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tv   Martin Bashir  MSNBC  May 30, 2012 3:00pm-4:00pm EDT

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yes, the campaign released the document to the public last night. willard mitt romney born march 17, 1947. we can confirm he is a pisces known for their sensitive nature. the campaign says it released the birth certificate in response to a request by reuters. it had nothing whatsoever to do with the host of romney's fundraiser, the ignoramu xiu, donald trump, taking more calls than an over worked phone sex operator. >> there are many people that don't agree with that birth certificate and don't think it is authentic, wolf. >> i don't know when you say many people who don't agree. >> many people. >> like who? give me a name of somebody. >> there are some people. >> a position of authority in hawaii. give me a name. >> there are many people. i don't give names. there is a lot of questions as to the authenticity of the birth certificate. you can believe it or you don't have to believe it. certainly there are many, many questions. i actually think it is a great issue for mitt romney. >> while romney's campaign has
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said he does not agree with trump, that it is an issue for him, trump maintains he will keep asking the hard questions. so will fox's bill hemmer who traveled all the way to california, clear i under the gun to get some real answers about how governor romney would govern. >> if you're looking for policy, that's really not the intention why we went to california. >> oh, i am sorry, i guess the policy was not off the discussion. okay. surely something of substance was on the table. >> you're a tough guy to crack. is there truth to that? >> depends on who is asking. >> i don't know whether that's the case or not. i think as people get to know me better some will like me and some won't. it is the nature of most folks. >> let's see. mitt doesn't know if he is likeable now, but as people get to know him, they may or may not like him. well, thank goodness we got that cleared up.
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what else? go on. dig up the dirt. >> what about you as a boss? how would you describe yourself? >> i am not 9 right one to describe that. i didn't see myself as a boss. >> it really is a shame that softball will not be part of the 2012 olympics. our panel is here with us now. in washington democratic strategist julian epstein and in miami political analyst michael eric dyson, professor at georgetown university and here with me in the studio in new york, columnist for the new york daily news, thank you for joining us and professor dyson, mitt romney seems to want to make this birther issue go away, but trump just won't let it go tweeting just this afternoon i want to see barack obama's college records to see how he listed his place of birth in the application. i guess if mitt wants the fundraising power, he has to grapple with the whole trump package, doesn't he? >> he has to grapple with the whole trump package. he has to grovel in the pits of
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political destiny for himself, and perhaps by releasing his own birth certificate he thought it said earth certificate because we can't figure out what planet he is from to allow a man like donald trump to drag him low. i think that mitt romney is already having difficulty with establishing his days as a legitimate political figure capable of being strong and who articulates his viewpoints in a principled fashion, not in a way that's defren ti al to the neesds of the moment and he will grovel so low as to grab after donald trump's pocketbooks but in return he has to accept the rhetoric and i think it is destructive and ultimately will blow back on him in a negative fashion and i think the refusal to stand up and say this is wrong and i want nothing to do with this is a problem for his leadership and i think that's something that the obama people can hammer. >> julian, to that point, romney says he really wants the birther conspiracy to go away.
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listen to what he said last night in las vegas. this is important. >> i was speaking with one of these business owners who owns a couple of restaurants in town. he said, you know, i would like to change the constitution. i am not sure i can do it, he said, but i would like to have a provision in the constitution that in addition to the age of the president and the citizenship of the president and the birthplace of the president being set by the constitution, i would like it also to say that the president has to spend at least three years working in business. >> julian, why would he say that? why would he mention birth certificate, citizenship, place of birth? >> the same reason that he released his birth certificate, and just when we thought the archie bunker primaries was over here comes trump coming and spitting in the punch bowl as romney gets the requisite number of delegates. these things are a test of character. remember, barack obama was forced to leave his own minister because of some things that his minister said. when it comes to obnoxious
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things, i know s.e. will disagree with this but when it comes to obnoxious things that your principle supporters say, it comes a test whether you have character or a weasel. at every stage of the game romney has been a wees. he failed to stand up to limbaugh. he failed to stand up to ted nugent and now he is failing to stand up to trump in any serious way and in fact he is with the release of the birth certificate with these inferences about birth certificates in the speech you just played, he is egging the story along while at the same time he is saying he disagrees with trump's statement. this is what we call a weasel, a guy who knows it is wrong and doesn't have the guts to stand up to it. >> he is lame, he is a weasel. >> it is beneath you to call the former governor of massachusetts a weasel. >> i will repeat it if you want. >> there is so much to go after. you don't have to sink that low. >> let's deal with the issues.
