you for tuning in. tonight the obama recovery. all you hear inside that right wing bubble is scandal, scandal and more scandal. today the president talked about what really matters. >> the good news is today our businesses created nearly seven million jobs of the past eight months. 500,000 are in manufacturing. we're producing more of our own energy and we're importing less from other countries. the housing market is come back. the stock market has rebounded. our deficits are shrinking at the fastest pace in 50 years. >> folks, forget the side show. this is real promise. the deficit down $800 billion since the president took office. the jobs are continuing to come back 38 straight months of private sector job growth.

in detroit car sales are booming and plants are working overtime. what about that socialist in the white house? well, wall street is literally breaking records. i guess we'll be waiting for the apology from this crew. >> barack obama is a socialist. he believes in socialism, in redistributing wealth, in confiscating hard earned dollars. >> we have a president who wants to turn america from another european style social welfare. >> this might be the last election to turn the nation around before we go down the road to socialism. president obama and his socialist policies must be stopped. >> obama socialist policies are bankrupting america. >> so out goes that old talking point. out and here comes plan b. the so called scandals. guess what, americans aren't buying it. a new poll shows 73% say the

economy and jobs are flat out more important than any other gop fueled controversies. three quarters of the country are focused on the economy and so is this president. >> we're seeing problem and the economy is starting to pick up steam. the gears are starting to turn again and we're getting some traction. >> we're getting traction. we're seeing progress. how about this one? forbes magazine is asking economically could obama be america's best president? looks like they better get ready for plan c. joining me now is melissa harris-perry and e.j.dionnne. thanks for being on the show. >> thank you. >> the president was touting the come back in a big way. how much more are we going to hear? >> i think a lot.

i think this is going to be the most difficult challenge the president has going into the midter midterms. on the one hand he's got to be able to make a claim about the we're getting traction, things are starting to get better without overselling it. for ordinary people on the ground the housing market may be improving but it's still really hard to get a new mortgage. there may be new jobs but people are still struggling to put food on the table. it's got to be simultaneously we're coming back but as you're president i'm not putting on rose colored glasses. i recognize that people are feeling the pain. they are largely feeling the pain because the president hasn't been able to push the republican led congress to share wealth. >> he's made the progress despite them and could have made more if they weren't obstructionists but i think she's right, e.j., when you look

at the fact as i stated there's been 38 straight months of private sector job growth but not public sector job growth and a lot of communities have been margin alized. we need progress there and not taking away from anything the president has achieved in the private sector market. we're also not there because today we learned the average u.s. household has regained just 45% of the wealth lost during the recession. we still have way to go but republicans block the president's job act. they force massive budget cuts. where would we be now without obstruction? >> we'd be growing a lot faster and that's not just pro-obama view. almost every economist believes if we didn't have the sequester in place and the payroll tax holiday had gone on for another

year we'd be adding more jobs and gdp growth would be higher. your intro reminded me of one my old new yorker cartoons of we've been here before. it's two old relinquiich guys s in their plush chairs and one says to the other i don't understand every time these socialist democrats get elected, i make a pile. you look at those wall street numbers at the dow jones and clearly that part of economy is back. that's tricky for a democratic president. he has to say we're getting better and we could do a lot more and these g guys down the street aren't letting me do it. >> on that wall street analogy let me show you in 2009 right wingers blamed him for the stock market. look at this. >> it's been another terrible week for stocks and president

obama has the distinction of being the worst president ever in terms of the stock market during his first six weeks in office. >> he's been elected has tanked the markets. >> the dow jones industrial average is down 166 points today. the markets know obama's coming back and they are plummeting. >> the stock market has lost 20% since this president had sworn in. he has his own bare market. >> they blamed him for the markets in 2009. now the markets are booming making record numbers. will they give him credit? >> obviously, when you're talking about in the first six weeks in office. no one thinks what the president does has that kind of impact. >> especially following george bush who tanked the economy. >> obviously what the president ought to be getting credit for and this is part of what's so difficult here. the president has massively reduced the deficit which is

something the right claimed they cared about. he's overseen this expansion of wall street markets. something the right claims to care about. the president's administration have done extraordinarily well. on the more populous issues of making sure that those profits come down to the 99%. that's what the president can't do alone. that's where he needs the states and governors to be part of. that's what they are obstructing. the very things he's been able to oversee are things they claim they care about but the important populous, the things that make living in this country better for ordinary people they need to get on board in order to make it possible for regular american families to put food on the table. >> e.j. to get that done yesterday you need governors and mayors. you may also need a new congress.

