we assume he's innocent until proven guilty. i would say to him, own up, tell the truth, talk about black america, talk about your ideas about us and at the same time, be honest about your situation. >> good to have you with us tonight here on "the ed show." "politicsnation" with reverend al sharpton starts right now. good evening, rev. >> good evening, ed, and thanks to you for tuning in tonight. breaking news from barack obama final press conference of the year. he spent 50 minutes fielding questions, talked about the economic recovery, foreign policy changes with cuba and working or not working with the future republican congress. but he also confirmed, north korea is behind the sony hacking attack. he vowed the u.s. will respond and we saw a passionate and

powerful response to sony pictures for pulling the movie the interview in the face of threats. >> sony's a corporation. it suffered significant damage. there were threats against its employees. i am sympathetic to the concerns that they faced. having said all that, yes, i think they made a mistake. we cannot have a society in which some dictator someplace can start imposing censorship here in the united states. because if somebody is able to intimidate folks out of releasing a satirical movie, imagine what they start doing when they see a documentary that they don't like. or news reports that they don't like. that's not who we are. that's not what america is

about. again, i'm sympathetic that sony is a private company, was worried about liabilities and this, that, and the other. i wish they had spoken to me first. i would have told them, do not get into a pattern in which you're intimidated by these kinds of criminal attacks. >> the president basically saying, we're not giving in to ransom. that's not who we are. and he also had a stern warning for north korea. >> they caused a lot of damage. and we will respond. we will respond proportionally and in a place and time and manner that we choose. we have been working up a arrange of options. they will be presented to me. i will make a decision on those

based on what i believe is proportional and appropriate to the nature of this crime. >> but what will that proportional response be? just hours before the press conference, sony executives were e-mailed another apparent threat. quote, it's very wise that you made the decision to cancel the interview. it will be very useful for you. we still have your private and sensitive data. we ensure security for your data unless you make additional trouble. but today president obama's vowing we won't be intimidated by these kinds of criminal attacks. so what will the response look like? joining me now is former u.s. ambassador to nato, now a professor at harvard university. and washington post ej dionne.

thank you for being here tonight. ambassador, the president said sony made a mistake. what do you think? >> i think the president is right. but you can imagine what it would be like as a sony executive, you get the threats, you're worried about your own people, about public safety in theaters. it was a big decision for them, but ultimately, the united states, whether it's our government or a corporation, can't back down to the kind of dictators who run north korea. the president spoke for a lot of people when he said, we have to defend freedom of expression. the difficult thing, reverend sharpton, is going to be what do we do now? because north korea is about as isolated as any country in the world, fully sanctioned by the united states. i think two things, first, make sure that film does get out to be seen publicly and find a way for the u.s. government and sony to make that happen and deny the north korean regime and secondly, call on china to put

the breaks on the north korean government. if any country has influence with north korea, it's the chinese government and they ought to use that influence -- >> so you would call on china to use their influence. interesting, because the president said, ej, that he wished he had spoken with sony before they made the decision. the ceo of sony pictures responded by saying, quote, we definitely spoke to senior advisers or a senior adviser in the white house to discuss the situation. the white house was certainly aware of the situation. but it seems like the president would have liked to talk to them himself, ej. >> first of all, i agree with the ambassador that you want the president of the united states defending freedom of speech. you couldn't have him saying any other thing. when i heard the president say that, i couldn't tell if he was talking as president of the united states or as barack obama

perhaps former law professor who believes in constitutional rights. i'm not sure you want tv studios or movie studios checking with presidents in the first place. but i think the really tricky thing is, what is the proportional response? i think the ambassador is right. we got to go through china. china has a lot of influence. a lot of trade passes through china. we do not want a full-scale war on the korean peninsula. it would be great to take out the hackers, but what does "take out" mean? they don't have enough tech going in that country for an attack there to be significant. although you wonder if they could do it with their military and their government. i think it's going to take a lot of fine, technical minds to figure out what is an appropriate response that could

