>> 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. it's hard to tell who's calling

the shots in this crowd. radio man mark levin denounced today speaker john boehner is utterly feckless, that means weak, for backing the budget deal and trying to avoid another government shutdown. glenn beck condemns the republican speaker is not just a liberal, but get this, calling him a progressive. oh my god. acting like a king of the crazies, beck says ted cruz is a good right-wing boy in opposing the budget deal in the senate, i can't believe the way he says this, because, "he did what we told him to." we. glenn beck and company. now the cat is out of the bag. the people calling the shots are the loudest, angriest, nastiest voices in the right wing media. the people marching to their tune always marching away from any deal with the president are the cruzes, rand pauls and mike lees. not only them. also the mitch mcconnells, john cornyns, lindsey grahams all scared to death at this moment that the mark levins and glenn becks of the right-wing media circus will finger them for

destruction the way kim yung-un fingered his own unsuspecting guardian uncle over in pyongyang. which not north korea, but boy is it getting tough over there on the american right. david corn, washington bureau chief for "mother jones" and jonathan capehart, columnist for the "washington post." both are proud, i hope, msnbc political analysts. john boehner faces all-out revolts from the tea party, a bit of an anger coming from the conservative media htitans like mark levin and glenn beck. listen carefully. what beck said is the reason they love wackobirds like cruz and lee, they're taking orders from him. >> i find him feckless. >> i think john boehner is one of the prime examples of worthless, worthless republicans. these guys are big government progressives. they're not liberals. they're not rinos. they're progressives.

we have to take a stand. mike lee and ted cruz, they did what we told them to do. mean whooi meanwhile, the john boehners and mitch mcconnells of the world are trying to take ted cruz and mike lee and destroy them. mitch mcconnell is the biggest two-faced liar i've ever seen. >> mitch mcconnell, two-faced liar. i mised some of the good stuff here. are there people in the radio world out there driving in their cars that actually believe, as glenn beck just said, that boehner is a progressive, a big government progressive and the other guy is a liar, whatever the word is they're using, a two-faced liar? >> i don't know what levin and glenn beck believe because it's too scary to look into their souls. while there's a fight between them and heritage action and boehner and cantor and republicans who want to be grown-ups in divided government, this is going to be arbitrated not by either side but by the republican/conservative base. one reason why the party and the tea party have lurched to the

right is that's because where the votes have been for the last -- let me just finish. ever since obama started this gigantic backlash. they're going to be fighting, whether it's boehner or rush limbaugh, for the heart and soul of this extreme body that's taken over the -- >> what's the obama backlash? >> i mean once obama got elected. >> yeah. right. what do you do when you have a president you consider a left-wing guy for all other reasons? they think he's a left winger. what do you do? do you fight with him continu continually, say no, no, no until he's gone? eight years, the guy's gone. or say, -- boehner said, i'm 1 of the government, i'm the house, i don't have the senate, i don't have the presidency. unless we beat these guys, we can't pretend we are. whereas glenn beck pretends and mark levin and the rest that they're ruling the western world. >> look, these are folks who are catering to what david talked about. the base of the republican party. the lifeblood energy of the republican party. the part of the republican party that defeated longtime utah

senator bob bennett which i think was the shot across the bow that sent a chill through every sitting -- >> knocked off dick lugar, too. >> dick lugar. if christine o'donnell hadn't been the far right tea party favorite. >> witch. >> she's not a witch. she's just like -- >> i'm sorry, she was not a witch. >> what speaker boehner said the other day where, you know, are you kidding me? you know, these folks try to use our members. where was that three years ago? >> yeah, he's very new to this, wait a second, i'm going to be an adult. >> i'm going to police you right now. you can't trash a guy for six years or five years for being crazy, joining the crazies, when he finally stands up, stops being -- you don't go after him. >> he just cost us $28 billion on the shutdown and now he says, oh my god, i can't believe we did anything like that.

