science that together across multiple studies is forming a picture of what's going on in the gulf. >> dr. andrew whitehead. also with us tonight dr. mike robicheaux. that's it for "the ed show." good evening, rev. >> good evening, ed. thanks to you for tuning in. tonight's lead silence from the gop today. the startling response from republicans to rudy giuliani's ugly smear that president obama doesn't love america. a deafening no comment. and the pressure is building after giuliani stood by his insult. >> mr. mayor, do you want to apologize for your comment? >> not at all. i want to repeat it. the reality is from all i've seen of the president, all i've heard of him, he apologizing for america, he criticizes america.

he talks about the crews ides and how the christians were barbarian barbarians. i don't feel this love of america. the president and his comments has not displayed the kind of love of america, the kind of love of america and exceptionalism that other american presidents have displayed. i'm right about this. i have no doubt about it. i do not withdraw my words. >> there is no way to spin it. these are hateful slurs from a fading republican desperate for relevance. it should be easy for fellow republicans to reject this. and this morning msnbc's joe scar borough warned 2016 gop hopefuls, they can't let it hang over their party. >> are we really going to go through another cycle where republican candidates are too stupid to get out of the way of the stupidest people in their

party that keep them from winning presidential elections by spewing hatred instead of telling people how they're going to get back to work? it's not enough to say we'll let rudy giuliani speak for himself. >> today it looks like yes, there may be another cycle of this. so far only gop senator marco rubio has said clearly he doesn't agree with giuliani. scott walker said he'll let the mayor speak for himself. bobby jindal said the gist of what giuliani said is true. ted cruz declined to comment to us. rand paul declined to comment to us. indeed we still haven't heard from most of the big name 2016 republicans including jeb bush who we also reached out to. they aspire to be leaders of the free world, but they're in no rush to stand up to irrelevant

rudy juliangiuliani and is only hurting the gop brand and showing they're not serious about change. joining me now are e.j. dionne and jason johnson. thank you both for being here. >> glad to be here rev. >> e.j. before we get to the silence of republicans, i mean what's going on with rudy giuliani? what do you make of these comments? >> i mean these were appalling comments. i have to say i was surprised. i thought we might be done with this. the president's not on a ballot any more. there's absolutely no reason to say it. the thing he said that really bothered me and the way even more than he does a lot of america, which is absurd on its face is he wasn't brought up the way you were brought up and i was brought up. what in the world does that mean? what kind of code is there as if he lived in indonesia? is it a comment on who his mother was? what does that mean? i was just astonished by it.

>> jason, i see you shaking your head. what is it a code for, using e.j.'s term? >> he's that black guy in the white house that i never liked. that's the code speech. and really i think what giuliani should recognize from his ridiculous statements and republicans should realize as well is this is not a winning strategy. it's not just poor leadership it's not a winning strategy. one of the high points of the 2008 presidential election was when john mccain countered one of his own supporters and said look barack obama i don't agree with him, but i would never question this guy loves his country. you would think republicans would be smarter now. >> let me go to that because i think that's a very important point. john mccain, who i disagree with did have the courage that we are not seeing any republican contender have. watch this. >> i can't trust obama. i have read about him and he's

not -- he's an arab. he's not -- no? >> no ma'am, no ma'am. he's a decent family man citizen that i just happen to have disagreements with on fundamental issues and that's what this campaign is all about. he's not. thank you. >> now, e.j. i never thought i would miss john mccain, but this is the kind of leadership you can respect even if you don't vote for. and we've not seen that now. senator rubio did say on the record he disagrees with giuliani. but none of them have come out and shown what john mccain said in a crowd of people where he could have been heckled. none of them has shown that kind of moral strength. >> no that was very gutly from mccain. he got criticized by some people to his right for saying that. >> he did. >> marco rubio said almost

exactly the thing john mccain said. there are two things about this. what does this say republicans really think of their own people? because this is their judgment on their own base. and what they're saying is their own base believes this stuff? that doesn't show a lot of respect for your base. but what they also don't get is there are plenty of people who are not liberals and people who didn't vote for president obama but they're uncomfortable and unhappy when politicians talk like this. so i think they're definitely making a mistake with middle of the road voters but it says terrible things about their analysis of their own party. >> let me go back to another point you were commenting on. giuliani told "the new york times" his comments were racist. he says in fact some people thought it was racist. i thought that was a joke since he was brought up by a white mother, a white grandfather, went to white schools and most of this he learned from white people. this isn't racism.

