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tv   Politics Nation  MSNBC  December 13, 2013 3:00pm-4:01pm PST

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vote -- >> sure. >> -- to extend unemployment benefits. very little sympathy for the republicans in this stuff. >> all right. howard dean, still right after all these years. the proper call. good to have you with us tonight. thanks so much. >> thanks, ed. >> you bet. >> that's "the ed show." i'm ed schultz. "politicsnation" with reverend al sharpton begins now. good evening, rev. >> good evening, ed. thanks to you for tuning in. tonight's lead, breaking news. a school shooting in colorado just miles from the site of the horrific columbine massacre. the shooting happened at arapaho high school in colorado. a student entered the school apparently looking for a specific teacher. that student is now dead of self-inflicted gun wounds. two other students are hurt. one of them seriously. a janitor says he saw the
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shooter enter the school. >> i saw a kid running into the building on the north side of the building. he was kind of running side of sif side, kind of military style. when i saw that, i double looked to see if it was a gun. it was a shotgun. so right away i got on the radio to alert everyone and the staff to, hey -- when we went in, that's when i just heard the shots. >> police say the teacher ran from the school, attempting to draw the shooter away from the other students. >> the student that was armed with a shotgun, as he entered the west high of arapahoe high school immediately asked for the location of the specific teacher and asked for the teach i by name. as soon as the teacher realized that, as i indicated in my initial comment, he departed the school. that was a very wise tactical
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decision. he took himself away from the school and with an effort to try to encourage the shooter to go with him. >> the janitor later caught up with that teacher who described being shot at by the student. >> he was so shooken up, he felt the wind out of the shotgun just blow his hair out but didn't hit him. it was that scary for him. he's still shaken over there. >> students in the school were evacuated with their hands raised in the air. pictures that are so resonant of all -- to all of us after seeing so many other school shootings, including the one at sandy hook elementary one year ago tomorrow. students today were checked for weapons to make sure this shooter was acting alone. for the students, it was a terrifying experience. >> we heard two very, very loud
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gunshots, and immediately closed the door. she closed the door. we ran into the corner, dove on top of each other, tried to get behind the desks. i texted my parents. fortunately i had my phone. i sent the text i never wanted to send to my parents that we heard gunshots but that i was okay for now. leaving the building, it was very troubling to see blood stains on the floor and the carpet and, we got out of the building. >> joining me now is jim cavanaugh, former atf special agent who led the investigations into the atlanta olympic bombing. and former fbi profiler, clint van zandt. thank you, both, for coming on the show tonight. let me go to you, clint, first. the shooter was apparently targeting a specific teacher. what's your analysis? >> yeah, al. this is some young man who had a
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vendetta against one specific teacher. and as you know, we've witnessed this over and over again. of course, we had the shooting at come bile in 19 columbine in 1999 and the aurora, colorado, future movie theater, and this one. these three are so close together. again, al, we have a young man with conflict resolution, anger management issues who turns to a fire yarm instead of what the schools have advocated for years which is develop nonviolent conflict resolution skills. >> what does this say to you, james cavanaugh? what is your analysis? >> well, i would say, reverend, the same thing that clint says. it's revenge, and it's suicide. both of those things are working together. you see that in a lot of these mass shootings. probably going to be some mental illness coming into play. and, you know, it's a slow burn. i mean, the sheriff said he had a molotov cocktail was in the school. he didn't do it yesterday. it probably took a while to get
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the festering revenge up to the teacher. >> also they're examining, jim, a potential explosivede vi dd d the scene. describe what they're doing now. >> right. they think they have a molotov cocktail, which would be a jar, plastic or glass probably loaded with a flammable liquid, maybe a wick. he might have intended to throw that. certainly suicide was in the plan it looks like. and he quickly went to it when he couldn't kill his target, the teacher. you know, reverend al, if it weren't for the custodian, i think the custodian really is the hero here. for all the educators to think about this, one of the weaknesseses in our schools really despite all the security we talk about is the perimeter. and we don't have someone out in the perimeter, an adult, a police officer is great, uniformed police officer is perfect. but if you can't have that, you might have some kind of security person. if you don't have a uniformed one, have a plain clothed person. somebody needs to be out there. all too often we see, there's a
