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tv   Hardball With Chris Matthews  MSNBC  September 21, 2012 7:00pm-8:00pm EDT

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other reason to show people we will not allow them to take the vote from us. make record numbers in voting to show we've come too far as americans to have some stopped and some suppressed. voting is part of what makes this country what it is. thanks for watching. i'm al sharp done. "hardball" starts right now. don't do the crime if you can't do the time. let's play "hardball." good evening. i'm chris matthews out in los angeles. doing the bill maher show tonight. let's start with the difficulties mitt romney has been having in the campaign. the fact is romney is reaping what he sowed. who was it that approved that multistate effort to suppress the black vote which bill clinton calls the most blatant he's ever seen?
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if he and his agent wasn't behind it, reince priebus, the chairman of his party, he should say so. who was it that orchestrated this racial attack on people on welfare? for not having to meet a work requirement. wasn't that mitt's voice we heard saying, i am mitt romney and i approve this message? who was it who has been out there backing 100% the obstructionist republican congress and its number one priority, to terminate the obama presidency through the filibuster. if romney's got it hard, perhaps it was he from the start using the dirty tools of the old days that's responsible. voter suppression, coded racial appeals, the filibuster. if he's having a tough month, maybe he's earned a few more. howard fineman and joy ann reid are here. first, new polls in the presidential race. let's check the "hardball" scoreboard. according to a national journal poll, president obama leads mitt romney among likely voters by seven, 50% to 43%. the president also has a seven-point lead nationally in the new reason group princeton poll. he's at 52%, romney at 45%.
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two interesting state number from the purple strategies poll. in north carolina president obama has a two-point lead over mitt romney, 48%, 46%. the race is tightening in deep red arizona. that new purple strategies poll shows romney with a lead of just three points over the president. and this just in, the romney campaign says everyone is safe after ann romney's plane made an emergency landing in colorado after smoke filled the cabin. ann romney even tweeted about it saying everyone is okay. good for her. let's go to this with -- let's go to this with howard fineman joining us right now. i want to read to you right now a classic example of a friday afternoon news dump. it's mitt romney releasing his tax returns for last year. he paid an effective rate of 14.1% which is below the rate we know that people pay of payroll taxes. anyway, the campaign also released a summary of his taxes for the past 20 years, a summary. they say romney paid an average of 20.2% and they say he never paid less than 13.6%. republican strategist alex castellanos had a strong response to the campaign's move.
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he told the politico, quote, at first i thought this was an april fool's joke but it isn't april. i can't imagine david axelrod will now say i'm glad mitt put this issue behind him. this will drag mitt's taxes right back in the debate and there's not many days left. i can't imagine why they would do this. howard, why would they -- i know they said they're going to release the current year's or last year's returns and they did that showing he pays less than the average guy he says is one of the victim class who only pays payroll taxes. he pays less it turns out. but why would they tease us with this judge stennis solution like nixon did in the old days of saying i won't tell you what the taxes i paid were for the last 10 or years but here's a little hint, hint of what i claim i paid. why would he do this? >> chris, i'm tempted to say they've had such a bad run they wanted to sort of get all the bad stuff out there right away at the end of this week. as alex pointed out, this won't end the discussion, and i think if you look closely at what mitt
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romney did in his 2011 taxes, as we've done at the "huffington post," you can see he disallowed just enough of the deductions he was going to take for his charitable contributions to inch it over 14% but no more. so if we calculated that the white house is worth $200,000 to him because that's what he paid to get it over 14%, and then, of course, in tax law he can claim those deductions later on. in other words, he forewent $2 million worth of tax deductions. he can amend his taxes over the next three years and i'll bet you anything that he does. he'll eventually take that tax deduction. everybody is going to sit around doing these kinds of calculations. it just brings up the whole -- this in conjunction with the videotape, the 47% who pay no taxes versus this, just doesn't solve any problems for him at all politically. >> joy, this strikes me as the word cute, a good four-letter word for this, very cute, to put out only what you promised to put out, not to put out 10 of 12
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years and to give this sketchy look at what you say you did and as howard points out, have this trap door where you can even grab the money if you lose the election in this year's returns. >> i think that literally what the romney campaign was trying to do with this friday document dump was to replace the smell of decay with the smell of tax returns. this is a classic sort of move to try to get the howard finemans of the world, to get the political media to chase these returns, to spend now time digging into mitt romney's tax returns and just the barest minimum of the tax returns to stop the story and the bleeding that's happening over the last two weeks of terrible news. >> why do you think knowing he won't give us the information about the tax returns improves the story, joy? >> that's the problem. they know the tax return story is a bad news story but it's the returns previous to 2011 that harry reid and others are speculating romney paid even less than 14%, and harry reid sort of smoke and mirrors thing, maybe even zero. this doesn't help. i think they've decided because
