could have. you will be here for the 45th. >> well, i want to make it through to the 40th right now. >> an honor to work in the same building as lorne michaels. hardball with chris matthews is up next. the face of evil. and this is "hardball." ♪ ♪ >> good evening, i'm chris matthews in washington. at the front of the news tonight, a bigger horror. a group associated with isis beheads 21 egyptian christians in libya, they conduct the executions in broad daylight, broadcasting the pictures to the world. like previous video, the new one is highly produced. it shows the christians led along the mediterranean shoreline. they're forced to kneel by the water and are beheaded. today the egyptian air force

responded carrying out bombing raids against isis targets. italy warned that isis is at the door now of europe. maria with the american state department. this is getting close. and i think the italians, you know, who had some land in northern africa over the years before, are beginning to feel them at their curb side now. what do we do as americans when we look at 21 christians beheaded for the purposes of humiliating us, the christian world, the western world? it's aimed at us, those pictures. >> i think it underscores to people that it isn't just a fight in iraq and syria and it's not just a fight about dropping bombs on terrorists. it's how we stop the causes that lead to extremism in a place like libya, where there's no governance, letting isis grow and flourish there, which is what we saw with this awful situation. but it's a longer fight, fighting them on social media.

they're using social media to get converts to their cause and to spread their hatred all over the world. this week, we'll have over 60 countries in washington to talk about combatting this violent extremism together in the long-term. >> how do we win? how do we stop this? i see the shia militias coming out of baghdad. the sunnis hate them. they're loyal to isis rather than go with the shia. you have the kurds, and the egyptian air force, but i don't see -- if i were isis, i wouldn't be afraid. they can keep finding places to hold executions and putting the camera work together, getting their props ready and killing people for show and nothing we do right now seems to be directed at stopping this. >> well, i think there's a few stages here. right now what we're doing is trying to take their leaders and their fighters off the battlefield in iraq and syria,

where they flourish. >> are we killing enough of them? >> we're killing a lot of them and we'll kill more. so are the egyptians and the jordanians. but we cannot kill our way out of this war. we need to go after the root causes that leads people to join these groups, whether it's lack of opportunity for jobs, whether -- >> we're not going to be able to stop that in your lifetime. there's always going to be poor people and poor muslims, and the trumpet's blowing and they'll join. we can't stop that, can we? >> we can work with countries around the world to build their governance and their economies. you're right, there's no easy solution in the long-term to preventing violent extremism, but if we can help countries around the world to build their governance and their economies. you're right, there's no easy solution in the long-term to preventing violent extremism, but if we can help countries work at the root causes of this. what makes a 17-year-old kid pick up an ak-47, instead of trying to start a business? maybe we can chip away at the problem, while going after the threat, taking on isil in iraq, in syria, and helping our

partners around the world. >> this sounds like we're going to get rid of juvenile delinquency in america by erasing poverty. sure, over time. but the american people are getting humiliated morally by this. seeing these pictures, and what are you supposed to say and do about this? they're watching right now. what do they do to stop these indecent killing of people? the burning alive of the good pilot, the whatever they did to the american woman over there, whatever they did, whatever they're doing to these people, beheading them, what are we doing to stop this? it sounds like we can't stop it. >> they should know that the united states military is taking direct action in iraq and syria. we're taking their leaders out. we're taking out their financing, their training camps. this is a long fight, chris. but i also think, not to take it to politics for a second, but they should tell their elected leaders to support the aumf that

we sent to congress. >> i'm with you on that. i think there's a lot of politicians left, right, and center hiding in the bushes right now. they don't want their fingers on this war because they're afraid it might not be pleasant. >> war is never pleasant, chris. >> thank you for joining us. i'm joined now with evan coleman and michael kay, former british officer. evan first, to answer my complaint here, americans watch television, they watch it on their computers, iphones, they get these pictures from isis and libya of people being executed, burned alive, whatever else. this is going to continue and i wonder how the american people will react to this. they don't want to become passive, useless, morally somehow compliant in this. because if you don't do anything, most americans say, if we're not doing anything, we're part of the problem. your thoughts? >> back in 2004, we had a

