people! just nobody say the word "bridge." it's thursday, february 20th, and this is "now." >> the embattled governor of new jersey. >> his first town hall since the bridge scandal broke. >> chris christie unscripted. >> all of us from new jersey. if you get it, you are getting it right back. >> document dump that could cause problems for another republican governor. >> did wisconsin governor scott walker's office mix politics with official business? >> there's no good that comes of 27,000 pages coming out if you are someone who wants to run for president of the united states. >> the substance of what each governor is facing is identical. >> like bridgegate. >> very close advisers did something unseemly, potentially criminally wrong. >> there's more down the road and we had that many e-mails. always problematic. >> christie aides refusing to turn over materials to the investigative panel. >> drip, drip, drip. >> -- suggests he's lost a lot

of public trust even among republicans. >> 13, how many percentage points hillary clinton is leading chris christie in ohio. >> look at now dynamic and unsettled this 2016 gop field is. >> my job here is to tell the truth whether the truth is happy or unhappy. >> can't stop, won't stop. that was new jersey governor chris christie's message today trying to brush bridgegate aside and reclaim his image as a tireless crusader for victims of superstorm sandy. twice delayed due to snow, the first town hall of christie's embattled second term allowed protesters plenty of time to come up with clever signage to greet the governor, stuff like hey, gov, bruce springsteen hates you. that has to hurt. that was just one of the signs held along thunder road to the vfw hall. inside christie was welcomed by a packed house, but when it came time for the rules it was clear that the scandal was to remain outside the forum. at the very beginning of the

town hall, governor christie issued a warning to anyone who might try and bring up the certain controversy that has dominated the news cycle for the last go months, throwing his governorship into complete disarray and derailed his prospects for 2016. basically the message today was bring that stuff up and you'll pay for it. >> all of us are from new jersey. and so you know what that means. what that means is if you get it, you are getting it right back. and that's the way we work things here. all right? >> that's the way we work things here, all right? all right. but it wasn't long before one participant brought the first throwdown jersey style over a sandy contractor quietly fired after complains from sandy victims. >> why was h.g.i. fired? why did you pay him $50 million? and why did you privatize most of the grant program? >> the fact is that we do not have the number of employees,

thankfully, thankfully, for you and your tax rates on staff in the state government that could run an additional $15 billion to $20 billion worth of programs. >> nobody does bombast like governor chris christie. but that wasn't the only christie on display today. there was also a compassionate chris christie. >> i just want to go home. >> and debbie, i'm chris, the governor, and i want you to go home. >> there was also chris christie the outsider, taking on the washington swamp. >> and you all recall how assertive, probably a nice word, i was with the congress about getting aid to the state. >> chris christie would really, really like you to recall how assertive he was with the u.s. congress and not how assertive his staff was with political adversaries, staff like two key former aides, bridget kelly and bill stepien, who are still refusing to turn over documents

to investigators, raising serious questions about whether they could be cited for contempt. so, yeah, governor chris christie will take superstorm sandy any day. joining me is washington bureau chief at mother jones, david corn, whose birthday is today, and in new jersey, national political reporter for "the washington post" robert costa. robert, you were there. i find it hard to believe that the word bridgegate or any reference to the george washington bridge did not arise at this much-delayed town hall. the governor's office is pushing back on suggestions that questioners were prescreened. what was the mood like in the room and how much do you think they wanted to bring up bridgegate if they didn't? >> good to be with you. right behind me for more than 90 minutes the governor took questions on sandy, then more questions on sandy, not one question about the bridge episode. right as he was leaving the building i went up to him oun