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guy running across the parking lot, military style with a shotgun, long gun, a shotgun, dodging between the cars. the key in these school shootings to save lives is a quick 911 call. the police arrive. they arrive three to five minutes away like they did in newtown. the quicker the notice to police, the quicker the school can be locked. the quicker the students can move to safety. the quicker they can barricade inside. don't wait until the guy is shooting in the door for your first notice. the custodian, really by radioing in, seeing that, was critical in this case and we probably averted a mass killing because he had the same gun the navy yard shooter had which is a shotgun. >> joining me now is melissa harris perry. melissa, as a mother, what can you tell us when you see the pictures, and one year later after sandy hook, another school, another scene which students are walking out with their hands up. as a mother, and i nknow you'rea
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teacher as well, but as a mother, what does this say a year later, here we are again? >> part of it is what jim was just saying. a reminder f r eer for me, the the person who might save your child's life may be the custodian who is standing there who sees and calls into the school. right, radios in, and tells people. or the teacher who makes that decision to exit -- not to barricade into the classroom, right? let me be safe and barricade in the classroom, but leave me here with these other students, but let me get away from the scene. >> to lead him away. >> to lead them away. so if he's coming for me, i'm going to get away from these other young people. and i guess i'm reminded, you know, we send our pressure little babies, do all this work to raise, we send them off the majority of their day at their schools and the question of whether or not those teachers and those custodians and those frontline workers who are seeing and being with our children
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every day, are they well paid, are they working in circumstances where they have support? it is just a reminder to me, when i see the folks at my daughter's school monday, i'm going -- it's a reminder, once again, to say thank you because we're not standing there with our children all the time and those folks in those schools may save their lives. >> now, we have another amazing scene, clint, a student describing what they did when they learned the shooter was in the building. listen to this. >> we were in class. we were actually doing a lab in chemistry, and we had a substitute, but three or four teachers came in from the office and just said, get down. we don't know what happened. we heard some loud noises. we're just going to treat it as a lockdown. they had us get as far away from the doors and windows so if someone were to look in the door, they could not see, and turned off all the lights and be as quiet as you can. >> clint, did the students and the teachers apparently do the right thing here? >> well, they do, al, and the
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sad thing is, we practice this and we hear this over and over again. realize, today, two different stories. one is this terrible shooting that took place that the students, the teachers, everybody else was prepared as best they could. law enforcement entered the school, went for the shooter. the shooter shot himself, fortunately, in this case, before he killed anybody else. a second story today is an individual who became radicalized on the internet who thought he was dealing with co-conspirators, undercover fbi agents who was going to bomb the airport in wichita, kansas. two different stories. 15 years old and 58 years old. and, yet, al, they were both looking for a means to commit mass murder. >> scary. melissa, we don't know everything yet, and certainly i don't want to politicize it. but you can't escape the fact that we're a year later tomorrow after sandy hook and when you
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look at the fact that it's been a rough year for gun laws, for gun reform in this country, 52% of americans said in december 2013 that gun laws should be more strict. 56% said yes. so support has actually gone down since newtown. is america really willing to just accept these school shootings as the new normal? >> look, i think you're exactly right. we don't know everything about this story. there's always the dangerous of rushing to legislation as the solution. with that said, you asked me earlier as a mom how i think an this. i guess the one thing i would say, this cannot possibly be a partisan issue. republicans want their children to be safe at school. democrats want their children to be safe at school. every community leader from every political party and ideology and race wants children to be safe in their communities and at school. so we have got, whatever the challenges are, we have got to
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get over those challenges and figure out real common sense reasonable solutions to our children being safe. >> james cavanaugh, clint van zandt, and melissa harris perry, thank you for your time this evening. and be sure to catch melissa harris perry weekends at 10:00 a.m. right here on msnbc. we also want to take a chance to remember other young lives lost to guns in the last year. michelle richard nix's ongoing series on msnbc.com called "too young to die" does just that. please tgo to msnbc.com and rea these moving stories of young lives lost. coming up, over 1 million americans are one day closer to losing unemployment benefits. where is speaker boehner today? and can you be too rich to
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go to jail? this drunk teen got off after killing four people in a crash. he claims he was too rich to understand consequences. amazing. plus, i'll give you my take on the black santa controversy that everyone is talking about.
