people of ferguson will actually go home and use the process, you know, don't let their elected officials off the hook. call them and say what are you doing about this situation? because this really should not be a confrontation that's happening between the citizenry on the street. >> that will have to be our last word. thank you very much for joining us. thanks also to jim cavanaugh for joining us and for mr. pruitt of the naacp in st. louis. our live coverage of the situation there in missouri will continue now with chris hayes. good evening. let me start tonight with separation anxiety.

for the past two nights we covered the obama/clinton political tap dance. first hillary clinton interviewed in the atlantic in which she criticized obama's foreign policy. next, dissect the plate cal maneuvering, is she positioning herself for a 2016 run and separating herself from the president who is currently struggling in the polls. yesterday, the phone call. clinton calls obama to clear the air. a spokesman makes a statement saying it was to make sure nothing she said was meant to attack him. today a press release, a spokesman with this assess of this call and criticism. >> president indeed appreciating president clinton's call as he does every opportunity it chat with former secretary of state. they have a close relationship and the president appreciates counsel and advice but more importantly appreciates her friendship. that's why he is looking forward to seeing her this evening.

[ inaudible ] >> i'm not going to get into a behind the scenes here. >> the event this evening, deputy press secretary, eric schultz, referenced a birthday party for wife of vernon jordan. both clinton and obama will attend. a clinton spokesman said she looks forward to hugging it out with the president. intense focus and words as hillary clinton begins to reestablish her political branch, secretary of state, reminding us that everything clinton does is seen through the prism of likely 2016 run. even late night comics are in on the political moves. >> experts say hillary clinton is trying to distance herself from president obama as she gears up for 2016. you know, i think she's been trying to distance herself from obama for a while. check out this interview. >> her discipline, her stamina, her thoughtfulness and her ability to project, i think has made her an extraordinary

talent. she was also -- [ laughter ] >> joining me now is steve clemens and susan page. if you want prove that clinton/obama rift is big news, look at the headlines this week. the one that started it all. sharpest criticism with this headline. the obama/clinton discord was clear. the clinton falls obama on policy. new york post, clinton blames obama on stupid policy. these are just two old friends talking on the phone, i'm not quite sure if i buy that line. but this is something we will see a lot of between now and 2016. where hillary clinton feels this broader general election, where she wants to distance herself from the president or at least for right now, isn't doing that well in the polls.

at the same time, very delicate balancing act. this president is still beloved by the democratic party base. she walks this fine line. looks like this particular he episode will come to an end tonight, if and when they hug. how did she do in this sort of trial run for this separation strategy? >> you know, if she is running for president, and i think she is, she is going to need to talk about what it is she believes and what her world view is. when they ran against each other in 2008, they had different world views an policies and differences in policies are now being exposed are things she talked about to some degree in her book. so they shouldn't be a surprise. it shouldn't only be seen as political calculation. she needs to talk about what they're view would be as president. that said, i think it is a delicate dance. and it is something that will be dissected every step of the way. so that conversation we're having tonight is a conversation we should expect to have for another two years. >> i don't know if that is good news or bad news.

>> clearly, let's stipulate, there is a difference in world view here. that was on display in 2008 and sort of back on display now. she wanted to communicate that, she wanted to communicate distance. and it keeps coming back to me. she made a very intentional decision in terms of who she chose to give this interview here. she gave it to a reporter, a writer, who i think was clearly going to play this for maximum separation affect. she knew that when she made the decision to make the interview. now she walks it back and in terms of well, we are just friends. didn't intend anything by this. it seems to me that's how she clearly wants to communicate separation here. but when somebody says, you're trying to separate yourself, she doesn't want to be the one saying it herself. >> first of all, jeff goldburg, scoring a staggeringly important interview. this is the punctuation point from the clinton franchise to the obama franchise. i think she subordinated her

very different views from president obama. there are a lot of other areas she didn't speak about. china, in which she is a very hard, tough person on china. she subordinated that and the went over and did exactly what she needed to do. and play a softer line and more nuance line. she is defining herself very differently and she knew what she was doing in playing this. while they may hug it out, bottom line is, she is on the way to sort of define herself in a very, very different way from the obama presidency. >> so what did that look like? what is the next step? you mentioned china, there are other differences between hillary clinton and barack obama. they had a year-long campaign. what's the next step? every time she does it, are we in for this? it felt to me the other day, i turned on twitter in the morning and got david axelrod and hey, hillary clinton voted on the war in 2002. is that what we get every time they introduces distance here?