within one and said were you surprised by the lack of questions related to the scan l scandal? he looked at me, glared, and said i'm not surprised because people are focused on, quote, real problems. then he left the building. this was christie returning to a comfort zone with these town halls and to his surprise perhaps and maybe not he avoided questions about the looming scandal. >> you're outside the venue and we showed signs of protest -- protest signs outside, you know, whether it's bruce springsteen hates you or other things that aren't exactly christie character endorsements. how come none of those people were inside the hall? >> well, there is -- it's not so much a screening process. when i came in they didn't know i was a reporter. they have you sign in. they're looking for local residents to be a part of these forums, though there was one woman named isabelle newsome, she had a sign-up that said resign christie and that caused a little bit of a kerfuffle during the town hall, but that was the rare moment where there was almost a confrontation. >> david corn, happy birthday,

first of all. >> thank you. >> the christie that was on display today, you know, as much as we talk about this sort of discipline i guess he has had in some ways over the last several months, the brashness, the boldness, the assertiveness, the jersey-style politics. i mean, those were very much on display today when he said if you give it you're going to get it back. the constant reminders of just how assertive he was with the u.s. congress in terms of sandy aid. do you think -- what do you think -- has the ball moved in any direction after the town hall today? >> i think, you know, politics is performance art. so christie is going back to what's always worked for him, that brash bullying type persona that he thinks is popular in jersey and maybe popular beyond. but no matter how brash, bold, daring he may be in these town hall forums, the bottom line for him is going to be what comes

out of these two investigations that are happening. there's a legislative committee, which is trying to get information out of its top aides who are resisting, and maybe even more important there is a u.s. attorney digging. and i've been saying this for weeks, i'll keep saying this. i think he may be in more jeopardy instead of the bridge lane closures from looking into some of these real estate deals and whether he used sandy recovery money or his administration to bully mayors and other people to support big development deals that were conducted to law firms that were supporting chris christie. so i think he has no choice but to try to go back to the future and pretend none of this is happening. at the same time, he may be whistling past the graveyard because people are going to -- they're going to be subpoenaed, perezed by legislative investigators and u.s. attorneys, fbi agent, amend ultimately it may take months or a year, that's going to determine chris christie' future.

none of this political art performance. >> robert, what's the concern level if you had to issue an amber alert or a red alert or some version thereof as far as the investigator for the state super committee pushing back on bridget kelly and bill stepien who were tight, very close aides to chris christie and have both refused to turn over documents relating to their subpoena? today the lawyer for that souper committee pushed back on miss kelly and her invocation of the fifth amendment and said as the person who authored the e-mail stating that it was time for some traffic problems in fort lee, mz kelly certainly has relevant information about the subject matter of the committee's investigation. the committee was well within its rights to ask miss kelly, a state employee using state resources, to communicate want the official state action of closing access lanes to produce any further information she has. emphasis on the word state here. this was a government official using government channels to communicate about government matters. is there concern that she is

eventually going to have to capitulate and give these documents over to the investigative committee? >> well, i've been in touch with stepien's lawyer, kevin marino, and in touch with other lawyers for christie allies who have been subpoena preponderance of the evidence they're looking that the in an interesting way. they think the state legislative committee investigating the bridge scandal, they're questioning the oversight authority of this committee. that's why you're seeing a lot of christie aides taking the fifth amendment, refusing to provide documents. as much as the state legislative committee is getting stalled what i'm paying attention to as a reporter is the ongoing federal investigation. the u.s. attorney may be looking into this at a deeper level. i think today also you're seeing christie aware of these investigations even though he did not adretsz it. about the tone of this, my take-away from watching this inside is you saw more low-key christie today, not necessarily more humble but someone aware of the swirling controversy around him sand trying to directly focus on his strengths. >> david, let me ask you about

bridget kelly in particular as we talk about top aides and the defense lines they've using. she's using the webb hubbell defense used in the clinton years during the whitewater investigation. he was a former top aide to clinton and a law partner of hillary clinton convicted of doctoring his legal bills as part of the whitewater investigation and the court held up a constitutional right on the right to withhold material on the grounds it was a fishing expedition by ken starr. it's hard to make the case this is a fishing expedition designed to tarnish the image of bridget kelly given how deeply she appears to have been involved in this. >> she is the key person if you're investigating whether the lanes were closed for political payback. she's the person who knows the answer. she started the closures. she did this, as you noted, in her capacity as a state employee. here is the oversight body trying to figure out what happened. they are well within their rights to say turn over any information you have.

