tabloid t.v. host and former democratic mayor jerry springer joins me with his take on the dysfunction in politics today plus former governor of florida charlie crist on losing faith with the republican party and looking for redemption and running again as a democrat saw the next on politicking with larry king. welcome to politicking with larry king so many people know jerry springer just from his infamous and it's. well but he's also has a bit of history in politics and he's never been shy about his liberals used thanks

to do this terry some may suggest that the current condition in congress is similar to your show a dysfunctional family the only did you draw the comparison the only difference between the people in congress and the people on my show is that people in congress have more teeth. than that but other than that i can tell the difference. well i want one see here's here's what i think is a part of it is structural part of it has nothing to do with the quality of the people but it has more to do with the structure the system we ninety five percent of americans today live in a district which is either overwhelmingly republican or overwhelmingly democrat as such virtually no member of congress has to worry about being reelected in the general election their careers are purely dependent on winning the primary because they know if they win the primary they win the general because that their party

controls the district so therefore and the people who vote in primaries tend to be more extreme they are more activists so on the republican side they're more conservative in their democratic primaries they're more liberal the result is that we have a congress that each member is has to play to the base but wasn't always that way well it gets worse and worse because of jeremy and during every ten years according to the census you have to redraw the lines so it was inevitable that at some point with more and more gerrymandering drawing these lines districts would become a bit used to not be that everyone lived in a mostly republican or democratic area but because we keep changing the lines that's what is happening so now you if you're the now quit if you or republican. you can't have your picture taken with president obama it will screw you up in the next primary so therefore they don't even talk to each other anymore they don't

socialize with each other there's no one wants to compromise because they'll lose the next primary which is why the republicans lead in control of the house but the democrats win the national election yes closer the way it's right because larry it doesn't matter exactly. so you where obama could be unpopular and win another election just on the way the system sets up exactly should we change the system well there should be yes there should be a better way to draw congressional lines absolutely and there the problem is in order to change the system you would have to have congress vote for it well congress women aren't going all women aren't going to vote to change a system whereby they're currently getting elected that's the problem with reform the people who have to pass the reform or the people that are in power because really no reform. you recently said that you thought. that president obama was hated i think there are some people who are so forward rosebel i know was hated and yes circles no i do think is racial i think for some people it is and you know we

can't be naive there are there are people that just can't accept the fact that we have an african-american president obama's sure some people like him because he's so yeah and that's yeah i don't think anyone really disagrees i'm not saying overwhelming number of people don't why is he hated it's not rational and i think it is because of that race because they just don't think people ought to meet that just think about it when have we ever had a president well he's not one of us he doesn't he's not an american citizen he's not i mean all the birth is all this stuff there's something in the back where you just can't accept the fact that there are people who can't accept the fact that he's our president and it is it's visceral it's not rational because if you think about it rationally. why would you ever have a barack obama you could disagree with his policies but is he a hateful person he's a loving husband a great father he's very very bright he made it on his own under incredible

circumstances to become president of united states why is there any one of moms who wouldn't want him as a son to say oh my god look how proud i am of this young man he becomes editor of the harvard law review i mean this is the perfect resume the nicest warmest you know he's good with sports got a great voice i mean everything you want to be as a guy growing up when you want to be like barack obama so why do you hate him disagree with his policies and say you know i don't know that we should go. is this man going to go to hell because the greatest criticism against him is he tried to get health insurance for all americans i mean even if you don't like the particular affordable health care act and think there's a better way to do it why do you hate him because of it you know you think god is going to say to him you're going to hell because i heard you drive to get health care for everybody. i mean it's great was. so bizarre to americans

disapprove of his politics and a part of that is true as well i don't know if a majority you know i don't think a majority of americans disapprove of his politics i think that. believe me if there was another election he'd win again ok so that always have it happened in the first term and then he goes and wins again so that week to week poll the truth of the matter is number one most americans like the president add most americans would probably in that because you see here's the thing. we love to give conservative speeches because somehow that makes us think we're more adult well more responsible but the truth is liberals always want in the end the country ultimately and evidently becomes more liberal we're far more liberal than we were ten years ago twenty years ago fifty years ago so in the end conservatives will

always fight efforts at becoming more liberal but in the end they lose and then they adopt a republican voted against social security every republican exactly the conservatives for dissent social security they fought civil rights rights they fought equal rights for women they fought against. decent working i mean organized labor to care medicare everything but eventually you know and they had forty against gay rights gay marriage who would have thought ten years ago that gay marriage would be legal in america so anyway and you know it's inevitable so you could you can say you're a conservative you can say you're a right winger but your kids are going to grow up and the next generation is going to be more liberal and that's a reality thought snoozes the number one cable news yes yet it doesn't elect people right so what is its clout or is it well it's only