>> if she is walking into this with the frame of what she feels is missing, in the obama presidency, and that is an ideological frame. wanted to say we're about democracy, about human rights promotion and willing to put muscle behind those things. in a way she is a democratic version of neoconservatives left with traditional calculation when it comes to american interest and much more expansive in what i would consider a magic wand approach to solving things. but she looks at these issues as very important in terms of putting people's values an our values forward. president obama inherited a cappy situation and crappy foreign policy sit situation and what can i do to get the stock of power already in gear. hillary clinton says it is already there, we just need to push. >> at axelrod thing, it strikes me as the white house won't necessarily not joy what hillary clinton is up to for the next

two years. again, the official line is that this is just a couple friends talking on the phone, but david axelrod goes out on twitter and says, you know, don't do stupid stuff. here is the quote exactly. mean stuff like occupying iraq in the first place which is a tragically bad situation. that remind people, hillary clinton was someone who voted for that in 2002. barack obama doesn't vote for that. barack obama opposed it at the time. seems to me the white house showed us something about how it will be reacting and responding to hillary clinton doing this. >> yes. that's the axelrod tweet to the degree, 140 characters can mean something, was a brush back pitch. a little reminder that they would not let offenses go unanswered. and you know, you said steve she tried to walk it back. it was interesting, she said she didn't mean this as an attack. she did not say she was misquoted. she did not say she was wrong. this position she outlined it caught so much fear the last few days are positions where she will hold and repeat.

so i think we probably ought to get used to it. >> what do you make of it? we have apparently, i don't know, the hugging summit tonight, or whatever, they will come together. and you know, the clinton camp went out of their way yesterday to put the story out there that she had called and tried to make amend. they will hug. all of this stuff. and did this bother the clinton camp at all how this played out, susan? >> i think the clinton people are not happy. i think that the clinton people are not unhappy with this. i think this is not -- it's been a little inept or inartful is what the hillary clinton people would probably use. her book "hard choices", i think the obama people are more unhappy because they are trying hard to maintain the power he has as president for as long as possible. and this is a little bit after of a reminder of what it is like for a secretary term president when attention goes away and remarkably early for this president.

attention turning to the successor. coming earlier than i think we have seen. i think that is of concern for the white house. >> 2016 and 2014. by pointing out foreign policy differences with the president, it is possible that hillary clinton has provide ammunition for republicans in mid term races. an exchange in today's press briefing -- >> president had a fund-raiser a couple day easy go to help democrats keep the summit. and the republicans don't even have it say don't listen to me, just listen to former secretary of state. isn't that awkward for the president -- >> i'm not going to handicap potential campaign ads from the podium today. i will say, as you point out, keeping senate majority is priority for the president. that's why he did attend the fund-raiser two nights ago. he looked forward to doing what he can to maintain the majority. >> steve, what about that? imagine a lot of republicans will look forward to going out there this summer, this fall and rest of the summer and fall and

saying, look, it is not just me, not just my party that has issues with how president obama's foreign policy, it is his secretary of state. >> she painted him as a weak president. as jeff goldburg wrote on the interview, she described herself not leaving an inch between herself and israel's point of view on the recent conflict. which is not the president's message. she raised questions to some degree about the way iran is being handled. all that is potential fodder that will paint the president as speakless, spineless, unable it move the needle. whether she intended to or not, this is definitely part of the 2014 campaign. >> an indication of how democrats respond to that on the campaign trail? are they going to have to start distancing themselves from hillary clinton? or do they go along with it too? >> i don't think hillary clinton matters much in mid term elections. barack obama matters a lot. for the candidates and house and senate who are in very competitive races, if obama's approval rate sag point higher or two points higher or a point

lower or two points lower, that could make the difference in the very close races. the degree to which hillary clinton's criticism creates problems for president obama's approval rating, that i think is a serious thing for democrats this november. >> we will return to this one a lot. i have a feeling next few years. coming up, limited u.s. engagement in iraq is becoming less limited by the day. american officials say they can avoid the dreaded mission creep. not everyone is so sure. also, trouble outside of st. louis after the shooting of an unarmed black man. could incidents be avoided if others look like the people they serve? hoping to squash the tea party this year. why is the tea party still dictating policy on huge issues like immigration? jimmy fallon channels frank underwood in a spoof of "house of cards." >> final touch-up before the show.

