tv Hardball With Chris Matthews MSNBC April 27, 2012 2:00am-3:00am EDT
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>> good evening, i'm chris matthews, back in philadelphia, playing offense, we know what romney campaign strategy is, making president obama defend his record in a struggling economy. the obama team refuses to fight on the defensive. they're going on the assault against the mitt romney that said let detroit go bankrupt, and that said getting bin laden may not be worth the effort. today, romney was portrayed at weak, and backward looking. and the clinton party, if you will, scored a big win in pennsylvania this week. he celebrated mark critz over another because he supported hillary. he is preparing the way for hillary as 2016. plus, paul ryan has trouble with his hardlined republican budget.
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today in georgetown university, and democrats took the nat six years ago when john tester eked out a victory in montana. it requires that outposts like tester's hold on this november. finally tonight, our musical tribute to newt gingrich, who made this republican campaign a lot more interesting you might say than it had any right to be. >> we will have the first permanent base on the moon, and it will be american. ♪ >> i founded four businesses, i've written 24 books. >> this was the finger the penguin bit. >> the fuel newttholoy is in the side show.
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we have mark halperin, and michael steele, today vice president biden launched the campaign assault against mitt romney, and i think he crystallized the contrast between romney and obama. let's listen to this. >> i said before, thanks to president obama bin laden is dead, and general motors is alive. you have to ask yourself, if governor romney had been president, could we have used the same slogan in reverse. they're going after romney for not supporting the bailout of detroit, and for being hesitant
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about going after bin laden, and romney is on record saying it wasn't that important. >> the peach is primarily about foreign policy. joe biden and the president have studied his expressions, statements in the past, his critiques. i think the president made excellent choices today, but politically and substantively on critiquing the criticisms they're making of the campaign. the president is out there being aggressive, and he knows his brief. he is free lancing, he knows what he is talking about. >> michael, you join us here, biden took aim at romney's managerial skills. let's listen to this indictment. >> he starts with a profound misunderstanding of the
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responsibilities of the president and the commander in chief. here is what he said, and i want to the quote him exactly. if we want someone with a lot of experience in foreign policy, we can simply go to the date department. he went on to say, "but that's not how we choose a president. a president is not a foreign policy expert." in my view, the last thing we need is a president who believes he can sub contract our foreign policy. that kind of thinking may work for a ceo, but i assure you, it will not and cannot work for a president, and it will not work for a commander in chief. >> and romney did say those very words in a 2007 interview at fox, the last time he ran for president. michael, your thoughts about the smartness of going after romney
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on foreign policy. >> i think biden can bite. there's no doubt about that. he does it in a way in which he makes you pay attention to the context, and how he is framing the argument. and i think the romney people will not be slouches. they will come out ready to lay metal to the pedal for how they go after these arguments. i thinked administration, and the president's campaign is taking the offensive as a good position to be in. the foreign policy debate is one that the president can talk about four years later. you know, with all of this great experience. you can't forget he came into the white house after eight years in the state legislature, and 18 months in the senate. i think -- >> i thought of that too, michael.
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>> i do too, i accept that. >> let me go back to mark on a couple points. number one it looks like they will go aggressively, the reason why they came out. and biden looks like he's got the job. >> yes, i take very seriously the critique of the foreign policy criticisms to evaluate them on their merits and on their political efficacy. i find the attacks from governor romney, so far, on most foreign policy issues, to be almost flailing. throwing out language, and again, you go through issue by issue, the administration point is correct, what governor romney is proposing is is vague, it's what the president is already doing, or it's manage the american people would not port. i think there should be a robust
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foreign policy debate, for the most part, i think it's easy for joe biden to rebut the criticisms because they're not effective for identifying areas of substantive difference. >> and he says romney was misguided and uninformed. listen to what he said now, i want to put the context of what the israeli keep of staff aid about this today. >> he says we need "crippling sanctions." apparently, unaware, through president obama's leadership we did just that. president obama said now is the time to let our increased pressure sink in. and to sustain the broad international coalition we built. now is the time to heed the timeless of teddy roosevelt,
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speak softly and carry a big stick. i promise you, the president has a big stick. >> the quote is accurate, romney did say with regard to iran, it's amazing, "we have in place crippling sanctions." apparently several months ago, this winner said the very thing the administration is already doing, gave them credit for having done it, and now he is criticizing them for not tightening the crews. i'm sure you saw today as well, and mark theize rally chief of staff said they don't think iran will go ahead all the way. so something is happening, that for example, romney seems to have lost his touch with his own brief for example, here. >> yeah, because of those screws
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that have been placed into the economy over there. the reality is that with respect to the foreign policy stuff, it's an interesting dance for romney to do. in large measure, the house and senate have supported the president's foreign policy initiatives. they talk about it from the overall bush agenda, the continuation of that, how he used drones, the effort to go after osama bin laden. they have given a lot of cover, if you will, to the administration because they supported this approach and this effort. it's very difficult i think for romney right now to carve out that separation when we look at it. republicans and the administration line up a lot more than they fall apart. >> and here is the president again keeping on the aggression, he did an interview with rolling stone, to get the young voters, he made clear that romney will
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have nowhere to hide from his primary positions. let me go to mark, you're the expert. it looks like, somebody said to me, it looked like it was a search today. they will make an effort from now to election day to spend time reminding voters of what romney has been saying before you get into this general election mode. >> right now, chris, they're just picking off the top of the pile, there's tons more quotes. i predict it will be quotes they have never seen. for governor romney on this issue of flip-flopping, the attacks are themeless. george bush had a frame on bill clinton's policies.