this is socialism or possibly anti-colonialism. now, i mean, how do you react to that aside from the race part and aside from the fact that the grandfather he's talking about that brought him up was a world war ii veteran who fought for the country, is he condemning anti-colonialism? i thought all of us were anti-colonialism. i don't even understand the logic of what he's saying here. >> obviously rudy giuliani doesn't even understand the level of criticism he's throwing out. number one, i've never heard of the school in hawaii being called white schools. but president obama wasn't raised by people like you. on the other hand while he was raised by white people in the midwest, on one hand president obama's a horrible dictator on the other hand he's a feckless coward in the face of isis. giuliani represents a throwback

in the republican party to let's just keep throwing things at president obama. and this is where it ends up being a strategic problem. he's not on the ballot in 2016. if they keep wanting to bash president obama, that will make it easier for hillary clinton to say, look at these guys trapped in the past. i represent the future. >> e.j. one of the more striking parts of giuliani's interview was about 9/11. listen to this. >> president obama didn't live through september 11th. i did. president obama didn't almost have a building fall on him, myself and my police commissioner and my fire commissioner did. so excuse me, it's a little bit emotional for me but it's also real. >> i mean i'm totally, what is that supposed to mean? >> if we weren't mayor of new york if we weren't in new york city when nooin9/11 happened, we didn't feel it. rudy giuliani in that period gained national notoriety and a

lot of respect because every american felt hit by 9/11. for him to say that hard to figure out what he's trying to say. >> i was in new york that day. in fact it was the mayoral primary day. i was in a way to finance the run against rudy giuliani. does that mean i didn't love america? the logic of that -- i said he was a fading republican desperate because there's not even any logic to any of these things. >> i think maybe we shouldn't be looking for logic here because there isn't any. >> why can't the relevant guys running today in the republican party condemn it? that's my real point. >> yeah now, i think they should be out there. but only marco rubio's doing it. >> in terms of the 2016 republican hopefuls mother jones writes this could be an opportunity for jeb bush to speak out. quote, jeb bush could, if he's splart he will taking a public

stand against giuliani would cement his position as the adult in the republican field. jeb bush is trying to run as the so-called moderate. why haven't we heard from him on this? >> because i think if there's anything we've seen in last eight years there's not much political hay to be made of being the adult in the room. president obama has been the dad in chief of the republican congress for years and that hasn't necessarily helped him. any presidential candidate who actually cares about this country should come out and condemn these comments. jeb bush he like hillary clinton, i don't want to say anything that's remotely controversial right now. i want to slide into eventually announcing i'm running for president. because he believes long-term if he ignores things like this it won't come back to haunt him. from a leadership standpoint and statesman standpoint, it's kind of cowardly and ruins the discourse we need to have in

this country going forward. >> e.j. dionne and jason johnson, thank you for your time tonight. >> you too, reverend. >> you too, rev. coming up president obama on fire today talking about republicans bamboozling folks with middle class talk. >> there is this old saying that you can't just talk the talk. donna? you got to do what? you got to walk the walk. plus as we get ready for the oscar, we look at remarkable year of performances and also a year of serious snubs. and i'm giving out my weekly report card. what grade will sarah palin get tonight? it might surprise you. what makes thermacare different? two words: it heals. how? with heat. unlike creams and rubs that mask the

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some exciting programming news to share. next wednesday msnbc and tell mundo's jose diaz-balart is moderating a town hall with president obama. the president will answer questions directly from the audience and through social media. you can submit questions right now with the # obama town hall. and we asked our social media fans what they would ask. mike wrote on facebook we can -- what can democrats be doing now to increase voter turnout in 2016? krixx posted what do you deal with the attempts of adversarial undermining and attacks on your authority? good question, krixx. michael asks what do you see as the future of labor unions? again, that town hall is

wednesday at 8:00 p.m. eastern on msnbc and telemundo. please keep the questions coming in either on our facebook page or tweet us @politicsnation. but they were not only business partners, they were brothers. competitive... stubborn... and always pushing each other, the way only brothers can. ♪ one hundred years later, their spirit lives on. mama sherman and the legion of super fans never fail to get richard sherman his campbell's chunky chicken noodle soup. mmmm. looks good. hahaha! chunky chicken noodle now tastes even better!