>> mr. fallon, have you a phone call. >> phone call is when someone calls you on the phone.  you make a great team.

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welcome back to "hardball." u.s. involvement in iraq continues to escalate. nearly 130 marines and special forces are on the ground. freeing thousands of innocent civilians that isis is looking to slaughter.

officials tell nbc news that a special forces team landed in the hot zone to begin assessing the possibility of a rescue mission. the pentagon is maintaining this new influx of troops will have no combat role. ben rhodes is not rolling out using u.s. ground forces in a rescue mission. since isis began its march of terror in iraq under june, deploying more than 800 u.s. military to iraq, conducting roughly 25 airstrikes on the insurgents including another one today with many missions flown by u.s. pilots. the president hasn't put a timetable on the involvement but an armed showdown is a very real possibility. on top of all that, prime minister nouri al-maliki has thrown the country into a constitutional crisis.

no matter how you describe our involvement as a humanitarian mission, or helping kurds beat back isis, u.s. military is back in iraq plain and simply and our press sense growing. a retired army general and msnbc military analyst, patrick murphy, army veteran and host of taking the hill. general, i will start with you. when you look at sending more forces over there right now, to take a look at the possibility of sending even more for a rescue mission, being defined as a humanitarian mission, total new getting close to a thousand new u.s. forces have been sent over there, basically this summer, do you look at this and say, there's a distinction between this as humanitarian mission and this as potential combat mission or is it all the same to you? >> not yet. do i look at it as potential combat mission? there's a couple things that have to happen for that to take place. one, the isis will have to make a move to try to take out the

attempt to try to move the yazidi people out of there. and they will have to start it make a fight out of it and we do have a national interest in making sure that isis's ability to mess thing up in the middle east is maximized and that may take -- it certainly will take the action of the iraqi government. and the key to this is now that maliki lost support from iran, there has to be a government form that is acceptable to the sunni tribal chiefs and they should be leading the charge. there doesn't have to be an american large scale combat role on the ground. but that's a hard thing to pull off. with all these different moving parts.

>> patrick, look, you've been over there, so let me ask you, bottom line question, special forces, apparently right now, special forces, some are on the sinjar mountains, assessing whether more forces should be sent. there are fewer yazidi left. a lot more have been evacuated than we realize. the airstrikes have done some good in terms of getting isis away from the mountain. just in terms of, you know, looking at 130 u.s. marines special forces, in terms of, what is it the united states needs to do to guarantee their safety in a situation like this? >> well, you have some of the best. and you can't say this is a volatile area, the sinjar mountains. you need to send in those marines and special operators, u.s. central command, assess the situation, making sure they can get thousands if not tens of thousands of yazidis off that mountain into safety. and not to be crushed by isis that is potentially choking off the arteries there.

but i will tell you that, steve, i'm worried about the mission of course. but now those 935 u.s. personnel, military personnel in iraq, but i will tell that you if there's one president that i have confidence in that he will not allow the mission, not drag america back into a civil war, is barack obama. >> i think people have the question, of when do we know it's over. we have a couple different objectives. it is an open-ended commitment. i think a lot of objectives sound reasonable enough that when do we know we have succeeded and it is time to come back. you know, especially with the group like isis, maybe we stop its momentum but don't completely obliterate it. >> also, protecting americans, steve, as you know, we can't leave anyone behind. we have state department