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bill clinton had a frame on george bush 41 that was effective. it added up to a different world view that would be compelling to the american people. the romney criticisms don't do that. they are very familiar with mitt romney's record. they're not just reading the tell prompter, and that makes them formidable. that's the stuff romney did when he was debating in the nomination fight. i don't think he is is at the level on the president's record, efficacy, focus, and the president who are busy guys, have about mitt romney right now. >> real quick on this, people forget romney has been running for six years for the presidency, so he has a long history on foreign policy and other issues. >> great opening by joe biden today, and great coverage of it
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welcome back to "hardball." hillary clinton has a good man working for her for 2016. he is endorsing her among the 2008 allies, rewarding her supporters and punishing her opponents. is bill fighting old battles, or getting ready for a big knew one. mark critz just won this week, and was a recipient of a big bill clinton endorsement, and alex wagner joins us, a host on msnbc. howard fineman wrote this yesterday, we have three leading
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congressman mark critz, i was rooting for you, you represent everything i like about politics, it's local, you look out for your base, and you deliver, congratulations. held me about bill clinton, his popularity, and his future importance. what do you see the clinton's role? >> obviously president clinton is still very popular. people look back to when he was in office and when hillary ran in '08, and his support of me, i'm hoping i had something to do with it, but he was really
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important to my race. i think it helped with voter who is may have been on the fence. >> tell me about, let me bring in alex, we're going to talk more about your race in a minute, congratulations on winning the primary, come in and tell us about this whole thing, you grew up in a political family, i have a sense they will be part of our lives for decades ahead. >> forever. >> perhaps forever. >> look, hillary is on center teenage as secretary of state and she has done a bang up job. she is clear about leaving in january, and that prompted a lot of discussion about what she will do next. bills has incredible profile with the clinton foundation. her unfavorables were 54, and she has dealt with everything from syria, libya, there's turmoil around the world, and
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she is doing it with a sense of joy. you saw her drinking after hours. she loves this position and she has worn it well. >> have you heard of anybody walking away from politics when they have those kinds of approval numbers? >> no, especially not a clinton, but again, i don't think this is the end of the clinton's as you said. >> tell me, mark critz, i have a believe about the democrat party in pennsylvania, it's somewhat suburban, it's a very working class, working crowd people, regular people if you will. the clinton's seem to have a special tag with those regular people. they seem to connect in a way that other politicians don't,
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explain that and the way you connect with people i believe. >> i think you hit it right on the head. obviously it's a working class neighborhood i guess you could say in western pennsylvania, and the folks do identify with president clinton, and i think the one thing that hillary did in her race in '08 and then becoming secretary of state, is she showed people how hard she worked. and when she took the job as secretary of state, people were impressed with how she handled that. i think all that she's done has enhance the clinton reputation in western pennsylvania. they work hard, they're working hard for people, and when they're called upon they do a great job. >> it just seems like the two enemies that people have, they think the republican party has an economic leap, and the democrat party has a cultural elite that people don't like. the clinton's seem to avoid both
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of those problems first. >> want the congressman on this one first, and then you. >> go ahead. >> i get him on that often, i can get you on more often alex. >> whatever you want. >> i'm a little tired too. anyway, i think that you're right. president clinton when he came in to campaign for me two years ago, he talked about me being a person that gets things done, and that's how people look at president clinton as well. he went into office and got things done. he had such a good reputation for moving it forward. people remember that and they remember that he did move the country forward, and again going back to hillary, she has done such a wonderful job as secretary of state it has enhanced that. we want leader who is can get things done and that's why their popularity continues to surge.