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this return shows he paid some taxes, at least it will take away the talking point that, well, you're one of the 47%, mitt romney. you didn't pay any taxes. >> he paid less than people -- no, joy, you know he paid less than you pay -- >> exactly. >> of payroll taxes. >> it's a bad story line -- >> -- which people who don't pay taxes at the federal income level, pay it when they go to work. paper boys pay that. >> it's a little like firefighting. if you're out of forest fire, you build a backfire to try to stop the bigger fire. that's sort of what they did here. they set a second fire to try to stop the spread of the first. >> we're going to get back to that tax story again and again whether romney likes it or not. president obama gave a strong rebuke for mitt romney over his 47% comments that got out this week. let's watch the president. >> in 2008 47% of the country didn't vote for me, but on the night of the election, i said to all those americans, i may not have won your vote, but i hear your voices. i need your help, and i will be your president.
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the values we believe in don't just belong to workers or businesses. the 53% or the 47%, the rich or the poor, the 1%, the 99%. these are american values. they belong to all of us. >> meanwhile, down in new orleans at an aarp conference, paul ryan got booed by the audience when he talked about repealing obama care. let's listen. >> the first step to a stronger medicare is to repeal obama care because it represents the worst of both worlds. i had a feeling there would be mixed reaction. >> what do we make of that, howard? here is a group of older people. what i keep looking at are the polls that show the only age group that supports mitt romney are 65 and older, that's it. if people under retirement age got to vote only, he'd get killed. the fact is why is he out there going to war through his vp nominee with older people, saying get rid of obama care?
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why is he stirring this up? >> well, he's speaking to the wrong audience in going after obama care, chris. i think the attack on obama care worked to some extent in the 2010 congressional races when they focused on the fact that some tax money would be necessary and that some medicare spending would be cut. remember, that's what they used in 2010, and that worked, but the people that worked with were not the seniors. that worked with swing voters and younger voters who were, you know, looking at how that was going to play out. so i think to go into the teeth of the activists at the aarp with that argument was going to elicit boos. you knew that was going to happen. again, you ask why would they want to do that kind of thing? why would they want to get booed at the aarp? i can't imagine any positive -- this is not like a sister souljah moment from the clinton years. it makes no political sense whatsoever. >> speaking of bill clinton, let's watch something from bill clinton because once again he's come in and clarified something that was murky. this is this whole thing.
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in 30-some states around the country the republican legislatures have gone out there and tried to restrict the rights of people to vote. limit the number of hours you can vote early, limit the opportunity to vote different ways, have to show more documentation. clearly a partisan effort. here is bill clinton saying this is still a big concern with him, especially down in florida but also in pennsylvania. let's watch bill get to the heart of this. >> how much will the vote be lessened or reduced by the fact that in florida, except for four counties, the pre-election voting, advance voting, has been cut down to eight days and doesn't include the sunday before the election which is an arrow aimed straight at the heart of the african-american churches who pull up the church buses on the sunday before election and take elderly people who have no cars or people who are disabled to the polls so they can vote? how much is all that going to affect the turnout? i have never in my lifetime, nobody has ever done anything quite this blatant. >> quite this blatant.
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joy, what i don't understand -- and i'm going to get ethnic here -- why white people don't hear the whistle here? they don't see -- not just the whistle, but the changing of the law, the changing of the goal line really for getting ready to vote or being able to vote because they see these people and these legislatures, here is a chance to screw the black voter. they have a tradition of voting after church. people don't have private transportation. they get on the church buses, they go from church perhaps in a black church, they go vote that sunday. a nice tradition, very democratic. the republicans say i know how to screw these people. we're going to take away that sunday before the election. and it's so blatant, as bill says, bill clinton. >> no, it's incredible, chris. you look at a state like florida where they literally legislated every single kind of voting except absentee which is the one kind of voting republicans do well in and the one kind of voting, by the way, where you actually do see fraud. right now the miami-dade election -- paper absentee ballot where people are going to nursing homes and filling out the ballot for people with alzheimer's.
