john f. kennedy president. it could go to midnight on election night or later. and the debates will be wild, exciting and unpredictable this fall. obama will have to fight for his second term. really have to make a case for one. and the other guy, whoever it ends up being, will have to be tough. tough enough and convincing enough to take it away from a very tough guy. as always, it's great to be back right here on "hardball" full time. that's "hardball" for now. thanks for being with us. "politics nation" with al sharpton starts right now. is willard suffering from a bain drain? tonight, mitt romney tries to spin his record at bain capital. but the 1% candidate isn't telling 100% of the truth. runaway newt. he's hammering romney. and it might just be working. the big news today out of south carolina. and we've got a big reaction to our story about the romney dog.

we'll talk live with the reporter who broke the pooch story. seamus, as his name is, climbed up there all by himself. enjoyed his ride. whether you are in the back of a pickup or in the rooftop carrier it was a good ride. >> welcome to "politics nation. it's i'm al sharpton. tonight's lead, willard pushes back. after weeks of blistering attacks about his time at ceo aç bain capital, willard romney lays out his defense in a new ad. too bad this ad doesn't add up. >> this is a business mitt romney helped start. and this one. and this steel mill. mitt romney helped create and ran a company that invested in struggling businesses. grew new ones and rebuilt old ones. creating thousands of jobs. those are the facts. >> those are the facts? well, let's start with fact number one, shall we.

>> this is a business mitt romney helped start. and this one. and this steel mill. >> this steel mill. this steel mill is willard's big claim to fame on jobs? well, as the "l.a. times" points out, that steel mill owes a heck of a lot to government aid. in fact, it received $37 million in state and county subsidies. that's a big chunk of change, willard, especially from a guy who rails against government help. >> fundamentally what happens in america that creates jobs is not government. it has its role. but by and large it gets in the way of creating jobs. >> that money didn't get in your way. it made you rich. bain banked $85 million after investing in that company. ain't that something. and then there's willard the job creator. >> mitt romney helped create and ran a company that invested in

struggling businesses, grew new ones and rebuilt old ones. creating thousands of jobs. those are theç facts. >> thousands of jobs. it's not so bad. but wait. didn't you give a higher number recently? >> people here in the state know that in the work that i had, we started a number of businesses, invested in many others and that, overall, created tens of thousands of jobs. >> tens of thousands. no, that must be the wrong clip, guys. i think it was bigger. like this. >> if you take those places where we're able to add jobs and subtract those that lost jobs, we added over 100,000 jobs. >> from 100,000 to tens of thousands, to thousands. what's next? tens of jobs? joining me now is e.j. dion, columnist for "the washington post" and msnbc contributor. and steve karnacki, political columnist for the salon.com. thank you both for coming on the

show tonight. >> good to be with you. >> e.j., not the best defense, huh? >> well, you know, it's -- i think we should only talk about inequality in a quiet room, the way mitt romney suggested. we should probably get to that quiet room before we go. he's got a problem. on the one side, he can brag if he wants, about staples and about sports authority. the private equity business is a complicated business, and he did help start some businesses that worked. so what's wrong with that ad is not that most of its assertions aren't true. the assertions are basically true. what the problems are, one, as you point out, that the number on jobs has been shifting since he first started talking about a number. and, secondly, he, obviously, doesn't want to talk about the other side of private equity which involved companies that went out of business, companies where people in private equity may strip out a lot of cash and then the company dies. and as soon as he opened this,

he wants us to vote for him because he is a job creator and a businessman. okay. once you say that, you open the whole rest of the record for scrutiny. and that's what he is facing now. and i think it's going to go on for quite some time because he's made it so central a part of his own campaign. >> that's the question, steve. is this a mistake for him to make this the central part of his campaign? is this devastating since he has made the fact that he's a businessman, knows the private sector, he has made this a central part of his campaign. isn't this devastating because this is the area that he's offered the public? >> i think it's problematic. my view is i still look at the rest of the republican candidates. newt gingrich and rick perry and all the others and i say mitt romney is still probably the best bet this party has, but that doesn't mean he's necessarily a good bet for 2012. we're living in post meltdown america. the occupy wall street america. and democrats are really sort

