>> let his party give him the debt ceiling increase that he wants. >> clean, clean, clean. >> this has got to be a first. >> politicians in washington, they aren't listening to us. >> you learn a leader without followers is simply a man taking a walk. >> sam i am. >> the debt ceiling increase that he wants. >> clean, period. >> from one hour to the next, they don't know that they're going to do on debt ceiling. good to have you with us tonight, folks. thanks for watching. it's taken three years for john boehner to figure out that, you know, maybe this guy in the white house isn't so bad after all. we'll try to work with him a little bit. yesterday on this broadcast we talked about trust. we talked about how the republicans did not trust the president of the united states. that he has been bad for

business, that you just can't do a deal with him on anything. isn't it interesting? the house will vote on a clean debt increase. the vote is expected to happen in this hour. when it happens in this hour, we'll bring it to you live. there will be no strings attached to this increase. so what's the effect of that? let's go back to the market, fellas. gosh, it was a good day at the office on wall street. i want to point out, middle class families are doing this. this is their kids education. this is their retirement. things are pretty good. if you have a little extra cash, it's not bad to be in wall street. there are good companies there that are doing good business. boehner decides to do something positive for the country. no strings attached, no hostage taking whatsoever, and we have an increase in the market almost 200 points and we're scratching close to 16,000.

earlier today, boehner said it is up to the house democrats to pass the bill. >> he's the one driving up the debt. the question they're asking is, why should i deal with his debt limit? we'll let the democrats put the votes up and we'll put a minimum number of votes up to get it past. >> could you say that 18 republicans will vote for it? >> we're going to have to find them. i'll be one of them. >> he'll find them. he wanted a debt limit increase concessions with the democrats. >> this is the first time that [ inaudible ] with a clean debt ceiling bill? >> it's on the fact that we don't have 218 votes. we've seen that before. we'll see it again. >> no american is going to

harbor any ill will against the republicans for paying the country's bills. it's amazing. you're sitting at home. you have bills on the kitchen table. they have a date on them. they've got to be paid. so does the country. we found out today that washington, look out, can actually do something. this is the first time in boehner's speakership he has not held our nation hostage over the debt limit. this has the tea party outraged. the senate conservatives fund called for boehner to lose his job. they want him out. john boehner in a statement -- they were saying john boehner must be replaced as speaker of the house unless we install a new leader that go on offense, democrats will never fear us and we'll never have any leverage. what's wrong with these people? it's always us versus them. the republicans don't even know their talking points anymore. you can't do business with obama

because you can't trust him or not enough trust in small business. everything is negative. this guy steps up to the plate and says, why don't we pay our bills a little bit? and they're mad at him. boehner is playing defense by claiming he didn't have the votes. the last round of government shutdown and hostage taking by the republicans has the republicans rethinking their strategy. boys, we have an election coming up here pretty soon. we better figure this out. the republican caused government shutdown cost our economy $24 billion. maybe boehner figured out this isn't worth. there's no doubt people blamed republicans for this. americans blamed republicans for the shutdown by a 22 point margin. it was all over 24% of americans had a favorable opinion of republicans. boehner knows if he pulls

another stunt with the debt ceiling, he could lose control of the house and that would really screw things up for them. senate republicans are sure to be outraged by a clean debt limit increase. mitch mcconnell said a clean debt limit increase would be irresponsible. >> some of the most significant legislation passed in the last 50 years have been in conjunction with the debt ceiling. i think for the president to ask for a clean debt ceiling is irresponsible. >> god for bid if we want to pay our bills as a country. ted cruz is jumping all over the clean debt limit increase band wagon. i think that's irresponsible.

his filibuster was okay, right? i have messages for them tonight. playing games is not responsible. for the first time in a long time, john boehner is doing the right thing. luckily for america, no american votes are needed in the senate to pass a clean debt limit increase, but senate republican can still stage filibusters and slow this process down. earlier today, the house voted to reverse cuts to the military pension program. here, here. republicans were planning on tying this to the debt limit vote, but today both republicans and democrats got together. they did the right thing by ending these cuts for veterans. so here we are. been a pretty active day today.

