this country being denied medicaid expansion. my mother raised me to stand up and i won't sit down for anybody. this is "politics nation" growing hope. where we refuse to have despair. we're growing home from georgia. "politics nation" with al sharpton. "hardball" starts rite now. >> the shame game. let's play "hardball." the accusations now from fox to limbaugh to all corners of the planet hate is that the secretary of state is guilty of

letting the 200 girls be taken in nigeria. that's right. he said those that grabbed the girls would not have done so if hillary clinton had named him to the foreign terrorist list. guess what? hillary clinton did name that guy to the terrorist list. also two of his top commanders. she did it two years ago after their group attacked and killed 23 united nations workers in nigeria. the sick fact here is that everything that goes wrong in the world that causes horror is now going to be counted by the hate hillary crowd on this country's recent top diplomat. whether it's here in an ungoverned torn libya. she was on watch and should have kept it from happening. this is an absurdly unfair statement. it suggests a world class dereliction on clinton's park wherever anything went wrong anywhere. has any democrat done this to "w" or cheney or any of that bunch? said every time we faced the

hell of an ambush in iraq or a roadside attack it hung on the soldiers of the country's top officers? i must have missed it. by the lethal standards of the hate hillary crowd, the one being road tested with nigerini the attack on new york and washington in september of 2001, the fact that no one saw that one coming should have led to the president, the vice president and the rest of this country's security officialdom to be hung up in chains. with us now is howard fineman. it seems like every day brings, as it does if you read a quality newspaper, bad news somewhere in the world. something happens. crap happens. and now, the automatic machine says hillary did it. they should check a coup of facts. while the organization wasn't named, the three top leaders were. and that was decided upon after a very nuanced decision making how to go after this group.

and not to make every u.s.-owned facility an easy fat target for this group to go after. your thoughts? >> i think this is just the beginning of what the right is going to attempt to do to hillary. they're going to back time and replay backwards every event in the world today and look for the connection. >> is this six connections of kevin bacon? >> yes. when she was secretary of state. when you're secretary of state, you deal by definition in grays. you deal in nuance. that's why her book is called "hard choices." but when you're trying to explain the detail of a policy, while you were reluctant to allow full-on nigerian army and nigerian regime bh which committed atrocities. when you try to explain the nuance and the grays of your time as secretary of state when you're up against the accusatory culture that she is now in, it's going to be difficult.

it's easy compared to explaining or trying to defend everything they're going to throw at her from her time at state. >> you know what i think fuels this? not so much information. information is scant, even the people who say benghazi all day long don't have a lot of information to give you. the fuel is the anger. >> yes. >> the free floating anger the at obama and now being gradually shifted to her. it's so ferocious it will power any attack. steve duecy or rush limb bauer or laura i thingraham, it now s to have weight. hate has weight. if you say something about them, it now somehow seems vaguely material. >> we' seen it since barack obama became the front runner 2008, the hatred that has propelled conservatives and republicans to do everything in their power to go after him.

they're going to do it against hillary clinton because simply right now she is front-runner on the democratic side in 2016. it's unfortunate, though, because it gives us a chance to really sit down as a nation and really think about what should our foreign policies been and how has the u.s. dealt with africa as a continent, the big picture. >> wednesday reporting in the "daily beast" hillary's state department refused to brand boko haram as terrorists. she was even charged with hypocrisy. here it is. >> now word is because we did not place them on the terrorist list of officially known terrorist groups it's going to be harder to go after them. and who made sure they were not placed on the terror list? hillary clinton. for hillary clinton now over the last couple of days to talk about how bad they are, given the fact that she could have

done something a couple of years ago and did not. and the fact that her big initiative last week was to help women and girls, there's a little hypocrisy going on. >> rush limbaugh went further, also blaming the president for not personally overriding the state department's decision on boko haram. >> why just blame hillary? certainly obama could have overrule perd d her. i just think this is pathetic. we have 300 nigerian girls kidnapped by an al qaeda group. now we're on a big push to get them back. >> an al qaeda group. he snuck that one in. and ingraham cited a previous attack on young boys and asked why the administration was so slow off the mark. >> this past february, the group burned 59 young boys to death in northeastern nigeria. no loud calls to intervene then.

