shame game. let's play "hardball." good evening. i'm chris matthews. in washington, let me start with the latest smear of hillary clinton. now it's nigeria. the accusation now flying across the right wing air waves from fox to limbaugh is that the u.s. secretary of state is guilty of letting those 200 girls get taken prisoner of nigeria. they say the guy who grabbed those girls and took them off into the jungle 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 that everything that goes wrong and causes horror is now going to be counted by the hate hillary crowd. no matter where, no matter if it's in an uncontrolled region of an african country or an ungoverned war torn libya, hillary clinton was on watch and should have kept it from happening. this is an absurdly unfair standard. has any democrat done this to w or cheney or any of that bunch? any time we faced an ambush in iraq, afghanistan, a bombing, the blame hung on the shoulders of the country's top officers?

i must have missed it. by the lethal standard of the hate hillary club, the one being road tested with nigeria, the attack on new york and washington in september of 2001, the fact that nobody saw that one coming should have led to the president, the vice president, and the rest of this country security officialdom to be hung up in change. with us is howard fineman of the "huffington post" and michelle bernard of the bernard center for women. howard, it seems every day brings if you read a quality newspaper bad news somewhere. something happens, crap happens, however we want to phrase it. now the automatic machine says hillary did it. they should check a couple of facts. while the organization wasn't named, the three top leaders were. that was decided after a my anud decision. your thoughts? >> chris, 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 a connection back to the state department or back to american policy. >> 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 details of a policy, why you were reluctant to allow yourself full on with the nigerian army and the nigerian regime which committed atrocities when you try to explain the nuance and grays in your time as secretary of state, when you're up against the accusatory culture which she's in, it's going to be difficult. the monica thing is easy compared to explaining or trying to defend everything they're going to throw at her from her time at state over the last

year. >> you know what fuels this, not information. they don't have a lot of information to give you. the fuel is the anger. the free-floating anger at obama and now being gradually shifted today her. the anger is so ferocious that it will power any attack by itself. in other words, the fire in the eyes of steve doucey or rush limbaugh or laura imgram is so ferocious that it has weight. isn't that funny, that hate has weight. if you hate somebody enough, that whatever you say about them seems somehow vaguely material. >> well, i mean, we've seen it since barack obama became the front-runner in 2008. the hatred that has propelled conservatives and republicans to do everything in their power to go after him. i agree with you they're going to do that against hillary

clinton. she is the front-runner in 2016. it gives us a chance to sit down in our nation and think about what should our foreign policy be and how has the u.s. dealt with africa, the continent. >> a wednesday report in the daily beast titled hillary state department refused to brand boko haram as terrorists. several were quick to blame former secretary of state hillary clinton for what's going on in nigeria even charging her with hypocrisy. here it is. >> now word is because we dp not place them on the terror list of officially known terrorist groups, it's going to be harder to go after them. and who exactly made sure that 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 there on boko haram. >> my point is why just blame hillary. certainly obama could have overruled her. i just think this is pathetic. i'm just stunned. we have 300 nigerian girls kidnapped by a nigerian group. now all of a sudden for some reason we're on a big push to get them back. >> an al qaeda group. last night on fox laura ingram cited a previous attack on nigerian children, in this case 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? >> you know, 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 we' are responsible fr every acre of property and we should be there, that's not a conservative argument. that's not what they believe, that we should be involved in that. >> they once had a president who ran for president and got elected on the idea that we were not into nation building, remember that? that was george w. bush. now i just think that it's demonology. there are legitimate questions you can ask about hillary's tren o tenure as secretary of state. they begin at the end with the dem monization. by definition she has to have done 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 apologize for. they're going to move forward in that fashion. >> wednesday night, to proof this is all about exploitation and opportunism, they called for congressional hearings. here he is tweeting, quote, congress should hold hearings on why clinton's state department refused to tell truth about radical islamic boko haram in nigeria. the security committee peter king and patrick meehan of pennsylvania sent a letter to secretary of state john kerry asking him to explain the decisions the state department made regarding boko haram in 2008. this thing about newt gingrich, you have to wonder, chris, this is prove of opportunity. the reason newt is tweeting is

