white, democrat or republican, we are all americans. we're in this together. to a real patriot, that means something. i'd rather watch the folks in boston than even think of the gun toting anti-patriots in nevada somehow trying to make law breaker cliven bundy a hero. all right, that does it for now. "the cycle with alex wagner" is now. it is tuesday, april 15th. boston strong one year later. >> the one-year anniversary of the marathon bombings. a day of reflection and remembrance. >> of celebration of resilience and hope. >> the emphasis is on the recovery for the victims and the city. >> a tribute to the strength of a human spirit. that's on display. >> i never would have thought i was walking after what happened

last year. >> you become the face of american's resolve for the whole world to see. >> you remember exactly where you were when you saw the news break either on tv or the radio or over your iphone. >> that question of why is still very hard to answer. >> jo har tsarnaev will face the death penalty. >> they try to instill fear. >> people got up, they got back to work. it's an american spirit more than just a bostonian spirit. >> looking ahead to monday's marathon, you better believe boston is ready to run again. >> america will never, ever, ever stand down. >> three killed. over 260 injured. two bombs set off 13 seconds apart. the boston marathon bombings one year ago today shook the nation and set off one of the largest man hunts in u.s. history. >> you know it was bombs that

were set off, we know that obviously they did some severe damage. we do not know who did them. we do not know whether this is an act of an organization or an individual. >> the next 48 hours saw white suited forensic teams combing the street for bomb fragments while investigators poured over hours of surveillance footage. the nation remained on alert, unsure whether more attacks had been planned, whether they could be stopped. >> i was haunted by the possibility of more bombs going off. that was a potential possibility until we arrested the suspects. >> we didn't know what their reasons were. no one had taken responsibility. frankly, we didn't know whether it was over. >> three days later, authorities finally found one of the bombers using surveillance footage. a young man who would be referred to among investigators as white hat.

>> that image. well, it was chilling. because it's one thing to have someone describe that a home made explosive device was placed at this point, that point and set off this way and that way. it's another thing to associate that with a human being. with a face. and to try to imagine what kind of person does that. >> after a second bomber was identified and after an extended and closed door debate among top law enforcement official, the decision was made to release the photos of the two suspects to the general public. as it turned out two brothers, tamer lynn and dzhokhar stsarnav were home grown. following the release of the photos, he was killed in a shootout with police after taking the life of m.i.t. police

officer sean collier. his brother escaped leaving the massachusetts governor to put the entire city of boston and its surrounding communities on lockdown. over 1 million residents were told to stay in their homes as law enforcement went door to door in search of the suspect. an hour after the curfew is lifted, dzhokhar tsarnaev was found in a suburban watertown backyard hiding inside a boat, bringing an end to the five-day ordeal. today officials including the vice president commemorated the one-year anniversary. marked with a moment of silence and ringing of the bells. as for dzhokhar tsarnaev, now 20, he is set to face trial in november on 30 federal charges. 17 of which carry the death penalty. joining me now is msnbc contributor mike barnicle and executive producer of national geographics inside the hunt for the boston bombers robert polombo. mike, just, you know, it's a day i think for those of us who are not from boston even filled with

deeply mixed emotions. en wouone, the pain of the city. the people injured, those killed. also a feeling of pride and resilience in the way the city came together and came back. as someone from boston, you know the city really well. you were there this morning. what did you wake up feeling this morning? >> i woke up feeling quite hopeful about the day ahead, about the week ahead and extremely hopeful about the marathon that's going to be run next monday for a variety of reasons. once again, people from other parts of the country, from other parts of the world, understand that boston is unique. it's a 26-mile long block party. it's a family day. you bring your children to watch the runners. they're the elite runners. first 50 to 100. then after the pack finishes first in two hours and five minutes, then it's us running.

