there's certain rules you can say and this say rule. >> a firearm is real clear. eugene o'donnell thank you very much for joining us tonight. >> my pleasure. >> chris hayes is up next. political armageddon. let's play "hardball." good evening. i'm chris matthews up in new york. let me start with this. the dirty little secret of american politics today is this battle between president obama and his enemies is not a contest of achievement. no, it's about a president who wants to do great things, and preventing a third war with iran and -- against those who would deny others of different sexual orientations.

it's a strange battle between a man who wants to do great things and an enemy making sure he does not. howard fine and jonathan capehart, howard, i painted this in strong terms and strong black and white, but i have to tell you. i don't see a republican agenda, except to destroy obama. the president's enemies have tried to destroy, kill, defund, block or destroy everything in his program. the president in contrast has made it his goal to fight to extend rights to minority, the

uninsured and the oppressed. his opponents are trying to take away these rights. the opponents of the president prevented millions of people from having access to health care under the law. they've suppressed voting rights of minorities, specifically african-americans. they have derailed the principles of fairness. let's look at the first one of these segments. republicans in 24 states now have rejected the expansion of medicaid. as a result, there are working americans whose access to the insurance under the law has been voided. astonishingly it is a badge of honor for those like rand paul. here he is attacking chris christie.

>> on the case of the new jersey governor, i think embracing obama care, expanding medicaid in his state is very expensive and not fiscally conservative. that would lead you to the conclusion it's not a good conservative proposal. >> he's going after a somewhat right muddle of the road republican and blasting him. he at least allows the expansion of medicaid to the working poor and for that he's basically calling him not a republican. >> i think your thesis is correct. i don't think there's any arguing it. i think the republicans do have a philosophy. they do have an agenda. and that agenda is what they think of as liberty, what they think as freedom, but they define it as a project to dismantle or block every proposal, essentially every

proposal president obama has made from the day they kale into office. that's been their operating philosophy from day one. they're very proud of it. they think that's an agenda. and that's what they're pursuing. and in the case of medicaid in the states, there's no greater proof of it than the fact that for many years to come, and essentially on into the distant future, the federal government, not the state governments, will be picking up the costs of those programs. so what the governors in those states are doing is deliberately standing before history and shouting stop. and as you say, they're proud of the result. >> i've never seen a political party put vicious gut hatred into a program of negativity. jonathan, it's like they have a gut, despising -- i'm trying to think of the right words. i don't know if it's hatred of obama. it is in some cases. they spew out that gut hatred in

a program of opposition. that's all it is. anything with his name on it has to be choked. >> i think the word you're looking for is animus maybe. you know, one of the major tenants of the affordable care act came out of the heritage foundation. not a bastion of liberalism. >> because president obama got it through? >> because president obama said he's for it. sometimes we talk on your show and other shows on whether the president should come out in favor of something and how folks on the hill want him to stay away from it. it's because if the president says he's for something or encouraged by something, movement that's happening on capitol hill, that's a surefire way to quit it because of the

knee-jerk reaction of a lot of folks in the republican party to oppose anything the president wants to do even if it's the right thing to do. >> i want to talk to you, you're about my age. i remember someone i worked with, and he said something i never realized. he said if you want to be loved by history, sport the expansion of rights. they go out to many more people. and the more that that grows, the more people in the future who benefit from that will remember who was on their side. now my question here is, here's the president doing though. his enemies out there made it a goal to suppress the rights of voters. look at this map. under the leadership reince priebus, the gop has voter suppression bills all across the country.

i have to tell you. every once in a while i come across somebody who says we have to do that to prevent cheating. i say where's the cheating? or is this just to say there aren't as many white people as there have been in the past we need to reduce the numbers of black voters. there's a lesser number of whites. therefore the only way whites win these elections is to make sure that the other people don't vote. if it isn't that, what is it? >> i think the actions is the perfect emblem for what you're talking about. it's a negative, stop-the-world kind of theory. and you don't have to say it in directly racial terms. it's that the newly empowered people, hispanics, other immigrants from around the world who have come to the united states, for whom voting is a wonderful prize of their life. it's what america is all about. and for the republicans to be

focussing on winnowing out that crowd is what worries them. the more they put their hands up like a traffic cop, the more they're painting themselves into a corner. >> you have ever been to one of those naturalization ceremonies? apparently a lot of republicans don't like that sight. look at the patterns here. they're trying to sabotage the affordable care act, of course, which extends the basic right that you should see a doctor if you get sick without bankrupting you. they've also fought against extending marriage rights to same-sex couples.