they're not pursuing their own criminal charges. they cannot do that. so every state law is different and to what degree she has some protection here we'll see, but if this goes to the courts often in these cases the courts say no, this is not an issue of self-incrimination. this is an issue of a legislative body having proper responsibility to come to a position of accountability. so i think at the end of the day she and bill stepien may lose this fight, but what this certainly does is drag this out longer and longer. that's the key thing. we talked about the federal investigation. there's a state investigation. the longer this goes on, the shorter the period will be for chris christie if he still can to recover and prepare for a presidential campaign. so i don't think bridget kelly and bill stepien are doing any favors by drawing this out, but then again they may be doing the governor a big favor by sitting on information that might be damaginging for him. >> you know, robert, before we let you go, you talk about chris

christie trying to sort of turn the page or at least not get bogged down. but bridgegate, what is the mood of people at that vfw? what was the mood of people at that hall? this has dragged on. we're about to enter month two. if one is a new jersey state resident i'm sure there must be some sort of palpable sense of frustration at how much bandwidth this is taking in terms of the governor's time and theoretically his efforts if not publicly then behind the scenes. >> reporter: look, i just came um here. i come to new jersey occasionally. i actually am surprised at how much the bridge is not talked about. the real controversy, the real scandal for christie and the minds of a lot of attendees here was about the billions in sandy funds from the federal government, how they're being districted. >> as david corn pointed out, that may end up being a much bigger issue for the governor. thanks for your time. >> sure thing. >> reporter: thank you. coming up, the gap does its part to shrink the income gap,

raising wages for 65,000 workers, while over at walmart, crickets. and down mcdonald's way, the bare minimum. wage wars. just ahead. first, more deadly violence in the street os kiev and a tough new warning from the u.s. to ukraine. are you still sleeping? just wanted to check and make sure that we were on schedule. the first technology of its kind... mom and dad, i have great news. is now providing answers families need. siemens. answers.

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the situation in ukraine has deteriorated today as riot police and protesters continued to exchange gunfire in what has been the deadliest day for the country in over two decades. hours of bloody fighting left at least 39 dead. snipers fired bullets from rooftops. protesters kidnapped a group of police officers. and the bodies of dead civilians were strewn on the streets of

kiev's independence square. the ukrainian health ministry reports since clashes began on tuesday 75 people including 13 police have been killed. nearly 600 have been injured. ukrainian president viktor yanukovych announced yesterday that government fors had reached a truce with the opposition but it was one that seemed to collapse before it even began. today the e.u. said it would begin imposing sanctions on ukraine including visa bans and asset freezes for those involved in ordering or orchestrating violence. the press secretary of the white house said the white house is considering sanctions with some urgency. in an earlier statement the administration called on viktor yanukovych to immediately withdraw his security forces and called on protesters to express themselves peacefully. for now, kiev's independence square remains a war zone. coming up, the war on the war on the war on women. joy reed and kathleen parker help me untangle that just ahead. but first, key stone

walling. on the heels of a court ruling that could further delay a decision, we ask, what will obama do? ezra kline weighs in. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ told ya you could do it. (dad vo) i want her to be safe. so, i taught her what i could and got her a subaru. (girl) piece of cake. ♪ (announcer) love. it's what makes a subaru, a subaru. starts with freshly-made pasta, and 100% real cheddar cheese. but what makes stouffer's mac n' cheese best of all. that moment you enjoy it at home. stouffer's. made with care for you or your family.