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and turning them in. that's the kind of fraud you actually see in florida, not legislated by the republicans in florida. you have in ohio, where you're literally having precincts with majority democrats getting less time to vote. and they're doing that blatantly. i'm not sure that white voters don't see this. i think the blatantness of this, the obvious sort of racial going after latino voters and african-american voters, americans, you know, in 2012 are not for that kind of thing. people don't see any problem with having to show an i.d. i think on that level people don't have a problem with voter i.d., but when you have republican legislators literally saying this is going to help mitt romney get elected, i think that hurts them with white swing voters as much as it does energize african-americans and latinos to defend their right to vote. >> howard, i don't know. you and i hear it, i hear it, i hear it with joy here, but i'm surrounded by people, maybe you are, too, white people who just love to say, oh, tut tut, that isn't true, why are you hearing things we don't hear? i think they hear it because it's directed at them. what do you call them?
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these dog whistles are aimed at white people. they're not aimed at white people. they're aimed directly at white sensitivities and anger and resentment and all that old stuff. here is a way to rip the scab off and get you to vote against a black guy. that's my thought. maybe that's joy's thought, she's shaking her head. is it your thought? are we surrounded by people who are deaf or just politically resistant to the truth? >> well, i would like to agree -- i would like to think what joy said is right about america in 2012, but i'm not entirely sure that's true, and certainly not true everywhere. and some people might enjoy the prospect. the fact is that over the last 20 years or so voting rights have been expanded or voting , g days and weeks have been expanded in the interests of getting people to participate, which after all should be an american ideal, and has that benefited the democrats in some places? yes. but what reducing those hours and reducing those days does is run against the idea of participation and fair play.
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>> one thing i have to do here, let's show this guy who pushed through the pennsylvania law. you want to hear it clear, howard, and everybody watching? you think there's not some ethnic factor, racial factor? watch this guy, daryl metcalfe, he's the guy that pushed that law on the voter i.d. card. here is his explanation of what he thinks of the people who don't have those cards. >> i don't believe any legitimate voter that actually wants to exercise that right and takes on the according responsibility that goes with that right to secure their photo i.d. will be disenfranchised. you know, as mitt romney said, i mean, what, we have 40-some percent of the people living off the public dole, living off their neighbors' hard work, and we have a lot of people out there who are too lazy to get up and get out there and get the i.d. they need. so, i mean, if individuals are too lazy, the state can't fix that. but the process that's put in place to get an i.d. card, there's a free i.d. available if somebody needs one, and there's a process they have to go through. they have to present certain
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documents. that's the way it should be. >> there you have it, howard fineman, clear as a bell. that guy is not using a dog whistle. thank you, howard and joy ann. >> that's a bull horn. >> absolutely so. >> and it comes from that same place as the 47% argument. the welfare queens argument. it's all about saying we're going after somebody that's being demonized, these lazy welfare queens, they can't vote, they're using food stamps. it's all part of the same argument. >> coming up, see how they run away from mitt romney. one republican after another saying, sure, mitt, we're behind you, way behind you. this is what happens when a presidential campaign begins to take on water. there are a few republicans and democrats who -- there's few out there that are likely to beat allen west of florida. that guy's a character. that's patrick murphy's job. he joins us tonight. so does tim kaine of virginia up running for that senate seat. don't look now but homer simpson is going to the polls. >> i'm a 40-year-old white guy who didn't go to college and gets all his news from monitors at gas stations.
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>> in you go. >> anyway, wait until you see what happens when homer gets a look at mitt romney's tax returns. finally, let me finish tonight with a question. what is mitt hiding in those tax returns? this is "hardball," the place for politics. two years ago, the people of bp made a commitment to the gulf. and every day since, we've worked hard to keep it. bp has paid over twenty-three billion dollars to help people and businesses who were affected, and to cover cleanup costs. today, the beaches and gulf are open for everyone to enjoy -- and many areas are reporting their best tourism seasons in years. we've shared what we've learned with governments and across the industry so we can all produce energy more safely. i want you to know, there's another commitment bp takes just as seriously: our commitment to america. bp supports nearly two-hundred-fifty thousand jobs in communities across the country. we hired three thousand people just last year. bp invests more in america than in any other country.
