dollars but some of these would be underwater. so there has to be public investment and creative strategies. >> virg bernero, keep up the fight. that is "the ed show." i'm ed schultz. "politics nation" starts right now. >> yes, ed, thank you. thanks to you for tuning in. toot's lead, america's comeback. five years ago this sunday at the end of the bush administration, financial panic swept across wall street. sending the nation into economic free fall. the lehman brothers bank filed for bankruptcy triggering fears of a second great depression. >> what's been called the worst financial crisis in modern times, certainly the largest financial disaster in decades in this country. >> this is one of the ugliest days i have seen in my career. >> the dow jones industrial average sank over 500 points. triggering reaction from wall

street to main street. >> all wiped out about $700 billion from retirement plans, government pension funds, and other investment portfolios. >> just months later, barack obama was inaugurated president, facing the worst economic crisis in decades. >> we are dealing with something we haven't dealt with for a long time. and no one knows that better than barack obama. and he goes into the white house tomorrow morning to try to do something about it. >> that day, in his first inaugural, the president addressed the nation's fears. >> today, i say to you that the changes we face are real. they are serious and they are many. they will not be met easily or in a short span of time. but know this, america, they will be met. >> it hasn't been easy, but since those dark days at the end of the bush administration, the

economy has made clear progress under president obama. a month after the crash, the unemployment rate under president bush jumped to 10%. today it's 7.3% and falling. at the end of the bush era, the economy shrank by more than 8%. but in the most recent quarter, it grew by 2.5%. six months after the crash, the stock market bottomed out, the dow jones falling to 6500. since then, it's more than doubled. the dow finishing today at over 15,000. we still have a long way left to go. too many of the gains have gone to the wealthy few. the rich are getting richer. but too many others are being left behind. president obama's now focused on building an economy for all americans. but republicans seem determined to tear it down.

joining me now are melissa harris-perry and jared bernstein. thanks for being here. >> absolutely. >> thank you. >> jared, put in context how far we've come since this country was teetering on the edge of a great depression five years ago. >> yeah, that's actually pretty easy for me because i was there working for the administration when we went into the white house and looking in our rearview mirror, we saw that 8% decline in gdp. you know, in the first quarter that obama was in office, we lost over 2 million jobs. so the president very quickly got to work with the recovery act and the federal reserve also putty pedal to the metal. since then, of course, we've added millions of jobs. the gdp has been growing since the second half of 2009. but you're right in your introduction. much of that growth has done an end run around middle and lower income people.

they're certainly work morgue than they did before. much of their wealth, by the way, has come back as housing prices have recovered. but remember, a lot of people lost their homes then, too. so yes, lots more to be done. >> that's my real point, melissa. when you look at the fact the president took a big step toward fairness in the tax code. he pushed through the first tax hike on the rich in 20 years. listen to what he said. >> today's agreement enshrines i think a principle into law that will remain in place as long as i am president. the deficit needs to be reduced in a way that's balanced. everyone pays their fair share. everyone does their part. >> and then lawmakers from both parties voted to bail out wall street. but many on the right attacked the idea of helping out regular americans. suddenly it became a giveaway. listen to this. >> self-reliance means if anyone will not work, neither should he

eat. >> to the give aways, to the reckless spending >> get government out of the business of fostering dependency. >> free markets, not government dependency. >> cradle to grave government support. >> expanding the dependency classes in america. >> we don't want to turn the safety net into a hammock that allowed able bodied people into complace complacency. >> if you use all kinds of tricks, games and end runs and you break yourself on wall street, it is government investing government bailout. if you're trying to survive, you've worked all your life, you've helped to build your community, you may have even served in the military and you need help, all of a sudden, it's a giveaway. it's a you're a parasite. how do we celebrate five years of this country's recovery but the basic middle class and poor america hasn't recovered at all and the people that we sponsored

into recovery have the arrogance to turn around and start calling people names? >> look, i would suggest, i would back up even from the social safety net because the first attack on government and the one that absolutely has made this recovery so much slower and so much more unequal is at the state level, the attack on public sector jobs. so what we saw is 2008 to o 2009 to about halfway through 2010 with democrats in control of both the house -- the senate and the white house, we started to see real motion as jared was just talking about in terms of making recovery particularly in the private sector. that recovery has continued to grow over the course of the first and now second obama administration. but where we saw the slowdown start to happen was after 2011, after the midterms elections in 2010 brought in all the republican state legislators and denies they started shedding jobs, the jobs that people were working, government jobs which