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dentists check most. she's going to do backflips when she sees this. [ male announcer ] 4 out of 5 dentists didn't spot the difference between a professional clean and a pro-health clean. i am extremely impressed. i guess that's what happens when you go pro. [ male announcer ] go pro with crest pro-health. excuse me, did you say you want to see my teeth? oh, i'm sorry. the controversial plans to pump oil from canada's tar sands and pump it through the middle of this country just hit a snag. yesterday a nebraska judge struck down a law that would have allowed the keystone pipeline to run through the state. the court ruled they didn't have the authority to approve pipeline's route. that decision could set the project back by as much as a year. this small victory for our relips on new forms of dirty fuel comes as all sorts of domestic and international

forces are allowing to pressure the guy in charge, named president obama, to approve keystone. last month the state department found the pipeline would be unlikely to alter global green house gas e major leagueses, making it considerably easier for the president to just say yes. and yesterday our neighbors to the north and our neighbors to the north, canada and mexico, ramped up their campaigns for pipeline approval at the trilateral meeting, which is also actually officially known as the three amigos summit. standing alongside canadien prime minister steven harper and mexican president enrique nieto, the president did his signature wait and see thing. >> there is a tho process that has been gone through and i know it's been extensive and at times i'm sure steven feels a little too laborious. but these are how we make these decisions. >> in terms of media impact, the

pipeline pales in terms of the other tests in the president's agenda. monday the supreme court hears arguments over whether the environmental protection agency has the authority to regulate certain green house gas emissions. the decision could make it a lot harder for the administration to regulate existing and new coal power plans. regulating existing plants, which account for about a third of american green house gas emissi emissions, are the linchpin of the president's strategy to make good on this promise. >> when our children's children look us in the eye and ask if we did all we could to leave them a safer, more stable world with new showerses of energy i want us to be able to say yes, we did. >>. >> jarron:ing me is the editor in chief of the much anticipated project x at fox media, ezra kline. always great to see you. >> good to be here. >> which way do you think the wind is blowing on the keystone pipeline?

certainly the judge's decision in nebraska is an impediment that may end up being a hiccup. the pressure from prime minister harper is another thing. do you think the president has if one can call it coverage to approve keystone pipeline at this point in his administration? >> yes, and i don't think he actually needs all that much coverage either. he's been standing in the way of it to some degree or at least slowing it down without thinking there's a huge political benefit on either side here. it's not like he'll lose the next election if he approves or doesn't approve it. so i think they've kind of punted on this issue. the nebraska ruling is is pretty limbed. it's about what particular regulatory body approved it versus which one should. in the state where the folks in charge want the keystone pipeline to be able to go through, that is not going to be ultimately a fatal problem for it. the zoomout on this is the keystone pipeline fight is a

largely symbolic fight, a fight about a larger global warming strategy but in that way it's not decisive. the state department is correct here. even if you don't build the keystone pipeline the oil is going to get out another way. so stopping it or starting it is not an excuse for this country not having a real strategy on dlimt change. even if we walk the keystone pipeline, we wouldn't have done nearly enough. conversely, you could permit the pipeline to go forward but actually put in place a real global warming strategy and have made a large stride towards a safer and more livable climate. >> you know, it's funny, we talk about the pipeline as if the delay in all of this is something that has been forced upon the administration or something they have to deal with or something they get behind. dan weiss, director of climate strategy at the center for american progress, has an interesting theory. when i heard this it's like a light bulb went off in my head.

he told political plit coe last month, the longer the process over keystone lasts the more of a shiny object the pipeline is from having the republicans attack the president's carbon pollution standard for power plants. the pipeline and the approval was almost something attached to a raising of the debt ceiling. it has become this thing for republicans. in the meantime, these epa rules and regulations could in fact have a far more -- could have far more impact on business and the energy industry. >> huge. >> but in some ways the administration has played it well in terms of distracting republicans from the bigger issue at hand. >> i don't think the republicans are distracted. they've been trying to take away the epa's authority all along. the pipeline is probably the single most important piece of climate changing. unlike climate change, this huge thing, hard to make a dent in, if you do, it takes a long time, the keystone pipeline is a