of -- and the obama campaign certainly is itching to point out to americans to say, look. the republican party is basically the party that wants to enable and pamper this top 1%. it's made all the money while the rest of the country has struggled. with this massive gap in income inuquality. the problem with romney is his agenda is no different than the other republican candidates. he's made a few efforts to make it a little more friendly to the middle class in what he's proposing, but he symbolizes he typifies that top 1% that the democrats want to say, want people to think the republicans are out to protect. and mitt romney symbolizes it in his actions, in his bearing in his history. that's difficult to get out of. >> you know, e.j., i think steve is right. i spent a lot of time last year moving around the country dealing with different issues and hearing people from ohio, on the radio show, people from wisconsin. i don't think that willard and them get what the whole mood of this country is toward those

that have done these kind of major companies buyouts and really didn't look at what happened to people's jobs. >> no, i think that's right, and i think that one of the interesting things about the newt gingrich attack is you can see it as having a strain of social conservativism in it because he talks about what destroying companies does to local communities. when these companies disappear, all the very fabric of a community can get torn up. and i think steve is right on this class issue. that the democrats had a big problem in 2010 with working class voters, especially white working class voters. they were very upset about the state of the economy. and they voted republican in big numbers. i think the obama campaign is looking at this and saying, hey, wait a minute. we have a huge opportunity now to cut those losses among white working class voters. possibly even winning them because romney's persona, i

think, does not appeal to that part of the republican constituency which has been a very important part of their winning electioés. so i think this opens up new terrain for the obama campaign that they weren't sure they were going to have. >> now, steve, today willard romney says he cares about the poor. let me let you listen to him say this. >> i'm concerned about our poor in this country. we have to make sure that the safety net for our poor is always strong and able to help those that can't help themselves. i'm not terribly worried about the very wealthiest in our society. they are doing just fine. i'm concerned about the vast middle class of our nation. the 90% of americans, 95% of americans who are having tough times. >> he didn't quite get to 99, but when you look at his tax plan since he's so concerned, his tax plan would double the bush tax cuts. that makes me think you are

pretty concerned about the wealthy. also, he's endorsed paul ryan's plan. that's a pretty cold plan to endorse for someone who is concerned about the poor because two-thirds of the cuts come from low-income programs, medicaid, pell grants, food stamps, low-income housing. that's $2.9 trillion in cuts from the people he is saying today he's concerned about. >> right. and he's been -- clearly his campaign has been aware of this vulnerability for a long time because he's been talking that way rhetorically for months now. trying to position himself preemptively as the champion of the middle class. you know, kind of putting it on the table. they're going to say i'm protecting the wealthy but i'm talking about all these middle class things. when you look at the actual proposals, everything you just mentioned there, i'm remembering a debate inç december when he mixed it up with newt gingrich over the capital gains tax. gingrich wanted to get rid of it and romney wanted to targ tet more for the middle class. the average save frgs the middle

class would be minuscule. so you're not really talking about much. but there's this conscious innocence the part of his campaign that he has the image problem. and you better at least talk about this middle class stuff because you have to get people to get behind it somehow. >> you are absolutely right. e.j., let me go back to you. it seems that some in the party establishment are trying to circle the wagons and help willard out with all of these attacks around bain. let me show you how they are starting to gang up on these attacks that mitt romney's been suffering from newt gingrich. mitt romney's include mike huckabee, rudy giuliani, john mccain. all of them defending him. and then mccain even went way over. let me let you hear what john mccain said in defending willard's time at bain. >> attacking him on bain capital, which has created thousands of jobs, i don't

think, is going to work. >> now you came out this morning and suggested there's an alternative to the way bain does business and it's called communism. where everybody gets a fair share. >> keep everybody in business. keep every industry, no matter how bad it is. and that's what communism does. unfortunately, it doesn't work. >> now, but that is not what mr. mccain was saying in 2008. he seemed to have /d problem, e.j., with bain then. well, don't believe me. let me let john mccain speak for himself in 2008. >> i think he managed companies and he bought and he sold and sometimes people lost their jobs. that's the nature of that business. >> so in 2008, he bought and sold companies. people lost their jobs. 2012, we want communism to raise the issue of bain. >> first of all, i never thought i'd live long enough to hear

