it didn't go away. when nelson mandela came to the u.s. in 1994 to deliver a joint address to congress, one republican congressman from california called the invitation to mandela, a national disgrace, >> some right-wing groups are already opposing the bipartisan budget deal that was announced at the capitol tonight. but that doesn't mean it is a good deal. we could have the details of a budget deal as early as today. >> hap to report. >> senator murray and i have reached an agreement. >> something that almost never happens. >> congress hasn't passed a budget in four years. >> can they sell this deal.

>> we know what some concerns have been. >> is this really the smallest of deals? >> a small deal. >> smallest. tiniest. >> real case of small ball. >> very, very, small. >> the size to start with. >> there is a lot more for congress to do. >> certainly beats a government shutdown. >> congratulations you didn't shut down the government. >> not going to shut down the government again. >> hallelujah. >> the budget process can start from crisis to crisis. >> why would a republican support that? >> it is paul ryan who has to go and make the sale. >> i have every reason to expect great support from our caucus. >> guess we should celebrate the prevention. we don't think is in anyone any interest. >> for the first time in a long time. >> senator murray and i reached an agreement. >> i see this agreement as a step in the right direction. the democratic chair of the senate budget committee is selling the deal that she struck

with republican paul ryan this way. >> this deal doesn't solve all of our problems. but i think it is an important step in helping to heal some of the wound here in congress. to rebuild some trust, and show that we can do something without a crisis right around the corner. >> and, this is paul ryan's sales pitch to his republican colleagues. >> this bill reduces the deficit by $23 billion. it does not raise taxes. and it cuts spending in a smarter way. on the outset, we knew that if we forced each other to compromise the core principle we would get nowhere. that's why we decided to focus on where the common ground is. stow that's what we have done. that means to me, a budget agreement that reduces the deficit without raising taxes and replaces some of the are -- arbitrary cuts and reforms that pay for this relief. >> the right-wing political arm of the heritage foundation released this statement.

heritage action cannot support a budget deal that would increase spending in the near term for promises of woefully inadequate long term reductions while imperfectly sequester has proven to be an effective tool in force congress to reduce spending. a gimmicky spend now, cut later deal will take our nation in the wrong direction. another right-wing group, americans for prosperity said -- congressional republicans are joining liberal democrats in breaking their word to the american people to finally begin reining in government spending which left us $17 trillion in debt. just minutes after paul rivian finished his joint news conference with senator patty murray. republican senator, marco rubio was the first, first likely republican presidential candidate to release a statement.

which says -- this budget continues washington's irresponsible budgeting decisions spending more than the government takes and placing burdens on americans. >> democratic leader of the house. nancy pelosi said, tonight's agreement represents a step toward enacting a budget for the american people and preventing further manufactured crises that harm our economy, destroy jobs and weaken our middle-class. i look forward to discussing the details of the agreement with my colleagues in the house democratic caucus. >> with president obama still in the air, on his way back from south africa, the white house issued this statement. today's agreement is a good first step. congress has a lot more to do on the front in the immediate term. congress should extend unemployment insurance so more than a million americans looking for work don't lose a life line right after christmas and our economy doesn't take a hit. joining me now is, ezra klein, msnbc columnist.

and sam stein, msnbc, political analyst, also with the huffington post. ezra klein, take us through the base, elements of this deal. that is not all of sequester, it is not a full half of it. you have three parts to it. there is -- nondefense, discretionary sequestration, people love when you hear that word. defense sequestration. and mandatory spending. mandatory spending hasn't been touched. all coming from discretionary. it takes away pay little bit less than half sequestration this year. takes up $20 billion next year. a bit under 1/4. and $20 billion in deficit reduction. the, the cuts come and deficit reduction comes from a mixture of spending cuts and revenue that is coming not through taxes but fees. so if you go and buy an airline ticket. there will be a higher fee on

the airline ticket. the thing i want to point people's attention to though is not what is in the deal, what isn't? there is a line. we won't lurch from crisis to crisis. there won't be a shutdown. in a few weeks. unemployment expires. it is not extended. not expected to be extended. what we allow, unemployment benefits to expire for 1.3 million people. there is something quite cruel about that. >> ezra, go back to a pin the that heritage makes in their opposition. they say that this increases spending. >> yeah, it does increase the spending level b$45 billion this year over where it would be under sequestration. the way it does that, is that some of the savings in the bill are over ten-year time frame. you are getting savings that you are getting each year, over the next ten, instead all off in

