recklessly. >> yeah. there are no easy options. >> none. >> congressman jim mcdermott of washington, good to have you with us tonight, sir. thank you. >> that's "the ed show." "politicsnation" with reverend al sharpton starts right now. >> good evening and thanks to you for tuning in. i'm live tonight in minneapolis. breaking news tonight, a danger to the president. that is what a federal prosecutor said today about white house fence jumper omar gonzalez. an army vet whose family says he suffers from ptsd. this afternoon, he was in federal court, accused of being the first person to ever jump the fence of the white house. and get inside the executive mansion. here is the video from friday night. you can see him running on the white house grounds. there is no secret service seen

on this video. he was carrying a three and a half inch knife. and tonight, we're getting brand new details about what he had inside his car, parked just blocks away. prosecutors say he had a machete, two hatchets, and more than 800 pounds of ammunition. gonzalez stood calmly in court today, wearing an orange jumpsuit, facing charges of unlawfully entering a restricted area, while carrying a deadly weapon. he's being held without bail and will appear in court again next week. now the secret service is reviewing its internal procedures. trying to figure out how a man got across the north lawn and inside the white house without agents or attack dogs stopping him. it happened just minutes after the first family departed the white house for camp david. today, president obama says he

has confidence in the secret service. >> i appreciate it, guys. >> and i'm grateful for the sacrifices they make on my behalf and my family's behalf. >> but tonight, the disturbing new details about what this man had in his car, and the security breach that we have never seen, has people across the country demanding answers. joining me now, chris jansing, nbc's senior white house correspondent. jack rice, a former cia agent who spent time as a special agent in his office of security. and richard wolf, msnbc.com executive editor. thank you all for being here. let me go to chris jansing first. chris, the president said secret service does a great job, but how concerned are you hearing the president and the staff are

really about all this? >> they're absolutely concerned. this is not supposed to happen. as you well pointed out, it's never happened before. and i can tell you, as someone who's seen a number of these breaches just over the last couple of months, i've seen those attack dogs at work. they can come out of nowhere so fast. they were trained to knock a person down, to hold him down. to put their teeth on an intruder. i've seen them go up close to an intruder barking. it's an intimidating as the guns that some of the agents carry. why didn't that happen? members of congress asking, why wasn't he taken out when he got that close to the white house? and to get up the door and find the door unlocked. it's locked now. they've changed some procedures and protocols, but obviously this is of great concern, and it comes in the context of some other breaches and embarrassments that have happened with the secret service in recent years. and beyond that, obviously you have a president who has a young family. and i can tell you, as someone

who's covered a number of presidencies and talked to first ladies about the decision to run for president when you have young children, one of the things that gives you pause is the security. the president is concerned. you can bet he is. he got a number of briefings, both on friday night, about what exactly had happened and throughout the weekend. and he is being kept up to date on this investigation, which is of some urgency. al? >> is there a lot of fear around the white house? is there actual fear, chris? >> you know, anybody who works here understands that besides being the most heavily guarded home in the united states, it's also a target. we've learned that. at one point, there was a small plane that crashed here. there was a lot of concern, you'll well remember, around 9/11, about whether or not the white house could be a target. so i think it's something that you live with on a day-to-day

basis. but when i was here on friday night and people are running in and saying, someone has breached the white house, we're doing an evacuation, there were people who have been here not years, but decades and had never been evacuated. never been evacuated through the west wing, brought out on the other side of the old executive office building, which sits next to the white house. sure, it's disquieting, and i think the president expressing he has confidence in the secret service, certainly they're on hyperalert right now. but a lot of concern right now about what happened here and how could this happen, al. >> jack, assess the secret service failure here. what should have happened? >> well, rev, they screwed up. let's be clear. there are rings of security that the secret service should have looked at, everything from facial recognition software from people outside of the fences, for actions that people may take outside of the fences.