actually are things that keep our whole system operating. and that is where we started to see that slowdown and that is why more than anything else, ordinary people haven't felt a recovery. >> and jared, that is also why we've seen in certain communities like african-american and latinos disproportionate unemployment because they work mostly in the public sector, and with the decrease of public sector jobs, it increases unemployment in areas where people cannot get into private sector fairly who we bailed out, by the way, and the public sector jobs are not -- are dwindling in the name of we don't need big government or we're cutting out agencies or programs. isn't this hurting the public, these gop policies? >> yeah, and i actually think that the conversation that the two of you were just having is a potentially fruitful one or would be in a politics that was

a lot more rational than the one we have today. one of the things that's also happened over this period is we've cut well over $2 trillion of spending so the deficit has company down a lot. in fact, it's coming down more quickly than it should in terms of austerity, but we have a problem and a potential solution. the problem as you've mentioned is that there is a lot of work to be done in the public sector and there are a lot of those folks who could really use the jobs. so in a rational economy with borrowing costs still low, with the deficit coming down, what would you do is marry that problem with that solution. we would put a lot of people to work helping to repair the public infrastructure, improving the quality of our public good. it makes perfect sense. >> these are not giveaway jobs. we need to repair the infrastructure. >> here's the thing about the safety -- that's why all that safety net you played drives me quite nuts. what history shows very clearly is if you provide low income people with an opportunity for

decent jobs, they will always take them. and the reason they will is because they have to. you can't survive on our safety net. >> the right, exactly. to me that question that jared just raised about a rational economy, saying look, we as a country, whatever our ideology have a set of problems and solutions. growing the public sector, putting people to work, the very people that are being demonized as somehow laying in a hammock that still leaves themselves and their children hungry more than two weeks out of every month but so-called laying in this hammock, they would prefer to work. some of those jobs have been limited often at the state level. >> when you look at the fact now, let's go to the private sector a minute to drive your point. under president bush, the private sector lost 665,000 jobs. under president obama, it has added 3.25 million jobs. private sector's come back.

but in areas that do not dominate before private sector employment, public sector has gone down. the people that stood by the country and watched us bail out these guys who were greedy and who gambled away this american economy five years ago, now all of a sudden, they're being called the names while we're supposed to pop champagne and celebrate a recovery that we never participated in. we weren't even invited in the hospital let alone the recovery room. >> we heard the green room earlier can shouting as we were talking about this idea that five years ago when the crash happened, that somehow the sky was falling the world was over because this particular sector was taking such a hit when in fact ordinary people had already been taking a hit and took a worse one after the decline. >> there's an interesting ideological kind of were to all this. one of the things i sometimes do and i very much enjoy it is to

go on the financial market stations and talk about the markets which have done very well. i'll be sitting there listening to these guys talk about the market saying how great the market's doing. we're having a great day. investors are doing really well and they get to me and say how can you explain how barack obama is screwing up this economy. >> yeah, well, i have a market income brooklyn that's not doing well, the belmont market. until we can get down to the belmont markets of the country and bring them back, we're not there yet. >> my view there, reverend, don't ask me how the economy is doing because there is no economy. there's different economies and they're doing quite differently. >> melissa harry perry and jared bernstein, thanks for your time tonight. be sure to catch melissa harris-perry and saturdays and suns at 10:00 a.m. eastern time. coming up, shameful new right wing attacks on the poor.

demonizing americans it most in need. my commentary is ahead. plus, republicans talk a big game, trashing obama care. guess what, it's working and they know it. another gop governor is coming into grips with reality. and why aren't republican leaders condemning ted cruz and his offensive praise of jesse helms? also reply al, what's on your mind. e-mail me friend or foe. i want to know. [ male announcer ] these days, a small business can save by sharing. like carpools... polly wants to know if we can pick her up. yeah, we can make room. yeah. [ male announcer ] ...office space. yes, we're loving this communal seating. it's great. [ male announcer ] the best thing to share? a data plan. at&t mobile share for business. one bucket of data for everyone on the plan, unlimited talk and text on smart phones. now, everyone's in the spirit of sharing.

