sharpton. i'll be back tomorrow with the fourth annual revvie awards. you won't want to miss it. "hardball" starts right now. ♪ ♪ >> another gop reboot? let's play "hardball." ♪ ♪ good evening, i'm michael steele in for chris matthews. can you survive? that's the question hanging over majority whip steve scalise after it was revealed he spoke to a group of white supremacists in 2002. he defended himself saying he spoke to a variety of groups as a state representative at the time. and he didn't vet all of them. he said in retrospect it was a mistake that he regrets. should he have known?

the group's not so subtle name and the european american unity and rights organization. it was founded by former coup clucks clan wizard david duke. today speaker boehner stood by scalise saying he has his full confidence to continue has whip. will that support last? ed rendell, former governor of pennsylvania and nbc news political analyst. welcome to both of you. so hogan, is scalise on the hook here, or is this going to go by the boards because it's not a real political story? >> well i don't necessarily know it's a real political story, but right now, racial tensions in this country are at an all-time high. so this is the news. when you head into the new year there's not much going on and people glom on to stories like this. not that there's not something here, but the real story, from 12 years ago, you've been a candidate, you know you go into

places saying who am i speaking to what am i doing here? that's common place. the real story does he continue to talk with these groups and ask for money from these groups? if he doesn't, it's clear he's not a racist. just because he did something stupid, doesn't make him a racist. you have to look at the local level -- go ahead. >> let me ask you this and governor i want you to answer this question as well. so if i'm doing this i've been a county chairman a state chairman t national chairman, a candidate, as well as an elected official, you typically know the groups you're going to speak to. is it possible how believable is it that you can go before a group like this and not know that this is the kind of group that it is? hogan? >> i wouldn't say it's 100% believable, but it does happen with these candidates. he's given this speech a bunch of times. it was a speech about lowering

taxes, it was a speech about a slush fund. he'd spoken with all kinds of groups he didn't agree with up to that point. so it would stand to reason he would speak to anyone who would listen especially as it related to tax change in louisiana. >> so, governor, is it possible that you don't know you're speaking to a pro-nazi ku klux klan organization? >> i'd say it's less than 1% believable. you know who you're speaking before. you have a staff. your staff vets it. the reading the name of the group, that ought have been a tip-off. knowing it was founded by david duke, another tip-off. the congressman is either guilty of speaking before a group of racists, and it's different -- we all do speak as hogan said before groups that we don't agree with. i went on fox news regularly when i was governor. but we don't go and speak to groups that think that we should

have a separate country for whites only. so that's number one. number two he's got to go. and he's got to go when you think of what trent lot did, making a joke about the country being better off with thurman. and he appropriately resigned from leadership for that. that's nothing compared to what representative scalise did. and he should do the right thing and resign or speaker boehner should get rid of him. >> i want to go back to that point in a moment. but first let's take a look at scalise's explanation and the impact that it's having that he didn't know what the group was all about, and the criticism that it's drawn from the right and the left. conservative blogger eric eric sohn wrote today, by 2002 everybody knew duke was the man he had claimed not to be. everybody. how the hell does somebody show up at a david duke organized

event and claim ignorance? also, scalise's claim of ignorance is almost impossible to believe. he was a state representative and aspiring national politician at the time and euro already was well known as a hate group led by america's most famous white supremacist. i think a lot of folks are having a hard time wrapping their head around you had no idea that this was a david duke organization? >> right. the evidence is mounting. not to mention the fact that they're a catholic hate group and scalise is a catholic. so he spoke to the group, so there is some good in that that he spoke to him knowing they didn't like him. but if he didn't know they were

a white supremacist group, he wouldn't have known they hated catholics either. you have some african american leaders coming out in support of him as well. cedric richmond came out and said he worked on countless pieces of legislation for african americans, for jewish people, and said he knows his heart. he came out with an enforcedorsement for scalise. so if the local people say he's not a racist, i'm not sure what the problem is, except for the fact that he was stupid to speak to this group in the first place. >> it's a bigger point, no one's saying he should resign from the congress itself. but what i'm saying, he should get out of leadership. someone who's done something like that. if the republican party is serious and we question sometimes whether they are, about expanding their base to african americans and latinos

