we are going to consume more as a country. this is about transportation and safety, i think. michael, we're going to have you back. we're going to talk a lot about this inspect the approximately makes his decision. i appreciate your time tonight. we'll do it again. thank you so much. that's "the ed show." i'm ed schultz. "politicsnation" with reverend al sharpton starts right now. good evening, rev. >> good evening, ed. and thanks to you for tuning in. tonight's lead, the subpoenas. just one hour ago, the deadline hit for thousands of documents subpoenaed which new jersey state lawmakers investigating the george washington bridge lane closings. 18 people, many of them close aids and allies of governor chris christie were required to turn over e-mail, text, and notes dating back to september 2012. some have gotten an extension, but the clock is ticking. this weekend, we saw another

christie aide resign, christina renna, who is among the 18 people subpoenaed. and who once reported to bridget kelly. the fired official who requested the lane closings. for governor christie, the continuing questions are having an affect. here is what happened at a super bowl event in times square. >> good afternoon, everybody. you've already heard enough speeches -- >> but perhaps the biggest news tonight is the governor's battle with former port authority official david wildstein. who claims the governor, quote, had knowledge of the lane closures. christie says he had no prior knowledge. on saturday, governor christie's office responded with an attack on wildstein, reaching back decades to write, quote, as a

16-year-old kid, he sued over a local school board election. he was publicly accused by his high school social studies teacher of deceptive behavior. and, quote, he had a controversial tenure as mayor of livingston. but here is the problem. if that's all true, why did christie's team hire david wildstein? wildstein was known as the governor's eyes and ears at port authority. where he had been installed in a plum job in 2010 by the christie administration. and when he resigned in december, the christie team praised wildstein, calling him, quote, a tireless advocate for new jersey's interests at port authority, and stating, "we are grateful for his commitment and dedication to the important work of the port authority." that's not exactly what they're saying now.

what a difference a scandal makes. joining me now is brian murphy and joan walsh. brian worked for david wildstein at a website covering new jersey politics where he felt with both wildstein and chris christie, the u.s. attorney at the time. thank you both for being here. >> thanks for having us. >> brian, let me go to you first. we have to start with this christie attack on david wildstein for something he did at 16 years old? i mean, do you know david wildstein? what do you make of this attack on him? >> i've never met him in person. i worked for him when he was the aanonymous editor of this website, which they also attacked him in this e-mail. it seems like a -- when i read it, it seems to me like i can't imagine a communications professional, a paid person on the staff was actually okay with this going out.

it just seems like a panic -- with dredging this up. >> but it seems very personal. >> yeah. >> and almost venomous. what do you make of it? >> i think it seems desperate. to reach back to that and pluck out things like he made unproductive moves. well, who doesn't? who cares what he did when he was 16 years old. i don't know what they were trying to accomplish when they were doing this. it seems like if you have witnesses who are thinking about turning over documents and sticking -- and you're hoping they're going to stick by you and stay on your team, you want to project strength. you want loyalty to feel like a two-way street. this feels like it's a one-way deal. >> what do you think they're trying to do here? i mean, you a guy that was your eyes and ears. >> right. >> at the port authority. you have a guy that was praised by you. and all of the sudden someone repping you, your office. >> right. >> is saying he was a schmuck in

high school and the high school teacher said he was deceptive. what is going on here? schmuck is a brooklyn term. >> yes, we all understood. >> i'm from jersey. >> we speak brooklyn here, reverend al. it really goes back to that crazy press conference where the governor really took the time to say not only is david wildstein not my close friend, he wasn't even my friend, he wasn't even an acquaintance of mine. i was an athlete and i was in student politics. i don't know what he was doing. he called him out as a loser and a nerd on national television, which was shocking at the time. i mean -- >> then why did they hire him. >> right, exactly. >> exactly. >> why did they hire him. and what came from that memo to me was the voice of chris christie. this bully and this person who can't leave something alone. not only am i going to say you're not my friend, you're not my acquaintance, i'm going to say you were a loser at 16, and your social studies teacher didn't like you.