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welcome back to "hardball." since his caught on tape remarks came to light on monday, in which he wrote off nearly half the country, a steady spring of republicans have distanced themselves from the candidate. they include senate candidates linda lingle of hawaii. tommy thompson of wisconsin, as well as senators scott brown of massachusetts and dean heller of nevada, all in tight races. what does it say about romney that so many of his party don't want to be seen as too close to him or his words. the washington bureau chief for mother jones, the much respected mother jones, and also an msnbc political analyst. and robert costa is a national reporter for board of review. ann romney, the wife of the candidate, had strong words for conservative critics of her husband's campaign. let's listen to ann romney.
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>> what do you say to your fellow republicans who are -- >> stop it. this is hard. you want to try it, get in the ring. this is hard. >> who was she talking about? well, people like conservative columnist peggy noonan today. noonan wrote today, "this week i called romney's campaign incompetent, but only because i was being polite. i really meant rolling calamity." a lot of people weighed in in, i suppose, expected ways. glad you said this. mad you said this. but some surprises. no one i know defended the campaign and said you're missing some of its quiet excellent. romney supporter john sununu responded to peggy noonan today on msnbc. let's watch. >> i wouldn't hire peggy noonan to run a campaign. i don't ask her to have me write her column. >> there he is. let me go back to david korn on this. getting sununu out there, there's like a canine aspect to which he defends the president. beware of dog, and there's john
quote
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sununu there, with no leash on him. he'll say anything in defense of romney. let's cut through the list of this people. dean heller, close race in nevada. tommy thompson, having problems in wisconsin. george allen, neck and neck in virginia. these people are real pros who are trying to keep alive politically, and they want some real separation, as they say in the nfl, from this guy romney. what's going on? >> romney's taking all these hits in the last four weeks from his miserable trip to london, to clint eastwood, and not mentioning the troops in afghanistan, the disaster with the libyan statement, and the video that i made public earlier this week. and the thing is, if he had a real good overarching strategic plan and message that the conservative republican elites here and members of the senate had any -- could see, could discern, i think people would be more willing to stand by him. he doesn't have a strong rudder. every day he changes strategy. he's going to be a little more
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moderate. he's going to be red meat. he's going to be an outsider. he's going to be an insider. obama says black, i'm going to say white today. the campaign is bouncing around like winds, and without a strong rudder, you move back and forth. that's what peggy noonan and everybody else is responding to. we talk about there being no core about mitt romney, there's sort of no strategic core to the campaign. >> i'd say a ping pong ball in the bathroom. you can hear the sound of it. bing, bing, bing. tommy thompson running for senate in wisconsin against tammy baldwin has this explanation for why polls are showing he's trailing. that's tommy thompson. well, he's blaming romney. watch this. >> the presidential thing is bound to have an impact on every election, whether you're a democrat or republican. if your standard bearer for the presidency is not doing well, it's going to reflect on the down ballot. >> let's get back to robert. you're close to the romney campaign. 2 seems to me, if you have a
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true believer at the top of the ticket, people don't mind associating with that person, like ronald reagan, of course, the great example of a true believer. is it because romney, as david just said, doesn't seem to be a true believer, that people don't want to stick with him? >> in national review, i report on the conservative movement. i do not see a mass desertion from mitt romney. are there some grumbles? sure. that list you read out, linda lingle, scott brown, and others, those candidates mostly come from blue states. they're cbacking away, not from romney, but from the 47%. >> i'm checking you there. nevada? virginia? haley barbour from mississippi? he's not running for any office. he criticized romney for not apologizing. he told bloomberg, "i don't know what the question was, but it is not correct that 47% of americans are on means tested entitlements, on welfare. many of those people are retired military. perhaps a better way to say it is, you know, i made a mistake on that number."