>> people can grow. people can grow. >> yes, he can grow. we'll give him a few points. >> you were relentless. >> it's been long and coming. >> hey, chris -- >> speaker boehner had already grown, he was just hiding it from people. >> he's showing his stuff. he's the incredible hulk this week. anyway, the red hots in the senate have come out in force against the budget deal which overwhelmingly passed the house last night. in fact, nbc's kasie hunt is reporting not a single republican in the entire united states senate, the world's greatest deliberative body has said they'll unequivocally vote yet on this little bitty deal. not one of them. the opposition is being led, the tea party doing it trying to match up with guys like glenn beck and mark levin. you want proof? look at this wild and crazy set of reasons for opposing this little small potatoes deal, oppose it because it funds the affordable care act. ted cruz put out that statement yesterday. it's law. the new budget deal moves in the wrong direction. he said "spends more, taxes more, and allows continued

funding for obamacare. i cannot support it." mike lee told fox today the deal was laiterally putting lives in danger. let's listen. >> the greatest threat to our national security is our debt and deficit. i can't vote for a bill that i fundamentally disagree with. >> should join national security. in fact, the ryan/murray budget was built around cuts in the military. the idea of the deal was to protect the military. there's this bit of tortured logic from senator marco rubio, he's opposing the deal in part because it would shut down the government ultimately. he actually said that and you heard it right. here's senator rubio on fox today. >> i don't want a government shutdown, and that's why i oppose this deal because i think this budget actually contributes to the day that we're going to have a real shutdown of government, not because the congress can't pass a law, but because we have a debt crisis. >> well, senator rubio doesn't stop there. he offered this bit of logic about being american. well, we all are, aren't we?

during an interview with nbc's kelly o'donnell. >> reporter: why, as a conservative, do you believe this isn't a deal you can back. >> it's not as a conservative, as an american. we're plagued by a government that continues to spend a lot more money than it's taking in. this has been going on a number of years. that's how you have a $17 trillion bipartisan debt. we need to start deal with this. >> does he have his own camera over there he was working? instead of talk to kelly, he was talking to somebody else over there. >> he was filming a tv ad no doubt for 2016. >> filming there? i don't know what he was doing. >> the debt actually is at a better position than it was when obama came into office. revenues are up. >> okay. >> they're closing it. all this argument -- >> these are constant facts in our lives. we have a debt. we have a health care bill. everybody just wants to vote no. i want to get to the politics of this. >> of course. >> the politics is about this. you can't lose in the republican party by opposing the president. >> right. >> it is the safest rabbit hole there is, jonathan, right? so just say no. >> right. oppose the president.

jaromya yammer on obama care. you said it's the law. these are all talking points we have heard for the last two years. and we're not talking about a grand grand bargain here. we're talking about a deal that doesn't do any of the -- >> anyway, the leadership in the house led by john boehner has declared open war on the tea party. they're fighting back, these guys. i said don knots can't no more. the exact opposite story in the senate, a threat of the tea party primary is the tail wagging the dog. sarah palin had his warning for any republican who dares to support the budget deal. "2014 is just around the corner. if any member of congress thinks raising taxes and increasing wasteful spending is a winning strategy to run on, by all means they should vote for the ryan budget. we'll be watching." very forbidding there. matt hoskins of the fund took it a step further saying "the solution is for conservatives to work together to replace these republicans in the primary

elections with true conservatives. if conservatives rise up, they can regain kprol of the party. if they stay home, the establishment will remain in power and continue to help the democrats enact their liberal agenda." their threats appear to be working. not a single senate republican facing a primary battle next year in 2014 is supporting the deal. not yet, anyway. senate leaders mitch mcconnell, best-known senator on the republican side, john cornyn, the number two guy from texas, with tons of money are voting no. as is lindsey graham. roberts. david, this is what's stuns. we know politics has a lot to do with television these days and radio and, of course, still the newspapers and getting your name out there. people's names -- everybody knows mitch mcconnell follows american politics. everybody knows probably lindsey graham. these guys spent 20 years building up their reputation -- no, they're afraid of losing to people that nobody's ever heard of. >> mitch mcconnell, in particular, he has won several