and they won't even touch a bill passed by the senate to fix the immigration system. the house gop agenda is basically a blank piece of paper. jonathan, this is investigative reporting. the republican party doesn't have an agenda except to screw obama and anything with his name on it. your thoughts? >> right, right. this is absolutely right. let's say they were successful in repealing the affordable care act. let's say they are being successful in squashing immigration reform. let's say they're successful in squashing the employment non-discrimination act. >> what's successful for that? michelle bachman's husband? switch these people around.

maybe we can fix them, make them straight. then we won't need all this stuff. >> that's a whole other conversation, chris. but the thing is, let's say they were to repeal the affordable care act. then the american people are going to start asking, well, then, what you got? what do you have to replace that with because there are some things that we like. all those things you mentioned before. immigration, gay rights. remember that gop autopsy? all those things were mentioned in the gop autopsy. and it said we must reach out to these communities if we are going to survive in future elections. everything they are doing now, everything they have done since that autopsy has come out has made a mockery. >> what about this workplace thing? the republicans really believe it's okay to keep someone from working with you if you have a

gay manner? do they think it's okay to reject somebody because of manner or suggestion? >> for a lot of tea party people in their hearts, they don't believe that, but they're playing to the red hot core of their base. most that have a half brain realize what a losing proposition this is because of demographic and social changes that are happening in america and that most people overwhelmingly approve. they think it's a winning political proposition. they're making a bet that bawl care will not be fixed, that it won't recover by the fall of next year. in fact, it will be worse. rates will be higher, et cetera.

that's their guess. it's animus. >> this thing about workplace behavior and discrimination. is this the don't ask/don't tell policy rewritten for the workplace? >> i think these folks don't believe that it's a real issue. i think they don't think, they don't think it's a big deal. i think what's so ridiculous about the conversation about the employment nondiscrimination act, most fortune 500 companies already do what the folks on capitol hill won't allow the federal government to do. so the folks who are preventing the employment non-discrimination act from being passed are really, a perfect example of them being behind the times and way behind where the rest of the country is. >> so well said. thank you. coming up, look who suddenly loves women.

the republican, their allies the koch brothers are sponsoring ads to help destroy the affordable care act. and some footage of kennedy. it's a rare glimpse of jack kennedy as he really was without the cameras on. he was caught off guard and you see the charming -- he's in a greenroom getting makeup on, talking about nixon's bad makeup. and here's a bad combination, rob ford and school children and a four-letter word. it gets worse and worse for the torontans and their mayor. and jackie kennedy had a separate memorial that she wanted, and i know about it. le ] if you're a rinse user,

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the obama/clinton alliance was in full effect today. president obama awarded the presidential medal of freedom to former president clinton and he cited his ability to spur economic growth. among the 15 other honorees, oprah winfrey. the presidential medal of honor is the highest civilian honor.

one of the problems we've had is one side of capitol hill is invested in failure, and that makes, i think, the kind of hinder to process of fixing glitches as they come up and fine tuning the law more challenging.