anyone even suggest that newt gingrich is a communist. there is something new for the books. and i think it's true that mccain has a problem when he was running against mitt romney. he didn't go quite as far as newt has. but he did raise the same kinds of issues that gingrich and perry are raising out there. but i think republicans understand, i mean, a lot of republicans are now assuming that romney is going to be the nominee, and they realize how damaging this is. and they are trying to push back against it. they want to put this issue back in the closet. but i don't think it's -- they can do that now. i think this issue is going to be with us for the whole campaign and democrats are going to be quoting newt gingrich and rick perry right through till november. >> does the bain pain ease up any or is it going to be hurting all the way through the primary process? >> yeah, i mean, the primaries, there's a good case to be made that maybe the republicans will get their message straight on this and defend romney in the

primaries. i'm looking ahead to september, october, right before the election. i'm thinking the ad the obama campaign is going to run and all it's going to be is newt gingrich, you çknow, talking about how terrible mitt romney was at bain. how heartless he was and how he wasn't a job creator at all. or rick perry talking about vulture capitalism. the ad s write themselves. and when you can quote the people in his own party making the case you want to make. >> i don't think they should just run newt gingrich. they need to run the john mccain ad, the one i just played where in 2008, when they were running against mccain, this is what mccain -- >> huckabee had the perfect line. he reminds you of the guy that fired you. that was the huckabee line in '08. >> wonderful, wonderful, wonderful. have a great weekend, e.j. >> you, too reverend. >> and you, too, steve. thanks for joining me tonight. ahead -- newt is at it again. he's hammering willard on bain. and it may be working. plus -- president obama continued his relentless fight

for jobs and justice today. we'll show you why his plan to win is all about fairness. and we had a huge response to our story last night on willard's dog riding on the roof of his car. you're watching "politics nation" on msnbc. ♪ [ male announcer ] talking a big game about your engine is one thing. having a proven history that can back it all up is a whole other story. unsurpassed torque. incredible towing. legendary cummins engines. which engine do you want powering your truck? guts. glory. ram. ♪

aç new poll from south carolina shows that gingrich is moving up. is that the sound of bain willard is hearing? that's next. that's good morning, veggie style. hmmm. for half the calories plus veggie nutrition. could've had a v8. trouble with a car insurance claim. [ dennis ] switch to allstate. their claim service is so good, now it's guaranteed. [ foreman ] so i can trust 'em.

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welcome back to "politics nation." call is the newtron bomb. he doesn't care what anyone says. newt wi hammering willard romney for killing jobs as ceo of bain capital. here he is today. >> the fact is, he still is not prepared to release any documents from bain to prove anything. so i think we have no idea what his net job creation was. this is a big part of his campaign. he should meet the same test as the rest of us and give us the facts, not just keep making claims. >> all week long he's been unleashing attacks on willard. none bigger than the devastating 28-minute movie released by his super pac ripping willard's past at bain. >> mitt romney became ceo of bain capital the day the company was formed. his mission? to reap massive rewards for himself and his investors. for tens of thousands of

americans, the suffering began when mitt romney came to town. >> they never could get enough, no matter how much they -- no matter how much they already had, they just could never get enough money. >> romney and bain's cash rampage would ultimately slash jobs in nearly every state in the country. >> and they've pounded the messages all over the tv airways, bombarding south carolina with $1.8 million worth of ads. like this. >> a group of corporate raiders, led by mitt romney, the company was bain capital. more ruthless than wall street. >> pulled the rug out from under our plant. >> everybody was fired. >> mitt romney and them guys, they don't care who i am. >> i feel thatç is a man that destroyed us. >> and guess what? all these attacks are working.

according to a new poll, he's just four points behind willard in south carolina. and in last week, romney's favorability slipped seven points while newt's climbed four points up. if you are willard, are you starting to sweat? joining me now is bill press, host of the bill press show on sirius xm radio and bob franken, a featured syndicated columnist. >> reverend al. >> al. >> bob, you've covered newt for a long time. was there ever any question that he was going to go negative on mitt? >> certainly not in my mind. when he said that he was going to be running a positive campaign, i have to admit to a chuckle or two. what ran through my mind is you're going to run a positive campaign, how many seconds is that going to last? of course, it didn't last long. >> i felt he was going to run a

