rney general didn't want to send this memo to everyone in the justice department if he didn't believe this situation is so out of control, i have to get this word out there to everyone. susan crabtree, thank you very much for joining us tonight. we're out of time. >> you're welcome. >> hillary goes hawkeye. let's play "hardball." good evening. i'm chris matthews in san francisco. hillary clinton out there taking notes, jotting down what people say. when it comes to exciting the american people can a listing tour grab us like a strong clear statement of purpose? when it comes to politics, can you lead from behind or do you have to get out there and lead the charge and maybe she will. and obama takes cuba off the terrorist list, will that hurt his home front fight to forge a

nuclear deal with iran. it will certainly stick cruz and rubio in the eye. we have equal pay advocate lilly ledbetter here. let's start with hillary clinton where she held a roundtable with students and teachers. she gave a more detailed explanation of what she wants her campaign to be about. let's listen. >> i want to be the champion who goes to bat for americans in four big areas, four big fights that i think we need to take on. we need to build the economy of tomorrow, not yesterday. we need to strengthen families and communities because that's where it all starts. we need to fix our dysfunctional political system and get unaccountable money out of it once and for all, even if that takes a constitutional amendment. and we need to protect our country from the threats that we see and the ones that are on the horizon.

>> andrea mitchell is covering hillary clinton's campaign swing through iowa and jonathan allen, chief political correspondent for fox and author of the book "hrc." the rhetoric has been populist of late. she said the deck was stacked in favor of those at the top. today she expanded on that theme. let's watch. >> there's something wrong when ceos make 300 times more than the typical worker. there's something wrong when american workers keep getting more productive as they have and as i just saw a few minutes ago is very possible because of education and skills training, but that productivity is not matched in their paychecks. and there's something wrong when hedge fund managers pay lower tax rates than nurses or the truckers that i saw on i-80 as i was driving here over the last two days.

>> let me go to andrea mitchell about hillary clinton and you've been watching her for many years, as long as i have. i guess the question is she still a senator left politician or trying to be elizabeth ii here? where do you gauge her in this listing tour? >> she certainly sounds much more populist, much more like elizabeth warren. i asked the campaign manager and she said for the last four years plus she was focusing on foreign policy. we saw her as secretary of state so she wasn't talking as much about the economy. in fairness, when she was in the senate she did talk a lot about income inequality, but still, she was the senator from new york. she was representing wall street. she certainly was not complaining about ceo salaries that i can recall. i'll stand corrected if that's incorrect. she wasn't talking about hedge fund managers. >> jonathan, we're going to get to the short hairs on this baby in a couple days. where does she stand on ttp.

where does she stand on wall street? we're going to get specific answers that will be keys to most of us following this campaign where to put her politically. what do you think? >> today she advocated closing that carried interest loophole. if you listened to what she said closely it sounds like that is what she's going to do. she did that in 2008. in iowa she's got the pitch fork out and is emphasizing her philosophy. the question for her is which side of the stacked deck are the americans going to see her on, the have nots or the side that she raises money from, the haves. >> let me go to ruth on that. one of the great ironies today was that the very day that hillary clinton got out there and started talking to real people at that community college chris christie is in new hampshire, the other big fight there, the first primary, talking about getting rid of social security benefits for anybody who makes $200,000 a

year or more in retirement. that's how much hillary clinton gets in a single speech. this is fascinating. you have the republican playing mr. elizabeth warren and hillary clinton is playing senator elizabeth warren. is this populist real or the latest flavor of the month in terms of politician? >> the flavor of the month question is interesting and i think jonathan reminds us of an important point which is there is no doubt that elizabeth warren's presence not in the race but in the debate and also the fact that we're having this presidential election in the aftermath of the financial meltdown makes a difference, but i do remember hearing hillary clinton in 2007-2008 talking about the carried interest loophole and the differential tax treatment, the preferential tax treatment for hedge fund managers. so this is not an entirely new issue for her.