who are the winners and who are the losers? i'm not going to call them losers tonight. i'm not going to label them as losers tonight. they've been placed in the corner politically and this is the best available option for them and they know it. that means you as an american citizen, you win. the market goes up. the american people are responding to something positive, something good in washington happened today, and there's more tngs that can happen. he's john boehner talking about the -- a history lesson here. here's john boehner talking about the 2011 debt limit deal. >> when you look at this final agreement that we came to in the white house, we got 90% of what we wanted. i'm pretty happy. >> he was pretty happy sticking it to the president. i don't think they're going to

see president obama jump out of the white house and jump in front of the cameras tonight saying, well, we finally got boehner to do what he had to do. we finally cornered him to the point where his own party doesn't want him as speaker of the house. the president is going to say, it's about time. it's the right move and let's move forward and work on a jobs package. tonight's question -- will a clean debt limit increase the cost of speaker boehner's job? will it cost him his job? text a for yes. text b for no. you can always go to our blog. we'll bring you the results later on in the show. i want to go back, if i may, to this situation about brinksmanship. who the big gamers are.

what do you think president obama wants to have happen with the economy? he's not running for office again. he's willing to do a job's package. he's willing to do immigration. he's willing to get people minimum wage increases. he wants to help the long-term unemployed in this country. he wants business to thrive. but just all along everything has been no, no, no, no, no by the republicans across the board. so one positive thing happens -- and we've seen fluctuation in the markets. i remember days in 2009 when this was under 7,000. if you jumped in the market then and just held tight, you would be -- i can't say that. we're on tv. you'd be really, really happy today if you're here. here's the point that we need to focus on.

washington is about a mood. washington is being viewed by the american people across the country as a place where nothing gets done and today we got a little bit of movement, a little bit of positivity, something the president wanted all along. no brinksmanship coming. in fact, i think the president might call boehner tonight and say, there's a lot more where that came from if you and i work together on a job's package. these boys over there on the right, they're trying to get rid of you anyway, you might as well work on a good jobs package. doesn't that make sense? one other big piece of news today, which i just reported to you a moment ago, was the vote on the -- make sure they weren't going to cut the veterans'

benefits and the pensions. this is no small order, especially for the republicans. the republicans have been famous for running around the country telling everybody that they support the troops. remember those signs? after we went into iraq and after we were embroiled in the conflicts over there in afghanistan and iraq, there were all these signs on republican cars in america "we support the troops." who doesn't support the troops? the issue of who is going to pay for the troops has come up from time to time, and we have not done our veteran right. today we did the right thing. it took political pressure to make it happen, but at least they did the right thing. so i will give the republicans the credit. they stepped to the plate and today they did live up to their rhetoric and they did support the troops. they are now telling folks, gosh, if you're in the military and you serve, we're going to make sure that we restore what

was rightfully coming to you. i think this is a good day in america because i think we have seen something move forward. remember to answer tonight's question there at the bottom of the screen. the house is voting on the debt limit increase right now. and we will have congressional reaction once the vote is in. stay tuned. you're watching "the ed show" on msnbc. fedex one rate. really makes my life easier. maybe a promotion is in order. good news. i got a new title. and a raise? management couldn't make that happen. [ male announcer ] introducing fedex one rate. simple, flat rate shipping with the reliability of fedex.

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 and pay no taxes for ten years... we're new york. if there's something that creates more jobs, and grows more businesses... we're open to it. start a tax-free business at startup-ny.com.

they're voting right now on the house floor and we'll bring you the results of that. certainly they can find 18 republicans to get this done, right? boehner says so. time now for trenders. you can grab us at

facebook.com/edshow. and on the radio every day noon to 3:00 monday through friday, satellite 127 on sirius xm. the ed show social media nation decides every day and we report every night. here are today's top trenders voted on by you. >> i didn't get your name. i got yours. >> the number three trender, reaction hero. >> what super bowl commercial? i'm not laurence fishburne. we don't all look alike. >> you are guilty. >> samuel l. jackson unleashes a fury over mistaken identity. >> there's more than one black guy doing a commercial. >> i'm really embarrassed by it. i apologize to samuel l. jackson and anyone who was offended for

