, because what i thought was going to be a very tough time turned out to be a surprisingly easy one. >> 25 years ago today democratic congressman from massachusetts barney frank chose to publicly reveal that he is gay. on that historic gay he became the first member of congress to voluntarily make such a revelation. 25 years later pollsters have stopped asking americans whether they approve of members of congress being gay.
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but they do now ask americans something they couldn't have imagined polling on 25 years ago. do they approve the president's endorsement of same-sex marriage? and 51% now say yes. now matter the great distance this country has traveled, this is still the country where this happens. ♪ i know the bible's right, somebody's wrong ♪ >> the church in that video identified as the apostolic truth church in greensburg, indiana, where truth is obviously not part of their
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literature. today the church released a statement on its website saying the pastor and members of apostolic truth tabernacle do not condone, teach, or practice hate of any person for any reason, we believe and hope that every person can find true bible salvation and mercy and grace of god in their lives. we are a strong advocate of the family unit according to the teachings and precepts found in the holy bible. we believe the holy bible is the divinely inspired word of god and we will continue to uphold and preach that which is found in scripture. in other words, the apostolic truth tabernacle church will continue to teach 5-year-olds that god wants them to sing hate filled songs. joining me now is democratic congressman barney frank.
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congressman frank, first of all, happy anniversary. >> thank you, lawrence. >> i remember so vividly your decision to do that and the statements you made at that time. i actually want to go to a clip of something you staid i can still remember quite clearly a short time after having come out and publicly announced that you're gay. let's listen to that. >> i had the fear that maybe if people knew, that they might not want to vote for me. so there was a sense of well that's not hanging over me anymore. on the other hand, i feel funny. it's a little bit late in life to become any kind of sex symbol. i feel funny. i walk around and get a sense people are saying, i wonder what he does. now we understand your work on gay rights. well, i'm very proud of the fact that my voting record on womens
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issues is a good one. it would be a lousy world that the only people concerned about mistreatment or the discrimination were the victims of it. >> congressman frank, it was as clear and as quick of an it gets better message as you could have imagined after coming out. >> there's no question. one of the things i regret, lawrence. a couple of people who immediately told me they were supportive, major republican senators. former senator al simpson. one of the things i regret is there's been a great progress made on diminishing privilege and hate in the country as a whole. unfortunately it's become partisan. the democrats have gotten better at a faster rate in the country. but the republicans have regressed. i look back nostalgically.
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>> congressman frank, we live in a country where jc penny decided to run an ad featuring two dads. a 5-year-old kid in a church is singing a hate filled song. this is part of the regression. >> no question. what we've seen there, let's be very clear is child abuse. >> yes, it is. to have a young kid, a great, great education. an the irony, of course, is if you allow people of the same sex to marry, next thing you know you'll be teaching the children about homosexuals in school. apparently someone has taught that, and i mean that, this poor kid, being inducted with this crap about us in a very negative way. but those people are diminishing. and you know what happens, lawrence, sometimes when people know they're losing, they strike out more.
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they can be a dangerous time in some ways, but there isn't any question, look, let's look a t the question of marriage. it immediately becomes noncontroversial. we have problems where people vote on whether or not it should happen before it's happened. or a month or two after it's gone into effect. and the fear is the indoctrination you saw that poor kid getting. the democrats enacted same-sex marriage. the republicans said we're going to repeal it. after two years they said, what are you talking about? another is don't ask, don't tell. you remember. a year ago we were being told this would be a terrible blow with the cohesion of the american military. the don't ask/don't tell policy was repealed. openly gay people have been able to serve in the military, transgender people for month
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now, and nobody noticed. and so reality is they're feeding the prejudices. younger people are doing away with it. but there is a problem that the republican party and some minority religious groups are seizing on this in an angry way, but they're going to this lose. >> congressman frank, i wasn't in a position to publicly congratulate you 25 years ago on that day. i have to say as a montana voter at the time, i couldn't have been more proud. congressman frank, thank you very much for joining me tonight. >> a month ago from now i'm going to be getting married. never thought the day would come that i would be able to do that. i'm looking forward to introducing jim as my husband to my colleagues for the rest of the year. >> congratulations to you again. thank you, congressman, frank.