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>> why doesn't he stand up and confront this? >> it is so bizarre. i don't actually take issue with the fact that mitt romney and donald trump disagree on certain issues. they don't have to be mirror images of one another. >> nobody is suggesting that. >> they don't have to agree. however, why would you want such a troublemaker running around on your behalf when clearly mitt romney is not donald trump's number one priority. donald trump is. he has a large twitter and he doesn't give names. i mean, this is the donald trump show. for a very disciplined campaign thus far, this is a huge mistake. however, let me just caveat that and say why would mitt romney think this is going to be a problem? he watched in 2008 and learned that having crazy, kooky problematic friends and surrogates is not going to get in the way of you getting elected. i think this is a calculation on their part to say we're going to get this out of the way early. >> a calculation? >> takes the money and run. >> a callation. >> yes. >> he is not taking his money
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and running because they're having the event on the 28th of june. >> the 28th of june is still early, martin. it is not august, september, october. >> when people say obnoxious things on the side. >> or i call someone a weasel. >> many people say that was wrong. why is it that you continue to avoid the question, s.e., about when people are your side say things that are patently offensive that you do not have the standard to get up and disavow it and say you don't want anything to do with the statement. >> first of all, i am not on trial here, julian. >> that's by definition a weasel. >> if you are going to characterize as you often do the entire republican america -- >> s.e. >> talking -- >> that's not fair. >> that's not what i am saying. >> s.e., wait a minute. julian, wait a minute. what he is saying is this is an individual advocating a conspiracy of ludicrous
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proportion. >> agreed. >> racist undertones, tries to suggest this president is something other than american. he's repeatedly doing that. >> i don't disagree. >> why is it not within mitt romney's compass of gifts, abilities, articulation, for him to stand up and denounce that? that's the specific question. >> mitt romney has said -- >> it speaks to the character. >> he doesn't agree on the issue. >> he takes $2 million. >> we won't argue with that. >> he does not believe in that and said it a number of times. >> okay. sorry. >> ergo my point. >> it would be like associating with a person who says that he doesn't like, i don't know, jews or black people and you say, look, i don't agree with him and i continue to take his money. your association by affiliation leads to an assertion implicitly that you agree with this person even though your mouth is moving suggesting that you don't, your actions are proving if you're
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willing to take the money, you're willing to be on the take so to speak for the ideological charge, and i think here mitt romney has a clear choice. either stand up and say, look, your money is not worth either the misery to my campaign or the association with my reputation to yours or be honest about it and say, look, i am talking with my mouth and like james brown said, i am talking loud and saying nothing. >> julian, romney has a new ad out today and it is called promise america. it is two minutes 30 seconds long. there is just one problem. there are no people of color in it anywhere. here is the ad. you can probably see it on the screen. is this an issue? is this indicative of anything? >> well, yeah. i think that the republicans will probably lose 95% of the african-american vote, 70% of the hispanic vote. they're quickly becoming a regional party of white americans who are predominantly strong in the south. i think their inability to reach
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out to people of color is a huge problem electorally and i think there is no there there with romney. there is nothing he is talking about on the economy as we talked about on the program before. he wants to cut taxes. taxes are at historic lows in the country. he wants something on energy. obama has a record number of rigs authorized, and education, he wants to defund the voucher program that he says he wants to support. not only is there a failure to reach out to key demographic groups that the republican party used to as recently as about a decade ago, there is just no there there on the content. >> on that point, s.e., here is a man we agreed is associates with a ludicrous figure. you described donald trump as being bizarre in these ways and a troublemaker but to julian's point, the policies themselves, where are they? where are the policies? >> i will take a little you mean braj with the characterization. his policies, the three es, aren't taxes, energy, education, they're e's for a reason. it is employment and that's
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because he is absolutely write to go after obama's abyss mall record on employment. i would also argue, julian, the energy policy is terrible. you can talk all you want about the private oil rigs that have been opened, but under this president public oil rigs have been closed in record numbers. we can also talk about solyndra and key stone all you want. he is bringing policies that i think are very effective. finally, he needs to go into more detail and i assume he will. >> julian, quickly. >> what we don't have any economic policy from him. there is nothing clear about what he wants to do on budget. he hasn't specified anything on that or jobs. the difrs between him and obama on energy policy is not very strong. obama has authorized record number of rigs and he has noing to say on education. these three e's are about as empty as the pledge to disagree with the birther movement. nothing there.