and gays they've got to stop having people like that in their establishment, in their leadership. he ought to get out for the good of the party, if he's a republican who cares about the future of the party, he'll step down from leadership. >> a spokesman for the democratic national committee, does he not believe that speaking to an anti-semitic hate group legitimizes them and elevates their racist and divisive existence. how abhorrent does a group have to be to klein their invitation? these questions are just the tip of the iceberg rep scalise and all of republican leadership need to start giving some answers to. speaker boehner said more than a decade ago, representative scalise made an error in judgment and he was right to acknowledge it was wrong and inappropriate. like meab of my colleagues on both sides of the aisle, i know steve to be a man of high

character and intig rity. that's a point to make. he's not as some would like to paint him to be. this is not about him being a racist. it's a question of judgment don't you think, gentlemen? >> i would love to ask john boehner if he thought trent lot should have resigned from leadership. trent lot's sin was nothing compared to what representative scalise did. trent lot told a halfway bad joke. >> hogan? >> yeah, but governor senator harry reid uses commons like barack obama is an articulate negro. doesn't make him racist. it makes him stupid for saying it. you had robert bird -- [ all speak at once ] >> he was a member of the kkk. so don't pretend like this is just all on our side like we've got the closet racists -- >> i'm asking you a question. should trent lot have resigned from leadership? >> look the bottom line is if

he'd been continuing these conversations, these relationships with these groups absolutely get him out. but to make a mistake and speak to a group trying to get them on your side you're not going there to get pitched by them. you're going there to try to change the tax code in louisiana. >> trent lot was telling a joke. when you go before a group, you legitimize them because a person running for office comes to their group. it gives them the stamp of legit massy. what he does was much worse than what trent lot did, and he had the good sense to resign. >> i think that's an important distinction to make and it's one that a lot of conservatives are a little bit piqued about, quite frankly from eric ericson and others who have noted the sort of soft-handed approach to the scalise matter versus the very heavy-handed approach by trent -- by the folks towards trent lot.

hogan, how do you reconcile that in the face of how conservatives feel that this is really sort of the establishment sort of protecting scalise when someone like trent lot was thrown out for something far less eampt greejious? >> far less. it was more timely though. this happened 12 years ago with scalise. something happen with trent lot, he was gone the next day. there's a time that heals all wounds in this situation. but as it relates to the misstep, whether it's trent lot making comments, or this guy going to espouse conservative groups to a group that's founded by the kkk, if getting in front of those groups or making the comments that trent lot said is the standard, then they both need to be gone. you can't have one without the other, in my opinion. >> i agree. >> i think a big part of the discussion hinges on that.

as "the washington post" malika henderson pointed out, the news could disrupt the narrative that the republican leaders have been trying to push about a more divorce party. she writes the gop will be hard-pressed to tout mia love and tim scott and will hurd as it tries to broaden its base. not just among blacks but also to appeal to moderate white voters. how does this play out for the republican party? what kind of reboot do they do now with scalise as part of the national leadership when you're going into a black community and there may be a question or concern still lingering because of the rhetoric and the actions and the forgetfulness if you will of some of its leader? governor? >> i think it's very hard michael. hogan made a very good point. this is happening at the worst

possible time for the country when because of what we've seen in ferguson and new york race relations are frayed in a way they haven't been in a long time in this country. and we don't need this. we don't need it as a country first and foremost. secondly, the republican party clearly doesn't need it if they're serious about cutting into the democrats' margin among african american hispanics, gays, other minorities they have to move on this. no one's saying the representative should leave congress. the people who elected him can make that judgment the next time he stands for election but i think he shouldn't be in leadership. >> hogan, you get the final word. >> some of this is actually going to solve itself. when you start to move into 2016 and you look on our debate stage and you see people represented from different races, different genders different religions, different ethnicities, that's going to be something the gop hasn't seen in my lifetime that i've been aware of. when you're talking about

potentially an indian governor running for president, susana martinez, a woman potentially, also ted cruz people like tim scott who represent our party. you put those people out there compared to the left with the retreads like hillary clinton and webb. it's going to be obvious that we're making strides in those ways. it's just got to happen and you got to dwet over humps like this one, because this one obviously hurts things at least for a day or two. >> it's going to be a big hump potentially and i'm sure there will be more coming out on this. i thank you both for having this conversation on this. thank you very much for being with us. coming up, search crews in indonesia find that wreckage of that missing airasia jet liner. the latest on that recovery when we return. advil stops pain right where it starts. relief doesn't get any better than this. advil. not all toothbrushes are created equal. oral-b toothbrushes are engineered

