that's our report. thanks for watching. i'm john seigenthaler those other olympic games. let's play "hardball." good evening, i'm chris matthews in washington. let me start with the matter of war and peace that the president addressed today. listen to the president earlier today who said that i got the clear impression that we, the united states, are doing everything to prevent another islamic war in iran, and if we are helping israel in an act of war we could unleash consequences that are impossible now to see, but with hell on

earth with hezbollah against us. and jordan teetering towards the islamic militant side and who knows what coming to our side thanks to the sleeper cell, war and peace. that is how the president laid it out today, and we need to talk about it with msnbc's andrea mitchell and mother jones' david corn and author of the book "showdown." olympic games i use that word because it was the code word for the george w. bush's code word to cripple the iranian nuclear program through high-tech hacking into it. >> the cyber war, and because the nuclear program is not on the internet this required having an agent insert a thumb drive and as david sanger describes in the book "confront and conceal," it was inserting mechanisms into the centrifuges

into iraq and iran and giving us a mirror image of what was happening in the iran's nuclear plant and u.s. initiated and not as previously suspected or inferred. >> and we thought it was a cover-up. >> yes, until we read sanger's book and not denied by anyone, and it was george bush and expanded greatly by president obama. >> and you are a president watcher, but i thought he gave it away with the way he treated with gravity and the way he responded to the leaks and the anger of whoever did it was almost to me a statement, hey, this is what we are doing. and i don't want it out there. >> well, in fact, what mike rogers the chairman of the house intelligence committee who has been completely nonpartisan in all of this and has been given high marks by the white house and democrats is saying that he did not think that the president was tough enough in sending a tough enough signal to the aides, cut it out and stop it, this cannot take place the

leaks, because this is an ongoing covert operation. >> this is president obama with the strong words for people he accused or been accused of leaking sensitive information about the very thing, the cyber attacks targeting iran's nuclear pr gram, and the details of the u.s. involvement in that came to light in "the new york times," and this is the president on it today. >> as commander in chief, the issues that you have mentioned touch on our national security, touch on critical issues of war and peace and they are classified for a reason. because they are sensitive. and because the people involved may in some cases be in danger

if they are carrying out some of these missions. >> well, that is in response, david to, a question, david jackon of "usa today" and it is rare that you hear a president as smart as this guy thinking out loud, and he is trying to deal with something that is so close to the bone, that he does not have a p.r. sheet to hand out on this or talking points, and he is trying to figure out in real time how to deal with this sensitivity. >> there is a lot going on here and when people leak in washington it can be for all sorts of reasons and usually self-aggrandizement, and usual will ti people who started the program want credit for it and sanger had sources in israel and europe who worked on the project, but he cite present president obama officials. >> and sure he had vice president biden in there. >> and maybe the program has run the course, we don't know, but if the administration wants israel and the rest of the world to know that we are doing something very real to slow down the enemy, then the israeli

public as well, it takes off pressure for the military strike and this makes it harder for the neocons for them to say that nothing is happening and we can't stop them unless we bomb them. >> that is tricky, and here is president obama who would not comment directly on the implication, but he said that the idea that his white house would leak information purposely about such a sensitive matter was offensive. let's watch. >> the notion that my white house would purposely release classified national security information is offensive. it is wrong. we are dealing with issues that can touch on the safety and the security of the american people. our families. or our military personnel or our allies. and so we don't play with that. >> we don't play with that. it is hard not to be cynical in politics, but i got the feeling

that, well, i think that he meant it. think that he was really hurt that anybody would say he was out there hot dogging on this. >> he was responding to john mccain who said that the white house officials leaked this and other covert operations -- >> they were all in the same bag. bin laden. >> and saying that the white house leaked this to make the white house look more presidential and macho about the campaign and not what dianne feinstein and mike rogers and others from the intelligence committee are say, because they are demanding a special prosecutor and demanded the justice department, and the head of the national intelligence and the head of the directors to say that details from the national security meetings and the prior bush years as well were all believed leaked. david sanger would tell you that it is his reporting and that clearly the world knew as of