it's the nurse running. the school teacher. running for causes. cancer research, aids research, things like that. i am extremely optimistic about this. next monday, because it's going to be a marvelous day, it's going to be a huge throng running and an even bigger crowd watching. >> from boston, the governor of massachusetts, deval patrick. gov, thanks for joining us. >> great to be with you. >> thank you. on such an important day. i was just talking to mike barnicle about how he felt when he woke up this morning. you oversaw one of the largest manhunts in u.s. history. insofar as patriots day is a day for boston, the sort of legacy of everything that went down a year ago today, i think also, makes it another day for boston in terms of the city's resilience, the pride that its citizenry feels in the wake of tragedy and insofar as everyone came together and there is the feeling, the boston strong meme is as potent today it seeps as

it was a year ago. >> indeed. >> your thoughts at this moment in time looking ahead, in terms of the city's future? >> well, you talked about it, alex, how we came together last year. it was, you know, it was the medical teams coming together to care for and comfort the people who were hurt. it was law enforcement coming together to solve the crime. it was regular citizens coming together to support each other and show acts of kindness to known and unknown folks. and think it very much has its roots in that same sense of community that might just describe, when you talked about a 26-mile long block party. it is a sense of community. and that community transcends the race itself is an important thing for us to see and to take note of and what we tried to give tribute to today. >> robert, you have a riveting national geographic documentary about what happened. in a lot of ways, it was a hugely successful investigation, given how little authorities had

to go on initially. the scope of the manhunt. the suspects were i.d.'d in three days, captured in four. there was an enormous amount of pressure on law enforcement officials to get this right. i found one of the more interesting parts of it, the debate over whether or not to release the photos of the two suspect, white hat and black hat. seems like it was more contentious than i think most of the public actually knows. >> in a case of that question, there was a conflict between the fbi and the police and some of the other authorities involved in the manhunt. you know, it was a real pressure cooker inside those rooms where the investigation was happening. the fbi, the boston police, the mayor's office, so many people who really wanted to get this right, to get these guys. you know, they knew what they looked like, they had some images. they weren't sure what would happen if they released those pictures. there definitely was controversy about whether to release them or

not. the fbi i think really wanted to hold back and try to get closer to them and try to surprise they, making them think they got away with it. some other organizations thought releasing the pictures would really help the city of boston itself become involved in apprehending the suspects which is eventually what did happen. it really caused them to make some mistakes and allowed the public at large to participate in catching them. >> governor patrick, as if -- as if, to actually underscore the pressure everybody was under, at one point, you made the decision to shut down the city and give shelter in place guidance. we know from reporting and from robert's documentary for national geographic the president himself called you to express his concern about that. there was a very finite window in which, you know, you had to find these guys. would you do anything differently now if you could go back to that moment? >> no, i think -- alex, i think we did the right thing. i think it was a tough call.

it was a delicate one. it's not where we started as i think your guests would acknowledge. we started with a much more narrow shelter in place request and because there was so much new information that was breaking so fast, we decided to extend it to the entire city. it was a request. it was not an order. i am grateful and i know law enforcement is grateful that people abided or respected the request and on the whole stayed indoors for their own safety and the safety of those involved in the search. we did know that there was a point where after which we couldn't ask people to stay indoors indefinitely. so when we finished the house to house in watertown, we made the decision that was the time to make the call whether we had found the suspect or not. and it was a great bit of police work and luck that the second suspect was found as quickly after the shelter in place request was lifted.

>> mike, i think a confluence of events made this a citywide, regionwide, nationwide moment. a, fact it was patriots day. b, the fact you had the entire city, the country, looking at these photos of the suspect, think, do you know this person, have you ever seen this person before? and then of course the shelter in place. even for people not in boston, to see a major american city traumatized in that fashion with residents, you know, forced to -- searched, shut behind doors. for those of us that lived through 9/11, i mean, it almost seemed like a version of that for boston. insofar as that created i think national sympathy interest and investment in solving this. all those things i think worked together to do so. >> the most stunning thing to me, what occurred in the aftermath of the bombing, was the acquiescence of so many