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>> welcome back to "hardball." after three days of search and rescue efforts, the bodies of several passengers as well as debris from the wreckage of airasia flight 8501 were pulled from the northern channel of the java sea. officials are working to determine the cause of the crash. >> until we have the investigation, we cannot make any assumptions as to what went wrong. all i can say is that the weather in southeast asia is bad at the moment. and you know the flights in malaysian and thailand there's a lot of rain that's something we have to look at more

carefully, because the weather is changing. >> the findings come as tragic news for the victims' families who were holding out hope that their loved ones might have survived. that grief was compounded by the fact that the families first heard of the devastating news on a live report on tv with no advance warning. the search teams are believed to have located the fuselage where the remaining bodies will be found. the united states is assisting in the effort. gentlemen, welcome. the one sign of relief that we have here is we found the plane. we are beginning to recover bodies. what does this tell us about the rest of this process going forward, michael? how does this play itself out now? >> it's a terrible tragic end to the year for the families and to

aviation to have this happen. but the fact is we're going to fairly rapidly find the black boxes, the key elements of the missing piece of this. we know weather was a huge factor. we know the pilot's action may have exacerbated. weather alone never brings a plane down. we think it stalled, because it stalled, it came down intact. the debris field seems to back that up. so we're going to get to the bottom of this and solve this one, but i think we have other issues we need to talk about flying in that very, very busy congested airspace. >> i want to get to that because i think that's a very important aspect of this investigation that's going to reveal a lot about air safety in that region and the like. but seth how long do you think this is going to play itself out? i mean what is the timeline typically once you've located the plane, to begin the process of recovering not just the bodies, but the key instruments that are going to help us solve

what happened? >> yeah we'll see how indonesia taking the lead handles this. but typically something like this in the u.s. in weeks or months we'll have some sort of preliminary report about what's happened. some indication of this is where we think things are going, but then years before there's a final report. in this case this is not mh370, where we just don't know what we're working with. here we are just days later, with a debris field and certainly a lot of clues there. the black boxes, that cockpit voice and data recorder for example, likely still pinging and anyway we know roughly where in the world they are. so it will be a more standard process, not to say that these things are ever easy or any less tragic for the families, even with that certainty that they now have but nothing like mh 3 hmpt 3h 3 370, more typical accidents.

>> how has this been handled so far? we referenced the government and how they proceed. clearly there was a ball dropped here today -- or yesterday with local television. how is this going to play itself out from that standpoint for the families? >> well i think the families, the good news is that airasia has taken lessons learned from malaysia 370. so clearly the ceo gets it. they're treating the families differently. whether the indonesians step up aggressively and bring in the authorities from around the world and move quickly, remains to be seen. there's a lot of challenges on those aviation authorities, both with oversight of an air accident as well as regulating safety. so that part remains unanswered. speaking about the ceo, tony fernandez has been the public face for airasia since the plane went down over the weekend. here's what he had to say about yesterday's findings. >> the only slight benefit is

that for the people in there, there is some closure. this is a scar with me for the rest of my leif. it doesn't change anything. but very little there at least some closure as opposed to not knowing what happened and holding out hope. >> closure is one thing, not knowing what happened is something obviously very, very different. and one of the aspects of the conversation they think that's beginning to bubble around is this was a budget airline. and i put the term "budget" in quotation marks. is it time for an international ntsb sort of body because they come to the u.s. in our aviation recovery process and systems. is it time to sort of look a little bit more closely at what's happening in other parts of the world with airline safety and the like? >> well i think absolutely. budget low-cost doesn't necessarily mean unsafe. but indonesia has a real problem. airasia is one of the better ones.