what chris christie is up to, that's really much, in some ways at least as interesting a question. >> let's look at our college. she caught up with hillary clinton today. it's fair to her that her conversation with the former secretary of state was brief. let's watch. >> great to see you. >> you lost iowa in 2008. how do you win this time? what's your strategy? >> i'm having a great time. can't look forward anymore than i am. thank you. >> meanwhile -- >> in depth submitting to interviews. >> meanwhile the video that shows the level of media attention clinton is getting in iowa, look at what happened live on msnbc today when hillary's van pulled up to the community college. react to this, andrea. watch this picture. >> you can see the media running behind me here to chase the scooby van. >> wow. >> she's going around to the back. >> wow. they're -- >> we'll see her very soon. >> the guy in the orange pants

is pretty quick. alex, i mean, i'm looking at these people -- wow. all right, orange pants, he's really outnumbered now by all the people that are racing around the back. >> andrea, this is the greatest mismatch in history. you've got reporters running their butts off just to get a shot at her getting out of her van. no questions, no answers. this is an interesting kind of campaign. >> at least kristin welker caught up and got a question to her. >> i'm having a great time. >> look, you know, this is very carefully orchestrated. it's deliberate to try to make it look as though she is connected to every day americans as she says. one of the dissonant notes today was that she's calling now for a constitutional amendment to ban or limit campaign spending at the same time as her top advisors, top staff members, are calling, dialing for dollars with all the big donors. they started doing that a couple of days ago. she said she's not going to unilaterally disarm.

she needs money and as long as this is the system, because we now know that the court will not permit any kind of thing like that since citizens united, this is what she's calling for. that was a new wrinkle today. yes, she was progressively moving more to the left on economic issues in the last couple of years but she is really making this the campaign platform. the other thing about the opening question, the opening headline, was whether people will react to this. here in iowa, you know what i always like, chris, people really like the fact that she was sitting with teachers and students at a community college and really engaging for more than an hour and answering and asking questions. this is what her listening tour is all about. it's what she did successfully in new york when she ran for senate. >> let's look at something else. yesterday secretary clinton

stopped at a chipotle in ohio and she went unrecognized. the manager of the store described it in the "new york times" as just another lady coming in there. in fact, the only way they knew she was there is that later they caught her on the security camera. they didn't know she had been there. it was a far cry from her husband's brand of retail fast food politics. we had to show this. the difference between the way they go to a fast food store is instinctively different. bill wants everybody in the room to be a hugger and hillary is fine to have her chipotle salad or whatever it was without anybody knowing she was there. your thoughts. >> what we really remember is the "saturday night live" sketch of him in mcdonald's asking for a big mack and fries. i don't know who tipped off the "new york times" but i'm guessing it was somebody in that van. when she went unrecognized, the

campaign reporter made sure they got the report. i think they very much did want her to be seen in a chipotle. >> when you retail in politics you go out and say hi, i'm hillary clinton. that's the first thing you do. andrea mitchell, thank you for being on the campaign trail. ruth, i think it was maybe vapid. that's your word, not mine. jonathan, congratulations on the new gig with vox. breaking news late today, president obama endorses taking cuba off the list of state sponsors of terrorism. he's making a bold move toward normalizing relations. he's sticking it to his latest critics. think of what rubio and ted cruz like about this, nothing. today is equal pay day, the day that marks how much longer women have to work. the issue could catapult hillary clinton into the white house and

lilly ledbetter herself is with us tonight. chris christie says he wasn't ready to run for president in 2012 but he is now. he's throwing the long ball calling for major reforms. he's going after social security. finally, they call themselves the party of lincoln but today on the 150th anniversary of lincoln's assassination, the republican party has strayed far from lincoln's belief, especially on voting rights. this is "hardball," the place for politics. this is brian. every day, brian drives carefully to work. and every day brian drives carefully to work, there are rate suckers.

he's been paying more for car insurance because of their bad driving for so long, he doesn't even notice them anymore. but one day brian gets snapshot from progressive. now brian has a rate based on his driving, not theirs. get snapshot and see just how much your good driving could save you. congress is back in session but still loretta lynch waits. president obama nominated lynch back in november but senate majority leader mitch mcconnell says he won't move on her nomination until the senate passes a bill that toughens laws against human trafficking but that bill is at an impasse. lynch is the longest delayed nominee for attorney general in 30 years. we'll be right back.