similar problem. fallujah under control of al qaeda in iraq, they took it and turned it into a slaughter house. it took a lot of u.s. military force to get them out of there. and we ended it. we ended that period of executions. what we found there was horrifying. i'm not a big advocate of putting american boots on the ground when they're not absolutely necessary. but i think we have to really carefully weigh our options here. back in 2005, president bush said there were 160,000 iraqi troops ready for action. many of whom were ready for independent action. that was ten years ago. there's still no iraqi army. if we're relying on the iraqi army or syrian rebels to take care of this problem, it will never get fixed. so whatever we choose, whatever strategy we choose, let's at least choose a strategy that's not doomed from the start. and anyone that has looked at the last five to ten years of iraqi history and think -- or syrian history -- and thinks this strategy is going to work is a fool. >> let me go to michael kay on

that point. that is the quality of the iraqi army. it's apparently now getting smaller. ever since they were overrun a while back by isis, they haven't been in a fighting mood and have been replaced, overwhelmed now by the shia militia, who are the real people fighting isis. and that's a tough one. what side are we on with that one? the shia militia or with isis? and what are the sunni thinking? would they choose the shia against their own religion? would they? >> just going to your initial point of the height of the training and equip program in 2008 and 2009. there was over 200,000 in the iraqi army, which is a significant amount. today we see the iraqi army has around 45,000. the ministry of interior forces in iraq have around 45,000, and you have popular mobilization forces, shia-backed, coming up from the south and iran. and they're comprised hezbollah and the baiter organization. actions have consequences.

there's a reason for lack of governance and that's because of a nato-led air campaign in 2011 which wiped out of all of the government structures from the army to police and created this security vacuum. i had the pleasure of interviewing and meeting al sissi, the egyptian president last april in cairo. we told me, one of his big concerns on his eastern flank, he had an insurgency brewing and same thing on the western because of actions we took without a rebuilding program post the air strikes. the situation in libya is very complex. you have two main islamist groups. the libyan dawn is backed by qatar and one of the main islamists from libya hides in qatar at the moment. you have islamic groups and the regional backing of iran, saudi,

qatar, and the uae. again, going back to the holistic approach, we're running around like headless chickens at the moment. we're reactive. we have to take a proactive stance, engage politically, and make sure we're not creating governance vacuums like in 2003 in iraq and 2011 in libya to start with. >> i want to go back to evan on that, because, you know, we were warned, you know, that we were breaking apart these governments. we broke apart certainly the government of syria. we've been doing that -- in the process of doing that. we eliminated the government of iraq, which was a dictatorship, but it held the sunni and shia together. we had gadhafi, who was a bit of a clown, but better a clown than what we have now. we had the front line states against israel which were basically a joke, they were no threat to israel, certainly not even a strategic threat.

now we have this hell broken loose. we can use the term of jeb bush, relitigate it. but what do we do now? the countries are broken. >> it's extremely difficult and disappointing when you look at libya, which showed some promise. it looked like some of the fighters there might be pro-american or pro-western and i think some of them are. in libya, we did half the job. we bombed targets, once gadhafi crumbled, we disappeared. and said to the libyans, you do everything yourself. and how we expected people that had no history of democratic governance to come up with a democratic government overnight that would function perfectly, again was the ideal of a complete fool. you can't just bomb people. you have to bomb people and then provide some kind of framework for moving on. same mistake in iraq in 2003. we destroyed the iraqi infrastructure, wiped out the army and had no blueprint to the move forward.

>> i want to go back to marie. you were shaking your head. it seems like colin powell was right. he said you broke it, you bought it. we've broken all these governments from iraq, afghanistan, libya, half a government and what's left in syria and they're all broken apart, and we've become the gendarme and we're fighting isis. isis is here. until we get rid of it, it's going to be here to stay. my question, where do we go from here? >> i think what everyone was saying is too simplistic. in libya and syria, we supported people who were rising up in their own country to try to get a better future. i remember the time people saying we were too slow to support them. >> what government? libya? >> in libya and syria. around the middle east, when we were talking about the arab uprising, different than iraq. complete different. people were saying america should stand by these people looking to stand up against