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>> now alex, your thoughts. >> you know, to your point, chris, about the blue collar afeel that bill clinton has, we will only see more of bill clinton. he will be helping with president obama, and with super pac fundraising. he is talking about republicans, and he goes out of his way to say i think there is a difference between republicans in this country and the republican party, and reach out to moderate republicans who may not like president obama right now. and dede meyers said that sowns like bill clinton. there is an understanding that he knows how to appeal to the center of the country, and is is going to em part some of that knowledge on to president obama. >> so well said, i keep reminding people around here that of the republicans, half of
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the country when you have these national elections, you're close, that's 50% at some, only 1% of the country is really rich. 49 out of 50 are not in the elite class, but they vote republican. here is hillary clinton, she was on tuesday night doing a great flirtation. she used her chance to toss a coy nod to a couple other rumors 2016 candidates also in the room. let's watch hillary clinton do a little flirtation with running for president in 2016. >> i was delighted to see that our wonderful governor is on the list, along with others like marco rubio. we have ended up on a couple other lists the last couple months -- >> there you have it, congressman critz, are you still there? what do you think about running
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with hillary clinton some day? >> she would be -- she is is and was very popular in western pennsylvania, i can't imagine that changed. i think she only enhanced her reputation here. >> good luck against the republican opponent, there was a big upset. you got your vote out, it's critical, congratulations for assuming the mantle of the great jack werth. up next, a special "hardball" side show, a farewell to newt gingrich.
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back to "hardball," it's time for the side show, and tonight it's all about newt. he will officially say fair well, but let's look back at some unforgettable moments in his race for the nomination. >> they're not going to be the nominee. >> obama will not have a leg to stand on. >> you have a school failing, a teacher fail b, i tried to have a simple model. most of these schools ought to get rid of the unionized janitor, have one master janitor, and pay local students to take care of the school. >> we will have the first permanent base on the moon and it will be american. >> the gingrich presidency will submit to the united nations, a
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treaty that extends the right to bear arms for a right for every person on the planet. >> put on your facebook page put newt equals $2.50 gasoline. >> i did no lobbying of any kind, period. i was charging $60,000 a speech. and the number of speeches was going up, not down. normally lebties sell fewer every year, we were selling more. >> i don't think right-wing social engineering is is any more desirable left-wing social engineering. >> are you calling mitt romney a liar? >> yes. >> i will not compete with obama in singing. >> make him bite it.
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>> the louisiana treatment of an etch-a-sketch. >> some of you have additional interest, this is the finger the penguin bit. >> i worked with reagan as a junior member, we created jobs. >> i'm going to be the nominee. >> wow, newt, thank you for all the memories. up next, paul ryan came to georgetown university to push a hard line budget. some catholics in georgetown says a budget that helps the rich and hurts the poor violates the principals of the church, and that's ahead.
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a senator of new york wants to make it easier to round the geese near kennedy airport. now, back to "hardball." >> u.s. congressman paul ryan of wisconsin, chairman of the budget committee says his budget was influenced by his catholic beliefs. he was met with protestors and a letter from staffers that disagree with his budget.
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it says we would be remiss in we have two guests with us tonight, sister i want to start with you, it's an honor to have you both on. weave been watching this dispute over philosophy and a justice issue, my question is a whimsical one, why do nones tend to be democrat? >> we sisters work at the margins of society, with people
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who are struggling, working for minimum wage, who have a very tough time with the minimum wage, it's $7.25 keeping food on the table for their families. we know the real life struggles of real life americans. when you're in touch with those struggles, you can't help but realize that we need to be together as a society and respond to the needs of everyone around us. we often think that democratic principals are much more in keeping with that sense of solidarity. >> let me go to james on this, we all grew up, catholics like myself, studying social justice for the early part of the last century, and we understand a living wage and all of those principals, and warnings about the excesses of capitalism, most americans, even catholics, don't
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know what i'm talking about, do they? they don't know there was a fabric or safety net introduced by the church, and made part of the law and the new deal. >> many catholics came to this country from humble origins, and proved the american dream true which is why you can succeed. which is is so unfortunate right now. congressman paul ryan wants to beat up on the little guy. >> why do you think he wants to give tax breaks to the rich? i can understand why he worried about the burden of debt down the road, my kids worry about that, why does he think there need to be incentives for the rich? >> certainly indicates his political motivations less than gospel teaching. you know, i along with the catholic bishops green that his budget fails a basic moral test.