>> president obama's understated characterization of the republican's sabotage of the health care. writing in today's washington post, dana milbank wrote about the strategy, the scary movie strategy. here's the trailer for that movie. >> moms and dads are worried that they're going to lose their health care plan. individuals who are going onto the healthcare.gov website are beginning to fear that perhaps their identity will be stolen. >> premiums are going right through the roof. >> you won't be able to keep your doctor. >> right now, healthcare.gov screams to those who are trying to break into the system, if you like info, maybe you ask steal it. >> you can say boo, because that's all you're saying, boo. as for the koch brothers, they are pouring millions of dollars into advertising that spread fear about the health care plan.

and these ads have a specific audience, women. they intend to make the decisions about their family's health care. the washington post's dana milbank joins me. alex, i have to ask you about this. this is a concerted effort, it seems to me, to do what everybody fears might happen naturally, but the republicans want to make sure it's going to happen. if young, healthy people do not enroll, and only the people with real health care problems, this program is going to cause higher rates. if they can jam as many people out of this in scare tactics about the fact that they're going to be watched over by the chinese or somebody's going to get all their valuable information as if it's that valuable and interesting. and that women tend to know more than men about what's covered.

this is an effort to sabotage this program. don't they deserve some credit for ruining it if they do? >> i think the credit rests on their doorstep if we can even call it credit. two points i'd say in response to your questions. one, i don't think you can scare people with this idea that their information is getting shared. fundamental young people in the 21st century are much more digitally savvy and open about their networking habits. i think they're much more forgiving as far as glitches and tech. they've built up in an age where things have crumbled online. they're used to new apps and operating systems. in that way they have a lot more room. to the targeting of women, i feel that that's boast shameless

and despicable. women are making the decisions in their household as far as insurance, but it is despicable insofar as the affordable care act specifically makes a point of helping women. women are no longer discriminated against in terms of insurance premiums. they have better access to coverage. and women who are mothers can now keep their children who have pre-existing conditions on health insurance without worrying about lifetime limits. it really is the most craven political exercise to try to target women, young women and mothers and tell them this is a bad thing. this is effectively death panels 2.0. >> it reminds me of the old virginia slims ads who convinced women who wanted to be cool and thin, buy a real thin cigarette. it will kill you before you get fat. the koch brothers are pouring money into ads to ratchet up the

fear factor. and this ad targets kay hagan of north carolina. >> people don't like political ads. i don't like them either. but health care isn't about politics. it's about people. it's not about a website that doesn't work. it's not about poll numbers or approval ratings. it's about people. and millions of people have lost their health insurance. millions of people can't see their own doctors and millions are paying more and getting less. obama care doesn't work. it just doesn't work. tell senator hagan to stop thinking about politics and start thinking about people. >> ads just like that one are being rolled out against louisiana senator landrieu and others. i used the example of virginia slims because it weighs to women

who wanted to be sexy and thin and groovy and all that. what are they saying? you don't need health care. don't sign up. >> in fairness, they are trying to dissuade everybody from participating in this program, and they see women as a vulnerable group to go after here. the idea -- they don't say it sabotage, but it's hard to describe it as anything but that. now you have this fear campaign to try to get people, the young people, the healthy people not to do it. the goal is to kill the program overall, but really, the irony here is just that they're going to make it more expensive for the taxpayer if you only get the older and sicker people in the health exchanges. guess what, the government's going to get stuck picking up the higher cost for that.

>> how's that going to work? aren't these insurance companies private? how is the taxpayer going to have to pick up the tab? >> it's written into the law, if the cost is more than 3% above what's anticipated the federal government has to pay at least half of that. and also, if you only have the, if you discourage everybody else from getting into the program, you only have relatively low-income people who qualify for the subsidies. the amount they contribute is fixed. and if the costs go up overall, it's us, the taxpayers who are going to have to pay for that. >> why should the koch brother whose are billionaires and make all their money in oil and gas,

i can see if they put their money into an energy policy, i can see how it would be good for their stockholders if you're crude enough about it. why are they spending millions of dollars trying to screw a health care program? what economic good does it do the koch brothers to attack a program for the poor people, screwing the people, why do they want to screw them? >> based on their, their record thus far, they don't, they would like to tear asunder the american social compact. they do not want a powerful or in any way functioning federal government because it behooves them to operate without regulation. they want to keep, to dana's point, there is this idea of risk corridors, and if they are saddled with sick or older patients they are saddled with the bill. people are not going to be left to die in the streets. that is not the way america works. >> are you sure that's not the koch brother plan? i'm not being totally ridiculous here. if we lose out on any attempt to create a social safety net for the working poor who don't have

health care right now, the emergency room, i know, somebody will take care. but these people spending hundreds of millions of dollars attacking this program, do they have any answer for these people? i say no, except die in the streets maybe. why would you defend them on any grounds. thank you for coming on. you work two shifts tonight. dana, you always work two shifts. up next, never before seen footage of jack kennedy in a rare, candid talking moment here about the debates he just had a few days before with richard nixon. this is the kennedy we've always been curious about. this is "hardball," the place for politics.

