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tv   Hardball With Chris Matthews  MSNBC  July 10, 2012 2:00pm-3:00pm PDT

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health care that has yet to be fully implemented. a central theme in mitt romney's tour of deceit and confusion. coming to a town very near you. thanks so much for watching this afternoon. "hardball" is up now. defining romney before he defines himself. let's play "hardball." good evening. tonight, richie rich for president? if there's one big take away from president obama's big tax announcement is that he's trying to frame mitt romney as richie rich. the tax cut proposal itself is likely to go nowhere, but throw in romney's tax cuts for the wealthy, his homes, cadillacs,
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corporations or people comment and you can see the strategy. romney is for the rich, obama defends the middle class. may determine who wins in november. also, dirty, angry money. lost in the news about republican fund-raiser is how much it might affect house and senate races. karl rove's has just dumped a million dollars to unseat ohio's sherrod brown, which would likely give the republicans the senate. sherrod brown joins us tonight. plus, we've got new poll numbers out from key swing states that he's going to win in november. happened when the mayor of one city wanted to raise taxes an the city council said no. the mayor busted employees -- how he defends that one. finally, dozens of members of congress are doing just that. handing out embarrassing moments from their wikipedia pages, but wikipedia is pushing back. we begin with the oba-- media
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group, michael steele was chairman of the republican party. both are msnbc political analysts. gentlemen, want to show you something that vicpresident biden, he spoke to one of the largest latino political organizations today. what he had to say. take a look. >> when his father was a candidate for president in 1986, his father released 12 years of tax returns because he said and i quote, one year could be a fluke. perhaps done for show, end of quote. that was his father. his son has released only one year of his tax returns. making alive the old adage, like father, like son. he wants you to show your paper, but he won't show us his.
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>> and of course yesterday, the president also hit romney. he told the local new hampshire station that romney should be more open and his finances. >> is it your belief that it's unpatriotic for someone to have a swiss bank account? >> you know, i think what's important if you are running for president is that the american people know who you are, what you've done and that you're an open book and you know, that's been true of every presidential candidating back to mr. romney's father. >> and finally today at a town hall in colorado, mitt romney was asked about the attacks coming from the democrats. >> i'm not going to apologize for success at home and for america abroad. i went out and began a business and the business turned out to be far more successful than i would have imagined. we were able to create jobs in our own little business and some of the jobs were able to create jobs as well. >> how does this all play? it occurs to me that americans
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do not resent wealth at the ballot box. what's the net net? >> the narrative and that is one that you see the obama team trying carve very carefully ability mitt romney and that is that he's out of touch. the pushback by the romney people has got to be one where romney gets in there and clearly defines his wealth and the context of the american dream. aspirations. you can do better tomorrow than today. that's the central battle being drawn between these two campaigns. one, both around definitions of romney. interestingly enough, the obama team are trying to define obama as well, but with less success because the president's record while mixed on the economy and other thing, he's got more places to pivot to where as
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romney's central argument has been i created the jobs, done the business -- and that's a tougher sell when you're trying to battle the idea that you're just for the rich guy. >> howard, are there some perils here because it could get depicted as class war fair? >> i think there are. if the president and his allies end up looking like they resent wealthy people and they're going after them just for the fact that they're rich. i think that could hurt the president with some independent voters in swing state, but i can assure you with talking with some people advising the president's campaign and democrats on the hill, they're perfectly will be to take that risk because they think they've got mitt romney if not on the run, at least at a slow trot cht they don't think mitt romney's going to be able to get from today until november 6th without showing more r of his tax returns.