indonesia cannot fly in europe. the european union has banned indonesian airplanes. a function of the oversight they provide and the safety. 71% of the busiest airspace in the world goes through southeast asia. at the same time the infrastructure, the ground control, the radars, the pilot training, are not up to the task. so we have an issue. the international bodies are notoriously lowest common denominators. >> sound like government. >> it is government. >> i just want to get your thought on that is it time for an international body to come in and put a check on some of these safety issues internationally? >> it's not a question of black or white in this case. you have a part of the united nations which is very involved in aviation safety matters, but certainly, yes, you have sovereignty and just a question of how much of that nations are willing to give up and defer to

others with perhaps more expertise. and just to echo something michael said before, not a question really of business model. some of the very safest airlines in the world, like southwest in this country and others like this around the world are budget airlines, and airasia, if anything had to overcome something in its part of the world, which is now taken for granted in places like the u.s. and europe which is the idea that a budget airline is saving money on foot and other amenities, but not on safety and it had done a very good job of that until now. now obviously a blemish on that record. >> we thank you both for coming in and shedding more light on this. thank you both. up next a new development in that sony hack. the security firm investigating says the hack was done by a disgruntled ex-sony employee and not north korea, but the fbi is standing by its story. that twist when we return.

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welcome back to hard"hardball"." the sony hacking scandal takes a new twist. a cyber intelligence company conducting their own investigation shared an alternate theory with the fbi. their data shows -- or rather says that some combination of a disgruntled employee and hackers for privacy groups is at fault. the fbi stands by its original assessment that north korea is responsible for the sony breach. and that there is no credible information to indicate that the other individual is responsible for the cyber incident. while the sony hacking investigation continues, one thing is clear. this security breach has shown a bright light on the vulnerabilities we all face with regard to our online data. andrew boreen, a cyber security expert, former associate deputy general counsel at the

department of defense. and a let's set the movie aside. the real drama is the sub text of the story that's evolving that maybe this is not just north korea, but possibly some third-party hackers out there. what's your take on this? >> i just think it's much too premature to start laying any blanket assertion of where the fault lies from anyone in the private sector. right now the fbi has access to human intelligence reporting from cia, access to signals intelligence from the national security agency, information that certainly they're not going to share with private sector investigators. so they have a much broader picture, and i would be remiss if i thought that director jim comey was getting out ahead of the curve and not looking at a very robust investigative picture, when he made an assertion that north korea was involved. >> but here you have this

third-party group that's sort of talking to the hacking community, watching reading, following chatter in chatrooms, putting together sort of its own paper trail of events, and have come up with a different scenario. so is there any possibility or plausibility that maybe, for example, this is contract work by the north koreans? that they in fact sort of tapped into this network of you know hackers out here tapped one of them and here we are? >> absolutely it's possible. and we frequently see that. the use -- >> so this could possibly not just be north korea? i get to the point that the u.s. government came out and said it's just north korea. >> i don't think they said it's just north korea. they said north korea was behind it. north korea made racist statements about our president, made threats to individual americans' safety if they went to a movie, made threats to the american homeland called us the cesspool of terrorism. if we did not collaborate with

north korean investigators to disprove north korean involvement. so we have to look at the robust picture even in the public sphere. >> so this isn't snowden? >> i believe for the private sector, the damage done to sony the deletion of their data as an attack, vandalism, if you will in conjunction with the theft of their information, i think this puts this on a scale for the private sector of what snowden was arefor a u.s. government wake-up call for insider attacks and cyber threats. >> thanks for being here. now that the economy is improving, who should get the credit for it? democrats or republicans? that's next with the roundtable. you're watching "hardball," the place for politics.