personnel in erbil. we have military advisors in erbil and they are within artillery range of isis. that's why we took out the artillery assets of isis. isis, if they continue to make it move, we have to make sure we do everything necessary to protect our own interest. but i will tell you, isis, the biggest promise this week is the fact that al-maliki was shunned by his own party's religion. a new shia. they have a new shia leader coming in the next 30 days. but that is what will help the kurds and sunnis step up and form one iraqi, and an splinter of iraq, which we have seen. >> the latest developments in iraq are not a combat force, here's hagel. >> this is not any extension of any role other than the united states, other than to find ways

to assist and help advise the iraqi security forces, which we have been doing. very specifically, this is not a combat boots on the ground operation. we're not going to have that kind of operation. >> today's white house briefing, deputy national security adviser ben rhodes is grilled by cbs white house correspondent major garrett who note these forces could face combat in iraq. here is a bit from that exchange. >> the humanitarian mission doesn't mean it is not dangerous and doesn't mean it couldn't turn into a combat situation. >> major, absolutely, there are dangers involved in any military operation. we would absolutely acknowledge that. there is dangers when pilots fly, there is danger in a very difficult situation as we are in iraq. but he is confident that we can have a limited military objective.

>> general, i mean, i guess to follow up, we talk about a minute ago, accepting what the administration is saying, they think can you do this in a very limited sense. isis in terms of a completely defeated isis, that will happen at some point. the threat of isis will be removed completely. is that something the united states can accomplish just through limited strikes? >> the answer to that is no. murphy had it dead on the money. you have to get the political system wired properly so that military, iraqi army, military, paramilitary forces of the saudi sunni shaykhs, are unified in the effort to go after isis. they are the ones that ought to be doing that. given the political situation that now looks like it's falling into place. that's what should happen. but if that doesn't happen, and

we are in that business of trying to get the last american out doing that under fire, you're going to see a much greater effort. in answer to your earlier question, when do we know it's over? it's over when we're out of there. >> a lot of people are order for that now. coming up within jimmy fallon channels frank underwood from the hit plat cal drama "house of cards." this is "hardball," a place for politics. skin looking tired? research shows that as you age skin cells loose energy. making skin look tired. wake it up! with olay regenerist. formulated with a skin energizing complex, it penetrates 10 layers of the skins surface. revving up surface cell regeneration and bringing out younger looking skin. because energized skin is younger looking skin. olay regenerist. olay. your best beautiful.

back to "hardball." time now for the side show. last night jimmy fallon debuted a seven-minute parody of the house of cards. fallon called it the house of cue card. as you can see there, reimagined his role as host of "the tonight show" in the role of frank underwood. >> the final touch-up before the show. a good polish, everyone. >> mr. fallon, you have a phone call. >> a phone call is when someone calls you on the phone. hello? yes, dear, i'll be right there. my wife. i love that woman more than she could love her friend network pass word.

>> much like the real house of cards, fallon ended with a shocking plot twist. one that no one could have predicted. >> kevin spacey didn't seem too impressed with fallon's impression of him today. he reacted to the sketch in character, writing on twitter, quote, the next time you go a parody and do it "house of cords" actually using them would be of help. using underwood's initial. ouch. the ice bucket challenge for als, taking the country by storm, he, his guests and band, the roots, drenched themselves

on the tonight show set. after fallon received multiple challenges, including one from the target of many of his late night jokes, chris christie, who himself took the plunge just yesterday. >> patrick and bridgette, let's go. >> didn't even flinch. be right back after this. when you run a business, you can't settle for slow.

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here's what's happening. the pentagon said an evacuation for yazidis from mount sinjar is unlikely.

israel says it conducted shots on gaza after rockets were launched from inside the territory. it is unclear when the fighting now back to "hardball." >> we are back the past three nights, protesters clash with police in st. louis suburb of furgason missouri. killing the unarmed black teenager by a still unnamed police officer who witnesses say was white. man said he was an eyewitness to the shooting says he had his hands up on the shot. during protest, police fired rubber bullets and tear gas into the crowds of protesters. throwing bricks and bottles at officers. last night an officer shot a man who allegedly pointed a gun at him.