there should have been people watching the fences themselves. there should have been people if somebody crosses the lawn. this was a series of mistakes. when chris talks about procedures and policies in place and failures, those were very real and they have to reassess them. something like this simply didn't happen for any sitting president. >> so there are different layers here that this guy was able to get through? >> oh, certainly. there are things they missed about him before he climbed the fence. they should have been watching and they might have found something there. they may not have. but as soon as he touches the fence, they should know it, as soon as he's on the lawn, they should know it. as soon as he gets to the front door, they should know it. how many layers do you breach before you sit down and say, gosh, maybe we should recalculate what it is that we're doing? >> richard, you know the white house. your reaction to this breach. >> well, i don't know that the first family will be really sort

of terrified by all of this. they have a great relationship with the agents they come into close contact with. as chris said, it's not just that they come to the white house with young children, those children have grown up, not just in the public eye, but with the presence of secret service with them at all times. secret service is much bigger than the personal detail around the president. here you have uniformed officers who, anyone who has been around the white house, and i certainly have, has seen people being approached on the perimeter by uniformed agents, saying, what are you doing? where are you going? apparently this intruder was approached. why they didn't follow through with procedures is staggering and shocking. i'm sure that will be troubling to anyone around the first family. but again, what you just heard, when george stephanopoulos leaned against the tree, he recounts it in his book in the

1990s t triggered an alarm. everything about the white house lawn is alarmed. why those systems and procedures failed is astonishing. >> now, today the ex-wife of omar gonzalez has said he's suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. listen to this. >> i know whatever happened in iraq, it affected him because it was the second tour when he came home, he would walk around the house with a 45 on his hip. he's not a bad guy. i think, i want him to get treatment. he doesn't need to be punished. he didn't go to the white house to hurt obama. he's not in his right mind. who jumps a fence knowing you could be shot and killed? who goes and tries to tell the president the atmosphere is collapsing? who does that? he did.

because he's not -- he's mentally unstable. >> jack, doesn't this highlight the need for better security, that one person who may have been unstable can actually get into the white house? >> without question. it certainly does, rev. when you look at what this man was able to do. it highlights what somebody -- if they really had the intent. we don't necessarily know what it is that he wanted to do. but if there was somebody actually trying to hurt the president, the first family, or anybody else, look how close they were able to get. i thinks we need to count ourselves lucky at this point. we need to take a breath, think about the things that need to be done, reassess, and then apply those principles. >> chris, how deep is the white house going into his background? how much are they assessing what is possibly in the background of this omar gonzalez? >> well, great question. obviously they're looking at

absolutely everything. some of what you saw, his background as an iraq war veteran, somebody who was living in his car, somebody who was trained as a sniper. but i think as we look at this investigation and what went wrong, there are a couple of key things i want to tell you. in late august, he was stopped here outside the white house on the south lawn. they noticed he had a hatchet in his waist band. he was questioned, but not arrested or held. and then in july, before that, he was the object of a high-speed chase in virginia, along interstate 81. he had a vehicle filled with weapons. 11 guns, a scope, the kind that a sniper would use, and a map that had a line pointing to the white house. and he was arrested. the only illegal gun he had was a sawed-off shotgun, but virginia state police say they notified secret service about that arrest. so if the secret service already had his name, that was in july.

they stopped him in late august outside the fence, didn't detain him. and then it comes to this. there will be questions asked about why those dots were not connected, al. >> congress is already scheduling hearings into this. here's the gop lawmaker peter king and what he had to say. >> the fact that they said he wasn't brought down because they didn't think he had a weapon. he could have had a body bomb. he could have had a vest on. he had a knife. there can be a lot of complex assassination plots. this is the most basic, the most simple type of procedure. and especially in the days of isis and we're concerned about terrorist attacks, how someone could actually get into the white house without being stopped is inexcusable. >> serious concern to outrage is bipartisan in this matter, richard. >> and it should be. look, the secret service has

gone through a series of scandals, not the least of which on foreign trips where agents have been engaged in all sorts of behavior that is unbecoming for any secret service agent. and so i think there are really legitimate areas, both for the president's security, but also for the management of secret service, that congress can and should and will be investigating. >> chris jansing, jack rice, and richard wolf, thank you all for your time tonight. >> thank you. >> you're welcome. coming up, we have some breaking news tonight on that massive manhunt for a cop killer on the loose. we're live tonight in pennsylvania. and isis released a new audio tape calling on muslims to kill americans. what is secretary of state kerry saying today? and the so-called kissing congressman is out with a new campaign ad, featuring his wife. we're debating that one ahead. stay with us.