let me ask you the question. the headline in politico today was rising economy shifts 2014 election landscape. quote, the altered terrain, if it hold, could benefit democrats and challenge republicans. your view on that and will it be enough to change the majority in the house? >> with that majority in the house will be a heavy lift because of the way mostly republicans drew these districts. they are in pretty safe districts. they have a strategy where they, the democrats, where they take a number of these republicans are vulnerable. they are still sitting on seats with fair number of democrats in them, significant minority populations. i think a rising tide could lift a number of democratic candidates and could help save the senate. democrats are vulnerable in the senate and a few other close

races could tip their way if the economy stays on this track. >> wouldn't the president have to really thread the needle carefully to get the turn out by saying yes, we made progress, but if we had not had the obstructionists we could have done more so we need you to come out and vote because it's a danger in making people relax. it's a danger in overplaying you haven't got a lot done because you played to the cynicism by the right. >> i want to president to just over and over again in the next 18 months keep saying remember 2010. remember what happened in 2010. between 2008 and 2010 with president obama in the white house and nancy pelosi as speaker of house we had the most incredible legislative session in american history. one of the most active congresss and then 2010 happened. they jergerrymandered these

districts and we get this congress that has stood in the way and all of that progress that we've made as a country began to grinds as a halt. i want him to say remember 2010, get out and vote. >> i think if he doesn't remember it, a lot of us need to say it. thank you and have a great weekend. catch melissa harris-perry 10:00 a.m. on msnbc. coming up, a hard look another my interview with the lawyer for george zimmerman. he made a lot of claims but do the facts back him up? i'll get a response from the lawyer from the trayvon martin family. plus, the war on women has started a civil war over at fox news. it's the take down you've got to see. plus the genius of richard

pryor. i'll talk to his wife about the star that made us laugh and pushed the racial envelope on stereotypes. >> you've been caught in an awful lot of white women. will this continue? >> as long as i can keep it up. why you think they call it the white house? >> all that plus ask rev. do you have questions. i have answers. ask heavy at msnbc.com.

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have you joined the conversation on facebook yet? we hope you will. today that conversation included a lot of talk about oprah's graduation speech at harvard. she's getting some rave reviews. eugenia says she's still a breath of fresh air. mary says she's always been herself. that's the reason she's accomplished so much. nancy says no one could be a better role model. stick around to hear about the political issues oprah hit on in her speech. first come join the conversation. just head over to facebook and search politics nation and like us to join the conversation that keeps going long after the show ends. ot sitting too well? burning to feel better? itching for relief? preparation h offers the most maximum strength solutions for all hemorrhoid symptoms.

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you may have heard about a big study getting a lot of attention this week. it shows mothers are the sole or primary providers in four in ten households with children, but it's this response on national television that's getting even more attention. >> i want to turn to a study and then the research showing that women have become the breadwinners in the country and a lot of other troubling statistics. when we're watching dissolve around us what do you think? >> something going terribly wrong in american society. >> bottom line it could undermine our social order. >> when you look at the natural

world, the roles of a male and a female in society, the male is the dominant role. the female is not competing. it's a complementary role. >> what is he talking about? male and female orders. undermining social order. you're not watching the flintstones or madmen. this is an all male panel freaking out over women in the workplace in the year 2013. they're own colleagues went on the attack. gr greta writes have these men lost their minds and megan kelly shredded one of the panelists. >> what makes you dominant and me submissive and who died and made you scientists in chief? i think you are judging people. you want to say i'm not, not. let me judge, judge.