there is no indication that this incident had anything to do with the protests. today, police department asked protesters to refrain from gathering after dark, quote, we asked that any groups wishing to assemble in prayer or protest do so only during daylight hours and organized in respectful manner. police chief thomas jackson explained why earlier this afternoon. >> that's a really good idea. because although, the people marching, protesting, most of them are very peaceful. they have a very strong message they want to get out for answers, i understand that. i understand the anger. but there are some people that come out and are a little dangerous. so we think it is better for peaceful demonstrations to occur during daylight. >> and a reporter for nbc affiliate in st. louis, ksdk, val demmings is former police chief and let me just start with you. on the ground out there. can you take us and get us up to speed on what the latest is that is happening in the community

there and in terms of this investigation, in terms of finding out answers as it what happened, what the latest is on that front. >> fbi just announced they are going to launch a civil rights investigation. and in addition to their criminal investigation and also today the body of michael brown was released to the family. we have preliminary autopsy results yesterday. gunshots, plural. don't know how many. now the body is given back to the parents and they are looking to do an independent autopsy. the police chief in furgason gave us a reason as to why the autopsy, further details haven't been given. they haven't talked to all of the witnesses yet. they want to make sure they do that before they poison any accounts. >> what do you say the mood in the community is right now. we have the police chief asking people not to be out tonight. is there a sense, you know, the protest movement dying down at all. or is it getting more intense? >> well, we have seen protests every single night.

and every single night we have had these community meetings that start at 6:00, 7:00, they good for an hour or two hours, two and half hours. one started at 7:00 last night and didn't get out until 10:00. then a large group of people, hundreds of people pouring out and that's usually when the protests start. to be clear, the chief wanted to make sure everybody knows it is not a requirement for curfew. he is just asking people to protest during daylight hours. we asked him what happens if they don't and they protest at dark? he said, absolutely nothing. as we have seen things happen every single night, we have seen the protest dramatically, s.w.a.t. teams, police lines, tear gas, rubber bullets, as you said. a shooting at 1:00 a.m., whether or not that is related, we don't know. whether or not he pulled a gun on an officer. so really, just minute by minute. >> 67% of the population in

furgason is african-american but only three of the 53 police officers are black. in an interview, police chief jackson admitted that is a problem. he said quote, whenever we are doing is not enough. we are trying, but it is not good enough. your experience in law enforcement, when you look at this situation, little bit removed from it from afar but when you look at statistic and a disparity, two thirds black in the community, i don't know if that adds up to less than 10% of the police force is black, what kinds of problems does that create? >> first of all, i want to say that my heart goes out to the brown family as a mother of three sons, former police chief, i know the family is devastated, the community is devastated. i wish the police as part of that community. i didn't know what recruitment efforts are there in furgason. it is not always easy to recruit. good qualified candidates. but what i do know is that i believe the community is better

and stronger when that police agency reflects in a greater sense the community in which it serves. >> i also wonder, what you make of, you know, ann was just describing this a little bit a minute ago, we've scent pictures too, obviously, on the news, heard people on the ground there, that the response from the police the last few nights to the protests, police out there and i understand, very tough job, but in riot gear, shields, camouflage, all of these things. is there an argument to be made that that might be heavy-handed in term of their response to protests at this point?

relationships build trust and also they build support. it is tough when efforts to build a sound relationship occur in a crisis. i used to say to men and women at orlando police department, this is a police agency, bad things will happen. but when bad things aren't happening, spend as much time as you can trying to build a relationship with that community. number one, if do you that, bad things may not happen. number two, if they do, i believe the police will give you the -- the community will give the police the benefit of the doubt while that investigation is going forward. >> and i'm curious on that point, what val is talking about, that trust, relationship, certainly doesn't seem to me looking that the community is

willing to give the police the den fit of the doubt in this. say i asked you a week ago to characterize the relationship between the police force and furgason and local population in furgason, how would you have characterized it? >> actually the people of furgason seem to get along very well. and obviously, yes, there is serious trust issues we've been expressed to us from the people in the community. and to speak to that point about three black officer and 53 white officers, we did pose those questions. what we were told by the police chief was, i don't have the applicants it make things fair. to have it reflect my population of 67% of the black population in furgason. and then we went and talked to the st. louis county recruiter and posed that same question and they also said, yes, we don't have the applicants to mirror this. and we can't make people want to do this job. they have to want to do it. >> yeah.