no matter what your political party, there's no denying the u.s. economy is bouncing back. more jobs higher wages, the auto industry's back and the deficit's down. this all happened on president obama's watch. and in a strong speech to the dnc today he cheered our progress and reminded the crowd

about the naysayers we've seen along the way. >> we were told by our good friends the republicans that our actions would crush us explode deficits, and destroy the country. i mean i want everybody to do a fact check. >> that's right. they predicted chaos, not a comeback. but they -- but they are doing it all over again. now that they've been proven wrong. >> now that their grand predictions of doom and gloom and death panels and armageddon haven't come true the sky hasn't fallen chicken little's quiet the new plan apparently of congressional republicans -- and this is progress -- the new

plan is to rebrand themself as the party of the middle class. >> everyone from john boehner to ted cruz to jeb bush is talking about income inequality in the middle class these days. but what does it actually mean? >> if you're just trying to repackage the same top-down economics and use the words "middle class" attached to it if you're just going to keep on cutting taxes at the top and not raise minimum wages for folks who are struggling then it's just spin. trying to bamboozle folks. >> real change from the gop would be great, but that's not what we've seen. >> i'm encouraged that they're speaking about middle class and

speaking about wages, but there is this old saying that you can't just talk the talk. donna? you got to do what? you got to walk the walk. tell us how you're helping middle class families because we got an agenda and we know it works. >> if the gop wants us to buy this new message they're selling, they've got to start walking the walk and so far all we've heard so talk. joining me now are political strategist angela rye and ryan grimm bureau chief for the huffington post. thank you both for being here. >> thank you reverend. >> thank you, rev. >> angela was the president's speech today a road map for democrats for how to talk about their agenda? >> you know rev, he laid out this road map before the election in november. he's been very clear not only

about his economic record but about how democrats should talk about it. the problem is they didn't follow the road map. they did not follow that trail. they ran in the other direction, which is why we suffered the greatest consequences ever in this election. but what i will say to you is that today he did lay out some very clear talking points based upon his accomplishments. that's what talking points should be about, they should be about your priorities. hence his little bit of shade to the republican party for them talking the talk and not walking the same walk. >> ryan republicans are in a tough place. they were against the policies that got the economy moving. so what can they say now? >> well what they can say now is exactly what they are saying that actually they deserve credit for all this and they saw all of this coming. you know and you can tell the president is kind of really feeling it when he goes into his kind of stand-up comic routine. he gets the crowd chuckling and he kind of feeds off of that. and he was doing some of that.

and riffing off of how republicans said well actually the reason the economy's kind of surging right now is that republicans were elected to take over the senate and people were so happy about that that magically the economy just started booming. so that's absurd and the crowd can laugh at it but what's underneath that is the broader republican strategy to just say it and just to repeat things. >> let me show you, angela one of them that's been saying it that's just been talking the talk and that's mitch mcconnell. mitch mcconnell. listen to what president obama said about him. >> our republican leader in the senate, as he was coming in after having tried to block every single thing that we've done to strengthen the economy, starts looking at job numbers and says you know it's getting better because we just got elected. and people are feeling more optimistic.