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our social media community is very active on our top story tonight about the army vet who hopped the fence and walked into the white house with a knife. "the whole security team needs to be replaced." jay wrote, in my 46 years on planet earth, i've never heard of such a thing until now. another one, we cannot even get on an airplane without being searched these days, but then the security at the white house is this pitiful? we love when you chat with us, so keep the convo going on our facebook page or tweet us,. you can do just that.

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developing news tonight on a new threat from the terrorist group isis. isis has released a new propaganda audio tape, calling on muslims to kill americans. it's meant as a scare tactic. but it's also intended to push the u.s. to send ground forces to the middle east. one portion states, quote, your forces will return greater in number than they were before. president obama has repeatedly said the u.s. won't send ground troops to fight isis. so is isis trying to goad the u.s. into doing just that? it's a serious question. and it comes as a new report

finds some americans who have fought with isis, have returned to the u.s. stories like that show why the administration is taking isis so seriously. >> this is one of the most dangerous groups that i have seen in my time in public life. why? because they have a radical, extremist philosophy, cultish attitude. it's not a religious outlook. it's a self-described cult that is evil. they are vowed genocidists. unlike al qaeda, they've conquered major territory. >> there's no doubt about it, isis wants to scare people and they're good at it. the u.s. is launches more air strikes against isis in iraq today. in two days, president obama will speak before the u.n. on his plan to attack isis and his

efforts to bring more countries on board. the president is taking deliberate effective steps to undermine this group. and he's refusing to let fear guide his policy. joining me now is joan walsh, editor at large for salon.com. thank you for being here, joan. >> thanks for having me, rev. >> there's no question the propaganda from isis is scary, but we can't let that intimidate us really, into making bad decisions. am i right? >> i completely agree. i'm worried about this, i know all of us are and i think the president is trying to walk a line between acknowledging a very real threat, but not being baited. i think it's clear that isis wants nothing more than to go one-on-one with the u.s., make us out to be the great satan, the opponent of muslims worldwide, and we don't want that on a moral level, as well as a political level.

so, i think it's very dangerous. i understand why secretary kerry is making the pitch he's making. the word "genocide" jumps out at me. these people are equal opportunity killers. and i think the word "genocide" sometimes implies a great global, moral responsibility. there's that, but there's also a responsibility of our allies and not so much allies in the region, to deal with the threat on their borders and get seriously much more committed to this. it can't be seen as an american action. >> you know, some terror experts say we really haven't gotten a good grip on the threat from isis. the "new york times" reported, quote, daniel benjamin, who served as the state department's top counterterrorism adviser during mr. obama's first term, said the public discussion about the isis threat has been a

farce, with members of the cabinet and top military officers all over the place, describing the threat in lurid terms that are not justified. and joan, you were on realtime with bill maher this weekend. i want to play part of what he said. >> when you're dealing with terrorists whose aim is to bait us into overreaction and you oblige them, aren't you the eampt peaser? get a grip. would we be this terrified if isis didn't make videos and wear black and have a scary name. isis, sounds like they should be fighting the x-men. isis. it's simultaneously cool sounding and stands for pure evil, like monsanto. >> i mean, does everyone need to take a breath here, joan and not be blinded by the grisly images that we've seen from isis?

