running against michele bachmann to save america from more bachmann mania. thank you very much for joining us tonight. >> lawrence, thank you very much for having me on. bugle boy. let's play "hardball." good evening, i'm chris matthews in washington. let me start with general mitt romney. i use that term sarcastically because general in this case is an armchair general. the man that spoke today to the affairs of war could not be more foreign to foreign wars. even venezuela had no match in his resume. only in his plans. how many countries does he want to fight in the next four years? does he want to outdo bush i

with one war or bush ii with two more? there he was reading a speech by the same neo-kinds that took us into iraq and always seem to have the next war on his agenda. does this guy have any idea the words of war have meaning and dead and wounded, no meaning in the stupidity and deceit we went through under bush and cheney? backed up by cheney in this election speak of leaks? national security leaks as we f we never heard what the w. crowd led by chainy and his fall guy libby did when they had their hands in there. michael steele, chairman of the republican national committee and msnbc political analyst. joe, editor-in-chief of the nationalmemo.com. let's take a look at romney's speech before the vfw members today. let's listen. >> i am an unapologetic believer in the greatness of america.

i am not ashamed of american power. i'm guided by one overwhelming conviction and passion. this century must be an american century. >> but who does romney think he's contrasting himself with? president obama made no bones about his belief in america's greatness as recently as yesterday. let's listen. >> if anyone tries to tell you our greatness has passed, that america is in decline, you tell them this. just like the 20th century, the 21th century is going to be another great american century. >> who is ashamed of american power, michael? who is this guy he's attacking in his speech before the guys who did serve in war? >> i think it's a matter of laying out very clearly and i thought he did an excellent job setting up the contrast. there are a lot of similarities in obama's policies with the bush administration. there's no doubt about that with

respect to the war on terror, for example. i think when it comes to specifics with respect to israel and the middle east and certainly our position in the world, the president has come off in the view of many americans and certainly the romney team as apologetic. he wanted to draw -- >> you're an analyst, michael, and you know that team. where in the other team was there apology. give me an example. one would be enough. when has obama apologized for america's strength? >> pardon me? i didn't hear what your question is. what do you want to know? >> give me an example of when president obama apologized for america's strength. >> it is not a question of a specific -- what he was speaking to was the overall family sis this administration has placed on foreign policy and the lack of focus in the sense that we go to the u.n., we go to foreign soil, and the president has a tone that is less than strong in

the view of a lot of folks. so i think that that's the contrast that he was setting up and trying to draw out today. that's clearly it. >> argument is weak. here is mitt room any to intimate barack obama's weak on foreign policy for anything of that matter is ironic given romney the way he buckled to every right wing constituency group there is. he bowed to the religious right with this famous line. >> i was a severely conservative republican governor. >> he bowed when he signed his tax pledge he signed to the other guy which for kwis trumpet order his website. on foreign policy romney buckle ed ed. usually rejected republican orthodoxy and sound more like the talking points, bolton fiction. i don't know. i know what you know, joe.

it is the same thing i know. the same guys that took us into iraq and now when they go into iran, he's reading the script with all this talk about apology for our strength. like marty talking about muscular foreign policy. the metaphor of war. >> this is someone who has no strong convictions of his own, chris. no experience in foreign policy. he is going to the basket with the same move republicans have used for the last 10 years or more, democrats are supposedly weak. the president has a very easy response to that, tell it to osama bin laden. tell it to moammar gadhafi. there's no question the president is willing to use american power when appropriate. however, he is judicious with this, not a crazy warmonger, not somebody who thinks everybody is a nail because has he a hammer. i think your point is very well taken. this is somebody with no real