there's a big gap between -- again, the numbers, in my head is about 7% versus 67%. got to be more applicants than 7%, i got to think. >> can i make a comment about that? i joined the police department in 1984. historically, african-americans were not hired at police departments. certainly in no great numbers. i did not walk in to the orlando police department to apply for a job. it is tough for people to believe that they can do something if they don't feel a whole lot of other people who look like them doing that same job. the orlando police department actually came looking for me. i believe that it is a good idea, some of the things we did in orlando, was to identify community leaders, sit down at the table with them, share challenges that we were having and including recruiting. we seized every opportunity in front of the community group to talk about, we are always trying to recruit men and women to make sure that this police department reflects the community in which

it serves. i know there's a lot going on, but you know, that might be something that would be a good for chief jackson and the men and women to do, seek help from some of the other leaders in the community to help them identify qualified applicants. i know their's there. >> sounds like good advice for police departments across the country. >> thank you. we appreciate the time and insight tonight. we'll be back with how the tea party is driving the republican party on big issues like immigration. ] yes? lactaid® is 100% real milk? right. real milk. but it won't cause me discomfort. exactly, because it's milk without the lactose. and it tastes? it's real milk! come on, would i lie about this? [ female announcer ] lactaid. 100% real milk. no discomfort. come on, would i lie about this? frommy family and is to love ice cream. however some of us can't enjoy it without discomfort. so we use lactaid® ice cream. it's 100% real ice cream just without the lactose.

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welcome back to "hardball." republican leaders will probably none too pleased to read this

welcome back to "hardball." republican leaders will probably none too pleased to read this headline in the no, times. on immigration, gop starts to embrace tea party. jonathan reports to the most hard line anti-immigration voices in the party, got something close to the equivalent of final cut on two bills addressing the flood of migrant children at the border. wiseman concludes quote on capital hill tea party wing continues to drive the tea party agenda.

steven and michele bachmann tweeted this photo. at the time king told reporters about the reworked bill quote the changes brought into this are ones i've developed and advocated for past two years. like i ordered it off the menu. yes, the same steve king in the past talked about immigrant with quote calves the size of cantaloupes from hauling drugs across the border. other voices on the right with outside influence, brooks, launching a war on whites, advocating a deport them all position on illegal immigrant. these are not exactly the faces the party wants to showcase to help make inroads in hispanic community and yet, there they are leading the charge in congress. host of the reid report here on msnbc, gibbly republican strategist, hogan, let me start with you. i think there are two things related here. let me run them by you and see what you say about it. i think it is not at all a coincidence here we are at the end of the primary season in

talking about how, for once the tea party didn't knock off republican incumbents and the fact we are reading about stories like this with the tea party getting its will on immigration. it seems to me the republican establishment in washington especially on immigration, gave into the tea party this year and as result the republican establishment protected from republican tea party establishment. have i got that wrong? >> i don't know if it is wrong. but you have to go to the folks who consistently let you move the ball forward. >> moving the ball forward to the tea party is doing nothing, isn't it? >> i don't know that it's doing nothing, it's trying to solve a problem now that equates to about 14, 15 unknown amount of millions of people here that have gotten here illegally over the last few years, someone has to get something done. leadership starts in the top whether it's president obama in the white house. and right now, the tea party caucus yields a lot of power.

wields a lot of power, because they consistently keep things from going through. the fact remains, the house passed a bill, and is descending on harry reid's desk and see if he can move the ball forward and move on in the senate. >> i have to believe harry reid's not going to be doing anything with that soon. the bigger question, we all knew the minute the results came in, the republican party nationally, has a real problem here, especially with the latino vote going-forward. here we are almost two years out from that election, we have this conversation today. how -- are you surprised that it came to this two years later? i thought there would be some kind of movement? >> i'm not surprised. for the republican party, their short term interests have always been in contradiction to their long term interests. their short term interests, particularly in winning a midterm is going to be wider, older to voters, their interest is in getting the most active voters out. that is tea party voters who are hardline against any form of immigration reform.