it's science and fact. this is a list of studies that says your science is wrong and your facts are wrong. wait. since when did they start caring about facts? joining me now is nia malika henderson. this talk has a major effect. first, the image of this all male panel saying what they said is stunning. how do you react to it? >> it's competely out of touch. it's not place in this debate right now. when you find out that 40% of women are basically heads of households in america, your first reaction should be what policies are we doing to ensure that we're supporting these women. what policies are these women, especially poor women who don't have a choice that they are protecting their families and their kids at home. instead they sent us back to the 1950s and reminded women why

we're not part of the republican party. >> nia, another fox host piled on merely 24 hours after that panel. watch this. >> if you're a single mom, breadwinner of the family and you get pregnant aren't we pushing towards more abortions. seems like we are. >> these are just tv talkers but they represent a lot of thinking on the right. >> i think that's right. i think they instead of using this as an opportunity to talk about policy and talk about the underlying economic shifts that have led to a lot of these stats, they used it to talk about a culture war. it's the mommy wars that have been brought to life by fox news. when you look at what's going on you had this massive shift in

terms of jobs availability. the economy is coming back, to a certain extent, even in the manufacturing sector but over the last many decades you've seen a massive shift from jobs in the midwestern cities. men could come out of high school and women could come out of high school and get jobs. women could have the choice of staying at home or going into the work force and now often they don't have a choice because you do have to have these two income earner households to raise kids. >> you know, you said that this is why women are not in the republican party and clearly they struggled with women in the 2012 elections. listen to this. >> i went to a number of women's groups and said can you help us find folks. they brought us a whole binder full of women. >> if it's a legitimate rape the

female body has way to shut that thing down. >> when life begins in that horrible situation of rape that it's something that god intended to happen. >> this was a big effect in the 2012 election. it doesn't seem like they get it. the policies haven't changed. what is going to happen to or what can happen to make them get it? >> they have to stop talking about social issues and they have to start talking about fiscal issues. issues as a woman head of household. how will you make sure i can may my mortgage and find a job. if they stuck to those issues and talked to american women as women that are smart, savvy, head of their destiny, that would be better off. think are going back and recoiling and talking about social issues that don't have place in the debate because they have to modernize. if they don't modernize the republican party will be a sunsetting party.

there's no way they can win without the majority of women in this country. when you talk about who went out to vote in this last election, over 50% of women head of households is what voted. they won't be have to have this conversation and actually thrive in this economy that's constantly depressing them. >> well, when she was talking i thought about the fact they had a retreat earlier this year and in the retreat a pollster told them to stop talking about rape. the fact that someone has to tell you that says a lot. this president talks a lot about women's rights. listen. >> we shouldn't have to remind people that when it comes to a woman's health no politician should decide about what's best

for you. >> i think we're not going to have an america where they have fewer opportunities than somebody's sons. i don't want them having fewer choices than anybody's boys do. for our journey is not complete until our wives, mothers and daughters can earn a living equal to their efforts. >> the fact is the first bill the president signed was the lilly ledbetter act. you cover washington thoroughly. how big a priority is women's rights to this president? >> it's a big priority and at the office of women and girls they are working on a whole manner of problems. the president talks about issues that resonate with women whether it's raising minimum wage or early childhood education and so far republicans haven't had very practical solutions for these

issues that are important to women's lives and men's lives. they still tend to talk about people rather than they talk about them as symbols in a culture war. i think in that way they have failed to connect. sp polls show that people still look at the republican party as stuck in the 1950s. i think all of this could be remedied if they are able to nominate a figure on the national level that can talk about these issues not only in a different way rhetorically but in terms of policy they could see a turn around. >> thank you both for your time tonight. >> thank you. ahead, new reaction to my interview with george zimmerman's lawyer. was he really accurate when he talked about the night of trayvon martin's death? i'll talk to the lawyer for trayvon's family. plus oprah winfrey gets political. stay with us. i want to make things more secure.