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they think there's got to be some things in those tax returns that candidate romney doesn't want revealed. and if they can keep the the press interested in the story and that's a big part of this, then they think the pressure will build. >> well, democrats -- >> and i think that's a big challenge for them. >> let me show you both what joe tripy had to say. he said it's the cumulative effect of these attacks and told politico on a zero to ten scale, you get a bunch of twos and threes but when you combine a swiss bank account and a guy who wants to extend tax breaks on the wealthy, you get a seven. it's not this issue by itself, it's the combination. michael steele, i think that's the direct you were headed. >> absolutely. death by a thousand cuts. i could take you out with one blow, but then i create sympathy with how i came after you. we saw that in the republican primary that there was a
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backlash to such heavy enemies, but this effort, death by a thousand cuts, you've got a brick here, a cut there, a slice there. it's the slow bleed and that creates the overall impression of where people instead of feeling sorry for you, then if you're not responding, there must be something true about it and that's why you're seeing the pushback by a lot of conservatives, especially the establishment types as well, for the romney to push back against this narrative about bain to avoid the stem the flow of blood if you will. >> if you were still running the rnc, would you be calling somebody and saying bring forth the tax returns? is that one of the ways you think the bleeding gets stemmed? >> i think it's one of the ways where you say look, if there's nothing there, there's no there there, don't create a there. put out as much information as you can. at least three, four, five.
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you begin that drip back the other way. and it helps to off set some of the noise and the bleeding if you will, from the cuts that you're getting. >> howard fineman on the issue of the tax runs, congress debbie wasserman shulgts -- >> mitt romney has only released one year and an estimate of another year. he needs to come clean and release multiple years so we can see why he invested in a bermuda corporation and transferred to it to his wife's name, accounts in the cayman island. most folks that i know, they make their investments in a bank in america. most american businessmen invest here and if you're running for president, certainly should be your commitment. >> and yesterday, haley barbour was asked about mitt romney's
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tax returns. >> tax returns, should he release the tax returns? >> i would, but should it be an issue in the campaign? >> finally, a different take from jason chaffits. he said that. >> i think he has released a tax returns. >> more of them. >> shouldn't -- >> no, i don't. >> why not? why shouldn't the american people see those? >> he's been very successful. released everything he's required to release. i think it's a diversionary tactic. most people don't care about this. he's been very successful. get over it. >> do most people care about this issue? >> well, i don't think they care about this specific issue obsessively, but as you said and
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what michael said, if you put the secrecy of most of his financial transactions next to concerns about outsourcing and offshoring that the democrats have been poking around at next to their efforts of trying to paint mitt romney into a corner on defending tax cuts for the wealthiest americans and if you sort of put the aura of secrecy around the whole thing, then i think you raise questions about what mitt romney's up to, exactly what his agenda is and what his agenda would be for the presidency if he got it. and that can put and has put mitt romney on the defensive. the president would rather raise questions about what mitt romney's real intentions are should he be president. than discuss the current economics. aside from the thousand cuts, we have not spent any time in this segment for example talking
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about the rather bleak state of the american economy. that's what the obama campaign wants. >> people might say if this is such an effective narrative, why are we deadlocked? >> that's a very interesting question. the reality of it is people right now at a point where they're looking at these guys and trying to assess whether they can continue with what they know with obama or take the chance with the business man who has a proven tax record. i think howard makes the final and most important point. it boils down to this economy and solutions on the economy will be determined in terms of the outcome. >> thank you. coming up, dirty, angry money. karl rove just dumped a million dollars into ohio to unseat sherrod brown and give republicans control of the
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senate. sherrod brown joins us next. this is "hardball," the place for politics.
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with four months before election, we've got new poll numbers. let's check the the scoreboard. according to a new "washington post" abc news poll, the race is tied 47-47. an a new reuters poll has obama up six, 49-43. we'll have new poll numbers from some key battleground states later in the program. we'll be right back. beautiful blooms... in mississippi we had more good times... in louisiana we had more fun on the water. last season we broke all kinds of records on the gulf. this year we are out to do even better... and now is a great time to start. our beatches are even more relaxing... the fishing's great. so pick your favorite spot on the gulf... and come on down. brought to you by bp and all of us who call the gulf home.