elections in kentucky, but at really low margins of what you'd expect for a national political -- >> why is he afraid of -- >> because already his disapproval rating, mitch mcconnell's is -- look what he gets to do now over the past few months. when he wants to, he can say, i'm a deal maker, got the deal that ended the government shutdown. he wants to say, i'm against the budget bill, he can say that now. >> my question is, why is a guy a well-known politician by definition, in trouble? on the right, they don't like anybody they recognize. they like these unknown guys like little mike lee comes in from nowhere. vote for him, are they going to vote for this guy, stockman, who certifiable? he's a birther and nut case. if they vote for him, they want a birther and a nut case. they know what they're getting. >> yes, they know what they're getting. remember, they want people who are conservative. >> meaning they've never heard of them. >> they've never heard of them. mitch mcconnell is not conservative enough.

speaker boehner is not conservative enough. bob bennett was not conservative enough. >> they want people who blow things up. it's to the just conservatives, not just ideology. they want people who disrupt. why? it goes back to obama. they want to blow up -- >> somebody who's never been in the room with the guy because they consider that contaminating. to be in the room, to be near him, have a cup of coffee with him. we have to go. this is the nature of -- this is all next spring, guys, we'll be talking about this. thank you, david corn, jonathan capehart. coming up, the return of the welfare queen. conservatives are back to using that old favorite. guess what? it helps nobody in the end. plus, signs that president obama may be going populist, pushes hard on things like higher minimum wage and other steps to close the income gap in this country. and progressives like what they're hearing. also, spy game. when robert levnison disappeared in iran almost seven years ago the u.s. government said he was a private businessman. we now know he was part of a rogue cia operation that cost

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welcome back to "hardball." republicans are out there reviving an old favorite these days, the welfare queen. whether the issue is extending unemployment benefits, increasing the minimum wage, expanding medicaid or funding food stamps, setting up makers versus takers conflict appears

to be a political strategy the gop's banking on. here's texas congressman louie gohmert, an old birther sharing what he says is his constituents' frustration with food stamp recipients. >> they talk about standing in line -- i've heard this story so many times. standing if line at a grocery store behind people with a food stamp card and they look in their basket, as one individual said, i love crab legs. you know, the big king crab legs. i love those. but we haven't been able to have them in our house in who knows when. but i'm standing behind a guy who has those in his basket and i'm looking longingly like, when can i ever make enough again where our family can have something like that? and then sees the food stamp card pulled out and provided. >> sounds a lot like the tea party republican we told you about yesterday who's challenging senator lindsey graham in south carolina next

year. here's a quick reminder. >> what do you think about, we've all seen the folks in line that are using, i guess they call them wic here, too, to buy their food. they have the nicest nails, nicest car, and we're getting the bill. how many times do they turn around and say, thank you? never. >> you have republican state senator joni ernst running for senate writing in her notes from the capitol update that new medicaid recipients have no personal responsibility for their health. and republican louisiana congressman also running for the senate describes a hypothetical single woman, gives her the name sharon, who's, quote, not on medicaid and might have a no good name for gaming the system. cassy writes, quote, sharon expects his neighbor could earn more money, work fewer hours or perhaps live out of wedlock so he and his girlfriend qualify

for the taxpayer provided free insurance. the return of the welfare queen, the latest story on "national journal" and hits the hot spots. the fancy sports car with the fins. this is back to the '60s. babies galore in the car. a tin of caviar. aforementioned kings cab legs flying out of a whole foods grocery bag. paperwork for welfare, food stamps, paper for medicare.gov blowing in the wind there and last but not least, a obama/biden bumper sticker. bobby brown, and margaret carlson. i don't know if you laugh at the ridiculousness of it or stereotypical. i'd love to see you in court as a prosecutor asking this character, lee bright, strangely named nickname. he's called mr. bright by his friends. here he's saying he has obviously not observed somebody with the fingernails he thinks are really delightful or with expensive bag which may well be a knockoff for all he knows and of course, driving around in a