but now suddenly political elites want u.s. action. where was that powerful drum beat for justice against those who slaughtered american citizens in benghazi. >> the concept, first of all, he did name all three of the top leaders to the terror list two years ago when they're saying when did he do it. this idea that we're responsible for every acre of property on the planet and if something goes wrong, we should be there. that's not a conservative argument. that's not what they believe, is it? we should be involved in the internal politics of a country -- >> they once had a president who ran for president and got elected on the idea that we were not into nationwide bilding. do you remember that? that was george w. bush. i just think that it's dem demonolo demonology. there are jilegitimate question you can ask about hillary's tenure as secretary of state. but as you pointed out, they begin at the end. they begin with the demonization

by definition, she has to have something extremely wrong. the president has to have done something extremely wrong and they will work their way backwards to that, to whatever facts ultimately they think might prove the case. even throwing stuff out that turns out to be wrong 24 hours later. that they never even apologized for. they're just going to move forward in that fashion. it's a psychological thing, chris. they take comfort in their own fears. it's a form of political cocooning and it's going to go on with this and any other issue they can come up with. as long as hillary is around. >> are we going to have a select committee on nigeria now? >> when did the republican party take a keen interest in africa. >> i was going to say. it was very nice to see all these conservatives beating the battle drum for justice for people who look like me. truth is, bush administration, obama administration has been ignoring the fact that we have islamist extremists creeping up

all over africa and it's time, rather than put the blame on hillary clinton or barack obama or quite frankly george bush, it's time we sit down and think are we really so tired about talking about america post 9/11, and are we really so war weary after iraq, afghanistan, iran and all the other conflicts in libya and elsewhere that we are willing to continue to ignore countries like africa. continents like africa. nigeria is the most populous, important country to the united states. >> wednesday night, just to prove this was all about exploitation and opportunism. newt gingrich who never misses a chance, congressman should hold hearings on why the state department refused to tell the truth about boko haram in nigeria. and the homeland security committee, peter king of new york and patrick meehan of new york asked john kerry asking him

to explain decisions made. fair enough. this thing about newt gingrich you've got to wonder. this is just a proof of opportunity. by the way, the reason newt is tweeting is because he's not on the air. he's not using the old crossfire -- >> he doesn't have a bully pulp pulpit. >> up there with donald trump now>> it's shameful politics and i would be remiss if i didn't mention the fact that hillary clinton back in beijing jeers ago was one of the first leaders to say women's rights are human rights. we're talk act the abduction of just slightly under 300 young girls in nigeria and we're playing politics with the lives of young women. that's sick on both sides of the aisle. >> the women's issue is one very important part of the equation. the other not so sub sub text here is religion. it's faith. there was an attack in a catholic church in nigeria.

where boko haram killed people. >> because they're kooth licks. >> and what the connective tissue here is for the people attacking hillary and barack obama is that somehow they're soft on islamists. they don't say nit quite those words, but that's what they're -- >> because obama is a muslim. >> there you go. >> for anyone who doesn't really understand that you're making a joke, we should really say that he is not a muslim. people who normally watch fox. >> i'm translating for the clowns in the clown car. >> that's what this is really about. this is as much about religion as it is about gender. and that's the connection between hillary and barack obama that they're somehow swirning on this thing. >> they're on the other side. in these words, they throw out it's all about trying to demonize, i think, is so smart. i will argue that the fuel again, as i said a few moments

