ben ferguson in dallas, good to see you guys again. ben, to you first on this.tting i guess some might say the ideal place to discuss that kind of distraction and should rice have maybe engaged on the issue instead of avoiding it? >> no, i think this is incredibly classy move by condoleezza rice, a woman that spent a lot of her career teaching at universities. she realized there's a lot of people going to graduate that day that don't want the distraction to be about the speaker. and i think there's some students as well as some faculty that are out of line here. you're never going to agree with the commencement speaker 100% of student body, faculty or staff, but the way they're trying to go back and attack her because of the war in iraq. and she says, look, this is about the students' accomplishments, them putting four or five years of their life there, people graduating with masters or doctorates and i won't take away from the day. for condoleezza rice, a classy move so they can enjoy the graduation of the students and the ones protesting or cause massive probl

do we still have ben ferguson there as well? no ben? >> yes. >> ben, are you geeking out?e you excited? >> i'm telling you, this is the only place that actually wolf blitzer can actually be the hot ticket for a hollywood stars tonight! this is like revenge of every guy that ever went and studied hard in college and it's like, so, wait, who wants to go with me tonight? seriously! in what world does this happen? i love it. >> we are sitting here going, don't hate. with that said, we will be right back. >> i love it! imstyle led bulb. beautiful quality light with a slim design, at a slim price. oh no. who are you? daddy, this is blair, he booked this room with priceline express deals and saved a ton. i got everything i wanted. i always do. he seemed nice. ♪ ♪ ♪ [ male announcer ] great rates for great rides. geico motorcycle, see how much you could save. dominique wilkins, are taking charge of their type 2 diabetes with non-insulin victoza. for a while, i took a pill to lower my blood sugar, but it didn't get me to my goal. so i asked my doctor about victoza. he said victoza

and two men who may differ on this, on the right, ben ferguson, on the left, lamont hill. guys, good to see you. i wanted to take this into the racial conversation and whether -- you know, it is interesting to hear him talk about v. stiviano and all the really sort of tawdry details. but really this is a national conversation about race. donald sterling was 29 years old when bull connor was unleashing the dogs and fire hoses in alabama. in his lifetime he has gone from that being okay to being pillaried in the national square. so mark lamont, tell me what we've learned from this and where our conversation needs to go next. >> i think where i'm most disappointed is where we haven't learned. we look at this as an opportunity to say, look, america hates racism. we all said what donald sterling said on the tape is wrong. in some sense we can have a collective sigh of relief and joy that the greater majority is not agreeing with him. that is the only type of racism that we acknowledge. it is the foaming at the mouth sexism kind of racism. that is the easy part. that lets us off

let's talk about it with cnn commentators mark lamont hill and ben ferguson. let's come at this in a slightly different way. is karl rove doing her a favor getting this issue out there early? she has to talk about it anyway. >> he's done he an enormous favor getting the issue out of the way. but also, people are going to come to her defense. people are outraged that he would not only put something like this out there but he would litter with it untruths of being in the hospital and the technology on the face and doing that, she made women empathize more and seeing this as a gender, sexist attack and made the elderly sympathize with hillary clinton more. this did much more for hillary clinton than potential republican nominee. she should be sending karl a thank you card. >> we'll see about that. ben, republican strategist alex, your colleague, he says that rove's attack on hillary clinton, whatever the victory republicans feel right now may leave a bitter taste. could all this backfire on him? >> certainly could backfire and i think it brings up the obvious whi

let's talk more with donald sterling with ben ferguson and mark lamont hill.y, guys, the new recording that radaronline is sterling features him saying he was jealous that v. stiviano was with black men and he denies he's a racist, you hear it there. mark, let me start with you. do the latest remarks help his case in any way or do they make it worse for this guy? >> it probably helps people in the court of public opinion, there are always people looking to give him an out and throw him a life raft in the conversation about racism. i think there will be people who will be swayed by this. also his free speech argument is one that people find compelling. he said it in the privacy of his own home, he should be allowed to do this. i think, though, ultimately it won't matter. he has a long history of saying and more importantly doing things that reflect racism. that's the bigger takeaway here. i'm sure the leaks that came out may help him a little bit but i suspect he put them out and people won't find them all that persuasive. >> ben, the new recording appears to h

. >>> let's bring in ben ferguson, the host of "the ben ferguson show" and mark is host of "mark huffive. request" immigration reform in an election year? no way this is possible. why not now? to jorge ramos' point, why not now? boehner himself said he wants to get it done. >> a lot of republicans want to get it done. they don't want a bill no one has read. find me one u.s. senator that voted in favor of the 1,300-plus-page bill that has read it or knows what's in it. this is obamacare 2.0 as nancy pelosi put it. we don't know what's in it until weigh pass it and i think that's the concern. of the republicans said let's deal with this piece by piece. there's no sense in reforming the entire system and immigration laws if we don't secure our borders. it has to be together. and democrats say we don't want to deal with the border. we don't want to do anything with the border. we want to give a big chunk of amnesty and that's where the problem is. >> why do a bunch of senate republicans vote for it in the senator? they're not reading the bills they're passing? >> i think a lot of them had