very zippy car. i don't think he's ever watched anybody in a line at a safeway or a piggly wiggly or any place he goes shopping. i think it's all stereotyping and all the game -- it's called the dog whistle. we know what he's blowing. your thoughts? >> there's no question about it. it's all made up. let me tell you, chris, it's going to aid democrats like you would not believe. between now and 2014, if the republicans stick to the stupidity of all those misrepresentations and all of those fakes and they're forced to put their hand and show their hand, it's going to be embarrassing. >> and, you know, margaret, when we talk about unemployment compensation, one thing we must remind everybody listening is unemployment compensation goes to people who have worked. >> and who want to work. >> yeah, it doesn't -- who are constantly applying for jobs. it doesn't go to people who don't want to work, but people who have worked. a proven work record or don't get a buck. >> it's made to sound like welfare, like a handout and a bunch of deadbeats who never

want to work again when we know you announce a job, i saw one of these lines, when a job was announced, you have people around the block -- >> in every big city. >> -- to get the job. >> and they stand there all day. >> they do. people actually want work. most people, 99% want work at the center of their lives. the king crab legs, chris, remember back in tip o'neill's day, king crab legs are the new cadillac. remember the -- >> i candon't know. as reagan would put it so delightfully, the young buck waiting if line with the food stamps buying the gin. wasn't it that, mayor? i think he had some image along those lines that he favored. was it t-bone or was it gin? i don't know what the hell it was. something along those lines. by the way, i don't think you can buy booze with food stamps, anyway. >> no, you cannot. you can motnot buy -- by the wa most of the people who have food stamps already have a job. they are the working poor and we assist them. to keep them working, we give

them a handout called food stamps. otherwise they would be in real trouble and they'd cost us even more. the right-wing nuts don't seem to know that or don't want to admit it. bill clinton took them apart when he said, we are abolishing welfare as we know it. at the moment, became no longer an issue. >> i was thinking, margaret, some people around here think that it's because they're concerned not that health care, affordable care act, the president's plan will fail. they'd love that. what they're afraid of is it will be loved. >> yes. >> therefore, they have to begin the drum roll now that all government programs are bad and they're all handouts. >> also, even this one now, we're back to the kenyan socialist redistributing income because some people are going to pay more for their insurance because there's more in there. it's a better policy. so you -- >> as opposed to paying nothing right now? that's the weird thing.

if you go to an e.r., every dollar of your medical cost is dumped on to somebody with an insurance policy. >> republicans are in the position of defending the people who don't want to have insurance. the deadbeat kids who don't want to have the insurance. you wouldn't think, i mean, they're the people that are asking for welfare which is the welfare of the emergency room. >> yeah. well said. mayor? interesting. it's like they've changed sides of the argument, like a moot court. oh, i'll take the other side now. i'll come out against self-reliance. i'll do that one. >> yeah. >> and, you know, the one -- one of the few red states that seems to have embraced the idea of doing something about the health care needs fthrough the affordable care act, kentucky. it is the leading red state, and in spite of that, mcconnell is still on the wrong side of this issue. >> well, good for them. by the way, i think the welfare queen, as reagan described her, never existed. thank you. willie brown, have a nice weekend, sir.

margaret carlson, my friend. thank you for coming on. up next, steve colbert might have hit on why some republicans are against the budget deal. and this is "hardball." the place for politics. hi honey, did you get the toaster cozy? yep. got all the cozies.

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ha! >> defending the budget deal, congressman paul ryan quoted the rolling stones. he said, you can't always get what you want. that's for the budget deal. when it comes to congress, here's a better stones quote. we can't get no satisfaction. >> time for the sideshow. that was, of course, jay leno last night on paul ryan's budget deal which passed the house last night. as you might have expected, though, steve colbert is against the deal. here's his explanation. >> americans sent republicans to washington to accomplish one thing. zero things. with this bipartisan budget, we'll have no chance of another government shutdown for two whole years. you fools! you can't leave our national parks open that long. it will give the wolves time to unionize.