it's like a saturday night live skit. it doesn't seem like something that would really happen. >> all the reverse is true. he is deceptive. he is tricky. maybe they hired him to do deceptive and tricky things. >> right. that's a good point. >> which is why they need to be very careful. but brian, what kind of guy is he? you said you didn't know him, but you worked for him. but you certainly know his representation. you know people that deal with him. can he handle christie and the administration or can they handle him? >> i think he is a details guy. and he is a guy who saves a lot of paper. and i think he is a very dangerous enemy to make. i think it's -- >> dangerous enemy to make? why? >> because he is signalling in the letter that his lawyers sent i think that he knows that there is certain evidence that implicates the governor in this, that he may have evidence that implicates port authority commissioners and things that they shouldn't have been involved in at the port authority. i think he is suggesting that he

knows things. and that if you give him the chance to talk, he is dying to tell a story. >> in that famous two-hour press conference that governor christie had, he was certainly asked about david wildstein. let me show you what he said. >> i have had no contact with david wildstein in a long time. a long time, well before the election. you know, i could probably count on one hand the number of conversations i've had with david since he worked at the port authority. i did not interact with david. >> now, "the wall street journal" showed a photo of him since that time. >> just days -- while this was gong. >> do you get a sense, though, going back to you, because you're the one that said, joan, you heard the voice of christie in this, do you get a sense that now because of this rebuttal

article or statement that has been put out that the governor knows mr. wildstein a lot better than he said during that two-hour press conference? >> oh, i think we've always known that. but i think a couple of things are going on here, rev. he is attacking wildstein, which i think is crazy. but he is signaling he is going to be on the attack. the other thing he is doing repeatedly now is attacking the "new york times" for their story on friday. >> yeah. >> and msnbc. >> and msnbc. apparently today he released -- his office released another attack, the daily caller, a right wing kind of scandal website picked up on it. they have it exclusively. and it seems to me now that what he is doing, he was never popular with the right-wing base. but he is now going to that base. and he is now depicting himself as the victim of the "new york times" and msnbc and steve kornacki, our mutual friend. and that never fails with the right-wing base. it certainly doesn't endear him to national media or to the

voters. >> brian, let me raise this question with you. the fact that you worked at this site for what he called himself wily edge. this is david wildstein. >> yes, correct. >> wily edge was david wildstein. >> right. >> and the name of the site was? >> politicsnj.com. >> now, politicsnj owned by david wildstein. >> right. >> also was a major outlet for chris christie to leak some stuff. that right? >> all the time. >> all the time. >> and steve kornacki talked about this on his show that the governor back when he was u.s. attorney would e-mail steve. when i was there, i'm sure i got communications from him, but i know for a fact there was stories i wrote about where the only reason i was covering them, the only reason i was the first guy to break it was because ehad

a tip, and that tip came from the u.s. attorney's office. >> so the governor and david wildstein went to school together. >> right. >> but he didn't know him. >> right. >> he used to leak as a u.s. attorney, top federal prosecutor in that area, leak information to his website, but he didn't know him. he didn't even know wily edge. he gives us a lot to have to believe, joan. >> he gives us a lot to have to believe, and he is doing this all along. this is another really bizarre thing about his counterattack, rev, because he is just giving us so much detail, almost gratuitous detail that makes it easier all along the way to pick apart his story. he is giving us details that we didn't even necessarily need. and this attack on david wildstein and the particularity of it is both vicious, but it's also very specific and it's very easily disproven. >> well, we don't know yet. but we're certainly watching, and we will see what happens. >> yes, we will. >> brian murphy, joan walsh,

thank you both for your time tonight. >> thanks, rev. ahead, more on the scandal swirling around chris christie. tonight there are new details about that so-called traffic study that some say was used to hide the real reason those lanes were closed on the george washington bridge. and the big game was a blowout, but did you see the real action last night? >> you were saying you're the leader of the country. >> absolutely. >> you're saying no corruption? >>. no. >> none? >> no. there were some boneheaded decision. >> boneheaded decisions? but no mass corruption. >> these kinds of things keep on surfacing in part because you and your tv station will promote them. >> i have a lot to say on how president obama popped the right wing bubble. also, come in, come in. paul ryan, this is planet reality calling. congressman ryan says the obama presidency is, quote,