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when it comes to dirty, angry money, there are few senators -- when it comes to sherrod brown. conservative groups have spent
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$10.5 million to date. that's more than four times the amount spent by outside liberal groups. the money is mainly coming from social welfare groups which do not have to disclose donors. one major player is crossroads gps. the group has spent $2.5 million on ads targeting brown. why has he become such a target? we'll ask hill. he joins us now. senator, why you? >> well, i think why me is because i've been a strong progressive voice. i assume it's oil companies spending money in ohio. i assume it's wall street banks. my legislation to end too big to fail to really end too big to fail. i assume it's the companies that want to outsource american jobs and want to benefit from that because of my chinese currency
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bill. i don't know r for sure. >> let's underscore that. the point that you have to qualify this by saying i assume because there's no disclosure required. at least at this stage. >> yeah, this is what's, it's bad enough that billionaires and huge corporations that have already too much power in our government in congress, in the executive branch far too often, that they already have that power and then they can spend money without disclosure and that's the importance of this whole citizens movement. if you go to sherrodbrown.com and sign our petition, more than $150,000 people have signed up. this is going to take our democracy back because this money, partly the supreme court decision, the loopholes already there when exxon and the big drug companies and wall street banks can have this kind of influence with the electorate, not just with congress. that's why the citizen's movement is so important. as i said earlier,
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sherrodbrown.com, sign our petition. it will help us fight back. the it's one we've got to win. >> here's what they're doing with the money. let's watch. >> it's time to play who's the biggest supporter of the obama agenda in ohio? it's sherrod brown. brought back to obama's agenda backed a whopping 95% o f the time. he voted for budget busting obamacare. for obama's tax increase and even supported cap and trade, which could have cost ohio over 100,000 jobs. tell sherrod brown stop spending and cut the debt. >> senator, why are liberal groups being outflanked in this regard? >> well, i think groups that are more progressive don't have this resources. keep in mind that when the oil industry spending this kind of money, when their side wins, they get tax breaks, weaker environmental law, antilabor
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legislation. there's real incentive for the individual billionaires to get their taxes cut, so they invest, really is an investment to them. they get billions in benefits. >> might labor off set this? i ask the question because "the wall street journal" reported today that organized labor groups send a lot more on politics than previous estimates would have you believe. about four times more. according to the journal -- which chronicle contributions made directly to federal candidates and union spending and supportive candidates for congress and white house but unions spend more on activities like supporting state and local candidates and deploing the union -- is that labor could be a stronger counterweight. to super pacs that raise millions from wealthy donors to
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support republican candidates and causes. truth to that. could labor be your savings grace? >> i'm a scriber to the "wall street journal." i picked it up in my driveway today. keep in mind, they said more money from labor than they thought. it's not more from money from the billionaires combined. labor can only compete a dollar for every five or ten when you have the koch brothers and adelson and exxon and these big companies that outsource them. labor can't do anything like that. labor's very good at talking to your members and when you talk about labor once, it's elected labor union leaders who are setting the agenda just like people who vote for political figures, so labor can't compete
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at this level. you know, you're looking at a bunch of people paying union dues of maybe $100 or $150 a month. it's not that much. it's not even a comparison. "the wall street journal," a pretty conservative newspaper, of course puts that on the front page. it was well written. there was some bias in the direction making that look like they could compete on an evening playing field. >> thank you. we're now joined by chrisystia freela freeland. a lot of attention recently about the fund raising of the presidential campaigns and thousand obama campaign is being outfu outfu outfundraised in the last couple of months.