an amateur mistake. number two trender, pants party. >> let's take a minute to talk about curling. not the support. i'm talking about the pants. >> norway's curling team is going for the gold in style. >> the pants even have their own facebook fan page. >> it's norwiegan tetrus. >> another delay in the requirement for businesses to provide coverage to its workers. >> medium size businesses will not have to provide coverage for full-time employees until 2016. >> conservatives jump on the latest health care delay. >> president obama moved to

delay parts of obamacare. >> where's the fairness? businesses picked over individuals. >> this must be what a year of action looks like. joining me tonight is a professor at lsu health services center and ceo of black health tv dot gov. i appreciate your time. >> thank you. >> from a doctor's perspective, does it matter if there's a delay in the mandate on the business side of things? i mean, it's not as if people are going to go in and get a different kind of health care, is there? what's the effect? >> we got to think about it very plainly. what i have seen in the last three months a patient who has not had a doctor in ten years come to me and say, i'm glad obamacare has gone into effect

because i can see you and prevent these horrible diseases from happening to me and my family, that meae delay means n to patient. >> republicans are just taking this and blowing it right out of proportion, making public statements like that at the podium and whatnot. like they have done with the cbo report. >> sure. >> this is par for the course. isn't this just about getting this right and making sure there are no hitches in the system once companies get doing? >> if you have one to 49 employees, you're not effected at all. you have 7.8 million people that this effects. those are companies with close

margins. we want to make sure that this thing is done right. the phase in approach might have been the better way to do this anyway with a less than perfect rollout. if you have a giant company with greater than 100 employees, you have until 2015 to get 70% of people compliant with all your employees and up until 2016 to get about 95%. we want to get this thing right because we're trying to get health care for everyone. it's not about the delay because the delay is going to help get this thing done perfectly. >> is the thinking there the bigger companies have the resources to do it better? >> right. you're not living margin to margin if you have 100,000 employees. those are rounding errors to you. this only effects really about

95% of companies -- it doesn't effect 95% of companies that already give insurance to their employees. this is a small amount of people we're talking about. but just because it is a small amount, doesn't mean it's not an important group of people. >> can the affordable health care law afford to have anymore delays? 2016, we have a presidential election. this is like the third time or the second time -- i think it's the third time the delay has been pushed back. we're going to 2016. i mean, this is quite a long time to implement a health care law. it would seem to me it wouldn't be a problem at this point to implement it. >> the gop is going to blow all this out of proportion. when i took a shower this

morning, i thought the gop was going to blow that out of proportion. i stand at the ready to implement this health care reform law with any adversarial impact that people bring to me and my colleagues, we stand at the ready to fight this. we can't handle another delay. if there is one, it doesn't matter because the bottom line is health care for all. >> whatever happened to those junk health care policies? >> i keep dipping and diving and missing them. we see patients that come to us now who have had blood glucoses over 200 for two and three years who never got a chance to see a doctor and now they can. that's the bottom line. >> the story that was out there

several months ago is people were getting notices in the mail and they were losing their insurance. the reason why they were losing it is because they were having junk policies. there are now federal standards that have to be met. >> right. >> as predicted -- and i said there would be 5 million people who would be effected and signed up with obamacare before march 1st, we're closing in on that number, are we not? we're closing in on that number, correct? >> absolutely. the junk policies was a canary in the coal mine. i woke people up to say, my insurance was really junk. i had no idea. now they have a good policy because they were able to understand the rigmaroll that was being fed to them over the years. >> if you want your employees to

have insurance, you don't have to give it to them but you can say go get in the federal exchange. it's really, really good. if you're fortunate enough to live in a state with a state exchange, it's going to be even better. great to have you with us tonight. i appreciate your time. we're following the house floor on the debt limit increase. we'll have reaction coming up. stay tuned. you're watching the "ed show." [ male announcer ] there will be more powerful storms...

that's why there's duracell quantum. only duracell quantum has a high density core, and that means more fuel, more power, more performance than the next leading brand. duracell quantum. trusted everywhere. she loves a lot of it's what you love about her. but your erectile dysfunction - that could be a question of blood flow. cialis tadalafil for daily use helps you be ready anytime the moment's right. you can be more confident in your ability to be ready. and the same cialis is the only daily ed tablet approved to treat ed and symptoms of bph, like needing to go frequently or urgently.