experience in these matters who entrusted himself to a group of people who are proving wrong. >> how can you say, we went into afghanistan, then went into iraq again a second time under a second bush. now he's talking -- trumpeting like a bugle boy going into war like a rant. is this like a pez dispenser. every time we elect a republican he's got a war in mind? why does he have wars in mind? >> stop it, stop it. >> i'm not going to stop. your guy is pushing war here. >> he's not pushing war. you're being ridiculous right now. >> tell me what he is talking about. >> the fact of the matter is he's laying out a very strong view for himself and for others that this is the new reality, that we've got to deal with it. as president of the united states, he's prepared, peace through strength, sit down at the table. he's prepared to make sure our allies know we stand firmly with them, israel, and our enemies know we're not going to sit down and have a face-to-face kumbaya,

at this point important for him to do. the point about experience, he has as much experience going into this as barack obama had coming into the white house in 2009. >> but barack obama -- >> you just ripped the scab off, michael. if israel wants to go to war with iran we should go along with anybody who wants to start a war, we should be with them. >> no. why are you making that leap? >> because that's what he is say. >> nobody is talking about going to war. just because i set out a strong foreign policy doesn't mean my next move is war. what i'm trying to do and what the romney people are saying i'm trying to do is to lay out exactly where we to understand some of these issues and contrast this administration and contrast to some of the approaches they have taken. i think that's only fair. the policies he espouses will bear that out one way or the other. >> joe, only thing to the right of the president is a war on iran, upping the sanctions as tough as you can get. if there's some other step beyond sanctions it's war. when you start talking about

we're going to make sure it doesn't happen, guarantee this -- >> somebody needs to tell mitt romney -- >> we will do what's in our country's best interest. at all times. next. go ahead. >> the truth is he laid out nothing in terms of a real policy. he laid out a lot of, you know, heavy rhetoric about how much he loves america which is great. how he is going to be super strong which is great. he won't cut the defense budget no matter how much waist is in it which isn't so great. these are all the same old talking points karl rove used, as you can remember, chris, in the 2002 midterm when they accused democrats of wanting to send social workers to deal with al qaeda. i think the president at this point has made it very clear that is not the kind of

president he is. romney is going to have trouble showing he has anything to offer in terms of foreign policy that is stronger or more knowledgeable or useful than what this president and his secretary of state have done. they are as tough as anybody around mitt romney. >> let's take a look, here is romney went off script perhaps accidentally, i think in today's speech. pay close attention to the next to last word in this sound bite. let's listen. >> when growth is missing, government revenues fall, social spending rises and many in washington look to cut defense spending as the easy way out. that includes our current president. >> at least one major newspaper, los angeles sun, reporting romney called barack obama our corrupt president. i thought he said that. i don't think he said it on purpose. we could play it over and over again. i heard the word corrupt. i think sound experts will find that. what happened there, michael. >> until you said corrupt, it sounded like current to me. i couldn't really tell. i don't think that's something that romney obviously would

intend to say. >> let's listen again. >> yeah. >> everybody hears different things. >> growth is missing, government revenues fall. social spending rises and many in washington look to cut defense spending as the easy way out. that includes our current president. >> interest sounded a little more like corrupt. >> what do you think he was up to? >> i don't really know. i wasn't in the man's mind. it's hard to say. i don't know if it was a slip. i don't know if he was thinking maybe some of the hot rhetoric that's been coming out about solyndra and all of the sweetheart deals the administration made on the defense side. >> i opened the door. you walked right through it. >> of course i walked through it. >> what did you hear, joe? >> there was no context for him to use the word corrupt in that phrase unless he was going to talk about corrupt defense contractors, there was plenty. >> so everybody goes to the door on this one.

here is what i think. i read prompter a lot and i'm about to do it again, mike even though i know you very well. i read michael steele. sometimes when you see the form of the word corrupt and current, they are visually alike. i see where he made the mistake. i hold nothing against him. i'm sure he'll correct himself in the days ahead. michael steele, you're dead wrong on the big stuff but on the little stuff you're good. joe, thank you. coming up presidential race, president obama remains in the lead but results in our new brand-new today "wall street journal" poll that will keep both campaigns on their toes and perhaps up at night. also the republican solution in search of a problem, voter photo id laws. why did pennsylvania republicans pass a voter id law when they can't cite a single case of voter fraud in the commonwealth? we will see if they can answer that. by the way, michele bachmann finally has company, newt gingrich rushes to defend her charge that radical muslims may have infiltrated the government.