a preaching to the choir it preaches to the choir and credit to roger ailes he found a perfect business model he says you know cable news which is never going to have the audience that you know. you know we say the number one cable station but what three percent of america watches so ninety seven percent of america is not watching fox news so it's not like they're great powerhouse they're great powerhouse within the cable community no question about that but most people don't watch cable news so it becomes irrelevant to the public discussion but once again people want to. i think it's more impressive to say well i'm kind of conservative you know more and i can go into the richest wealthiest most conservative communities and their kids listening to the same music watching the same television going to the same movies dressing the same way you know smoking marijuana when their kid parents aren't watching you know telling you debate all you want we are far

more liberal today than we were in the middle of that's going to be legal of course everything liberal mentally wins and why and there's a reason for it because human beings by their nature do not want to be told what to do and they want to expand they want to try new things they which was years ago a republican a concept they gave it up i don't know me what to do yeah yeah but now all of a sudden they want to tell you what to do in the bedroom they want to tell you what to do with your lifestyle they want to tell you who to marry that's the problem the . christie thing is like oh well i don't have any more information than anyone else has you know outside the immediate family bear but obviously if it was just the bridge thing in the beginning i think he could have survived it. but as soon as it became an issue

about whether they played with sandy funds that kind of course is the line because the american public look if he were running for president no one in kansas is going to worry if two lanes going into the tunnel you know in new jersey we're going to block for a couple of days it's just not going to be a national issue but you start messing if he did messing with funds when there's a national disaster and using that for political purposes that is pretty difficult to rebound from so i think and one other thing on that. he's kind of in a bind and it's look he may be innocent but he's in a bind because the republicans aren't coming to his defense because all the other republicans they want to be president so he'd have trouble getting the nomination when he goes into states like south carolina and georgia in the sellwood me yes because he's a centrist way they have the primaries set up it would be difficult for

a moderate republican to get the nomination there's a civil war going on within the republican party as there was in the democratic party in the eighty's with mcgovern and jesse jackson if you think good salaries for the taking the nominee well as of today the nomination yes the nomination the general election the country is divided it who knows who the republic if the republicans nominated ted cruz or someone like that given hillary wins well if they pick a more moderate jeb bush that would that would be a tough race that would be a tougher and so we could go back to clinton bush again and it but it wouldn't just bush hillary race be kind of a race on issues and probably not go into the gutter and what it would be eternally would be a cleaner race absolutely the tea party was very own. it was that it would be in the bin and yeah in the be a third party candidate i think that's probably right i think that's probably right

i would think as of today hillary's the next president but you know. we've both seen it in our lifestyle all we have is that no i don't have the tabloid. that's a show on the investigation discovery channel one of the discovery channel network part of the discovery network it's a crime show weekley crime show where once a week we take a major a crime that was a major headline over the last twenty thirty years and look at if it's an hour show we look at the whole background of of the story because normally with the headlines you get just that the headline a few sentences and then they're worth to the next story this is really reenacting this crime what new information is there and what has happened to be able to sense yeah and it's really the start well it's been on for three weeks now and it's been their top radio station yeah it's on the id channel thursday night at ten now in central you know the other viewer and then eventually jerry for joining me

don't forget to check out his new show tabloid on me in resignation discovery channel thursdays at ten eastern and central as you just said getting to the blogs that if that politicking continues after this. i've got a quote for you. that's pretty tough. stay where it's about story. because this guy like me or that guy stead of working for the people both issues the beach media were rich oh right right speech. they did rather well. i'm. a. big corporation kind of. bag. and i think that's like that for

a politician right. here just to let. joining me now old friend the former governor of florida charlie crist a onetime republican turned independent turned democrat his new book the party's over how the extreme right hijacked the g.o.p. and i the game a democrat slams the republicans and offers what he calls a hopeful alternative to today's bitter extremes he joins me from orlando that having you with us charlie larry it's great to be with you always a pleasure thank you so much joy get into the book you recently said that you believe the cuban embargo has not worked and that you want it lifted a lot of people are starting to think that way but you once delivered it would

change your mind time i mean you know over a period of time you know you let a policy have an opportunity to work to be productive and if that doesn't happen after a certain period of time i think that logic and common sense tell you that you need to try something else you know larry they say the definition of insanity is continuing to do the same thing and expecting a different result well i think it's time to try something different because the result that we've gotten is not working at all and so i think it's time to move on we need to lift the embargo and help the people of cuba why do we in model them now what is the what would be the answer to the him why do they defend it. oh well i'm i think it's because of the dictatorship and that's why i supported it in the past to fight the dictatorship that has been so oppressive to the people of the island and has imprisoned people on fairly and unjustifiably that's the argument for originally having the embargo but i think we've been over such