people, so many citizens, in the governor's request, not an order, to stay in place, to stay in your home. i mean, not to make light of it, but great boston is one of the most lawless, very low level regions in the world. we run red lights, we cross, you know, we jay walk at will, things like that. people stayed home. there was a community will to catch these two culprits. and of course the news media following the story itself. the tragic shooting of officer sean collier, the m.i.t. campus, the car chase up memorial drive in cambridge, massachusetts, through watertown massachusetts, a suburb of greater boston. there was huge citizen involvement in the story as it played out and it was, between, amazing acquiescence and cooperation among citizens. >> there is a lot of back and forth around the discussion. there's a lot of arm chair analysis about what could have been done better or differently. but at the end of the day, i mean, this was handled

profoundly quickly, with very little, you know, i think controversy at the time, with citizen cooperation. in that way, a lot of us seemed like the law enforcement infrastructure had really learned lessons in the last decade in terms of how to find wanted men in a moment of crisis. >> exactly. >> alex -- >> there's a great quote from governor patrick in the film. he said, it's amazing what you can accomplish when you turn to each other instead of on each other. that really embodied what happened within the organizations. law enforcement and also the city itself in terms of cooperate and catch these criminals. i think we have learned a lot about how to run an investigation like this. in this case, we were very lucky that we had such great cooperation from the city of boston itself and the people on the street. one of the most interesting characters in the film in the whole story is david hennenberry

who was the guy who found dzhokhar tsarnaev in his boat. he he is an amazing character. sheltered in place. couldn't go out and check on his boat. was really upset he couldn't check on that boat. once he did he's the one who actually, you know, found the suspect and was able to call 911 and call on the s.w.a.t. team to get him. he really symbolizes what the investigation was about. >> governor patrick, i know you wanted to say something there. there mutt be thousands of stories of these individual stories that helped bring this case to a close. >> well, i was just going to build on something i think mike was saying and your comments, alex. not only did law enforcement come together but the whole community helped in the solving, finding the culprits, helping us heal. i think that calling out those individual acts of kindness and grace that were demonstrated by so many people actually helped.

>> i think we just lost -- >> -- around this whole community. >> -- governor, thank you for joining us today. great documentary, thanks for your time. inside the hunt for boston bombers airs tomorrow, wednesday, april 16th, at 9:00 p.m. on the national geographic channel. when we come back, anti-terror operations and attacks on political candidates as tensions escalate in ukraine. president obama has a frank and direct conversation with russian president vladimir putin. all that is next.

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a so-called anti-terrorist operation began today in eastern ukraine. where the ukrainian army has gathered its forces to confront hundreds of pro-russian militias, pro-russian militants that have seized buildings in ten towns in the region. today at the airfield in donetsk, fighting between ukrainian troops and pro-russian militia, warning two militants. in kiev, a pro-russian presidential candidate was beaten by crowds after a tv apeerance in which he appeared to support russian intervention in eastern ukraine. despite the 40,000 russian troops on the ukrainian border, the kremlin's recent annexation of crimea and reports its militamil military officers are responsible for taking over government buildings, russia says it has no responsibility. calling it the biggest load of

nonsense he's ever heard. speaking on the phone yesterday, president obama urged putin to use his influence to urge separatists to step down. putin also denied any russian interference in the region. this thursday, secretary of state john kerry will meet in geneva with his russian counterparts. in the meantime, nato says it is strengthening its defense plans while the barack obama administration prepares a new list. will this -- will acting president in ukraine, oleksander turchynov is saying this so-called anti-terrorist operation will be carried out responsibly. do you think this has any chance of deescalating the crisis at all? >> i think deescalating is unfortunately not where we're at. probably russian prime minister demetri medvedev had it best

when he said in a facebook posting today that ukraine is, quote, on the brink of civil war. i think more or less that's unfortunately where we stand. and while ukraine is perhaps understandably from the point of view of the united states acting to restore its control over disputed parts of eastern ukraine, that certainly seems to be having the effect of further inflaming the russians. >> i think what one of the oddest and strangest dimensions to this is the fact that some of the militants in eastern ukraine are quite clearly russian, but they are denying their allegiance to any particular country or military. a local newspaper editor, i believe his name is victor butko, was quoted in "the new york times" saying a green man was in my office yesterday. he stood right there. he was a russian and a russian officer and i am certain of it. i lived 66 years in this town and i know these men were not from my town. there's a headline in "the kiev post" russian paramilitary leaders in eastern ukraine

