casey. sorry seems to be the hardest word for republicans. let's play "hard ball." good evening, i'm in for chris matt use. leading off tonight who deserves the real apology here? agreement in washington the a rare thing. but there's recognition that the rollout of the affordable care act is a mess.

president obama acknowledged that his baby, is sick. he's owned up to the failures of the team which botched the website's launch and last night he owned up to a failure of his own. that people feel betrayed by a promise he made them but couldn't keep. a promise that he could keep their insurance if they liked it. let's listen to the president. >> well, first of all, i meant what i said. and we worked hard to try to make sure that we implemented it properly, but obviously we didn't do a good enough job and i regret that. i am sorry that they, you know, are finding themselves in this situation, based on assurances they got from me. we've got to work hard to make sure that they know we hear them, and that we're going to do everything we can to deal with folks who find themselves in a tough position. the facts are that many of the same people that feel betrayed now will be thanking the president later. these are people in so-called

junk plans that could bankrupt them. the new plan may cost more than they are used to but ask anyone who has been bankrupted by cancer and couldn't afford treatment they'll tell you the plans are worth it. the republican response to president obama has been a predictable cocktail of distraction and politics. john boehner had this response, quote, apology is certainly in order but what americans want to shr that the president is going to keep his promise. that's why the house will vote next week to allow anyone with a health care plan they like to keep it. let's not forget this say party that pedaled lies to its constituents about the health care law. this is a party that did everything it could to sabotage the law then tried crocodile tears when the rollout went aground. they attempted to kill the law and knowing they'll lose and the governors turned down the

expansion of medicate which would give 5 million poor people insurance at virtually no cost to their states. as the republicans revel at the press's comments we should ask who should offer the real apology. david jones is an opinion writer with "the washington post." jonathan, it's not every day that you hear a president say, i am sorry. evaluate the weight of that apology and its effectiveness. >> it's something that the president felt he needed to say for that narrow sliver of americans who are in the individual insurance market, in terms of the overall insurance market. those are folks who, you know, felt a little betrayed by the president's overconstant assurances they could keep their plans if they like their plans but also speaks of a president that feels weary that this big thing that they did. the affordable care act, has boiled down to, you know,

criticisms over how the -- how health care.gov works when obama care as we're all calling it, is a whole lot more than a website, a whole lot more than the 6 million americans who are losing their health insurance plans now, but as you said, we'll get better plans later. so what i think he's trying to do is trying to stop the bleeding, stop the political bleeding and try to move the conversation forward. >> well, to your point, and david, this is how twisted i think the whole situation has become, when there is a vote in the house next week, it will be an advocacy vote for under insurance. >> yes. >> what happened to the notion of personal responsibility? they will be advocating for the right of someone to carry no hospitalization by way of illustration if that's what their current plan calls for afrd therefore become a burden on everyone else if they have

catastrophe. >> or vote in favor of junk plans sold to people with false promises giving them the unfounded insurance they'll be covered in the case of medical emergency. republicans, after voting 40-odd times to repeal obama care, without replacing it, without giving us any substitute, they'll finally vote in favor of plans that don't provide decent insurance. it is kind of crazy and it shows you, michael, just how far the debate has gone off the rails. we're not talking, republicans aren't talking if they don't like obama care what to do about the 45 million americans who have no insurance or tens of millions of americans who couldn't get good insurance because of pre-existing conditions, insurance industry scam jobs. so that's a big picture. instead we're focusing on what jonathan rightly called a slice of the issue, which is a problem, it's a small problem, but we're not talking about the big issue, which is how do we have decent health insurance

system to all americans. >> speaking of crazy, republicans denounced president obama for its lack of clarity when it comes to a small piece of the insurance market. yet they advanced lies from the law, this say sampling of this year. >> you sent us the most dangerous piece of legislation in the history of the united states. >> yes, i think so. >> let's repeal this failure before it literally kills women kills children, kills senior citizens. let's not do that. >> is killing health benefits is shattering the economy, all across the country in all 50 states. >> the important thing to remember that's just one aspect of this atrocious, unaffordable. cumber some, burdensome evil policy of obama's that's obama care. >> obama care is really, ithy, the worst thing that has