ago, the fuel of every one of the attacks is not information. because there is no real information about it. there's a murkiness about some of these things, like benghazi. it is murkiness what happened that night. but they use that open vacuum of murkiness and fill it with hatred. and hatred says we hate them so much they must be guilty. and that's it. >> and while they're doing it, we don't know what's happening to these young women in nigeria. >> i'm hopeful we've got s.e.a.l.s, guys with more guts than they can imagine. they're going to go into the jungle and find them we're the best at that. let's hope the courageous people who fight for this country are going to do the job here if they get a chance. >> the republican obsession over benghazi, eight investigations apparently weren't enough. they've chosen the members of the latest committee to investigate this supposed scandal. the democrats haven't picked anyone. plus, how desperate are republicans about 2016? they still can't find someone

who hid that center right sweet spot in a far right party. surprising there. and how do you choose sides in a race between birther ted yoho and his republican challenger jake rush. i love these names. who spends his spare time playing a vampire. just ask stephen colbert. finally, kathleen matthews there she is, former top news anchor here in washington is coming on to talk about the spiking global interest in women's issues. from the whorrors of nigeria to the smashing of the glass cheel l ceiling here at home. salmon . but the energy bp produces up here salmon . creates something else as well: jobs all over america. engineering and innovation jobs. advanced safety systems & technology. shipping and manufacturing. across the united states, bp supports more than a quarter million jobs. when we set up operation in one part of the country, people in other parts go to work. that's not a coincidence.

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that corporate trial by fire when every slacker gets his due. and yet, there's someone around the office who hasn't had a performance review in a while. someone whose poor performance is slowing down the entire organization. i'm looking at you phone company dsl. check your speed. see how fast your internet can be. switch now and add voice and tv for $34.90. comcast business built for business. >> christmas came early for the seven lucky republicans picked to be on the select committee on benghazi. one of the most coveted tickets, if you will, in republican politics. john boehner tweeted the lineup earlier today. if it looked a bit like an announcement of a circus coming to town and not the investigative body looking into a national security tragedy, you could be forgiven.

any wooi, the group is a mix of establishment and tea party republicans. but the fact is after eight investigations so far, more than a dozen hearings and thousands of pages of documents, is this really a search for the truth or a clown show. here is nancy pelosi today. the fact is this is a political stunt. issa is damaged goods. they had to move from him to another venue with another chairman. that's what this is. we've been here, done this, over and over again. and so the question is, is there at least a level of decency in terms of respect? >> a level of decency, don't count it, madam chairman. the democrats have to to decide if they're boycott the committee or provide their own members. charles krauthammer wrote today,

all that matters is the committee produces new important facts. i agree with him on that, by the way. why do you guys disagree? here we are friday night. who thinks with me, i'm tilt the scale here. who thinks with me and elijah cummings it's better to show up, catch them in the contact of buffoonery, call them on their crap or that it is to stand in the sunlight. >> i think they should participate but play this game under protest. elijah cummings has shown with darrell issa, he got the better of him again and again. they will be putting out every little memo they can find with any sentence or phrase. and i think it's good for the democrats to know this.

>> i think the event, the hearings have already been so politici politicized, the republicans are starting in a bad position. we're doing this under protest. we think this is a circuit. >> i say boycott. the recent history shows the party that mucks up in washington doesn't really pay a price for mucking up the process in washington. >> they did in '98. >> they got confused by these questions. cummings was a good foil to issa

on that committee. the democrats can stand right in the hall way outside the hearing room. ready access for reporters, ready to counterpunch. >> michael dukakidukakis, be thd defend an attack. never hide from it and take it. oh, the people will never fall for this bs. i think hillary clinton, by the way, i know she's not running, but she's suffering right now from not having a war room. a bunch of guys like carville and those guys that pound back, throw it right back. anyw anyway, here's charles krauthammer assuming a sort of referee's role here. he says gowdy needs to keep the hearings clean and strictly fact oriented. questions only. no speech fiing. these hearings are a big political risk for the republicans. they stand to benefit from the major issues. obamacare. the economy, chronic unemployment. from which benghazi hearings can only distract. worse, if botched like previous