a period of time now that the people who are really suffering are the people of cuba and so that's one reason i think that we ought to lift the number two we have sown that in fact in other parts of the world where we have been constructively engaged like eastern europe that things can. change and so i think it's very important that because of the people and trying to have them not have to suffer anymore larry that constructive engagement is the kind of thing that can bring a brighter future to the people of the island and the fact that the policy hasn't work number three those three things together really lead me to the conclusion that it's time to try something different trying to side try to try something better and do something that's more productive for the future i listed in the book how the stream right hijacked the g.o.p. and i became a democrat the party's over why did you write it. well i wrote it just to explain this journey i've been on you know i've been a republican most of my life then i became an independent now i'm happy to be a democrat and the point of the book is just to lay out that journey and it you

know talks about a lot of interesting stories and conversations with people i've had a unique position larry i mean to be able to be at the highest levels of government and politics on both sides of the aisle is a fairly unique place to be and met a lot of good people and some people not so good and i think it's an interesting read and i think that what has happened with the republican party especially over the past five years or so really is what has led me to this decision to become a democrat i've never been happier politically to be honest with you being a democrat today in florida is a wonderful thing for me and my wife carol and i'm just much more comfortable there the republican party really the leadership of the party went crazy i mean you know they're they are described now as anti women anti immigrant anti minority anti-education anti-gay couples anti you know environment i mean the list goes on

and i've never seen anything like it and i know there are plenty of good republicans still out there my mom and dad still happen to be what the leadership of the party is the just say no group you know whatever the president wants to do something unfortunately the party just wants to stop it and it's almost a logical why why are you a republican. because i was raised that way i mean it's kind of the same reason i'm a methodist larry and i talk about this in the book that you know so many people in our country are really our lead at least you know out of their youth into their young adulthood to a political party to a religion and that's kind of how it was for me mom and dad were republicans so i was a republican and you know at the time i was very proud to be a republican because you know that was a party of abraham lincoln the great emancipator i mean the party of teddy roosevelt who founded our national park system. and you know the environment's always been important to me i'm a floridian and it's important most floridians and i think most americans frankly

but the notion of abraham lincoln and the things that he said and stood for fairness fundamental fairness for all people regardless of race creed or what have you that was very attractive to me because my my mother and father charlie and nancy raised my three sisters and me to try to be decent to other people to do want to others to be compassionate to be caring and when the republican party at least the leadership of it started to go into a direction that didn't seem to reflect those values if i was going to be true to my core and my own values i couldn't stay and so i'm very happy to see a democrat you couldn't work from within then drive the change. well i tried for a while but it was getting nowhere and it was getting worse to be perfectly honest with you and you know the more i saw it the more carol and i witnessed you know during my campaign in two thousand and ten for the senate it was it became so apparent to me that the leadership of the party and the real strong activist in the

party were just out of touch and you know jack kemp's one of my favorite political figures in our country don't quarterback to like me and he was a great republican great guy and he used to talk about the republican party needed to be a big tent what we've seen today is the republican party's become a pup tent and it's sad it's sad but i'm an optimist and i'm a happy warrior and i look forward to my campaign for governor here in florida this year and glad that you'll be in florida and in a few days when how's that campaign going by how many in the democratic primary is my history and thought about eighty guys run. well there's only two right now and it's going very well very pleased with how the campaigns go on we've raised more money than any democratic candidate for governor has at this point time in the history of florida and that's going back to eight hundred forty five we've been ahead never poll that's been done over the past year i don't know if that's ever happened before maybe it has but not in recent history certainly so the answer is

it's going incredibly well i think we have a great shot to win the people need somebody in the governor's office that cares about them and i think the issues will focus on will be ethics number one education the economy and the environment and i'm excited about the race and i look forward to it how would you describe florida politically now politically for this purple i mean you know it's about evenly divided republican independent and democratic and one of the largest rising groups really are independent voters in florida but having said that when you compare the two. cities the republicans and the democrats there's about a five hundred thousand advantage to democrats in florida over the republican party so it's a more democratic party although that democratic majority has had a hard time getting through i mean we have a republican governor republican house republican senate republican congressional