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it's friday the 13th. karl rove has another very scary on-air meltdown moment. it involves obama care and this. >> my critics get an attitude. i tell them to stop. i tell them to stop. and if you need that new health care, sign up because it's hot. sign up because it's hot. i'm commander in chief and i'm too terms strong plus i've got
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we're one day closer to over a million long-term unemployed americans losing benefits. they'll be hit three days after christmas. democrats are calling for immediate action. instead, speaker boehner and the house republicans adjourned today for a three-week holiday break. all told, in the first half of next year, 3.1 million americans stand to lose jobless benefits.
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but rather than helping struggling americans, republicans have been attacking them for months. >> standing in line at a grocery store behind people with a food stamp card. the food stamp card pulled out and provided, he looks at the king crab legs and looks at his ground meat. >> he need to make sure our government programs encourage work, not dependence. but our people want jobs. they don't want a safety net as a way of life. >> don't want to turn the safety net into a hammock that lulls able bodied people to lives of complacency. >> we almost eliminated skin in the game for most ordinary everyday americans. folks mocked mitt romney for what he said about 47%, but he's right. >> these republican attacks are ugly, but they're not new. today, the "national journal" reports on the return of the welfare queen. the return of this talk. >> she wanted a divorce to get an $80 raise.
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she's eligible for $330 a month in the aid of children program. she got the idea from two women in her neighborhood who had already done that very thing. >> it's a vicious old talking point. and it's back. joining me now is dana milbank. dana, the cover of this story shows a woman driving a fancy car and wearing expensive clothes. why is this demonization of the poor back? >> i'm not sure it ever really left, reverend, and i think, however, the republicans have left themselves in a very vulnerable position here. so, have given themselves an extra long christmas break and then three days after christmas, 1.3 million americans will be turned off from their benefits and the most vulnerable will be made further so. so i think there's always been a strain within the republican party, whether it was the welfare queens or whether it was
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the 47%. the rhetoric is not necessarily the main issue here, but when it's accompanied by the sort of policy decision that the house republic ans made this week in departing town with giving themselves a vacation without looking out for the unemployed and what has been a historic amount of joblessness. i think that is why the welfare queen rhetoric gets another look. >> yeah, you know, the "national journal" story caught my eye about the rhetoric. let me quote something out of the story. "the welfare queen, she has risen to hear the rhetoric coming from capitol hill and the campaign trail. medicaid and food-stamp recipients are a bunch of shiftless freeloaders living high on king crab legs and free health care, all on the backs of hardworking americans." this is the rhetoric that we're
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hearing. >> right. and i mean, you remember during the campaign we had newt gingrich talking about this being the food stamp president. >> right. >> with all the kind of connotations that had. now we actually see some time later we actually are having policies that, you know, if this farm bill the republicans in the house have been working on, if they could convince the democrats in the senate to go along with it, would throw many, many more people off of food stamps and have already cut back in the women, infants and children nutrition programs, headstart, other programs. so it's no longer the harmless sort of newt going rich campaign rhetoric. it's accompanied by actual policy decisions that have had real-world impact on people. >> but, dana, what gets me is the demonizing. i mean, we just played that tape of ronald reagan. more than just the policy is the need to denigrate, to demonize, to in many ways make people that
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are already suffering appear so outrageously exploitative and like they are some kind of criminals almost when they're really, in most cases, in need. >> right, reverend. and, in fact, if you look at those who are on these programs, it's, the stereotype that the conservatives are projecting has a racial component, has an urban component. in fact, it's nothing of the sort and it's widespread. a lot of the constituents of louie gohmert who you just played there, these other republicans are people on food stamps and the wic program and others like this. but, look, it's the oldest story in politics. it makes it a lot easier to make your case if you can have a villain, if you can have a demon, and if you can demagogue it. and i think we don't pay a whole lot of attention to the rhetoric when it's just empty rhetoric,
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but when they're actually succeeding in cutting those very programs, then it takes on additional significance. >> well, i think they succeed in cutting the programs when they can convince people with the rhetoric that these people don't really need this and that they're getting a lot more than they really are getting. and the fact is they hide that they're really hurting some of the very voters they need to win. real people are going to take a big hit when the jobless benefits expire. here are some voices from across the country. listen to this, dana. >> this is week 28 of unemployment. she counts every week because that number has never counted more. her benefits could soon disappear. >> i need the benefits so that i can keep pushing forward so that i won't need the benefits. >> we're coming up on the end of those benefits and it's really an emotional roller coaster for me. it's supposed to be, you know, a time of being thankful for what you have, which i am.