. welcome back to "hardball." two historic developments tonight. president obama has informed congress that he is dropping cuba from a designation of terrorism that's been in place for 30 years. the decision comes as marco rubio and ted cruz, both of whom are cuban americans in the senate have aggressively lobbied against it to normal lies relations with cuba. rubio called them, quote, willfully ignorant. >> the decision made by the white house is a terrible one but not surprising unfortunately. they should have remained on the list and i think sends a chilling message that this white house is no longer serious about calling terrorism by its proper name.

>> both rubio and senator cruz are part of a block of republicans also trying to derail the president's nuclear agreement with iran. tonight's big news on cuba comes on the same day as the senate foreign relations committee voted to approve legislation giving the congress the authority to review and potentially reject any final iranian deal. the full senate could vote on the legislation as a body as early as next week. let's get right to it. senator jean shaheen is a democrat from new hampshire and a member of the senate foreign relations committee. thank you for joining us. >> thank you. >> i've got a lot of respect for you as a political leader and as a senator. do you think this means in the end that the senate and the congress can kill a deal that the president has signed? >> no, i wouldn't characterize what the foreign relations committee did today in that way. i think what we did was to say that we have a vital role to play and i would point out that the foreign relations committee voted 19-0, so it was unanimous,

a unanimous vote that we should be able to review any negotiated deal with iran and weigh in on that. in order to -- we could do a resolution of approval or a resolution of disapproval, and it would require a significant number of senators in order to disapprove any deal. the important thing about what we did, i think, is that we continued to assert the role that we have and it's an appropriate role for congress to play. we also said that we should get reports on what's happening with iran with the negotiations every six months, and that was beefed up. and we had a review period, we have a review period, so we've asked the president as part of the legislation, the president would submit any final deal to the senate and within about five days of the associated deal and we would have 30 days to review

it. so i think this was an important step forward. i think the fact that it was bipartisan was very important. we're all -- we all believe that we need to keep iran from getting a nuclear weapon, and having congress weigh in in a bipartisan way in support of continued negotiations i think is important. >> haven't you opened the door for the republicans, the parsons on the republican side and there are a majority in your body to simply use this opportunity you've created here to condemn the plan and that means what? does the president have to veto that to make sure he can continue with his effort to find an arrangement with iran? >> i think we've done just the opposite. i think we've put in place bipartisan support for continued negotiations. it would require at least 34 votes -- only 34 votes to keep the deal going, a significant

number to kill the deal. i think that's very important. resolution of disapproval would be very hard to get the votes to go forward. >> you would still have the option of sustaining a veto. you can stick with the president. >> i think so. >> let me ask you about this cuban thing. the president made history today, maybe bigger history than your committee did, when he said that we're going to take cuba off the terrorist list. are we really getting toward regular relations with cuba? is that where we're headed? we're going to treat them like any other country in latin america? >> i hope that's where we're headed. i think it's long past time that we normalize relations with cuba. now, that doesn't mean we will not continue to oppose any human rights violations to raise those issues with the cubans, but the fact is our policy in cuba hasn't worked if you look at how it compared to our policy in eastern europe where, with the fall of the berlin wall we saw dramatic change.

we continued to talk to the russians throughout the cold war. we haven't done that with cuba and as a consequence, we're where we are today. the moves are very positive and i believe that as a result of that we will see real changes for the people of cuba. it will not only open up their economy, but i think it will make a huge difference in terms of the human rights and civil rights violations that have gone on in cuba. >> we're a free country and i can feel the freedom but i wonder why we're not free to visit cuba. do you think every american should be allowed to go to cuba to take a look at the place or get a tan or whatever reason they have? should americans be allowed to visit cuba? we're a free country. shouldn't be we able to do it? >> i think we should be able to do it. i'm old enough to remember before castro took over cuba.

i was a child in the '50s but i remember when people traveled to cuba. i think that opening up normalizing relations provides that opportunity and americans should be allowed to do that. >> thank you so much. as i mentioned both ted cruz and marco rubio have criticized the president's agenda to normalize relations with cuba. listen. >> did they agree to freedom of press, no. did he agree to elections, absolutely not. did they agree to freedom of parties. no. what democratic opening are we getting here? none whatsoever. >> cuba is an ally of north korea. it is an ally of iran, of venezuela. this president believes appeasement works. when it comes to dealing with tyrants and bullies, whether it is putin, khomeini in iran or