he's not on the air. he's not using the old "crossfire." >> it is shameful politics. i would be remiss if i didn't mention the fact that hillary clinton back in beijing years ago was one of the first u.s. leaders to come out and say women's rights are legal rights. he people poo-pooed it. we're talking about the abduction of slightly under 300 young girls in nigeria. we're playing politics with the lives of the women. that's sick. >> women's rights is one part of the issue. the other sub subtext is religion. there was an attack on a catholic church in nigeria where they killed people. >> because they're catholics? >> because they're catholics. and what the connective tissue is for the people attacking hillary and barack obama is that somehow they're soft on islamists. they don't say it in quite those

words, but that's what they're talking about. >> because obama is a muslim? >> there you go. >> for anyone who doesn't understand it. we should say he really is not a muslim. anybody who watches fox -- >> translate it for the clowns. >> you and i know exactly how they're connecting the dots, 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 squishy on this thing. >> they're on the other side because they're traitors of course by their definitions. these words they throw out, it's all about trying to demonize. i will argue that the fuel, again, as i said a few minutes ago, the fuel of every one of their attacks is not information. there is no real information about it. there ace a murkiness about benghazi. this is murkiness what happened that night, but they use that open vacuum of murkiness and they fill it with hatred and

hatred says we hate him so much they must be guilty and that's it. >> and while they're doing it we don't know what's happened to these young women in nigeria or young women all over the world. >> let me be positive. i'm hoping we have s.e.a.l.s, we have guys with more guts and we can go in there and find them. >> i hope so. >> thank you. coming up, that republican obsession over benghazi i said, eight investigations apparently weren't enough. they've chosen the members of the latest committee to investigate this supposed scandal. they've been picked. the democrats haven't picked anyone. it's not clear they will. plus, how desperate are republicans for 2016? they can't find someone to hit the center right sweet spot in a surprising far right party. how do you choose someone between birther, ted yoho, i love that name, and jake rush. i love these names. who spends his time playing vampire. kathleen matthews, former

top news anchor here in washington is coming on to talk about the spiking global interest in women's interests from the horrors of nigeria stot smashing of the glass ceiling at home and everything in between. this is "hardball," a place for politics.

welcome back to "hardball." christmas came early for the eight people picked to be on the select committee. john boehner tweeted the lineup earlier today. if it looked to you a little bit like the announcement to a circus coming to town, sure does to me, not the investigative body looking into a national security tragedy you could be forgiven. where are the elephants in the street? the group is a mix of establishment and tea party republicans. the fact is, after eight

investigations so far, more than a dozen hearings, 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 is this is a stunt. this is a political stunt and the fact that -- i mean, issa just is damaged goods. they had to move from him to another venue with another chairman. that's what this is. we've been there, 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 on it, madam chairman. the democrats have to decide whether they will boycott the committee or get their own members to come in. as charles wrote today, all that matters is whether the committee produces new, important facts. i agree with him on that one, by the way. david cornish is the washington bureau chief and michael tomaski

is a special correspondent for ""the daily beast."" i guess the question is why do you guys disagree. here we are friday night. who thinks with me, i'll tilt the scale here, who thinks with me and elijah cummings, the ranking democrat in that committee, it's better to show up, catch them in the act of buffoonery and call them on their crap or stand in the sunlight and let them get all the attention. should the dems show up? >> i think they should participate but play this game under protest. you know, i think elijah cummings has already shown a lot of ways that he can sort of -- with darrell issa how he got the better of him again and again. i think you want to know, because 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, the investigation have already

been so polite sized that the republicans are starting in a very bad position and it's not as if the democrats are being seen as legitimizing this if they participate knowing that, you know, in a way which they're saying we're doing this under protest. we think this is a circus. >> okay. so -- >> i say better to be -- >> you say don't show? >> i say boycott. history shows -- recent history shows the party that mucks up the process in washington, which mostly has been republicans these last six years, doesn't really pay a price for mucking up the process in washington. >> they did in '98. >> they did in '98. most people get confused by these questions though. i don't think the democrats would pay a price for boycotting. i think there are other ways they could handle it. david makes good points. cummings was a good foil to issa. >> he's dignified. >> yeah, he is dignified. i can see that. >> here's mitt romney. he can be a gentleman. he's well bred and all of that stuff.