gadhafi. the question is, what we do now. i can guarantee you there are people at the state department and across this government working with the libyans to help them chart a better course, but we can't do it for them, nor should we. and it is very complex. >> we're paying the price of their disaster. we are paying the price. >> chris, if i can -- >> certainly, michael. >> if i can jump in, in terms of where we go in the future, having spent a bit of time in cairo, one of the things we need to do is look at egypt as a strategic pivot. they went through an important revolution, which turned away an islamic caliphate proposal from morsi. i think that's important in the ideology we're looking to fight at the moment. we need to empower al sissi. and take away the idea of

central government like in afghanistan for the last ten years. what i mean, empowering kabul to reach out to the districts when you're looking at a country that binds tribal entities that transcend national boundaries. we need to go back to a decentralized templates that recognizes the cultures and histories of entities in these countries for hundreds of thousands of years. that would be a good place to start. >> this is not going to end tonight or for months or years. coming up, jeb bush doesn't want to talk about iraq and afghanistan. the republican front-runner is delivering a foreign policy speech this week, but he said he won't talk about the past. can he refuse to talk about his brother's wars? plus, it's the best of times and the worst of times from hillary clinton. polls show she faces no competition for the democratic nomination. but being so far out in front means that every meal ticket in

the party is looking to her for a job. and 40 years of "saturday night live" was celebrated last night, including appearances by dozens of former cast members. also a few surprise guests. >> next question. >> next question. yes, tina? >> no, it's sarah. sarah palin. >> yes, sorry. sorry. oh, my gosh, of course, governor palin, welcome. >> i was just curious, jerry, how much do you think lorne michaels would pay me if i were to run in 2016? >> run for president, sarah, i don't think there's a number too big. >> anyway, we'll have more of the highlights coming up. and let me finish tonight with the horror we face on the nearest tv or laptop, it's isis. this is "hardball," the place for politics. shopping online is as easy as it gets. wouldn't it be great if hiring plumbers, carpenters and even piano tuners were just as simple? thanks to angie's list now it is.

we've made hiring anyone from a handyman to a dog walker as simple as a few clicks. buy their services directly at angieslist.com no more calling around. no more hassles. start shopping from a list of top-rated providers today. angie's list is revolutionizing local service again. visit angieslist.com today. well, new polls from nbc

news show hillary clinton with strong leads over possible competitors for 2016. in iowa, secretary clinton has a 56 point lead over biden. bernie sanders is close behind these two with 7%. jim webb of virginia hanging in there with 1%. hillary clinton is still on top with 69% in new hampshire, but sanders has a slight edge over the vp among registered voters. we'll be right back.

welcome back to "hardball." for mainstream republicans, there's a battle between the old and the new. jeb bush is the old. scott walker is the new kid on the block. bush and walker are the only gop presidential hopefuls to reach double digits in the first three 2016 contests, including iowa. the new poll found a similar story in new hampshire and south carolina, making them the front-runners. but jeb has the baggage of the bush family name and an historic record of that.

reminders of w.'s foreign policy are haunting his younger brother. in 2013, he was put on the defensive about his brother's handling of the war in iraq. and here was his response. >> a lot of things in history change over time. i think people will respect the resolve that my brother showed, both in defending the country and the war in iraq. >> that sounds like e for effort. anyway, last week we asked how jeb would handle iraq and afghanistan differently. the former florida governor said that he won't -- here's a new phrase i don't like -- relitigate. he's not even a lawyer. let's listen to jeb. >> i won't talk about the past. i'll talk about the future. if i'm in the process of considering the possibility of running, it's not about relitigating anything in the past. it's about trying to create a set of principles and ideas that will help us move forward. >> well, jeb also said he won't look backwards when it comes to

foreign policy, but will focus on the future. let's watch. >> we have some big, hairy, complicated things we need to fix, and one of those is what the role of america is in the world, to protect our safety and security, but also to promote security and peace around the world. i think we can be a force for good. >> hairy problems. anyway, here's the question. can bush hide from bush's war? michael, contributor to the daily beast and ron reagan author and msnbc analyst. good to see you back with a tan. you've got a famous name, but you've never ran for anything. how can bush run from bush's war? i don't get it. how does he not talk about it? hillary has to talk about her positions in the past, doesn't he? >> yes, it's amazing politicians don't want to talk about certain subjects. scott walker doesn't want to talk about evolution. marco rubio doesn't want to talk about how old the earth is and jeb bush doesn't want to talk