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we are ten days away from george zimmerman's second-degree murder trial. he's accused of killing trayvon martin. last night i talked with the lawyer for george zimmerman but he raised more questions than he answered. i'll talk about that with the

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in just ten days george zimmerman goesen trial for the second-degree murder of trayvon martin accused of killing him and charged with second-degree murder. mr. zimmerman has pleaded not guilty and claims he shot trayvon martin in self-defense. last night i was able to talk to his lawyer, mark o'mara. one of key pieces of evidence we discussed was mr. zimmerman's call to police and his admission he was following trayvon martin just minutes before he shot and killed him. >> he's running. >> which way is he running? >> down towards the entrance of the neighborhood. >> which entrance is that? >> the back entrance.

>> are you following him? >> yeah. >> we don't need you to do that. >> okay. >> last night mr. o'mara said there's no evidence mr. zimmerman continued to follow him after the dispatcher told him not to. >> you have to understand that there's no evidence whatsoever and the state has not brought forth any evidence that to suggest that mr. zimmerman was following trayvon martin after the dispatch said you don't have to do that. mr. zimmerman's answer was okay. there's no evidence to support he continued to pursue. >> no evidence he continued to pursue. it's a key question and the police asked zimmerman about it in one of their interviews. >> when he said are you following him and you said you don't need to do that. what went through your mind?

>> he's right. >> you stopped and went back to your vehicle. >> i still wanted to give him an address. >> the police say zimmerman should have returned to his truck but he didn't. in his own walk through with police zimmerman showed how he continued down the sidewalk to get an address before turning around to get an address before coming face-to-face with trayvon. a few months later mr. zimmerman gave this explanation about what he meant. >> i meant i was going in the same direction as him to keep an eye on him so i could tell the police where he was going. i didn't mean that i was actually pursuing him. >> mr. zimmerman says he wasn't following trayvon martin. he was merely going in the same direction as him. seeing which way he was going. this is a key question for the trial.

was this armed man actively pursuing trayvon martin in the final minutes before the shooting. joining me now is benjamin crump. thank you for being here. >> thank you for having me. >> what's your reaction to what the defense has said about mr. zimmerman following trayvon martin. >> i think you just illustrated with these series of confessions from george zimmerman about his pursuit of trayvon martin. we have remember trayvon martin isn't here to tell his story. an unarmed kid has been killed. we have to remember that credibility is the issue. we know that zimmerman has had credibility issues with the

court because he told an untruth or misled the court when it was concerning him getting out of jail. the question for the jury is will this person tell an untruth or mislead the court to not go to prison. i think that is certainly something that's going to be very relevant in this trial. we heard objective evidence of him pursuing trayvon martin. >> when he says he was just following to see where he was going, but he wasn't pursuing him. i mean how do you make a self-defense claim if you were told by a dispatcher we don't need you to follow. you say okay but you decide to follow any way. is this a critical point in the trial, mr. crump? >> it is very criminal aspect. there's several critical points. i think the voice analysis is critical. when you think about the fact that the objective evidence

shows us he was running about trayvon martin. not what i say, no what the mr. o'mara says but what we hear with our own ears. we hear the wind blowing as he's running and what does he say when he first get out to chase trayvon martin. these a holes always get away. he's running now. then you hear the chase and the dispatcher say are you chasing him and he says yes. now, he wants us to believe that he just stops and goes back to his car, but there's no objective evidence that he goes back to his car other than his word. it does become about credibility and will george zimmerman tell an untruth to not go to prison for killing unarmed trayvon martin. >> there's another point you mentioned that will be critical and that's the tape. o'mara says to me last night the

state's voice expert never said it was trayvon martin screaming on the 911 call. listen to attorney o'mara telling me this last night. >> he also mentioned that the state expert said it was trayvon martin and they didn't say that. if you look at the reports they suggest that at times there was trayvon's voice and at times before the shot it was george zimmerman's voice. there's none of the state's experts that have said conclusively that was trayvon or conclusively it was george. >> we went to the report and it said the other male speaker was identified tentatively as trayvon martin from the audio track of a digital video file present on mr. martin's cell phone. his voice is younger and he generates much of what some

observers have called screams. the state's voice expert does believe it was trayvon martin screaming at the end of the 911 call. mr. crump. >> you're absolutely right. the voice experts we know that they either said it's trayvon martin's voice and that's two of them and they said it's either trayvon and george zimmerman screaming for help. either way it's very troubling for george zimmerman's defense because my god, if trayvon martin is yelling for help and he shoots him many the heart any way that's not second-degree, that's first-degree, but if it's a situation where trayvon is screaming for help, george zimmerman is screaming for help, it contradicts george zimmerman's version that trayvon martin was trying to kill him so he's screaming for help.