cnn contributor sally cohen and ben ferguson is here. good morning everybody. great to see you. >> morning. >> sally, i'll start with you. we're talking about a simple problem that has turned into a huge partisan battle. is this the right fight to be having you think? >> it is the right issue to be focusing on as a country, right? we have a massive problem with childhood obesity. it has gotten three times worse in the last 30 years. it is a crisis. it's a crisis for families. it's certainly a crisis for our family. is it the right political battle to be having? i would argue not. the obamas didn't pick this political battle. for crying out loud she's trying to get kids to get healthy and exercise. republicans are hellbent on fighting any mott couple of success of the obama administration. >> would you be talking about ben ferguson? she has a point. let me get this in and you can answer. this new study says 30% of the people on this planet are overweight and obese. shouldn't we all be talking about tightening these rules and not easing them. >> and we did. the p

cnn political commentators mark lamont hill and ben ferguson join me once again.with them katie glick of politico and ryan lissa. welcome to all of you guys. lots to talk about. if being talked about means your star is rising chris christie and hillary clinton have to be happy. ryan, i want to ask you, 2016 on the horizon. so should we get ready for a whole lot more clinton and christie jokes coming our way? >> no doubt. the tone and tenor of the christie and hillary clinton jokes were really completely different, right? christie was essentially mocked and the bridge scandal in new jersey was sort of the butt of lots of jokes. hillary clinton at least obama's hillary clinton jokes were all about how she's going to be the next president and is sort of a prohibitive front-runner on the democratic side. if you're joe biden watching obama's speech, you're thinking, huh, why isn't the president making any jokes about how i might be president next and not hillary clinton? obviously this is a humorous evening, but there's a lot of real politics embedded in the jokes. >>

outfront tonight, cnn political commentator ben ferguson as well as bill burton back with us, formerma press secretary. i want to ask both of you this. >> sure. >> look at this -- at what politico has written. in 2014, the tea party insurrection is starting to look more like the boston massacre. so let me ask you this, ben. is the tea party, is this party over? >> no, i don't think so at all. and the reason is i think a lot of the gop establishment candidates started realizing wow, i have to start talking a little more like a real conservative and start pushing for real conservative issues in washington. and that seems to help a lot of them. there is also another issue. and that is you had some very legitimate candidates come out early on and challenge establishment people. one of those would be a great example would be ted cruz and rand paul and others like that. they are true tea party candidates that have had a phenomenal career so far. you may not like them, but they've had a great career. and then there is a bunch of wanna-be's. and they see these guys win and they're if they ca

ben ferguson, appreciate your perspective.t back. >>> we're taking a closer look at how surveillance is transforming the way we look and the way we live. >> is the city of tomorrow already here? the high cost of energy, crime, pollution, around the globe, these 21st century challenges are being met with real innovation. in england, wind energy from the atlantic is powering london homes. police in los angeles are crunching big data to solve every day home. real solutions and the challenges and old population will reach 8.3 billion by 2030. in that same time, greenhouse gases are expected to increase and the world's trash nearly doubled and 60% of us will live in one and by 2050, 70%. and the demand for clean air, water, energy and, yes, convenience will skyrocket. by 2017, nearly half of the world's population will be online. and almost half of all internet traffic will travel through smart devices. imagine, fewer drivers commuting to work, smarter policing, buildings with no carbon footprint and trash cans that tell us when th

. >> joining us now ben ferguson on the right, democratic strategist maria cardona on the left. state of ohio, hillary clinton swept all of her republican competitors. i think we can put it up here. governor kasich trailing clinton by five points and kentucky senator rand paul also eight points here. let's go to maria first. this is a dangerous position to be in, i would imagine, because you don't want it to appear as if it is mine for the taking. just a coronation, everybody step aside. >> no. i don't think she certainly is not looking at it that way. she hasn't decided if she is running. yes, we all love the political speculation and we can't stop talking about it and we will continue to do that until she makes a decision. but she's in a great position right now. she doesn't have to make a decision for quite some time. and, you know, let's be reali realistic it is a long time until 2016. yes, she bets all republican candidate up against her and that's why we're seeing the republican attacks start so early because they are afraid of her, if she is going to run. because right no

we want to bring in ben ferguson and robert zimmerman. thank you, both, for being with us. let me start with you. i know that you tweeted, i believe, well done, barack obama, for making the right decision. shinseki has been fired. let's remember shinseki did resign as we know it. does it matter, ultimately, though, whether the president fired him or whether he resigned himself? >> well, it was weird yesterday because when it initially came out and the president said he had resigned, i was giving him full credit for that because it's what needed to happen. it's what veterans deserve. they needed a new person in charge. and then the only time that obama got emotional yesterday in that press conference was when he was defending his former va secretary and i'm sitting there going, where is the disconnect? you had veterans that died and families buried their loved one and your most emotional part is defending the guy that is now leaving and said he was the one who decided it was time for him to leave -- >> robert? >> the disconnect is your analysis of that press conference. obvi