caught on tape communicating with moscow. it's almost as if putin is doing this for the international audience because clearly the people in eastern ukraine understand that these guys are russian. >> well, you know, i think that's an excellent point, alex. maybe you should call it not so plausible deniability, you know, and that's -- this operation, it isn't fooling anybody. the internet, twitter, is filled with gotcha photographs of here's this russian lieutenant colonel who's been caught with people. it's straight out of their playbook. their destable days in eastern european soviet playbook. it's not even updated from the soviet times. you had this question from the minister saying this is nonsense. this is the art of what many call the big lie, capital "b," capital "l." something the russians perfected during 70 years of soviet rule,

part of their political playb k playbook. >> it's almost like deny, deny, deny, until it's obvious to everyone ever that you can't deny anymore. even then, it is even reluctant being an wacquiescence and admi don't know. >> the thing that's cynical about a strategy like this is in some ways at least in a tactical sense they've succeeded. this is what they did in crimea. now they basically have undisputed control, and we're talking about eastern ukraine and whether they'll take over more of the country. >> another dimension that strikes me as odd and speaks as sort of cold war rivalries or at least you know spy versus spy is the fact that john brennan, the head of the cia, was in kiev. why, susan, do you think that meeting happened? >> well, you know, i'm glad you raised that. i do think that was certainly inflammatory. the russians seized the bait.

they claimed they were outraged. it played right into the russian narrative this is all a dubious plot by the west to encircle and threaten russia. unfortunately i think for our russian domestic audience, you know, brennan's presence only tends to confirm this is all some nefarious cia plot to embarrass him and encircle russia. i'm sure there was a specific concrete purpose of him going up to shore up the weak and faltering ukrainian government, presumably to provide more intelligence sharing and information about what those 40,000 troops are doing on the ukrainian border. >> all that's missing are the exploding sa garrs. susan glasser, thank you so much for your time. coming up, it looks like mitch mcconnell has a real old-fashioned kentucky derby on his hands. the senate minority leader has gotten outraised by his democratic opponent again. the latest on the battle in the bluegrass state is next. my guests are always asking me, "nathan, which dish is better?".

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mitch mcconnell's kentucky senate race just got a lot more interesting. democratic challenger allison grimes outraised the republican leader in the first quarter of this year and she's making gains on mcconnell's war chest. cri grime's campaign announced they bested the $2.4 million haul by mcconnell's campaign. the senator who had a very big head start still holds a significant catch advantage. $10 million on hand. compared to grimes' nearly 5 million. but mcconnell still needs to fend often a primary challenger in may, tea party darling matt bevan. mcconnell has been burning through funds. he's crdropped more than $12 million this cycle alone. a ppp pole released last week shows mcconnell's approval rating in kentucky has dropped

to just 36%. a lot can happen between now and november. but allison lunder son grimes is proving she can at least give mitch mcconnell a run for his money, literally. it is april 15th. even if you've been out of a job for fiscal year 2013 and haven't received a salary, that doesn't mean you won't have to pay taxes. really? really. we will look at who the taxman co cometh for. ameriprise asked people a simple question: can you keep your lifestyle in retirement? i don't want to think about the alternative. i don't even know how to answer that. i mean, no one knows how long their money is going to last. i try not to worry, but you worry. what happens when your paychecks stop? because everyone has retirement questions. ameriprise created the exclusive confident retirement approach. to get the real answers you need. start building your confident retirement today.

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the tax man cometh. today's deadline to file individual income taxes may be one of everyone's least favorite days. but it is an especially awful day for those at the bottom of the income ladder. as you may recall back in december, congress allowed unemployment assistant to expire for those who have been out work for 26 weeks or more.