this. so on that level, it is a little better for the economy. definitely a smarter, more gradual, less disruptive way of gifting savings. the difference is not huge. $45 billion is significant. not a dramatic difference. we are actually at levels that look similar to where paul ryan's budget put us a couple years ago. obviously since then the political dynamic has changed. where the budget actually is, for sequestration, has changed. and so, this is, i think about as good a deal on spending as democrats are likely to get. >> in fact. i think we are below where paul ryan's original budget had us for fy 2014. ezra hits important points. sequestration relief, $63 billion. out of $180 billion. you are going to have 1/3 of sequestration relief in the next two years. a victory, not a major one for democrats. i thought the key word from paul ryan at least was these were permanent spending reductions. we look at budgets in ten year windows. some what arbitrary.

you know the pays for that are in the proposal, including force federal workers to contribute more to pensions those will go beyond the 10-year window. if conservatives step back and say, we can trust pays for are going to take place. the only other point i would add -- it's remarkable that -- that lawmakers are willing to go after military pensions. reduce the size of the military pensions. rather than touch a single tax loophole, or close a tax loophole. and left for lawmakers this time around. and that says something about the state of politics today. >> sam stein, nobody has studied closer, more closely a reported. more fully what's been happening under sequestration. and especially the things that you see as -- as suffering under sequestration. what relief, what, what positive relief do you see at this stage from this deal to the sequestration cuts?

>> well we are going to get a better sense of that, if, when this passes, when it goes to appropriators. they will divvy out what agencies and accounts will increase expectations they will do a level increase across the board. defense by and large gets a, a reprieve. they were about to take a $20 billion additional hit. via sequestration. that looks like it will be put off. everyone across the board is breathing a some what sigh of relief. all of the agencies have essentially exhausted emergency funds. done as much as they could to delay as much suffering as they could during the first year of sequestration. if this hadn't, hadn't gotten any relief, at this point in time. they would have been devastated. the question is how much does 1/3 of sequestration, over the next two years get them. my guess, if i have to go back and talk to the people is that it gets them a little bit more time. doesn't solve main problems they're facing. >> ezra, what do you think the white house sees as the positives of the deal from their perspective.

>> everything sam mentioned. you are lifting sequestration. you also are getting some kind of deal. allowing appropriators do their work, back into a normal budget process. showing, we don't, lurch from crisis to crisis. they've don't love the deal. not what they wanted in a big bargain. get at all their priorities. again i keep wanting to point this out. most vulnerable people. doesn't help the unemployed. get left out of the deal. 1.3 million, long term unemployed. republicans made it a red line they would not do taxes. democrats did not make it a red line. that is a telling point about our politics. the white house is happy to see some kind of model set where you can begin to, even if you can't do it all in one big bang. alleviate the worst of sequestration. year by year. every year. going forward. at least through the end of obama's second term.

because they do consider it to be on the defense and defense sides. devastating. they want to see a path forward to reducing worst impacts. >> sam, do you think the democrats could have held the extension of unemployment insurance against the defense department piece of this? that seems to me to be a very strong republican incentive here to get this deal done. to take care of the defense spending piece of it. and it seems like the unemployment piece could have been balanced. >> they felt it was a politically advantageous contrast. throughout the past two years, you have had a pairing of defense and nondefense programs. that were essentially in this together. in sequestration together. so you had the natural pairing that had come together. to throw in unemployment insurance. we will see 1.3 million people hurt by failure to extend

unemployment insurance. i would guess, just a logical enterprise here. there are a number of republican lawmakers, we reported this, arthur delany and i in the house who want few see unemployment insurance extended. tend to come from states like nevada with high unemployment rates. but, whether that is enough off to create ape critical mass. i don't know. the only other point i would add is that we are not totally through hostage taking situations here. there is no extension of the debt limit in the deal. that will come in may, june. that still has to be dealt with. but for now i think we have a few months of calm, i guess. >> ezra, is there any prospect of getting a debt ceiling piece stuck into this thing as it moves through legislatively? >> no, none. frankly there is none. i don't think there is one on unemployment. i agree with sam. don't think they could have gotten unemployment.

did try to make it a priority. fried to offer things smaller in terms of extending unemployment. i don't think republicans will be able to extort anything out of the debt limit. unemployment will expire. don't think democrats are worried this time. such an utter, unmitigated catastrophe for republicans the last go around. i've don't think any body believes, republicans have much of a stomach for it. if they do. turns out they do. heritage action convinces them or something. i don't think anybody believes democrats will take them seriously. they'll point the gun at their own head and say they'll shoot the hostage. unless some body agrees to their demands. i wouldn't get too exercised over it. >> lawrence, a question for you. do you think this thing passes through the house?