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>> julian, professor dyson, s.e., stay with us. next, why is the sunshine state in the midst of a purge that even joseph stalin would admire? stay with us. >> we recognize the department of highway safety had information about non-citizens that we could use to compare to our roles and if we verify that we had non-citizens on our roles, to remove them. >> voted for the last almost 15 years, really don't understand it. to me it is like an insult. i was teaching a martial arts class and having a heart attack. my brother doesn't look like a heart attack patient. i'm on a bayer aspirin regimen. [ male announcer ] be sure to talk to your doctor before you begin an aspirin regimen. i'm a fighter and now i don't have that fear. the economy needs manufacturing. machines, tools, people making stuff. companies have to invest in making things.
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the face of florida's many well documented voting issue is no longer jeb bush or hanging
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chad's. it is a world war ii vet. in time for the memorial day holiday they mailed 91-year-old bill to say essentially thanks for your service, bill, but you can't vote. this to a man who reportedly won a bronze star for his bravery during the battle of the bulge and now one of many innocent victims in governor rick scott's purge meant to reduce voter roles in advance of november elections. the miami herald reports about 2, 600 voters have received them. back with us now are julian epstein, michael eric dyson and s.e. and you are in miami as i speak. if i may quote senator marco rubio during an appearance with romney last month asked about voter i d laws his response, what's the big deal? >> yeah. the point is that they don't make it a big deal and earlier when we were talking about the
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republican purchase if you will on the black and latino vote and especially in african-american communities will be at a record low because there is no interest, no motivation, no aspiration to move out from the narrow con centric circles to get to the broader issues. here is a issue that cries out and screams out for redress. these voter laws are thinly veiled attacks upon latinos, african-american people and some older segments of our population who have done nothing more than exist and breathe and therefore have offended the republican party. earlier on i think the republicans shrewdly comprehended that the way obama got into office was by a significant upsurge and uptick in the african-american and latino vote and i think this time around they're determined tooth and nail to resist that uptick and somehow discourage it by sending out these false calls to suggest that you voted this day and you vote another day and there is confusion and deflection and the like.
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i am not blaming the republican partien mass. i am saying there are elements detrimental to the voting of lots of people in segments in our society and this is something that's going on across the board. florida is simply the most recent example. >> the miami herald found the targets of the more than 2,600 letters were mostly as i said hispanic democratic and independent minded voters, pure coincidence i assume. is it pure coincident. >> as professor dyson says, if republicans are desperate to keep minorities from voting, i think you could also make the argument that obama is desperate to retain them. >> focus on the issue if you wouldn't mind. >> i am. i am giving you the other side of the coin here. >> i am asking you is it a coincidence. >> both sides politicized the electorate as recently as yesterday when obama dispatched eric holder to black congregations to teach them how to vote right. >> what a lewd cross comparison.