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i think the untold story until now is how this might affect. your thoughts? >> i think you're right. i think the story that we're seeing is that the right, the republicans have more money. i think senator brown put it very well. if you look at the economic map of america today, it's the billionaires, it's the people at the top who are winning and have the resources and the 99% and their organized representatives like labor unions are not doing so well in the economy today. so the people are the resources have raelzed they have an ability for that money in politics. we focus on the presidential race because it's a single very important race, but i think what we're seeing is in a way, a million dollars, $5 million, to get more bang for your buck if you spend it in a single senator race and that's what they're doing cht. >> it's conceivable that supporter of the president could
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wake up wednesday morning having achieved their goal of garnering his re-election and be shocked that the senate has changed hands. the quinnipiac poll from late june has brown ahead of his opponent by 16 points and this -- there isn't a candidate in the country who has earned more lousy headlines since jo jojos josh -- despite repeated stumbles. the clout of a campaign investigation and so what gives? the era of outside spending where even a candidate can stay in the game -- the constituents, voters don't know where has this
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money even -- >> and what you're seeing is raising money, but being able to focus it in a laser like way on a local race. and if you want to look at it from an investing perspective at some of those billionaire republican donors like to do, in a way, you're political investment, you get more l leverage for it if you focus on a local race. >> thanks. up next, ever wonder what mitt romney talks about when forced to make small talk? and remember, you can follow me on twitter if you can spell smerconish. the postal service is critical to our economy,
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delivering mail, medicine and packages. yet the house is considering a bill to close thousands of offices, slash service and layoff over 100,000 workers. the postal service is recording financial losses, but not for reasons you might think. the problem ? a burden no other agency or company bears. a 2006 law that drains $5 billion a year from post office revenue while the postal service is forced to overpay billions more into federal accounts. house bill 2309 is not the answer. why not talk to someone who owns an adjustable version of the most highly recommended bed in america? ask me about my tempur advanced ergo. goes up. goes up. ask me what it's like to get a massage anytime you want. goes down. goes down. [ male announcer ] tempur-pedic brand owners are more satisfied than owners of any traditional mattress brand. ergonomics. [ male announcer ] tempur-pedic.
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ttd#: 1-800-345-2550 let's talk about market volatility. ttd#: 1-800-345-2550 in times like these, it can be tough to know which ttd#: 1-800-345-2550 way the wind is blowing. ttd#: 1-800-345-2550 at charles schwab, we're ready with objective insights about ttd#: 1-800-345-2550 the present market and economic conditions. ttd#: 1-800-345-2550 and can help turn those insights into ttd#: 1-800-345-2550 a plan of action that's right for you. ttd#: 1-800-345-2550 so don't let the current situation take you off course. ttd#: 1-800-345-2550 talk to chuck. ttd#: 1-800-345-2550 back to "hardball." first off, time to mingle. ever wonder what mitt romney is saying to the other folks on
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stage before a speech? how about when he's casually chatting with others from the political scene? j jimmy fallon did some guessing. >> hi, welcome, good to see you. happy you're here. you can let go of my hand now. please. and this is my friend, chris. good to see you. what's with the handshakes? sorry about that, chris. you guys want to play mini golf after this? is there a putt putt? last time, i got three holes in one, the that how you say that, holes in ones? >> moments to watch in the general election debates get urnway -- although in one predebate greeting from four years ago, we didn't have to do much guessing. >> nice to meet you. hey, can i call you joe? >> the can i call you joe
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moment. it's tough to forget. next, when president obama sat down with a local las vegas reporter yesterday, the topic turned to baseball. that's potentially dangerous territory for obama. just weeks ago, he was booed by a crowd of red sox fans after he mocked the sox for trading kevin youkilis to his team, the chicago white sox. >> if i were to loan you this to display at the white house, would you come to the right side -- >> let me just say this will never go up in the white house, but i am going to give you a chance to go ahead and promote your team right now. congratulations. we were talking about one of the biggest stars right now in washington is bryce harper, who comes out of nevada -- >> las vegas. >> i know that folks are really proud of him. he's doing great. my second favorite team now after the chicago white sox. >> playing it safe. he is an outfielder with the nationals. next, barney frank got married
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to his partner this past weekend. he met him at a political fund-raiser in 2005. turns out that nancy pelosi made her mark on the dance floor in the baltimore sun got ahold of some video. cue the music. ♪ "the new york times" reported she was dancing late into the evening. the occasion makes barney frank the first member of congress to be in a same-sex marriage. finally, can whether or not you're a smart phone user predict who you'll vote for? not quite. but there's a divide. of a android and iphone users, 49% say they planned to support president obama. 39% for mitt romney. a political ad is come tog a smart phone near you, the campaigns might take note. up next, when the mayor wanted to raise taxes and the city council said no, the mayor
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the dow off 83 points. s&p down 11 and the nasdaq fell by 11. profit warnings hit ek wii theties today including one from the engine maker. meanwhile, the chip maker and we're talking not potato chips, applied materials, said third quarter profits would be on the lower side of estimates. jc penney cutting more jobs. and fitch is affirming the u.s.'s credit rating.