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when the bridge scandal began heating up two months ago, chris christie tried to use humor to try to deflect the controversy, joking that he himself had moved the cones for the lane closures. >> i worked the cones actually, matt. undenoens to everybody, i was the guy out there in overalls and hat. but i was actually the guy working the cones out there. >> but he soon got serious, and his team went on the attack. last month, his office labeled msnbc a, quote, partisan network for reporting on christie's troubles. his office also went after hoboken mayor dawn zimmer, calling her someone with a, quote, political ax to grind. this weekend they accuse "the new york times" of sloppy reporting, and they said that david wildstein will do and say anything to save david wildstein. tough talk from a team under fire.

but is it the best defense, a good offense, or will christie's strategy for attacking his critics just raise more questions than answers? joining me now is former pennsylvania governor ed rendell. thanks for being here, governor. >> my pleasure, reverend. >> if christie has nothing to hide, governor, why is he trying so hard to discredit the media and his critics? >> well, they made a very big mistake in the original press conference. in the original press conference, bridget kelly was trashed by the governor. he called her a liar 31 times. and mr. wildstein was trashed. essentially he called him a nerd and said he was a bigwig in high school and wildstein was a nerd. if you're trying to keep people from turning on you, you treat them nicely. you say bridget kelly was great deputy chief of staff. this is a real shame she can't

stay on in the government and we thank her for her service. and david wildstein did so many good things for the port authority. but they tried to bully them and to set up the he said/she said. i think the governor's people were aware of the fact that wildstein was eventually going to say the governor knew about it or maybe he ordered it. we have to wait and see. and bridget kelly might do the same thing. so they're trying trash them to say that they're liars right now, to implant that in people's minds, and to create the motive for lying to save their own skin. so it's a strategy. i don't think it's a good strategy. >> now, we don't know if wildstein down the road, what he is going to say as you allude to possibilities. we do know wildstein's letter says that, quote, evidence exists as well trying to -- tying mr. christie to having knowledge of the lane closures during the period when the lanes were closed. evidence exists. that's a direct contradiction of

what christie told the press in a news conference. what does this say to you, governor? >> sure. >> first of all, it was never credible for governor christie to say that for four days a major bridge in the united states of america, which leads into his state had a horrible traffic jam that endangered public safety, and he, an activist governor, never heard about it. that just defies credibility. governors hear about things like that within hours from their happening. and an activist governor would have taken steps to end it pretty quickly. if it was me and i heard that the ben franklin bridge was closed for five hours and cau causing tremendous traffic jams, i would have gotten on the phone and said you have 30 minutes to remove the cones or you're all fired. >> not only is he was and is a activist governor, he was in the middle of a reelection campaign. >> sure. you imagine? can you imagine this causing your constituents discomfort for

four days when you're in the middle of a reelection campaign and not doing anything about it? >> and nobody would tell you about it. i mean. >> ludicrous. >> yeah. >> ludicrous. >> there is another news about bill baroni. he was a top authority pointed at the port authority. baroni resigned three weeks ago after testifying before the new jersey committee about the closures at the george washington bridge. well, the "wall street journal" says that baroni was prepped for that hearing by a port authority lawyer named phil kwon. and kwon is the same man the governor once nominated to serve on the state supreme court. the port authority official ordered the closures, david wildstein, was allegedly also there for that prep. wildstein's lawyers says, quote, the counseling was conducted

over a period of four or five days, and mr. wildstein was present for much of it. so governor, these are a lot of christie allies all together in one place. does it seem as if the circle is tightening around governor christie himself? >> sure there are now seven or eight significant allies of the governor who knew about the lane closings, and none of them told the governor? none of them went to the governor and said is this okay? none of them when they saw it was blowing up and causing public safety danger? none of them went to the governor or alerted them about it? it's just not credible. it's not believable. that's the problem the governor has here. >> governor rendell, thank you for your time tonight. >> my pleasure. still ahead, they distort. he decides. president obama's tough interview with fox has the right wing up in arms tonight. also, donald trump is now

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responsibility. what's your policy? social conservatives have found a new scapegoat to blame for all the problems of society. birth control. that's right, the pill. it's been around for over 50 years, but in the year 2014, attacking birth control has become a central right wing talking point. >> many in the christian faith have said well, that's okay. contraception is okay. it's not okay. >> it makes her a slut, right? makes her a prostitute. she wants to be paid to have sex. she's having so much sex, she can't afford the contraception. >> we'll put an end to the federal funding of planned parenthood. >> and now opposing birth control has become a path to office in the gop.

in north carolina, all five republican candidates vying to unseat senator kay hagan believe the states have the authority to ban contraceptives. ban birth control? really? but some on the right might not like what effect that would have. a new study says through 2011, the abortion rate hit a record low. and it thinks it's linked to increased birth control use to lower the abortion rate. quote, the increased use of contraceptives is thought to have played a role in reducing the number of unintended pregnancies. so to summarize, many conservatives are against abortion, but they're also against the thing that is leading to fewer abortions. that's a tough pill to swallow. nice try, but we got you.

