boehner's heroes. let's play "hardball." good evening. i'm chris matthews in washington. let me start with this heated up battle over politics and race. john boehner the speakier of the house denied that it's got anything to do with the ray republican members of congress two of them from texas especially, treat the administration of barack obama. >> there's no issue of race here. >> he said the nasty treatment of attorney general eric holder this week was spurred by the usual republican complaints, you know, the irs, fast and furious, and of course benghazi.

as usual, boehner was doing his sergeant schultz routine from hogan's heroes. i know nothing, i was not here, i did not even get up this morning. remember this response when boehner was asked about the republicans at his caucus who denied that the president is a natural born american and therefore even eligible to be president. >> david, it's not my job to tell american people what to think. >> what a bone-headed comment. also the assault continues today with one side hearing and describing what is going on. the other side i believe denying the treatment of this president and his attorney general has anything to do with race. well, michelle is the president of the bernard center for women, politics and public policy. i wish i had one of those things. and the author of "moving america toward justice." and alex wagner the host of msnbc's now with alex wagner. here we are now. the question about this thing. this is sticky, to talk about. i think the president doesn't like talking about it for

political strategic reasons. michelle, we have the treatment of louie gomert and another birther. texas guys who get their wheaties in the morning, get up and start thinking this guy shouldn't be president because of his background. and then they do all of the other stuff on top of that. >> and they go to bed thinking the exact same thing. it really is i think a test of the nation's conscience and when john boehner says that this is not a matter of race he has to realize he's representing the entire united states. people all around the world are looking at this and it doesn't pass the sniff test a. year abo president obama spoke at morehouse college, all male college in atlanta. i want to quote him because one of the things he said at speaking at morehouse college, to all of these young black men, you know what it's like to be an outsider, you know what it's like to be marginalized, and he went on to talk about the state of civil rights in the nation and how we treat

african-americans, hispanics, the muslim community t gay and lesbian community. we have a serious problem. any one who watched how eric holder was treated, who would dare to think that jan brewer would ever stand in bill clinton's face and shake her finger as she did to john boehner -- to president obama or have joe wilson yell at bill clinton during a speech before the joint session of congress, you lie, has to be crazy if they don't think it's not -- >> john boehner is now out there defending the birther crowd. his birther cohorts like louie gomert and blake farnhold treated attorney general eric holder with such contempt that holder later told al sharpton's national action network quote what attorney general or president has had to deal with that kind of treatment. her is boehner talking with reporters as i said yesterday. >> there's no issue of race here.

the frustration is, is that the american people have not been told the truth about what happened at the irs, the american people have not been told the truth about what happened in fast and furious. the administration has not told the american people the truth about benghazi and we've been going through all of these hearings having to hold people in contempt because they made it impossible to get to the documents. they have not been forthcoming, they owe the american people the truth. and when it comes to benghazi we have four americans dead and their families deserve the truth about what happened and the administration refuses to tell them the truth. >> that's an acting award there. absolute acting award. birther the only waco insulted. speaker baseballer defended. back in 2011 standing up for all forms of republican ignorance. let's listen. >> i believe that he is a muslim. >> you do. >> yes. >> how many of you believe that here? wow. >> as the speaker of the house, as a leader do you not think

it's your responsibility to stand up to that kind of ignorance? >> david, it's not my job to tell the american people what to think. >> you know, that was the groggiest look and answer. how can he say it's not his job to tell the american people what to think. he is the leader of the congress, the speaker of the house, second in line to the presidency. he's supposed to be a leader and he says that's not my job. it's almost like sergeant schultz. i know nothing. >> the mickey that he's slipped by the heritage foundation -- a point. >> yes. a very pled a forical point. there was a point earlier when john boehner actually called out the hardline you know, racial conservatives who had -- >> that was tactical. saying you're hurting our game. >> for a moment though. >> but not on the truth talking. truthiness. talk about colbert. truthiness, doesn't he owe the republican voter a clear statement about what being a republican is? >> absolutely.

>> which is you're not supposed to be racist, if somebody is they should be outside the crowd. treat presidents with respect for the fact that they are president, you don't yell out you lie, he didn't do anything to joe wilson when he did that, did he? >> he didn't do anything. it's a moral issue and it's embarrassing. john mccain ran for president and he corrected someone who was -- >> in his obit when it comes, as one of his great profiles in courage. he was running for president. it didn't help him a bit to stand up to the bad guys. >> he stood up for that, he also apologized for voting against making martin luther king's birthday a holiday and explained it. you need to see more of that from the republican party. >> you the national memory bank? >> no, that's your job. but i do remember it. >> that's great. >> if we're going to continue to see any women that are left in the republican party, any african-americans that are left in the republican party, any hispanics left are going to -- they are going to keep walking

out. >> late today speaking to al sharpton's network president obama delivered a fiery call to arms, on the issue of voting rights. he started with attack of the republican party's tactics to suppress the voting rights especially of minorities by making them show their papers as he put it, something the president is all too familiar with since he had to show his. >> folks may learn without a document like a passport or berth are birth certificate. about 60% don't have a passport. because you don't have the money to travel abroad doesn't mean you shouldn't be able to vote here at home. and just to be clear i know where my birth certificate is, but a lot of people don't. a lot of people don't. i think it's still up on a website somewhere.