really send a message -- >> what could this proportional response be? a lot of it is, north korea, what kind of nation is north korea? the president said the nature of the attack reveals a lot about the nature of the north korea regime. >> i think it says something interesting about north korea that they decided to have the state mount an all-out assault on a movie studio because of a satirical movie, starring seth rogen and james flacco. i love seth and i love james. but the notion that was a threat to them gives them some sense of the kind of regime we're talking about here. >> ambassador, what kind of regime are we talking about here? >> we're talking about a mafia-style regime. one family that's ruled the country since the late 1940s.

the most absolute dictator in the world is kim jong-un. no prior management or work experience. he's 31 years old and owns a nuclear weapons program. there's the problem. president obama said it's going to have to be proportional response because they do have nuclear weapons. we have american troops defending south korea. the last thing we want to do is start a war on the korean peninsula. the president is not going to do that. so is there a way to go after the north korean hackers, to use our own capacity to neutralize them? that's one option that may be in play. i would go back to the china question. put the heat on china and the pressure on china to finally do something about this regime and put some barriers on this regime. i think the administration will think about a range of options. >> but what's appropriate, ej? the president said america can't let the threat of sibers attacks irpt fear with daily life.

listen to this. >> all of us have to anticipate occasionally there are going to be breaches like this, but we can't start changing our patterns of behavior, any more than we stop going to a football game because there might be the possibility of a terrorist attack, any more than boston didn't run its marathon this year because of the possibility that somebody might try to cause harm. >> i mean, is this the new normal that americans are going to have to live with? what's the appropriate response to send a signal that we won't tolerate this? >> first of all, there's an enormous amount of hacking now. it may have been on msnbc, that something like 61,000 hack attempts on the u.s. government. there's a lot of hacking going on already. and that the whole point of terrorism is to try to force people out of their normal

behavior. and this does take it a step further because it's a government using the power it can get from hacking to try to affect the behavior and limit the speech of another party, in this case, an independent party like sony. and this just is intolerable to anybody who cares about a free society. if you -- if somebody hacks your show and if you don't say certain things, the "new york times" or "the washington post" get hacked because they say something bad about a country or a dictator. this is a dangerous thing. and the north koreans seemed to have raised this to a new level and we'll have to figure out how to deal with it. >> ambassador, isn't that the point, they have raised it to a new level, a movie during the christmas season, they were successful in getting a major movie studio to pull the movie? this has everyone's attention. doesn't it almost require a response from us and what kind

of response could be appropriate here? >> i think defiance is the right response from the united states government and from sony and the american people. todd said this happened in the 1930s when hollywood made anti-hitler movies, there was a theater burned down in wisconsin by people who thought that hollywood shouldn't make fun of adolf hitler. so we have to defy the north korean regime. and there's a larger issue here. it's about internet freedom and freedom of speech. north korea, russia, china, all arguing for state control of the internet, to put clamps on the internet. this is a big issue for president obama, for his last two years in office to be the standard bearer, protecting freedom of expression and freedom of speech, and freedom of thought in the world today. >> all right, ambassador nicholas burns and ej dionne, thank you both for your time

tonight. >> and defiance is the right idea, thank you very much, reverend. straight ahead, president obama on a year of action and pressing ahead with his agenda. plus, what the president said today about his talk with speaker boehner and mitch mcconnell. and george clooney, slams the north korea attack, demanding hollywood get behind sony. and stephen colbert and a few close friends send him off in style. it's all coming up, please stay with us. ♪ ♪ [ narrator ] mama sherman and the legion of super fans.

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social media reacted to the president saying sony made a

mistake, cancelling the interview over threats from north korea. atems wrote on our facebook page, i agree. why were they fearful? john tweeted, it's so easy to say that sony did what they thought was best for their company. coming up, more on how this debate erupted today and what george clooney is saying about north korea and hollywood's response. but first, please keep this conversation going on our facebook page and tweet us, @"conversation nation." it's more than the driver. it's more than the car. for lotus f1 team, the competitive edge is the cloud. powered by microsoft dynamics, azure, and office 365, the team can gain real time insights and instantly share information around the globe. when every millisecond counts, staying competitive begins with the cloud.