delegation republican cabinet but things are changing in florida and they're changing rapidly we continue to have a huge influx of people larry we're the third almost the third largest state in the country have been the fourth for a while about to surpass new york to be the third largest state in the country with california first then texas soon to be florida and a lot of our new immigrants and our new residents are democrats and that continues to grow you on the gay marriage situation in florida you supported overturning the gay marriage ban and imo you nationally support where do you stand on gay marriage i support it and i like the president i've supported civil unions for a long time larry and i saw the president do his interview with robin roberts a couple of springs ago and he said you know that he had been giving this issue a lot of thought a lot of consideration and that he had come around to the view finally you know who am i to tell somebody else who to love or frankly that for that matter who to marry

and i feel the same way. you know it's not my place as a fellow human being to tell other people who they should love or marry. and my goodness even the pope not long ago said who might a judge on this issue so i think we're entering an age of great lightman i'm excited about that i'm happy about it you know we're all god's children so let's treat each other that way what are your comments on the former fund raiser and convicted ponzi scheme operator scott ross steen testimony he said the judicial nominations were up for sale when you were governor. well he's wrong he's a liar he's in jail for fifty years for being a liar and that's that. period here. pretty much where you make legal problems. your governor christie is facing. when we don't know yet you know i used to be attorney general so i'm not quick to

judge we don't know what all the facts are it doesn't look good i can tell you that and you know the bridge closings or whatever may have happened that's not a good thing and if he knew about it it's terrible you know to be oppressive toward other people for a political reason or for any reason is not a good thing and so i hope it isn't true but i'm the kind of person who feels that you have to have all the facts in before you make a judgment or reach a conclusion and so soon enough will know what all those are they got about fifty investigations going on time will tell you admired former governor jeb bush did you not i still do yes or that's right if he were running against hillary and you were governor of florida who would you support well if i win i'm going to be a democrat i think that jeb would make a good president i think hillary would make a great president. so. so there you have it her well you support hillary yes correct as

a democrat i like great better than good as a democrat yeah as an american as a floridian how did the tea party happen. that's a great question i think a combination of things larry i think number one i think it was economically driven the economy was going into the tank and as we know historically when you have a challenging economy it allows for new and sometimes odd ideas to enter people's thought process and i think that was a big component of it another thing that may have added to it and it's sad to say this but i'm going to say that we had just elected our first african-american president and sadly i think that there is an element that's out there that is not happy about that and so i think those two things kind of maybe with some other. passions or concerns may have brought about the tea party movement. and that's what

i think probably happens now where does it where does obama care stand in florida. it was not a good place because we have a governor that's trying to thwart it at every turn unlike the governor of kentucky governor beshear who's doing a great job they have great navigators they're moving forward on it they've been very productive people are signing up in rapid succession here in florida rick scott is standing in the way of it there are no navigators are not helping at the not assisting it but his entire career larry you probably know this has been based on health care and making big money off of health care in fact he was the head of his firm h.c.a. colombia that ended up having to pay the largest spine for fraud in the history of the united states of america at the time one point seven billion dollar fine for what they call up coding and up coatings kind of a fancy word for charging too much i used to be the attorney general we would have

called it that and that's what it is and that's bad it's just a bad thing. why puzzle me and many others why as as a civilized country did it take so long for us to have any kind of a national health care plan you know well there's a lot of strong forces you know that wanted that not to happen and wanted to continue to profit from it we all know about that i mean health care is incredibly expensive and what the president has fought for affordable health care has been a difficult task and this is the only presidents it's ever gotten it done and other fine presidents have tried to do it in the past president clinton among them. but but president obama got it passed it was sort of five by the united states supreme court this is where we are it has taken a long time but my hats off to this administration for achieving it now whenever you do something big it's not easy and it takes time to get it all right and get the kinks out but i'm confident that they will and i'm happy for the people of

florida and america that this is finally come to pass charlie the best of luck thanks for joining us thank you larry always a pleasure to be with you hope to see in florida soon me too charlie crist the book the party's over how the stream right hijacked the g.o.p. and i became a democrat thank my guests the day don't forget i want to hear from you join the conversation on my facebook page and share your thoughts on twitter by tweeting. using the politic yesterday that's all for this week's politics.

the life the bank of new knowledge base your life you know. the leg. pleasure to have you with us here on our t.v. today i roll researcher. michelle scarf forces at. play. in the finish line of the boston marathon. let. me

live with. the but. look. everyone i'm out in martin and this is breaking sad since two thousand and two us drone strikes have killed as many as four thousand five hundred ninety eight people according to bureau investigative journalism and in pakistan alone there already have been three hundred eighty one from the strikes one in particular in two thousand and ten targeted a home in northern pakistan the strike resulted in the deaths of several civilians including the family of a pakistani man named kareem khan as a result khan filed a five hundred million dollar lawsuit against the u.s. government which helped shine a light into this devastating practice and is now a fervent and drawn activist but unfortunately he has been missing for eight days after being kidnapped.