tell your doctor about all your medical conditions and medications, and ask if your heart is healthy enough for sexual activity. do not take cialis if you take nitrates for chest pain, as this may cause an unsafe drop in blood pressure. do not drink alcohol in excess with cialis. side effects may include headache, upset stomach, delayed backache or muscle ache. to avoid long-term injury, seek immediate medical help for an erection lasting more than 4 hours. if you have any sudden decrease or loss in hearing or vision, or if you have any allergic reactions such as rash, hives, swelling of the lips, tongue or throat, or difficulty breathing or swallowing, stop taking cialis and get medical help right away. ask your doctor about cialis for daily use and a 30-tablet free trial. bob will retire when he's 153, which would be fine if bob were a vampire.

but he's not. ♪ he's an architect with two kids and a mortgage. luckily, he found someone who gave him a fresh perspective on his portfolio. and with some planning and effort, hopefully bob can retire at a more appropriate age. it's not rocket science. it's just common sense. from td ameritrade. welcome back to "the ed show." we're still waiting on the house vote on the debt ceiling. they just got to 220. it passes. we love hearing from our viewers in ask ed. our first question, would a single payer campaign contribution system work better than what we have now?

al, are you talking about campaign finance reform or health care? if you're talking about health care, single payer system would be a lot better for the country across the board. if you're talking about campaign contribution and public financing of campaigns, wow, we can only dream about that. our next question is from john. will congress ever pass immigration reform? if the democrats got control of the house, the first thing they would do is minimum wage and the second thing would be immigration reform. there's a lot more coming up. stay tuned. boosting stocks today. the dow surging 192 points. s&p adding 19. and the nasdaq up by 42. janet yellen testified earlier and she said the central bank would continue to take steps to

scale back stimulus but interest rates would remain low. cvs reporting better than expected earning. those sharing rising more than 3%. can i help you? hey, is it true we can get four lines, unlimited talk and text and 10 gigs of data to share for 160 a month? yep. at&t's new family pricing. that's 100 bucks cheaper than us. i know. are you guys with verizon? what makes you think that? oh. just her nametag. and i see you guys at the food court every day. can we go back now? yeah.

[ male announcer ] introducing our best-ever pricing for families. 10 gigs of data to share. unlimited talk and text. and 4 lines for $160 a month. only from at&t. and 4 lines for $160 a month. this is a map of the pressure points on my feet. i have flat feet. i learned where the stress was at the dr.scholl's foot mapping center. then i got my number, which matched the custom fit orthotic inserts with the right support. find your closest foot mapping center at drscholls.com. i'm a believer. and this park is the inside of your body. see, the special psyllium fiber in metamucil actually gels to trap some carbs to help maintain healthy blood sugar levels. metamucil. 3 amazing benefits in 1 super fiber. he was a matted messiley in a small cage. ng day. 3 amazing benefits so that was our first task, was getting him to wellness. without angie's list, i don't know if we could have found all the services we needed for our riley. from contractors and doctors to dog sitters and landscapers, you can find it all on angie's list.

we found riley at the shelter, and found everything he needed at angie's list. join today at angieslist.com we still run into problems. that's why liberty mutual insurance offers accident forgiveness if you qualify, and new car replacement, standard with our auto policies. so call liberty mutual at... today.

and if you switch, you could save up to $423. liberty mutual insurance. responsibility. what's your policy? welcome back to "the ed show." it is official. it is a clean debt limit increase. and it passed. it's a one-year extension and it passes with 221 votes. turning now -- i'm not real comfortable with the idea of revenge politics. i'm sure most politicians keep track of who's on their side and who has opposed them throughout their career, but revelations

from a new book about hillary clinton are raising eyebrows on the left. it hits the bookshelves today and it offers a detailed look into clinton's so-called "hit list." doesn't that sound rough? that's a little too rough and tumble for me. clinton kept a spread sheet of democrats they felt had betrayed her by supporting president obama. get over it. we're not talking about your standard list here, folks. they had this down to, some people argue, a science. people were ranked on a scale from one to seven. friends got a one. those who betrayed clinton got a seven. ted kennedy and claire

mchaskill topped the list. back in my high school days, i was a young quarterback so i went to joe namath's football camp back into 1971. joe, he was a great guy. he still is. he's still alive. he was on super bowl sunday and everything else. he had a football camp. i'm going to his football camp. when we were there, a story came out that richard nixon had put out a enemies list and joe namath was on the enemy's list. he didn't understand why. i heard some conversations about this was totally puzzling. joe got a lot of press about it.