which -- okay. i diplomat knowdn't know that's how the economy worked, but maybe. >> you know mcconnell claiming credit for the recovery pass the laugh test angela? >> you know it doesn't pass the laugh test rev. we know since mitch mcconnell's not a scientist, he's clearly not an economist either. the president jabbing him there was a good one and and effective one. it would be good to see what kind of middle class economics are you touting when the only concerns you've had is my ceo bonus wasn't quite large enough. at some point your rhetoric has to match the policies that you push and they won't even consider a minimum wage raise in the senate and the house. this would be all very interesting. >> you know, ryan besides taking credit for the recovery lots of republicans all of a

sudden have discovered and become interested in inequality. listen to some of this. >> today americans across the country are frustrated. they see only a small portion of the population riding the economy's up es k later. >> hard working men and women across america hurting. >> this so-called 1% that the president's talking about have done quite well. >> the president's policies have made income inequality worse. >> but they're against minimum wage hikes, they're trying to take away health care. how can they be worrying about inequality ryan? >> i mean it's a real credit to kind of the progressive movement and to a more populous movement that elizabeth warren's been spearheading, that they're forced to even talk that talk. clearly, like you said they're not walking it yet. they're not following up those soundbites with and so therefore

we should raise the minimum wage or therefore we should hike taxes on capital gains and dividends. it kind of stops at that point. but getting to that point is meaningful because it opens up space where things can start to happen. look at what walmart did, you know in raising its minimum wage. you know it's not high enough. but getting it up to $9 an hour that's a real benefit. and that comes from a political movement political pressure put on walmart by its own workers, from outside unions, responding to that. and they're responding to the same energy that people like ted cruz and john boehner and mitch mcconnell are feeling. mitch mcconnell probably wanted to spit after he used the phrase "1%" but he did it anyway because he knows that's where the politics are right now. >> but angela we're not seeing the policy. >> no. >> we're not seeing the legislation. they control the senate and the congress. if they were serious, why don't they come forward with some policy and make it law?

>> well it would be very hard to do that and keep their base happy. whether you're talking about the fact that dhs funding runs out next week and they're holding that up because of their inability to get their party to move on immigration reform or the fact that again, they won't even consider a minimum wage increase or the fact that they blank at tax balk at tax breaks. they never supported these policies, we can't expect them to do it now. >> angela rye and ryan grim thank you for your time tonight and have a great weekend. >> you too. >> you too. >> still lead is the vice president running a stealth campaign for 2016? also buzz about the academy awards this sunday. all the talk about the stars and the snubs. but first, reverend al's report card is next.

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it's time now for reverend al's weekly report card. >> welcome, welcome to all my student. this week let's get right to it. first grade tonight goes to rudy giuliani. he claimed president obama doesn't love america. then bizarrely tried to defend it. tonight rudy gets an "i" for irrelevant. i don't really need to say anything other than that. my next student tonight is governor sarah palin. it was good running into her on the snl red carpet. >> we are the direct opposites of american politics but we're here tonight. >> but you know what we both love america so much right? >> that's right. >> it's americana all the way

and respect for the entertainment value they provide. >> and they spoofed both of us. and i defend the fact that she actually sees russia from her house. >> oh, god, see? >> here al, ready? >> tonight, i'm grading both governor palin and myself. we get a "d," but it's not what you think. "d" for defying expectations, because that's what we did on the red carpet. and i'll throw in an f for fun, too. like i always say, we can disagree without being disagreeable. my final student tonight is an 11-year-old girl named rowan hanson. she wrote a letter to d.c. comics saying i'm a girl and i'm upset because there aren't many girl superheroes. girls read comics too, and they care. here's what she told the "today"

show. >> it's not like the male superheroes are better than the female superheroes, but there are just more of them. if batman gets to wear armor, then why doesn't wonder woman get to wear armor? i know that she's kind of invulnerable, but it would still be nicer if she didn't wear a bathing suit all the time. >> it looks like d.c. comics is paying attention. they sent rowan a sketch of a superhero they designed after her. and it kind of bears a striking resemblance to someone else we know but i digress. tonight, rowan gets an "s" for super. she's got the super power of passion on her side and we expect big things in her future. thanks to all my students tonight. class dismissed. >> that's tonight's edition of reverend al's weekly report card. still running in the morning? yeah.