>> i think so. you know, i think bill made another great point on the show. he really asked why journalists are sort of helping isis by broadcasting propaganda like the videos. yes, they're out there, but they are designed -- [ inaudible ] -- however many americans, or europeans, westerners are killed and don't care when hundreds of thousands of people in the region are killed. that's not a good thing either. and i also think, you know, the president knows this, but the more that you have different people in the cabinet out there saying it's a real threat, it's a threat to us, you know, here at home, then you have totally irresponsible republicans jamming the administration and insisting the administration isn't doing enough.

so we really have to get a handle on this war fever. >> we not only have republicans jamming the president, some republicans are even using isis for political gain. i mean, quickly check out this ad that the national republican congressional committee is running for an iowa candidate. >> in a dangerous world, judgment matters. david young would be tough on terrorists. passports for terrorists. apple is dangerously wrong for iowa. that's pretty much out there, joan, in terms of using this in a political campaign, very blatantly. >> it's just outrageous, and straight from the playbook of karl rove of 2002, and it worked then. i hope it doesn't work now. it's really irresponsible. >> all right, joan walsh, thank you for your time tonight. >> thanks for having me. still ahead, police closing in on an accused cop killer on

the run in pennsylvania in the mountains. why did he leave behind ammo and an ak-47? also, the so-called kissing congressman, caught in the act, is back. and so is his wife. our political panel weighs in ahead. their biggest customer is demanding refunds for defects. so i offered to help. at ge capital, we bring expertise from across ge.

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eric frein, the man accused of ambushing state troopers in a deadly sniper attack. it's an attack they say he planned well in advance. >> based on our investigation, we know that frein has prepared and planned extensively for months and maybe years, he planned his attack and his retreat. however, we believe we are closing in on him. >> police say frein may have traveled 15 to 20 miles on foot. since he abandoned his jeep after the shooting. the area has tens of thousands of acres of forest with lots of opportunities to hide. but police are finding clues to frein's whereabouts. they found this ak-47 that frein apparently left behind in the woods. they also found gun magazines and ammunition. nbc's sarah dalop is reporting live from blooming grove, pennsylvania. sarah, what's the latest on the

search? >> good evening, reverend. you talk about all the natural hiding places that the woods has to offer frein. but authorities believe he may have built himself some hiding places, some bunkers, places to conceal himself while searchers are looking for him. that's prompting authorities to ask anyone who is familiar with the area, if they see man-made hiding spots, new shelters, things like that, to immediately report it to authorities. now, in addition to those items that you mentioned, the ak-47 and that ammunition, they say they found additional items that he discarded or hid and planned to return for later. it indicates how much thought he put into his escape, following these alleged attacks. residents are being asked to stay inside as much as possible, to lock their doors, stay away from the windows and light their yards well at night. authorities admit frein had the

upper hand in the first few days of this ordeal because he knew this area so well. it's right near where he lived with his parents. but now with hundreds of law enforcement personnel on the ground and ten days of searching behind them, authorities say they now have the upper hand and they are closing in very quickly on frein they feel, like you mentioned this area about 15 to 20 miles from the state police barracks where the attacks happened. they don't believe he had help getting there. they think he did it on his own after he ditched that jeep. schools in this area, they were closed today for the fourth day in a row. about 9,500 students affected. however, police are so confident he's in that area. neighboring communities well safe to reopen some of their schools who were closed last week. i talked to one mom dropping her son off at school, she said she was confident in the police work, yet at the same time, she cautioned her son to stay alert

during the day. that illustrates the unease the community is feeling even as they express the confidence in law enforcement abilities. >> wow, sarah, thank you. nbc's sarah dalop, thank you for your time and your reporting tonight. now let's bring in mark poet ok from the southern poverty law center and retired atf agent jim cavanaugh. thank you both for joining me tonight. >> thanks, reverend. >> thank you. >> jim, let's start with this ak-47 that police found in the woods. did frein intend to leave that behind, or is something else going on here? >> it looks like to me he probably staged it for a tactical retreat. he would use the -- now he killed the trooper with the 308 rifle. the troopers recovered spent brass at the scene, matched it to some found in the jeep. he's a sniper, a marksman.