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that's it from cnbc, first in business worldwide. now back to "hardball." welcome back to "hardball." outrage in a pennsylvania city tonight as scranton mayor slashed his salary and that of other employees to minimum wage. $7.25 an hour. though he's pledged to pay back what's due to them, last friday's paychecks went out to police, firefighters and other slashed rates while the mayor and city council batting on how to fund the deficit. he wants to raise property taxes while the council refuses. today, an attorney for three unions vowed to fight the mayor. he is with me live tonight along with state senator john blake, who represents scranton and the
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surroundi ining area. i read that scranton had just $5,000 in its coffers last week. how did this happen? >> because of the budget shortfall. we have a $16 million shortfall. as anything es, as the mayor, i not only have to provide for salaries, but health care, the gas and deiesel for our trucks and landfill. our employees do an outstanding job, we'll get through this. but right now, there is a shortfall. we have to keep working towards it and working together as a community and we'll get through this. >> and folks should know this is a battle among members of the same party. these are democrats, right? the council is democratic and you're a democratic mayor? >> exactly. i had sent a budget down to raise taxes about $130 a
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household and that would have solved our problem, but the banks have said if you want to borr borrow, you need to have a plan. we have to work together to get threw it. >> and let me make clear, your intention so pay the money back, $7.25 an hour last friday and your desire is that they will be comp ated. >> and the members have gone to court and we will honor the court's position. i love my city and we have made great strides over the last 11 years. we're doing extremely well in every other facet and we have to keep working hard to get through this. i know if we work hard with city council, we'll get through this. >> let me ask what the impact is
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on the mar rall of those city workers and what toll might this take? >> well, michael, this is obviously an affront to great people. nobody wants to be in this position. i don't envy the mayor or council with decisions they're making. the crisis is a short-term fiscal crisis and the ability to solve that short-term crisis is within local governing body. we at the sate level are concerned with how outsiders see the state and my most important city. we have a very proud legacy. as i said, this is just a r short-term crisis. nobody wants to raise taxes unless necessary for public safety. nobody wants to be facing the fiscal con strant, but many of our cities are facing this. it takes a while to work your way out of this. we have 27 cities that have been designated fiscally distressed and there seems to be no exit from it because of the
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underlying structural problems. states should be a better partner to make sure we don't face this kind of process. >> mayor, did someone say you're committing political suicide when you're paying the workers and yourself $7.25 an hour. how does this play for you going forward? >> i love my city and i've been elected three times as mayor, but i've always told the people the truth up front. we have to be able to pay for our bills and that's what we have to do here. we have to step up and this isn't the first time i've raised taxes in my career. i've done it before and been re-elected. you have to tell people, here's our costs, here's how we get through it because we need the confidence of the banking community. if you want services, you have to pay for them. when i became mayor, there were 500 employees. today, there are 400.