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it's time now for conversation nation. joining me tonight debby huntsman legal analyst john burns and democratic strategist tara dowel dell. thanks to all of you for being here. >> thanks, rev. >> thank you rev. >> we start with the right to attack president obama from rudy giuliani now and others over the years claiming he doesn't love america. maybe this is just a simple mistake. maybe they just didn't listen to the speech he made today. >> it's about making this nation we love more perfect. >> come to think of it maybe they never heard anything he said ever. >> i will let no one question my love of this country. i love america. america, this country that i

love. the best days for this country we love are still ahead. i believe in american exceptionallyism with every fiber of my being. we live in the greatest nation on earth. thank you, america. god bless you. god bless this united states. >> the president doesn't love america? how is this even a question right now? >> yeah, this is a statement that has really gotten under my skin because i asked the question where has respect gone in this country? to claim the president does not love america is about the most unpatriotic thing anyone can say. coming from rudy giuliani i don't think he realizes that he's still someone people look up to in the party and to say something like that when the gop is really trying to broaden their tent it doesn't look so good. he's trying to get some headlines, he's trying to get some attention. but it makes me sad about the fact that we can say these things and somehow it's okay.

i am happy about the backlash. there is a line that we draw in the sand that we say that's probably something we shouldn't say. we can disagree with the president on facebook to say he doesn't love america, that's going too far. >> strong words from abby and abb abby is a republican and my friend. >> that's right. >> tara sth. >> first of all, i agree with abby in the point that rudy giuliani is in desperate need of attention. he hasn't met a microphone that he hasn't loved. he's doing this for attention. but part and parcel of this is not just his need for attention, this part of a messaging strategy that the republicans have been doing for the last six years. he's not the first person to say this and i guarantee you he will not be the last to make some iteration of this statement. this messaging. if you say it over and over again, it will plant a seed in people's mind.

that's the goal of this type of thing. especially when you hear it being said across the party by numerous people. >> john? >> yeah no i completely agree with tara and abby. rudy giuliani is just trying to stay relevant. it's really bad leadership for the republican party. no one is coming out to condemn it publicly. someone has to come out and condemn it publicly. it's poor strategy. we know the president is not on the ballot in 2016. clearly the republicans are still living in the past and that will leave the door open for someone to say the republicans are living in the past, i'm focused on the future. it's poor strategy for them. >> i've got to ask you, are you surprised at some of the republican leadership and especially some of the major nominee or those that will pursue the nomination haven't come out and condemned rudy giuliani other than rubio? >> yeah i think they feel like they're in a tough place. you look at scott walker who doesn't want to talk about it he sort of skirts this issue, i

love america and i know there are democrats, republicans and independents that love america. but there are a lot of these folks campaigning in 2016 they've got to appeal to the far right and their folks in the primaries that love this type of rhetoric. i can understand why they're not coming out and speaking up about this, but i do know there are a lot of folks that would say, this is not right. but unfortunately, as of right now, they're not. >> no i understand it. i understand it's political cowardice. next up democrats and 2016. senator warren has repeatedly said she's not running, but it hasn't stopped people from talking about it. of course, there's lots of buzz about hillary clinton, but no official word yet. and then there's vice president joe biden who says he'll make a decision by the summer. but check out his travel schedule. in the past week alone he's been visiting the battleground or primary states of iowa south

carolina and north carolina. tara biden 2016 is it possible? >> if i say that biden wants to run, that's like saying the sun came up this morning. does biden want to run, is water wet? he absolutely wants to run. the question is will he run. and the biggest problem for joe biden, because i think he would run in a heartbeat, the issue for him is right now just how formidable hillary clinton is looking in the polls at this point in time. but he's clearly testing the water. he's going into these states to try to see what type of reception he'll get from the people in those states from party leaders, grassroots activists in those states. this is clearly strategic. he's definitely advancing a strategy on this front. >> abby this could be a lot of fun, though. >> yeah i don't think he's running. i think the writing's on the wall that he's not actually

going to go through with it. he won't run against hillary clinton. let's be honest about that. he loves the attention. this is the fun time for joe biden. have the media make speculation on whether they're running. i would love for joe biden to run, i would love for elizabeth warren to run. it makes for a fun debate. you have republicans with like 50 candidates. it might be interesting to have someone beyond hillary run. it would make for a better debate. she'd be better equipped if she has to go up against something in the primaries. >> john i'm going to break. you want to get in here. >> it leaves an opening for joe biden. he hasn't established any type of pac, hasn't hired any key staffers. i don't really think he's going to run. >> abby john and tara thank you for joining the conversation tonight. have a great weekend all of you. >> thanks rev.