deliverable. you can organize your people and they can stop it or get it started. with each victory the sort of anti-keystone group has had that's built up or helpful about the true sort of mass movement in this country to fight climate change. in that way it's been valuable and part of the reason the white house has been loathe to approve it because it would be undermining a movement they want to see strengthen. but you're right in the broader way here. these regulations are important and it's worth saying in terms of the lawsuits going on them the reverse strategy is being played there, the basic strategy of industry republicans is to tie up the industry's regulations in so much red tape, lawsuits, political uncertainty that basically the obama administration is not able to get it done by the time they leave office and then republicans thoep hoep they can win the next presidential election and obviously republican president would be happy to not have those regulations going go into effect at all. two core delays. >> you brought up the question of when we are actually going to have a comprehensive energy

strategy. you talk about the legacy of the president, in the last month climate change has been on the front burner in the way it was not in the first term. david robert on the environmental website grist makes this point. talking act keystone, phrasing before i get to the quote, but keystone has become a shiny object to both the left and the right. and that is both useful in terms of organizing but it is distracting in terms of the broader policy ajep da. "the impediments to climate action in the u.s. are primarily structural and systemic. systems thinking not romantic tales of individual heroism is what's needed." we can judge president obama in one of two days, by the dysfunction that is the current american system of politics or the crushing size of the climate need. i think as of right now keystone brings that debate into the former rather than the latter. >> i think that's right.

one, you should always be looking at american politics in terms of the systemic incentives to basically do nothing or keep anything from being done, a tremendous amount to overcome. obviously president obama does not currently control the house. but the big thing here, we are doing a terrible thing, a truly terrible thing, and this isn't about obama or his success or failure alone. we as a society have triggered unprecedented transition in the climate we actually hadlikely we'll see a climate swing in the next 100 or 200 years that is about as much up as it was down in the ice age. no one knows how the climate will adapt to that, how we will adapt to that. when i look forward into the future and none of us can predict that, but we are going to be judged incredibly hashly for not wanting to make these small sacrifices required to preserve this climate.

it is a hell of a risk to take and we are not the ones who are going to pay for it. >> ezra, nobody could phrase it better. ezra kline of the as-yet unnamed project x. >> thank you. after the break, the war on women is really a war on men. no more racism and gay marriage is an assault on christians. joy reed and kathleen parker join me to talk about all that. so i get invited to quite a few family gatherings. heck, i saved judith here a fortune with discounts like safe driver, multi-car, paperless. you make a mighty fine missus, m'lady. i'm not saying mark's thrifty. let's just say, i saved him $519, and it certainly didn't go toward that ring. am i right? [ laughs ] [ dance music playing ] so visit progressive.com today. i call this one "the robox."

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transferred money from his before larry instantly bank of america savings account to his merrill edge retirement account. before he opened his first hot chocolate stand calling winter an "underserved season". and before he quit his friend's leaf-raking business for "not offering a 401k." larry knew the importance of preparing for retirement. that's why when the time came he counted on merrill edge to streamline his investing and help him plan for the road ahead. that's the power of streamlined connections. that's merrill edge and bank of america. this week the women's media center released its annual report of the status of women in the u.s. media and the results are not making women dance in the streets. despite the fact we are over half of the u.s. population women held just 28% of the speaking roles in top grossing films. women accounted for just 16% of the top executive movie poss,

and only one woman, a superhuman named angelina jolie broke into the elite ranks of hollywood's top ten highest paid actors. rather than prompting a thoughtful discussion about how and why this disparity exists, certain people got really mad that anyone was even making note of the disparity to begin with. in the mu american magazine, it was written this wage gap whaling is a part of an effort to destroy the market and that the study represented not just a war on the market but also on the nuclear family. in a bit of highly convoluted logic, selwyn duke is proposing discrimination is somehow simply a mark force and a good one because it reinforces the traditional family structure. on that note, what a tragedy it is that women were ever taken out of the kitchen and given roles in the talkies to begin with. and so it goes. find a piece of legislation or a study that questions equal or parity and it inevitably triggers an attempt to turn the