did mitt romney really say this to olympic pizza in 2002? >> you olympians know you didn't get here solely on your own power. >> does romney's olympic speech sound like something we heard recently from president obama? i'll say it does. how to turn a positive statement you yourself, government, said before, into an attack line. that's coming up. this is "hardball," place for politics. we know a place where tossing and turning have given way to sleeping. where sleepless nights yield to restful sleep. and lunesta can help you get there, like it has for so many people before. when taking lunesta, don't drive or operate machinery until you feel fully awake. walking, eating, driving, or engaging in other activities while asleep, without remembering it the next day, have been reported. abnormal behaviors may include aggressiveness, agitation, hallucinations or confusion. in depressed patients, worsening of depression, including risk of suicide, may occur.

alcohol may increase these risks. allergic reactions, such as tongue or throat swelling, occur rarely and may be fatal. side effects may include unpleasant taste, headache, dizziness and morning drowsiness. ask your doctor if lunesta is right for you. then find out how to get lunesta for as low as $15 at lunesta.com. there's a land of restful sleep. we can help you go there on the wings of lunesta. despite what you heard from the right, president obama's here hall will lower the country's deficit. that's the word out from nonpartisan congressional budget office. mitt romney and republicans insisted health care would raise the deficit by trillions but cbo says otherwise. republican legislation to repeal health care would actually increase the deficit would increase by $109 billion. wow, what a bit of news that is. we'll be right back.

welcome back to "hardball," a new nbc "wall street journal" poll. we have what appears to be good news for president obama. in the latest poll of remgsterred voters the president leads romney by six points. 49% to 43%. net gain of three points from last month when the president's lead over romney was just 3%. one thing the poll found is that the negative campaigning by both sides is tarnishing the other of mitt romney and president obama. now the president is going positive. at least temporarily. he making a direct apale on voters in an ad set to air in mine swing states. chuck todd, nbc's political correspondent. let's look at the new ad on camera with the president appealing to voters. let's take a look. >> over the next four months you have a choice to make. not just between two political parties or even two people. it's a choice between two very different plans for our country. governor romney's plan would cut taxes for the folks at the very

top, roll back regulations on big banks. he says that if we do, our economy will grow and everyone will benefit. but you know what, we tried that top down approach. it's what caused the mess in the first place. i believe the only way to create an economy built to last is to strengthen the middle class, asking the wealthy to pay a little more so we can pay down our debt in a balanced way, so we can afford to invest in education, manufacturing and home grown american energy for good middle class jobs. sometimes politics can seem very small. but the choice you face, it couldn't be bigger. >> there's the president, very positive. this is after week after week of pounding romney for all his problems with bain capital, not releasing his tax return, why the soft sale. sell? >> by the way, sometimes politics can seem small. we just had a campaign, your campaign -- >> is this good cop following the bad cop? >> absolutely. we have the issues --

information you have been hearing from the campaigns is that made you more favorable towards the candidates or less favorable. >> here they are. 43% in the new poll. registered voters said -- asked you what have you heard or read in the mast weeks about mitt romney. has it given you less favorable or better? 28% say more favorable opinion of mitt romney, 44% -- 43% less favorable. obama the same thing, 27% favorable, 44% less favorable. why is it even now? why an indication obama is doing better? >> we're seeing first of all, obviously a relentless negative attack on the obama campaign on romney, hitting hard. it has taken a toll on romney. for the first time it's taking a toll on the president. his unfavorable have gone as high as we've recorded them in the poll. you see tonight this. you get the feeling they have seen the same numbers, concerned about it. that ad to me seems an absolute