welcome back to "hardball." well, tonight we have some newly discovered footage of jack kennedy talking candidly and perhaps unaware that a camera was rolling about his first debate with richard nixon. the first presidential debate of 1960 was first ever televised and television gave kennedy the clear edge. and what they saw may have been more important than what they

heard. a haggard nixon just back from the hospital, pale and with sweat on his upper lip. the story goes that nixon relied on makeup that failed to hold up under the hot lights in the studio. the chicago daily news went so far as to say nixon's makeup had intentionally been sabotaged. but that turned out not to be true. here "hardball" producer dug through the nbc news archive and discovered footage with sound of jack kennedy talking while having his makeup done on camera. he was preparing for an interview with david brinkley. it's a rare glimpse behind the curtain. while the audio is poor, you can make out that they're discussing the story about nixon's makeup.

a historian is here with me now. and you've seen this and you agree this is a big deal. >> yeah. it's amazing, because number one, especially this week. if you think about the amount of film footage that you and i maybe have not seen before of jfk, very hard to think there could be anything like that. so here we have a find that at least you and i have not seen. i think most americans have not. >> i love it. because like the scene in crisis about the alabama desegregation effort, you've got a glimpse of the guy when he doesn't think the cameras are on. >> that story about the makeup man.

>> who was it, do you know? >> no. >> i must say all these newspapers keep putting the knock now on the debate. i think it's just a media rivalry, isn't it? >> some of that. >> as a democrat, i can say i don't know what we'd do without television. >> well, it was a hell of a show, i thought. >> i get a glimpse there of why ben bradley loved this guy. he was a guy's guy, speaking frankly. pat brown told me, when i once asked him what was kennedy like, he said no bs, just straight. and there he is talking like most guys would, how nixon looked so bad. >> that's right. and we don't have any so-called

secret tapes of kennedy during the campaign the way that we do for the white house. that's all we've got. not only do we catch him off guard, but talking about something very important, the one moment in the campaign that did more than anything else to change the campaign was that debate. >> and you don't get a sense like with nixon where nixon's like he's rehearsed everything he's about to say. everything seemed to be rehearsed with nixon. and he never talked turkey like kennedy it like he was doing there about makeup. >> no. that's exactly right. this is a real guy. >> you knew ted kennedy, and i did a little bit too. and he sounds almost the way ted kennedy did in private. it wasn't like where the diction was more crisp. it's like a regular guy, injure'

just talking to him. >> we're looking at the face here, the liveliness of this guy's personality, the eyes flashing around, checking out the room, and obviously great looking. great voice. i think kennedy had, he didn't have to learn to project the voice, which it took him about 15 years to learn to do it. his in-person voice was solid. i'm impressed. >> although different. because this is four days after that debate in chicago. and in chicago every facial expression he gives is perfect and the sentences are so crisp. look how tired he is. the bags under the eyes that the makeup artist is working very hard to conceal. >> it's not just the bad looks because nixon had been in the hospital with an infected leg. the kennedy people were so conniving that they made sure that the lectern that he used

was very thin lectern so that you could see nixon's leg. and they found that nixon had lowered the temperature down to about 40 degrees. and they came in and scared the hell out of the guy who was guarding the heat. this kind of stuff went on back and forth. i love this stuff. clean tricks. the real politics. >> you're one of the great archival journalists ever. thank you so much for coming. >> right back at you. thanks. up next, toronto mayor rob ford can't get out of his own way. his latest blunder. you're watching "hardball." the place for politics.

president obama's kind of getting all the late-night jokes now. >> better him than me.

i really don't miss the spotlight. it's hard for some to believe, but i think eight years of the spotlight's enough. >> i must say, you look much more relaxed. >> no kidding. >> no, but i would see -- [ applause ] >> duh. >> that was, of course former president george w. bush. and he asked about one of his new hobbies, painting. >> i read winston churchill's book. i said i'm thinking about painting. she said what's your incentive? i said there's a recommend brant trapped in this body. your job is to find it. >> let's show some of the paintings. this is your dog barney. look at that. i can't even see where you've painted over the number. that is beautifully done.