whether it is the castros in cuba, he believes that a position of weakness is how we should negotiate, and that doesn't work. >> yeah, and we're weak toward cuba. i don't get it. ryan reilly, reporter with the "huffington post." would you translate ted cruz to me. he says we're in a position of weakness toward cuba. we've got everything on cuba. the latest polling out of cuba says they want to get with us as much as any country in the world wants to get with us. where is the appeasement? where is the appropriateness of that old word come in here? i don't get ted cruz sometimes and maybe never. your thoughts? >> in some ways it's a sign of strength, a sign that you have self-respect. the president has said, look, this is a tiny country over in the caribbean. we can afford to experiment with our policy here. we're going to try engagement and open this and if it doesn't

work we can go back to the old policy that we tried the last 50 years. if i get a chance i'll ask rubio and cruz this, do they prefer normal relationships with countries like saudi arabia? if cuba did 10% of what saudi arabia does, we would throw them -- we would have kept them on the terror list. so the advantage here for them though is that in foreign policy it's easy on the campaign trail because once they want to shift their position in the general, they can say things have changed over time, not necessarily that these two ever would, but that is something you can do with the foreign policy. >> we just had senator jean shaheen on. she said basically even though they voted together today in a bipartisan way to bring the congress into this negotiation with the iranians, they basically kept the door open for the democrats on the committee to be blunt about it, 34 of the

senators, to sustain a veto. even if they vote the wrong way, the democrats still have the option, 34 of them, to save the deal with iran. >> yes, the key thing to remember here is that congress always had the ability to kill the deal if they could get a two-thirds vote in both chambers. in other words, it's not as if this gives them the ability to do it. they already had the ability. what the white house was worried about was that they would be able to get 67 votes and two-thirds in the house in order to move the threshold down to kill a bill. 60 votes or even a majority vote. that didn't happen with this deal. they still need two-thirds which is what they always needed, so therefore they didn't actually gain anything. they still need to come back and come up with two-thirds in both chambers to kill any deal. with pelosi in the house it's virtually impossible for them to get that number. >> she has been very strong with the president's efforts to find

a deal in iran. by the way, i hope john kerry, the secretary of state, is able to convey this to the ayatollah, that it's still up to the president. up next, the equal pay day, the day that represents how far into the new year women must work to earn as much as men did the previous year. lilly ledbetter joins us next. this is "hardball," the place for politics. there's nothing more romantic than a spontaneous moment. so why pause to take a pill? and why stop what you're doing to find a bathroom? with cialis for daily use, you don't have to plan around either. it's the only daily tablet approved to treat erectile dysfunction so you can be ready anytime the moment is right. plus cialis treats the frustrating urinary symptoms of bph, like needing to go frequently, day or night. tell your doctor about all your medical conditions and medicines, and ask if your heart is healthy enough for sex. do not take cialis if you take nitrates for chest pain

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welcome back to "hardball." it's equal pay day today, the date symbolizing the additional days of work necessary for a woman to complete in the new year before she makes what a man is calculated to have made the year before. according to the government statistics, full-time working women today make 77% of what their male counterparts earn. one of the trailblazers in the battle is lilly ledbetter, told by the supreme court she was too late to file her equal pay case, congress interceded and passed the fair pay act only after

becoming a republican filibuster. >> i would feel that this long fight was worthwhile if at least at the end of it i knew that i played a part in getting the law fixed that it can provide real protection to real people in the real world. >> the first bill the president signed as president of the usa. that fight continues. joining me from scottsdale, arizona is lilly ledbetter. i don't know if you're for hillary clinton or not but you might be. what should she do for the cause of equal pay if she gets elected right off the bat? >> she will support it and also we need a check fairness. that needs to become a bill and become law. that would have helped me had that been the law back in my day. i wouldn't be here today.

hillary was one of the -- as a senator was one of the co-sponsors for the led better bill, so i think she gets it and i think she understands that she will be fighting for equal pay for equal work. >> what is the number one obstacle right now that keeps a woman from fighting for her rights? >> it's mainly the fact that it's been done like this for so many years and the employers will not adhere to the federal laws and guidelines because president john f. kennedy signed equal pay in 1963 and here i am in 2015 still talking about equal pay. the companies are just not adhering to the federal guidelines, and it has to be enforced and also they use so many problems against women that really shouldn't be a part of the problem because women hold jobs and do it as much as the men.