happened in this nation since slavery. and it is in a way -- it is slavery in a way. >> jonathan capehart one of the concerns i have with the climate. with all this misinformation that's being circulated against the back drop of the rollout of the affordable care act, the people most needed to by in, so-called young invincibles have a lack of confidence in becoming a part of this whole process. >> even before the debacle of the health care.gov rollout. you have adds being done by organizations trying to convince young people not to enroll, actively telling them don't get health care. remember the creepy uncle sam ads? this is an ongoing effort to make sure that the affordable care act fails so that when it does fail, they can all say, see, we told you it would fail. it's unbelievably cynical. it's something that -- i take it was t was michele bachmann who

said obama care kills seniors, kills children what they're doing is putting people's health at risk. >> david corn take a look at this map from mitch mcconnell's office. it's being circulated among conservatives. it shows states where people are receiving cancellation notices. let's remember, republicans led the effort to deprive people insurance under the law. now, let's look at this map from the white house, it shows the republican-controlled states that rejected the law's expansion of medicate and would have cost these states nothing to implement and would have extended insurance to 5 million poor americans. 1.2 million people in texas alone could be covered right now yet they're not because of the ted cruz win of the republican party which is held bent on destroying the affordable care act in any way that it could. is that message getting through to the american people? is the president being successful in this regard

explaining this? >> i don't think the white house still, after all this time, has fully figured out how to deal with this blanket opposition and obstructionism they get which is often fueled by statements not true and hyperbolic. right now the republican's hair is on fire because a couple million americans are getting cancellation notices a lot from junk plans. if you repeal obama care, about 137 million americans would get some form of cancellation notice in terms of being kicked off their plan. there's kids being kicked off their plans. pre-existing conditions. if they're really concerned about who is going to lose benefits, this enthey would look -- they would not be advocating repeal. they would talk how this system worked. we talked about this before, michael. their real fear is that eventually, when all of this dust settles, and the cranky website starts to work and people start sorting through

this, they realize, enough people realize this ain't slavery, this ain't a bad deal, in fact might be a good deal and they'll look stupid and more importantly, they'll lose. republicans are going to lose their key message which is the government is the problem, not the solution, and can't do anything for you. this is what this is all about. >> gentlemen, thank you. thank you, david corn, and jonathan capehart. coming up, the guardians of the right take shots at chris christie and mitch mcconnell is fighting back. plus, senator lindsey graham has introduced a bill to ban abortions after 20 weeks citing fetal pain. not sure he's correct in the science or law but may have politics just right. and o canada. rob ford's public embarrassment and he's become an international celebrity for all of the wrong reasons. steve king has done it again and this time he concluded that

president bush was right after all about iraq trying to get yellowcake eye rain yum from africa. bush just didn't know it. this is "hardball" the place for politics. about getting trapped. why's that? uh, mark? go get help! i have my reasons. look, you don't have to feel trapped with our raise your rate cd. if our rate on this cd goes up, yours can too. oh that sounds nice. don't feel trapped with the ally raise your rate cd. ally bank. your money needs an ally.

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what we're looking for can be found in the record of governors like nicky haley. rick scott. terry branston, conservative governors. >> welcome back to "hardball." win or lose. tuesday night's elections hardened the republican party. despite chris christie's landslide victory he's been

described as a rhino. republican in name only. rick perry, a tea partier himself. left chris christie off the list of what he calls conservative governors. it's not the first time christie has been invited to the party. the gom is firing back let by mitch mcconnell who opened fire on ted cruz party in the wall street journal. in an interview. mcconnell blasts extremists for both their views and tactics and says, quote, the most important election was not the governor of new jersey or the governor of virginia, it was the special election for congress in south alabama. where the candidate said the shut down was a great idea the president was born in enia and he opposed speaker boehner, came in second. ron reagan is an msnbc political analyst and former talk radio host.

michael, a naive question, why didn't rick perry reference chris christie, what is going on there? >> he doesn't like him. he doesn't like the brand of politics. he think es he's a squishy moderate. i think chris christie has a big problem with the base of his party. >> with raud to tuesday, between purity and pragmatism. pragmatism had a good day. >> chris christie's ascension, if you will, his ascension into the main stream of being mentioned is a front-runner for the presidential race coming up highlights the division of the republican party. we have two parties now and they're taking shots at each other. it's on in the republican party now as long as chris tristy takes that position. that will continue to be highlighted and the only people that win in that are the democrats. >> here's the question i would like to know.