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>> my presidency is entering the fourth quarter. interesting stuff happens in the fourth quarter, and i'm looking forward to it. >> president obama looking ahead to the rest of his second term. today the president went big, making a full-throated case for his agenda and his achievements from what he says was a breakthrough year. >> in last year's final press conference, i said that 2014 would be a year of action and would be a breakthrough year for america, and it has been. the steps that we took early on to rescue our economy and rebuild it on a new foundation helped make 2014 the strongest year for job growth since the 1990s. in a hopeful sign for middle class families, wages are on the rise again. investments in american manufacturing have helped fuel its best stretch of job growth also since the 1990s. america is now the number one

producer of oil, the number one producer of natural gas. we're saving drivers about 70 cents a gallon at the pump over last christmas. thanks to the affordable care act about ten million americans have gained health care thisr just this past year. we have every right to be proud of what we've accomplished. we're jobs, more people insured, a growing economy, shrinking deficits, bustling industry, booming energy. pick any metric that you want and america's resurgence is real. we are better off. >> we are better off. and the president made it clear to republicans, he'll continue to use executive action to fix problems when they refuse to act. >> i've never been persuaded by this argument that if it weren't for the executive actions, they would have been more productive.

there's no evidence of that. so i intend to continue to do what i've been doing, which is where i see a big problem and the opportunity to help the american people, and it is within my lawful authority to provide that help, i'm going to do it. >> joining me now is congressman jim mcdermott, democrat of washington. first, thanks for being here. >> good to be here, al. >> so, congressman, today the president made a big case for his record. what do republicans have to brag about, congressman? what do they bring in the table in the new congress? >> i think that's the funny part about this whole thing. they have nothing to bring to the table. and they're facing an election in 2016 where they're going to have nothing that they've accomplished. this is a big year for them. they've got to get together and work with the president to get anything accomplished, so they can say, this is our record,

this is what we'll offer to the american people. the president is in a very strong position, if he uses his power carefully and thoughtfully, and he's done that in the past, he's got issued like, what does he do with iran. iran will be out there in front of him. he's got the whole question of what the supreme court does to his health care bill. and he's got what's going on in iraq. those three issues, he's going to have to work with the republicans and they with him, to make it a good year for everybody. >> you know, it's true, but many have called, as you were outlining that, i was thinking, many have called the president after midterm election, a lame-duck president, but it looks, with all he's accomplished, that he's anything but a lame duck. look what he's done since the elections. executive action on immigration. climate change deal with china. historic agreement to normalize relations with cuba.

air strikes that killed three top leaders of isis. i mean, do you think there's a lot of past presidents who would want to have that kind of lame-duck record, congressman? >> you know, the president has done very well. one of the interesting things, they never give him credit for anything that happens good. but the economy is coming back. there's more jobs. the wages are going up. there's all kinds of evidence that the things he put in place four or five years ago are now coming to bear fruit. and it's really -- the president has really had a very good year, and i think this can be another good year, as long as he's careful and doesn't let them bully him into a corner. >> you know, the president addressed republicans' concerns about his use of executive action. listen. >> if executive actions on areas like minimum wage or equal pay,

or having a more sensible immigration system, are important to republicans, if they care about those issues and the executive actions are bothering them, there's a very simple solution. and that is, pass bills. >> is it put up or shut-up time for the republicans, congressman? >> it sure is, al. the american people are going to see what the republican party is really all about in the congress. because now they have no one to blame. they can't blame the democrats in the senate. they can't blame this. they can't blame nancy pelosi. they can't blame anybody but themselves. so now it's put up or shut up. what you gonna do about medicare, taxes, about all these things? if i were the president, i would sit back and say, you guys put it on the table. i put lots of stuff on the table, and you haven't done anything, and i'm going to keep doing what i have to do. but if you don't like what i'm

doing, pass a bill. he's absolutely right. >> congressman jim mcdermott, thank you for your time this evening and happy holidays to you. still ahead, the gop plan of attack. today president obama threw down the gauntlet. how will republicans respond in the new year? also george clooney's fight for free speech, and why hollywood backed down. and what have you -- what you haven't heard about the amazing finale for stephen colbert. it's ahead on "conversation nation." ♪