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any time you ask the middle class to pay for the tax breaks of the wealthy, that's unfair and un-christian. it is manage that we're all concerned about. this is central to the catholic community. >> let's watch and let him speak. here he is defending his budget this morning. >> our budget offers a better path, consistent with the timeless principals of our nation's founding and frankly consistent with how i understand my catholic faith. we put trust in people, not in government. our budget incorporates subsidiary by returning power to individuals, families, and to communities. we draw inspiration from the founder's belief that all people are born with a god given right to human flourishing. >> why do you think some people
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believe the way to get poor people to work harder is to cut their money and to basically hurt them, and the way to get the rich people to work harder is give them more money, why do they have different views of incentives? >> i think they don't know people who live in poverty, because people who live in poverty work extremely hard to just even feed their families. what they know, is the wealthy, the reserved, they know in this lie about giving wealthy people more money will make better jobs, wealthy people have had ten years of a tax cut that has resulted in no jobs. wealthy people had ten years to keep wages fat and claim it's because of globalization. they had the chance to exploit those at the margins of society to deny health care to them, cause them to go into debt or bankruptcy, and now the republicans want to promote that. just because they say -- congressman ryan said it was his understanding of his faith.
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i think he has a flawed understanding, he is half right. but because he leaves out solidarity, and the fact that we're in this together, the fact that we the people of the united states means all of us, not just those with money. that because he leaves that out, he is half right, but 100% wrong. >> there seems to be a fight, without getting too much into religion here, we have heard some of the fights, the bishops and the nones seem to be on the same side about the approach to social ministry and helping poor people, it seems like you're together, the pitch shops seem to be republican and the sisters democrats do you agree on the social agenda?
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>> yes, if paul ryan spent a day of his life in the shoes of machine in soul crushing poverty, how do we make our paychecks stretch, we would not be having this debate. >> i like to remind people that come to washington, get up early some day, and go to the poor parts of washington dc, and a lot of the poor people are up catching the bus at 6:30 and 7:00 in the morning, and they're not coming home rich. here is congressman ryan speaking about his catholic faith again this morning at the great georgetown university. >> i suppose there are some catholics for a long time thought they had a monopoly of sorts on the social teaching of
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our church. there can be differences among faithful catholics on this. the work i do conforms ot social doctrine the best i can make of it. what i have to say is from the viewpoint of a catholic in politics applying my understanding to the problems of the day. >> sister, what's your last word on the good fight between you and paul ryan tonight? >> paul ryan needs to read charity and truth. he needs truth. the truth is those that suffer at the margins of the society are the ones that jesus cares about. they're the ones our society should care about, and it's the ones that the republican budget, his budget, leave out. that's wrong, it's morally wrong, and his faith understanding is seriously flawed. >> amen. >> you are really coaching, going to benedict on this one. congratulations for finding a liberal doctrine from pope benedict the sixth.
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thank you, you both know your stuff. up next, john tester's victory six years ago helped democrats win control of the senate. we're talking about a man manning the out post out in montana. ahhh, now that's a clean mouth. i just wish it wouldn't fade away so fast. let me show you something. [ dr. rahmany ] as soon as you leave here... plaque quickly starts to grow back. but now there's a way to keep the clean longer. introducing new crest pro-health clinical rinse. it's a clinical breakthrough that actually keeps your teeth 91% clean of plaque at 2 months after a dental visit. plus, it gives you these key benefits. new crest pro-health clinical rinse. so now when you leave the dental office, you can keep a cleaner mouth with you. crest. life opens up when you do.