why shoot somebody that is screaming for help. that's a big issue in the case. when you really think about it in the totality of circumstances george zimmerman as this neighborhood watch patrol volunteer going around the neighborhood with a gun on prescription medication is every parent's worse nightmare because god help you if he comes up to your teenage child and says what are you doing around here and your teenager doesn't answer the question right then you have a trayvon martin situation at your doorstep. we can't have that in a law-abiding society. >> just one thing before i run out of time. let me go back to this tape that the experts have said. the expert said was trayvon and mr. o'mara said he didn't say it. let me play you part of the police interview with george zimmerman where they play him the 911 call with screaming.

we've redacted the part of the call where the witness gives the address but listen to this. >> listen to this one. >> 911. do you need police, fire or medical. >> you hear that voice in the background? >> yes, sir. >> i'm not sure. there's someone screaming. >> 911 do you need police, fire or medical? >> maybe both. i'm not sure. >> that's you. >> what's the address? >> yes. is it a male or female? >> you hear yourself. >> you don't know why? >> i don't know. >> the police say that's you. are you hearing yourself? he says, zimmerman says it doesn't sound like me. it's him saying that himself. >> exactly. you know, it's very ironic that

hear they are trying to attack tracy martin who within 48 hours of losing his son, they're saying do you recognize this and play a clip. when george zimmerman is played the same clip he says he doesn't recognize it. shame or them for attacking this grieving father when the defendant himself, the killer himself, their client is saying that it doesn't sound like him. isn't he more relevant. he was there that night. he was one of the only two people who knew exactly who was screaming for help and he said in his own words, it doesn't sound like me. that's very telling. that's very relevant. >> what's interesting to me is he says it doesn't sound like me but he could have also said if it were the case, but i was screaming for help that night. he said it doesn't sound like me. never said anything like he was screaming or there was some

screaming going on. very interesting and we'll see when this goes to trial. thank you for your time tonight. full disclosure. george zimmerman has sued nbc universal for defamation and the company has strongly denied his allegations. we'll be right back. rticle thats investors could lose tens of thousands of dollars in hidden fees on their 401(k)s?! seriously? seriously. you don't believe it? search it. "401(k) hidden fees." then go to e-trade and roll over your old 401(k)s to a new e-trade retirement account. we have every type of retirement account. none of them charge annual fees and all of them offer low cost investments. why? because we're not your typical wall street firm that's why. so you keep more of your money. e-trade. less for us. more for you. both of us actually. our pharmacist recommended it. and that makes me feel pretty good about it. and then i heard about a study looking at multivitamins and the long term health benefits. and what do you know? they used centrum silver in the study.

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richard pryor was one of greatest comedians of all time and he paved the way for comics to follow in his footsteps. he started as a young stand up comedian in new york making his mark with clean cut routines but over the years his stand up became more daring.

>> i went to pentientiary. i not me but i went to do a film. i talked to them and thank god we got pentientiaries. i asked a dude why did you kill everybody in the house? he said they was home. >> his over the top r rated acts made him one of the hottest comedians in the world. he was one of the first black comedians to transfer his popularity on stage to a blockbuster career in film. despite his success he was haunted by personal demons all his life. a decade long drug habit nearly killed him and for nearly 20

years he struggled with a debilitating case of multiple scleros sclerosis. a film documents his life. i sat down with two of the people. joins me is the director of the film and his widow. she's an executive producer. thank you both for being here. >> thank you for having me. >> why was it important for you to get this film made about richard? >> it's important because we have to let another whole generation know how fantastic and what a genius he was.