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>> on this day back in 1998,

millions of america turned on the tv to see this. >> this is an nbc news special report. the impeachment vote. >> william jefferson clinton has been impeached by the house of representatives on at least one article. it will go to the united states senate. >> but the gop vote to impeach president clinton totally backfired. his approval ratings went way up. and theirs went way down. flash forward to today. republicans are plotting their plan against president obama in this new congress, they're talking about defunding, some are talking impeachment again. we'll talk about that next.

the fight ahead. today president obama said he

knows next year won't be easy. with a republican congress. but he also won't let republicans tear down his biggest achievements. >> i think there are going to be some tough fights on areas where we disagree. if republicans seek to take health care away from people who just got it, they will meet stiff resistance from me. if they try to water down consumer protections that we put in place in the aftermath of the financial crisis, i will say no. and i'm confident that i'll be able to uphold vetoes of those types of provisions. >> considering the gop's agenda, the president might have to use that veto pen a lot. republicans say one of their first priorities would be approving the keystone xl pipeline.

the president hasn't decided what he'd do on that issue yet. but they also want to roll back the affordable care act, target his executive action on immigration, and curtail the epa's regulations on coal. those last three have no chance of getting the president's signature. but even with their disagreements, president obama's hopeful for 2015. >> i'm being absolutely sincere when i say, i want to work with this new congress to get things done, to make those investments. to make sure the government is working better and smarter. we're going to disagree on some things, but there are going to be areas of agreement. and we've got to be able to make that happen. and that's going to involve compromise every once in a while. and we saw during this lame-duck period that perhaps that spirit of compromise may be coming to

the fore. >> on a lot of issues, the president wants to reach across the aisle and get things done. but will republicans reach back? joining me now is jason johnson is dana millbank, thank you both for your time tonight. dana, we heard the president talk about using a carrot and stick approach with cuba. will he try the same thing with republicans? >> you know, reverend, i think the president this afternoon was saying, game on. and he was saying, yeah, he'll give them a little carrot, but he's ready to use the stick. i think john boehner back home in cincinnati for the holidays should uncork a nice bottle of merlot and sip his wine now, because it's going to be no cocktail party when he gets back to town. this president is clearly reinvigorated and ready to fight and he's going to have an easier time of it now that it's not this mish mash of a republican house and a democratic senate,

and he can draw clear lines and distinctions with this republican congress, and it looks like he's eager to do it. >> you know, jason, it's been funny to watch republicans react to the president's actions on cuba and immigration. one day they say he's a tyrant, the next he's an appeaser. i mean, take a look at this. >> the president has said before that he's not king, and he's not an emperor, but he's sure acting like one. >> consistently, what president obama has endeavored to do is to show weakness and appeasement towards our enemies. >> this man dictates by his pen and his phone. >> this is not all that surprising that the president would agree to make all these concessions to this murderous tyrannical regime. he believes somehow that he's become a monarch or an emperor that can basically ignore the law and do whatever he wants. >> i mean, jason, do you think they'll make up their mind by the time the new session starts? >> you know, obama is either the