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nation conversation on facebook yet? we hope you will. today our fans were fired up about the gop's proposal to cut

$40 billion from the food stamps program. marshall says, a shame and a disgrace, a nation where the wealthy get richer and they take from the poor. and lalila says i think we need to cut their food budget. most republicans look a little overfed to me. we've got more on the gop's war on the poor coming up later, but first please head over to facebook and search politics nation and like us to join the conversation. it keeps going long after the show ends. i get out a lot... except when it's too cold. like the last three weekends. asthma doesn't affect my job... you missed the meeting again last week! it doesn't affect my family. your coughing woke me up again. i wish you'd take me to the park. i don't use my rescue inhaler a lot... depends on what you mean by a lot. coping with asthma isn't controlling it. test your level of control at asthma.com, then talk to your doctor. there may be more you could do for your asthma.

the gop talks a good game.

they hough, they puff. but in the end, they cave. the republican governor of pennsylvania has announced that he is about to sign in his state the medicaid expansion under the obama care or under the affordable health care act. we see this governor as he's made this announcement, but let's go back to what the governor said about the vet same obama care program he is now signing pennsylvania into. >> the health care law imposes an unconstitutional mandate. the law threatens every citizen's individual liberties well beyond the issue of health care. >> as attorney general, i oppose it. when i became governor, i rejoined a suit as governor. i have not been a supporter of obama care at all. >> it is unconstitutional, it's

all of these things but when the pedal hits the metal, we find out that it, if it's brewner arizona, now this governor, all over the country, the program is working, the people need it. and all that will tough talk ends up with a pen in their hand signing it into law. joining me now is e.j. dionne. thank you for being here. >> good to be with you, reverend. >> e.j., another governor comes out caving on obama care. >> you know, i'm really glad you're doing this segment because i think there is something very interesting going on among republicans and you can see it in what they say. i went back and looked and last summer, senator ted cruz said if we're going to repeal it, we've got to do so now or it will remain with us forever. why did he believe that? he said people would get hook opd obama care. now, if republicans actually believe that obama care was

going to be a total failure, then they wouldn't believe that people would come to see it as an effective program that couldn't be repealed. and so i think that's why you've got all this pressure to get rid of it before it takes effect. and a lot of republican governors have looked at this and said on the medicare expansion, for example, this is really helpful to hospitals all over their state. >> you have ten republican governors so far that have caved on exactly that on medicaid expansion. ten republican governors, e.j. >> right. and there are two things about that. one a lot of us are for that simply because it will get coverage to a lot of people who don't have it, but two, a lot of hospitals are really getting hammered by uncompensated coverage of people who come in and don't have any insurance and so a lot of these hospital boards are going to their governors and saying you can't turn down this medicaid expansion.

it means a lot of money copping into our state to help our hospitals and thus help everybody and not just the poor americans who need that coverage. >> now, e.j., when you look at things that doesn't make sense, among them has to be why they keep going into the congress, voting over and over again against obama care for the 41st time the gop tried to target obama care and the democrats laced into the republicans. watch this. >> here you go again. repeal effort number 41. >> here we go again. time in the house is being wasted. the business of the nation is being op fubfuscated. the republicans have more nonsense to put on the floor. >> what are we doing here today? thank god for obama care. we've got something to do we can try and repeal it for the 41st

time. >> this is a lot of witchcraft and baloney. >> it has no chance of passing. it's a waste of a lot of time and money. >> i think there are two things going on here. one is, you look at the polling on obama care and if you just look at obama care, it's unpopular and so they say we're doing a popular thing although when you take it apart and look at all the particular provisions people say wait a minute, i want this, i want that. but the other thing is chris van hollen, the congressman everyone maryland said the other day it's almost become a fetish on the right wing of the party that nothing is more important than killing obama care, and so they keep playing to that base now 41 times. that's more than most players have home runs in major league baseball. >> it's absolutely true. and you're right. when you break down obama care, 61% favor allowing young adults to stay on their parents' insurance plans until age 26.