cbs sent a crew up there and did a story about it and whatnot. they always rubbed me wrong. i didn't understand why. i understand how politicians are going to remember people who don't support them, but come on, hillary. tell me this isn't true. the people who supported obama you don't want if they supported the president? what do you make of this? i don't like lists like this. i like everybody on the same page and everybody getting along. >> you said it earlier, i don't think it's unusual for politicians to keep track of who is on their side and who is not. in 2008, first of all, the clintons were somewhat surprised by the idea that this young guy was running against them, but even more surprised that he was

winning. that campaign became rankerous because you had two politicians that laid claim to the same base. she was winning in the polls with african-americans at the beginning until obama. then they go down to south carolina and they're like, we're going to lose south carolina. that race was so contentious and the clintons were shocked and thrown off base and thrown off guard by people like a ted kennedy not backing them. so i think it really burned them so much that it was hard for them to let it go. i see it more in the context of how bitter -- people forget now because they're on the same side. hillary clinton became the secretary of state to barack

obama, but it was one of the most bitter primaries in the democratic party since ted kennedy versus jimmy carter. >> is this political warfare and that's just the way it is? >> i want to touch on the nixon analogy. this is only chapter one. the narrative trajectory is quite positive, including "the new york times" review of this book. bill clinton went in and campaigned against some of these democrats in primary races. we had dinner with hillary in september after the primary

season was over. and it was an off the record dinner and it will remain that way. i do feel free in saying this, there was no word of animosity toward barack obama. she was campaigning at that point. nor was there any mention of anybody that she was angry with. she had put it behind her. it is typical for staff members to be list keepers. one of the things i think is so unfortunate about this round of stories because it hurts staffers that wouldn't hurt a candidate. we do have to consider that in that context. >> do you think hillary clinton should address this down the road?

>> i think there's a lot she has to address. just last week, i wrote that i'm tired of all this fundraising that's going on her behalf, which she could stop in a heart beat because it could hurt midterm campaigns right now. i think it's a really bad idea to admit publicly you haven't driven a car since 1996. i would like to see her hit the road quite literally and reacquaint herself with people who would like her back. i think the answer is pretty simple. it's hard when you think you have the support of certain people and they don't support you. it takes time to get over it. she was secretary of state for four years. i think that all of this adds perspective to this discussion that really is not news. it first came out in 2008.

>> i got to say this. the reason why i put the namath a analogy was because of the list. when people find out they might be on hillary clinton's list, i will say this -- her campaign aides were arrogant in 2008. in fact, in many cases they were not nice. and i think that hillary needs to take a real close look at the attitude of the people around her. because if it is a repeat of 2008, they, collectively, they're going to turn people off. i think it is a very important story because personally i don't want to see the other guys win. >> right. >> i think obama people need to be on with hillary clinton in a big way. your thoughts on that. >> it has now become sort of

common currency. after not endorsing hillary clinton, he felt himself sort of frozen out by the clintons. it was real. it wasn't a fiction. i think the principals got over it first. the principals can rise above it more than others. it is very important to hillary clinton if she runs that she has not pretend or seeming cohesion with obama, but that she has very real cohesion with obama and the people who support him because she needs the identical

demographics that he had in 2008 and 2012. i think it is very important for her. >> there is something about all hands on deck. there's going to be a ton of money thrown out by the republicans, whoever their candidate is, they want the midterms really bad. they want the senate really bad. the largest super pac is going to bypass the midterms when she's not a declared candidate, what's the upside of that? >> there is no upside with that. it's appalling. hillary clinton could stop a lot of this immediately, if she wants to. i think she should stop. i would hope she's thinking about the presidency. but it's disappointing indeed when there's so much at stake