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why that's not a football but my shadow i see. it's six more weeks of winter, it must be. >> that was the scene yesterday morning in punxsutawney, pennsylvania, where the world's most famous groundhog saw his shadow, predicting six more weeks of winter. thousands of people came to watch phil and the dignitaries wearing their top hats up there in gobbler's knob. check out that guy there, literally wearing a hat of groundhogs. it's a scene straight out of the movie "groundhog day" where bill murray lives the same day over and over and over again, waking up every morning to sonny and cher. and fox news sure got into that groundhog day and that groundhog day spirit yesterday, asking

president obama the same things they talk about all the time. >> i want to get some things on the record. so let's begin with health care. did he tell you, secretary pennetta, it was a terrorist attack? >> you know what he told me, there was an take on our compound. >> he didn't use the word terror? i don't know what happened there and i'm hoping maybe you can tell us. >> health care, benghazi, and the irs. for critics on the right, these are scandals that just never end. >> this is not about health care. it's not about insuring the uninsured. it is about the total control of a free people. under the guise of health care. >> a major scandal was developing in the wake of last week's assault in benghazi, we are witnessing a widespread cover-up based on flat-out lies. >> this is the way totalitarian states are created. this is it.

and as much as you want to say oh, well, that's hogwash, well, what were they doing with the irs? >> it's the same old story on a loop. but here is the truth. the health care law had problems, but is working. there was no cover-up on the attack in benghazi, and there was no conspiracy for the irs to target conservatives. so why are some republicans so obsessed about all of them. president obama has a theory. >> these kinds of things keep in surfacing in part because you and your tv station will promote them. >> that's a line i don't think they'll want to repeat. joining me now are dana milbank and james peterson. thank you both for being here. >> hi, reverend. >> thanks, rev. >> dana, the president tried to pop the right wing bubble live on national tv. how are republicans responding tonight?

>> oh that. >> won't respond well to that because he was there tweaking the guy who has been delivering these things night after night to him. you know, they do keep repeating the same issues week after week, year after year. what seems to be changing is the anger and intensity with which they do this. this is the third time o'reilly sat down with the president, by far the roughest and nastiest exchange. i did some counting there. he interrupted the president 42 times in ten minutes. >> 42 times o'reilly interrupted the president? >> in ten minutes. of all the words uttered in this ten minute interview, 40% were uttered by oh really. it's more that o'reilly was hosting obama on the oh real're factor. it felt like that more than an interview of the president. >> the right wing media has been going after these things, but it's not just them.

here is senator james inhofe, responding to date to the president saying benghazi was investigated. listen to the senate. >> it is just an outrageous lie. it's kind of hard to call it anything else. i will say this to my dying day. i don't people don't realize it now, but that's going to go down in history as the greatest cover-up. i'm talk compared to the pentagon papers, iran/contra, watergate and the rest of them, this was a cover-up in order for people right before the election to think that there is no longer a problem with terrorism in the middle east. >> i mean, this was the senator today. now, that definitely was security failures, but a worst cover-up than watergate and iran/contra? what is he speaking about, professor peterson shirks speaking in pure hyperbole there. for all of these so-called scandals, they've been debunked multiple times. yes, benghazi was tragic.

and there was security and communicative failings prior to it. but there was no cover-up there have been many, many hearing on it, much exposure about it, and to call it a scandal is much ado about nothing. same thing with the irs scandal. people need to understand this. there is no scandal there. the same people that are being accused of using key words to try to find conservative groups were using key words to try to find liberal and progressive groups. and it was the liberal and the progressive states getting denied status. no conservative groups were denied status. the thing about this that is different from the movie, though, reverend al, is in the movie, eventually bill murray realizes he has to make some changes so he doesn't get caught in the same loop of ignorance of his life. the republicans are not following that script so well right now. >> you know, dana, bill o'reilly also asked the president about visits the irs commissioner made to the white house. listen to this. >> douglas schulman, former irs chief was cleared into the white house 157 times. more than any of your cabinet