hearings on the matter, these hearings could backfire against the gop. as did the 1998 clinton impeachment proceedings. so far, there's no evidence the republicans are taking charles' advice. >> my fair fear is they'll come out with something like a memo and say guess what? we got this incredible memo! but it's nothing. >> i think this is about two things. background nose. some taint of scandal. the other thing is they want to set up a situation where at the end of the day, they're not going to get any real scandal here. i think on both fronts, having a democrat in the room on both

fronts will make that even harder to pull off. >> can hillary clinton avoid this? >> i don't know. i think she would have to come if a skmit tee of congress asked her to come in. >> henry waxman subpoenaed condee rice in 2007. heldry would have to go. >> the idea of self-policing isn't working anymore in politics. here he is, basically defending the use of the killing of those four diplomats overseas on watch for us. their killing is now vary game to raise money with and here he is saying so. here's mitt romney, the gentleman, talking here. >> i think what the republicans

have every right to say and is roept to say, if republicans do not have a majority is there would not be an investigation into benghazi. elect republicans so we can have these kinds of investigations is appropriate. >> he doesn't know what he's talking about. >> he's talking about raising money. if we go out and raise money on this horror out there, then it's fine. >> he's factually wrok. -- wrong. there have been eight investigations. two were by the senate and the senate is run by democrats. >> do you remember aft9/11, democrats going out with fundraising e-mails and solicitations saying george bush awill youed terrorists to kill 3,000 americans so give us money so we can investigate? maybe that happened but i certainly don't remember democrats making that sort of argume

argume argument. certainly not the leaders of the party, the elder satesmen. it's amazing you can do this these days and not have the referee come out and blow the whistle at you. >> i think something has changed. the hate against the president, the far right, the fringe right, and has moved over to the scepter right, i agree with that. they hate him. to the point where ingraham and those people on the right, all they have to do is voice that hate, each though i don't think they all share it. some are just doing it professionally. they just have to play that incredible power of hatred to just say, hillary did this, obama did this and that's enough. i've never seen anything like

it. the white way accused of being uppity? >> we know what this means. i9's not even code. it's not even code. >> it's birth of the nation. it's early 20th century talk. >> i had 50 don serve tifs on my twitter feed telling me there's no racial connotation on the word uppity. >> it's an adjectives. excuse me, guys, we're americans and have grown up with the good, the bad and the ugly of our country. it's got it all. have a nice weekend, you guys. have a nice mother's day where it's appropriate. by the way, you have to rely on the people who are the mothers. up next, a part-time vampire and full-time republican running for the united states congress makes a mistake of talking to stephen colbert. that's always a mistake, usually. this is "hardball" the place for politics. with diabetes, it's tough to keep life balanced.

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>> there's an adage in military and law enforcement you never want to take the same war twice. >> like going into iraq twice. >> right. >> which one of those should we not have done? >> stephen, the problem with -- i don't know, wars are complicated. >> good. that's good enough. >> welcome back to "hardball." welcome back for "the side show." that was stephen colbert sitting down with jake rush, florida conscious dm congressional candidate. jake rush likes to role play as a vampire with several altar egos. here's colbert asking him about that. >> you go by the alter egos c chazz darling, the creaseler and ach bishop keterring. >> you're speaking to jake rush. >> that is a great character

name. >> that's my name. >> jake rush early one morning he didn't know why there was blood on his sheets. all he knew there was a dead woman in bed with him. what happens next? >> hopefully he gets out the vote. >> what a mismatch of minds there. he says playing a vampire role helps him focus on privacy rights and personal freedom. i'm sure. next up, on a appearance on late night, larry king shared his story about a fender bender with political great in florida. mr. king said he became distracted looking at the mansions in the community. listen to what he says happened next. i looked up, suddenly there's a

guy parked in a convertible. i hit him. we're the only two people on the road. so he gets out of the car and he goes like this. how could you? how could you hit me? i said i'm sorry. i was looking at the houses. i'm sorry. do you want to exchange licenses? he said i'm senator john kennedy of massachusetts. i'm going to run for president in two years. i want you all to swear you'll vote for me. we voted for him. >> i don't think kennedy talks like this. i'm just guessing. it's a great story. up next, republicans still can't find that presidential candidate who can hit the center right sweet spot and avoid an election day debacle in 2016. they're still looking for that mr. right. i rebalanced my portfolio on my phone. you know what else i can do on my phone? place trades, get free real time quotes and teleport myself to aruba.