72% want to require companies with more than 50 workers provide health insurance for their employees. 82% want to ban insurance companies from denying coverage to people with pre-existing conditions. both social security and medicare weren't popular with conservatives in the '30s and the '60s. try getting ridded of that would be political suicide today. so when you break it down, just like we grew into where we are understood social security was necessary and where we understood that we needed medicare, i think that is what is going to happen here because when you break down this bill, when you break down the affordable care act, people want the elements. >> there are certain reforms in our society that are irreversible. they're not irveersable because

people don't have the power to repeal them. we're a democracy. people like the programs. they think they're good for us. and they need them. that's certainly true of social security and medicare. you do not see democratic countries with universal health care systems repealing them, even very conservative governments say oh, no, we're not going to touch that health care system. i think conservatives understand that and so they want to get rid of this before it happens. >> e.j. dionne, thanks for your time. >> good to be with you. >> coming up, the right wing is at it again. claiming the poor aren't really poor. because they have appliances. we'll tell you what's really behind this appalling talk. [ tires screech ]

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rush limbaugh makes some

offensive comments about chicken nuggets, dish washers and the poors. it exposes the worst of this kind of thinking from the right. we'll talk about it next. money has to last longer. i don't want to pour over pie charts all day. i want to travel, and i want the income to do it. ishares incomes etfs. low cost and diversified. find out why nine out of ten large professional investors choose ishares for their etfs. ishares by blackrock. call 1-800-ishares for a prospectus, which includes investment objectives, risks, charges and expenses. read and consider it carefully before investing. risk includes possible loss of principal.

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oh yeah! ♪ bum ba bum ba bum [ gong ] [ wisest kid ] m'm! m'm! good! it's bad when in the midst of this recovery for the wealthy, people are struggling to make ends meet. it's bad that we're facing the largest gap in the economy between the very rich and the very poor in terms of income and assets that we've seen since the 1920s. but what's worse is when people pour salt on the wound. when they call them flames, when they belittle them, when they take it seems no abandon in trying to degrade and denigrate them. listen to what bill o'reilly says about people receiving government assistance and calls them names because they have basic appliances.

>> now we have millions of poor people in america and the government flooding them with entitlements. so in some states, you can make up to $40,000 in entitlements if you don't work. that i believe is creating a poverty class that doesn't want to work because they have enough they get color tv, cell phone, computers, and it's unending. it will keep coming in. some of them are going, hey, you know what? i can just do anything, have a couple of more kids, get my computer, cell phone, color tv, big screen and just sit back. >> color tv, big screen, have a couple more kids. the poverty class. he really believes that? well, rush limbaugh even made it more vial. listen to this. >> only 45% had a dishwasher.

so they're sacrificing there. people in poverty are washing their own dishes, half of them are. the reason why only 45% have a dishwasher because things like chicken mcnuggets don't come with dishes. how many people do you think take their mcnuggets home and put them on a plate and grab a knife and a fork and a napkin and sit down, maybe a bottle of wine, it's not happening. >> i wanted you to hear it for yourself because if i read it, you wouldn't believe it. mcnuggets, people don't buy dishwashers because they're eating mcnuggets. that's what he says. these are the people that are influencing the policymakers in washington. joining me now maria teresa kumaren an james peterson. thank you for being here. maria, rush says poor people

don't have dishwashers because they're sought civilized enough to use dishes. what's your reaction? >> not only is it pathetic but it is completely out of touch. it must be nice to be rush and to be a millionaire and not have to rub elbows with those struggling today and despite the boom in our economy. let's have a real frank conversation. when we start talking about appliances of the working poor, are those working poor, do they have the money to go ahead and stock them with food on the table and making sure they can pay their electricity on time. these are not luxury items. to start criticizing folks because they have access to information and in an interconnected world is obscene. they should figure out how do we make sure we're pulling all americans up so we can enjoy our riches. >> you have to always throw in and they're going to have to have a couple of more babies. >> it's sick, yeah. >> when you look at who gets food stamps, for example, professor peterson, let's really

see why this gets me so angry. 76% of households that receive food stamps include children, seniors, or disabled people. in households where an adult is able to work, 58% do. over half of the households that receive food stamps where there are people that can work, they're working. 82% work in the year before or after they receive food stamps. these are not people slaying around watching a big screen having babies. these are people that work every day trying to make ends meet and on top of their struggle, they have to be castigated and denigrated by millionaires with rao and tv shows. >> yeah, it's absolutely all of, rev. in addition as your data points out, the lion's share of what