about the past. i imagine he's being selective. he'll want to critique the obama administration, which would be delving into the past. and his governorship of florida, which is also in the past. he doesn't want to talk about things in the past that are uncomfortable to him, afghanistan and iraq, but he won't be able to avoid that because we're still dealing with the fall-out from iraq and afghanistan. he'll get leeway in terms of critiquing his brother personally. people understand it's family and that would be awkward for him. but he won't be able to distance himself from those wars. he'll have to demonstrate that he understands that list brother made mistakes. >> and he can't say mistakes, because a passive voice won't work. what do you think of the u.s. policy toward iraq starting in 2001? just ask him about the policy. don't even mention his brother's name. >> just ask him that. but he's going to say, or he should say, if he's being

honest, i supported it, because he did support it. he signed that pdac letter -- >> bill crystal's? >> yes. he came out for the iraq war, and he has since spoken in some of the clips that you played in favor of the war. so that's a position he'll have to defend and talk about all the consequences of the war, including isis, that you talked about in your first segment. isis grew out of that war. >> i think iran, everybody watching this show, maybe not, some people on the hard left are pro-clinton will say, i don't want a real contest in 2016. i want the republicans to put up a joker, a clown who can't possibly win, therefore our candidate will walk into the white house. i think the american people deserve a freaking choice for once. of two people they can imagine as president, then they watch the debates and make up their mind. but a lot of people are hoping jeb bush will turn out to be the guy not like his brother, more

like his father, more of a realist, and less of a crazed ideologue who sits around waiting for cheney to tell him what to do. >> but he's going to have to grapple with the recent past and deal with the blowback that we've experienced. isis is a perfect example, of course from the wars in iraq and maybe less so in afghanistan. these are realities that he's going to have to grapple with. >> you mean to tell me, if it hadn't been for us breaking up iraq and then almost breaking up syria, and breaking up libya, if we hadn't created that running room for isis, if we hadn't turned those generals and all the other officers out of the iraqi army and sent them out there for nowhere, that there wouldn't have been a recruitment by the extremes of islamism? you mean it has a cause and effect, bad foreign policy leading to worse consequences? are you arguing that? >> eventually there would have been an isis because the situation in the middle east is

what it is. but it might not be in iraq or syria right now. it precipitated that. there was no al qaeda or isis in iraq before we invaded. that's simply a fact. >> so we created the animosity, hostility and the broken-down government. i look back at this and say, give me the generals, the army in egypt, like sadat and those people. it was about their country, it wasn't something that we had to contend with. your thoughts? >> there aren't any good choices. michael kay knows what he's talking about, saying we should buddy up with al sissi, but he's a pretty bad dictator. those are the kinds of choices we've got. but here's another choice, that jeb is going to have to make. they bash obama and say he's weak and this and that and doesn't want to defend america. okay, what do you do

differently? forget isis for the moment. what do you do differently about the ukraine? is it worth stopping what he's doing in ukraine? is american blood worth that? he has to answer that question. >> here's w.'s white house secretary ari fleischer. it seems as if he will come out of the more muscular peace-through-strength wing of the party. he hopes he's one of the neo cons. >> i would argue with the term muscular and peace through strength. jeb bush probably appreciates that having a nice war going on can be helpful politically and helps the military industrial complex as well. so i don't imagine that he'd be shy about using military force but as michael was saying, to what end? we can't just bomb our way through the middle east and expect everything's going to turn out hunky-dory. that won't happen. saudi arabia, iran, the rest of

them are going to have to solve these problems for themselves. we can't do it for them. as michael said, there are no good options here. >> some people, when they get divorced, they keep the spouse's name, because they like the sound of the name. it's like that's what jeb's doing. he keeps the name, but he doesn't want any responsibility. >> that's not going to last that long. he's not going to get away with that. >> i think he's trying to divorce his family name from any responsibility, but yet get all the advantages of the name he likes the sound of. by the way, the word bush has opened doors for this guy his entire life and now he sees a door in front of him, saying, i don't want that to be there. thank you, good to see you back, ron. >> thank you. >> and michael, i love your writing. up next in the -- >> roundtable. >> in "the daily beast." in the side show, a weather

forecast that went viral. take a look at this. >> oh, yes! yes, yes, yes, we got it baby! we got it! woo, woo! ♪