positively negative campaign myself. but let me ask you, bill, when you look at this new poll, it says that 58% of primary voters, republicans in south carolina -- 58% -- don't want romney to be their nominee. so these ads are hitting a pretty fertile ground. the question is, i suppose, if the opposition to romney is so split up that they can't win. >> çno, exactly. by the way, in response to your first question, i wonder sometimes whether newt gingrich is actually on obama's payroll because he certainly is doing a lot of the work of the obama campaign right now. these attacks on bain capital, i think they are working because they are true. they cannot deny that was who mitt romney was. and they created an indelible impression. the words that are going to haunt mitt romney through the primary and into the general are, what, corporate raider,

corporate predator, vulture, liar. i mean, this is who mitt romney is. so i think he survives south carolina for the reason you stated because the opposition is so splintered. but he certainly is going to come out of it a battered and a weakened republican party nominee. >> now, bill, when you hear the sound of the king of bain is -- in this ad. they focus on workers laid off and emotional stories. i mean, when you see people saying they fired all of us. they destroyed us. it's emotional. so even if it doesn't stop him in the south carolina primary, this has a riveting effect, i think, among the american public that if he's the nominee, he's going to have to face. >> exactly. particularly right now with unemployment at 8.5%, 13 million americans out of work. jobs is the number one issue. and we all know that mitt

romney's job at bain if you want, was not job creation. it was wealth creation. and he did a pretty good job at that but didn'tç create many jobs. by the way, i do think, bob, we could point out that however few jobs that mitt romney created, he created a hell of a lot more than newt gingrich ever did. >> oh, don't clutter the issue up with facts now. >> well, let's be fair to newt gingrich. this is a man who really was able to take advantage of the synergy, shall we put it, between the government md the corporate world. this is a man who made millions upon millions, for instance, being a historian to freddie mac and fannie mae. so this is not a man who, perhaps, should be -- what is it? i think dana milbank talked about this is a man who lives in a glass mansion. he shouldn't be throwing stones. >> but, bob, let's be fair. mitt willard romney bought out companies and shut them down. newt gingrich shut down the

whole u.s. government, so don't play him light now. he knows how to shut stuff down. but they were trying to get newt to back away from his position saying that isn't it over the top, and, let me show you what he said today about trying to tell the truth in these ads. >> yeah, because there's something very interesting about that. >> let me show you what he said. he says, and i'm quoting him, i am trying to get on full screen. he says, i am calling for the winning our future super pac supporting me to either edit its "king of bain" advertisement and movie to remove any inaccuracies or pull it off the air and off the internet entirely. doç you believe this, bob? >> i think there's an interesting question here. does that become coordination? which, by the way, would be against the law since he's talking about a super pac here.

the pac, if it's going to be legal, should not listen to newt gingrich. what i think he was doing, let me just say this in polite language. he was trying to protect his back side. >> let me also tell you what i think he was doing, bill, and you chime in. it's almost word for word what willard mitt romney said about his super pac in iowa, any alleged accuracy that they were doing to newt gingrich just a couple of weeks ago because i remember him saying the same thing. if the super pacs are wrong, they ought to pull it down. and it's almost word for word. so maybe mr. gingrich is being a little cute here and quoting mr. romney, what mr. romney said when the shoe was on the other foot. >> yeah, a couple of points. number one it does prove that both willard if you will, and newt are coordinate with their pacs. they are asking them to pull their ads down.

secondly, newt gingrich puts up his own super pac ad which "the washington post" said merits four pinocchios because it's so full of lies. and final point. you know, reverend al, what i think newt gingrich is in this race, he's the suicide bomber of the republican party. he knows he's not going to win. he knows he's not -- he's not in it to win it anymore. he's in it to take down as many people as he can, as he goes down. and he has that same silly grin on his faceç when he pulls the plug as a suicide bomber. >> but i think -- >> why can't he win? there's no way you think newt gingrich could do this? >> no, absolutely not. i don't think the republican party will -- they know who he is. he's been nothing but a destructive, negative force as bob pointed out his entire career. they're not going to let him become the nominee. >> but there's an important point all of us have been missing here which is the context here. we're talking about south carolina, and the kind of stuff that we're seeing in south carolina in that state,