>> and former first lady bush showed up to talk about the recent serious health threat. >> when the president had that health scare, how scary was that? >> it was scary. it was very scary. >> i wasn't as scared. >> was it, you had obama care? >> meanwhile, there's more bad news for toronto's embattled mayor rob ford. on monday, the city council took away much of his power, leaving him for all intents and purposes, a figure head. then a cable channel canceled his one-day-old reality show. and then moist of his staff quit to go to work for the deputy mayor up there. here was jon stewart last night. >> it's been a hell of a couple days for rob ford. he surrounded himself with school children and then said this -- >> i was sick and tired of all

these allegations and all this [ bleep ]. excuse my words. that's all it is. sorry, kids. i shouldn't have sworn in front of the kids. >> just, i shouldn't have done that. i feel like [ bleep ] for doing that, jesus. that's another [ bleep ]. oh, i just said it again. [ bleep ]. no, that's bad. shouldn't have said that. [ bleep ]. oh, what am i doing. >> is he saying those words? or did they just do a bleep? any way we learned when it comes to politicians and cocaine, canada isn't alone. trey radel pled guilty today to a misdemeanor charge of possession of cocaine. he was arrested after buying 3.5 grams of cocaine from someone who turned out to be an undercover agent in the dupont circle area of washington. he apologized for his extremely irresponsible choice. it's lucky he got caught in washington.

had he been arrested in his home state of florida he could have faced a felony charge and prison time. some have noted the hypocrisy because of the plan for food stamps the recipients. >> when i go back to texas, i travel the state, and i see people who come up to me. and they grab me by the shoulder, and they're afraid. they say, ted, i just lost my health insurance. i have a child with diabetes. i need my health insurance. i'm scared. please stop this from happening. those are real facts. >> and what do you say to them? i look at the bills that you've sponsored. there's not one that offers a solution except to get rid of the existing law. is that enough? >> that's the only solution that will work. >> cruz, he fails to mention a small giant detail, that texas

has the highest number of people without health insurance notice country. 852,000 texas children had no insurance last year. and he doesn't do nothing about it and he says he cares. sorry, senator cruz, repealing the affordable care act will do nothing for them, and you know it. this is "hardball," the place for politics.

it looks as give ken cuccinelli's political career may not be over yet. he is considering making a virginia senate run next year against mark warner. good luck with that one. he just lost his race for governor and would likely face a tough race against warner. and we'll be right back.

we're back. we're now looking back at the legacy of jack kennedy. arthur schlesinger reveals letters with kennedy.

he is most often identified with his relationship with kennedy. he supported his campaign for president. he was later appointed as special assistant to kennedy. the letters in this book capture the frank and honest relationship they shared and also the trust kennedy placed in schlesinger. two of schlesinger's sons compiled these letters. i love the book of his diaries, and i'm sure i'm going to love the letters. you guys did a hell of a job. i remember your writing a few years ago called the new democrat. let me ask you about your dad and kennedy. was jack kennedy a liberal by the standards of stevenson and fdr? >> yeah.