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can i jump in? >> it is right on. >> what a ludicrous comparison to say they try to appeal to african-americans and hispanic and it is okay for the republicans and equivalence between that and the republicans trying to use i will legitimate needs to exclude them from polls. let me tell you, this issue has been studied extensively. there is no problem in the united states in terms of in person voting fraud. it was studied in ohio. it was studied in kansas. the estimates are that these voter i.d. laws could disen franchise as much as 20 million voters and why you ask shouldn't people have a driver's license or some other photo i.d.? because studies have shown in many places, particularly in rural areas, you have dmvs or other state offices open five hours a week, located as many 150 miles away from a particular residence which plaxz it almost impossible particularly for low
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income people to get that. again, this has been studied to death. there is no and seu could not point to a single piece of evidence that says there is an in-person voting fraud in the country that justifies the voter i.d. laws. it is a thinly veiled attempt to disen franchise people and the fact you compare to efforts by the president to appeal to those constituents and vote for him is absurd. >> julian epstein, professor michael eric dyson and s.e., i am sorry we have run out of time. thank you for your wisdom on the issues. next, the most exclusive club in the world, the billionaire boys and girls just wild about willard. stay with us. ♪ surf's up everybody get your boards and your wetsuits ♪ free-credit-score-dot-com's gonna direct you ♪ ♪ to check your credit score before it gets too late ♪ ♪ and you end up strapped for cash ♪ ♪ patching your board with duct tape ♪ ♪ so hit free-credit-score-dot-com ♪ ♪ find out what credit's about ♪ ♪ or else you could be headed for a credit wipeout ♪
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why worry about the details when you have all of that dosh. on the launch of the new segment, we raise our glass to mitt romney, a man who now has more saint sins -- more money, sorry, than sins. cheers to you, mitt. [ male announcer ] research suggests the health of our cells plays a key role throughout our entire lives. ♪
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it doesn't change the fact he is killing jobs. >> the problem is romney is he is not the bold decision maker like newt gingrich. he is like obama. >> governor romney says he believes the president was born in the united states. he said it repeatedly. >> i would like to have a provision in the constitution that in addition to the age of the president and the citizenship of the president and the birthplace of the president -- >> i think it is a very good issue for mitt romney. >> there are many people. >> a position of authority in hawaii who says --. >> i don't give names. >> they can talk about donald trump all they want. we're focused on jobs and the economy. >> i have a very large number of twitter. >> he is the hardest working person i have ever met besides his father, george romney, who was a crazy man. >> crazy good? >> biden, joe. like, okay. >> i love joe. >> i love joe, too. >> come on, man. >> your husband has in high school and college and like what is that descriptive of a cheech and chong movie? your approval rating is like you are ice cream. your husband's approval rating,
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it is not ice cream. >> he wants to help but he doesn't know what he is going to do. >> how is mitt going to get to that 50.1%? >> you're a tough guy to crack. >> all mitt needs are the blacks who like donald trump. >> the winner is arsenio hall. >> 50.1. >> let's get right to our political panel. >> dwe spite the birthers being totally diskeked mitt romney is making a race of this and someone no less than governor bill richardson of new mexico is saying he is impressed with romney's rapid response team and the way he dealt with many criticisms.
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are you impressed? what does the white house think? >> i think the white house knows is governor romney's record is he does run a very disciplined campaign gaffes aside. it is not a surprises to see they're great on the attack. the problem is pushing the own positive message. today is a great example. they totally blew the opportunity to go to texas, thank the voters for putting him over the top and instead it is birthers and laying people off that we're talking about and how he seems more disconnected than ever. >> true. jared, all eyes on this friday's new job numbers as you know. as we move quickly towards the conventions this summer. just today the burrow of labor and statistics released numbers that showed unemployment down significantly in at least 163 metropolitan areas across this country. is this election basically in effect a p.r. campaign with billions of dollars in super pac money from mitt romney's team basically to scare and depress americans into believes that the economy is getting worse when in reality it is actually getting
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better? >> it is getting better. it is getting better slowly. if you listen to president obama, he will say, and i think correctly, it is getting better too slowly and like to see it getting better more quickly. the underline point that it is moving in the right direction is undeniably there in the statistics. what you mentioned today are data that lag a month or two coming out of the metropolitan areas. what we're going to learn about this friday, of course, is the unemployment rate and job growth for the month of may. now, we've had a couple of reports that were below what we were expecting. this time expectations are coming in around 150,000 on payroll jobs and about 8.1 staying where it is on the unemployment rate. if the report does a little better than that, that obviously will have positive political implications for the incumbent and vice versa. these monthly reports remain very important, martin, and they're going to be scrutinized extremely closely. >> indeed. >> this is another place where the romney campaign, i can't
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figure out what the strategy is. go to colorado where job creation is up in the energy sector and tell them it is down and bad and even republicans in the states think that's not what's going on. >> right. >> it is not the first time they've made the mistake. >> i want to say something about that. i thought karen's points were very interesting on this. i come from the perspective of the policy. >> so does karen. >> yeah. >> that's precisely my point. when i hear karen describe the policy or really the absence there of, what i am reminded of is so many times when i hear mitt romney discuss what he is about, it is like eating something but you don't get any nutrition. you don't feel full afterwards. there is a lot of words but there is never anything that would lead you to connect the dots between what he is saying, in the private sector, run companies, what's he going to do about the economy? what's he going to do about jobs? what is he going to do about growth, incomes, poverty, the deficit? if you look at the policies,
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that's where you see significant disconnects. >> on the money point we were discussing earlier, not everyone is sitting down and sort of accepting this barrage. planned parenthood is out with a new ad in swing states to remind women about what a romney presidency may look like. take a look at this. >> planned parenthood, we're going to get rid of that. >> romney is saying he will deny women the birth control and cancer screenings they depend on. >> do i believe the stream court should over turn roe v. wade, yes. >> he is denying we78 the right to make their own medical decisions and when he says they can't support equal pay protections he is putting your paycheck at risk. >> as effective as that ad is, karen, have a look at the gains he is making amongst female voters. he is closing the gap by 13% in just a month. i guess, again, does this not speak to the fact that when romney has a war chest, which is likely now to exceed the president's with all the super pac money, a million ad buy isn't going to do much.