it's important that we introduce a new generation to richard. >> where does the title "omit the logic" come from? >> it's a fantastic title that the minute i heard it i said that's the title of the film. i was interviewing a gentleman who worked with richard for a long time and when i was interviewing him he didn't really think i was getting the full thrust of what he was saying, and so he kind of looked at me and said, look, with richard, you have to omit the logic, and it kind of just is what his life is about. you have to kind of see him through a different lens to understand him. >> jennifer, you were his fourth and seventh wife. you married him a second time before his death. you knew him better than most

people. what kind of man was he? >> rev, he was a fantastic man. he was obviously a man who was tremendously flawed and complicated but at the same time vulnerable, generous, sweet, kind. just had the capacity to go from a to z. >> jennifer, you talk about how he ended up using tragedies in his own life in his stand up routine. watch this. >> richard was always in the news. richard pryor has a heart attack. he ran into these tragedies one after the other. you also knew that three months go by or six months go by or a year goes by he will bring this experience back to you. >> anyone have a hurt attack? that [ bleep ] hurt.

i was walking in the front yard. something said don't breathe. i said hmm. it said you heard me [ bleep ], don't breathe. okay. i won't breathe. shut the [ bleep ] up then. okay, don't kill me. get on one knee and prove it. don't kill me. thinking about dying now ain't you? yeah. you didn't think about it when you was eating all that pork. >> jennifer that's amazing how he could use his own experiences and make a comedy stand up about it. >> absolutely. pain into comedy. that's how i believe he also survived his own demons. you could have a fight with him one night and the next night he was on stage telling everybody about that fight he just had with you.

nothing was sacred. i'm thrilled to be in some of his routines. >> jennifer, he used the n world liberally in his act for years but after a trip to africa he decided he wasn't going to do that anymore. here is a clip from one of his stand up shows about that choice. >> i was sitting in a hotel and a voice said to me look around, what do you see. i said i see all colors of people doing everything. a voice said do you see any [ bleep ]? i said know. it said you know why because there aren't any. it hit me like a shot. i started crying. i was saying i've been here three weeks. i haven't even said it. i haven't even thought it. i made me say oh, my god i've

been wrong. i've been wrong. i got to regroup my [ bleep ]. i said i ain't going never call another black man [ bleep ]. >> that's pretty powerful jennifer. >> i was with him. we were in the lobby of the hilton hotel in nirobi. he said look around you and said what do you see. i was perplexed. i don't know what you're talking about. he delivered that news to me. that news flash. when we came back he absolutely basically made an announcement. i think you probably remember that. it was a big event for richard and in the african-american community and now it still reverberates. it was hard on him too. a lot of people felt he was abandoning his roots and a lot of people really respected it

and didn't like the use of the word any way and it's time to drop it. it was controversial. it was huge for richard. it was very, very intense for richard. people expected him to be some sort of leader and by default he was. it was his work and comedy that led really and spoke to the truth to people. >> i think you helped to capture this. when i sigh big comedians and actors today. it's hard to be impressed because i knew someone prior to them. pun intended. thank you for your time tonight. congratulations on the film. >> thank you. >> richard pryor omit the logic appears tonight on show time. party in reverse. jackie robinson and james brown. it's time to ask rev, next. [ female announcer ] doctors trust calcium plus vitamin d

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it's time to "ask rev." remember friend or foe. i want to know. it seems like there's a spirit of ignorance that looms over the party of reverse. do you think it will every change? i hope it will change and if people keep telling the truth it will enlighten some even in that party to rise to a level that's right for all americans. do you think president obama is the jackie robinson of politics? well, he's certainly broke the glass ceiling at a presidential level and he certainly, like jackie robinson, has had to take a lot of undue, unearned criticism and attack. time for one more. barb asks did you ever get to meet elvis?

no. i never met elvis. i met everybody that could come around. james brown would take me around his son to mick jagger to you name it. he you edused to talk about elv very endearing terms. thanks for watching. have a great weekend. "hardball" starts right now. it's the economy, stupid. let's play "hardball." good evening. i'm chris matthews in washington. let me start tonight with that very point. it's the economy, stupid. everything i've seen in politics tells me this. we can argue issues every night here, but i know from experience it's how people feel about their own circumstances, whether they're working or not, how prices are doing, interest rates that determine whether they