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his group as sunk hundreds and thousands of dollars into the race going after john tester. he is being challenged and today tester's campaign released a new ad, let's watch it. >> he doesn't back much when he goes back to washington, but he always brings his montana roots. he is reducing the deficit, making sure kids can afford to go to college. protecting social security and medicare, protecting verns, and making the u.s. senate look more like montana. >> i'm john tester, and i approve this message. >> the other ads be carl rove and others flooding the air
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waves where much less positive. my daughter and i have montana fishing licenses, and it was fantastic this summer. >> it's great to be here, thank you, and you're exactly right. montana is an outdoors mans paradise. we have incredible activities all over the place, and i'm glad you got a chance to take advantage of them. >> it was great. i covered the primaries as part of my job, and we moved through iowa, florida, ohio -- didn't get to ohio. a lot of these states, there's a flood of nasty negative ads paid for by who knows what, no name attached to it, it doesn't say carl rove or the coke brothers, hugely negative ads, you can't escape them. how will you deal with that? >> they're already doing it, they spent about $2 million trying to define me as something i'm not and that's the key, that's no surprise. that's what we figured they would do. we have a great record, great
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things done, we still farm, run the place, and do our work in the u.s. senate. they're trying to paint me as something i'm not. and the challenge is, chris, and this is with all of this money, can montana voters be bought by all this untruthful advertising out there right now. one ad even gave me five fingers on my left hand and another didn't know how to spell my name. their free and loose with their terminol terminologies. we have to work hard and have enough money to get our message out. we can't outspend these guys, they have more money than we can come close to raising, but by the same token, if we can help
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people know what we did in the last five years, i have positive in this election. >> most republicans are not rich, some are, very few are rich, some are better than average, and yet the republican party seems to get control with that 1%. guys like carl rove, the oil people, the coke brothers. they convince that 49% of that 50% that vote republican, how do you get through that? convince the 49%, the cloth coat republicans, not the mink coat, how do you convince them to go along with you. >> i really think the key is our ads have to be better than theirs, but more importantly than that, we have to let people know what's going on with all of the secret corporate money being dumped into these races. back in 1916, montana voter website 1960, almost 100 years
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ago. they said enough of this. they said, no more corporation involvement. i think if people understand where this money is coming from, and it's very tough because there is no transparency whatsoever, if we can get them to understand it's corporate outside money, not even being in this country, funding the race and the ads against me, i think they will react accordingly and if may backfire on them. >> what about cecile richards likes your campaign, let's look at what she said. she said there is no more important senate race in the country than yards, she campaigned with you last week. here is what she told the great fall tribune. he has been such a strong independent champion of women's issues in the senate. >> i appreciate it, we have seen some of the impacts of the war on women come out of the senate and this congress, and as i told my daughter at easter time, i said you're going to have to get active and get involved. you're going to have to fight a fight your mom didn't have to fight. you will have to fight the fight that your grandmother fought.
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i think that's a fact. women understand their health care choices will be badly eroded if they don't step up to the plate, and i think this election is the time to do it. >> i know montana is a reach for someone like obama to win, but it seems like a strength that he caught and killed osama bin laden. he seems to be less of a challenge as part of your situation. >> yeah, i mean, i think it is. i think our gun rights are better now than when he came into office. i think the work that he did to not only find bin laden but take him out of the equation is positive from a montana perspective, and he was dealt a tough hand.
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he came into this economy losing 800,000 jobs a month. so he has done some good things. on the other side, we have plenty of things that have opposed him, not for the sake of opposed, but the fact is whether it's the jobs big that there was six or eight months ago, i had real concerns with it. i voted against it, the bailouts i voted against, we have plenty of things where we differed, but one of the things their trying to do in states around this country where president obama is not very popular is tie the senators to him. >> the man with the crew cut on the tractor, can't confuse you with an east coast guy. when we return, let me finish with the win-win tango.
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let me finish tonight with this. bill clinton will play a big role in politics for years to come. it looks increasingly likely that hillary clinton will run in 2016 and bill clinton looks to be preparing the way. he is the number one add rans man. we saw the former president's readiness to help candidates that were solid clinton people against people who were not. he helped people, rewards and pay backs accordingly. he is posting rewards for past loyalty and the bounties for others. i know you know about the interesting dance they have been
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having with obama. bill clinton accepted whatever role they have given him. bill clinton wants hillary to be president. they began as a team, they will end that way. the good thing between this tango, is it can, if properly, benefit both. having the clinton people on the obama reelection campaign is a plus any way you look at it. combining the obama and clinton votes was the key to winning in 2008 and it will be begin in 2012. they need to keep the peace through november. that's "hardball" for now. thanks for being with us. "the ed show" with ed schultz starts right now. >> good evening, americans. welcome to "the ed show." it is immoral when it comes to the poor in this country.
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