>> that's what i am wondering about. which side has a more difficult time getting the votes? democratic side or republican side. and -- and, you know, out of time on this. i got to say -- you know, you are not going to get that unemployment piece if the republicans don't think you are actually capable of walking away from the table. the democrats usually are not capable of walking away from the table. they actually are the more responsible party at the table almost all of the time. republicans take advantage of the knowledge that democrats are more responsible in governance than they are. they know they've went use the tactics. we'll have to continue more of this another night. ezra klein, sam stein. thank you both for joining us tonight. >> thank you. >> coming up -- greetings from the craziest political fund-raising letter i have ever read. and president obama had a polite 10-second encounter that included a handshake with the cuban president raul castro at nelson mandela's memorial. so, of course, republicans lost

their minds. including one republican who very proudly shook hands with the dictator who ordered the bombing of an american airliner that killed 189 americans. and, we could talk about what president obama said at nelson mandela's memorial service today or we could just let him say it. we will bring you the highlights of president obama's moving and eloquent eulogy of his hero. finally tonight. a very special video. starring kid president. ♪ you know, ronny...

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>> two of president obama's most important judicial appointments, filibustered until harry reid

led a change in senate rules. the senate approved patricia millet's nomination to the dc circuit court off peels on a 56-38 vote. it is the most important federal appeals court in the country. and republicans have been preventing the president from filling the three empty seats that are on the court now. the senate also voted to confirm congressman mel watt of north carolina as director of the federal housing finance agency on a vote of 57-41. up next, a new tea party challenge to one of the most conservative republican senators and the showdown on this one is going to be in texas. and on day one, the campaign has already produced the single craziest fund-raising letter that i have ever held in my hands. ♪

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the letter i am about to read to you is true. well, i mean it's full of lies because it is a republican fund-raising letter. the letter exists, it was really written by a just announced republican candidate for senate and sent to thousand of people to raise money. dear patriot, you are in a foxhole fighting to save our constitutional republic and the last thing you need is a republican bayonet in your back. how that's for a first sentence? well, if you are on the republican mailing list that receives this letter, you might just think it is a great first sentence. but there is more. i'm sick and tired of being bayonetted in the back by some one in my own foxhole. these next six years will determine whether our constitutional republic lives or

dies. i'm, i'm not asking you to take a bullet or face actual bayonets. see, he's not crazy. he's not asking you to take a bullet. i'm asking you to consider an investment in the future of our nation with a contribution. see, the guy is just, just asking for money. when freedom is threatened -- texans have always mounted up and ridden to the sound of the guns. well, truth is most texans don't actually have horses now. and so they can't really mount up and -- ride to the sound of anything. but the letter is targeted at texans because it is from completely crazy texas republican steve stockland who is now running for senate in a republican primary against the sometimes crazy republican senator john cornan who by any

measure one of the most conservative senators in the senate. but in this fund-raising letter. he is -- liberal john cornan, as in liberal john cornan is now doing what he always does. spending four years voting like a democrat, then spending two years before an election, pretending to be a republican. if liberal john cornan loves being a senator he can move to massachusetts. and, liberal john cornan absolutely will smear an attack me and lie to you about me. make no mistake, liberal john cornan will smear me and lie about me just like he has done to every conservative. but you and i can and must stop him. less than 90 days to do it. we have a few days.

joining me, crystal ball, co-host of the cycle, and steve schmidt, and political analyst, and speaking of how did he put it, smearing me, john cornan will smear me and lie about me. here are some of the smears. that you -- that you might expect to get. this is from the public record about this man's life. okay. these could fit into a tv commercial. he has been jailed, for multiple times. driving offenses. charged felony possession of having valium in his underwear, which. >> happens to the best of us. >> not an easy police to carry your val bum. just telling you. he has filed for bankruptcy. abraham lincoln filed, that's no smear. he is a failed businessman. okay. he was sued for writing a bad check. that's too bad.