you remember that? that was crazy. that was some crazy stuff. >> that was a good crowd for him. he delivered a call to action. >> america did not stand up and did not march and did not sacrifice to gain the right to vote for themselves and for others only to see it denied to their kids and their grand children. we've got to pay attention to this. >> i thought he was going to -- he was getting so comfortable with the crowd. your thought there. he always pulls back. you first. then michelle. he always pulls back. he never wants to be a grievance guy, at the complaint window about race because race is an historic problem in this country. it's not exactly news to complain about it. but he doesn't seem to want to be -- i think he thinks it takes down from his dignity. he may be right as president he cannot be a complainer. >> this is all part of the strategy that led him into the oval office in 2009 which we are

not going to make race the issue, not the grievance candidate, not going to put this front and center. the truth is because of what has happened during this administration the president is forced to address race. i think has more recently after the trayvon martin verdict, with the my brother's keeper initiative that he talked about tonight. because he is a second term president is feeling more the weight of history on his shoulder. >> i watched him with henry lewis gates, it's hard to get it right without looking like you're coming in as the judge to solve the problem and also advocate. it's hard to play both roles. >> chris, what is happening across the country in these republican-held legislatures and republican governors trying to curb -- suppress the vote, that is disproportionately affecting black voters and it's going to hurt the democratic party in 2014 and possibly in 2016. he has every reason pragmatically -- >> john boehner ever going to own up to the fact he has bad people in the party using race, i don't deny it's rational,

michelle, i think they know what they are talking about the president and eric holder and talking for the people from some of these very rural texas districts where people have bad attitudes about blacks and he is playing that card. like most politicians do, but in this case it's nasty business. thank you. great show every day. 4:00 eastern. you'll get a show. >> thank you. >> if you want one. kathleen sebelius resigns but if you read the lines in the paper on the front page of the "washington post" there's a lot of negative trash talk that came right out of the white house last night. sure looks like the obama administration's happy for her to move on. we'll see how that happened. how this went to press. nobody parroted the right so brilliantly as stephen colbert. he is taking over for david letterman. that's a huge loss to the world. we're going to miss. that and paul ryan's gift to the democrats, nearly all of the republican congressmen now all men running for the senate

against democrats, voted for the ryan budget. which cuts, listening, cuts medicare. and you can bet democrats will make something of that. finally, it's not easy to top a campaign ad about castrating hogs. she's tough. and this is "hardball." if you can clear a table without lifting a finger, you may be muddling through allergies. 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®. muddle no more™. >>this week, save up to $13 on zyrtec® products. see sunday's newspaper.

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yes, we lost the first quarter of open enrollment period with the problems with healthcare.gov and they were problems. but, under kathleen's leadership, her team at hhs

turned the corner, got it fixed, got the job done, and the final score speaks for itself. >> welcome back to "hardball." the president's sendoff for kathleen sebelius was warm but didn't shy away you saw from acknowledging the disastrous even catastrophic rollout of the health care website. in the "washington post" the attitude of anonymous white house allies more along the lines of don't let the door hit you on the way out. here's some of the choice excerpts i call it trash talk from the article on the front coverer that left that impression. quote, some white house allies said thursday night that the troubled lawn. of healthcare.gov had heightened tensions between sebelius and the president's staff members who had become increasingly mistrustful of the department she led. or this one. health specialist said quote

obama's staff had long preferred to be running the show, on the health care law, but that sebelius and her aipds were increasingly cut out of the process after the launch of healthcare.gov escalate into a political disaster for the president. or this in the same article. sebelius was not part of the group of white house aides who told obama that health care enrollment surpassed 7 million. he did not mention her, in fact in his speech. here's the picture to prove it. no sebelius. john co-author of double down about the 2012 election, and beth bowie senior editor for msnbc. john, i want to start with you. agreeing on the time, my question maybe this is a tough question. could sebelius have stayed on through the rest of the second term if she wanted to? >> i think she would have had to fight pretty hard for.

that i don't think she had that much fight left. i think her fate in the sense she was not going to be someone, cue cabinet stay two terms. her fate that she was going to leave at some point this year was sealed back last fall during catastrophic rollout of the plan. would she be given a chance to see it through to meeting those original goals and they gave her the chance, the president did though some on his stap probably would like to have seen her go earlier. the president gave her a chance to go out with a dignified exit and something called a victory to her name. >> seems right that he timed it so she would make this announcement, they'd leak it whatever they did last night so it came after the 7 million victory mark they got something to brag b. but i go back to this, you're the expert on this kind of deadline, so many negative comments in the lead piece in the "washington post." >> sure. and there's -- >> i'll hear from beth.