1.3 million americans lost a vital economic lifeline while they looked for work. remember that? since then, that number has risen to 2.3 million americans. in the mean typtimmeantime, hou boehner has stone walled any attempt to bring that extension of a lifeline to the house. >> i made clear to the president last december that, you know, if they wanted us to consider an extension of emergency unemployment benefits, would have to be paid for and would have to include things that would help get our economy going. >> fortunately for speaker pain, a bill to do all those things has already passed the senate. it is fully paid for through a combination of offsets including exotic sounding pension and custom fees. that includes things like getting the economy going it the cbo estimates restoring people's unemployment insurance would create 200,000 jobs in 2014, not

to mention the 2 million americans who would directly benefit from that assistance. but instead relief, those americans of americans are getting hit again today with a tax bill. msnbc's susie kim explains all federal jobless benefits are taxed just like wages. 33 states plus the district of columbia fully tax their unemployment insurance as well. one of the millions of jobless americans who will be having a tough time april 15th is mary mitchell. mitchell estimates she'll owe some $3,000 in taxes on the unemployment benefits she received in 2013. i've barely got gas to get to class, she says. mary mitchell has been out of work since 2012. joining me now is correspondent with the national journal's next america project janell ross and from washington editor and chief of vox.com ezra klein. janell, i did not know, and i think there are some unemployed

americans who did not know, that jobless assistance is taxed by the federal government. you look at that and you also look at the taxes being paid by the people who can afford them the most. i think we have some handy graphs here. over the last 50 years taxes for the wealthiest americans have declined by 40%. a sloping upward curve. even as income inequality has skyrock skyrocketed. for the top 1%, income has increased over 100% since 1979. one set of americans steady downward decline. the other, steady increase. it seep seems like it has not p with the american economy. >> fair to some extent. certainly true as a general rule we tax earned income, income that you earn at a job or through your unemployment benefits.

at a higher rate than we tax the income you essentially inherit or interest that you earn on the american that you already have. >> capital gains taxes. >> right. in that sense, we certainly do privilege the wealthy. that's without a doubt. i think that, you know, different people will i guess disagree about whether or not that is appropriate. without a doubt, it certainly puts people in the middle and certainly towards the bottom in a position where you can work and actually make a lot less money than, say, your boss, and actually pay more taxes than him. >> ezra, it feels like economic policy and tax policy, which is folded into that, is very much dictated by those at the top of the income ladder. talking points memo has a graph of voter turnout by income. if you make less than $10,000, your turnout's 41.3%, over $150,000, the turnout is 78.1%. >> alex, that was my graph, i put that up yesterday. >> and you put it up.

vox media first had it. and then talking points put it up. the graph is up there. how do we course correct on this? >> you know, let me push on this just a little bit. it's definitely true what you're saying, that there's been a sharp drop in a number of kinds of taxes on the rich in the last 20, 30 years. it's appalling we tax unemployment benefits. i think there's also a dimension in what has really suffered is we are -- and nobody likes to hear anybody say this, but we are bringing in a level of taxes that is not in the near run what we need to fund social services. there's a lot of evidence the tax code is more progressive than it's been at any time in decades. obamacare added a bunch new taxes on very wealthy folks. we didn't bring back all the bush tax cuts by any means but the part we did bring back hit

the rich very hard. a code in which you're either not funding the government in an efficient or foul way but you also are starting to get more progressive taxes. what you want to see i think is the level up here. the big player here is the capital gains tax. we have a very low tax on capitol hill gains. that is where very wealthy people make most of their money. it's taxed at a much lower rate than normal income. there are reasons for that. but i don't think at this point they're tremendously good ones. definitely not in the context of the current tax code we have now. the wealthy could get more wealthy while the secretaries end up paying at a higher tax rate than they did. >> it is kind of gross we tax unemployment assistance. at the same time, our deficit has fallen $187 billion in the last year. due largely to an increase in tax revenue. we can actually afford to extend

this lifeline. it's just that certain people in congress are choosing not to. >> fair enough. i think, though, we have to -- there is tax policy and there is theory and then there is -- there are politics, which are hard nosed and nasty. and there is fundamentally the idea of cutting or even taxing social benefits or reducing the size of public assistant programs remains a very useful way for certainly some politicians to galvanize some voters to assure people they are somehow doing right by those at the bottom. whether those things hold up to truth is a whole other issue, which i would say they don't. certainly if you don't supply unemployment benefits, just as an example, it damages the economy. people use that money to pay their rent, groceries.