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>> coming up, newt gingrich defends donald trump the only way he knows how, by lying. newt gingrich and the bloviating ignoramus are in studio. kevin blier is here. machine, people making stuff. companies have to invest in making things. infrastructure, construction, production. we need it now more than ever. chevron's putting more than $8 billion dollars back in the u.s. economy this year. in pipes, cement, steel, jobs, energy. we need to get the wheels turning. i'm proud of that. making real things... for real. ...that make a real difference. ♪ fight both fast with new tums freshers! concentrated relief that goes to work in seconds and freshens breath. new tums freshers. ♪ tum...tum...tum...tum... tums! ♪ [ male announcer ] fast relief, fresh breath,
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you can video call on skype... send photos. yeah, okay. yeah, let's do it. get $100 off any motorola 4g lte smartphone, like the droid 4 now just $99.99. verizon. kevin bleyer is here. i know what you're thinking. who is kevin bleyer? he's the emmy award winning daily show writer who thinks he's smarter than everyone. we'll see just how smart he really is. that's coming up. and next in the rewrite. gingrich and trump and the lies republicans tell to win the support of racist voters.
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and by pooling more thankyou points from folks all over town, we were able to watch team usa... [ cheering ] in true london fashion. [ male announcer ] now citi thankyou visa card holders can combine the thankyou points they've earned and get even greater rewards. ♪ time for tonight's rewrite. newt gingrich is pretending that he doesn't know what all the the fuss is about. the fuss about mitt romney prowling around with a bloviating ignoramus who peddles the lie that president obama was not born in the united states. >> i'm happy to say i believe he was born in hawaii. we believe this is an american born job killing president. other people may believe that he was born somewhere else and still kills jobs, but that's from his background. >> no, newt, it is not an argument over background. it's an argument over a lie. it's an argument over the very
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legitimacy of this presidency, the constitutional legitimacy of barack obama to the president of the united states. >> the president challenges his own legitimacy by his failures ob the economy, his failures on the deficit. his failures in being candid with the american people. >> failures on the economy challenge the legitimacy of a presidency. i didn't hear newt gingrich they that during george h.w. bush's recession. and now newt says that failures on the deficit challenge a president's legitimacy. i didn't hear him say that about every president that ran a budget deficit and failed to pay off the national debt. and now newt gingrich is saying that fill yours on being candid with the american people challenge a president's legitimacy.
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well, that was certainly true with republican president nixon, who was driven from office at the end of impeachment hearings in the house of representatives. but then ronald reagan was anything but candid with the american people on the minings of the harbors in nicaragua. every president, every single one of them from george washington on has failed to be candid with the american people about something, or about many things. without, without ever having the legitimacy of his presidency challenged. this is the first president who has suffered a challenge to his legitimacy, from a bloviating ignoramus. newt gingrich knows that he is right about him being an ignoramous. newt gingrich is afraid to say that.
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how do we know that newt gingrich is afraid to say that. >> no, i'm not afraid. i just know it's hopeless to suggest anything to him about what he should do. >> it couldn't be newt is afraid. it's just not newt is one for hopeless quests like trying to get donald trump to change his mind or, you know, running for president. he is a practical man who would never get caught trying to do something hopeless. we will be in tampa as the nominee in august. >> and newt thinks there isn't a whiff of racism in anything donald trump says about president obama. >> i know there's a desperate need to attach racism to everything. in fact, i think donald trump said what he said because he
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thinks it's the right thing for him to say. >> well, governor george wallace thought this was the right thing for him to say. >> and i say segregation now, segregation tomorrow, and segregation forever. >> and president richard nixon who newt gingrich supported thought that this was the right thing for him to say. quote, the jews are just a very aggressive and abrasive and obnoxious personal. the fact that a bloviating ignoramus isn't the right thing to say doesn't make it right. newt gingrich knows that. newt gingrich is afraid of donald trump. when he pushed the voting acts right through congress in 1964 and 1965, republicans realized there were millions of racists
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in this country who from that point forward would hate the democratic party. but they were still registered voters. and some republicans wanted to make sure that those racist registered voters knew they still had a political home. and so was born the republican strategy which delivered the presidency to nixon in 1968 and has been the key to every republican electoral college victory since then. some are always looking for a way to signal to the racist vote that they should be voting republican. and with a -- casting himself in the role of the pied piper of american racism, the romney campaign is doing everything it can to help provide a stage for trump to play his tune.
