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 to all corners of planet hate is that the recent u.s. secretary of state is guilty of letting those 200 girls get taken prisoner in nigeria. that's right. 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 on this country's recent top diplomat. no matter where, no matter if it's in an uncontrolled region of an african country or an ungoverned war torn libya, hillary rodham clinton was on watch and should have kept it from happening. this is an absurdly unfair standard. it suggests a world-class dereliction on clinton's part wherever anything went wrong anywhere. has any democrat done this to w. or cheney or any of that bunch? any time we faced an ambush in afghanistan or iraq or a roadside attack or a bombing that 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 crowd, the one now being road tested with nigeria, the attack on new york and washington in september 2001, the fact that nobody 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 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 in the world. 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. the fact is while the organization wasn't named, the three top leaders were. that was decided after a nuanced decision making about how to go after this group. and not to make every u.s. facility, every u.s.-owned company in nigeria 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 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 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 at obama and now being gradually shifted to her. the anger is so ferocious that it will power any attack by itself. in other words, the fire in the eyes of steve ducey or rush limbaugh or laura ingram is so ferocious that it seems to have 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 that they can in their power to go after him. i agree with you they're going to do that against hillary clinton simply because right now she is the 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 policy goals be and how has the u.s. dealt with africa as a continent? the big picture. >> here's how it started, a wednesday report in the daily beast titled hillary's state department refused to brand boko haram as terrorists. several conference media figures were quick to blame former secretary of state hillary clinton for what's happened in nigeria, even charging her with hypocrisy. here it is. >> now word is because we did 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 an al qaeda group and nobody cared or talked about it for awhile. hillary wouldn't call it a terror group. now all of a sudden for some reason we're on a big push to get them back. >> an al qaeda group. he snuck that one in. last night on fox laura ingram cited a previous attack on nigerian children, in this case against 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 that somehow we are 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? that we should be involved in the internal politics of a country that's not been ruled rather well like nigeria all these years? >> 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 tenure as secretary of state. but as you pointed out, they -- they -- they begin at the end. they begin with the demonization. >> right. >> 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, just to prove this is all about exploitation and opportunism, speaker of the house who never misses a chance to exploit some horror 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 islamist boko haram in nigeria. yesterday, chairman of the house homeland security committee, peter king of new york 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 back in 2011. fair enough, i think pat meehan has his head screwed on. this thing about newt gingrich, you have to wonder, chris, this the proof of opportunism. the reason newt is tweeting is

he's not on the air. he's not using the old "crossfire." >> and we've giving him the full -- >> -- same thing with donald trump now. >> 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 human rights and people pooh-poohed it. they ignored it. we are talking about the abduction and god knows what else 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 subtext here is religion. there was an attack on a catholic church in nigeria where boko hard imam 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. there you go. that's -- >> for anyone who doesn't understand it. we are making a joke. we should say he really is not a muslim. anybody who watches fox -- >> i'm translating 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 think they're so smart and i will argue that the fuel again, as i said a few moments ago, the fuel of every one of their attacks is not information. there is no real information about it. there's a murkiness about some of these things like 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. >> i'm hopeful they are, let me just be positive as we leave this topic, i'm hoping we have s.e.a.l.s, we have guys with mo guts than we can imagine who are going to go into that jungle and find them. 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 about 2016? they can't find someone to hit the center right sweet spot in a far right party. surprising there. >> how do you choogs 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.

kathleen matthews, former top news anchor here in washington is coming on to talk about the spiking global interest in women's issues from the horrors of nigeria to the smashing of the glass ceiling at home and everything in between. this is "hardball," a place for politics. ♪ (woman) this place has got really good chocolate shakes. (growls) (man) that's a good look for you. (woman) that was fun. (man) yeah. (man) let me help you out with the.. (woman)...oh no, i got it. (man) you sure? (woman) just pop the trunk. (man vo) i may not know where the road will lead, but... i'm sure my subaru will get me there. (announcer) love. it's what makes a subaru, a subaru. i got more advice than i knew what to do with. what i needed was information i could trust on how to take care of me and my baby. luckily, unitedhealthcare has a simple program

that helps moms stay on track with their doctors and get the right care and guidance-before and after the baby is born. simple is good right now. (anncr vo) innovations that work for you. that's health in numbers. unitedhealthcare. what are you waiting for? (vo) celebrate this memorial day with up to 40% off hotels at travelocity. (gnome) go and smell the roses.