not only was he a liberal, a self-proclaimed liberal. what democratic president since jack kennedy, maybe lyndon johnson has ever said they were a liberal. yeah. he was. and he was the man who proposed in the 1960 presidential campaign, he proposed medicare, he proposed the peace corps. he was talking about discussions with the soviets about disarmament, he was very much ahead of his time. i think that was one of the reasons it was a very close election. >> how was your father -- how would he grade him as a fellow intellectual? was he a person who loved ideas, coined the phrase for adlai stevenson? >> my father thought that jack kennedy was more of an intellectual than adlai stevenson. he took great ideas and

surrounded himself with people with great ideas. but kennedy actually liked to read books that his advisers gave him. and he was -- so it is a funny irony that -- >> yeah, i know, i think stevenson's book was the social registry, but that was part of the irony. let me go back to steven on this. they like to say i'm conservative for fiscal matters, but on social matters i tend to be liberal. on the other hand, they say well, kennedy promised a lot but didn't get much done, but what was your idea on the book, his assessment of kennedy's achievements as president? your dad? >> well, you know, i think he felt that kennedy was shut down in the prime of his life.

but many of the accomplishments that lyndon johnson was known for started in the kennedy administration, had kennedy lived and probably would have been reelected overwhelmingly in 1964, he would have been the person who passed the civil rights bill because he would have had a democratic-controlled congress. he would have passed medicare and a lot of the social legislation like war on poverty that johnson is well renowned for. so i think he felt that kennedy was short shifted in a way by history. that he was nonetheless a man of considerable potential accomplishments. >> explain to me something i think a lot of moderate conservatives and liberals don't get. why there was a strong group of people on the left that were anti-communist as heck, but liberal, explain that. >> well, there were two types of liberals, the popular front liberals that supported a close relationship with the soviet union as had taken place after

world war ii, and the anti-communist liberals, my father was one of them. they did not want their liberalism or their accomplishments be undermined by being painted as communists, they rooted them out. they did not trust them. in those days they were pro-stalin. and my father met a lot of students and new-age historians. he believed they had to distinguish between anti-communism, and the anti-stalinism which they fought after world war ii. >> and as jack kennedy geared up to run for president he faced questions about whether he was sufficiently opposed to communist tactics. here is one strategic political advice, you will pay a serious

price, people feel entitled to hold you to higher standards than they hold most people. as you know better than i, mccarthy is one thing held against you, how did your father deal with the mccarthy/kennedy failure to fight with each other enough? >> yeah, he always was very upset that kennedy wouldn't take a position on the censor of senator mccarthy by the senate. of course, kennedy was in the hospital at the time and had an excuse. but the fact is that many liberals represented in a sense by my father felt that kennedy nonetheless should take a forthright position for the censure of mccarthy. and the fact is that in the end, i think kennedy was you know, balancing different political realities when he was trying to run for the presidency.

>> all right, we have to go. i think the irish thing had a lot to do with it. i know from my background, as well. joe mccarthy was more popular than kennedy in that area. i love the fact you guys didn't hide this stuff. you did it as he once said, i call it as i saw it. thank you, steven and andrew schlesinger. and coming up, two wishes from jackie kennedy to her husband, one you know about, the eternal flame, the other you will hear about.

let me finish tonight with this, jacqueline kennedy wanted two memorials to her husband when he was shot and killed a half century ago this friday. one was the eternal flame next to his grave at arlington cemetery. and today, they laid a wreath honoring him. the other was the rocket to be used on the early apollo flight, she wanted to be where somebody wouldn't notice it, to where she and perhaps her husband knew it was there. jack kennedy wanted to beat the soviets regarding the moon, and basically wanted to win the cold war in a peaceful competition, not a nuclear one. well, six years after kennedy's death, i was serving in africa teaching business. one night in july, a man took the people from his village onto the hill, to watch something

that began to cross the dark horizon. it was the reason he brought his people out there that night to see his countrymen going to the moon. that it would one day pass the soviets, it had done its job. and so had the peace corps. thank you for joining us, that is it for us. "all in" with chris hayes starts right now. good evening from new york, i'm chris hayes, and this evening, just a few hours ago the senate came to another one of its truly embarrassing avoidable standoffs. and it happened even though democrats and republicans had previously agreed on how to proceed on competing legislation. legislation over one of the biggest issues facing our country today. here is what happened. the one big thing that the senate needs to do before the thanksgiving break is pass the national authorization act of the ns