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i'm thankful for, you know, having the loving and support of family that i do have, but it's hard because what i have looming in my future is just a hardship. >> and far from a lazy person. i hate being stuck home. >> reporter: if her benefits aren't extended, she said she won't have enough money to go to a job interview. >> you're crippling people that are already crippled emotionally and financially. >> and that's the point, dana. these are people that go across racial lines, geographic or regional lines and people that the republicans are going to need to win. politically, they may be cutting off their nose to spite their own face, politically. i'm going to have to leave it there, though, dana. thanks for your time tonight. have a great weekend. >> thanks, reverend. you, too. ahead, can you be too rich to jail? this teen was. what it says about our justice system.
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plus, karl rove is worried about a, quote, entitlement program. and concerned about this video. why this rap video has many on the right outraged. stay with us. [ male announcer ] alka seltzer plus presents the cold truth. [ coughs, sneezes ]
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attitude i tell them to stop, i tell them to stop ♪ ♪ and if you need that new health care sign up because it's hot, sign up because it's hot, sign up because it's hot ♪ ♪ i'm commander in chief and i'm two terms strong and got this health care which has got it going on ♪ >> gee, mr. rove. we thought you of all people would enjoy a little rap music. ♪ that's true, he's a dancing resident ♪ ♪ he is a sidekick to the president ♪ ♪ tell me what is your name ♪ emcee rove >> that is you, isn't it, emcee rove? coming up, why so many americans are dancing their way to getting new health care. ♪ tell me what is your name people don't have to think about
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a scary day. for those on the right, every day scary because they're always finding new horror stories about the health care law. >> a new report finds seven in ten physicians in california are boycotting the state-run system. does it surprise you that physicians in great numbers, at least in california, are refusing to participate in the aca? >> no, it doesn't surprise me at all. >> there is a report out that an estimated seven out of every ten physicians in california is opting not to participate. why? >> why would seven out of ten physicians refuse to participate in the law? they wouldn't. an "l.a. times" columnist looked into that story and, "it's not true. in fact, according to covered california, the only source with verifiable numbers, some 58,000 doctors, or more than 80% of the
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state's practicing physicians, will be available to enrollees in the exchange's health plans." the story was baloney, but it wasn't the only one. remember the family that said they couldn't get their baby insured? >> how is it possible that you go to look for an insurance plan and baby aaron is not covered? can you walk us through that? >> it was a nightmare. the family plan, quote, came back. we got 56 different quotes and they offered coverage for myself, my wife, our 6-year-old daughter, our 5-year-old daughter, our 3-year-old son, but our 1 1/2-year-old daughter was left off. >> sounded terrible. speaker boehner even tweeted about it. writing, "i couldn't believe what i was being told." said a dad who learned bha eed care wouldn't cover his baby. they looked into it and found it
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was just a mixup. the problem, "appears to have been rooted in the father's application which originally listed only three of his children even though he has four. when the clerical errors e erro discovered, it was corrected." clerical error. not a major flaw in the law. the right looks for any excuse to fearmonger over it. a rap to encourage people to get health care and it has karl rove all worked up. >> i worry about something seemed aimed at floor glorifica commander of the united states, instead of people signing up under this new health care program. this disturbingly gets too close to the line, in fact, crosses it. >> is he serious? this crosses the line?
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♪ and if you need that new health care, sign up because it's hot, sign up because it's hot ♪ ♪ i'm commander in chief and i'm two terms strong and i've got this health care which has got it going on ♪ >> come on, karl. lighten up. sign up. because it's hot. joining me now, maria teresa kumar and ryan grimm. thank you both for being here tonight. >> thank you, reverend. >> pleasure, reverend. >> maria, i know it's friday the 13th, but it karl rove getting a little too jittery here? >> well, i think it's actually funny that he doesn't want folks to glorify the office of the president of the united states. if anything, good americans, good patriots, that's exactly what we should be doing, making sure the leader of the land has full support, paying attention to the laws of the land. let's get this straight. this is covered california. they have over 2.3 million latinos that need to get insured in order for the system to work.