2010 that it became apparent to the iran and the rest of the world that the worm had infected the centrifuge, and that is when we all first started to suggesting that it must have been israel maybe with the u.s. help, but what sanger had was the work of a really fine report. >> and let me go out to you and david with something that worries me, because i'm an american citizen besides sitting here and i worry about war and in court they say, david, never ask a question unless you know the answer. never start a war unless you know the consequences. it seems we don't know the consequences. i ran through some scenarios that suppose israel did cripple the program with the loss of several hundred lives going into the facilities and they do it and we have to support them, a nd if that happens egypt whatever government they are in automatically thinks of reneging on the treatment with israel and

you have to think of king abdullah and the monarchy and if it survives in jordan and the new government in libya and it seems that everybody is tilted to the far angry part against us. >> well, in sanger's piece, he talks about this, and the president was asked again and again and again to oversee and give the okay as this program got more intense and sort of probed deeper into iran and the same way we heard of the other week about the kill list and the drones and everything. one reason he is doing that is because he wants to do everything possible to avoid what you are talking about. i mean -- >> that is how i got it today. did you get it that way? >> yes. >> and he might be taking more risks in this angle to prevent the possibility of war. >> this tells me that it has gotten to the point unless he can come up with another way to stop that nuclear program, even he, a man of the center left on the foreign policy in many ways will have to act. andrea mitchell, thank you. have a nice weekend, and you, too, david with the weather in

d.c. and we finally got last fall. another big issue in the news conference, jobs. what was the president saying today any am saying that it is time for the president to propose something big and like the commercial where the dr director wants to blow up that ship, i want something big. if you have a do nothing congress, make them do nothing about something important at least. this is "hardball."

welcome back to "hardball." today president obama argued for congress to pass again finally the american jobs act on the table over there since september of last year. let's listen to the president today. >> last september i sent congress a detailed jobs plan full of the bipartisan ideas that would have put more americans back to work. it had broad support from the american people, it was fully paid for, and if congress had passed it in full, we'd be on

track to have a million more americans working this year. the unemployment rate would be lower. our economy would be stronger. of course, congress refused to pass this jobs plan in full. and in light of the headwinds that we are facing right now, i urge them to reconsider. >> my take on this is that it is time for the president to go big and force the republicans to say no to a big jobs bill, but actu actually put millions of people back to work. and we are joined by our guest, monique from the washington post, and joan walsh who is a msnbc political analyst. joan, i have to start with you with what is left in the so-called american jobs bill and it has a nice cover on it, and we like the term american and jobs and bill is okay if it is passed, but sense it is not passed you can call it anything that you want, the american jobs thought or american jobs notion.

>> and prayer. >> perfect. and it has not been passed. and what if the president as i have said no to spam, because that is what we used to eat when we were poor, the little thing that came in the can and why not ask for steak, and they say no, and mitch mcconnell says no, you won't get anything past, because the only thing that is past is the bill i wrote to you. so why not offer a jobs bill that he believes in. public sector and seeded jobs of modern jobs and the fast rail and go big and if he believes that the american sector, as he said today is getting starved. >> well, i think that he will, i hope. >> when! >> and i think that the jobs act honestly, tomorrow, soon, after he listens to us, chris. in september, the jobs ak was a big step forward because the president had been talking way too much about the deficit and bogged down in the debt ceiling debacle and came out in september and announced the plan and the poll numbers consistently started to rise. a couple of things about the jobs act and i defended it to

you a couple of weeks ago and i went to look at it, and i could not find a number. there are lots of little numbers, but it should say on the front page, 6 million or 10 million one page and that is one stupid design thing, but in terms of the sale -- >> well, the economy is $13 trillion in the country and suffered from a slow growth rate and he thinks that he can goose it up with a jobs bill that is $140 billion and this is less than a half a percent of the economy f. he got every nickel, he would move the economy by less than a half a percent and why is he going for sog so small bore that the republicans would say, take it, and the republicans will never say take it, ever. let me go over to you for this? any other way to analyze this small thinking? >> well, if he goes big, he is going to be easily framed as a big spending liberal. >> what is wrong with that? he is a liberal and needs to spend big. >> and they will talk about the stimulus bill --

>> yes, they will go after it anyway. >> and i think that is what -- >> but nia -- >> he has never been the full loaf guy, but the half loaf. you are saying that -- >> half a loaf, less than one half of 1%. there is a stimulus bill on the record and health care bill on the record and auto rescue plan on the record and the question is now whether you sell it and believe in it and hide from it. do you believe he can hide from the stimulus plan because of to stupid title stimulus and hide from the auto bailout, because it is a bailout when they should have called it a rescue, and they call it a stimulus bill instead of a jobs bill. and the shopping of this, and the p.r. of this, and the marketing has been a zero. these programs are good. they did the right thing on health care, and they did the right thing on spending money when they got in there to rescue the economy and the right thing on the auto industry and they ought to say we did the right thing and we are going to doer

mo of it this term, and the idea to squeamishly say e didn't do that or if you don't bring it up, we won't talk about it and the minute they do that, the romney crowd will that is my speec speech. >> el, you yo right, they will call you a big spender and nia is right, they will try to split the difference, and he did run as a bipartisan and post partisan guy, and he does not want to be out there as a big spending liberal and trying the best not to be that, but they call him that anyway and this is the big thing about the democrats and even including our old friend bill clinton, they want to act like the not the party of l.b.j. or j.f.k. and bringing down unemployment, and they should not be just accused of it, but do something big and do something for the youth of the country. >> well, you have darth vader on the senate side mitch mcconnell whose only goal is to destroy the guy and on the other side is don knotts who is nervous nelly who is always taking in the boots because he has a wild