also, it creates a problem for the american family. >> here's the recently announced republican presidential candidate marco rubio talking about equal pay during the last presidential election campaign which he was a surrogate for mitt romney. >> just because they call a piece of legislation an equal pay bill doesn't make it so, in fact, much of this legislation is nothing but an effort to help trial lawyers collect their fees. >> senator ted cruz of texas didn't vote on last year's fairness act but he did have this to say about the bill. >> this has nothing to do with improving the situation with women in the workplace and everything to do with the show vote for the democrats and paying off the trial lawyers. >> they seem to have their talking points down and say this is a payoff to the trial lawyers. your response? >> this is not a myth.

trial lawyers do not get a lot of money out of cases like mine because most people in the predicament that i found myself in, earning only 77% of what my male colleagues made, we don't have the money to afford a lawyer that can hang in there with a big case for 10 to 15 years. it took me 10 years to get my final verdict from the time i filed my charge until the end. this is not a win situation for trial lawyers. most people like myself, we don't want a lawsuit. all we want is the right to have our job, go to work, and get paid according to what we should be paid legally under the law. >> let me give you a case. suppose a woman has been working at a job for say five years and she listens around and hears the scuttle but and she gets a clear sense that some guy who is doing exactly what she's doing is getting more than her. what can she do about it? what stops her from finding out the number the other guy is

getting compared to her number and getting something done about it? what are the obstacles? >> the obstacles like in my case was the company i worked for said if we spoke about our wages we wouldn't have a job, so no one ever talked about it, nor did they ever post the pay scale as it increased with the cost of living. also, if you go to your h.r. department which is the chain of command to find out and ask questions, it's your immediate superior, oftentimes i'm told by many people that in three weeks or two months they're handed a pink slip. you no longer work here because we're cutting out your job, not because you asked about your money, but simply because we're cutting out the job which is not really true. people are so afraid of asking about their pay. >> retaliation, retaliation, retaliation, thank you so much, lilly ledbetter, you're a pioneer. thank you for coming on and

fighting this. chris christie says he's now ready to run for president. the jersey governor is in new hampshire today testing the waters and not letting the threat of indictments slow him down. you're watching "hardball," the place for politics.

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i've come to new hampshire today to talk about the challenges that we're facing as a country.

one of the challenges that we face is the unrestrained growth of government spending on entitlements. we need to raise the retirement age for social security as a result. i'm proposing we raise the age to 69, gradually implementing this change starting in 2022 and increasing the retirement age by two months each year thereafter until it reaches 69. >> welcome back. that was nj governor chris christie. earlier today making a bold push to raise the retirement age for social security up to 69. he's testing the waters for 2016 and a presidential possibility. if he runs he faces an uphill battle. the latest poll showed him with just six percent. 69 percent of registered voters in new jersey do not think he would make a good president. governor christie sat down with yahoo!'s matt bye and addressed

those poll numbers. let's watch him. >> the fact is you know that all of them is just a snapshot in a moment based on a whole lot of factors. i don't particularly worry about that. if you try to make up your mind based on what your poll numbers are on any particular day, you have no business running for president. >> yeah, but 6%? christie said he wasn't ready to run for president back in 2012 but he is now. joining us is "washington post" opinion writer jonathan kay pardon, jean cummings, deputy editor of bloomberg. let's go the substance here. michael steel, i was impressed by the depth of the proposals that governor christie offered on social security reform, saying there should be a $200,000 means test. no social security benefits whatever, even if you've given in your whole life and also raising the retirement age to 69.

it seems odd given his chances right now that he could do any of that. your thoughts? >> i think it speaks right to that point that he's not looking at polls. if he's planning to get into this race and it seems like he is, he's going to walk in the door with something substantive to put on the table. this is a very bold plan. it is something that is going to be very hard for people to pick apart just because. they're going to have to look at the substance of it. you're talking about individuals over 62 years old who are still working, being exempt from the payroll tax. you're talking about raising the minimum age for retirement to 69. this is moving the discuss of social security to a whole other level which as a governor and i've said this for a while and you and i have talked about this, when the republican governors get into this race it's going to change the dynamic because these are individuals who have actually governed and have had to deal with these issues in their states. i think it's going to be fascinating. kudos to christie for opening