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how are you going to grab people's attention unless you make sure you get the young people's attention talking about the video, making it go viral and talking about the health care they need in order for the system to work? karl rove is grumpy because he didn't think of it, himself, for the republican party. >> ryan, we talked about another phony obama care horror story. sean hannity featured the small businessowners earlier this year. listen to this. >> we've also cut back on hiring full-time employees because of the health care cost involved. even though we'd love to do that. >> you'd like to hire full-time employees? >> we'd love to. >> you're going to keep them below 30 hours. >> we'd have to keep them below 30 hours. >> salon.com followed up with the couple and reminded them the health care law only required businesses with at least 50 employees to provide insurance. "paul revealed that he has only four employees.
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why the cut bx on his workforce? and how, i asked him, is any of it due to obamacare? there was a long pause, after which he said, he'd call me back. he never did. seems like the health care law wasn't a factor here, but how eager is the right to smear this law, ryan? >> well, i mean, you know, this is their best weapon. you know, they know that they wrote this in a bad economy into 2010 which is why they still control the house. you know, they don't want to brent anything alternative, so why not seize on this? what they have going for them is that, you know, there's been a trend over the last 10, 15 years of employers dropping coverage and insurers driving up prices. so all they have to do is try to connect obama care to these trends that are already happening. you know, no real health policy expert thinks that, you know, the reason that insurers -- that
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companies were dropping health care five years ago had anything to do with obama care which didn't even exist at the time. but now that it's passed, they can say, look, all of these employers are dropping health care, it must be because of obama care. >> you know, even, maria, one of the biggest critics of the law, senator tom coburn, admitted the insurance changes will work. listen to this. >> i'm not worried about the exchanges. they'll get that fixed. that's just incompetency of management. they'll get it fixed. it will eventually work and work well. what won't work is the rest of it. >> so, he's still trashing the law, but he's turned the corner on the exchanges, maria? >> this is a complicated law, but let's face it, 1.2 million americans have actually been able to get on the exchanges. one of the things we have to remind ourselves, we're basically behind the scenes. this law hasn't technically gone into effect since january 1st
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when people can see their insurance benefits. more people preenrolled, the better we'll be able to see how the premiums can go down. let's recognize it's not completely fixed. there are still people out there who lost their insurance and trying to do a stop gap with the administration, the insurance companies. it's something they're finally addressing because the system is working because you're actually finally getting to see people getting enrollment. so for the republican party and for in this case, coburn, to scratch his head and say, shoot, this is working, they don't want it to work because that's one of the few things they have coming into 2014 election to really bring out their base. >> and we know that it's not perfect, but it's getting better. in fact, ryan, wisconsin senator ron johnson told the "national review," "republicans can't just talk about repeal anymore. ", we've got to start talking about transitioning. how do you repeal? yeah you, can get rid of the law, but what do you do with what's already there?" he also said "am i opposed to
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state-based exchanges? no. not opposed to the exchanges." have we turned the corner here, ryan? >> i think so. that's what everyone predicted, that once this actually went into effect, then you've turned the corner. the law is extremely complicated but also simple in one way. there are two major portions of it. one is basically single payer expanding medicaid. and the other are these regulated marketplaces. these state-based exchanges where, you know, the companies that participate in those, they can't kick people out for pre-existing conditions and there are certain limits on how bad they can screw people. but that's it. those are the two parts of it. medicaid and the exchanges. and if you're okay with the exchanges and you're a basicalbase basically okay with the entire thing because you're not getting rid of everything. >> you have maria -- adam levine
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tweeted t eed this week, califos where i call home. you can get covered if you're a resident. so hurry. how effective is this push, maria? >> the reason they're using celebrity voices, voto latino, we realize how difficult it is to reach young people. the media they consume is mostly online. they need to hear from people they can trust that basically gets the word out. there's really three states that are critical in order for this to work where we have a concentration of young people. that is california, texas and florida. so the more active these -- and, unfortunately, only california's participating in their state exchange. both florida and texas, so far, are not participating. they're doing the federal exchange. so just makes it a little bit tougher. having the celebrity endorsem t endorsement, what it does is you leverage them as a distribution channel. it's important. it makes it easy, accessible. someone talking to them in frank language, saying, hey, it's
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smart to get health insurance. >> maria teresa kumar, ryan grimm, thank you both for your time tonight. >> happy friday, reverend. coming up, the black santa controversy that has everyone weighing in. but first, too rich for jail. the teenager who killed four in a crash but avoids jail time. that's next. so ally bank has a raise your rate cd that won't trap me in a rate. that's correct. cause i'm really nervous about getting trapped. why's that? uh, mark? go get help! i have my reasons. look, you don't have to feel trapped with our raise your rate cd. if our rate on this cd goes up, yours can too. oh that sounds nice. don't feel trapped with the ally raise your rate cd. ally bank. your money needs an ally. [ male announcer ] your eyes. even at a distance of 10 miles... the length of 146 football fields...