response. uh-oh. >> can an ad like that, very positive, i wish most politicians do all the time, talk to us about what they are going to do, what the issues are. >> what your choice is, the president believes and the campaign believes his like built a huge asset. for the last month and a half the president has been trading down his likability as if it were an inexhaustible commodity. this is a sign the white house and campaign believe it may not be inexhaustible. they better use -- >> you hurt your -- >> you hurt yourself a little bit. there's not a great statistical difference in how it's hurting them both. it is hurting them both. that is obvious. if you look at the president. not like the president is gaining a lot. romney has less likability than the president does so it does hurts him more. and listen to that ad, big banks, big choices, helping the wealthy. key phraseology that the focus group tells the campaign, works in swing states. >> let me suggest an idea. it's the president's tactics, what he's done effectively nail romney, remind everybody of bane

bain, bain, bain, against the encroaching reality of the economy. bad economy. >> when you think about it, it's stunning. we have other numbers we're going to pop up and i don't mean to preview them. people are more pessimistic. about what -- >> let's preview right now. will could be trouble for the president when you see the bleak outlook in the poll in the economy the next 12 months. look at this, 27% of the people think the economy will improve over the next 12 months, down from 35% just last month. look at that, 8 point decline in optimism. the number who think the economy will get worse is on the rise from june, stands at 25%. i feel this. i think it's because we've seen so many months this spring of the same unemployment number or slightly lower. >> but the president is defying gravity. these numbers should be dragging him down and they are not. romney's numbers are the one stagnant or going down. the president is holding steady.

in our poll he picked up a little bit. so it shows you tactically the obama campaign is basically won the first half of the general election. the last 60 days who is going to control the biography of mitt romney. guess what the obama campaign controlled it, romney lost control and it hurt. >> in the end will a voter decide they like or dislike the president's performance or vote on mitt romney? >> the obama campaign wants to impeach the witness meaning romney benefactor convention and debates. whatever he says he can positively do to switch the economy around people doubt or fundamentally disbelief. >> won't debate performance by romney if he tries until then offset if he has a good night? >> if he has a good night and numbers continue. we've had three false optimistic springs in a row. that pulls at the sense of american optimism. >> it looked like we were pulling ourselves out of this thing. >> three different springs. people have begun to internalize, is this the new normal, is this the president's fault. must we change?

>> tactically, the fact is can romney afford to wait to the debates to pull even. john kerry had to wait until the debates to pull even, to fix his biography. okay. it got him even but it didn't get him over the finish line. that's the danger zone of romney, much worse than 2004. >> "wall street journal" poll. when you look at the view the voters have of him, romney, 35% hold a favorable view of him compared to 40% who say what's wrong with romney that leads to this? i have attitudes about him but what are the voters saying they don't like about him? >> i don't think they know him. he is still a would-dimensional figure. he has been guarded about his stories and afraid to talk about bain because it got turned into a negative. he's afraid to talk about the massachusetts record because the health care causes potential problems with the base. >> won't show tax returns. >> doesn't talk about his own faith, which is something that i think personally is the most grounding value that he has and he's afraid to talk about it because he's not sure how well mormonism plays.

you take all three of these stories he could be telling, the way any presidential candidate would take these. any of those three. >> like a job application. >> instead he's guarded about it. i think it turned him into a two-dimensional figure and let obama campaign define him. >> pollsters are not that curious. >> his business career we've been talking about it. he doesn't want to talk about massachusetts. when is he going to spring the olympics and make that his big selling card. >> that will be part of london, there will be olympic resonance will he will rye to play off. >> is that big enough for the presidency? >> it's not nothing but it's not big enough. i agree with chuck in this sense. it's not that there's a nullity behind the mitt romney narrative, it's just that he lacks a sense of internal positivism about it. he's not nearly as positive and persuasive about his story and approach to the presidency as surrogates are. i wrote national journal months ago, one of the fundamental

flaws in the romney campaign, his surrogates were better advocates than he was. >> i saw the vfw speech, good. tough speech. very neo-con, don't apologize, very hard line. he didn't write that speech. >> i don't know what the policy was. >> can he read the words his advisers give to him and convince people he does have a personality, he hasn't been able to sell in the debates? >> i think he has to. i think ultimately the fundamentals of this election should be playing in his favor. i actually think you look at the numbers on the economy and wonder how is the president leading? romney should be ahead by now. to me the challenger should be ahead under these economic circumstances, and they are not. there's something stopping the voter on romney, a values connection, something. look, i think it all go to the hits he's been taking on his wealth. sometimes tax return, sometimes bain. it's painted him as out of touch with the middle class.