welcome back to "hardball." 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 to you a little bit like the announcement for a circus coming to town, sure does to me, and 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 was 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 provide their own members to join in. can their presence on the committee blunt the republicans' partis partisanship? written today, all that matters is whether the committee produces new important facts. i agree with him on that one, by the way.

david corn is the washington bureau chief for mother jones and mikell thomas ki 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 crop or than it is to stand out in the sunlight and let them get all the attention? your thoughts first, david corn. 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 basically defending the use of killing those four diplomats overseas 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 happened, but i don't remember democrats making that argument, certainly not the leaders of the party, the elder statesmen. 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 and hearing his name, in some cases and that grew across the ideological spectrum starting at the far right, the fringe right and has moved over to the center 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 professionally. they have to play that -- incredible power of the hatred to just say -- hillary did this, obama did this, and that's enough. i've never seen anything like it. >> look what they're willing to do. lynn west moreland who is on the committee called obama uppity. and he is still considered to be a leader. >> can he be uppity? is a white guy capable of being uppity? >> maybe if you try really hard you can be uppity, chris. we know what this means. it's not even code. it's explicitly racial. >> birth of the nation. it's early 20th century -- >> you should know. i had 50 conservatives on my twitter feed telling me there was no racial connotation whatsoever 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 weekend. 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 running for the united states congress makes the mistake of talking to stephen colbert. that's always a mistake usually. anyway, this is "hardball," the place for politics. what does an apron have to do with car insurance? an apron is hard work. an apron is pride in what you do. an apron is not quitting until you've made something a little better. what does an apron have to do with car insurance? for us, everything. [ male announcer ] that's why there's ocuvite to help replenish key eye nutrients. ocuvite has a unique formula not found in your multivitamin to help protect your eye health.

ocuvite. help protect your eye health. ocuvite. hey there can i help you? (whispering) sorry. (whispering) hi, uh we need a new family plan. (whispering) how about 10 gigs of data to share and unlimited talk and text. (whispering) oh ten gigs sounds pretty good. (whispering) yeah really good (whispering) yeah and for a family of 4 it's a $160 a month.

what! get outta here! (whispering) i'm sorry are we still doing the whisper thing? or? (whispering) o! sorry! yes yes! (whispering) we'll take it. what is this place? where are we? this is where we bring together reliably fast internet and the best in entertainment. we call it the x1 entertainment operating system.

it looks like the future! we must have encountered a temporal vortex. further analytics are necessary. beam us up. ♪ that's my phone. hey. [ female announcer ] the x1 entertainment operating system. only from xfinity. tv and internet together like never before. there's an adage in military and law enforcement that you never want to have to take the same ground twice. it's costly. >> like going into war in iraq twice? >> right. >> which one of those should we not have done? >> stephen, the problem with -- i don't know. wars are complicated. >> good. good to know. welcome back to "hardball." time now for the side show. that was the great stephen

colbert sitting down with florida congressional candidate jake rush. the republicans challenging ted yoho. but has become more well-known for what he does in his free time. see, jake rush likes to role 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, stas van wp ynst and archbishop kettering. 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 mismatch of minds there. anyway. rush says -- that's rush there, says being ohm about his vampire role playing helps him focus on privacy rights, and personal freedom. that's "hardball" for now. coming up next, "your business" with j.j. ramberg. at delta we're investing billions of dollars, improving everything from booking to baggage claim. we're raising the bar on flying and tomorrow we'll raise it yet again.

little things, anyone can do. it steals your memories. your independence. insures support. a breakthrough. and sooner than you'd like... ...sooner than you think. ...you die from alzheimer's disease. ...we cure alzheimer's disease. every little click, call, or donation adds up to something big. alzheimer's association. the brains behind saving yours.

(agent) i'll walk you guys through every step. there are a lot of buyers for a house like yours. (husband) that's good to know.

a mother daughter embroidery business goes from brick and mortar to online in order to deliver better customer service. and the issues women small business owners face when they're the primary breadwinner. all that and more coming up next on "your business." small businesses are revitalizing the economy. and american express open is here to help. that's why we are proud to present "your business" on msnbc.