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and i want to bring people together to make that happen. but you know, sometimes, you have to make tough decisions. i'm not afraid to do it, but in this case, we have the stand together. this isn't about politics. this is about the city i love. the city where my children were raised and where i grew up and our city is doing extremely well. >> senator blake, what's the vibe if i were there on the street? what are folks who live in scranton and not tied to this? what do they say? >> there's a sense of frustration. it's no different than when they look at washington and see political gridlock. they'll look at the city and say why can't you just get in a room and work it out. these are complex issue. we live in pennsylvania. we pride ourselves on local control. means local responsibility. so in reality i think what the people of scranton want is a solution that serves the public interest and that is achievable in the short-term, then we can get to work on the longer term
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problems in our city, but people are a little frustrated. >> we hope you get it fixed. thank you, mayor and pennsylvania state senator, john blake. up next, dozens of members of congress are rewriting history by editing out embarrassing chapters from their wikipedia pages. this is "hardball," the place for politics.
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we promised you new poll
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numbers. let's go back to the scoreboard starting in virginia where a new poll shows president obama with an eight-point lead over mitt romney. 50-42. there are few ways for romney to win if he doesn't -- next, north carolina in a closer race. showed obama with just a one-point lead. ppp is an automated poll that tends the lean democratic. [ feedback ] attention, well, everyone. you can now try snapshot from progressive free for 30 days. just plug this into your car, and your good driving can save you up to 30%. you could even try it without switching your insurance. why not give it a shot?
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♪ ♪ [ male announcer ] everyone likes a bit of order in their life. virtual wallet helps you get it. keep track of spending, move money with a slide, and use the calendar. all to see your money how you want. ♪ we're back. remember when alan west said this? >> i believe it was about 70,
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80, members of the communist party. >> it look like some in his office would rather you forgot. a new report in buzz feed shows that members of the house of represents and their offices have been scrubbing unflattering quotes from their wikipedia pages, although wick pekipedia since added the line back in. andrew is the reporter from buzz feed who broke the story. he joins me now with msnbc contributor and author of my father at 100, ron reagan. andrew, how do we know that the members of congress are the ones making the alterations? >> basically, all members of congress share the samism p. which for poem who don't know, is a number that shows where your computer is located and all the members of the house of representatives share the same number. i searched this ip address and found that maybe there were
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6,000 edits over the past few years and maybe 50 of them had been removing unflattering information. >> so, in the example we just offered, thsomebody in alan wess office would have been the one to remove the communist line because you know the ip address was this that building and who else would care? >> exactly. and some members of congress like miller, removed that she had been admonisheded by the house ethics committee. adding information, deleting information, we came to the conclusion that why would west's office be editing. >> mike kaufman came under fire in may. >> i don't know whether barack obama was born in the united states or not.
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i don't know that. but i do know this. that in his heart, he's not an american. he's just not an american. >> and let's watch what happened when a local reporter caught up with him. >> after your comments about the president, do you feel voters are owed a better explanation? >> i stand by my statement that i misspokesman an i apologize. >> who were you apologizing to? >> i stand by my statement that i misspoke and i apologize. >> you're a very forthcoming guy. who's telling you not to talk? >> i stand by my statement -- >> is there anything i can ask you that you'll answer differently? >> if i go to his wikipedia page, what do i find? >> you would have found that incident had been deleted maybe a couple of days after it
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happened. some other editors might have gone and put it back in, but it's pretty apparent that a lot of these offices are very self-aware of of gaffes. >> i finally understand why my sons are not permitted to quote or cite wikipedia in their school papers. >> indeed, anybody looking to wikipedia for history -- now, we're shocked to hear that politicians are behaving this way, burnishing their images on the one hand and deleting embarrassing episodes on the other, but we can make a distinction between congressman, if i read the piece correctly, that some of these appear to be adding details, sometimes at great length and the good stuff, about how they scored touchdowns in high school. the difference between that and
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deleting facts, the reality of your career, alan west and you know, some of these other people, the irony for alan west, he was accusing people of being communist. stalinesque. airbrush people out of -- out of photographs and things. this is all part of the culture of this in washington. messing around with wikipedia page is nothing than pretending global warm sing a conspiratorial hoax. if you can say those sorts of things editing your pick media page is small. >> this one is like the wikipedia version of defriending. harry reid's page had the entire section titled relationship with jack abramoff and his firm removed. >> yeah. that was actually a very lengthy section that had been deleted.