>> you sound like me 12 years ago talking about al gore. there was something about al gore that was a wall, feels like a wall. >> but the different economy in 2004. the metaphor chuck has is like there's a cork in the bottle that's keeping romney from rising. the pressure inside that bottle is romney, autos going to turn that around or the economy will blow the lid and won't matter what romney is. if he is acceptable he will get elected. >> we need to find the right metaphor. a metaphor for romney, a hard one to match up with. >> thank you both, the two best. the making of a misleading campaign ad. how mitt romney twisted president obama's words and how president obama could do the same thing with something romney once said. this is "hardball," the place for politics.

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back to "hardball." this is the side show. a special one. the making of a misleading campaign ad. mitt romney has been taking heat for twisting a bit of president obama's speech in virginia into a negative campaign ad. here is what the president actually said in that speech. >> if you've been successful, you didn't get there on your own. you didn't get there on your own. i'm always struck by people who think, well, it must be because i was so smart. there are a lot of smart people out there. it must be because i worked harder than everybody else. let me tell you something, there's a whole bunch of hardworking people out there. if you were successful, somebody along the line gave you some help. there was a great teacher somewhere in your life. somebody helped to create this unbelievable american system we

have that allowed you to thrive. somebody invested in roads and bridges. if you've got a business, you didn't build that. somebody else made that happen. the internet didn't get invented on its own. government research created the internet so that all the companies could make money off the internet. the point is that when we succeed, we succeed because of our individual initiative but also because we do things together. >> so roads and bridges help business survive. well, that became this. >> if you've been successful, you didn't g there on your own. if you've got a business, you didn't build that. somebody else made that happen. >> my father's hands didn't build this company, my hands didn't build this company. through hard work and a little bit of luck we built this business, why are you demonizing us for it? it's time we had some be who believes in us, somebody that believes achievement should be

rewarded not punished. >> the president was saying in virginia you need to have things like roads and bridges to make money, organize business, sewers, water, somebody has to put that in to open up a business. the republican trash talkers said he was trashing them. anyway, there you have it. get this. turns out we can have something similar with mitt romney as our leading man. let's rewind to a speech from mitt romney during the 2002 winter olympics open ceremonies. >> you olympians, however, know you didn't get here solely on your own power. for most of you loving parents, sisters or brothers encouraged your hopes, coaches guided, communities built venues and organized competitions. all olympians stand on the shoulders of those who lifted them. we've already cheered the olympians. let's also cheer the parents, coaches and communities. all right. >> how could someone turn mitt romney's inspirational call to

recognize the people who helped those athletes on the path to success into an attack on him for refusing to give credit to the individual competitors. roll the tape. >> you olympians, however, know that you didn't get here solely on your own power. well, that's how it's done, suddenly sounds like the athletes, part of the medals they are competing for is somebody else. up next, voting rights and wrongs, tough laws, now the department of justice is investigating whether pennsylvania's voter id law discriminates against minorities. i think it does. you're watching "hardball," the place for politics.