the iowan who voted for him, let's not forget rick santorum won the iowa caucus. are they thinking, christie is not as pure as i like, but, hell, this time i want to win? well, they might be thinking that and chris christie certainly hopes they'll be thinking that. my guess, if they voted for santorum, they will look for somebody like ted cruz. again you have this division highlighted. >> but then you lose. >> yes, you do. >> i know that. you do lose. air ergo the testimonies win. >> the republicans are still obsessed with purity, the day after the landslide victory, sean hannity let loose on the new jersey governor. >> if you want to look at a liberal record on issues like guns, gay marriage, controversial appointments.

this governor has no idea what will hit him. if you can't beat hillary clinton in the exit polls of new jersey on the day you are the most popular on your state, don't think it's going to get better. it's likely going to get worse. he's not in the main stream of conservati conservatism. >> michael crawly, chris christie standing up to that mind set will do him a world of good. can he sustain the primary process if he got the likes of limbaugh, beck, and hannity against him? >> it's going to be really hard. mitt romney tried to do this. but romney fled from all his positions on those issues in a way we're not seeing christie beginning to do. by the end of the process, romney looks ridiculous to a lot of conservatives. i think it's going to be extremely hard for christie to get past sort of the firewall of the republican base for exactly those reasons and he faces this choice that romney faced which is, do you try to retreat from

those positions and look like you're a flip-flopper, look like you're a change lingor ling? >> let's not forget. mitt romney liked like he had a can balance iz imgoing on in the process. they were all fighting for the same pie. that's what chris christie needs, isn't it? >> yes. and he's probably going to get it. he'll have a whole gaggle of tea partiers off to his right. he'll also have a challenge, i'm guessing from his center position. chris christie has problems besides not being a tea partier. he's not the perfect presidential candidate. all of the divisions within the parties aside. my guess he'll get a challenge from the center also. >> but yeah, you're right.

the rest of the party will be divided. they'll give him a lot of room to seem reasonable. >> i've written on this subject. noting that which makes him immensely popular in new jersey, those every man characteristics and qualities and outbursts, if you string them together. people might start to question the temperance to be commander in chief. >> they absolutely will. not just string them in. but put it out on the campaign trail, surrounded by packs of reporters, hecklers. when you're in iowa, new hampshire, those early status don't have a huge bubble around you. people will stand up and try to provoke you and they will. the question is, does he have the discipline to go out and campaign and show he has an even temperament. that's a big test. people will wait to see if he can pass. i think it's an open question. >> we appreciate you being here. up next. we'll hear from steve king and if you want to follow me on

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back to "hardball" time for the side show. the cover of the "time" magazine caused controversy. the idiom they used. the elephant in the room, pokes at christie's weight. jay leno proved last night it could have been a lot worse. >> in their defense, i think they chose the least defensive time. chris christie having a whale of a time. "between a rock and a lard place" and hail to the chef. i don't think any of those were appropriate. >> next up, it's a single page

in the latest issue of guns and ammo and ignited a firestorm among the magazine's readers. in an article titled let's talk about limits. dick metcalf made a seemingly inknoouyous case for gun contro. they made comes like guns and ammo, supporting gun control is like penthouse reporting articles on pornography and immorality of master detectibat. they issued this apology. i thought it would generate a healthy exchange of ideas on gun rates. i ask for your forgiveness. so much for opening dialogue. and steve king would best be known for comparing mexicans to

cantaloupes and wanting to build a fence on our southern border. it was one of the arguments for going me to war with iraq. president bush claim that saddam hussein was seeking yellowcake uranium to build weapons. >> saddam hussein sought quantities of uranium from africa. >> president bush included bogus material in his speech. this week the white house admitted the claim was not true. >> well, now, congressman king says that president bush's debunked claim which bush admitted was incorrect was actually true. speaking on an iowa radio program yesterday, the congressman made this stunning assertion. >> w. bush was accused of 16 words in the state of the union address which they said was a

lie and they're still attack him for that. janua jan i'll tell you what george bush said in that state of the union address was the truth and he's being punished for it. if you want to know what evidence they have to prove he was right, he could prove iraq was seeking uranium, why wouldn't if he spoken up? that's "hardball" for now. coming up. "your business." with j.j. ramberg. the opportu. he's seen it. it's all over. nothing but daylight. yes i'd love a cookie. [ male announcer ] make a powerful first impression. the nissan sentra. now get one fifty nine per month lease on a two-thousand thirteen nissan sentra. ♪ [ ding ] i sense you've overpacked, your stomach. try pepto to-go. it's pepto-bismol that fits in your pocket.

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