that gun is going to be like his baby. not so with the ak. but looked like he stashed it, intending maybe to use it as he retreated up a hill to fight the agents off. >> you know, mark, they're saying that he only is targeting law enforcement. in fact, officials addressed on sunday why they believe frein is only targeting law enforcement. watch this. >> he had the opportunity to shoot civilians at the blooming grove barracks at the same time that he shot the police officer. so it is our conclusion that he's aimed totally at police officers. because there were unarmed civilians right in the exact same location during the course of the shooting and he chose not to shoot at them. >> mark, do you think it's likely that the alleged shooter will stick to the script and

that he's only interested in harming police officers? >> well, i can only go by what the officers on the scene are saying, and yeah, it does seem to be the case, that in fact he targeted police officers, state troopers, and not other people. what that says about him, i think we really don't know. is he political in some way? is he a member of the radical right in some sense? or is this a man who has a personal grudge against police, or perhaps even a mental illness of some kind that has caused him to fantasize and obsess about police? i think all of those things are very much unknown, at least to the general public at this point. we just don't know if he's similar to that couple amanda and jared miller that murdered police officers a couple months ago in las vegas. >> i want to get back to that, but let me ask you this, jim. not only is there a great deal of untamed forest in the area,

frein could have also been aided by the fact that pike county alone boasts more than 14,000 seasonal or recreational homes. now, how easy is it to break into one of those homes, to steal items, or to hide? and how tough is it for police to make sure he's not in one of those houses? >> right. it's very easy for him to get into a vacant cabin or mountain house and get some provisions, some food, or even sleep there for a few nights. but likely he's planned this for a long time. so he may have chosen one of those cabins and fortified it, or he's using some sort of a cave or improvised berm system with earth works and logs. he's got a place and that's going to be his place where he keeps ammunition and food. he's planned this a long time. he's likely trying to draw the police back into that spot. >> you've done this, jim.

is it likely, just quickly, is it likely in your mind that they'll capture him soon? are they closing in? is that your sense? >> i think so, reverend, because i think he also wants the confrontation as well. i agree with mark, i think he's maybe forging his own new, radical, anti-government genre here as the military reenactor, want to be sniper, obsessed government hater. not necessarily fits into one of our usual blocks, but has elements that come from all -- >> let me go back to that, mark. because we're out of time. but investigators do say frein has expressed anti-government sentiments similar to those of a group called the sovereign citizens movement. sovereign citizens court cases, 1,200 this past year in new jersey. there are 300,000 members in the

u.s. and they've killed seven police officers in the past 12 years. we still don't know what motivated eric frein, as you've said, but how serious is this anti-police rhetoric in america? >> well, it's very serious, but it comes from all quarters. you know, it comes from all kinds of different people with different politics. you know, what i have heard about his anti-government interests and opinions is very vague. so whether he's a part of the sovereign citizens movement, i think, is very much questionable. sovereigns have a particular ideology, they believe federal laws essentially do not apply to them. certainly we've seen nothing like that, at least in public from this person. so i think all of these questions are very much unknown still. >> all right, mark potok and jim cavanaugh, thank you both for your time tonight. >> my pleasure. coming up, a united states

senator helps out with a keg stand at a tailgate party. a 20-year-old raid at a strip club is a hot topic in the governor's race. and the kissing congressman is back with an ad you have to see to believe. the political water cooler is next. tomorrow. quick look at the weather. nice day, beautiful tomorrow. tomorrow is full of promise. we can come back tomorrrow. and we promise to keep it that way. driven to preserve the environment, csx moves a ton of freight nearly 450 miles on one gallon of fuel. what a day. can't wait til tomorrow. there was no question she reminds you every day. but your erectile dysfunction-that could be a question of blood flow. cialis for daily use helps you be ready anytime the moment is right. you can be more confident in your ability to be ready.

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time now for the talk of the nation. the hottest political stories

that have people talking today. dana millbank and krystal ball, thank you for being here. we start tonight in louisiana where the so-called kissing congressman is trying to make a comeback. you might recall back in april, louisiana congressman vance mcallister was caught on camera kissing a staffer who was not his wife. that woman left her job. and mcallister initially said he wouldn't run again. but earlier this summer, he had a change of heart, announcing he would run again. today he released his latest campaign ad, with an unlikely ally by his side. his wife. >> life is filled with ups and downs, but a man's character is based on how many times he gets back up and stands again. >> i'm lucky to have been blessed with a great family and a wonderful christian wife. >> and i'm blessed to have a husband who owns up to his mistakes, never gives up, always