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>> president obama praised walmart's investment and energy efficiency and renewables during a visit to a store in mountain view, california. the visit was part of a broader energy reform push. the white house is criticizing a visit by vladimir putin to crimea which it says will only serve to fuel tensions there. and dick parsons is picked to run the clippers. back to "hardball." >> republicans have become a far right party, but in republican presidential politics, center right is the sweet spot. because then you can win. along the spectrum of potential gop, which includes ted cruz and

rand paul, critical center right real estate is up for grabs. mitt romney of all people has shown he doesn't want to be too far away from the arena in case that center right slot needs to be filled because jeb doesn't run and christie is not clean enough to run. in the past few months he's been very visible on the sunday shows. he's endorsed republican candidates in the 2014 cycle and given money to others. and this morning he popped up on "morning joe." ." pe he tacked very much to the center on the issue of minimum wage. >> for instance, i part company on the issue of minimum page. i think we ought to raise it. frankly, our party is all about more jobs and better pay. anyway, he hopes that hillary clinton's term as secretary of state will hurt her in 2016. >> i think her record there is a very substantial liability for her cam panl in 2016 i think it's going to raise a lot of

questions about her capacity to accomplish things of significance. particularly on foreign soil. >> as gene mccarthy, my hero once said famously, it's easier to run for president than to stop. and based on his frequent tv appearances of late, and political endorsements, it looks like mitt romney wants to stick close to the action. >> i think you're brilliantly direct krekt. he still looks like he belongs in the hall of the presidents down at disneyworld. but go ahead. your thoughts. >> another thing that romney did on the morning joe appearance this morning was to say he didn't want to run for president again. he said he doesn't think the united states wants to elect anybody who's already won twice and lost. i think he's probably right. the country clearly has no big clamor for mitt romney. but what he did do was he sort of signaled who he thought would fill that assistanter rice space you like to talk about. he talked about paul ryan, his running mate in 2012.

he talked about rob portman, he talked about mike pence, the governor from indiana. he talked about scott walker. he laid out a whole list of people he said would basically match hip in terms of his views. >> why is he talking? why is he on television? just to promote other people? or is he trying to keep our eye on him? i like kasich, but they're pretty far back on the bench. there isn't anybody sitting on that front step of the republican party right now. i guess he feels like why should he do the proverbial sherm sherman-esque statement and say under no irk ises will i run.

but weave already even chris christie implode and jeb dependent get off to a great start either. >> let me just explain my limited role around here. besides genuinely doing the show is history. and beth is pretty much right, except i know a man who ran for presidency three times and ran on the third time, ronald reagan. he ran in '68 -- oh, that doesn't count. it doesn't count. >> you know why it doesn't? because california is out of play for republicans. ronald reagan, he was the governor of california and it was very much a republican state. >> but he ran three times. >> there's no doubt mitt romney thinks he would be a terrific president and the only thing 245 cures presidential ambition is em balming fluid. it's not just that he lost twice. all the conservatives and all the republicans basically believe he lost an election that was his to win.

>> he won the first debate. he probably goes to bed thinking if i won two debates, not one, i would be president. >> the 47%. they blame. >> republicans exhaust all other possibilities before going for the most obvious one, the center right guy, whether it was romney, whether it was mccain. even george w. bush. they do have a history of doing this after they flirt with all these other guys. and it's certainly there for the taking. there's nobody above 13 or 14 points in the republican polls right now. there's, like, nine candidates within seven points of each other. >> you look at this all the time. here's my question, the republicans have a make a decision, can they beat hillary? the polls will be close enough to say we can knock her off, we can take her down. or decide we can't beat her, so let's have fun and do what we really believe and run somebody on the right. go for it, which means go to the center, don't pick the person that you love. go to the person you got to live