>> thanks rev. >> be sure to catch abby on "the cycle" weekdays at 3:00 eastern right here on msnbc. coming up the countdown to the oscars is on. so many movies to celebrate, but it is also been a year of controversy in hollywood. that's next. photos are great for capturing your world. and now they can transform it. with the new angie's list app, you can get projects done in a snap. take a photo of your project or just tell us what you need done and angie's list will find a top rated provider to do the job. the angie's list app is the simple, new way to get work done on your schedule. the app makes it easy, the power of angie's list makes it work. call, click or download the app for free today. alright, so this tylenol arthritis lasts 8 hours, but aleve can last 12 hours... and aleve is proven to work better on pain than tylenol arthritis. so why am i still thinking about this? how are you?

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out sunday night. it's been a year of remarkable films. "american sniper" dominated the box office and dominated the national conversation. "boyhood" broke new ground shooting over 11 years showing a young man growing up with divorced parents. and "selma" took us back to a pivotal moment in the civil rights movement of this country. all of these films should be celebrated. and all the great actors and actresses up for oscars should be celebrated. but it's also been a year of snubs. it's easy to see. not one minority actor is nominated. that is nothing to celebrate. that's a problem. a problem that needs to be addressed. joining me now is toure, the host of "the cycle" here at msnbc. thank you for being here tonight. >> thanks rev. toure, i want to get to your

picks and what to watch for, but when the nominations came out last month, the lack of diversity was a big story. how is hollywood dealing with this? >> hollywood is dealing with this by making promises about what they're going to do in the future, but i don't think they're going to see any difference. there's a process for how you become an academy member and there's a process, an institutionalized process for how you get to be a consistent member of the town as they call it. and it's very difficult. it's more difficult to break there than it is to break into congress. >> well then let me push you on that point because "the washington post" says hollywood and congress share a lack of diversity at their recent best oscar nominees were twice as diverse as congress. >> yeah. >> at their worst, they had zero minority nominees this year. congress is four times more diverse than the nominees. and the academy that votes on something you referred to the

academy that votes on these awards are 93% male 76% white and average age is 63. i might, in full discloseuredisclosure, the los angeles branch of my group is picketing the academy about the issue of the academy that makes these selections or not difbs diverse enough. how do we change that when the process is so in itself so limiting? >> it's very hard to change that. i mean this is an important issue because the films that come out of hollywood as well as the independent community making films, they're very important because they shape in part how we see america, how we see ourself, soves ourselves, so we show black people looking bad, being criminals, that's bad for our self-image, that's bad for the way white americans see us. this is an important issue, but

it's very difficult to change rev. i don't have the solutions right here. i wish i did, or if i had i'd be out in hollywood helping you implement them. you see tyler perry out there creating his own film studio working outside of the hollywood system and making change himself and making films that a lot of black people love to go see. but this is going to be a very difficult problem similar to how do we further integrate congress, how do we further integrate wall street these are difficult issues. >> one thing is we've got to keep raising the issues. let me switch to the academy awards itself. who is your pick for best picture? >> best picture will go to "birdman." that was my choice for best film of last year. an amazingly made piece of art. i enjoy this discussion of a man who feels like he's at the bottom creatively career wise, trying to find a way to bring himself back up and use broadway as a launching pad to get back on his feet and his career.

he's also got the family problems going on. i love birdman. i watched it several times. so you know i'm happy to see that win, if it does go on to win and it looks like it probably will. beyond that you know it seems like the actor awards are already engraved. i mean it looks pretty certain. >> who would you pick for best actor? >> well, i mean i would give it to michael keaton but it looks like eddie redmayne has got that locked up. looks like julianne moore from "still alice" has the best actress category locked up. j.k. simmons will almost certainly win best supporting actor, which is interesting because he's got a leading actor size role in the movie, so they were smart to put him in the best supporting actor category. >> nothing for "american sniper"? everybody is talking about that. that's the talk of the country. >> i mean you know it's doing a huge amount of business but does that mean that it's a great film?

i think that everything that "american sniper" accomplished creatively was done better by "hurt locker" in terms of showing us war, at how he dealt with being at home and dealing with the ptsd at home. i think "american sniper" is a good picture, but it's not a great one. >> well toure, thanks for being with us tonight. >> thank you. >> you can catch toure on "the cycle" weekdays at 3:00 p.m. eastern right here on msnbc. we'll be back with a powerful film about achieving dreams and never giving up. it's an inspiring story you'll want to see. (vo) after 50 years of designing cars for crash survival, subaru has developed our most revolutionary feature yet. a car that can see trouble... ...and stop itself to avoid it. when the insurance institute for highway safety tested front crash prevention nobody beat subaru models with eyesight.