♪ >> ha! >> the president always trying to sell obamacare and you know, trying to reach the young people, he made a goofy video for buzz feed where he's talking to himself in the mirror, oh, my god. and taking selfies with a selfie stick, which is, i think that's great because that way he can act like all the other democrats and distance himself from obama. >> back to "hardball," time now for the side show. that was bill maher on the president's buzz feed video which has been viewed 45 million times. and thunder show is a combination of a thunderstorm and a snowstorm, it's so rare,

it's become a white whale as far as meteorologists are concerned. but jim cantore was able to catch it on camera and this was his reaction. >> oh, yes! yes, yes, yes, we got it, baby! we got it! we got it! woo! woo! oh, again! again! that's a two-fer. that's a two-fer, baby! yes, again, you got to be kidding me. and there's another one. can you have your $500 million jackpot in powerball, but i'll take this baby. four lightning strikes and episodes of thunder snow. >> working on howard dean there. finally cold weather the subject of a tweet by former congressman anthony weiner aimed at cuomo who closed subway last month in anticipation of a blizzard that never materialized.

he wrote, sunday's going to be cold. governor cuomo will close the subway. cuomo's office tweeted, yes, it's going to be cold, a good reason to keep your pants on. i love it. new polls show how much of a front-runner hillary clinton is right now. but that's not the whole story. you're watching "hardball," the place for politics.

♪ ♪ >> welcome back to "hardball." it's the best of times and the worst of times potentially for hillary clinton. she's killing it in the polls. but that means people looking for jobs with her. a motley crue of careerists, insiders, watchdog, attack dogs, on last week's roundtable, we talked about the down side of dominance following a conflict between jim messina and david brock, that broke out into the open. here it is. >> part of the problem is, these operatives and strategists don't have anywhere else to go. so they're all fighting over a large pie, but it's only one

pie. >> john podesta has to get control of the clinton operation. >> and he's pretty good at that. >> john podesta is expected to become chairman of the clinton operation. he has deep roots with the clinton and more recently president obama. in a profile today, "the new york times" described his role this we. it will fall to him to impose discipline on the sprawling and fractious clinton universe, including the candidate and her famously undisciplined husband. that's one tall order. i'm joined now by the roundtable, sam stein, ruth marcus and charles elson. i want to start with sam. i don't care how vintage he is, how does john podesta make sure bill clinton doesn't do anything embarrassing and help to keep together the fractious amazing

watchdogs, that really tough crowd that know how to kill the enemy, keep them in line, that crowd, and then all the new people pouring in the door because it is the democratic party now. if you want to work in the democratic party, you work for hillary clinton? >> how does he do it? >> yeah. >> he doesn't. it's impossible. >> so this is another roadshow from hell? >> i think it was going to be a roadshow no matter who was running that ship. it's too big a ship. and like he said, it's the only ship in town. so you'll attract life-long characters, new characters. the president himself in 2008 was a problem on the campaign trail and you have to manage what's happening with the current president who has his own legacy to look out for. it's an unwieldy task, but in the end, i think that we in the press tend to focus too much on it a little bit and they realize --

>> excuse me for living. so you don't want to talk about -- [ laughter ] you say it doesn't matter, but we tend to focus on. you diminish this question. but they did not have a strategy to get delegates. the other guys did. they figured, we know how to get delegates all over the country. we'll go to south dakota. don't have to do california and pennsylvania. they figured out what these guys were too busy to do which was learn how to win. she needs smart people around here to beat the republican. this is going to be very touch to stretch the democratic reign beyond eight years, it's going to be tough. >> it's an impossible task, certainly as you described it. but if there's anybody who could possibly do this in the democratic party, it's john podesta, do not underestimate him. he's got relationships with bill clinton, with hillary clinton, he's got a relationship with president obama. he knows policy, and he knows politics. and he knows how to exert discipline. he did it in the clinton white house -- >> can you tell bill clinton what to do? >> no one can.