most incompetent dictator, or the weakest bully that we've ever seen in the presidency. i don't think the republicans can decide one way or another. that's going to be the really challenge heading forward. if they're going to resurrect congress, if they're going to do anything to get our government working, it's going to be cpr. it's going to be cruz, paul, rubio. those guys who are running for president in 2016, wrestling the rest of congress saying, we've got to get something done with this president. name-calling hasn't gotten us anywhere. >> but do you agree, jason, with dana's point, that in some ways, it would be easier for the president to deal with the republican congress, just go at them? >> i don't think so. not in terms of getting things done. the truth of the matter is, the president doesn't have much help either in the house or the senate now. if he just wants to fight for the next two years, there may be things he can accomplish with executive orders, but honestly a split congress was better for

the president getting through some legislation. so i don't think it will be more productive over the next two years, unless those senators running for president decide they need to be productive. >> one thing they're talking about is blocking president obama's nominee, loretta lynch. cruz and has she should release a statement whether or not she believes the president's executive amnesty plans are constitutional and legal. and senator vitter said, i'll be working to block this nomination. don't they realize this could backfire on them next year? >> absolutely. that's the point i'm making. you have rubio saying, we'll block the new ambassador to cuba, block the embassy there. that's where the president has

an advantage. he can call them out on this. they can't hide. they'll be seen out there as obstructionist. they can't do a filibuster and hide in harry reid's skirts anymore. it doesn't mean anything more will happen, i'm not predicting that suddenly we're in for some new era of bipartisan compromise, but at the very least, the president will enjoy drawing very clean lines and distinctions. >> you had an interesting night, merlot, harry reid's skirt. >> i've got a bottle opener, reverend. >> the president's recent actions, on a serious note, has began to show divisions within the gop. you know, especially around cuba. senator rand paul said yesterday he agreed with the policy. watch how senator mark rubio reacted. >> your thoughts on senator rand

paul's comments supporting the president? >> well, like many people who are opining, he has no idea what he's talking about. >> now, hey, marco rubio, if the embargo doesn't hurt cuba, why do you want to keep it? and he's acting like an isolationist who wants to retreat to our borders and build a moat. rand paul fired back today. i'm sure people thought that was me talking. this is rand paul talking about marco rubio. has the president stoked some serious divisions within the gop here? >> yeah, it's great. this lunch room slap fight they've got going, this is just par for the course. the moment these guys realize they have to really stake out some territory over the next couple years, you'll see rubio and paul fight and you're going to see a lot of internal conflict. the real thing they're worried about, the president's actions,

his executive orders, have made a lot of their agenda irrelevant. what the president has done with sanctions and oil deals has lowered gas prices. the keystone pipeline isn't valuable anymore. you have oil companies saying it's not worth the money given how low gas prices are. what the president has done with cuba and foreign policy, he's eaten into their territory so all they can do is fight with each other, because they can't go after obama. >> take out the popcorn, it's going to be fun. thank you both for your time tonight. have a great weekend. straight ahead, president obama shows his swagger and his sense of humor today. plus, did sony make a mistake? what is george clooney saying today? and the final report, stephen colbert goes out in style. "conversation nation" is next. you need to they're coming. what do i do? next. "conversation nation" is . .

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>> time for "conversation nation." joining me tonight, mike dotcom's liz plank, huffpost live post josh zepps and michelle bernard, president of the bernard center for women, public policy and politics. thank you all for being here. we start with president obama's swagger at today's press conference.

>> i'm energized. i'm excited about the prospects for the next couple of years. my presidency is entering the fourth quarter. interesting stuff happens in the fourth quarter. and i'm looking forward to it. i'm confident that i'll be able to uphold vetoes. where i see a big problem and the opportunity to help the american people and it is within my lawful authority to provide that help, i'm gonna do it. >> liz, he's ready for the final quarter of his presidency. what did you make of his demeanor today? >> i mean, he was relaxed, right? the mood was positive. if i was going to hawaii for two weeks and it was the day before i left, i'd probably be in the same mood. and he's ended really well, exactly to his point about the last quarter. we averted a government shutdown. he's going to be passing the keys to the republicans, or at least republicans will be taking over the hill in two weeks. so i think he's trying to just