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here's haley barbour. he's not exactly blue state. >> i agree. haley barbour is from mississippi, a real red state. what i'm seeing from the romney campaign, the 47% comments, were they a big problem this week? of course they were. look at the gallup poll, romney is still neck and neck with president obama. conservatives are aware of some of the tactics that romney is running, big picture they still see this as a pretty close race. >> why is peggy noonan beat the hell out of it? the column will be in saturday's "the wall street journal." that's one of the reasons i read the paper is peggy noonan. why is she so down on romney? >> she's calling on romney for a staff shakeup. from everything i hear, romney's not going to do that. there's a lot 6 concern by some on the right about stuart stevens, the chief strategist of the romney campaign. there's a sense he's doing too many jobs on the campaign, and the campaign is not running a big message. conservatives want this to be a big theme election. so unless stuart stevens gets out, conservatives will continue to be baker, and as peggy noonan
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says, they're looking for something like jim baker to have. but this is the campaign that romney has. >> i don't care about the weekly numbers. they're going to shift around. it seems to me romney has dug his own grave here. they've got this racially coded language about welfare. now it comes out he believes the down and outers are losers, as it comes out in this tape. the supreme court of pennsylvania threw that back, the voter i.d. that voter suppression thing, he approves that. he's been with that all along. the republican congress, he's been with them saying no in their filibustering all along. he's been part of this stuff that people don't like about the republican party from day one. >> the interesting thing is people focus on the campaign and the candidates and the staff and whether there should be a shake-up or not. it really is mitt romney. to put it on the other side, my book "showdown," i talk about barack obama really developing the strategic method of contrasting values and vision, and really he's running -- he's not running his campaign, but
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he's decided the type of issues he's going to stand on, the type of message he's going to bring across. it comes from him. he believes it. mitt romney, everything's shifting back and forth, and you don't see a strong hand. when he didn't say a word about the troops at the convention, that isn't anyone's fault but mitt romney's. he wants to be commander in chief, and he gives a speech, the biggest speech of his career, and he doesn't think to do that. so a lot of this comes from him. i don't think he has a strong idea of what the campaign should do for him. >> as mike dukakis said, the fish rots from the head. thank you, robert costa. thank you, david corn. up next, which former republican presidential candidate now says he'd have a substantial lead over president obama if he were the nominee? that's next in the side show.
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back to "hardball." this is the "sideshow." when politics shows up in unlikely places. first, espn. there's buzz in the sports world about john l. smith, the head coach of the university of arkansas. in addition to a dismal start for his fifth football team, smith's racked up $25 million in debt, personal debt, and recently filed for bankruptcy. so let's go to espn's outside the lines where the panel weighed in on smith's troubles and found a certain prominent political figure to compare him with. >> sitting down with john l. smith and saying, cut out the circus act, i mean, that's impossible. no one in this country with the possible exception of mitt romney has had a worst two weeks than john l. smith. >> andy, how would you characterize the last couple of weeks in john l. smith's tenure? >> absolutely circus act. >> so romney's the new tackling dummy on espn. anyone else had a worse circus act than mitt romney? anyway "the washington post" reports that smith, the coach, is trying to win over critics with his, quote, engaging personality, and infectious smile. not exactly qualities people have been tossing around for
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mitt romney. now to "the simpsons." spoiler alert, homer votes for mitt romney, but there's more to the story in this online promo. >> oh, man, not another election. why do we have to choose our leaders? isn't that what we have the supreme court for? >> you're going to vote, we'll need some photo i.d. >> but i lived here all my life. >> stopping all americans from voting is for the protection of all americans. >> but i'm a 40-year-old white guy who didn't go to college and gets all his news from monitors at gas stations. >> in you go. >> barack obama, i don't know. i already got one wife telling me to eat healthy. mitt romney, his horse totally choked at the olympics. on the other hand, he did invent obama care. >> thank you for voting for mitt romney. you may now see his tax returns. >> wow, medical deduction for personality implant. the government paid him taxes for five years! i've got to tell the press! >> you are now being outsourced.