a problem. there's no voter fraud and the laws themselves are really designed to tamp down the democratic vote. now in pennsylvania, the department of justice is launching an investigation whether the state's new law discriminates against

minorities, that's the united states justice department. the first time the doj publicly got involved with the state whose voting rules not covered by the 1965 vote rights, that is a state with a history of disenfranchising minorities. tomorrow marks the first day of a separate state trial testing law's legalities under pennsylvania's constitution. with me are msnbc political analyst ed rendell, former governor of pennsylvania and eugene robinson former columnist for "the washington post." i want you to watch. a month ago house majority leader, he's a republican, gave democrats their aha moment, their smoking gun, if you will. while listing republican accomplishments, listen what he suggests is the real purpose of the new voter id law. >> we are focused on making sure that we meet our obligations that we've talked about for years. pro second amendment. first pro-life legislation, abortion facility regulations in 22 years. done. voter id, which is going to

allow governor romney to win the state of pennsylvania. done. [ applause ] >> well, there you've got it. like one of those perry mason moments, i did it, i did it, i can't hold it back anymore. they did this to screw the democratic voter. >> case closed. any pretense they were doing this to prevent voter fraud went out the window. there is no voter fraud. i was governor for eight years. we didn't have ten cases of someone fraudulently voting using someone else's identity. less than two a year. less than two a year. the sole reason for this was because the democrats have carried pennsylvania five straight presidential elections in a row. 9.2% according to republican secretary of state, 9.2% of pennsylvanians don't have photo id. they are heavily minority and older. they are heavily democratic voters and traditional democratic areas. if just one-tenth of those voters don't show up or are disqualified from voting, that

could be in a close election dispositive. >> the governor of pennsylvania is a republican and behind a lot of this. 99% of pennsylvania's eligible voters already have acceptable photo ids. 750,000 eligible voters, in pennsylvania, my old state, do not have state-issued id cards, 25% of the african-american vote they figure. >> so it's not 99%. in fact, this has a potential for disenfranchising hundreds of thousands of voters. it can make the difference in pennsylvania and there is no problem. there is no voter fraud. the state admits there is no voter fraud. >> i'm looking where people don't have id card, they don't drive cars because they are city people. governor rendell, my friend rendell, it's exactly where you got your majorities. it's philadelphia, pittsburgh, the urban areas where people who rely on public transportation -- you can see the map there. the blue, democratic areas, rely on public transportation, row houses, they don't have cars,

not a parking space to own cars, they are the people who don't have driver's licenses. do you think guys in pennsylvania, republicans figured this out. >> sure, it's obvious. also we're the third oldest state in the union, chris. we have a lot of senior citizens who have never owned a car, haven't driven a car, don't fly, have no reason to have photo id. it's easy to say you can go to a penn dot office and get a photo id. in many cases they are by car 15, 20 minutes away. most people don't have a car, adopt have anybody to take them. by public transportation might take an hour and a half in the heat to get to those places. the worst thing is, i bet, chris, 70% of people without photo id are not aware of this law. they are going to show up on election day and be told they can't vote. >> here is a horror story for america. suppose we have an election that

turns on pennsylvania. pennsylvania is a conservative state on issues, may go the other way, may surprisingly go republican. if that happens and we have an election that goes to romney, pennsylvania, thousands of people, maybe tens of thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands were stopped at the voting booth, they will get the tv cameras there, a lot of them african-americans, what kind of country are we going to be in. takes seven days to turn a provisional ballot, if you cast one, into a real one. >> it's going to be a mess. as you mentioned, there's a state lawsuit going on now. the justice department is investigating. i hope that this gets resolved and gets resolved in some acceptable way before the election. if that happens, we're going to have a mess, an absolute mess. >> i think florida is going to look -- governor, let me ask you about the pennsylvania mentality here. do you think the republicans sat down and planned this, this might give them pennsylvania? >> absolutely. they had two efforts, chris. this and they were going to

change the way we counted electoral votes by congressional district. that never got off the drawing board in the legislature. that failed. this was the one that was going to give them the election. it's really at a time when we should be doing everything we can to increase voter participation. this is embarrassing, it's shameful. >> here is the facts now, just to nail this down here. this the stipulation agreement that was signed by both sides in this suit. here you're going to see basically the people push this. republicans say they are trying to stop voter fraud. even they admit they can't identify any. according to the stipulation agreement, signed by both sides, pennsylvania, the. plaintiffs' lawyers in the suit, quote, there have been no investigations or prosecutions of in person voting fraud in pennsylvania. this is signed by people pushing the law and going against it. respondents, that is the state, will not offer any evidence that in-person voter fraud has occurred in pennsylvania or in person voter fraud is likely to occur in the november election.