>> you flow what, i think the comments are self serving. this white house has always been all about itself and saying they could do everything better than their cabinet and sort oftioning the cabinet aside and taking credit where they can and then blaming the cabinet when things don't go so well n. is the president's signature achievement. if he wanted to make sure that the rollout was perfect he and his team should have been on top of that. they weren't. they were very pa sif about it, they left it to a large bureaucracy they know little about and laid the blame on kathleen sebelius. i agree with john they gave her an exit but to do that sniping about her performance, what she has done, after what she has done for this president and five years of service in that job which is probably one of the listeningest lasting hhs secretaries in history, was pretty lame. >> while you're on beth, why didn't the president set up a very direct line between him and the top person, the top kid, the czar if you will. why did he wait until it went ka

boom and say well, i think the person in charge was the chief operating officer of the cmm, which is the subagency that does medication medicaid under hhs, it was so removed from him. >> exactly. you know what, seems sill tee say he should be on the phone each day but in this case he probably should have. this is his legacy. the aca is this president's legacy. if he wanted it to be rolled out right he and his team should have been more on top of it. now to say sebelius presided over this botched rollout that's convenient for him. i think she did a terrific job under difficult circumstances, given a good chance to leave at the victorious signing up of 7.5 million people. so it works the optics work pretty well. >> what beth said rings so true with what i heard about the white house operation, john, that they don't -- you look at meet the press and sunday shows, why don't they have the secretary this or that, they have dan pfeiffer or somebody

for valerie jarrett. and you know what the answer i get is, they don't trust those people to get the message out. they don't have a clear line of talk even with them. what is the problem of cabinet government today under this administration? they seem to have when they don't trust people, they do it themselves. i don't think staff people should be on national television every sunday. people are looking for principals and they are not getting them. >> it's always been the case of this administration. there was a period of time around after the first two years or right after the midterm loss in 2010, i did a long story in new york magazine where i went around and asked at various cabinet departments how many times secretaries had spoke tune president obama in the first two years. many had no more than one or two conversations with the president in the first two years. it's not changed. his attitude, the president's attitude and of the people around him are that cabinet secretaries many of them could not pick those out of a lineup in many cases. i'm only exaggerating slightly.

you think about going back to another thing in that time frame, the white house brought bill daly. assuming they would put him on the sunday shows because he was a big washington veteran. they didn't trust him on the television, on the sunday shows either. so this notion of very tight circle around obama and not trusting, not only not trusting cabinet secretaries but not trusting people not in the tightest inner circle around the president and the president himself has been an engrained part of this white house since day one. >> that was the secret success of the mo udahl campaign. i'm being sarcastic. it stayed very small. thank you john and beth. up next it's hard to top a senate cabinet that touts her personal experience castrating pigs. one of her opponents may have done that already. that's ahead and this is "hardball."

did you get an endorsement from jimmy kimmel yesterday? what can we expect? >> promote and supported me. it's quite clear he likes me a lot. we've had a number of conversations. he compares me to jfk, the rest of the candidates. >> kfc, you name it. >> time now for the sideshow. that was jimmy kimmel downplaying the impact of his endorsement in the toronto mayoral race. next up, bob quast is running as an independent write-in candidate for the open u.s. senate seat in iowa. he's making quite an impression in a race that's caught the attention of the national media. the field includes of course republican candidate joni ernst and democratic congressman bruce bailey. ernst known for her advertisement she cites her

experience castrating pigs as her main credential for cutting pork in washington. and bailey had video that showed him, but the icing on the proverbial cake is a new online video released by bob quast, the independent, you've got to see to the believe it. >> hi, i'm bob. i am running. running for iowa's open seat in the senate. term limits need to become the 28th amendment to our u.s. constitution. i believe in every aspects of our constitution which even a baby knows includes the second amendment. if you are the sexual predator and sociopath who murdered my sister you come to my door to do harm to my girls i'm going to use my glock. to blow your balls off. now please do not confuse me with iowa's republican candidate for u.s. senate. i'm bob quast, just a simple problem-solver from iowa who

never went to law school but i did create and approve this video. >> what do you make of that. that's "hardball." coming up next, your business with jj ramberg. 

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