the proposal like this. >> jean, you and i know that women care more been social security than men. women live longer, they have health needs going into their 80s and 90s and the old joke is that men would say if i'm lucky i won't need social security. you probably won't. women are going to need it. they live longer. you go to a retirement home, it's 10/1. would courageous steps to try to save this system and keep it solvent, would that win points for a guy or simply scare the other people? which way are they going to hear it? >> christie is going to try to have to hang onto the thought that this is for future generations because his opponents are going to try to fuzz that line up and scare the old people away. what is interesting is that christie now has said a marker out there and the other candidates are going to have to respond to it. they're going to be asked what

is your plan for social security. so he could flush some of them out and start a conversation. obviously christie has been a governor and worked in a bipartisan setting. he's coming in with this position. there could be debates. at least he is thrown into the debate with something subtan tif that others must respond to. >> i've been nice long enough. here he is saying to the reporter at yahoo! i wasn't ready to run for president four years ago but now i'm ready. i'll cross that bridge when it comes to it. if you had run last name you wouldn't have the bridgegate problem you have now. stop talking about it. why is he telling people i wasn't ready last time but now i'm ready? >> i presume he was asked the

question what's different today than was four years ago. maybe he wasn't ready. maybe he wanted to spend more time at drumthwacket and bone up on the issues and run for president. if he had run in 2012 he wouldn't have the horror that's lurking behind the curtain that's about to befall him and those are the indictments that we keep hearing might be coming down from federal prosecutors, all those people in his office who were involved in the bridgegate scandal. so governor christie, if he does indeed get into this race and to jean's point, if he does indeed stick with this bold plan of his, then maybe he will be a formidable candidate but i'm not convinced at all. >> can he still say, well, that's not me? >> i would put money on him trying that.

he's not one to shrink from an adverse situation, from adversity. so if he's not indicted and if none of them are going state's evidence where he has a fear that this investigation is going in bad direction for him, i don't think he's going to let this scandal be the reason why he doesn't take what he may believe as his best shot at the presidency. i think he would try to just say, yeah, that was them and they never talked to me about it because that's about his position since day one. >> michael, i think the "wall street journal" and its nonopinion page, that would be very tough. they're going to say christie aides indicted. they're not going to say the people of new jersey. they're going to say christie aides. >> you're absolutely right. his name is going to be tagged to every last one of them. i think jean is right. christie will have a mind-set and he already does that along

as that indictment doesn't land on his desk and his name is not the one coming out of a grand jury investigation, i think he's going to go forward with whatever his plans are to look at this presidential campaign. he's got his record in the state of new jersey. yes, he has issues there he's going to have to address. so he can pivot and focus on a host of other things that have nothing to do with this indictment. those individuals will do what they have to do with their lawyers in the process, and he, i think, will move on from that. >> it's going to be fascinating to watch. this is going to be fascinating to watch. everybody stick with us. we'll be right back with our panel. today marks the 150th anniversary of president lincoln's assassination. while the republicans call themselves the party of lincoln, they've strayed very far from the things that lincoln believed in. many wrinkle creams come with high hopes, but hope... doesn't work on wrinkles. clinically proven

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president obama has made plans to visit his 50th state as president. president obama will travel to south dakota, the only state he hasn't visited as president. he'll deliver a commencement address next month at a community college in watertown. president obama vowed to hit all 50 states during his time in office and it looks like he's going to do it. we'll be right back.

we're back with the roundtable. jonathan, jean and michael. 150 years ago in 1865 president abraham lincoln was shot by john wilkes booth while attending a performance at ford's theater in downtown washington. but the next crucial challenge of reconstructing the union would be left to lincoln's successors. a column in "the wall street journal" pointed out it is obvious but too often overlooked that lincoln died a martyr for civil rights through the emancipation proclamation and the 13th amendment he masterfully maneuvered through congress lincoln called for voting rights for black americans.