members, more than any other irs guy in the history so far. why was douglas schulman here 157 times? why? >> mr. schulman as head the irs because we were trying to set up healthcare.gov. >> now, first of all, 76% of the meetings the irs commissioner was cleared to attend at the white house involved the health care law. and it's only confirmed that he signed in for 11 events. i mean, doesn't that poke some kind of hole in the theory that he was there all is the time, plotting against conservatives? i mean, dana, are we really to believe that the president of the united states himself would be sitting, plotting against right wing groups with the head of the irs? i mean, what are we talking about? >> yeah, this came up a year ago in the middle of all this. and it was answered at the time. of course, when you say

something, it didn't mean he is here at the white house, as o'reilly said, it meant he was cleared in. and you're automatically cleared in. and a guy in his position for all the meetings that he didn't actually attend. but the whole thing didn't matter anyway because the everybody has been through this and all kinds of independent ways and have found as the professor was just saying that the targeting that was done here was done to groups of all political persuasions. likewise, with benghazi. the whole notion of a cover-up doesn't make a whole lot of sense since as the president said today, they were acknowledging a day after that it was a terrorist attack. so it's not clear when you allege a cover-up, there has to be some information that was hidden. but it seems all to have been throughout within a few days. >> now, let me brave something else here, james.

you know, a tweet from hillary clinton got a lot of attention last night. the tweet said, and i'm quoting, it's so much more fun to watch fox when it's someone else being blitzed and sacked, super bowl. now hillary clinton did do an interview with bill o'reilly in the 2008 campaign. has the network gotten more partisan since then? is that what her tweet indicates? >> fox has been fairly partisan all along. i think our political discourse has gotten a little more toxic, and fox sort of has been a part of that process. so i think she is kind of commenting on that also, i think there are other questions here. you know, she is also arguing that the president is tackling and getting physically involved as well. so his pushback is important. some of his strategies like not taking the bait on the question that bill o'reilly asked from the viewer from the letter about transforming the country. he did something smart in the interview, pushed back a little bit. but i think for secretary clinton, it's good for her to

not be on the hot seat in terms of some of these fake scandals with respect to the republican party. >> oh, wow. see, that's why i love to have you on, because i thought she was talking about the broncos. dana milbank and james peterson, thank you both for your time. >> thanks, rev. >> thank you, reverend sharpton. still ahead, a detour from reality and claims president obama's, quote, lawless with his angle. we'll talk about it next. the gop lawmaker who threatened to throw a reporter off the balcony gets the full treatment from "saturday night live." >> the congresswoman is not interested in answering to these new damning accusations. >> have you been thrown out a window, bro? because when i do that, i don't open it first. you go down with the glass. vo: once upon a time there was a boy who traveled to a faraway place where villages floated on water

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late last week, a missouri state senate committee voted in favor of a bill that would make it a crime for federal law enforcement agents to enforce the country's gun laws. under the bill's terms, agents could be imprisoned simply for carrying out the nation's laws. now this is an example of unconstitutional legislation. this is lawless. so why aren't congressional republicans whipped up into a

frenzy about this? instead, they're single mindedly focused on the president. >> we have an increasingly lawless presidency where he is actually doing the job of congress, writing new policies and new laws without going through congress. presidents don't write laws. congress does. >> a lawless presidency? that's all the right can seem to talk about these days. >> he is going to use executive fiat, legal, not legal? >> absolutely not legal, and really dangerous. >> i think the president has changed his constitution. he has decided that it's optional, and he is going to obey it when he feels like it. >> what he does not have is the constitutional power to run this country like a dictator. and yet that's exactly what it sounds like. >> he has usurped an extraordinary amount of authority within the executive branch. >> this was the state of the

union where our president declared he would become america's first dictator. >> we've never had a president with that level of audacity and that level of contempt for his own office. >> a contempt for office. the president's a dictator. he is not legal. no wonder we can't make any deals in washington. the right doesn't think our commander in chief is legitimate. joining me now are mark hannah and krystal ball. thank you both for coming on the show tonight. >> thanks for having us, rev. >> thank you. >> krystal, how can conservatives claim the president is lawless, but then turn around and say they won't obey gun laws? >> well, that's exactly it. they are absolute hypocrites on this issue. and the thing that really make miss head explode is when you see ted cruz saying that the president is usurping power and acting like a dictator. ted cruz, who he and this small minority of congress shut down the government because they