gene, it's on paper here. they signed it up front. we can't point to a single case of voter fraud. >> no investigations, no prosecutions. no indication that it ever happened. >> they passed the law. >> they passed a law. i wrote that it's a solution in search of a problem. really the problem was that pennsylvania, as governor rendell said, has gone democratic five times in a row. that's the problem and this the solution. >> before the election i recommend big street corner rallies like you used to do in north philly, especially north philly, a place where people live in row houses, get out there, get a committeeman, get out there and really spread the word. if you're watching the show, you should look and see do i have a voter id card made by the government or college or military i can use to vote with. if you don't know if it's good or not call your committeeman, democrat or republican and find out if it's a good enough document. you ought to vote if you're watching this show. i want to you vote. thank you governor rendell and gene robinson.

here is one republican standing by michele bachmann's outrageous attack on muslim americans. would you believe it, newt gingrich. birds of a feather, gingrich and palin -- i'm sorry, bachmann, a "this is "hardball," a place for politics. telephone rings ♪ hello... ♪ what the... what the... what the... ♪ are you seein' this? ♪ ♪ uh-huh... uh-huh... uh-huh... ♪ ♪ it kinda makes me miss the days when we ♪ ♪ used to rock the microphone ♪ back when our credit score couldn't get us a micro-loan ♪ ♪ so light it up! ♪ even better than we did before ♪ ♪ yeah prep yourself america we're back for more ♪ ♪ our look is slacker chic and our sound is hardcore ♪ ♪ and we're here to drop a rhyme about free-credit-score ♪ ♪ i'm singing free-credit-score-dot-com ♪ ♪ dot-com narrator: offer applies with enrollment in freecreditscore.com. [ female announcer ] the vertical chair-climb. it's not an olympic sport, but it takes real effort and it takes a diaper that fits their every move.

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we're back. add newt gingrich to republicans who want to find out if muslim brotherhood has influence over the u.s. government. in an interview he refused to denounce michele bachmann's call for such an investigation or for her request to look at the top hillary aide huma amedine. here he is, newt. >> do you believe the allegations?

do you agree with the allegations against hillary clinton? >> it wasn't an allegation. it was a question. >> a serious question. >> request for investigation. >> the question ought to be asked across the board, what's the role of the muslim brotherhood, what are its various networks and to what degree does it now influence the government of the united states. >> do you think it's infiltrated the u.s. government? that's the core of the allegation? >> i think it's worth knowing. >> everything is worth knowing. >> i think it tells you something about the level of hysteria attacking these five members of congress. >> from your own party. >> i think those folks are wrong. i think they will ask the question what is it they are afraid of learning. >> anyway, not just gingrich, rush limbaugh is also coming to bachmann's defense. is there such a thing as too far right? i doubt it. ron reagan, msnbc political analyst and author of "my father." let me start with you, ron.

it seems when you begin a mccarthyite investigation with the presumption they have something to hide, have you to care it out of them like being an agent of the muslim brotherhood and it's a top aide of hillary clinton. an agent of the muslim brotherhood and it's a top aid to hillary clinton. you can argue about her points of view, but nobody lacks confidence in her competence, that she would have someone sitting next to her on every airplane ride and she wouldn't know about it. >> newt gingrich, it was a portrait of disingenuousness. they were asking a question? no, they weren't. they had this connection drawn back through her father and great uncle and third cousin or somebody who supposedly was connected to a group that might have been connected to another group. they're making an accusation about huma abedin. what is that about? if they weren't making an accusation about her, what was her name doing in that letter? how many thousands of muslims work in the u.s. government right now? what are they saying? there's a guy named wes

anderson, i believe it is, out in arizona. i might have the name wrong, but he was the head of one of the tea party groups. he's going after mccain now, he wants to defeat him or recall him, i'm not sure what his fantasy is, but his point of view is any muslim anywhere in the united states is an enemy of america. period. >> let's bring back in internment camps back. >> right, and so who michele bachmann appealing to? those sorts of people. and that is a big chunk of the republican party. >> the guy's name is wes anderson is a movie drkter who is very good. >> my apologies to wes anderson. on his radio show, rush limbaugh came to bachmann's defense. birds of a feather. >> bachmann's inquiry is justified. there's no reason to tar and feather her.