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>> here is the thing. you know i am on the board of pro-choice america so i am looking at a lot of these issues. this is an economic issue and i think that's the argument you will see the campaign make. women know how much they pay for birth control. it is money not going into the economy of their family. women also know that it is ridiculous not to trust us to know what medicines we can take and also have seen some polling that shows in some of the targeted states, the issue of access to legal abortions is an issue that will bring some women back to obama. it is that important to women. these issues aren't going away. >> how do you this rise amongst women by romney given the things that he has repeatedly said throughout the nomination process? >> i think that we probably can't have a lot of faith in some of the polls until we get to later june and july. remember, we're coming out of the primary season and a lot of the polls have shown there is still a lot of things people don't know about romney. i think the name recognition is going up. if we were in august and these
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were the numbers, i would be very earn canned. >> right. jared, won't this ultimately come down to whether unemployment is above or below 8%? i mean, we can argue about super pacs, amounts of money spent, we can argue about women and female issues and reproductive rights and ultimately is it about that number? >> i think it is largely about the direction in which unemployment is moving. the idea here is that i don't think a particular level matters, whether it is people say nos president has ever been elect given a particular level and what really matters is momentum. if people see and feel that the economy tnds to get better, that's going to help president obama no question. if the economy stumbles and is stagnating within the next few months, that's going to make life much tougher for him. i would argue that that's why it is such a tight race.
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we really are at the tipping point where economic momentum meensz everything at this point. >> indeed. thank you so much for joining us. >> thank you. >> next, what congress should really be doing this summer and won't be. stay with us. i should be arrested for crimes against potted plant-kind. [ clang ] my house is where plants came to die. ♪ but, it turns out all i was missing was miracle-gro potting mix. it's got what a plant needs. even plant food that feeds them for up to 6 months. you get bigger, more beautiful plants. guaranteed. who's got two green thumbs thanks to miracle-gro? uh, this gal. boom! everyone grows with miracle-gro. throughout our entire lives. ♪
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with hand-layered pasta, tomatoes, and real mozzarella cheese. but what makes us even prouder... is what our real dinners can do for your family. stouffer's. let's fix dinner. there are a number of things that my administration can do on our own and we'll keep on doing them, but it gets a whole lot easier if we get help from congress. >> a little help from congress. yes, that would be nice to see this summer, wouldn't it? two years of republican control in the house have taught us not to expect much help from congress. republicans have made it crystal clear that they would rather see the economy falter than work with this president. they have proven it on big ticket items like the debt ceiling and now they're doing it again only this time it is common sense, bipartisan
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initiatives, things as basic as fixes roads, saving energy, and they should be no-brainers but all we get is no action. that is the most appalling thing of all. congressman peter wel be joins us now. congressman, i know it is poor form to speak ill of your fellow members of congress. you don't like doing it. when i think of all the common sense things that you all could be doing this summer, whether it is student loans or transportation projects or energy efficiency, and yet there is absolutely no chance of anything being resolved, is there? >> well, unfortunately i think you're right, martin. those are three practical things where there is bipartisan support at the rank and file level. the transportation bill would create 2 million jobs, passed by the senate. student loans. how in the world can we justify having a doubling of interest rate. >> 14 million people will be affected by that doubling of interest rates the 1st of july. >> and that's when the government is borrowing at 2% or
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less and we're going to ask middle class families to pay 6.8%. not defensible. the energy efficiency, the bipartisan, that could create jobs and put people to work and retrofitting homes and saving people money. it is a fundamental decision the republican leadership has to make because if they brought any one of those bills to the floor, they would pass with significant bipartisan support. they have got a huge rupture in their party between what i would call the fiscal conservatives who are practical and want to get to yes and the ideological wing of the party that thinks ideological debate is a substitute for practical achievement and that of course is not true and not doing anything for the american people. >> it is incredible. republicans as you know love to talk about the kple and how terrible it is and how it is all the president's fault and they have very little to say about the damage they're doing. a case in point is the student loan debt. 37 million people have outstanding student loans. the total amount owed is almost a trillion dollars.
