boehner's heroes. let's play "hardball." good evening. i'm chris matthews in washington. let me start tonight with this heated up battle over politics and race. john boehner the speaker of the house denied yesterday that it's got anything to do with the way 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 bernard 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 gohmert and another birther. and farenthold, another birther. texas guys who get their wheaties in the morning, they get up and they 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 goes out there and 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 ago president obama spoke at morehouse college, he gave the commencement address, 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, you know what it's like to feel the

sting of discrimination. 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, the gay and lesbian community. we have a serious problem. anyone who watched how eric holder was treated. anyone who would dare to think that jan brewer, the governor of arizona, would ever stand in bill clinton's face and shake her finger as she did to john boehner -- as she did 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 because he's black. >> john boehner is now out there defending the birther crowd. his birther cohorts like louie gohmert and blake farenthold of it texas treated attorney general eric holder with such contempt this week that holder himself later told al sharpton's national action network, quote, what attorney general or president has ever had to deal with that kind of treatment? in fact here 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 isn't the only wacko insult speaker boehner has defended. here he is 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. >> it's groggy because the mickies that he's been being slipped by the heritage foundation -- >> making a metaphorical point. >> yes, a very metaphorical point. there was a point, chris, earlier this year when john boehner actually called out the fractious, hard-line, you know, racial conservatives who had made this -- >> 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. you should treat presidents with respect for the fact that they're president. you don't yell at, 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. >> absolutely. >> because he was running for president, and it didn't help him a bit to stand up to those bad guys. >> no, it didn't. he stood up for that. he also apologized for voting against making martin luther king's birthday a national holiday and he explained it to an all-black crowd. you need to see more of that from the republican party. >> what are you, the national memory bank? >> no, that's your job. but i do remember it. >> that's great. i didn't remember that. >> and 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 that are left are going to keep walking out. >> late today speaking to al sharpton's national action network where i was privileged to speak this week, 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 that without a document like a passport or a birth certificate they can't register. about 60% of americans don't have a passport. just 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. anyway he then 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 be al green there 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. he doesn't want to be 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 darn right here.

as president he can't be a complainer. >> i think this is all part of the strategy that led him into the oval office in 2009. which is we are not going to make race the issue. we are not going to be the grievance candidate. we are 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. he, i think, because he is a second-term president, is feeling more the weight of history on his shoulders. >> it's so hard to do those things. i watched him with henry louis gates. it is so hard to get it right without looking like you're coming in as the judge to solve the problem and also as an advocate. >> yes. >> 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 -- trying to suppress the vote, that is disproportionately affecting black voters and it is going to hurt the democratic party in 2014 and possible ply in 2016. he has every reason both 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. michelle bernard. you'll get a show one of these days. >> thank you. >> if you want one. coming up, 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. plus no one else has parodied the far right in this country so brilliantly i think as this guy, stephen colbert. now he's taking over for david letterman. what a promotion. he's ditching that persona of his and that's a huge loss to the world of political satire. we're going to miss that stuff.

and paul ryan's gift to the democrats. nearly all the republican congressmen right now, they're all men running for the senate against democrats voted for the ryan budget. which cuts, everybody 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. but another senate candidate in iowa may well have done it. that's in the side show. and i don't believe anybody can pass that one. cast rating hogs. she's tough. and this is "hardball." the police for politics. [ female announcer ] the secret to luminous, shiny color?

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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 hhs secretary 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 was 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 cover that left that impression. quote, some white house allies said thursday night that the troubled launch 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 policy specialist close to the white house said, quote,

obama's staff had long preferred to be running the show, on the health care law, but that sebelius and her aides were increasingly cut out of the process after the launch of healthcare.gov escalate into a political disaster for the president. or this observation, also in the same lead 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. she's had a great career in journalism. we're going to have her on now. john, i want to start with you. nudging, 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, chris. 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, very few cabinet secretaries stay an entire two terms. she'd been in this job for five years. her fate that she was going to leave at some point this year was sealed back last fall during catastrophic rollout of the health care plan. the question was, would she get fired at that moment, or would she be given a chance to see it through to meeting those original projections and those original goals. and they gave her the chance. the president did. even though some people on his staff would probably like to see 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 about. 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.

i'm sorry, john. >> you know 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 of shunning the cabinet aside and taking credit where they can and then blaming the cabinet when things don't go so well. this 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 passive about it, they left it to a large bureaucracy they know little about and laid the blame on kathleen sebelius for not doing it right. i agree with john they gave her a dignified exit. but to do that kind of sniping about her performance after what she's done for this president and for five years of service in that job, which by the way is probably one of the longest 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 kaboom and then say, well, i think the person in charge was the chief operating officer of the cmm, which is a sub agency that does medicare, medicaid under hhs. it was so removed from him. >> exactly. you know what, seems silly to 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 exactly right he and his team should have been more on top of it than they were. now to say sebelius presided over this botched rollout that's convenient for them. i think she did a terrific job under very, very 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 and say why don't they have the secretary of this or that on the show. they'll have dan pfeiffer or

valley jarrett from the white house. 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 don't connect with them, they do it themselves. i don't think staff people should be on national television every sunday. i think people are looking for principles, people approved by the united states senate, and they're not getting them for some reason. >> 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 in as chief of staff. everyone assumed part of the reason was to put him on the sunday shows because he was a big washington veteran and he had a lot of television skills. 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." (dad) well, we've been thinking about it and we're just not sure. (agent) i understand. (dad) we've never sold a house before.

(agent) i'll walk you guys through every step. (dad) so if we sell, do you think we can swing it? (agent) i have the numbers right here and based on the comps that i've found, the timing is perfect. ...there's a lot of buyers for a house like yours. (dad) that's good to know. (mom) i'm so excited.

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 braillely recently came under fire after a video showed him denigrating chuck grassley because he's just a lowly iowa farmer. 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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