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developing news tonight, meese have arrested man accused of setting off a bomb outside a colorado springs building last month. the suspect told investigators he was targeting an accountant in the building not the naacp office as many had suspected. no one was injured in the explosion. we'll be right back.

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can lead to off the court. >> anything that keeps kids off the street is very important. >> it's important for me for him not to be a statistic. >> this is what i need to do in order to get to a professional level or to do good to get into scholarship to get into college or high school. >> i want to be one of the best nba players that ever. ♪ did you improve on the design ♪ ♪ did you do something new ♪ >> growing up in the hood and poverty, the only way out sometimes is to play basketball or some sport. >> so i tell my mom we're going to get out of here i mean that we're going to get out of this neighborhood because it's very bad. >> joining me now is the director of "little ballers" crystal mccrery. thanks for being here tonight. >> thank you for having me so much. it's a pleasure. >> tell me what did you learn

about inner city boys and basketball? >> well, the thing that i learned about the young men in this film and really urban youth that play basketball is that it offers them hope. it's transformative. it offers many of these young men who otherwise might be seduced by gangs in their community, it offers them a sense of family. it offers them a place to go. it offers them structure. it offers them an opportunity to get fit, to be competitive, but more than anything the team has become a family to them. >> now there's so many nba stars in the film. amar'e stoudemire is the executive producer. he played in this league growing up. how did it impact his life? >> he grew up in florida and a challenging upbringing where basketball really was a lifeline for him. even for kids that don't make it to the nba -- because, let's be honest -- >> that's what i was going to ask you, because not everybody will make it to the nba. >> you're right. most kids will not make it to

the nba. but 10 million kids play high school ball, 2,000 get division i col scholarships 60 get drafted and 30 make the team. you do the math. it's not going to happen. but it does so much more. it offers them an opportunity to learn, to work through adversity, to learn to have teamwork, to keep them off the streets, to get an education. and that's one of the reasons i really wanted to tell this story. i wanted to show how diverse boys and girls through basketball through sports can be brought together and have their lives expanded. >> now, the team also provides male role models to some boys who may not have them. i want to play a clip from the film of the coach talking to his team. watch this. >> you have come together as a teep. team. that's something that you should be proud of. every one of you guys has something unique about yourself that you brought to this team. to this family. we're not a team we're family.

>> crystal, how important is the idea of being not just a team but family to these boys? >> oh it's tremendously important. even for the boys in the film who, yes, they have families they have their fathers there, they have step-fathers or maybe they're from divorced families with coach billy who you just saw in the clip coach billy is a wonderful role model for these young men and has been coaching on the circuit for 15 16 years. he's made it a point of staying involved in these young men's lives throughout high school and helping them to realize that even if they don't go pro, which as we know most won't go pro, they can get an education, they can become an orthopedic surgeon, they can become a trainer oen a teamtrain er on a team, they can do a wide array of activities that they love so much but they don't necessarily have the role models in their lives to help get them to that point. >> it airs on nickelodeon sports next week.

crystal mccrary thank you for your time tonight. and thank you for this important film. >> thank you so much for being there. and if you can't watch it, put your dvr on. thanks for watching. i'm al sharpton. have a great weekend. "hardball" starts right now. >> patriot games. let's play "hardball." good evening. i'm steve kornacki filling in for chris matthews in new york. let me start with those patriot games that rudy giuliani is now playing. tough talk started as a shot at the president's love on country and things have only spiraled from there. it began as an attack on what republicans see as a weakness for president obama, the soft talk about the root causes of terrorism, the cool and calm way he tends