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a dry mouth isn't. biotene -- for people who suffer from dry mouth. too rich to jail?
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it's the story of a texas teen that has people all arocross th country scratching their head. 16-year-old ethan couch killed four people while driving drunk, but this week, he escaped jail time, claiming he suffered from affluenza. he said he's so rich he didn't know that his behavior had consequences. this comes as new details emerge from that horrific night. couch was driving with the blood alcohol content three times the legal limit. he also had traces of valium in his system and cop notes reveal that the young man ran from the scene despite the chaos captured in this 911 call. >> listen to me. is it just one vehicle? >> no, there were four or five. there's another child in the ditch.
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they're gone! >> come with me. come here. come here. come here. come here. >> oh my god. >> come here. i need you to sit here and i need you guys to pray, okay? >> couch will not serve a single day in jail. instead, his parents will pay for him to receive therapy at a $450,000-a-year rehabilitation center. joining me now is attorney ariva martin, and criminal defense lawyer ken padowitz. ken, let me start with you. what do you make of this affluenza defense? >> well, it's despicable. this is a horrible tragedy of four people killed by a drunk driver and now not only is there an impaired driver, but there's an impaired justice system. because this justice system has just compounded this horrible tragedy by allowing a defense
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and actually having that effect the court's sentence that somebody is too rich to understand the ramifications of what they're doing and not have the responsibility of someone who doesn't have the same amount of money who can't afford the pricey type of rehabilitation that this defendant has been sentenced to? it's despicable. it's outrageous. and it's a breakdown in the justice system. this sends a horrible message to every single individual out there. it's supposed to be the blind lady of justice, and it's supposed to be given evenly, not based on how much money that you have in your pocket. >> you know, ariva, we also found out that ethan couch has had a series of run-ins with law. despite he's only 16. it includes a history of arrests including one where he pled no contest to possessing and drinking alcohol. in another separate incident last year, police found him passed out in a car with a naked
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14-year-old girl. >> you know, it's those kinds of things, reverend al, that make these sentence even more reprehensible. we're not talking about a young man who's had no brushes with the law. we're talking about a young man who has been perpetually involved with the law and never forced to face consequences. i also want to point out some are talking about the purpose of the juvenile justice system and that the purpose is to rehabilitate unlike the adult prison system. they don't have to be mutually exclusive. this young man could have been sentenced to a juvenile justice detention center and receive rehabilitation at the same time. so the judge did not have to send him to this california country club in lieu of sentencing him for jail time for his, you know, criminal violations which were multiple as you already described. >> and, you know, ken, according to an attorney for one of the victims' families, ethan couch told a passenger in his truck, after the accident, that he'd
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get them all out of trouble. "he could be heard at the scene, yelling to one of his passengers, quote, "i'm ethan couch, i'll get you out of this." sounds like he does know there are some consequences that are possible. >> though clearly he understands there's consequences. he obviously was impaired that night. but here the judge at sentencing instead accepting the expert's testimony that this child was so rich that he didn't understand and wasn't responsible for his actions. the judge should have put a stop to that right there and could have had a balanced sentence. one in which included incarceration and rehabilitation. that's not what o cccurred here and where the breakdown in the system is. >> but this same judge, this same judge last year sentenced a 14-year-old african-american to prison for killing one person with a powerful punch to the
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ground. same judge. >> we should note, rerverend al it wasn't just prison but a ten-year sentence for this african-american teen. that's the problem with this sentence. >> ten years. >> ten years. it's to the just about money, it's about the disparity in the criminal justice system based on race. we know african-americans, particularly african-american males receive harsher sentences both at the state and federal level and this judge's sentence just reaffirms the dual justice system, one more blacks, one more whites, one for rich, and one for poor. that has to stop. it's not okay for young black men to do time for the same crime and a white affluent young man to receive rehabilitation in club med in california. just not acceptable. >> let's be clear, we are not at all justifying young blacks or young anybody punching people and it resulting two days later in their death, but we're talking about the law must work equally for all if you're talking about juveniles and rehabilitation. you know, ken, the in-patient
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rehabilitation facility that couch is going to has a $450,000-a-year price tag. it includes chef-prepared meals, therapy, martial arts training, yoga, nature hikes. i mean, all kinds of stuff. >> and this is where the breakdown happened when the judge came to the sentencing determination. that should not be something on the plate where a child is sent to a country club as far as rehabilitation punishment for killing four people. it's an outrage. it's outrageous. and that judge should seriously think about an early retirement. >> ariva martin and ken padowitz. thank you both for your time this evening. have nice weekend. >> thank you, reverend al. >> thank you, you, too. ahead, is scaanta clause white, black, brown? who cares? that's next.