smooth sailing, take advantage of the time he has left, and just show his humorous side. >> well, it's just such a breath of fresh air, isn't it? because the crown does not always sit easily on the head of a president. george w. bush and he just never seemed like he was the presidential type. and i feel like lately obama has seemed a little bit like that. just a little bit out of it, not wanting to be there. it's lovely to see him come back. as he said, it's the final opportunity, it's the opportunity for him to say, screw it, i don't give a damn anymore, come on, this is me, what's to lose? >> or maybe he'll be doing things about what he does give a damn about. >> this is what i loved about it. you remember in 2008 after one of the debates in north carolina, then candidate obama had a squabble with hillary clinton and george stephanopoulos, and the president gave this fabulous talk and he basically did the jay-z, you got to get the dirt off your shoulder thing. and he was telling us, you know,

i'm done with that negative energy. i don't care what you're doing and i'm ready for battle. i think that's what the president was telling us today and he was a man of the people today. people looked at him. we knew what he was saying and he's going to come back and he's going to be ready to go. >> and reverend, just to clarify, i'm not saying he doesn't give a damn because he doesn't care about what he cares about anymore. i'm saying, he doesn't give a damn about what other people think anymore. that's the opportunity of the final two years of a presidency. doesn't matter what republicans say, doesn't matter about focus groups and polling, you can relax and say, this is why i originally got into the game. >> but, liz, most presidents in their last two years, after having a bad midterm election, don't do that. most of them are looking for the exit, are lame duck, are back in the shell, and this president has acted like anything other than that. >> yeah. he's brushing his shoulders off.

let's remember also that this is the most watched press conference of the year. and in terms of attendance for the president, i mean, it was a jam-packed house. so his mood reflected that. i mean, everyone's looking to him and watching him and he certainly delivered. >> reverend, i think this is a great precursor to the state of the union address that we'll be being looking at in january. so many presidents in their last two years are lame duck and they don't go about doing anything. this president, if you think about what he's done in just this week alone with cuba, for example, how he's dealt with isis, how he's dealt with ebola and on and on and on and on, that what he is telling us, whether it's through executive order or otherwise, he's not a lame duck, he's going to govern this country and he's going to govern it in the way he sees fit, regardless of republicans who may want to sit in an open

chamber of congress and yell "you lie" as they did during the first year he was in office. >> i want to go back to president obama's powerful statement on sony's decision to pull "the interview" movie. i don't want to run out of time without going back to that. listen to this. >> sony's a corporation. it suffered significant damage. there were threats against its employees. i am sympathetic to the concerns that they faced. having said that all, yes, i think they made a mistake. >> now, sony's ceo disagrees, saying it did not make a mistake, and it follows the unofficial president of hollywood saying, the movie must be released. george clooney saying, do whatever you can to get this movie out.

we cannot be told we can't see something by kim jong-un. do you think sony made a mistake? >> more than sony's mistake, it's the mistake of the theater owners who refused to open the film. this is a watershed moment. we cannot underestimate the importance of this kind of stuff. freedom does not come from above. it comes from all of us engaging in a free manner and sticking up for what we believe. if i'm the owner of a mall in the midwest somewhere and there's a theater that is going to play this movie, i should not be encouraging that theater from pulling the movie. this comes from the ground up. really, this is going to frame the 21st century in a way that is just as important, i think, as 9/11 was. obviously, the humanitarian catastrophe is not the same, but we're going to look back on this as being the first salvo in the 21st century framing of both

warfare and also free speech. >> there's no doubt about it. michelle, as you know, i met with the co-chair of sony yesterday and her statement to me, we were meeting on the e-mails, but her statement on this was, the theaters were saying they're not going to show it. so it was more than sony. >> and she was absolutely right. i mean, sony withdrew the picture, but even if they released it, who were they going to release it to? who was going to show the movie? the theater owners should have said they were going to accept the movie and let the public decide with the power of their purse. people were either going to go to the movie knowing that there is probably a not too very incredible threat, or they would not do so. but democracy and our belief in freedom of expression is what makes this nation the greatest nation on earth, and this is going to have a terrible, chilling effect. i think everyone should look at the interview that george clooney did, because he makes an excellent, very learned argument