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4 in 10 people under 40 are carrying this debt. wouldn't it be much better for those people and the u.s. economy overall if congress finally got together to fix the interest rate on student loans before it doubles in, what is it, four weeks? >> well, july 1st. you're absolutely right. this is where ideology is so intense that it gets in the way of practical consideration of real problems with solutions that are within our grasp. the transportation bill is another example. we all have roads and bridges that are falling apart. america can't compete with this crumbling infrastructure that puts people to work in all of our districts. it is not a republican and democrat deal. there is such an ideological divide within the republican conference that mr. boehner is even able to bring what he was calling a signature bill to the floor. >> we're talking again about 2 million jobs on that transportation bill. >> 2 million jobs. when people get frustrated with congress, good reason to do it. bottom line, if the leadership,
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mr. boehner, mr. cantor brought these bills up, we would pass them, but they have the authority in congress to say yes or no on bringing them up. basically they have two split a conference to be willing to do it. >> amazing. another issue republicans love to talk about is job killing taxes. they don't say anything about the jobs they're killing by holding out as you said the transportation bill. >> that's right. >> on that i am assuming that we are in gridlock right through to the election, correct? >> it looks that way, it does. >> in terms of post election, if they still hold the house, what then? >> well, it could be more of the same. again, there is -- >> are you kidding me? more of the same of this? >> they're talking right now about adding this nuclear tactic, a stone walling and defaulting on our paying our bills. they want to use the debt ceiling as a hostage once again, so they go from a bad design of a debt deal where you have to
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have the pentagon taxes and a spending cuts all on the table to get to an you coutcome and te saying we're going to add the tactic of defaulting on america's obligation to pay its bills, so this is just a design for failure and if there is uncertainty in the marketplace, and there is by the way, it is because it is uncertain and becoming increasingly clear that congress won't get the job done and the leadership has to put the issues on the table for a vote yes or no. >> we'll see that in just a moment. peter welch, thank you for joining us, sir. >> thank you. >> mitt romney, the union corn, but first as i said hampton pierson joins us with the cnbc market wrap. good afternoon. >> hello, martin. right now the major average in the red and off the lows of the day with 15 minutes left and the major numbers for the dow averages look like this, down about 147, the s&p down 17. the nasdaq down about 32 points. that's it from cnbc, first in
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business worldwide. more of martin bashir after these messages. ok! who gets occasional constipation, diarrhea, gas or bloating? get ahead of it! one phillips' colon health probiotic cap a day helps defend against digestive issues with three strains of good bacteria. hit me! [ female announcer ] live the regular life. phillips'.