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>> here's what's happening. the white house is offering condolences to the family and loved ones of those who were lost in airasia flight 8501. says the united states is ready to deploy another ship if needed. a woman is dead after being shot at an idaho walmart. a child reached into her purse and triggered a gun that was inside. and focus on building productive dialogue. the mayor has been criticized by police after two officers were fatally shot on december 20th. back to "hardball." >> businesses have created near 11 million new jobs. in a hopeful sign for middle-class families, wages are on the rise again. america is now the number one producer of oil, of natural gas. we're saving drivers about 70 cents a gallon at the pump over last christmas. we've created about half a

million new jobs in the auto industry alone. the steps that we took early on rescue our economy and help rebuild it helped make 2014 the strongest year for job growth since the 1990s. >> welcome back to "hardball." that was president obama speaking earlier this month where he touted the success of his economic record. since then the economic news has gotten even better. the dow has crossed 18000 the economy is growing at its fastest pace in more than a decade. some conservatives say republicans deserve the credit for the rebound, not president obama. democrats ran away from the obama economy in the mid terms and republicans have consistently called this economy a failure. let's face it folks, both parties find themselves awkwardly positions to brag about an economic boom. so what's it all about? and what does it mean for the next year and going into 2016? the roundtable tonight, "usa today" politics editor paul singer.

huffington post reporter sabrina siddiqui and the root.com contract charles ellison. so folks, who gets the credit? >> everyone takes credit. we can give as much as we want but they'll all take credit and say, it was us we did it we did it. if the economy gets better and people feel it particularly as prices at the pump are going down and wages look like they're going up, people will say that's a good thing. if they feel better that works to the president's advantage, always always always. >> i think absolutely the president will most likely take have the if the progress continues into the new year. if you look at the trends in the past it's not as if people credited the gop under clinton. the same way when the final collapse happened people blamed president bush. not democrats in congress at the time. a lot of it does depend though on whether or not americans feel

better off. one of the problems for the white house that they're aware of a majority of americans, according to a new poll today, 51% do not feel as though their personal conditions have improved. >> interesting. >> i think it's really complicated. it depends on who seizes the moment. who articulates it better. it's like the conventional narrative right now is that the president can seize that. he can be the one to say he helped this economy recover. however, you know there are some openings there for republicans because they're tapping into sort of this raw visceral sentiment, that even though gas prices are going down, even though maybe things feel a little bit cheaper, there's still a lot of inequality out there. you got to ask which democrat can take advantage of that and which republican can -- >> this is what i don't get. where was all that swagger that we saw in the top of the segment from the president, the bragging about what his economy has done what he has done in this economy, where was that president for democrats in this past midterm?

and you've already touched on it. republicans themselves didn't run on gee, these are the things we're going to do to fix this poor failing economy. so how do these two parties, players, come to this table now and say, hey, look at what we did? >> obama, he was talking about this stuff during the election but nobody wanted to be seen with him standing on stage. there was not a democrat -- >> i did not see obama do that lit any that he did at that press conference. the president did not lay out, not on oil, on jobs on the economy. >> but those numbers were really good just before that press conference. >> they were really good but they were better. right? so where was this guy? why now? what is it about now that gives the president the room to go out into the public space to make these claims? >> some of it is that recent reports have suggested a larger trend in terms of the economic outlook, the fastest gdp growth in a decade as well as the dow

breaking 18,000. and there's a case that democrats didn't want to be seen standing side by side with obama. they didn't have the same cohesive message around the economy that they had in 2012. the party gets some of the blame for that. but you made a point about republicans that's worth pointing out, and that's why they'll struggle to get credit. republicans in congress opposed the few deals which are now being credited with the economic success we've seen. whether it was -- >> the gop has a plan for that trust me. we always have a backup plan. and the backup plan it goes something like this. so when the economy was in the dumps, many conservatives blamed the president for it. but now that it's growing again, they want to take some credit. grover norquist tweets that the recovery is all due to the republicans' agenda to slash government spending. he notes that federal spending as a share of gdp has fallen.