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could have been paraphrased a little better. yeah, that section had been deleted. i have to disagree with the point adding information isn't as bad because the way i look at it is that if you are reading what is supposed to be a nonpartisan or nonbiased article, pepsi, coca-cola, fox news, nbc news, you wouldn't want something that to have been written by the pr people or that organization. now maybe some of these people just adding what committees they were on or how they voted on certain issue and -- i really don't see an issue with that. but i feel like when they add large sets of biographical information, these are things that should be monitored a little more. >> shouldn't the standard be is it true? if it is true then it should be there. >> i think that -- yes. i think that's a good standard but you also think that -- yeah, it should be looked at a little bit more closely. >> ron, let me show you one more if i might. as part of politico's get to know a congressman series, asked
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about a group that advocates for hunters and fishermen in congress. politico asked what in the world does the congressional sportsman's caucus do and harper answered -- we hunt world tree hugging democrats. it does seem like a waste of good ammunition. actually, andrew let me confirm with you. scrub from wikipedia, right? >> that will scrub from wikipedia. >> ron reagan, another example of what we are talking about. >> yeah. another example of a congressman saying something really stupid. you don't want that out there in public. because who says things like that? particularly if you are running for office. so, of course, you scrub it out of your wikipedia page. again, this is -- i would be interested if andrew knew if, you know,s in terms of party, things broke down one way or the other, in terms of adding biographical detail versus removing facts. >> what's the short answer to that? what differences, if any, did you discern between rnds involved in this? >> we found -- didn't publish the senate list.
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we only did the house of representatives list first. it was really odd. the house list, we found that it was mostly republicans who were doing it. there were maybe ten or so democrats. with the senate, i was finding it was actually democrats, not republicans who were editing. it was kind of senate democrats editing the house republicans. >> i take it there's more to come in this regard. >> yes. definitely. >> gentlemen, thank you for an interesting segment. can't wait to talk to my kids' teachers and tell them now i understand. andrew and ron reagan, we appreciate it. when we return, allow me to finish with a new assault on the right on privacy. if you have a cell phone you need to hear this.
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let me finish tonight with this. yesterday "the new york times" reported the use of cell phone tracking data by law enforcement is skyrocketing. the situation raises interesting privacy questions. in response to a request from congressman edward markey, wireless carriers responded to 1.3 million requests for subscriber information in 2011 they were seeking text messages and caller locations and other information in the course of investigations. the requests came from law
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enforcement on a local, state and federal level. the law is still struggling to catch up with this area of cell phone surveillance. the issue is how to balance law enforcement needs with privacy concerns. as the times pointed out under federal law the carriers said they generally required a certain much warrant, court order, or formal subpoena to release information about a subscriber. in cases that law enforcement officials deem an emergency, a less formal request is often enough. moreover, rapid technological changes in cell phones have blurred the lines on what's legally required to get data. particularly the use of gps systems to identify the location of phones. in a world where virtually everyone walks around with a cell phone, the ability to track users has become an invaluable tool for police. the question is whether privacy rights of mobile customers are being safeguarded. the carriers report that sometimes what was described as a true emergency was not the case. and what about the cell phone's
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gps technology? six months ago if a unanimous decision the supreme court ruled police violated the constitution when they attached a gps tracker to a suspected drug dealer's car without a valid search warrant. that would seem to underscore the need for warrants to always be obtained before phones are tracked. we want law enforcement to con to solve kidnappings, prevent suicides, respond to shootings in cases of missing people as well as other emergencies. but congress needs to ensure that there are legal protections in place for customers' privacy and the mobile industry is in compliance before surrendering such information. one final thought. it comes from steve from the midwest who posted this comment to "the times" coverage of the cell phone privacy matter. he wrote -- the only private communications that exists is the u.s. postal service. nobody will read your letters and you can say anything you like without in computer program picking out key