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good afternoon. more of martin bashir after
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those who are now demanding proof that mitt romney is not, wait for it, a unicorn. in response to arizona secretary of state ken bennett threatening to remove the president from the ballot over the birther issue more than 1800 e-mails flooded bennett's box demanding proof that romney is not something other than human. dana milbank is a political columnist for the washington post and he joins us live from washington. dana, did memorial day mark the unofficial start of summer or the stupid season in this
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campaign? >> well, martin, i think you should take very seriously this corner movement which i -- >> i do take it very seriously. and indeed you have written extensively about it. >> yes. it is no more outlandish than the subjectings that obama was born in kenya and that has been disproved but as people who started this movement point out, it has not been demonstrated that mitt romney is not a unicorn. we don't want it believe he is. in fact we haven't seen the long form birth certificate. not seen dna. not seen his head shaved to see if there is a horn. >> so there would be requiring his head shaved to see if there a horn. >> that is what the group left out. 18,000 people wrote to arizona asking for this. i'm going to be more lenient and say i think we should have the long form birth certificate from michigan if they will release that. so far, no luck. >> here is what you wrote in your column tuesday, and i'm quoting you. if romney is going to pal around
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with birthers, especially newly reborn birther such as trump, he shouldn't be surprised that people want him to play by the same rules. isn't this juf the point, dana, mitt romney wasn't raised to believe the rules apply to him, was he? different rules for him, isn't it? >> sure. this wouldn't make him unique among politicians and presidential candidates but it is a problem. not just people on the left noodling him with the unicorn thing. there are actual birthers who feeled a lawsuit in california saying, it is not just obama, they are going after romney as well. other people are saying, wait, maybe willard mitt romney is not his real name. some people are raising completely bogus questions about his father. was he an illegal immigrant about mexico. >> no less bogus than the questions put to this president. >> exactly. it is crazy talk. but once you start wrapping your arms almost literally around donald trump, how do you draw a
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line and delineate between accepting that circus and putting off limit the rest of the circus. >> are you able, dana, given your skills in this area of politics, to explain to me what it is about don al trump that mitt romney finds utterly irresistible? >> i think it's the hair do. >> clearly, that's one aspect. but what else? >> it made a lot of sense, martin, earlier in the primaries when he wanted to have, not the birthers at least some conservative credentials, when he was fighting against more conservative candidates. doesn't make a whole lot of sense now. yes, trump helped him raise money. but he can do that anyway. i suspect that if romney knew that trump would be a reborn birther and completely blow up the day in which he secured the nomination he wouldn't have done this. but he's up there on the stage now. the footage is there and he will have to live with it. >> quickly, former congressman,
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republican from michigan, another lunatic made famous by the super bowl ad is running for he is not rate. he told a town hall it is time to establish a federal birther office. i'm not kidding. watch this very quickly. >> someone has it walk into that office and prove that they meet the minimum qualifications to be president of the united states. it should be a person, maybe cia person, maybe one person managing those two people. >> there's your proof, dana, that idiocy is contagious. >> if they kill off the education department they can have a new cabinet. >> true. thank you so much. thanks for joining us. ♪ ♪ ♪ pop goes the world ♪ it goes something like this
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it's time now to clear the air. each day that passes for his quest for the presidency, mitt romney is showing himself as one of the most cynical politician ests era. while he argues he does not share dop ald trump ludicrous and repungent views op the president's place of birth he drops this interesting line in his call for presidential qualifications. >> i would like to have a provision in the constitution that in addition to the age of the president, and the citizenship of the president, and the birthplace of the president being set by the constitution, i would like it also to say, that the president has to spend at least three years working in business. >> the citizenship of the president and the birthplace of the president being set by the constitution. is that interesting? and just as donald trump tours the media offering nothing but outright lies on president's place of birth. but romney wasn't finished with his cynical and deliberate duplicity. because also yesterday, and to
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our complete surprise, romney produced his own birth certificate. here it is. in all its glory. why would he choose to produce that on the same day that he is hosting a fund-raising event with a man who doesn't believe that the current president has a legal birth certificate? you see, romney pretend ton care about donald trump's putrid pronouncements. but then just happens to flash his birth certificate on the very same day. that's not coincidence. that the mark of a cynical campaign. and what makes it worse is that no one cares about mitt romney's birth certificate. what we're all waiting for, are his tax returns. by of course, he won't be releasing those for some time to come. thank you so much for watching. dylan ratigan is here in new york and ready to take us into the next hour. dylan, how are you? >> give it to me hartin, the way only a man of your esteemed education and providence and
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foreigner in a strange land, the one word that really is ringing loud in any brain still to this moment, is your rendition of duplicity. which exceeds even your execution of odius. and if you put them together and to condemn the odius duplicity of his behavior, i think that mitt romney just might burst into flames. >> i have to say, i do also think putrid pronouncements is devastating. >> you have a gift and we all benefit from it. >> god bless you, thank you, sir. the show starts now. well, good afternoon to you. nice to be seeing you. i'm dylan ratigan. the big story, men behaving badly. what else is new? the jury in the john edwards trial still debating. he is