he also tweets that the economy grew because we stopped doing stimulus and did sequester in instead instead. so it was the sequester, stupid, not anything that the obama administration had done. is there legitimacy there? >> you have republicans playing both sides. on one side they're tapping into this raw resentment against government, or low confidence in government. it's government shouldn't be raising your taxes, have to cut back on spending. on the other side of this, they're trying to say we're also the ones who are cutting back on stimulus cutting back on basically obama and his regime, or his junta. and also trying to tap into this populist rage as well a little bit of what elizabeth warren is doing -- >> how much juice do they get out of that? >> some juice, but i don't think anybody in america will say

sequester helped. for republicans there's a challenge going forward as we ramp up military activity in iraq, how do you explain cutting defense spending and continuing to do that to a republican congress? if they want to flood money back to the defense department, grover is going to have to explain how government spending is good government spending. >> hillary clinton hasn't exactly been praising the obama economy either. take a look at what she had to say. >> middle class incomes have been declining now for more than a decade. and poverty has increased as almost all the benefits of economic growth have gone to those at the very top. >> the share of income and wealth going to those at the very top, not just at the 1% but the .01% of the population has risen sharply over the last generation. some are calling it a throwback to the gilded age of the -- >> and we've got to do a better

job of getting our economy growing again and producing results and renewing the american dream so americans feel they have a stake in the future and that the economy and the political system is not stacked against them. >> don't let anybody tell you that you know it's corporations and businesses that create jobs. >> oops. clinton's camp said she misspoke to that last one. >> you think? >> as she meant to say tax breaks for corporations don't create jobs. i'd love to get into that discussion. but whose economy is she going to run on the obama economy, her husband's economy, or an economy that she hopes to create? >> i think a lot of it will be on an economy she hopes to create. but it hinges on what we were talking about earlier. can the obama administration do enough next year to improve the standards of living for those americans who feel left out of the recovery? the poll i mentioned earlier, showed 18% of americans feel

they're better off today than a year ago. 29% feel like they're worse off. so that's a significant problem for whoever the democratic nominee for president is in 2016, because it really dictates whether the obama economy will be a plus or political liability. >> how do republicans run against clinton if she's running against the obama economy? >> they're going to call her out, see that she's trying to have it both ways and create a hybrid economy. she feels elizabeth warren nipping at her heels a bit. she's feeling a little bit of rand paul. it's because of sentiments out there where people see the dow going up but still a lot of unemployment, low wages, growing income inequality gap. she's trying to tap into that seems a bit scripted and staged. >> she's going to be doing a whole lot of tap dancing. >> people got to call her out on this and she's providing them opportunities for them to do it. >> the roundtable is staying with us and when we return

congressman michael grimm's resignation caps a year of scandal. what does it say about our leaders, and what does it say about us the voters who picked them? this is "hardball," the place for politics. ker? dad: yeah, 20 something years now. thinking about what you want to do with your money? daughter: looking at options. what do you guys pay in fees? dad: i don't know exactly. daughter: if you're not happy do they have to pay you back? dad: it doesn't really work that way. daughter: you sure? vo: are you asking enough questions about the way your wealth is managed? wealth management at charles schwab. [coughing] dave, i'm sorry to interrupt... i gotta take a sick day tomorrow. dads don't take sick days, dads take nyquil. the nighttime, sniffling sneezing, coughing aching, fever, best sleep with a cold medicine. latte or au lait? cozy or cool? exactly the way you want it ... until boom, it's bedtime! your mattress is a battleground of thwarted desire.

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new meta health bars help promote heart health. experience the meta effect with our new multi-health wellness line. ♪ ♪ [ 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. ♪ ♪ >> we are back. it began with bridgegate, and it ends with a tax evasion. in between, we saw a former governor convicted of fraud, a congressman ousted for cocaine and so much, much more. it was a year of scandal and even some sleaze in american politics. so it's only appropriate that today republican congressman michael grimm of new york announced he will resign after pleading guilty last week to tax fraud. despite facing a 20-count

indictment, grimm won re-election to the house this november. what does this say about our leaders? more importantly, what does it say about how we the voters choose them? we're back with the roundtable. paulsabrina and chaurms. what does it say? how can you be indicted run for election, win, be convicted and say oh, i guess i should resign. how does that happen? >> i think it's funny when you say it's been a year of sleaze and politics. what year has not been a year of sleaze and politics. we have an entire industry built to make people forget. >> and to be fair when congressman grim was running for re-election, he maintained his innocence throughout. i think one of the things that this speaks to is just how polarized this is at this environment. as well as the impact when you look at how it speaks. in is extremely republican. so when faced with a congressman or a democrat voters in that