fighting for the good people of louisiana. >> krystal, this is a family values republican. can you buy this? >> well, look, i'm never going to look at someone else's marriage and judge, right? we have no idea what's gone on between them. we have no idea what the conversations have been like, or what place they've come to. but i think the tough thing for him has always been, when you are this family values conservative, when you lead with that, and then you have that kind of indiscretion become public, it's not even so much the sex of it, which we don't know there was sex. we saw a kiss, that's all that we know. it's the fact that he seems hypocrite cal. so it makes it harder for voters to trust him. obviously he thinks this ad will be an important part of getting over that, getting voters back on his side, but it's a tough thing to do. >> dana, the staffer voluntarily left her job. fair? >> well, look, i think this

whole tale is getting more tangled than a duck dynasty beard. [ laughter ] you'll recall "duck dynasty" has two candidates in this election at this point. look, i certainly don't fault his wife for taking the position that she's taking. but it does say something about the man's character. not what he did in the first place, but the fact that he's sort of having his wife up there as a prop to take the hit for him. david vitter, also in louisiana, did this, and got away with it. but she says, look, he's owned up to his mistakes. yes, that's true, but only after he was caught making those mistakes on a videotape. all right, next we move to kansas, where a candidate is catching heat for his visit to a strip club nearly 20 years ago. over the weekend, the coffeeville journal reported democratic candidate for governor paul davis visited a strip club back in 1998, on the same night the club was raided

for a drug search. davis was 26 and unmarried at the time and was not found to be doing anything wrong by police. this weekend he told politico, quote, i was taken to a club by my boss. the club owner was one of our legal clients. i was never accused of having done anything wrong, but rather i was in the wrong place at the wrong time. the coffeeville journal says they got the story from open records at the sheriff's office, but davis is pointing a finger at his opponent. kansas governor sam brownback, who is currently trailing davis at the polls. krystal, is this ugly politics, or a fair attack on a candidate? >> i think it's a bit desperate, really. and kansas shouldn't be in play at all. it's a testament to just how terrible brownback's policies have been for the state that this is really a close race in any respect. look, voters can judge for

themselves, and if i were to guess this sort of thing, where he was unmarried, he's a young guy, he's not doing anything illegal. if anything, it's going to make him more relatable and more human to people. i have some personal experience in this regard. what i've found, voters don't tend to judge, don't tend to demonize people when they're doing something legal and that he's being quite up front about here. >> dana? >> well, look, it's politics. so anything's fair game to bring it up. but i agree with krystal. i don't know how many people are going to be offended that 16 years ago, this guy was 26 and unmarried, had a lap dance, if there are people who are going to object to that, they're probably with brownback already. >> the polls show that brownback is behind in the polls and that his policies, of dealing with the damaging social and budgetary impact of his slash and burn fiscal measures have

become apparent. so is this some kind of maneuver in your judgment by brownback's people, or is this a journalist that just dug it up? >> i certainly wouldn't be surprised. i don't have any special knowledge on that, but i wouldn't be surprised if it came from his opponent. i think brownback is getting desperate at this point. this should not be a race. he's devastated the finances of that state to the point that you have a lot of crossover voters and enfordorsers. brownback has been unbelievably hostile to democrats in the state, but even to moderate republicans in the state. >> i want to get to a political keg stand. yes, you heard that right. here's a louisiana senator, mary landrieu, helping a man do a keg stand at an lsu tailgate party saturday. the picture captured by several

onlookers show landrieu holding a beer tap in a young man's mouth as he's hoisted upside down. when asked if she'd do a keg stand for votes. she replied, that's all right, i'm not that desperate. republicans piled on the senator almost immediately. one republican tweeted the photo out with the caption, no, really, senator? mary landrieu poured beer into the mouth of a guy doing a keg stand today. another one saying, mary landrieu will have plenty of time after losing her seat to help students binge drink. dana, good politics or poor judgment? >> well, i think we can certainly say it's a good thing she didn't actually do the keg stand herself. it might have been slightly risky, but the guy who's competed in many keg competitions, i'm in a glass houses position here. [ laughter ] >> well, krystal, i want --