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is santa claus white, black, blue? a lot of people are talking about this. >> in "slave" they have a piece, santa claus should not be a white man anymore. when i saw this headline, i kind of laughed and said this is so ridiculous. yet another person claiming it's racist to have a white santa. you know? and by the way, for all you kids watching at home, santa just is white, but this person is arguing maybe we should also have a black santa. you know, santa is what he is. just so you know, we're just
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debating this because someone wrote about it, kids. jesus was a white man, too. you know, it's like we have -- he was a historical fig wruuref verifiable fact. as is santa. i want the kids watching to know that. >> those words made some people upset. they made jon stewart funny. very funny. >> the real st. nicholas was from a part of the world that's now turkey. according to forensic scientists who studies research established by the vatican, he probably looked something like this. well, my guess is there'd be no christmas if he looked like that dude because he's probably still on the no-fly list. i'll give you that jesus was a historical figure, but you're going to get a little pushback on the white thing. you do know jesus wasn't born in bethlehem, pennsylvania. right? >> faith and religion shouldn't be reduced to matters of race. faith is something that should
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unite all of us. no matter what we look like. these people who invented the war on christmas might do well to remember that. i believe in jesus, no matter what color he was. but don't change his color. and don't change the situation for whatever reasons. zes ] zes ] [ female announcer ] the start of sneeze season. the wind-blown watery eyes. [ sniffling ] the sniffling guy on the bus. and, of course, the snow angels with your little angels. that's why puffs plus lotion is soft. puffs plus are dermatologist tested to be gentle. they help soothe irritated skin by locking in moisture better. so you can always put your best face forward. a face in need deserves puffs indeed. open to innovation. open to ambition. open to bold ideas. that's why new york has a new plan -- dozens of tax free zones all across the state. move here, expand here, or start a new business here
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kand i don't have time foris morunreliable companies.bp. what? angie's list definitely saves me time and money. for over 18 years we've helped people take care of the things that matter most. join today. finally tonight, celebrating the life of nelson madiba mandela. 19 years ago, thousands lined up to vote for mandela. voting for the first time ever for the man who spent nearly three decades in jail fighting for equality. and today, more than 300,000 lined up to say good-bye. they waited hours. many were turned away, but the chance to see madiba made the trip worth it for the most. >> it was just chaos, just so many people around that want to see madiba, and we're not upset,
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we're not sad. we're just glad we came here. we sacrificed our time and didn't get to see him, but we're glad we sacrificed our time. we just hope the funeral goes well. >> the man who meant so much to so many all over the world will forever be remembered for his ideas, for his values, for his vision for a brighter tomorrow. >> a day, we're entering a new era for our country and its people. today we celebrate not the victory of apartheid, but victory for all the people of south africa.
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>> no doubt about it, nelson mandela was a great man, and the way to mourn him is not by just remembering his greatness, but by remembering the great lessons he taught us and try to live by those great lessons, ourselves. thanks for watching. i'm al sharpton. have a great weekend. "hardball" starts right now. purge on the right. let's play "hardball." good evening. i'm chris matthews back in washington. let me start tonight with the crazy way this week is ending. you've heard the news from north korea how the young head of that country just executed his guardian uncle. back here in america, the right wing is acting if not as brutally, certainly as crazily.

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