>> well, a group supporting the affordable care act has come out with a new ad to encourage young people to sign up for health care. it's a rap parody of snoop dogg's 2004 single "drop it like it's hot." ♪ let many be clear ♪ when i'm in the oval office call me president barack, president barack, president barack ♪ ♪ if my critics get an attitude, i tell them to stop, i tell them to stop ♪ ♪ 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 plus i've got this health care which has got it going on ♪ >> the video is already under fire from the right. most notably from karl rove who says it crosses the line. well, clearly it's not the music that rove objects to, though. he liked it when people were rapping about him at the 2007 radio and tv correspondents dinner ♪ he will rap it when you give

him a chance ♪ ♪ he's a rapping resident ♪ he's a sidekick to the president ♪ ♪ tell me what is your name ♪ emcee rove ♪ this man will never stop, look at him jumping up and down ready to hop ♪ >> what i'm tempted to say i better not. finally, christmases is less than two weeks away. if you're not yet in the spirt, maybe this will help. it's the latest musical mash-up to go viral from barackdubs. ♪ dashing through the snow in a one horse open sleigh ♪ ♪ laughing all the way ♪ bells on bobtail ring making spirits bright ♪ ♪ what fun it is to ride and sing a sleighing song ♪ ♪ jingle bells ♪ jingle all the way ♪ oh what fun it is to ride in a one horse open sleigh ♪ can he get his presidency back on track by becoming more progressive? you're watching "hardball." the place for politics. nkers

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i'm milissa rehberger are breaking news out of colorado. a gunman is dead after he opened fire at arapahoe high school in centennial. authorities say a suspect, a student at that school, was targeting a specific teacher. that teacher fled after the suspect fired at him and missed. one student was critically wounded afd confronting the gunman. a second student was also injured at the scene. authorities believe the gunman died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. his identity has not been made public. back to "hardball." tonight, let's declare that in the wealthiest nation on earth, no one who works full

time should have to live in poverty and raise the federal minimum wage to $9 an hour. we should be able to get that done. >> well, you saw biden's clapping and saw the speaker not doing nothing. welcome back to "hardball." that was president obama earlier this year in his state of the union address calling for an increase in the minimum wage. now he's declaring his own fight to address a growing inequality gap as a major priority for the next three years as president. the president's pushing progressive economic reforms that center around income inequality and expanded opportunity. politico, the newspaper here in town wrote today that, "the president wants to sound like a different kind of democrat. he's connecting to progressive populism with an aggressive spending-oriented october vist government approach to the economy personified by elizabeth warren and bill de blasio." he made the remarks before the big noise about de blasio.

the gap between the rich and poor is expanding. a bloomberg poll shows 64% agree the government should spend more or pay more attention to income inequality, while just 27% prefer a focus on the needs of the market. progressives are cheering on the president's economic populism, and congressman elijah cummings is a democrat from maryland, and ron reagan an msnbc political analyst. congressman, i'm looking at this and thinking the president is going further in terms of offering now a more philosophical difference between he and the right wing of this country. i'm looking for, i guess the old phrase was in the mondale campaign, "where's the beef?" what's he going to try to get through congress that's going to establish a better agenda for people who are not doing well in this economy? >> well, first of all, i think he's going to definitely be pushing for this minimum wage but has to push for jobs. if you don't have a job, you don't have to worry about minimum wage because you don't have any wages. and i think there is a good sign

that came yesterday. we finally got to some kind of reasonable compromise, chris, and i think it showed -- and i keep thinking about that picture of boehner in his press conference when he basically is saying, tea party, we tried it your way, it didn't work. ted cruz, we tried it your way, shutting down the government, it didn't work. now it's going to be my way, and the president's way. and that hopefully is a reasonable way to begin to come together to address some of these issues. and i think -- i actually think the american people have emboldened not only speaker boehner, but also the president hopefully to come to some type of agreement where we can move forward. >> let me go to ron on this, because the republicans, as i remember them on capitol hill, were not squeamish about spending money when it came to highways and things like that. they like that kind of construction work. it meant work for construction companies, also meant labor jobs. it meant a lot of skilled,