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newt gingrich knows the southern strategy well. he's from georgia, a state that used to be controlled by the democratic party and is now a rock solid republican. the euphemism republicans coined for molly coddling racists. and newt gingrich knows the racial element of the southern strategy must never be acknowledged publicly. and so newt explains the unique race based assault on the legitimacy of the obama presidency this way. >> i think that obama creates very powerful emotions about it. largely because of the radicalism of his views. and i think that's the key. nobody runs around and asking west was born in the united
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states. he's a congressman. nobody runs around and says was tim scott born in the united states. he's a congressman. he's african-american. so the idea of asserting any charge against obama managing to get back to race schism is one more device to protect obama. and there you just saw newt gingrich's tortured rhetorical device, to protect the southern strategy. to protect the vile race based antics of the national embarrassment called donald trump. to protect mitt romney from charges of prowling around with an incoherent racial racketeer. of course, no one need ask where a member of congress was born because it doesn't matter. we've had many members of congress foreign born, not natural born citizens, because
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there are only two elective positions in the country that requires the office holder to be, quote, a natural born citizen. president and vice president. and historian newt gingrich knows that. he knows that his reference to african-american congressmen is still institutionally irrelevant to the racist messaging about the president's birth certificate that the republicans and mitt romney have outsourced to a bloviating ignoramus. they have decided that to win this election they need someone to cell the hatred that donald trump sells, but none of those republicans can be caught getting their hands dirty with it themselves. mitt romney can't say these things. that's why he needs donald trump to say these things. he needs a bloviating ignoramus with access to microphones to tell everyone who hates
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president obama to vote romney. he needs them to make sure every racist registered voter in america will be filled with what newt gingrich calls, quote, very powerful emotions. on election day. he needs to make sure that they will turn out to try to get every one of them to turn out for donald trump's candidate because in the presidential election of 2012, the republicans' southern strategy has become the trump strategy. ♪ ♪
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i was speaking with one of these business owner who is owns a couple restaurants in town. he said, you know, i would like to change the constitution. i'm not sure i can do it. i would like to have a provision that in addition to the age of the president and the citizenship of the president and the birthplace of the president being set by the constitution. i would like it also to say that the president has to spend at least three years working in business before he can become president of the united states. joining me now is constitutional scholar kevin bleyer, an emmy winning writer for the daily show and author of the new book "me the people: one man's selfless quest to rewrite the constitution of the united
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states of america." kevin, we don't have a lot of time tonight. i recommend holding the book up in front of you at all times as a promo? >> is that right? i have my marching orders at the top here? >> we want to sell books. there it is. "me the people", right there. so you and mitt romney have something in common. you are deeply dissatisfied with the constitution of the united states. what did you think about -- >> that's not a fair approximation, no. >> what did you think of his rewrite? he wants to mandate three years business experience. >> i am so glad you brought this up. we have to applaud mitt romney for following your lead -- >> speak for yourself, my friend. speak for yourself. >> and page two rewrite of the second article of the constitution of the united states of america. even though that would have been one that would have disqualified eisenhower, roosevelt or john mccain.
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it might have been me. it sounds like the absurd suggestion that i might make in this book. >> and you do, it turns out, have access to power. for your book about the constitution, i believe you got access to at least one supreme court justice. >> well the rumors are true. i did think who would be the most amenable. i thought, probably the man who has devoted his entire life to securing and protecting every article, phrase and sentence in the constitution. but yes, justice scalia did meet. >> what you're revealing here is we have a supreme court justice with time on his hands. enough time to say yes, mr. emmy winning daily show writer, come right in. i got nothing to do. >> he's a man with a sense of humor. >> when i suggested it may no longer allow him to have lifetime tenure, he asked me if
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