party of wild men and women, the tea party types and he does not want to have supper with pease theme, but they hang around his neck. >> and you have scheme ihave sq democrats, and like claire mccaskill who does not want to say, i just voted against a stimulus. and people have -- he tried to brand this as investment, and the republicans say this is spending. he does not want to be framed as carter or -- >> well, let me tell you that the republicans talk about the huge spending on the defense and the air row space which is bigger spending than anything else, and what is the difference of the building the highways and national defense highway plan as eisenhower called it and what is wrong with building up a structure in the country that we could get by fast and eisenhower would say it is a defensive move. >> and it is. >> and there is some support for this and the numbers show that people want this stuff to

happen, but he does not have the horses in the senate or the congress to make it happen. >> if the you believe in what you do, the public will buy it and if you don't, they will never buy it. the president tried to champion some of the during his political -- wait, i'm sorry. no, we just put up the wrong prompter, and somebody told me to reintroduce you joan walsh and nia -malik henderson. and here is where the president was stumped. >> we have created 4.3 million jobs over the last 27 months. over 800,000 just this year alone. the private sector is doing fine. where we are seeing the weaknesses in the economy had to do with state and local government. >> the private sector is doing fine, miscue, and a tad eschew

as "seinfeld" would says. even mitt can catch this, baby. >> he said that the private sector is doing fine. he said that the private sector is doing fine. is he really that out of touch for the president of the united states to is stand up and say that the private sector is doing fine? that is going to go down in history as extraordinary miscalculation and misunderstanding by a president who is out of touch. >> well, by mid aafternoon the president had realized he had handed the republicans a gift and tried to clarify the remark. let's watch the president. >> folks who are hurting where we have problems and where we can do even better is small businesses that are having a tough time getting financing. we have seen teachers and police officers and firefighters who have been laid off, all of which

by the way when they are laid off spend less money buying the goods and going to the restaurants. >> well, fighting fire with fire, the democrats seized on this line from mitt romney today where he attacks the president's jobs plan. let's watch. >> his answer for economic vitality by the way was of course pushing aside the private sector which he said is doing fine, an instead, he wants to add more to government, and wants another stimulus and wants to hire more government workers and says we need more firemen and policemen and teachers and did he not get the message in wisconsin, the american people did. it is time to cut back on the government and help the american people. >> you know, it is amazing, l y ladies to watch the politicians play the constituents, and the president was playing to the teachers union over and over again, teachers, teachers, and in this case they could not resist and he steps on his own headline. thank you both for coming on. have a nice weekend both of you.

and remember rick perry? well, he was booed by the texas republicans, and he did not recognize the booing sound, because he thought it was something else. this is the place for the sideshow and this is "hardball."

we are back with "hardball" and the side show. rick perry may have walked into the texas gop convention yesterday saying he felt he had the home state advantage with the crowd of delegates, but watch what happens when he talks up the lieutenant governor duhurst the candidate opposed. >> we need more conservative leadership in texas, and we need more conservative texans in washington, d.c., including my

friend david duehurst. texas works. texas works. our jobs grew -- >> well, you heard that booing at duhurst and then perry thought that the crowd was with him, until a local reporter asked him about the booing. >> governor, what about the booing? h. >> i thought they were saying doo. >> well, plenty of republican candidates say they will swoop into washington and rip laws like obama care apart to shreds, and now listen to this republican candidate down there in arizona. >> washington does not get us. we want our borders protected. if they won't do it, we will. we want government out of our lives and out of our pocketbook. government-run health care, we don't want it. we don't need it. we can't afford it. this is what i'd do to that law. pull! i'm ron gould and i approve this

message, because washington needs a straight shooter. pull. >> well, nevada's sharron angle of course would call that a second amendment remedy. that is "hardball" for now and coming up next is "your business with j.j. ramberg." that's good morning, veggie style. hmmm. for half the calories plus veggie nutrition. could've had a v8. free-credit-score-dot-com'sur boargonna direct you ♪ts ♪ ♪ to check your credit score before it gets too late ♪ ♪ and you end up strapped for cash ♪ ♪ patching your board with duct tape ♪ ♪ so hit free-credit-score-dot-com ♪ ♪ find out what credit's about ♪ ♪ or else you could be headed for a credit wipeout ♪ offer applies with enrollment in freecreditscore.com™.