he had a lien against him. from the texas work force commission for failing to pay an employee. as a congressman he failed to make federally required disclosure as but his income. who knows, crystal ball what kind of stuff, real opposition research could come up with. >> good things and bad things about having a short campaign, he filed to run for the seat right before the deadline at literally almost the very last minute. bad thing he has no money. only three months to get tracts and raise millions and millions that you need to raise statewide in texas. the benefit is that it takes longer for these sorts of realities about his life up to now. to come out and to really be made public and for people to wrap their heads around. anything other than his buzzwords of patriot and bayonets and fox holes and whatever else he wants to put out there. >> steve schmidt how much does john cornan have to were reap -- worry about this. >> he doesn't have to worry. steve stockman isn't a credible candidate.

if they hadn't gotten the valium out of his underwear. he wouldn't have written the letter. you look at the challenges with the guy. a grade a, five-star nut. john cornan. you see the club for growth. some of the other groups that have, you know, charged headstrong into races, supporting candidates, part of the reason, republicans have given up five u.s. senate seats, deeply flawed candidates over the last two election cycles. not going to happen in this case. >> listen to this out of control senate conservative's fund and what they say about this. they don't, they don't say what steve says. they say, we haven't decided yet. whether we will endorse steve stockman. but we are glad he is running. texas deserves conservative

fighters in the senate. not just one. john -- crystal, this fight within the republican party continues. and this is the latest front. >> indeed. for of a little background. they were mad not backing up ted cruz. faux filibuster. nonsense. that was the piece that they were really angry about. i think if you have to look more broadly. steve is probably right. this is a big ask. a tall order for this guy who is legitimately i think crazy. if you look at the fact that 8 of 12 sitting republican senators who are up for re-election in 2014, face primary challenges. that starts to become a problem for the republican party. one of the primary challenges could catch lightning in a bottle and beat them. second of all when you have to marshal resources to just keep your republican senators who should be in safe seats when you have to deal with that and deal

with primary challenges. that diminishes resources for places where you need to be on the offensive. it also puts people in a terrible situation, where ted cruz hasn't taken a side in the race. steve stockman is going to continue to say crazy things. republican leaders are going to have to respond to it. and, so it just puts the party in a very awkward and terrible position. >> steve, it normally is not at all difficult for a senator -- serving in the senate with some, some one who has, his own party, his own state. not at all difficult for that senator to immediately endorse his colleague in his re-election campaign. ted cruz is not doing that. >> no. and nobody should expect that ted cruz would. look, this senate conservative fund has done more to elect democrats in the last two election cycles than anything the president has done. anything that the democrat senate campaign committee has done. just been phenomenally successful.

at electing democrats. one of the interesting things when you look at stockman. you look at what the senate conservative fund have said about it. it is fundamentally, the decoupling of any ideas or seriousness from the word conservative. what defines steve stockman as a conservative is his nuttiness. through the prism that the senate conservative fund is writing abut. john cornan as you pointed out at the beginning. by any reasonable standard is an impeccable conservative. he is one of the most conservative members of the united states senate. and unlike steve stockman, he is some one who ethically -- doesn't have any blemishes on his record. running against somebody who from the outrageous statements inability to conduct by any reasonable standard. a personal life with decorum. it is just another example of conservative being defined by the nuttiest guy in the room. which is a real problem for the

conservative movement in the conservative party. as we move through this for the third election cycle in a row. >> crystal ball, steve schmidt. thank you for joining me to night. >> thank you, lawrence. >> you bet. >> coming up at nelson mandela's memorial, president obama did a perfectly reasonable thing, other presidents have done in the situation. did something that presidents and politicians have done many times through the years. shook hands with some one whose policies he does not like. and of course, republicans went crazy. that's next. i like to eat a lot of fruits. love them all. the seal i get with the super poligrip free keeps the seeds from getting up underneath. even well-fitting dentures let in food particles. super poligrip is zinc free. with just a few dabs, it's clinically proven to seal out more food particles so you're more comfortable and confident while you eat. a lot of things going on in my life and the last thing i want to be thinking about is my dentures. [ charlie ] try zinc free super poligrip.