he was the first to be elected from the still young republican party, a party to this day claims the mantle of his legacy even though they create obstacles to the ballot box for african-americans. that's me talking. they have joined seven other states. north carolina and virginia have been swing states in recent presidential elections. let me go to you, michael. you know your stuff on this. why is your successor at the rnc chair allowing three dozen states under the republican leadership to push to make it harder to vote, especially for older people and in that group especially for minorities. your thoughts? >> to give reince the room he needs here, that's not something he controls is what a republican legislature is going to produce and promote. i think the broader question, though, which is around this idea of the party of lincoln, the party that not just talked about emancipation but then followed it up with the right to vote, and you contrast that, that legacy against the current

backdrop of legislation, particularly in states that republicans control, the legislature in which it is perceived if not, in fact, a diminution or rejection of that principle. that's a problem for the party, and it's hard to claim that mantle in the 21st century when you look at the arc of time from lincoln to the present day, so i think it's important for the party to understand its roots when you talk about lincoln, when you talk about the things he fought for, how he used government as a tool to empower people and to operate within the constitution strictures but to expand that opportunity. >> jonathan, i'm going to get into this in my close tonight but, you know, i think american people are basically, if you catch them at it, you force them to be fair-minded. if you said to a white person, do you want to change the rules to somehow make it harder for black athletes to compete so that white guys got a better shot, they'd say, no, that would be cheating, but in something far more important, elections,

they seem to have no problem doing it. okay, let's try this new thing, these voter i.d. -- making them give a photo i.d. and go to the department of transportation to get one. if you're 70 years old, you have to get a driver's license, which we're better off with them not getting at a certain age, so they are at least -- i don't think reince sits around playing this stuff but close their eyes and say if it works for our team, let's do it. >> it's about power. your football example works because you have a -- >> it's entertainment. >> if your team loses, oh, well, you don't lose anything, but when it comes -- >> tell that to an eagles fan. tell that to an eagles fan. >> but when it comes to voting, voting equals power. your candidate wins, your mayor or your governor wins, your city council wins, they change the laws that can benefit you, and so this is -- this is -- we're talking about power here. but, you know, what the

republican party has become today, when i first started out as a journalist, it used to be first reference was republican party, second reference was gop, third reference was the party of lincoln. i don't feel right calling the republican party the party of lincoln because to my mind it doesn't represent that anymore. and even though the gop talks a good game about reaching out to people of color, reaching out to people who are not singing from the republican party hymn book, the words are great, but the policies stink. >> you're the best. it should be called the party of reince priebus. the systemic effort to keep the children of freed slaves from exercising the right that abraham lincoln died fighting to get, and you're watching "hardball," the place for politics.

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they have to end. unless you have the comcast business voiceedge mobile app. it lets you switch seamlessly from your desk phone to your mobile with no interruptions. i've never felt so alive. get the future of phone and the phones are free. comcast business. built for business. let me finish tonight with the assassination of abraham lincoln, who was shot 150 years ago today. he was killed because he fought and won a war that saved the union. he was killed fighting still for the right of freed american slaves to vote. and now the republican party he helped to start is out there in a systemic effort to keep the children of those freed slaves from voting. i brought this up before and will again. this is no way to win the hearts and minds of americans. we are a competitive people. we love a hot rivalry. we love rooting for our side and don't like bad calls. we don't like the very idea of a biased ref or umpire, and this

is the heart of the matter. if republicans can't win an election in which everyone votes, does anyone want them out making sure certain people don't? you know, i don't think so. does any true american want to see a sports people picked on the basis of anything other than talent? does any true american want to put out obstacles to keep minorities from participating in any of our national contests? then why do the people running the republican party starting with reince priebus do this? making them exercise the right that abraham lincoln died fighting to get them. this is a scar on the grand old party. who can blame marco rubio as the candidate of youth and the future. who cannot blame the republican party itself from reverting to the bad old days of jim crow and poll taxes and literacy tests. practically everyone that comes to washington, d.c. marches up the many steps of the lincoln memorial to pay tribute to the

man who freed the slaves, the man who saved the union, passed the 13th amendment outlawing slavery and died pushing for voting rights for those freed. it's time for reince priebus to get up on the stairs and pay true tribute to the country's finest president. that's "hardball" for now. "all in with chris hayes" starts right now. tonight on "all in" -- >> you can see the media running behind me here to chase the scooby van. >> and they're off. hillary clinton holds her very first campaign event as a presidential candidate. plus, before there was obamacare, there was hillary care. >> americans can no longer wait for health care reform. >> tonight, the second installment of "clinton for millennials." then chris christie hits reset in new hampshire. >> i am who i am. we j