they refer to as entitlements about you we should refer to as the social safety net goes toward medicare and some food stamp support for the elderly, for the disabled, for veterans disabled. and so we have to as a nation, we have to renew our commitment to the social safety net and allow these folks to be exposed as liars and hypocrites. i wish we could an inventory of the consumption habits of the 1%. when you think of how many yachts and private planes and expensive automobiles and clothesen an all types of material items and what could be done with those resources if we allow them to be properly distributed throughout our economic system so we could have a more robust safety net, that's the conversation we need to be having instead of dealing with people who not only have disdain for the poor but a profound misunderstanding of our economic system. at the end of the day, we have been rolling back this social safety net. rev, as you know, this week we found out 90% of the recovery in

this recession has gone to the 1%. >> 90%. >> instead of critiquing. >> maria, let me also raise this. while we're seeing this ugliness on the right, a new poll from gallop found that 20% of americans didn't have the enough money to buy food at some point in the last year. 20%. >> i mean, this is where we start talking about conservative compassionate conservatism. where has it gone? when you have your swagger because you decided to cut food stamps to children through head start, it's not very tough to do when you attack the most vulnerable. we need to make sure we're applying the same rules and everybody is paying the same. how can we make sure everybody's paying taxes fairly, that there aren't loopholes on the rich. that's not right. the working poor are working but working for folks making

incredible poin kre incredit profits off their back. >> and dr. peterson, right wingers are constantly attacking the poor. listen to this. ing >> poverty in this country. everybody out of work is eating. they've got big screen tv. probably have a car, a cell phone. >> my contention is that the obama administration is encouraging parasites to come out and you know, take as much as they can with no remorse and this is how a corrupt declines. this is how we become a weak nation. >> the thing we've got to deal with more than anything else in this country is deal with this entitlement mind-set the government's going to help me in every aspect of my life. >> i got news for you in other countries they're not washing their clothes and sitting in air conditioning watching big screen tv. they're dying. that is poor. >> they're dying? so now you have to die before we take your poverty seriously? i mean, have we really become

that insensitive? >> it's absurd, rev. these jokers don't want to the compare the united states to these countries in any other way except when it serves them. i would love for them to put a map up when they do this so their audience can see the sort of red state's consumption patterns with respect to federal support. there are plenty of republicans and plenty of folk who are poor who vote republican who fall under the criticism of these same right wing entertainment complex. i wish they would inject reality into some of these conversations. >> and he's absolutely right, maria. this goes across racial and party lines. >> that's right. >> when you really break down the data, some of the people that they're talking to, they're talking about. >> that's right. >> and i think what we -- i think what you had hit the nail on the head. basically for a long time when you said poverty, it was a code word for person of color.

now poverty knows no color, no socioeconomic. that's where the hurt is the fact you have a vast majority of americans regardless of race saying i'm feeling the pain, i'm paying bills, i'm doing everything by the book, yet, i can't put food on the table for my kids and family. the callousness in which they address the american people and calling cuss collectively lazy, that's the anti-american. >> collectively lazy, professor peterson, parasites. what i'm saying, if you want to argue, if you want to debate social policy, if you want to debate the safety net, if you want to debate big government, fine. but why do we have to demonize people that are really trying to make it, again i repeat, 58% of the people receiving food stamps that can work are working. 5%. 76% are children and disabled people.

82% espeople worked during the previous or following year that they received food stamps. we're not talking about people laying around watching flat screen tvs getting drunk, having babies as they're trying to depict them. it's inaccurate. it's unfair. it is absolutely horrendous to me because people have to labor under these misconceptions to try to make ends meet and make a way in this country. >> you're right, rev. listen, if you want to talk about the decline of america, it's not about the social safety net under attack for the last 20, almost 30 years. the decline of america is as a direct result of the consolidation of the wealth and resources and landownership in the top 1%. a country cannot exist in the future the way our economic system has flowed money upwards to the 1% over the last 20 to 30 years. the recession, recovery and data that says that the economic recovery has been channeled to the 1% is proof positive we've got to make changes and have to change our attitudes. when they're making comments,