semiskilled work on the roads and it made everybody happy because the roads were wider and faster and there and hadn't been there before. the bridges were safer. the tunnels were wider. something happened to the republican party where you can't negotiate creation of jobs anymore. i mean, president reagan was able to do it with tipp on the highway bill. something's changed. i don't know what it is about jobs and the republic ans. >> well, the republicans don't think the government can do anything anymore. anything the government does is, by definition, bad, as far as the republicans are concerned. so it's nice to hear the president talking about this again, but as you've observed before, the proof is in the pudding. what are you actually going to do here? we go through these cycles, these -- with the president where we're in an election cycle and suddenly he's talking very populist, it's jobs, it's infrastructure and things like that. >> i know. >> but then the election's over and suddenly we drift back into the talking about debt and deficit as if that's the big problem, which it is not. >> i'm with you. let me go back to the congressman who has voting power here. why is that the case?

i'm with ron on this. i love the rhetoric. by the way, you can't fight it. look what it cost mitt romney when he talked the other direction about president the 1% and fighting the 47%? clearly the country sees the guys on wall street. every time you pick up a newspaper, you read about wall street and the salaries the guys get, the golden parachutes. they're knocked off. they don't run the companies anymore. they don't have to do anything anymore. talk about getting paid for nothing. they're getting paid for failure and making exponentially more money than the people working in middle management. your thoughts? >> i think the american people are speaking very loudly and basically what they're saying is that we want to make sure this country is properly functioning. we want to make sure people have jobs. i think that actually, chris, puts pressure on this president and it puts pressure on our congress. keep in mind, i mean, up until yesterday, we basically, and the president had a group of folk who was saying, my way or the highway. >> yeah. >> and i'm telling you, i mean, you know, chris, i'm a

progressive, but i -- and i'm very cautiously optimistic, but i do believe that we -- part of the president, he sees that the population is shifting with him. people are tired of working their butts off, if they have a job, and making less and less. and that divide -- >> okay. let's talk turkey. >> something's got to give. >> would boehner ever buy a vote? would he ever let your party vote in the house of representatives where he has the majority and he sets the agenda, on a minimum wage of $10.10? would he ever let that come to a vote, boehner? >> i think he will. i think he eventually he will. but it's got to be -- first of all, the president has got to beat the drum as far as the public is concerned, and then -- and he's got to -- he's got to make the public say, look, we've got to do better than this. keep in mind, chris, when people are paid very low wages, we all pay in the end. we pay through food staffs, medical costs. all kinds of things. we've got to support them.

so the fact is that he's got to make the case that people should have some type of living wage to do for their families and take care of them. so i believe we can get there. and i believe that with the forces coming from the progressives, and hopefully some of the more centrist republicans who are now saying, you know, maybe we can work something out, i think we can move toward that. i'm not trying to be mr. optimist, but i'm telling you, we cannot continue to go down the road we're going. >> well, my interview last week at american university, the president was speaking, here's when he said about the government. it cannot stand on the sidelines, he said. he did call for a collective effort to reduce inequality in america and provide everyone with a fair shot. here he is making the case for what he ought to do. >> how do we do those things that reduce inequality in our society and broaden opportunity? and government can't solve all of that, and we live in an economy that is global and technological and is changing

faster than ever before in history, but government can't stand on the sidelines when we're doing that. and without some faith in our capacity for collective action, those trends are going to get worse. so we've got to -- and the young people in particular have to understand government is us. government's not somebody else. government's us. we have the capacity to change it. voters have the capacity to change it. members of congress do. as well as the president. >> here's the question, ron. what's the difference between what he says there and what he's doing? because i hear the words there, and i still wait for a big jobs bill. >> yeah, well, exactly. there isn't a big jobs bill. now, you know, as the congressman will point out, it's very difficult to get anything through the house, for instance, with a republican majority in there like a big jobs bill. but you got to keep -- you got to keep selling the idea, it seems to me, and this president doesn't always do that. he sort of, you know, moves forward and then takes a step back again. as i said, once the elections are over. this is, you know, we talk about him taking a populist turn or a