it goes back into the economy and helps support other jobs. and to argue against extending unemployment benefits is either a form of willful innocence or just pure political gamesmanship. >> i feel like you talk about capital gains tax, we talk about capital tax reform. it feels like we're so far away from hitting any of that at a time when they won't extend unemployment assistance. there's controversy over the earned income tax credit. that now is being used as a political football. does that surprise you? >> it does surprise me. there's an appalling willingness in washington to commit an ongoing unemployment emergency. an appalling willingness among republicans in washington to permit an ongoing unemployment emergency. there are big debates in american politics people can't agree on, but really targeted help for the unemployed should not at this moment be something there's any controversy about. >> when we talk about 2014

issue, the aca seems to be the arrow in the quiver of the republican party. have developed a fairly robust and multifaceted arsenal insofar as they can talk about the minimum wage, they can talk about unemployment assistance, can talk about the affordable care act and all the benefits within. when you look at a fight like this over unemployment assistance at a time when you have almost structural unemployment. you have 3.7 million americans have been out of work for 26 weeks or more. how much currency do the democrats have ahead of 2014? >> that's an excellent question. it will boil down to whether or not they can figure out a way to talk about these issues in a way that matters to people who are struggling with these issues themselves. i'm not sure they've always within successful at doing that. some of these same economic conditions in 2012 and they were able to pull that out but also look at the makeup of congress. >> we will be looking at the

makeup of congress from now until eternity. thank you both for your time and thoughts. coming up, some conservatives are getting behind a new conspiracy movement. it is tied to last week's shoe-throwing incident involving former secretary of state hillary clinton. we will introduce you to shoe truthers just ahead. as part of your service, we did a 27-point inspection on your chevy, you got new tires and our price match guarantee. who's this little guy? that's birney. oh, i bet that cone gives him supersonic hearing. watch what you say around him. i've been talking a lot about his procedure... (whispering) what? get our everyday price match guarantee plus a $100 rebate on 4 select tires from your tire experts. chevy certified service.

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last week, hillary clinton was speaking in las vegas in front of the institution of scrap recycling industries when a shoe was thrown at her. >> it's already recycling about -- what was that? a bat? was that a bat? that somebody throwing something at me? is that part of circumstanque l soleil? >> but no intentional humiliation goes unpunished. republicans not apparently satisfied with birtherism and climate change denial have invented a new even more absurd form of conspiracy theorizing. shoe truthers.

shoe truthers. >> i'm sorry, i'm ill equipped to comment. maybe it's because in my sub could conscious i think it was staged. i don't know why anybody would be throwing a shoe at hillary. maybe it's an attempt to make the benghazi people look like nuts and lunatics. >> but it's not just al. today, herman kane retweeted a post from his own website in which he pondered, fakery from the clintons? the former secretary of state has nothing better to do than plant someone in the audience to throw a shoe at her in order to district attention from benghazi. two years before a presidential contest for which she has yet to announce her candidacy. shoe trutherism. i can't even say it, it's so absurd. shoe trutherism is real.

and it is on the rise. after the break, republicans look to expand their tent with new plans to reach out to minorities. but what's holding up the tent? all stations come over to mission a for a final go. 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. cut! [bell rings] this...is jane. her long day on set starts with shoulder pain... ...and a choice take 6 tylenol in a day which is 2 aleve for... ...all day relief. hmm. [bell ring] "roll sound!" "action!"