district are still going to choose the scandal in a special election. they picked a democrat -- they picked a republican over the democrat. that was the congressman who was found purchasing cocaine. >> one of the frustrations in all of this though it's not just, you know the big stuff, like, the federal investigation and tact fraud and allx fraud and all of that. it's also the little stuff like small states in virginia. corruption charges for accepted more than $165,000 in gifts alone while in office including one very photogenic rolex watch. a jury found them guilty of taking those bribes in exchange for political favors. again, it goes to what i was saying it's not just about what we see happening at the federal level. this was a problem that we dealt with at the state level with our state official. what's going on in our politics when our political leadership feel they can do these things

engage in these blaifehaviors and it's okay. >> it's really troubling how you have this precipitous drop in government, whether state or local level. especially in the past 30 years. so ewe eve got that trend going on. you've also got this trend of politicians trying to be the anti-politicians. so they know that voters have very short attention spans. with all the details and the scandals and stuff about their characterer. they feel like yeah i'm going to washington and i'm going to the state house to fix it. so voters feed into that. and then the third trend that's going on there, also as well is you know voters just sort of feeling attracted to authentic types of politicians or authentic types of candidates. >> but people prove them msselves not to be authentic, they re-elect them anyway. >> my problem is money.

the fact of the matter is there are billions of dollars being spent in campaigns and in politics. every member of congress every member of elected office has to go around asking folks for a lot of money. that invites corruption. it doesn't mean that everybody is corrupt. if you come to me with a check in your hand and you come to me without a check in your hand, i have to pay more attention to you. >> wait a minute these guys were getting checks and they were still taking rolex watches and the whole tax evasion. >> i don't know if a donor writing me a check to walk away feeling entitled to get a rolex from another donor. >> you could argue that money has within inbeen in politics forever. >> it's not new. what is new is what's happening to our political leaders. and what is more disturbing inging

to me is how accepting the voters get of it. as you said earlier, paul this whole system is designed to help us forget. so we can, then, go on and ignore that bad behavior. >> there's no other candidate in some of these races. >> it does come back to the fact that, at the end of the someday, a district is either so heavily red e readread or so heavily booed. democrats had a pad year across the country in 2014. even if there wasn't a scandal in a race like maryland you still saw a democrat lose for the first time in decades. >> which was a great race, by the way. con gratulations to larry hogan and keeping it clean. thank you to the panel. we'll be right back right after this.

let me finish tonight with this. one reality that must not change about america and the free enterprise economy is that the root of america's success has always sprung out of the hard labor of its middle class entrepreneurs. the men and women who risk it all in a dream. government doesn't do that, folks. government can't cothat. but a small business owner creates a job, they make an investment in people in a way that the government can't match, which is why the current jockeying by democrats and republicans over who gets credit for the good news in the economy makes most americans just yawn. we don't believe either one of them.

despite president obama's boastful sound bytes about his new and improving economic data a subject he barely broached during the fall elections, and some gop claims that sequestration, the budget wars and their efforts to reign in government spending was the fix, we didn't hear much about that either over their drum beat to repeal obamacare. the drum beat is a skeptical politicians and their politics. so while the party won't be embraced edd as fact by anyone other than the politicians themselves and group supporters. yet, we should all brace for a round of healthy sides of the aisle and opposing sets of economic policies and ideals they never passed into law. the truth is as an economist will tell you, the real credit for the potential prosperity we're now beginning to feel goes to you, the risk takers. those who still fight for the

american dream every morning when they open for business. that's "hardball" for now. thanks for being with us. "all in" with chris hayes, starts right now. >> tonight on "all in". >> i'm looking forward to bringing a fresh, new voice to our leadership table. >> republicans standby their man. skalise at e admits and apologizes for speaking at a white supremist meeting. then the e mayor deblasio meets face-to-face with the police unions that are trying to take him down. a full report ahead. plus the latest and best evidence yet that north korea might not have been involved at all in the sony hack. and for fond farewells to fallen icons -- >> this is no response. >> tonight, an "all in" round up. the epic year in pop culture