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>> did we really just see the simpsons tackling voter i.d. laws? finally, remember herman cain. at one point he was the front runner in the gop primaries. his self-confidence hasn't taken a hit. at an event yesterday in florida, cain talked to reporters about how he would be doing if he had scored the republican nomination. quote, cain said he would have been doing better if he is the nominee saying that he'd probably have a substantial lead on president barack obama at this point. quote, the reason is quite simple, i have some depth to my ideas, he said. well, cain also said he'd turn down a slot on mitt romney's cabinet. instead, he's focused on an upcoming stint as a radio host and maybe a career in tv. remember when cain blasted critics, saying his campaign was more of a publicity stunt than a serious political run. maybe he this broadcasting in mind back then. up nix, as if things couldn't get worse for the romney campaign, more and more republicans around the country are running away from mitt romney. that's ahead. you're watching "hardball." [ male announcer ] what if you had thermal night-vision goggles,
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i'm craig melvin, here's what's happening. the latest protests over an anti-muslim film made in the united states left at least 19 people dead in pakistan. there were demonstrations, once again, across the mideast and asia. the space shuttle "endeavour" landed safely on the back of a 747 at los angeles international airport. and a man is in critical condition after being mauled by a target at new york's bronx zoo. at this point, not clear why he jumped into the tiger habitat. back to "hardball." welcome back to "hardball." the battle for control of the u.s. senate is likely to hinge on a few states that could go either way, and right now they're too close to call. in virginia, for months the former democratic governor tim
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kaine seemed to be underperforming president obama in his home state. and he's no better than tied with the other former governor and former senator george allen. just this week, four polls have put kaine up an average of four points in a very tight race. the most impressive poll was "the washington post" which gave kaine an edge driven by an overwhelming percent of women. governor, thanks so much for joining us. why do you think the republican agenda, nationally and in your state, the old dominion, is bad for women? >> chris, for a whole bunch of reasons. first, virginia was sort of the epicenter this year of a lot of bills that really went after women's health care, invasive ultrasound procedures promoted by our governor, and my opponent george allen stood silent and didn't condemn them. personhood legislation that would criminalize abortion and potentially criminalize fda approved birth control that george allen wants to take to the u.s. senate. then go to additional areas like
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my opponent not being in support of paycheck equity, having a history of voting against family medical leave act, wanting to support the blunt amendment to roll back contraceptive protection. these issues have all come up at the same time. some deal with health care choices. some deal with paycheck equity. but women in virginia are feeling like they don't have a lot of friends on the other side. >> explain where that thing stands about the probing that women really find invasive, this procedure. they were talking about requiring under the law that every woman who's having an abortion, as her own choice, had to go through this procedure by law. what is this all about? >> chris, it was absolutely outrageous. there was a bill that was introduced this year in virginia that would have required a woman exercising a constitutionally protected right to terminate a pregnancy, would have to undergo an ultrasound with a vaginal probe that was clearly designed to demean, and that vaginal probe was, even against the woman's will and has an expense, and she'd be required to pay for
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it. one house of the legislature pushed that through, like on grease skids. but then the women of virginia and a lot of men stood up and said, hold on a second. this isn't going to happen. there were protests at the state capitol. in one of the protests, women and others protesting peacefully were surrounded by capitol police in riot gear. eventually, the virginia senate came to their senses. they watered down the bill so that the ultrasound was not a vaginal probe but an external ultrasound, but it was still medically unnecessary, expensive, and against a woman's will, and yet now, as of july 1, that's a mandated procedure for women. whether it's these issues or paycheck equity, family medical leave act, all of this has been under pressure. >> let me clear up something that was in "the washington post" today. where do you stand -- it makes sense if you say it the right way. i hope you say it the right way. everybody ought to get tax returns. it's a very democratic idea. everybody pays a buck, two bucks, whatever they can, and
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the rich people certainly pay their progressive share. is this what you believe in? this came up in the debate that david gregory moderated yesterday. >> had a great debate yesterday, chris. i laid out a really specific tax proposal about the elimination of the bush tax cuts at the top end and taking away oil company subsidies, all geared at avoiding the big sequestration cuts that will hurt the economy. david gregory said, would you consider down the road a long-term tax proposal that would require some form of minimum taxation of everyone? and i said, i'm open to that. but then i pointed out, as you know -- look, i used to be the mayor of richmond. the lie that some perpetrate that poor people don't pay a lot of taxes is ng wrotwrong. i pointed out that that 47% that governor romney was going after, most of them pay a higher tax rate than he does. sure, i'm going to be opening to considering proposals because i want people to consider my proposals. but my specific proposal that i have on the table is one that deals with the elimination of the bush tax cuts at the top end. >> i think i've been paying the