here he is base is i cically de the use of killing those four democrats on watch for us, their killing is now fair game to raise money with. here he is saying so on "morning joe." let's watch him. this is mitt romney, the gentleman talking here. >> i think what the republicans have every right to say and is appropriate to say is that if republicans were not in the congress, if republicans did not have a majority in the congress, there would not be an investigation into benghazi and so to say, look, elect republicans so we can have these kinds of investigations is appropriate. >> he doesn't know -- he doesn't know what he's talking about. >> he's talking about raising money. he says it's already -- he's saying, michael and david, if we go out and raise money on this horror out there, then it's fine. >> but factually wrong. there have been eight -- >> michael first. >> there have been eight investigations, two of them were done by the senate on a bipartisan basis. senate is run by democrats last i checked. so he doesn't really know what he's talking about factually.

>> that's true. >> all of these investigations, and the other thing is, do you remember after 9/11 democrats go out with fundraising e-mails and solicitation letters saying george bush allowed terrorists to kill 3,000 americans so give us money so we can investigate? maybe that hanppened, but i dont remember democrats making that argument, certainly the elder states men. he's trying to justify something that is unjustifiable. he's getting his facts wrong. it's amazing that you can do this these days and not have a referee come out and blow the whistle at you. >> i just think something has changed. i'll go back to what i said in the first segment, guys, you weren't here yet. the hate against the president -- >> yeah. >> -- which we all know started at the fact of people looking at his face in some cases, here he is named in some cases, and that grew of course across the ideological spectrum and started at the fringe right, and has moved to the senate right, they hate him. to the point where laura ingram and people who have brains, all they have to do is sort of voice

that hate, even though i don't think they all share it. some are doing it professiona y professionally. they have to play that -- hillary did this, obama did this, that's enough. >> look what they're willing to do. lynn wes mooreland who is on the committee called obama upity. he's a leader. >> can he be uppity? can a white guy be uppity? >> maybe, chris. it's not even cloed. >> birth of the nation. it's early 20th century -- >> you should know. there was no racial connotation to the word uppity. none. >> it's an adjective. excuse me, guys. we are americans. we've grown up with the good, the bad and the ugly of our country. it has it all. thank you, david corn, michael

tomasky. have a nice mother's day where it's appropriate where you have to rely on the people who are the mothers. up next, a part-time vampire and full-time republican, the same guy, makes the mistake of talking to stephen colbert. that's always a mistake usually. anyway, this is "hardball," the place for politics. ys leaves a trail of crumbs behind. you're going to have a problem with getting a wife. uh, yeah, i guess. [ laughs ] this is ridiculous. christopher glenn! [ doorbell rings ] what is that? swiffer sweep & trap. i think i can use this. it picks up everything. i like this. that's a lot of dirt. it's that easy! good job chris! i think a woman will probably come your way. [ both laugh ]

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which one of those should we not have done? >> the problem with -- i don't know. wars are complicated. >> good. welcome back to "thahardbal"

that was stephen colbert sitting down with steven rush. they're challenging ted yoho. jake rush likes to roll play as a vampire with several alter egos. i'm not making this up. here's colbert asking him about that. >> you go by the alter egos chazz darling, staffs van wynst. and archbishop keterring. who am i speaking to now? >> you're speaking to jake rush. >> that was a great character name. >> that's my real name. >> jake rush woke 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 what happens next? >> hopefully he gets out the vote, gets people motivated to come out. >> what a mishmash of minds

there. rush says -- he says being open about his vampire role helps him focus on privacy rights and personal freedom. that's "hard ball"for now. up next "your business." because beautiful skin goes with everything. [ female announcer ] aveeno® daily moisturizing lotion has active naturals® oat with five vital nutrients naturally found in healthy skin. where do i wear aveeno®? everywhere. aveeno® daily moisturizing lotion.. and try the body wash too. aveeno®. naturally beautiful results™.

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