with. i think the one closest right now to the center is hillary. >> just think about the list of people that you and dana just went through. every single one of them was the center candidate, every single one of them lost. >> george w. won. >> we're going back quite a few years there. and the country has changed a lot there. >> that's only a small part of my life. it may be a big part of yours. but not mine. >> the bigger problem for republicans in time is structural. democrats have in the last 20 years won 18 state that was produced 248 electoral votes. that is starting with such a huge advantage. and the rest of the states that aren't in that category are states like florida that are moving more and more towards the democratic side. >> but what about the tendency of the country to rotate the stock? and every eight years they tend to go back and fovrt with some exceptions like people wanted a third term for reagan and dukakis was a bad candidate politically. but there's a tremendous challenge to somebody who tries to hold the white house.

for that last 12 years. that means 16 years. it's really hard to sell that one. >> it is. but what we're missing here is spruns are up against this huge demographic problem. it's very hard for them to thread the needle. it will be even worse in 2020 and 2024 beyond that. they have to thread it just properly. you're not going to get that with a rand paul. >> by the way, hillary, sherrod brown owning ohio, they win the election. that's my argument. i'm not in charge. sherrod brown and hillary wins. up next, who better to talk about mother's day and women's issue around this world than somebody who travels around the world all the time. my wife kathleen. and she's coming here next. the day we rescued riley was a truly amazing day. he was a matted mess in a small cage. so that was our first task, was getting him to wellness. without angie's list, i don't know if we could have found all the services we needed for our riley.

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the twist and nub design cleans all the way down to the gum line, even reaching the back teeth. they taste like a treat, but they clean like a toothbrush. nothing says you care like a milk-bone brushing chew. [ barks ] welcome back to "hardball." have you noticed the attention to women's issues around the world. there's a focus on women and girls and we've seen it through the horrors, fk o, in nigeria recently where 276 girls were abducted by a military group that sparked international outrage. we've seen positive attention in the fight to women for equal pay, a crackdown on sexual abuse and possibly the first woman's president of the united states in hillary clinton. we've also seen it in business, billionaire coo of facebook, an advocate for women and girls, cheryl sandberg created a movement after releasing her book "lean in."

from world affairs to government or business, thes facing the world these days are ripe for leadership for women. there's only one woman i can think of to discuss this for me and with me ahead of this mother's day weekend, the mother oof our three children, my wife, kathleen matthews. thank you for joining us. it's on these special occasions that i ask you to come on and you've agreed. but there is something in the air where centuries have gone by, maybe back to the beginning of time where men dominated the conversation. the conversation, not just the power. and now the conversation is shifting. it clearly has in my lifetime. >> i think we' seen the conversation ebb and flow. i mean, i got into the work force in the 1970s and i remember at that time this was going to be the big movement of women into the work force and towards equality and pay and different things. and i would have imagined i would have seen a lot more ceos that were women by this point in my lifetime. and i think what you see is you see progress and then you see a

couple steps backward. but something like the young women who have been kidnapped in nigeria. that's not a women's issue, but i think this is this outrage and this -- >> to them it is. >> what about what about the mothers who have these 300 daughters who are missing and the fathers that are worried about those daughters. i think to see the world cat liez around that, whether it is first lady michelle obama, hillary clinton talking about it, women all over the world. nigeria is a country that has a finance minister who is a woman. it is a country that's trying to move into this century. women's rights are going to have to be at the forefront of that. you'll have to have the women of nigeria feel safe, to feel that they have opportunity. otherwise a country like that, even though it has eclipsed south africa, it won't be a world power until women have rights and feel safe in a country like that. >> what do you do with a country

that's an alley, they're basically subjective to the men. >> these are tough questions on the foreign policy front. how do we move these countries forward. in saudi arabia, women are trying to drive cars. they don't even have the right to drive cars. they're posting their videos on youtube. they're being educated, but it is a segregated education system and women cannot have jobs alongside men in that economy. how can saudi arabia move into the leading economies of the world and sort of the progress of this century, unless they deal with those issues, which for them they say are religious issues. i think the u.s. finds ourselves often times in really difficult positions in how we deal with these diplomatic issues and we have problems at home. you talk about equal pay. we are talking about it not because it is a positive issue, we are talking about it because studies show there is not necessarily equal pay. on our corporate boards, 16% of the representatives on corporate boards are women. they should be closer to 50%.