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payroll tax since i was 14 and a lot of other people have. >> absolutely. >> your first job as teenagers, i want everyone to pay attention to that. governor kaine, good luck in the race. next you might not know congressional candidate patrick murphy, but you certainly know the man he's running against, republican congressman allen west. west is infamous for saying things like that. >> i believe it's about 78 to 81 members of the democratic party that are members of the communist party. >> and that was no outlier. west also wrote in his blog, "i must confess, when i see anyone with an obama 2012 bumper sticker, i recognize them as a threat to the gene pool." that's the words of an actual congressman. mr. murphy, it doesn't seem like a hard job to prove this guy's a bit of a kook. do you think he is a kook? >> unfortunately, allen west has framed himself as probably the most device i haivisive and the
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extreme member of congress. it's scary truthfully that he ever got elected. >> why do people down there vote for a guy that says there's 80 or so democrats who are communists. what is he talking about? >> no one knows. it's unfortunate. i get asked that question continually, and we're getting calls from republicans coming out, saying, look, patrick, i'm a republican. i've been a republican my whole life, and i'm going to support you because what allen west is doing is dividing the country and created gridlock in our congress. it's stairy he ever got elected, but we've got a great chance to defeat him. >> have you had a chance to go face to face with him and challenge him on some of the kooky ideas about communists and other stuff he's been saying about people being bad for the gene pool? i call that rather personal. your thoughts? >> we're certainly looking forward to upcoming debates with the congressman. we've been to four debates already in the district that he didn't appear at. we have one scheduled october 19th, and i look forward to that discussion with him. >> who are the people that like
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him? come on, be honest. if this is a toss-up race, half the voters out there must like him. why would any voter vote for a guy that was back in the 1950s with joe mccarthy kind of comments? why would anybody vote for a guy that questions the genetic makeup of the political opposition? we have a country with enough problems without this stuff? >> you're exactly right. i can't answer that. it's all partisan politics. just people voting down the ticket. one of the reasons we have such a good chance to win the race, that's because so many independents are tired of it, tired of his extremism. >> patrick, let's take a look at the ad you've been running here. it's called west's war on women. it's an ad by an independent group. let's watch. >> what could be worse than allen west's vote against affordable contraceptives or to eliminate cancer screening programs or to take away a woman's right to choose? what's worse than allen west's
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record on women are the wor he uses against them. >> all these women that have been neutering american men and bringing them to the point of this incredible weakness, to let them know that we are not going to have our men become subservient. >> this is like rush limbaugh, the way this guy talks about women, neutering men. what's his problem? you're afraid to say he's a kook. give me a description of your opponent, will you? help me out, patrick. he's not a normal republican even of the old school. >> i'm going to stick to him being the most extreme member of congress. i'm not going to get in this name calling game. that's what he's so good at. i don't want to stoop to his level. >> we'll have to do it ourselves. this guy is really off the wall. good luck in the race. the i don't think this is a normal left versus right or center right versus center left race. i think this guy shouldn't be in the congress. >> i agree. >> thank you, patrick murphy. up next, it was 60 years ago this weekend when richard nixon took to the air waves to defend himself against charges of impropriety by the then liberal
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new york post running for vice president. it became known as the checkers speech that saved nixon's career. this is "hardball." eir "destina" double miles you can "actually" use. but with those single mile travel cards... [ bridesmaid ] blacked out... but i'm a bridesmaid. oh! "x" marks the spot she'll never sit. but i bought a dress! a toast... ...to the capital one venture card. fly any airline, any flight, anytime. double miles you can actually use. what a coincidence? what's in your wallet? [ all screaming ] watch the elbows ladies. trick question. i love everything about this country! including prilosec otc. you know one pill each morning treats your frequent heartburn so you can enjoy all this great land of ours has to offer like demolition derbies. and drive thru weddings. so if you're one of those people who gets heartburn and then treats day after day, block the acid with prilosec otc.. and don't get heartburn in the first place.
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[ male announcer ] one pill each morning. 24 hours. zero heartburn. we'll be back with a moment in history that changed american politics forever. back with "hardball" after this.