original conversation on its head. that is how the war on women triggered the war on men. >> this whole sort of war on women thing, i'm scratching my head because if there was a war on women i think they won. and in fact i worry about our young men sometimes because i think the women are really are outcompeting the men in our world. >> it's how charges of racism are often countered by charges of reverse racism. how the nation's fist black president, a man of mixed race, has gotten charged with race-baiting and how the country's evolution on gay rights has been cast as a war on traditional marriage, why bobby jindal addressed the silent war on religious liberty after federal judges struck down same-sex marriage bans in oklahoma, utah, and virginia. in other words, there's the war and then there's the war on the war. the war on the war on the war. how did we get here? the atlantic notes democrats

have been assailing the gop as a socially insensitive party for years but the right's response began changing in the 'ninety. back then the most typical republican response would be to wage against political correctness and race-baiting. gradually republicans took a different approach trying to make the case democrats are the real racists. affirmative action became reverse racism. clarps thomas accused democratic senators of a high-tech lynching. "the wall street journal" journal complained democrats blocked miguel estrada's judicial nomination because they felt threatened by a hispanic conservative. some republicans began referring to the democratic party as a plantation. joining me now is joy reed, host of the new show on this channel, msnbc, "the reed report, "premiering monday at 2:00 p.m. on msnbc and from washington, d.c., syndicated columnist for "the washington post," kathleen parker. joy, let me first start with you. the gop jujitsu as connor outlines in a formidably i think

act piece, which is how these -- as we try and sort of create a more perfect union and discuss the shortcomings in society, if that sort of interseconds with the conservative agenda in a head-on fashion it is now being used in sort-like -- the offensive has become a counteroffensive. we're not raiszist, you guys are the racists. not we have questions to answer or here's our defense but you guy s are the problem. >> it's interesting. there's been this gusto can with which conservatives have embraced this idea of calling people racist to remember when glenn beck said barack obama, who is half white, hates the white people and culture. part of it emerges out of talk radio. it's all about that listener saying it is about you. you are the most important thing. and the things being done to you are the reason that things are so bad right now. and this sort of politics of grievance, of making their base, which is, let's face it, older,

right, and more white, and sort of saying to them this country's being taken away from you and we're going to name who that is and all the things being said theoretically about you, whether they're being said or not, they're true about them. so if people are questioning your views sort of on racial issues, on affirmative action, it's because they are racists. if they're questioning the disparities between men and women and pay it's because they're the one who is hate men. in talk radio it's very effective. in politics, it's gotten us where we are. >> kathleen, to talk about the gender issue for a minute, rand paul saying there's not a war on women, there's a war on men. now, there is some nugget or sort of competitiveness where women are sort of getting higher degrees than men, but if we talk about the basic structure of pay equity, women making 77 cents on the dollar, then this outcry over a study about women in media saying those are market forces and besides gender parity

would upend the nuclear family. i wonder what you make about this kind of what's rubber -- i'm rubber, you are glue, what bounces off of me sticks to you kind of argument. >> as i listen to these sh this is yet another groundhog day for me because these conversations and these wars have been going on for decades now. and i've been writing about them for at least 20 years. so it's a little annoying to suddenly be talking again about wars on women and wars on men. i'd like for all of us to declare a truce if we could just start there. we developed this narrative of war, you know, that it's based on the assumption there's a zero-sum game here that if men do well women aren't doing well and vice versa. in some kalss that may be true by a degree, but the idea that there's a war on men i think is not completely invalid except that it's xanl rated. the term war is exaggerated. i think it stems from the idea that men in general have been

somewhat marnl nalized by the culture. the positive male models are in scarce supply. the jobs that men used to do that they identified with, these things were all identified, by the way, by someone who is by no means conservative. the book "she got stiffed" about men and "backlash" about women, and outlined how these jobs minute used to have are gone, their place in the family is less important. it's not an aggressive war to i think intentionally marginalize men as some on the right would insist, but rather a condition that has evolved through cultural changes over which, you know, no one group has control. but i think the only way we emerge from this relatively unscathed is to recognize what those undercurrents are and work with them to make sure that the world is -- offers a playing field to both men and women and especially beginning in school when girls are now leaving the boys behind academically and otherwise.