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>> in the spotlight tonight, the handshake. >> some times, a handshake is just a handshake. but when the leader of the free world shakes the bloody hand of a ruthless dictator like raul castro it becomes a propaganda coup for the tyrant. >> why should you shack hand -- shake hands with some body keeping americans in prison? i've mean, what's the point? neville chamberlain shook hands with hitler. >> the champions of the longest running, stupidest, american foreign policy took nothing from nelson mandela's service today other than outrage that president obama shook hands with the head of state of a government whose policies they and president obama do not like.

here are some of the handshakes with dictators that these republicans never criticized and pretended never happened today. joining me now, steve clemens, washington editor at large for the atlantic. david corn, washington bureau chief, mother jones, and msnbc political analyst. david corn, this is obviously a joke, of a controversy, there went be any controversy. the only people who will care about this in negative terms are those, those, single issue cuban interest voters who would all be posed to president obama anyway. >> well, i think maybe, obama was implanting a nano technology listening device, the nsa could eavesdrop, castro was sophisticated operation. but this is just the type, can we say bs on tv. don't know if we can or can't. >> you can say the letters, don't do it again. >> the type of stuff that

detracts. what is the point of the day. the point of the day was honoring nelson mandela. the people on the right have really been unable to come to terms with their own history. with nelson mandela. and the anc, apartheid in south africa. they were opposed by the efforts to do anything about it for decades. all across the internet. he is attacked by tea partiers for, supporting a communist. the year's long campaign for freedom, the republicans, conservatives, missed boat on. >> richard nixon as vice president of the united states at the height -- sentencing there, in cuba.

he went on to become president of the united states. he was never criticized by any republican for doing that. castro is presiding over some of the relaxation of the harshest communist policy -- in cuba. and actually introducing as inevitably, the island will, much more fully, elements of capitalism into that primitive and horrible communist economy that they have there. >> yeah, lawrence, richard nixon changed global gravity in some of the things he did. recognizing china. shaking mao's hand. trying to open up to cuba. peter cornblue in washington has done a magnificent job at looking at many u.s. presidents who have covertly tried to figure out a way to end the embargo and open a channel with castro. what we have seen obama do eye to eye with raul castro and shake his hand is not inconsistent with what other

presidents have covertly done. republican and democrat. raul castro has taken half a million people off of government pay. in cuba. he relaxed a lot of other provisions, opened up telecommunications. he released. continues to jail political prisoners. but continued to release political prisoners. as i said, today about this situation. the arctic goes through thaws and freezing. my view, what you have seen in u.s. cuba relations. this handshake. though it was at mandela's funeral, a bit of a thaw in u.s. cuba relations. it is an important moment. >> yeah, glad it happened. i'm glad that, president obama had the opportunity to do it. because i have high hopes for, a thaw with cuba. and -- it's more likely with raul castro, not with fidel out of the way now. and there is nothing like going

to cuba, as i have done, to enrage you, about the castro regime when you see the suffering there, when you see the poverty there. but the castro hold on the country has been enabled by this inane american embargo that the castros have been able to blame every one of their problems on. david if we dropped this crazy embargo, cuba would have gone far beyond china in liberalization by now. i mean it is terrible what goes on. i know, writers have not able to do what they want to do. and, who are, have been jailed or threatened with jail. i take this seriously. our approximately see of treating them much differently than we treat the chinese, soviet union in the day. hasn't worked. there is no way, fidel castro could have lasted for decade had

there been no embargo and much more flow of ideas and commerce. between the united states and cuba. the handshake was impromptu if it signals an exchange of views as they say, i'm all for it. >> can't leave this without a long bloody handshake, john mccain shaking the hand of moammar gadhafi, who ordered the bombing of pan am flight, 25 years ago in which so many americans, 180 americans were killed. john mccain, no problem. he actually tweeted out, made public his handshake with gadhafi. there is no hand in cuba as bloody as gadhafi's. there is john mccain criticizing president obama today. we're out of time. steve clemens, david koran. thank you for joining us.

>> in the rewrite. now that we have the nonsense of the day out of the way. president obama will refocus our attention on what today was really about in south africa. he will do that in his own words honoring the life of nelson mandela. ♪ love is strange so when coverage really counts, count on nationwide insurance. we put members first. join the nation. ♪ nationwide is on your side ♪ see, i knew testosterone could affect sex drive, but not energy or even my mood. that's when i talked with my doctor. he gave me some blood tests... showed it was low t. that's it. it was a number. [ male announcer ] today, men with low t have androgel 1.62% testosterone gel. the #1 prescribed topical testosterone replacement therapy increases testosterone when used daily. women and children should avoid contact with application sites.