qualifies as positive campaigning. >> wow. >> compared to previous years. >> it is an interesting state. it's a very conservative state. how do you make -- very quickly. what do you make, i should say, of the meeting of the evangelicals this weekend? could something come out of there that could change this primary one way or another? >> let me just go first. here's what i make of it. the idea that they would include as one of their options endorsing -- this is the social conservatives. endorsing newt gingrich is unbelievable. it proves to me that they don't believe in anything. >> bob? >> and short answer to your question is, yes, i think it could make a difference. south carolina, particularly the republicans, just loaded with evangelical christians. >> bob franken and bill press. thanks for your time tonight. have a great weekend. >> thank you. ahead -- president obama's case for jobs and justice. it's his plan to win 2012. plus -- big oil, big money

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we've heard a lot from the republicans in this show. how about a few words from the man they are hoping to replace? he is the president.

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and we'll throw in up $600 when you open an account. ♪ [ gong ] strawberry banana! [ male announcer ] for a smoothie with real fruit plus veggie nutrition new v8 v-fusion smoothie. could've had a v8. welcome back to "politics nation." president obama has made it clear the year ahead will be about fighting for jobs and justice. he took another step in that direction today. he asked congress for the power to merge six federal agencies in order to make government friendlier to small businesses. >> this is an area that should receive bipartisan support because making our government more responsive and strategic and leaner, it shouldn't be a partisan issue. with or without congress, i'm going to keep at it.

>> now anyone think the gop volunteered to help out? don't think so? say no has been the gop game plan ever since the president took office. and yet he's been able to move ahead on the jobs and fairness agenda. and those issues will be the backbone of his re-election. he has kept those promises. >> change is the decision we made. that was unpopular at the time to go in and help the auto industry retool. change is finally after a century of talking about it passing health care reform. and change is keeping the -- one of the first promises i made back in 2008, and that is ending the war in iraq and bringing our troops home. if you stick with me, we're going to finish what we started in 2008. >> joining me now is congresswoman jane schakowsky, democrat from illinois.

thanks for joining us tonight, congresswoman. >> thanks for having me, reverend sharpton. >> the president is running on jobs, justice and real change. how is that for a 2012 agenda, in your opinion? >> i think that's what the american people want to hear. i actually was in the audience for that speech in chicago, and people were really fired up. those who think there may be an enthusiasm gap, i would declare them wrong. people are ready to fight for that basic american values agenda. >> now what are you hearing from your constituents? >> oh, we have phone banks going already. recruiting volunteers. people are ready to go. they understand, you know, one thing i agree with mitt romney on and the president does, too, that this election really is about the very soul of our country. whether or not the fundamental american bargain that if you

work hard, no matter who you are, or where you start, that you are going to be able to make it in america. and that really has been eroding over time, and the republicans don't want to do anything about it. so this really -- this election isn't so much about the individuals. it's about whether or not this country is going to be true to its values. that this is a land of opportunity for everyone and not just a few. >> but isn't it hard to say that to people that are unemployed? we have 8.6% unemployment. how do we give that message to those that are hurting and those that feel that it's going to get worse before it gets better? >> well, first of all, what the republicans are doing with impunity right now is showing contempt for those who are struggling right now. don't have a job? take a shower and go out and get one. not recognizing that there really are about five applicants for every job that's available.

newt gingrich saying that children in poor neighborhoods where nobody works, he says, should be janitors. and mitt romney casually making $10,000 bets and saying we don't want to be for food stamps, as santorum said. their view -- i really wonder what kind of world they live in. what they see with barack obama is someone who really understands what needs to be done and republicans who have been obstructionists the whole time. he has a jobs bill to put people to work. of course, we've seen 22 months now of private sector growth. and no thanks to the republicans. so i think when you see the difference of who is really trying to make a difference and is making a difference, though slower than we want, i think that's who the american people will choose. >> congresswoman, you mentioned mitt romney. mitt romney says that the president hasn't kept his promises. listen to this.