with the senate. i would like to remind everyone who picks the supreme court justices. >> i'll take it one further. hillary clinton and those who support her should get out there and start helping democrats who are running for reelection. she should be out there increasing her potential with these people. >> no doubt. great to have you with us tonight. we'll be right back with reaction on the debt ceiling passing. ♪ [ male announcer ] introducing the bold, all-new nissan rogue with intuitive all-wheel drive. because winter needs a hero. ♪ you walked into the hotel as a "5"

but when she saw the room... 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! we are the thinkers. the job jugglers. the up all-nighters. and the ones who turn ideas into action. we've made our passions our life's work. we strive for the moments where we can say, "i did it!" ♪ we are entrepreneurs who started it all... with a signature. legalzoom has helped start over 1 million businesses, turning dreamers into business owners. and we're here to help start yours.

[ sneezes ] [ male announcer ] you may be an allergy muddler. try zyrtec® for powerful allergy relief. and zyrtec® is different than claritin® because it starts working faster on the first day you take it. zyrtec®. love the air. [ sneezes ] on the first day you take it. so ally bank has a 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.

thanks for staying with us tonight. the house of representatives has just passed a clean debt bill by a vote of 221 to 201 for a year-long extension of the debt limit. no strings attached. no hostage taking. no ransom. for more, let me bring in

congressman john larson. why did boehner do this no strings attached? what do you think? >> first of all, ed as you said at the outset of the program, this is good news for america. while we're not going to nominate the speaker for profiles in courage yet, it does portray that the speaker recognizes he has to govern. when you're in the situation where you have a body of people, probably about 40 or 50, who are hell bent on obstructing the nation at every turn, that dog don't hunt anymore. boehner and their leadership recognized that. i think they feel they can put this behind them. it also sends a message about the deep fissures within the republican party. >> they want to throw him out. they want him out. is that going to happen? >> i don't think so because

nobody else wants that job. who wants to have a job where you have no followers? he put not one, not two, not three, but several different proposals in front of them. it wouldn't be if this was for the first time. john boehner is an institutionalist. you have this element and especially amplified in the senate. watch what they do in the senate. again holding the country hostage. 60 votes. we do n-- today was a good day the congress. i'm glad we were able to put this behind us. >> you don't think the pots and

pans are going to be going back and forth on the tea party? >> i think he will be the speaker of the house. think the of banging of the pots, et cetera. but who are they going to replace him with? >> sure. >> and that's, you can't beat somebody with a nobody. and take a look around at how many people are volunteering for that job when you can't get a cohesive body together. there is very narrow margins there. and when 40 or 50 are voting in lockstep against you on everything. >> and do you think, quickly, john, the calculation was made that the last shutdown and the $24 billion cost to the taxpayer really hurt the republicans? they don't want to go down that road again? >> exactly. the political calculus has put this behind this and let's get back. as you pointed out last night, let's try to focus on this trust issue, which of course as you pointed sought bogus too. >> it is. congressman john larson of connecticut, great to have you with us tonight.

>> always good to be here. >> something good happening in washington. how about that? still to come, rush limbaugh attacks a college football player who has come out as gay. a former nfl player joins me tonight to support michael sam. stay tuned. fedex one rate. really makes my life easier. maybe a promotion is in order. good news. i got a new title. and a raise? management couldn't make that happen. [ male announcer ] introducing fedex one rate. simple, flat rate shipping with the reliability of fedex. you want everything.orks introducing fedex one rate. an expert ford technician knows your car's health depends on a full, complete checkup. the works. because when it comes to feeling safe behind the wheel, going the distance and saving at the pump you want it all. get our multi-point inspection with a a synthetic blend oil change, tire rotation, brake inspection and more for $29.95 or less.

get a complete vehicle checkup. only at your ford dealer.

hey there, i just got my bill, and i see that it includes my fico® credit score. yup, you get it free each month to help you avoid surprises with your credit. good. i hate surprises. surprise! at discover, we treat you like you'd treat you. get the it card and see your fico® credit score. try align. it's the number one ge recommended probiotic that helps maintain digestive balance. ♪ stay in the groove with align.