but there are certain people he can hear better than others. and one of them is john podesta. >> that's the great thing about john podesta, best of both worlds. he can balance the clinton and obama universes. >> that's the easier part. >> but at the same time, it's like i'm agreeing with sam here in terms of, how's he going to do it and what makes hillary 4.0, different from hillary 3.0 in 2008? you're starting to see the same internal factions within her camp and that was a big liability in 2008 and it's going to be a big liability -- >> i think the hard part and what we're watching now. the first guy out of the curtain is jeb bush. when you first walk out, that's when you realize you're hitting the new york media world, the toughest media this side of britain and you have to say who you are. he's having a hard time saying i don't want to relitigate this, a modern word.

you are going to relitigate because your brother's the reason we're talking about the iraq war. you, brother, and you were with him. so hillary clinton, secretary clinton is going to have to come out in the first couple days, she's going to have to walk out and have a plan about how to talk. that to me, i root for her, because i think that's the hardest thing in america to re-enter the conversation. >> i agree with you. >> it's not about the structure so much -- >> but it's always about the pace of the conversation. and it's much faster and more demanding than it was four, five, six years ago. look what chris christie did in london, he had to stop talking because his answer was so bad. >> what was that about? >> it was a very bland nato question. he doesn't talk. and go back to hillary clinton's book tour. the first couple days, a lot of misstatements and oddly sounding things about her own wealth. it's telling that a lot of her

close aides, they're fine with her taking her time, in part to cut down the amount of exposure that she has. i don't think it's the best thing to do because you obviously have to face it at some point. >> got to put your toe in the water and then jump in. and then you're in the water and there are alligators in there. >> whenever you get in the water, there's going to be alligators, so sometimes you might as well jump. >> would you recommend to jump in and make some mistakes? >> i would recommend not making mistakes. >> make them early. [ laughter ] >> learning from the mistakes that you've made. what are the quotes you remember from her? i didn't want to stay home and bake cookies. we were dead broke. when she gets pushed, she -- >> what difference did it make. >> the clinton campaign needs to talk to her and say, you need to practice that, make sure that when you get riled up.

she does two things, one is she laughs and tries to laugh it off. the other thing, she says something that will cause her trouble in the end. she's got to get more disciplined. but she's a disciplined person, so i'm assuming -- >> she needs calibrated mistakes and flaws to look authentic, because that's the main problem with clinton that was a big flaw and a liability in 2008. >> terry gross at npr and not a right-wing crazy person. she's wonderful. >> yes. >> she asked hillary clinton about changing her mind. like most of us did over same-sex marriage, which we now call marriage equality. it is a social thing. you don't just make up your mind as if you're in a cave somewhere. you make it as part of a community. what's wrong with saying that it's very hard to answer a question that wasn't hard to answer. i didn't think it was possible, now i realize it is. i know somebody would have jumped on that, but it would have been honest.

>> right. >> it isn't all in a vacuum. politicians don't operate in a vacuum. >> sometimes they're too polished. >> lincoln never explained where he was on slavery. he said no more expansion in the territories. >> roosevelt never said we're going to war with the nazis. he wanted to. but when you tell them, you tell them the truth. anyway, the roundtable is staying with us. up next, the highlights in last night's major "saturday night live" 40th anniversary special, which is all about generations. this is "hardball," the place for politics. have a very special guest. come on out, flo! [house band playing] you have anything to say to flo? nah, i'll just let the results do the talking. [crowd booing] well, he can do that. we show our progressive direct rate and the rates of our competitors even if progressive isn't the lowest. it looks like progressive is not the lowest!

ohhhh! when we return we'll find out whether doug is the father. wait, what?

♪ it's my party and i'll cry if i want to ♪ ♪ cry if i want to ♪ ♪ you would cry too if it happened to you ♪ >> a lot of heart there. a loss for the world there in music and us who lived through it, lesley gore died. the performer and songwriter was the voice behind 1963's "it's my party," she passed away monday in new york. she was just 68, which is not that old. we'll be right back.

talk about a big event on television. "saturday night live" had so many celebrities on last night it took nearly two minutes to read all of the names of the guests last night. it included a potential new presidential ticket for 2016. >> next question, yes, tina? >> no, it's sarah. >> oh, sorry. >> oh my god. of course, governor palin, welcome. >> i'm just curious, jerry, how much do you think lauren michael would pay me if i was to run in 2016. >> run for president, sarah, i don't think there is a number to win. >> what if i picked donald trump as me running mate?