it's very, very clear they represent the aristocracy. they represent the ownership classes. we've got to have a people representing poor folk and speaking on their behalf because they don't have the syndicated rao shows and all those things. it's very, very important for people to understand, this is not about entitlements, not about the deem isization of poor people. this is about as the united states of america, we have to have a strong commitment to the social safety net for those among us, those who need it. we are wealthy enough as a country to be able to do it. >> maria teresa kumar and james peterson, thank you bowing for your time. all of us are kind of staemd up on this. defending real true hard working americans that just need a little help. still ahead, ted cruz's stunning comments on jesse helms. where is the outrage from gop leaders? there's been deafening silence. ♪

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>> the very first political contribution i ever made in my life was to jesse helms. when i was a kid, i sent $10 to jesse helms. we need 100 more like jesse helms in the u.s. senate. >> we need 100 more like jesse helms. it's been two days since senator ted cruz made that offensive comment. and two days of silence from

republican leaders. where's the outrage? where's mitch mcconnell, john boehner and the rest of the gop leadership? their silence is shameful. north carolina senator jesse helms represented the worst kind of hate and division in american politics. he supported segregation and he opposed making martin luther king's birthday a federal holiday. helms once said this about the civil rights act. >> taking liberties away from one group of citizens and giving them to another. i thought it was bad legislation then and i have had nothing to change my mind about it. >> helms also once said "it is time to face honestly and sincerely the purely scientific statistical evidence of natural racial distinctions in group intellect." jesse helms is the gop's past,

but ted cruz wants to make him the party's future, as well. republican leaders need to speak out and tell america they're putting the shameful legacy of jesse helms behind them. joining me now are joe madison and ryan grim. thank you both for being here. >> thank you, reverend sharpton. >> joe, why aren't go leaders like mitch mcconnell and john boehner denouncing this praise of jesse helms? >> because they can relate. this man has now been resurrected by them and they resurrected everything you stood for. imagine this nelson mandela would probably still be in prison because he supported the apartheid government. the voting rights act probably would not have existed. this is a man who even accused his opponent wife of dancing with a black man who was against interracial marriage. so what they've done, what ted cruz has done, he has resurre

resurrected the last standing racist unabashed racist in the united states senate and the sad thing about this, it's not just the republican leadership, but you know, where are african-american brothers and sisters in the republican party? they wouldn't be in their position today if jesse helms was still alive. >> that's a very good point. you know, ryan, there's a precedent for this. we're not act asking for something that -- in 2002, and joe may remember this because many of us in civil rights were involved in this, gop senator trent lott was pressured to quit his job as minority leader because he praised strom thurmond who ran for president as a segregationist. listen to what lott said. >> when strom thurmond ran for president, we voted for him. we're proud of it.

and if the rest of the country would have followed our lead, we wouldn't have had au these problems over all these years either >> he said we vote ford him and if the rest of us had vote ford him, we won't have these problems. he had to leave the minority leadership in the senate. here you have a guy who said we need 100 more jesse helms who represents the same or worse than strom thurmond and said when he was a kid, his first donation is he sent $10 to this guy and he doesn't even live and never has in north carolina where the guy was a senator from. >> right, what i think it shows you is just how far the gop has gone to the right over that past decade. you know, we like to think of time marching on, you know, progressively. that the arc is bending towards justice but you know, what this shows is that there is nothing necessarily unique about time

that will necessarily bring justice about. you know, games can be lost. and if this kind of resurrection of jesse helms and what he stood foregoes unchallenged within the republican party, there's a real risk that at least within that party, the gains that even it had made ten years ago could be lost. >> you know, joe, we are seeing a new more polished version of the same kind of beliefs because let me show you something. let's take it away from race. let's talk about how they deal with gay rights and homophobia. listen to this sound bite from the jesse helms talking about gays. >> many hoorm sexes average 16 different partners each month. >> if homosexual men would stop their activities today, there would never be another case of aids in this country. >> call it gay bashing if you