it's a legitimate question to want to know if one of hillary clinton's top aids poses a national security threat because of her parents' close ties to the muslim brotherhood. that's all they're asking, and mccain and the republican establishment and the senate went to the floor to trash bachmann. and one of the things -- i'll just add, i think there's an effort by the republican establishment to make bachmann out. i think they're lining up to campaign against her. but that's another subject. >> see the world we're living in here now, erin? rush limbaugh is going after the republican establishment as too far right. guys like mccain and lindsey graham are too far left. to launch an inspector general of someone's loyalty to this country is just a casual open question, that's all. would anybody i know like to be

investigated by the u.s. government for whether they're loyal or not? your thoughts. you're reporting on this thing. >> well, first of all, as far as huma is concerned, she's hillary clinton's deputy chief of staff. people don't understand washington par lance, but she's not making policy. deputy chief of staff in washington is a political and managerial role. >> you think she's fair game for bachmann's latest attempt to investigate everybody? >> no, but that's why i think this entire controversy is so strange. why go after somebody in this position. her closeness to clinton? it's a strange question. >> she's going on airplanes, they're sitting next to each other. she's great, been loyal to her husband through this embarrassment. she's a loyalist. >> i agree she's loyal. what i'm saying is she's not making policies, so it's a strange question to ask in the first place. what rush limbaugh is saying is that the republican establishment is going after her because she's deverting tension from the primary topic.

>> the french and indian war with a well tailored and well perfumed french officers would have to explain the behavior of their ilis, their crazy allies. these people are embarrasssing the republican party, but they want their votes. ron reagan, thank you. thank you, erin. i do not offend indians. i like american indians. they were here first. >> let me finish with why we shouldn't finish for the neocon line we heard today from of all people, mitt romney. you're watching "hardball," place for politics. [ heart beating, monitor beeping ] woman: what do you mean, homeowners insurance doesn't cover floods? [ heart rate increases ] man: a few inches of water caused all this? [ heart rate increases ] woman #2: but i don't even live near the water. what you don't know about flood insurance may shock you -- including the fact that a preferred risk policy starts as low as $129 a year.

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let me finish tonight with this. mitt romney's running for president using the words and speeches of the same people who got us into the hell of iraq. the neocons. you can hear them in romney's speech today, all this talk of not apologizing for america's power. they have a thing about that phrase. we should never apologize for our power. well, of course, it's all a strawman. no one apologized for america's power. yes, we rethink some of our actions like not getting into world war ii sooner, like evlading the american war in vietnam, like the deceit and cunning and propaganda that took us into iraq. we dare to rethink and learn from our experiences. we wonder if the military solution was the right one. we believe that mistakes were made that leaders told us untruths, we were sold a reality that was not a reality. yes, all of this is true.

in the world outside of stupid politics, it's called growing up. i don't know how someone like mitt romney who didn't serve in vietnam feels in his consequence vietnam feels in his consequence to revisit the war. it's understanding where and when and how to use it. i think the that the horror of war is so vital to realize, to take our own minds and hearts that we don't send men and women into battle until the leaders fully decide that's the only solution. i trust president obama to make that kind of decision. today's words by mitt romney do not give me that confidence. the fact that they were transparently written by the same neocons who sold us the war in iraq makes me all the less certain of him. fool me once, shame on you. fool me twice, sham on me. any american who bought the lies and corrupt thinking that brause us into iraq must hear the worst words of iraq in wmd and