couldn't get their way through an election, threatened our nation with default of our credit because they couldn't get their way in an election. they're the ones who have really disproportionately taken power and abused the constitutionally set up separation of power and balance of power to get their way when the voters don't want it and won't elect them to do it. >> mark, you know, this weekend, congressman ryan was questioned about why don't they just impeach him if he is so lawless. why doesn't he just impeach the president. listen to his response. >> but if you think he is lawless, circumventing the constitution, are you going to move to impeach? >> no. look, what we have a difference of opinion, clearly. >> now, he is lawless, but he is not going to move to impeach him? what is he doing? >> great follow-up question. >> explain that to me, mark. >> congressman ryan doesn't believe what he is saying. you saw that in the interview right now.

he is laughing it off a little bit. he is shrugging it off. let's think about this. what do all the guys have in common, whether it's ted cruz, rand paul, paul ryan. each of these is trying to pounce on an increasingly right wing republican base because each of them has an eye toward 2016. and each of them is -- >> ah. >> but let's think about the danger here. when you start thinking about the constitution, which in many americans' mind, it's a sacred text. it's a founding text. >> right. >> once you start criticizing the president who by the way his job before coming into office was as a constitutional law professor. he has that much respect for the constitution. once you start criticizing the president of threatening the constitution, that's just dirty politics. >> that's to make him other than legitimate. it's to delegitimize the president. but see, there may be the other angle that mark touched on, krystal, and that is when you look at the fact that paul ryan

is leading the gop primary field, according to a new poll, he is beating out jeb bush, chris christie, ted cruz, even rand paul. maybe what we're hearing with this lawless rhetoric is really playing to the conservative base and dealing with trying to gain some mileage and being on that ticket. >> i think that is definitely a piece of that. and they've all been in sort of this competition to see how inflammatory they can be, to see how outrageous they can be, to see how high -- how large a level of accusation they can sling at the president, because this is what their base has come to expect, and that is what they have conditioned their base to expect. i mean, part of the problem here is what i loved in george stephanopoulos' follow-up question there. if you are accusing the president of being lawless, if you are accusing him of abusing the constitution, then the logical place to go with that is okay, if he is so terrible, then

you should impeach him. in fact, what they're base is demanding now from them. >> well, when you look at the fact that calling him lawless because of executive fiat, as they say, look at this. shortly after getting declared president, george w. bush met with congressional leaders in washington. here is what he had to say afterward. >> i told all four that there are going to be some times where we don't agree with each other. but that's okay. if this were a dictatorship, it would be a heck of a lot easier. just so long as i'm the dictator. >> now, that's what george bush said. he used, then, the executive orders to prevent u.s. from funding overseas clinics that are for abortions, to tighten secrecy for presidential records, and ease standards for the amount of arsenic allowed in drinking water, all by executive order. >> absolutely. and to his credit, president

obama by executive order rolled all of those back. the constitution, paul ryan is saying legislatures, they create laws. thanks for the civics 101 lesson, congressman ryan. we understand that. but executive order is enshrined in the constitution. it's something that goes back to the emancipation proclamation to when harry truman integrated the armed forces. this is an important part of our history. and let's not mention that president obama has issued fewer executive orders than president bush, than president clinton, than most of his predecessors. so to say this is governing by fiat is just rich. >> well, it's also ironic for him to say, krystal, that the legislation, the congress writes laws. that must have been back in the good old days, because this congress doesn't write any law. >> they might write them. they don't pass them. >> you know, at a candidate forum in georgia just this weekend, a gop senate candidate, the gop senate candidates were

asked if they would impeach the president. take a listen. >> clinton was impeached for perjury. obama has perjured himself on multiple occasions. would you support impeachment if presented for a vote? >> now, these are republicans running for the senate. three of them raised their hands that the president should be impeached. >> yeah. >> this is the calling card. this is the ticket to run in the right wing primary. >> and that is, in a nutshell, the problem with the republican party. because those are not just the fringe candidates in that primary. >> exactly. >> one of them is one of the front-runners. he may well get the nomination, paul broun. >> in a red state. and right now michelle nun, who is the democratic candidate, is actually leading the republicans in that state in the polling because even in a conservative state like georgia, the