we have an imbalance and unfortunately it seems to be the pendulum has swung and maybe it's swung a little too far and that's what some of the men are responding to. >> i would also say, kathleen, i think you made a valid point in terms of the interlinking between men's fates and women's fates. women, if they are the chief breadwinners and in a lot of the cases they are because they're single moms but in a two -paren family, if women do better men do better. >> exactly. >> moms do better, children do better, including male chern. so there is a collective here that is not being acknowledged when one says, you know, it doesn't matter if women get paid equally or do well in the workplace because that upends a traditional nuclear family, well, the nuclear family does better when women get paid equally. >> i couldn't agree more. my husband is very happy when i'm doing well, by the way, and my sons are very pleased to have -- to be proud of me. so of course what you're saying is absolutely true. i think it's -- there is a

certain appeal to the base as you say that -- and by the way, we're talking about people, all republicans are not knee and neanderthals who want women in the kitchen. i don't know any like that. they do exist clearly but i don't know them. this idea that you have to somehow throw some red meat to them or in this case as joy said the grievance of, the politics of grievance, it's insulting to everyone. and it's especially insulting to the people to whom they are pretending to appeal. so i think we should condemn it on both sides. some of the feminist movements have, you know, issues have become xanl rated as well. and those need to be -- a light needs to be shown on those and identified. >> i do not want to make a false equivalence here, because i think if you talk about the reaction to things like race or marriage equality, i mean, there has been some incredibly divisive language about what kind of attack that constitutes on the traditional family structure.

joy, i go back to the infamous stan greenbuergreenberg/james c memo regarding the gop days in 2013 where they talk about the politics of grievance, which you and kathleen have highlighted and talk about the tea party and outline it as as much. they think they are losing ground and obama has won on a socialist agenda. the race issue is much alive. and this interestingly for evangelicals, homosexuality is the defining issue and threat. it is very interesting to me that as we've seen states like judges, 32 judges across this country weigh in on the issue of e equal, you simultaneously have bobby jindal giving a speech on the attack on religious freedoms. you have ted cruz and mike lee introducing a bill last week that would effectively reinstitute doma at the state level. that seems to be almost directly from that memo, here are people who are upset about the changing america and doing everything they can to stop it. >> you know, i'm so glad you read that.

that is my favorite piece of research in the last 12 months. it's fascinating. that poll has these word clouds in it and it shows how do you feel right now? when they talk to people particularly in the farthest right reaches of the republican base, the words are things like scared, angry, and i think that what that's getting at is this sort of sense of loss of position, that if you're in your sixty, mid to late 60s right now, the world you grew up in is completely different. the status of women from your mother to your wife to your daughter completely different. and the sense that your status is different is sort of palpable to a lot of people. it's certainly not everybody. but when you're talking act elections, you're talking about the most active people and trying to get the people you can get the most riled up, especially to vote in a midterm, meaning not a big presidential race. i've got to motivate you. if you're on a campaign, your job is to motivate those people who are the most sensitive to triggers, and the trigger that's easiest, sad to say, that's what politics is, the basic trigger is grievance. the basic trigger is anger and saying you have to stop them

from taking your stuff and whoever them is, whether it's minorities, immigrants, whether it's women, in a time of economic scarcity, everyone is a competitor. that is an appeal that unfortunately works in elections. >> kathleen, you know, before we wrap this up, we talk about how a lot of these issues have been stirred by legislation, judge rulings, the first black president has brought up race issues. we are looking towards 2016. you have been writing about hillary and bill clinton. michele bachmann last week said i think there was a cache about having an african-american president because of guilt. people don't hold guilt for a woman saying she doesn't think it's time for a female president. i feel like all thiziese issues about gender, the sort of different scale of measurements we have for women, you rightly point out the way we talk about bill clinton in terms of accolades would be negatives if we were to talk about hillary clinton in the same ruthless way. it feels like all of this is going to get stirred up if she does, indeed, run for president