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with maximum symptom fighting ...are the hands that do good things for the whole community: the environment, seniors, kids, and animals. that's why we created the share the love event. by the end of this year, the total donated by subaru could reach 35 million dollars. you get a great deal on a new subaru. we'll donate 250 dollars to a choice of charities that benefit your community. it feels good to be a helping hand. >> president obama flew 16 hours to south africa today. not as republicans would have you believe to shake raul castro's hand but to speak in memory of nelson mandela.

the president did so beautifully and eloquently. and the more i have to say about it the less time we will have to let the president speak. the full 19 minute version of his speech available on the website. here now are some of the highlights beginning with the thunderous welcome south africa gave off to the president of the united states. >> thank you. to the mandela family, to president zuma, and members of the government -- [ cheers and applause ] to heads of state and the government past and present.

it is a singular honor to be with you today. to celebrate a life like no other. to the people of south africa -- [ cheers and applause ] people of every race and every walk of life. the world thanks you for sharing nelson mandela with us. mandela taught us the power of action and also taught us the power of idea. the importance of reason and arguments. the need to study not only those who you agree with but also those who you don't agree with. and regardless of the station or the circumstance, we must ask how well have i applied his lessons mine own life.

it is a question i ask myself. as a man, and as a president, we know that like south africa, the united states had to overcome centuries of racial subjugation. as was true here it took sacrifice. the sacrifices of countless people, known and unknown, to see the dawn of a new day. michelle and i are beneficiaries of that struggle. but in america, and in -- in south africa, and in countries all around the globe, we cannot allow our progress to cloud the fact that our work is not yet done. for around the world to day we still see children suffering from hunger and disease.

we still see rundown schools. we still see young people without prospects for the future. around the world today, men and women are still in prison for their political beliefs. and are still persecuted for what they look like, and how they worship, and who they love. that is happening today. and so we too must act on behalf of justice. we too must act on behalf of peace. there are too many people who have fully embraced the legacy of racial reconciliation, but passionately resist even modest reforms that would challenge chronic poverty and growing inequality. there are too many leaders who claim solidarity with the struggle for freedom but do not

tolerate dissent from their own people. we will never see the likes of nelson mandela again. let me say, the young people of africa, and the young people around the world, you too can make his life work your own. over 30 years ago, while still a student. i learned of nelson mandela. and the struggles taking place in this beautiful land. it stirred something in me. it woke me up to my responsibilities. and to others and to myself. while i will always fall short of his example, he makes me want

to be a better man. he speaks to what is best inside us. when the night grows dark. when injustice weighs heavy on our hearts. and the word that brought him comfort in the walls of his cell. it matters not how straight the gait, how charged the punishment, i am the master of of my fate, i am the captain of my soul. what a magnificent soul it was. we will miss him deeply.

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>> 89 former president george h.w. bush, issued his first tweet, barbara hand i wish we could have joined the u.s. delegation honoring president mandela. today. he and his countrymen are in our prayers. his son, george w. bush and first lady laura bush are returning from south africa at this hour aboard "air force one." the bushs, joined the obamas for dinner in the "air force one" conference room tonight along with ambassador susan rice. tonight, last word goes to kid president.

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most people on our gift lists need. the truth is most people don't need stuff. they need to know somebody cares. it's about spreading love. >> then robbie novak known to the world as kid president comes up with some pretty great suggestions for the perfect gift. >> the perfect gift is something that makes the world better. go to a site like inspiredgifts.org. buy a blanket for kids who need them. send books to kids who need stories. you can even help kind, kids in need of desks. thousand of school desks to kids in malawi. give a soccer ball. giving gifts can change the world. especially when they're full of love. you can give a gift in honor of somebody. who can you get an inspired gift for, your teacher, your parents, your dentist. anybody. what if everybody gave a gift that made the world a little bit better.

that video was posted last thursday and accounted for $109,000 raised for the kind fund over the weekend. after telling you more last night about the girls' tuition program part of the kind fund. overnight we raised $32,513. for girls, high school scholarships in malawi. as of the close of business today. enough to send 184 girls in malawi to high school for a year. we raised $28,994. overnight. for desks that will be made in malawi. delivered to schools there. schools that have never had desks. you can contribute at last word desks.msnbc,.com, have a holiday gift card sent to any one on your gift list saying you have donated a gift in his or her name.

doubling down on ted cruz. let's play "hardball." ♪ good evening. i'm chris matthews up in new york. let me start with you. better yet, don't get me started. how crazy is crazy? we showed you the list of right wingers to knock off conservatives in the senate next year. you haven't seen nothing yet. last night just about deadline time, a real nut ball, i mean as crazy as crazy gets threw his beanie in the race for texas senator. as if one ted cruz isn't enough, this fella steve stockman wants the lone star state to double down. theyan