want to. i don't call it that. i call it standing up for america's traditional family values. >> now, let's fast forward. come to the day. rick santorum on gay marriage echoing helms' talking points. listen to this. >> it threatens my marriage. it threatens all marriages. it threatens the traditional values of this country. so in many ways, we're seeing a modern more nuanced version of the same themes in different areas here, joe madison. >> well, that's exactly right. when jesse helms died and left the senate, jim crow died with him. and now what has been resurrected is james crow esquire. you just said it. there's no if, ands, buts about it. we who call ourselves progressives feed to stop calling these people conservatives because real

conservatives don't think like that. they are regressives. can you imagine what the well of the united states senate, the floor of the united states senate would sound liking if 100 people talked like jesse helms? where would this country be. >> there are only 100 in the u.s. senate. it would be the whole senate. >> that's my point. that's exactly my point. what kind of country would we have, and no one, no one in their right mind wants to go back to that period in time. >> but again, i can understand that we very extremists, ryan. i can understand we've got these guys that go off wagon in maybe even one or two senators, three or four congressmen, a lot of the pundits and hosts of talk shows. but the fact that none of the leadership, none, two days later has stood up and said this is wrong, this doesn't represent our party, that's what i'm

talking about. if people go off on the deep end on the left, they are widely denounced. if they go out from the right, it's like they didn't say anything. >> right. the left tightly polices itself from the center, no doubt about it. with jesse helms, you were not cherry picking, you know, i an few quotes of his. it's not as if there was. >> his whole life. >> it's not as if there were some good things about jesse helms in the center and he also has racist and anti-gay positions. no, he was defined entirely by his bigotry and his racism. that's what he built his entire career on. that's what his legacy is. when you're resurrecting him, that's all there is. there's nothing else you can point to about him other than that. >> nothing else he wanted pointed to. that's what he represented. got to go. thank you, we'll be right back. >> thank you. >> we'll be right back.

this weekend marks 50 years since the bombing of a baptist church in birmingham, alabama, that killed four little girls. the bombing happened just weeks after the march on washington. it rocked the entire nation. we'll talk about it ahead. i'm a careful investor. when you do what i do, you think about risk.

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for teaching us that you can't create the future... by clinging to the past. and with that: you're history. instead of looking behind... delta is looking beyond. 80 thousand of us investing billions... in everything from the best experiences below... to the finest comforts above. we're not simply saluting history... we're making it. ♪ you make me, make me, make me go crazy ♪ ♪ you make me, make me, make me go crazy. ♪ finally tonight, this sunday marks 50 years since the tragic bombing of the 16th street baptist church in birmingham, alabama. it took the lives of four little

girls who were getting ready for sunday school that morning. denise mcnair, carl robertson, addie may collins and cynthia wesley. the church was a gathering place for civil rights leaders including dr. martin luther king jr., and it was the headquarters of the children's crusade when young marchers demonstrated in the streets, braving the dogs and fire hoses. but on september 15th, 1963, the church was targeted by the kkk, a bomb exploded in the basement near a room full of children. the bombing just a few weeks after the march on washington shocked a nation and left an indelible mark on everyone who lived through it. i recently talked about that with condoleezza rice who as a child in birmingham at the time of the bombing >> my dad's church was only about two miles from 16th street baptist church. so it was like the ground shook. and for kids in birmingham of my

age, i was 8, it was how could these people hate us so much? >> condoleezza rice on one side. knows that it wasn't for the sacrifice of little girls like her and others, white and black, goodman, cheney and southwesterner, if they had not shed blood, she won't have been secretary of state. president barack obama won't have been in the white house. people paid a price to open america up. we should never forget them and we should not stop until we finish the path that they put us on. we should honor them and honor them by our continued activity. this weekend, i honor these four girls, i honored the others that gave their lives. that opened america up more. i honored them by continuing to try and keep an opening. because of them. we are places no one ever thought we could be, but we

still have places to go. we still have hills to climb. and valleys to cross. but we should not forget those that made it possible because of them, i can say, thanks for watching. i'm al sharpton. "hardball" starts right now. >> obama strong. let's play "hardball." >> good evening, i'm chris matthews in washington. let me start tonight with this. politics makes strange bedfellows and tonight, america's in bed with vladimir putin. is this thing going to work? can we count on this guy to help us in syria? is it in russia's use to keep assad under control? do our two countries