let alone become president. >> no doubt it will get stirred up. as i've written recently, hillary clinton has been through this gauntlet and at least on the point of her husband's behavior has been inoculated. i think republicans will hurt themselves greatly if they focus on that. >> memo to rand paul, you heard it from kathleen parker. joy reed and kathleen parker, thanks for your time. a reminder "the reid report" with joy reid premieres monday at 2:00 p.m. eastern. look at that beautiful graphics package. >> hey. >> 2:00 p.m. set your drvs, tell your friends, tune in. coming up, a new cbo report says raising the federal minimum wage would add tens of billions of dollars to paychecks and lift hundreds of thousands out of poverty. sounds like a layup, right? not at all. [ julie ] i've got to credit my mom. to help me become an olympian, she was pretty much okay with me turning her home into an ice rink. ♪

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that just happened. prince charles first in line to the british throne in saudi

arabia yesterday sword dancing. he's on a diplomatic trip to the mideast visiting saudi arabia and qatar. coming up, though, first domino's, now mcdonald's. low-wage workers are scoring victories and getting what they're owed. but what does it mean for the minimum wage? this is for real this time. step seven point two one two. verify and lock. command is locked. five seconds. three, two, one. standing by for capture. the most innovative software on the planet... dragon is captured. is connecting today's leading companies to places beyond it. siemens. answers.

these days the minimum wage is just that -- minimum. but the efforts being made to raise it, at least outside of washington, those efforts are not. this week the cbo found that raising the minimum wage to $10.10 an hour would lift the incomes of about 16.5 million low-wage workers, add $31 billion to paychecks across the country, and it would lift 900,000 americans out of poverty. the report also said that a raise would slightly reduce employment by about 500,000 workers. and unsurprisingly, that is the fact that republicans decided to focus on relentlessly as an

excuse to keep wages at a historically low level. but consider this. for every person potentially put out of work by the wage increase more than 30 would see their earnings increase. while washington debates and debates and debates the merits of increasing the federal minimum wage, some are taking it upon themselves to set livable standards. yesterday the american retail giant the gap announced that it would set $9 as the minimum hourly wage this year and $10 next year. that move will raise the pay of 65,000 american workers. but not everyone is acting boldly. yesterday bloomberg news reported that wall mar, the nation's largest employer, was considering supporting a raise in the minimum wage. hours later walmart denied the report and clarified that it has decided to stay neutral in the minimum wage debate, which is to say keep its wages so low that in some states many of walmart's 1.2 million employees are the largest group of medicaid

recipients and also the single largest group of food stamp recipients. employers like walmart have gotten used to paying their workers next to nothing and changing that is going to be an uphill climb. case in point -- mcdonald's. this week a former mcdonald's franchise in pennsylvania will pay out $206,000 in damages and back pay to nearly 300 workers. most of them are foreign workers and they have a pretty long list of horrific labor violations like working up to 25 hours straight without any overtime pay. being housed in basement bunk beds. bunk beds owned by their bosses. and forced to pay rent higher than a week's wages. and being threatened by management with deportation. most of these mcdonald's workers were guest workers here on state department visas for cultural exchange. exploitation is probably not what the u.s. state department had in mind, but the sad reality is that in certain corners of this country exploitation is part of american culture. one can only hope that as some big companies decide to make the

right call, pressure, or shame, will move the rest of the country forward. that's all for now. see you back here tomorrow at 4:00 p.m. eastern. "the ed show" is up good evening, americans. let's get to work. welcome to "the ed show." >> it is really hard to believe that walker had nothing to do with this secret e-mail network. >> we should mention that is there a john doe investigation going on. >> when you talk about the parallel to chris christie -- >> everybody in the country who engages in politics knows that. >> scott walker has a unique position here among all of the governors who are not chris christie. >> you have two men who are very political and who micromanage their campaigns. >> guys, we all