you have to super serve that base in order to get them out to vote this year, long term, the messaging, turning over your messaging on immigration to steve king and mo brooks, the war on whites guy, is the worst thing you could do long term for the party. there was an important piece in that article, the way they talk about the immigration debate on the places where a lot of latinos are watching the news. and are getting their information. and when they're seeing steve king, they know exactly who he is, while most americans don't. that face of the republican party is hostile to latinos broadly, not just to illegal immigrants, but to latinos broadly is a big problem long term, but i don't think the republicans can solve it. for now, it's older vote irs. >> the viewers enjoy talking about it there. they're not just seeing congressman steve king on their screen. next it was named republican. >> right, right. michele bachmann was the one giving the response to the tea party not the republican party.

let's go back to 2008. we had people on that stage saying, aren't we blessed to live in a nation where people would rather break into it as opposed to one people want to break out of? there's a disconnect in the last election, between the person who was the nominee and the actual good strong helpful rhetoric on this issue. people like santorum, gingrich. >> hadn't that disconnect gotten worse when we reached this point. two years ago, we're talking about immigration reform. now we're saying they don't do a border bill. >> this doesn't need to be comprehensive. focus on getting to the back of the line, focus on fines, that's how you do this thing. i don't know how it became so in vogue to make everything comprehensive. >> they're trying to take something away, they're actually saying to kids who grew up here, who only know the united states, we always want to kick you out.

they're saying to kids who are as american as apple pie, we don't want you. hogan, i mean, you are one of those republicans that gets the tone thing, the republican party they don't get it. they're communicating to american latinos who are saying, republicans don't like us. >> we have to leave it there. when we return, let me finish with why the white house is happy to hear republicans talk up impeachment. you're watching hardball, the place for politics. ♪ [ female announcer ] when the pressure's on... only secret offers clinical strength invisible solid and clear gel with 100% odor protection. secret clinical strength.

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let me finish with the numbers the white house has been prodding on to tea party conservatives talking about impeaching president obama. dan pfeiffer went out of his way to mention that sarah palin was calling for obama to be impeached and said he would not discount the possibility that republicans would listen to her and go ahead and do it. the white house and most people in politics for that matter, don't take what sarah palin has to say seriously. here is president obama's spokesman, acting like she was the speaker of the house, it was clear, the white house wanted people to be talking about impeachment. wanted people to believe that republicans really were on the verge of doing it. there was a lot of talk that this was about raising money,

i'm sure that was part of it. we got new numbers that tell us what was really going on here. it asks if voters favor impeaching obama. not surprisingly, they're overwhelmingly against it. even republicans are split on it, 45% of them say obama should be impeached and 48% say no. look closer, if impeachment proceedings were to begin the poll asks, would it make you more likely to vote for a democrat for congress this fall or for a republican? the democrats win here, 43-38%. among self-identified moderates. it's a landslide for democrats. it's not just impeachment, the law asks about the lawsuit that house republicans have initiated against president obama. this one is not theoretical or hypothetical. they voted to do it a few weeks ago. the numbers are lopsided here too. 58% of voters say they don't like the lawsuit, only 34% do. by a 42-30% margin, the lawsuit makes them more likely to support democrats in november.

here's the real key, look at this, among voters who say they're democrats, 88% say that the republican lawsuit against president obama will make them more likely to vote this fall. 78% of republicans say the lawsuit will make them more likely to vote. that's the bottom line for am dids, it's why the white house is happy to promote all that republican impeachment, why president obama told republicans to go ahead and sue him just last month. these are the sorts of actions that make swing voters, the swing vote irs who are left anyway, make them see the republican party as extremists. they also rally the democratic base, they give democratic voters fired up and excited about turning out this november. and that is hugely important for democrats right now. we all know that the republican base is a lot more likely to turn out in midterm election years than the democratic base. it's one of the reasons the republicans are so bullish on winning their chances this fall.

all this impeachment talk may just be leveling that playing field. that's hardball for now, thanks for being with us. all in with chris hayes starts right now.