turn to the left. he's really turning toward reality. income inequality, need for infrastructure spending. those are subjective kind of soft touchy feely things. go out, drive around in this country. go out, look at how many people are unemployed in this country. those are -- that's reality that he's describing. not left or populist. >> i think that's what the congressman said from the beginning, what good does it do if you don't have a job? elijah cummings, thanks for coming on tonight as always, sir. >> thank you. >> ron reagan, of course. up next, missing in iran. unpacking. the mystery of this fellow. and american agent who disapp r disappeared five, six years ago and the rogue cia operation that cost three officials their job sent him over there. what's behind all this? it seems like homeland. it's really tragic. we don't know where this guy is. dead or alive. afghanistan in 2009. on the u.s.s. saratoga in 1982. [ male announcer ] once it's earned,

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we're back. a retired fbi agent vanishes after being sent on a secret and unauthorized cia mission inside iran. it might sound like the latest episode of "homeland" but what happened to robert levinson made public in a bombshell "ap" report yesterday is anything but fiction. according to the report, levinson disappeared in march 2007 after sent to meet with an iranian fugitive wanted for murder. on the morning of march 9th he

sch checked out of his hotel, never seen again. the u.s. publicly described him as a private citizen on private business. as "ap" reports he was being paid in secret by a team of cia analysts who had zero authority to one spy operations. as they described it, it was an extraordinary breach of the most basic cia rules. well, the ordeal prompted a shakeup inside the cia. officials aren't sure if leinson is alive or dead. pete williams, and michael isikoff. first, you, pete. what do we know? >> well, i think what the "ap" story says is accurate. a lot of people confirmed the essence of it. we now know why he was there. we also now know what happened -- >> what was he looking for? >> he was going to try to find out information about whether iranian officials were skimming the profits from oil sales and to get some information for the cia on what would happen or some speculation or some analysis on

what would happen if sanctions were further tightened. we had known he disappeared but didn't know what he was up to. there are several strands to this. one is the fact the people who were managing him were not in the director of operations, they were in the analysis. they weren't cleared to do this. the most fascinating thing out of this story, because frankly, there are a lot of reporters includes my colleague, michael isikoff who were aware and didn't report because of concern what might happen to bob. he was there on detail for the cia. what's fascinating about this is that after he goes missing, according to the family members and their lawyer, they contact the cia and say, hey, we need help finding bob and the cia's response is, we didn't send him there. and when members of congress asked the cia, they said the same thing. finally the cia gets its act together and apologizes to the family, but it was -- you can imagine the incredible emotional turmoil this is causing in the family that their husband, their father is missing and the

government that sent him there denies to them -- >> is that standard operating procedure? that the government always denies having a spy somewhere? >> no, he's a contract employee, not a cia undercoverundercover operative. >> by the way, one thing to adhere is and the cia didn't play $2.5 million. the family threatened to sue because of this. >> yeah and to settle the whole matter. >> was he breaking the law over there? >> the wrong people that sent him there -- >> this is an act -- >> how did they get -- >> that's a good question.