for why we should be showing this movie. >> well, look, i actually don't think it's about free speech. i think it comes down to money. sony's decision was based on money and there was a monetary incentive for them to cancel the film entirely. because if they would have released it on dvd, they wouldn't have gotten the insurance to cover the production of the cost of the movie. >> but this is about the future that we'll be living in. >> i agree with you. >> do we want to be living in a world in which the things that we say and consume are dictated by the biggest bully in the room? [ all speak at once ] >> it's fundamental -- >> one at a time. >> the biggest bully in the room might not always be -- might not always be a dictator. for example, what happens if you want to put out a movie and some corporation decides they don't like it? >> yes, here here, absolutely. >> well, clearly this is a talker. everyone, stay with me.

when we come back, stephen colbert's epic sign-off. ♪ the conference call.

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biggest names in hollywood, the media, and politics. ♪ ♪ we'll meet again ♪ don't know where ♪ don't know when ♪ but -- [ applause ] i know that it will be some sunny day ♪ ♪ so please say hello ♪ to the folks that i know [ cheers and applause ] ♪ ♪ they'll be happy to know [ crowd noise/inaudible ] ♪ ♪ ♪ just like you always do ♪ and i know we'll meet again some sunny day. >> some sunny day ♪

♪ they'll be happy to know ♪ as you go ♪ i know we'll meet again ♪ some sunny day >> josh, you look at the faces on that stage, samantha power, claire mac kaskil, mike huckabee, eleanor holmes norton, what does that tell you about the impact steven has had on politics? >> reverend, i must have just missed you that because you mist out on my boss ariana huffington, who was there. but we'll get over that. i don't think you can overestimate his impact over the past nine years on politics and satire. all of that stuff is fun, like the singing in the final show. but his ability to integrate both political sort of meaning and also laughs and to be able to contextualize what's going on in the country in a way that

ordinary people can understand and appreciate and get humor from, as well as being educated, i don't think we've had something like this since mark twain and i don't think that's an overstatement. >> michelle, a cameo from even former president clinton. >> i love it. i love the colbert report. love stephen colbert. he was the fancy shmancy cliff notes of politics. it was a great send-off. no one can ever underestimate the impact that he's had in terms of mixing pop culture and politics and making politics something where we don't feel alone. >> well, i've got to leave it there, liz, josh, and michelle. thank you all for your time tonight. have a great weekend. we'll be right back with america solving problems. [ narrator ] mama sherman and the legion of super fans.

wow! [ narrator ] on a mission to get richard to his campbell's chunky soup. it's new chunky beer-n-cheese with beef and bacon soup. i love it. and mama loves you. ♪

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he talked about how the michael brown and eric garner decisions have sparked a new debate in this country, a debate about policing and justice that we needed to have. >> i actually think it's been a healthy conversation that we've had. these are not new phenomenon. the fact that they're now surfacing, in part because people are able to film what have just been in the past stories passed on around a kitchen table, allows people to, you know, make their own assessments and evaluations. you're not going to solve a problem if it's not being talked about. >> and we must have this conversation. the marchers and the demonstrations of the last several weeks, some in which i was involved, is all to force a conversation that has too long gone without our having it, and the conversation must lead to

concrete results where americans feel that we have equal protection under the law. if it doesn't lead to results, then what are we doing? but if we don't do that, how do we get to results? let's try to make sure change happens for everybody. thanks for watching. i'm al sharpton. have a great weekend. "hardball" starts right now. they made a mistake. let's play "hardball." ♪ ♪ good evening, i'm chris matthews in washington. i have never heard barack obama so black or white in his judgment. sony pictures was wrong in letting the