here comes the first announced gay guy. hey, cool, man. go for it. why is it heroic for a gay man

to play football? because the media wants a gay player to succeed, okay. you're halfway there. why does the media want a gay player to succeed? >> welcome back to "the ed show." the top nfl prospect, one of them on the defensive side of the football michael sam is facing a firestorm of intolerant commentary offered up by rush limbaugh. intolerance and scrutiny is nothing new to the nfl. over the summer, former minnesota viking punter chris kluwe said his support for a gay rights activist cost him his job. contrary to those allegations, vikings owner zig wilf released a statement. if a player, he can help us win, we will warmly welcome him as part of the team and provide an

accepting, respectful, and sortive environment to succeed in the nfl. meantime, retired wide receiver donte stallworth made his point of view crystal clear in a series of tweets. if any nfl team can't handle the media coverage, he wrote, of drafting sam, then your team is already a loser on the field. let me tell you why. well, he is here to tell us why. spent ten years in the nfl, was with the new england patriots when they were in super bowl 42. donte stallworth joins us tonight here on "the ed show." donte, thanks for your time. >> thanks for having me on, ed. >> why are people raising the question about handling the media coverage of drafting sam as a player? >> well, you know, in the nfl, there is always people are always trying to stay away from, quote/unquote, distractions. but i've been on teams before that have had major

possibilities and the potential to destroy a whole season. early on in 2007 when i played for the new england patriots, we had the whole spygate thing. we had -- we were shooting for 16-0, and those weren't distractions. yes, we discussed it in the locker room, and we talked about it amongst each other. we maybe even talked about it a little more than bill liked us to at the time. but we kept it all in-house, and everything was fine. there were no distractions. and, you know, that's the same thing that other organizations should be able to do too. distractions are what you make them to be out, what you make them out to be. and there should be no reason for that to be a distraction. >> is it going to take a special kind of chemistry to take in the first gay player in the nfl, because there is going to be so much attention? i mean, you played on a number of different teams in the nfl over ten years. some teams have different levels of maturity, do they not? is it going to take a special team to do this?

>> yeah, it is. and sometimes there are teams that are very immature. but that's just life. i mean, you put a bunch of, you know, young 21, 22-year-old guys together with no leadership in the locker room, and really no leadership in the management, then things can go wrong. and i've been on teams of that nature before. but at the same time, i've been on teams, like i said, the new england patriots where you had guys like junior seau, tom brady, tedy bruschi that really held that locker room together. and also in baltimore too with john harbaugh, the way he controls his team, the way he runs the organization, they can definitely handle a michael sam situation. but there is not -- there is not any excuse for you to make that that would be a distraction. >> so clearly there are teams that you think are better equipped to go through this than other teams. because what was interesting is a player personnel assisted

anonymously told "sports illustrated" that he thought it would chemically imbalance an nfl locker room and meeting room. what is your response to that? >> well, it is what they perceive it to be. and like i said, that's only because of a lack of leadership in the locker room, and a lack of leadership in the management. and if the owner comes from the very top and says that i want this player on my team and i don't want any problems, then should it be left at that. and if you can't do that, then you're not going to be successful on the field anyway. it's not going to matter. >> sure. what is really interesting about this is that this guy could be a first rounder or a second rounder. and that's a lot of money. are nfl owners going to put a lot of money into what some might call social engineering to see if this can work for the first time in the nfl? and there is no question about his talent. i mean, he is the best player in the conference, in the southeastern conference. >> yeah. >> we're not talking about a borderline guy.

this is a guy who can flat-out play the game. that's what makes it so interesting on all fronts. donte stallworth, i appreciate your time tonight. thank you so much for joining us. 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. i'm live tonight from washington, d.c. tonight's lead, an amazing day in the so-called loud music murder trial that has re-ignited the debate about stand your ground. seven months after george zimmerman was acquitted in the killing of trayvon martin, saying he was in fear of his life, florida's controversial stand your ground law, a law that you can use deadly force if you feel threatened, is back in the national spotlight. this case began one evening in november 2012 at a gas station in jacksonville, florida.