>> i've been looking at some of the videos of the then candidate obama as he spoke last time during his campaign and promised what he was going to do with america. and the gap between what he promised and what he has done is about as big as you can imagine. >> how would you respond to that? >> well, first of all you certainly don't want to put your money on promises made by mitt romney who has this consistent habit of taking a 180-degree turn away from what he said yesterday or last year and saying whatever anybody wants to hear. so i don't have a lot of confidence in any promise he might make. but it's also simply not true that president obama has not kept his promises. after 100 years, we now have a health care bill where health care for all americans is established as a right regardless of pre-existing conditions, regardless of ability to pay. we passed -- he got rid of

"don't ask, don't tell." he put money into alternative energy. he fully funded the veterans administration and the violence against women act. he stopped discrimination in the workplace with a lily ledbetter act. and he expanded the children's health insurance program. we could go on and on and on with the -- >> and you haven't even left the country. you haven't even left the congresswoman and dealt with bin laden and -- >> ended the war in iraq. ended the war in iraq. how is that? >> how about specifics rather than just slogans on ads. congresswoman janet schakowsky, thank you for your time. and thank you for being specific about what's going on with the president. still ahead -- pipeline to nowhere. we'll talk to a whistleblower engineer who says the keystone pipeline is a disaster waiting to happen. and shouldn't get built. ♪ ♪

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kpg congressional republicans are trying to ram through what could be the most controversial construction project in america. trans-canada's $7 billion keystone excel pipeline would build nearly 2,000 miles of

pipeline through the middle of the country. it would carry tar sands, a sludge that's even more toxic than crude oil. it would run from canada to refineries in texas. it would cross the longest source of freshwater in the united states. water that supports $20 billion in agriculture and provides millions of americans with drinking water. a spill of this toxic sludge would be an economic and environmental disaster which is why people across the midwest are fighting to stop the pipeline. >> we need to think about the people of nebraska and not just the big interest groups. >> the oil company can come in and basically do what they want to do. and we have hardly any say so at all. >> my parents in hastings drink that water from that aquifer. if it's polluted, we will have no water to drink. >> even nebraska's republican governor thinks it's a bad idea. he asked president obama to stop

the project saying, quote, do not allow transcanada to build a pipeline and risk the potential damage to nebraska's water. people are worried, and they should be. part of the pipeline already built has had 14 leaks since 2010. just last year, it dumped 21,000 gallons of oil in north dakota. this project is a mess. but don't take my word for it. just listen to my next guest. mike clink is an engineer who worked on the keystone pipeline in north dakota and south dakota and saw firsthand the dangers in this project. he reported what he saw to federal agencies and he's here to tell his story. mike, thanks for joining me tonight on this important story. you are blowing the whistle. this pipeline -- why is -- >> thank you. thank you, reverend sharpton. >> thank you again. >> you are blowing the whistle

on this pipeline. why is this story so important? >> it's extremely important to me because of the health and the welfare of many, many people that don't even have a clue what's going on. having lived it, this pipeline is nothing more than a toxic man-made river being built across our country. without the water in -- the people are going to die. and it also, you said, it crosses the largest aquifer. it also crosses another one in texas that supplies water for 12 million texans. this project is nothing but a -- tar sands. tar sands is what you would call a black peanut butter that has to be cut with all kinds of chemicals and hydrocarbons and its chemical makeup is some of the most toxic substances known on this earth. >> explain to the people because many of us don't understand a

lot of the terms that you would. what is this, and is this what is being sent to texas? >> yes. this is what's being sent to texas. they mine it out of the ground, and they have to heat it, super heat it, and they have to put it under 1700 pounds of pressure and send it down the pipeline. and to keep it going down there, it's -- can you imagine pumping peanut butter with sand on the inside of steel with all kinds of anomalies in it, impurities? it's going to be like pumping sand paper down it. it's 16 times more corrosive and abrasive than what normal crude is. >> 16 times more than normal crude? >> yes, sir. >> now about these spillovers, the fact it could contaminate water that is used both for agriculture and for citizens. we're talking about risking a lot -- a lot of people here if

we have any contamination. >> you are risking a lot of people. and matter of fact there was a spill from the tar sands pipeline in michigan, and it's nearly two years and no one knows how to clean it up. that's one of the biggest safety concerns that's going. this product needs to be studied so that we can figure out how to clean it up, when there's going to be a spill. these people deserve better and deserve more protection. matter of fact, just for a quick instance is, if you were following this truck down the road it would -- still under the department of transportation, you would have to have plaques on the trucks telling you what hazard waste it is. that's still under the department of transportation. why doesn't the pipelines -- why didn't the pumping stations have these same warnings to protect possible first responders. protect the people and neighbors that would happen to get into it. this is what is a very large shame. not only that. it's just a poor, poor construction. there's no reason to hurry a