ceos, it is the same. companies like marriott have women's strategies now, we are trying to make progress in -- >> what do you think of lean forward, lean in. >> let me lean in. >> what's that mean? >> lean in is about the fact that i think sheryl sandberg believes women have a role in this, too, that women have to kind of push to take their place. they've got to be demanding of those opportunities and they've got to take advantage of those opportunities. i think what she's saying is companies will not flourish unless they have the diversity of men and women. you need that diversity, in age, in gender, in racial representation in order to have a smart business i think, or a smart government. so she's saying companies have to do this. governments have to do it. but women also have to lean in to take those opportunities. and so that's why this dialogue is out there. it is out there because you still see lagging progress, and

i think that no company or no country is going to flourish unless they take advantage of the intellectual potential of women, the economic power of women, the countries doing the best are ones where women are leaning in and are out there. >> what's your reaction to what sven holmes said when you recruit women for top accountant jobs, men immediately say i can fill a couple of those standards and bs my way through a couple more. women want to fit every one of the standards. when are women going to have the ability to say i can do this, even if it doesn't technically mean i can do it. where guys say i can do it. >> it is kind of a two-way street. this is how girls grow up. you have girls like cheryl sand berg and condi rice saying girls have to embrace being pushy, what is the word, that they have a word for it where girls are seen as being pushy if they say i want to be class president,

not class vice president, or secretary. i think it is how you raise your daughters. how do you think we raised our daughter. >> she will be president someday or something. >> but she's got to get through, number one, does she want to have a family, if she has a family, how much does she leave the work force for that. what are the things in place to help her raise that family. will she find a husband that will share this load with her. we have been lucky to have a marriage where we both were full time in our careers and had the joy of raising children, which we celebrate on this mother's day coming up, and to be able to sort of pursue careers at the same time, feeling like we had great quality time with our kids. >> kathleen, i agree with everything you said. >> because you have been a great partner in all this. >> i wish i could be as equal to greatness as you are. we will be right back. kathleen matthews, i have words to speak of her when she's gone. back after this.

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let me finish tonight with what kathleen just told us. we have been together 36 years, and i have been fortunate to watch her grow from a local tv producer to a top news anchor in the nation's capital to a highly placed corporate executive. i watched her educate herself as i tried to do to the challenges facing this world, including those challenging women. she has taken particular interest in the horror of hiv

and aids in africa, with special focus on transmission of infection from mother to children. she has gotten our own children as they grow older to get involved in this work of caring for african kids born with aids. kathleen has also been a proponent of encouraging the development of micro entrepreneurialism. efforts to help women especially begin small businesses in places like rural africa. i love her big picture look at the world that she's gained over the years as executive vice president of marriott international. she took me on a trip to china as a business trip, gave me a look at that incredible country as it zooms into the 21st century. there's no limit to where kathleen herself is zooming, i am so lucky, don't you think? all the time the best mother of michael, thomas and caroline. i look into the kids faces and they love every ounce of real concern and consistent love that kathleen gives them. she worked with them on the homework mostly and the one that

focused on their medical care, the one that made sure they grew up in richard with all the cultural sophistication out there. happy mother's day to all of you out there, especially to the queen. and that's hardball. thanks for being with us. "all in" with chris hayes starts now. good evening from the sweet auburn spring fest in atlanta, georgia. i'm chris hayes. and we are very lucky to be live here in atlanta, a key battleground in the fight to raise the minimum wage. a place where hundreds of fast food workers have gone on strike over the past 12 months to fight for $15 an hour. where congressman john lewis marched with workers, one of the dozens of cities across the country where