>> analysts can fly like anybody in the government can for authorized purchases and also, high up agency officials didn't know about this and when they were first asked by the senate intelligence committee, they denied it, so there were real serious issues here. this was a real scandal within the cia. three got fired, seven got disciplined. what some and other reporters, a lot of other reporters wrestled with here. the question is, if you air it, are you threatening his life. >> here's jay carney pushing back on the associated press report. today, he blasted the news agency for publishing the story even though the ap says they held off publishing it for three years at the government's request. >> bob levinson was not a u.s. government employee when he went missing in iran. i'm not going to fact check every allegation made in the story you referenced.

a story that we believe was highly irresponsible to publish in which we strongly urged the outlet not to publish out of concerns for mr. levinson's safety. >> very carefully worded. jay's reading it for a reason. jay doesn't want to get a single word wrong. he said he was not employeed when he went missing. >> he was never a government employee. he was there as a contract employee, so it's technically correct. >> if somebody came here from another country as a contract employee of what's left of the kgb, we'd consider them what? >> except you know what i don't know is the extent to which jay carney is still trying to walk a line here about what they're going the say he was doing, but yes, the ap knew about this and held off, but "the new york times" had this story shortly after he disappeared. >> how many iranian spies are in the country right now, do you

think? >> of course. >> we've got spies. >> we arrest them all the time. >> is there any chance this will upset the deal we're trying tog to cut? delicate negotiations going on and that publishing the story could set those gaucnegotiation. >> when the government asks you to do something at the highest level, you've got o protect lives of americans. how do these decisions get made? >> case by case. when i was in the government, used to ask people to withhold information, too. >> why would they wait three years? why did the associated press change their mind on keeping -- >> what they say in their statement is while they couldn't be sure on what effect this would have on the ability to get

levinson, the assumption was that he was no longer living and it was important to report the cia's misdeeds. the ways the cia handled it in everyone's view is a misdeed that the way it was handled within the cia, the wrong people supervising him, not adequately clearing it through the people who should have controlled people who go overseas. >> i talked to senator nelson, the answer he got was well we've been told he's dead. what senator nelson said is that's speculation. you don't know. the bottom line is we don't know. the u.s. government doesn't know. they have no leads on where he is. they've been running ads in persian language newspapers looking for information on him and haven't gotten in. it's a big question mark. >> tell you something, united states needs to know what's going on in the world, especially in places like iran. >> while there are real questions about the decision to run this story, the family

members actually said they didn't have any objection to it. they are hoping i think that maybe this will stir things up and maybe will help. >> yeah, it might. we're all talking about it. thank you. >> yes, sir. >> thank you, michael isakoff. we'll be right back after this. x and pay one flat rate. i didn't know the coal thing was real. it's very real... david rivera. rivera, david. [ male announcer ] fedex one rate. simple, flat rate shipping with the reliability of fedex. just 15.99. start with soup, salad and cheddar bay biscuits then choose one of eight entrees plus dessert! four perfect courses, just 15.99. come in to red lobster today and sea food differently. four perfect courses, just 15.99. before using her new bank of america credit card, which rewards her for responsibly managing her card balance. before receiving $25 toward her balance each quarter for making more than her minimum payment on time each month. tracey got the bankamericard

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tomorrow i'll be like a lot of you out there in the stores. at the barnes and noble in

bethesda, maryland at noon signing as many books as i can. i hope you use the christmas rush to get copies. it's the story of when politics really worked in this country. when i worked for a tough liberal speaker in his battle for a tough, conservative president and we managed to get some things done for the country. i'm deeply proud of getting this story into print and for getting the truth out there, that our leaders can do what they promised to do. get their promises transformed into action. i'm just as proud that so many of you have come to hear me and meet me. from boston to seattle, philadelphia, baltimore, here in washington, d.c., atlanta, miami, louisville, columbus, chicago. san francisco. los angeles and of course, you followed by trail here on "hardball" as i've done the show for where ever the book tour has

taken me. get a copy or share copies. this book actually looks good under the tree. it's got the right colors and feel and everything. that's "hardball" for now. thanks for being with us. "all in with chris hayes" starts right now. good evening from new york. i'm chris hayes and one of the biggest stars of the north carolina republican party is in very hot water tonight. after an interview he gave to politico, tom tillis, north carolina's republican speaker of the house, is the establishment back candidate to take on democratic incumbent kay hagan in her quest for re-election. next year, he told politico what i see from the folks opposing our agenda is whining coming from losers. north carolina has perhaps the most aggressive right wing government in america thanks to a republican go