project like this. it should be studied. it should be looked at. and the most of all, the safety of the american people should be put forefront over a foreign entity and over big oil -- >> a foreign entity. now they are saying it will provide jobs. but let me show you this. a study, according to trans-canada. well, a study they sponsored it estimated about 20,000 jobs. but then a study by cornell university says it would only provide 6,500 jobs. so all of this about the republicans that are pushing this hard saying it will provide tens of thousands of jobs, it would not, but it would more importantly risk so many american people in terms of their water and the agricultural business in many of those states that it would be running through. >> i don't understand why they would be willing to risk human

lives for the right to -- for big oil and to push it on through. i don't see what the hurry is for our congressmen and senators. there is no hurry for this project at all because it's landlocked and the most important thing is canada cannot get a pipeline across their country to get it anywhere else. the only reason for the big push on this is big oil is sponsoring our people -- our representatives who are there to represent and protect american citizens. and that's why i feel like i have to speak out. >> they are landlocked. canada can't do it. there's no reason to rush without every concern answered. and you say maybe the only reason they are rushing is because of big oil. thanks for joining me tonight. i'll leave it right there. >> thank you, mr. sharpton. >> up next -- we'll talk to a reporter who first broke the sad story of seamus the dog and his

very bad road trip with the romneys. stay with us. jenna shared her recipe with sharon, who emailed it to emily, who sent it to cindy, who wondered why her soup wasn't quite the same. the recipe's not the recipe... ohhh. [ female announcer ] ...without swanson. the broth cooks trust most when making soup. mmmm! [ female announcer ] the secret is swanson.

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we got a huge response to our story last night about willard romney's dog seamus. on a family trip in 1983, willard tied his irish setter's kennel to the roof of the car for a 12-hour drive. the story's hounded willard ever since. >> seamus, as his name is, climbed up there all by himself. enjoyed his ride. whether you are in the back of a pi pickup truck or a rooftop carrier it was a good ride. >> joining me is a staff writer for the boston globe magazine. he broke the seamus story in 2007. neil, tell us briefly what happened. >> well, back in 1983, the romneys, as you say, packed the five boys into the car. were driving up for a family

reunion with mitt's parents in canada. and put the dog in a carrier, strapped it to the roof of the car and there was no room in the station wagon with all the boys in there. and they sort of powered on along the highway. and about midway through the trip is when trouble began. >> trouble began like what? >> like the -- a brown liquid was dripping down the back windshield which was a sign of seamus's gastric distress that was -- his perhaps payback for being in the wind for many hours up on the roof. >> and how did willard respond to seeing the brown liquid? >> so this is -- i mean, this is why i originally wrote about the story back in 2007. and for me, it's why the story is interesting.

there's been a lot of exaggeration around it and a lot of human cries about it, but it was kind of how he handled it. he pulled off the highway into a gas station, borrowed a hose. washed down the dog and the car and ushered seamus back into the carrier and got back behind the wheel and kept on going. and it was sort of that -- >> wait a minute. i'm running out of time. but he just hosed the dog down, the car down and got back in the car and kept going? >> that's right. yes. and that was sort of the insight into mitt romney's operating system. it's based on logic, not emotion. this was an emotion-free approach to a problem. and a tiny window into that operating system. >> so he, in your opinion, is just a guy, no emotion. just keep on going. >> well, i think, you know, you can draw lines connecting his

behavior or approach to solving this problem here with how he's worked in business and how he worked in government. as a businessman in private equity, mitt romney's job running bain capital was to be the cold water on deals. when other partners would come in heated with the excitement of a big deal, he would be the guy saying, wait, wait, we're getting ahead of ourselves. that sort of approach of sort of stripping out emotion completely for good or bad is the approach. and it's how he's operating. and i think that's the approach you'll see in government. >> did you ever question willard or any of the romney family to verify any of this? >> oh, yeah. as soon as i got this story. i got it after doing a lot of deep reporting about the family with family friends and kind of came across this. i was really interested in penetrating this airbrush quality to the family that they sort of present because they are a real family. a big