mainstream voter who will be voting in a general election looks at that and says you people have lost your minds. but that is what it takes to win a republican primary these days. >> and to really try, mark, to make the president. again, i'm all for the debate. i'm all for everybody taking sides. nobody is more passionate than i am about what i believe. but why do we have to act like he is not legitimate? why make him lawless? what are we feeding into in the minds of the american public? >> we're feeding into some pretty gross conspiracy theories i think, rev. and look, these three people that raised their hand when they're talking about impeachment, i think these guys might as well be running for the chief engineer on the crazy train. but the problem is, and krystal alludes to it, these interest same people, the people like paul ryan who are traditional, maybe on a little bit more common sense conservative side have to appeal. to he has to appeal to two republican parties here. he has to appeal to the tea party wing, and he has to appeal to more moderates in the rest of the country.

>> not that they're that moderate either. >> exactly. the civil war and the republican party will be interesting to watch for sure. >> we're going to have to leave there it. mark hannah and krystal ball, thanks. >> thanks for having us. >> be sure to catch krystal on "the cycle" weekdays at 3:00 p.m. right here on msnbc. up next, the republican lawmaker who threatened to throw a reporter off a balcony gets the full "snl" treatment. good stuff. you don't want to miss it. emily's just starting out... and on a budget. like a ramen noodle- every-night budget. she thought allstate car insurance was out of her reach. until she heard about the value plan. see how much you could save with allstate. are you in good hands? see how much you could save with allstate. ♪ nothing says, "you're my #1 copilot," like a milk-bone biscuit. ♪ say it with milk-bone.

from the moment we saw that gop lawmaker threaten to throw a reporter off the balcony, we knew it was destined for late night tv. and here show it went down on "saturday night live" with guest host melissa mccarthy. >> as you can see, the congresswoman is not interested in answering to these new damning accusations. >> have you been thrown out a window, bro? because you know what? when i do it, i don't open it first. you go down with the glass. >> i was just trying to -- >> you're not a man. you're a little baby. you're a little baby. i'm going to put you in a stroller and buckle you up and throw you down a flight of stairs circumstances that still on? you better run! i am freshman congressman sheila kelly and i am invincible.

>> oh, come on. >> drop the gun. hands above your head. put your hands above your head. >> all right. we have apprehended the suspect. we're at -- >> i'm going live forever! >> it just wouldn't be so funny if it weren't so true to life. .. you turned into a weird "7". when she saw the roof-top pool... you went to: "11" ♪ you two should probably get a room... oh that's right! you already did. at planet earth's number one accomodation site... booking.com booking.yeah! because an empty pan is a blank canvas. [ woman #2 ] to share a moment. [ woman #3 ] to travel the world without leaving home.

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we're here to help you turn your dream into a reality. start your business today with legalzoom. finally tonight, the story of man who was executed before his final appeals were exhausted. herbe herbert smulls was convicted of killing a bank teller during a bank robbery in 1991. late wednesday night smulls was reportedly in the middle of a phone call with his defense attorney when he was taken away by prison guards. at 10:11 p.m., the lethal

injection began. at 10:20 p.m., smulls was pronounced dead. but it wasn't until 10:24 p.m. that the u.s. supreme court officially denied his final request to stay the execution. that means his execution began 13 minutes before the supreme court had officially allowed it to go forward. now think about that. what if the supreme court had decided to stop the execution? it would have been too late. smulls' lawyer says this is the third straight case in which missouri has moved ahead with an execution while appeals were pending in court. missouri's attorney general says the state acted within the law. but whether you support or oppose the death penalty, surely we can agree that all appeals should be decided before the state puts a human being to death. we debated the death penalty

back and forth, i have, for decades. those that are for it say we must send a message to the criminal. well, when we can't even wait for all appeals to be exhausted, what message are we sending to all of us? thanks for watching. i'm al sharpton. "hardball" starts right now. more trash talk from trenton. let's play "hardball." >> good evening. i'm chris matthews in washington. let me start tonight with this wild weekend we just saw in trenton. what possessed the christie team to put out a memo trashing the man he, the governor personally appointed to the new york port authority. why did he get so down in the mud to go after the man's behavior back in high school days, yes, high school. he