>> you're teasing us, that is not night. >> former colleagues got together. >> times have changed since i first sat behind this disk. i used to be the only pretty blond woman reading the fake news, now there is a whole network devoted to that. >> ruth, i want to talk to you because you had an intergenerational experience last night. >> i did, i watched with my 17-year-old daughter. what an amazing thing. "saturday night live" was part of my adolescence, college life, and it now part of my two daughter's adolescence and college life. they tell me on sunday morning, mom, you have to watch this, you

have to watch. what other show is there in america that has bridged those generations that way. >> "hardball." >> it will, but you know -- >> i'm only 21 years. >> i was looking at the -- how do you square it? what do you think about diversity, pretty good or not pretty good? >> for some reason, we were talking about this off set, it just feels like okay, one, "snl" lost a lot of edge from the '70s and '80s, and diversity. >> who are the big african-american stars? >> eddie murphy, chris rock, keenan thompson. but really no one -- everybody was trying to measure up to eddie murphy and no one could really do it. he really kind of just went on the edge. he pushed the envelope.

i could not see anyone doing that in later years. it is hard to watch saturday night live sometimes. >> and the diversity, the lack of diversity is where that loss of edge was. >> the cold open is always my favorite. it shows -- they take something and you realize in a matter of seconds my god, that is something about this week and they're tearing it apart. something we all talked about and they just lampoon it. and i remember watching a show where darrell hannah was playing cheney, and he is in camera before it parts and he is cheney. they're putting down something that is real, and they're making so much fun of it. >> maybe it is like a dc centric viewpoint, but i always love the politic comedy. it always has an impact.

the skits with sarah palin and katie couric -- >> yeah, it has become imprinted in our mind. >> go back to our view of gerald ford, and the lampoons. >> yeah, john stewart, steven colbert, they set the standard, but it was kind of the genesis of the comedy central network. >> and live. >> we're live now, but i'll tell you, live is something else. and how do they do it like in the old days. everything had to be timed. if someone missed a line, what would they have done, and every single time, it has been live. live from new york. it is really dramatic. it is like sid caesar or

something like that. thank you, guys, i think we talked about the important stuff. when we return, let me finish with the horror we face on new york's tv or laptop. isis is never further away than that unfortunately.

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let me finish tonight with the news. like many of you i live in conflict over this horror for the mideast. these 21 beheadings is an ancient horror carried out before our eyes. purposely. otherwise why is it so well video taped? they're using people other there, the death of people, to demonstrate their devotion, ruthlessness, and hour. they're killing people in the most disrespectful way so they can be seen doing it by the people they want to recruit and the people they want to kill. they're showing their willingness to go all of the way to start anger by doing what the hell they decide to do to the people they are committed to destroy. what can we do? can we do nothing? can we just look at the pictures, ask what's for supper? what's on tv tonight? what's the weather like tomorrow morning? warding off the knowledge that

these people are being killed in demonstration against us. can we content ourselves by doing something that we node right now will not be enough to stop this horror. we all know we need a plan, a root that takes us to destroyed isis. we can't see people killed like this in our face and flip to the supports page, the financial news, what's at the movies, who will win the oscars? and act like our country is not being morally humiliated. some of these people in their last minutes have to be wondering are the people in the united states coming to their rescue. that's how we were taught that we conduct ourselves. we don't leave people behind. that's "hardball" for now. "all in" with chris hayes starts now. tonight on "all in." the isis libya branch murders

egyptian christians. what they really want. >> when it comes to waging war -- >> i think we should not restrain the president of the united states. >> and ranking the presidents on president's day. and, he was one of the stars of the snl 40 spectacular. >> this week's hottest club in new york is called yank. my discussion with edward norton about his new netflix project. >> there was everybody else, and then eddie murphy alone. good evening from new york. isis is expanding it's base from