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for republicans looking to boost their appeal with african-american voters, the approach comes down to two words, baby steps. the gop is setting small goals to maybe possibly make 2014 the year they turn the tide and improve their dismal showing among black voters. i definitely think there will be a difference, said wayne brady, head of the effort in michigan. when you're starting from where we're at, you can only go up. technically, wayne, no, african-american support could actually go down.

after all, there is room for a drop. m mitt romney won 6% of the black vote in 2012. a drop is a genius possibility given that it's going to take more than staffing up some metro office space to overcompany the grand old party's problems with africa americans. republican efforts to restrict the very act of voting with laws that disproportitionately effec you guess it, people of color. in his speech friday to the national action network. >> what kind of political platform is that? why would you make that a part of your agenda, preventing people from voting? you had one republican state laejs la legislator point out, making it more difficult for people to vote is not a good sign for a party that wants to attract more people. >> joining me now is staff

writer for slate janell buoy. baby steps. i don't even know if you can call them steps because they seem to be more like standing in place and waving one's hands. the only policy to actually help people of color or that -- not to help people of color but that addresses people of color in a meaningful way that i can tell has emnaanated from the republin party. i mean, give me your take on this latie ivst initiative. >> it baffles me republicans have to, you know, try really hard, tap their head so hard to figure out how to approach and how to appeal to african-american voters. it's very simple. you talk to them like they're citizens worth respecting. you don't try to restrict their voting rights. you don't spend five years attacking a president, many of them seen as usurper to the

throne, and you look for ways to address their concerns within your agenda. to his credit, rand paul has tried to do at least one of those things by talking about sentencing reform. and on the whole criminal justice sort of spectrum of issues, there's space for republicans to act in ways that are constructive. it requires action. black voters already listen to republicans go to their churches, go to their barber shops, go to their neighborhoods and talk to them about how lincoln was a republican and therefore you should vote for us. that's been going on for decades. you got to actually do something. that means either changing aspects of your ideology or thinking hard about issues that appeal to a conservatives -- you can bring to african-american voters. >> i also would say i mean perhaps ease up on the defensive rhetoric. i want to play this clip from fox news the other night. responding to criticism -- actually do we have this sound? yes. it was a bunch of fox news folks

discussing whether or not the comments made by brit hume that president obama and attorney general holder have benefitted enorm usually because of their race. this is -- people who were critical of that criticism. this is a fox panel responding to those critics of their criticism. >> it was four white people discussing this and therefore it was racist. okay. in other word, in order to discuss this, you have to have an african-american present, but if you're just white, then discussing this is racist. >> i feel like, gemel, the word racist on the right is what we should be talking about. there's also this contention to the left. the right makes almost everything a rachtc racial ques when it companiy comes to this. >> there seems to be no willingness to step back and say we don't know everything.

it's just it's a really weird thing to do. like maybe if you're going to discuss racism you should include people who have actually experienced racism. there seems to be this, you know, refusal to take any sort of critique on racial issues, not critique in, oh, you're racist, critique in maybe your perspective doesn't capture the full spectrum of of what we're trying to do. republicans -- just seems incapable of taking that criticism as anything other than being accused of being racist. really, no one's calling you racist. very few people are calling you racist. plenty of us want to be able to have a contracted conversation and that first requires an attempt to geto outside of yourself and if you can't do that bring in different perspectives. >> an admission of one's own limitations which the gop seems sort of ethically opposed to doing. >> right, right. there just seems to be no

appetite for it whatsoever. >> thank you for your time and thoughts, my friend. that is all for now. i will see you back here tomorrow at 4:00 p.m. eastern and you can catch me when i fill in for lawrence tonight on "the last word." "the ed show" is up next. good evening, americans, welcome to "the ed show." i'm ready to go, let's get to work. >> we're in opposite of the keystone project. >> complex. >> you think the project is complex? >> it's borering right on our parent's land. >> there's nothing complex about the keystone pipeline. it's time to build it. >> let's talk about the cattle battle. >> the western ranch showdown. >> in a showdown with the government. >> what's happening to these western states