won't ask you if you've done keg stands, or if you have pictures of dana doing it, but what do you think? >> she has, reverend. >> i'm a little surprised republicans are trying to make something out of this. the whole attack on her is that she's out of touch on this, she's not one of us, she's up in washington and not here with the people. and here they are, giving her free publicity about being there on the ground, with her constituents in the state, at a tailgating party at lsu. i don't think that most voters are going to hold it against her that she put that tap up to the nozzle of that guy who is well over the age of 21, to have a drink of beer. >> all right, we'll leave it there, dana -- and we want those pictures, dana. [ laughter ] krystal, thank you for your time. catch krystal on the cycle weekdays at 3:00 p.m. eastern right here on msnbc.

still to come, chris christie is speaking out about his weight and saying exactly how much he's lost. does it mean he's running? that's ahead. (vo) you are a business pro. solver of the slice. teacher of the un-teachable. you lower handicaps... and raise hopes. and you...rent from national. because only national lets you choose any car in the aisle... and go. you can even take a full-size or above, and still pay the mid-size price. (pro) nice drive. (vo) well played, business pro. well played. go national. go like a pro.

it's become a tell tale sign of political prog nofticators to get a sense if someone is thinking about running for

higher office. weight loss. for years people have been watching governor chris christie, the new jersey republican's weight has been a major topic of conversation, especially with the late-night comedians. >> thank you, governor chris christie, for winning a second term as governor ever new jersey and proving that whenever you run, it ends in a landslide. [ cheers and applause ] >> you're welcome. >> i've made jokes about you, not just one or two, not just ongoing here or there, intermittent, but -- [ laughter ] >> but now, christie is talking about losing weight. the "new york times" reports today about an exclusive meeting governor christie had with gop

mega donors last friday, where he revealed that he's shed 85 pounds since he underwent weight loss surgery last year. christie reportedly told donors he understood that if he ever wanted to go beyond new jersey politics, he'd have to shed some pounds. now, i don't know if chris christie is running for president or not, but i want to congratulate him on his weight loss so far. it's a huge accomplishment. take it from me, i know how tough it is. and trust me, whether you're running or not, you feel better. so job well done on those 85 pounds. as for running, we'll be watching. when i ran for president, governor, i gained weight. and i got more progressive and i didn't use surgery afterward.

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paul krug land is writing about these new attacks on what conservatives call those lazy jobless in the "new york times." speaker john boehner is leading the charge, suggesting that people who can't find work are happy to just sit around. >> i think this idea that has been born over the last, maybe out of the economy over the last couple of years is that, you know, i really don't have to work. you know, i don't really want to do this. i think i'd just rather sit around. this is a very sick idea for our country. >> this kind of talk is divisive and it's insulting to millions of americans doing their best to make ends meet. and now we're hearing right-wing pundits trot out another old favorite, that the poor aren't really poor. >> poverty itself, when you look at the study from the heritage foundation, and all the things that poor people have, and when

you consider that poor people can get $40,000, and more in some states, in welfare payments, i don't think we have any destitution anymore here. >> there's no destitution? because the poor have stuff? this kind of talk is totally out of touch with reality. they're nearly 15 million children in america living in poverty, 15 million. over 14% of the u.s. households are food insecure. meaning they don't have regular access to affordable or nutritional food. a recent survey shows that 20% of people going to food banks are current or former members of the military. that's the truth about the poor. they're not lazy and they don't want a hand-out. they want a hand up. to have policies that don't help the poor is disturbing. but to denigrate and demonize the poor is despicable.

we are a better nation than that, even if your policies won't help lift people up, you don't try and denigrate them and look down on them. thanks for watching. i'm al sharpton. "hardball" starts right now. trouble at the white house. let's play "hardball." ♪ ♪ good evening, i'm chris matthews in philadelphia. home of the 3-0 eagles. anyway, lots of news tonight. all pretty startling. start with the guy jumping the fence in front of the white house, right there on pennsylvania avenue. then sprinting right into the president's house itself through the formal entrance known as the north port co-. what if someone from isis decided to try that route? speaking of which, we have a top u.s. official now saying that some americans who joined isis i