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now save 50% on banners. we're back. it was in september of 1952 that richard nixon gave the most important speech of his life, the checkers speech. nixon was eisenhower's running mate as vice president facing heat for a fund that had been uncovered when he was raising money for his political expenses. so he took to the airways to disclose every dollar he owed, for the banks for his mortgages, the loan off his life insurance, the money he borrowed from his parents even, but it was a gift that he refused to return that made him so famous. he said an unexpected package was sent to the family one day. >> do you know what it was? it was a little cocker spaniel dog in a crate that he had sent all the way from texas. black and white, spotted, and our little girl, tricia, the 6-year-old named it checkers. and, you know, the kids, like
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all kids, love the dog, and i just want to say this right now, that regardless of what they say about it, we're going to keep it. >> well, sunday, this sunday marks the 60th anniversary of the checkers speech, a defining moment in political transparency, and, of course, survival, and it comes just as mitt romney it comes as mitt romney released what will be two years of tax returns but not the 12 his father put out os the ones nixon say we all should put out. michael isikoff is reporting on this anniversary and jeff riff franks the author of "ike and dick, portrait of a strange political marriage." i remember when nixon was making the demand all politicians should release the facts about tax returns and everything else. nixon was saying to ike you phony s.o.b., you wouldn't put out the information, i'm out on the cooker having to explain all
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my finances. >> he had no idea what eisenhower did not want to reveal, which was that eisenhower had a great tax deal himself. his memoir earned him $650,000 and he paid a capital gains tax on it, not an income tax. he was under amazing pressure. here's this 39-year-old junior senator from california, the running mate for the most beloved man in america, the man who had led the allied expeditionary force, the five-star general, the legendary dwight d. eisenhower, and he was really, really trying to survive. >> i agree with everything you say, jeff. i have very interesting feels about richard nixon, he's a complicated guy, we all studied
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the guy. not to meet his father's standards, the 12 years he put out is one thing but not to meet nixon's standards, that's a tough one. >> after reading jeff's excellent book, we all remember about checkers, we remember it about nixon fighting for his survival but the issue was financial disclosure, about putting everything on the table, telling everything about his financi finances. that's what nixon was doing. that was the spirit of the checkers speech. that resonates right to the 2012 campaign. what was so fascinating about it is after you read it through after nixon goes through this litany and naming his oldsmobile, his mortgage, how much he owes his mothers. after that he says let's talk about the democrats. he makes a sly reference toed a
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lie stevenson se's wealth. he says it's time for them to do the same thing, release every detail about their finances and this was the brilliant twist, and if they don't, the american public can conclude they've got something to hide. exactly the charge the obama campaign is now making today about mitt romney. >> isn't it funny, you've written about this great history. as a kid before i was really paying attention, it's so 50s. it's so double vested suit. it's the whole thing. did you think about nixon's statement there we have to basically take our clothes off financially to get by in politics these days. do you think about his current residence is it. >> just thinking about nixon, he was in a completely desperate situation there. half an hour before he went on
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the air, he was in the el capitan theater and he gets a phone call that says when you finished your speech, we think you should offer your formal resignation from the ticket. there's a long silence. and then dewey goes on and says furthermore, we think you should probably resign your senate seat, you can run in a special election, win this huge plurality and you'll be a hero. >> nixon said tell them to watch the show and tell them i know something about politics, too. >> and he really did. he had said this of course is up to -- he earlier said this is up to general eisenhower but on the speech he said, no, this is up to the republican national committee. >> turn it over to the reince priebus of those days. i look forward to tt book sitting on my shelf. when we return, let me finish
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with the question what is mitt romney hiding in those tax returns? he's taking all this heat. why is he taking the heat if there's nothing in there? simple question. i'm going to ask him. you're watching "hardball," your place for politics. no. why? apparently my debit card is. what? i know. don't worry, we have cancelled your old card. great. thank you. in addition to us monitoring your accounts for unusual activity, you could also set up free account alerts. okay. [ female announcer ] at wells fargo we're working around the clock to help protect your money and financial information. here's your temporary card. welcome back. how was london? [ female announcer ] wells fargo. together we'll go far. right? get. out. exactly! really?! [ mom ] what? shut the front door. right? woop-woop! franklin delano! [ male announcer ] there's oreo creme under that fudge! oreo fudge cremes. now in two new flavors. governor of getting it done. you know how to dance...
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i still want to see mitt romney's tax returns. it's one thing not to meet his beloved father's standard for disclosure. i think he ought to at least
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belly up to richard nixon's. mitt romney is keeping those returns a secret, at least to us. his accountants and lawyers know what he's paid, where he's made his money and where he's invested and why. this caucus knows the facts. why not us. this is not an old family secret, it's not about some failing on some family member's part, some tiff about some uncle and aunt. it's simply business information. business information. isn't this guy running on how he's done business? isn't that his resumé? didn't he make a fortune in business, enough money to get out there and drop everything and run for the highest office? shouldn't they know so they can figure out the guy's track record, his methods, his attitudes toward his citizenship. the more time that passes, the better he can evade