>> this is "the chris matthews show". >> ask not what your country can do for you. >> tear down this wall. >> i can hear you. >> a time for change has come! chris: we thought we saw recovery. suddenly we're getting word we're not coming back. things may be grim for years. can obama win with it like this? can his republican opponent lose? will either candidate tell us the true challenge of getting back to where we were. he did what? anthony weiner joins a long line of politicians whose best line was deny. did he have a choice? is there some behavior impossible to sell? and afghanistan, is this something money and a little diplomacy can buy? can we cut a deal with the taliban? can we end this war. hi, i'm chris matthews. welcome to the show. with us today. john heilemann, farr farr, andrea mitchell and david ignatius. first off, it was a week dominated by twitter, but the hard reality of our very economy is what is haunting the obama white house and giving encouragement to the republicans. the new issue of "time magazine" has this cover, what recovery? "time magazine" lists the five myt

i'm chris matthews. with us today, "time" magazine's michael duffy, nbc's norah o'donnell, "new york times" helene cooper and "the washington post," david ignatius. first up, it was the weeks politics of the war became clear er, and ending the surge in afghanistan is now a given. but is the president lagging the country on this? in a new pugh pole. 67% of democrats say get the troops out asap, as soon as possible. 43% of republicans agree with that. and the republican establishment, mitt romney and jon huntsman, may pressure president obama from the left. here's huntsman. >> i think we can probably be a little more aggressive over the next year. we've routed the taliban, we've dismantled al qaeda. let's get serious about what needs to be done on the ground, and that's a significant counterterror effort. chris: david, there's a lot of political pressure building that's come out of nowhere, really. republicans establishment candidates, like huntsman and romney, saying basically get going to get out of ther

chris matthews is up right now. >> and the aerospace industry in the u.s.? at t. rowe price, we understand the connections of a complex, global economy. it's just one reason 80% of our mutual funds beat their 10-year lipper average. t. rowe price. invest with confidence. request a prospectus or summary prospectus with investment information, risks, fees and expenses to read and consider carefully before investing. >> what happens in vegas doesn't stay in vegas any more. let's play "hardball." >> good evening. i'm chris matthews up in new york. don't look now, it just got worse for weiner. drip, drip, drip of revelations. what toppled anthony weiner. this afternoon a tabloid website published racy and explicit facebook exchanges between weiner and a las vegas black jack dealer. even before that, democrats were backing away from weiner and it is not at all clear he can survive this storm or that the democrats can continue to separate themselves from it. plus, weiner patiently answered countless questions at that amazing o news conference yesterday afternoon but many

she has taken heat for some of her comments, especially this 2008 interview with chris matthews. you think that barak obama has anti-american views? >> absolutely. absolutely i'm very concerned that he may have anti-american views. >> reporter: bob schiefer asked her about it this morning. >> do you wish you had put in a different way? >> there is a lot of things i wish i would have said differently, of course. >> she will kick off the campaign here tomorrow and then heads to new hampshire and south carolina. jan crawford, cbs news. keeping in a moment going and keep building on the poll numbers. jan crawford, cbs evening news. >> for more insight into this campaign 2012 let's go to washington, our political analyst. when you look at these numbers, any surprises in your mind? >> the show was a bit of a surprise. talked a lot about michele bachmann, had strength among conservatives and evangelic voters, but there are candidates going for those same voters. mitt romney's strong showing was not a surprise. he was run there before he has support in the state. the question is whether

as she did in this 2008 exchange with "hardball's" chris matthews. >> you think barack obama may haveanti-american views? >> absolutely. i'm very concerned that he may have anti-american views. that's what the american people are concerned about. >> reporter: today bachmann says president obama's patriotism is not in question. bachmann must also contend with another presence. as she did in new hampshire when mitt romney declared his candidacy, sarah palin may overshadow bachmann when she comes to town tuesday to screen a new documentary about her political rise in alaska. >> sarah had courage to try. >> reporter: but the big loser in the new iowa poll may be tim pawlenty. >> thanks for coming. >> reporter: after already spending 26 days in the state and assembling a well regarded campaign team, the former minnesota governor is behind not only romney and bachmann, but gingrich and hermann cain as well. he leads only rick santorum and jon hundredsman. he has to stand out. it's difficult to do given the crowded race and we have other candidates coming in along the way. >> reporter: leste

i'm chris matthews. welcome to the show. with us today, "the washington post's" bob woodward. politics daily alex wagner. "the new york times" helene cooper and new york magazine's john heilemann. first up, barack obama won the white house as the insurgent. now he's the incumbent. he ran on the audacity of hope. where there was hope, there are now points on the scoreboard. audacity's been replaced by what, wisdom? "60 minutes" correspondent steve crop asked the president about the change. >> you ran as somebody who was going to come to washington and change it and in the end, as some of your predecessors, they've ended up changing you. >> i think it's fair to say it hasn't changed me in terms of my ideals, you know when you're campaigning. i think you're liberated to say things without thinking about ok, how am i going to actually practically implement this. >> do you think you were naive? >> no, i don't think i was naive. i just think these things are hard to do. chris: bob, you wrote a lot of inside books on our recent president, get to know him. what is the before and after

with it yes and we see actually did run with it yesterday they were still just replaying the chris matthewshow. while they were still on wiener gate they just can't get enough of a dial of mass grave we don't give a crap as waiters all the way it was a preview of winter day is pretty interesting that it took the network so long to run with this story which we now know was completely true he wasn't it wasn't a prank so long to run with all your you know human events and i mean with you know you know you know there are told. us we did three days. over this here and there was you know it's all right you know really excited i mean in terms of are you going to do that for covering you know day wide so believe me they have been on top of this story but it is interesting because these days nobody wants to be left behind especially when news moves so quickly on the internet and people are tweeting about things and so out about it we have ones covering the story and then it all turns out to just you know the sham no mass grave not a bummer and no one should pay that psychic reading. list move on. to

but, you know, back in 2008 you went on chris matthews' broadcast and said because of some of the people he associated with-- bill ayers, jeremiah write-- that he had anti-american views. i want you to listen to what you said back then. >> you believe that barack obama may, you're spusish us because of this relationship, may have anti-american views. otherwise it's probably irrelevant to this discussion. >> absolutely. >> do you believe barack obama might have anti-american views? >> absolutely. i'm very concerned that he may have anti-american views. that's what the american people are concerned about. >> schieffer: so what does that mean, congresswoman? did you mean he was unpatriotic, that he didn't love this country? >> no, i don't believe that at all. i don't question the.... >> schieffer: anti-american views? >> i don't question the president's patriotism at all. i think what people are concerned about light now is that the president doesn't seem to have an understanding of how the economy works. it doesn't seem that he has a basic understanding of how to do the job of president of

he won't matter says chris matthews venison is the why does this seem to be the general consensus among so many cable networks he won't matter he's a friend can it still to this day for two reasons that most of the mainstream media and a lot of the establishment kind of political folks are invested in establishment candidates ron paul is not a serious stablished really he's been there a long time but he's libertarian minded so give those but his to something straight ok mitt romney is like watching a monkey screw a football like he's absolutely horrible you have romney care and then he criticized obama for doing the exact same thing romney says in march i don't want to stay there here's their grover he says low les paul we do need to get out of afghanistan i mean this guy is the biggest joke on the republican ticket and polls barkman and kate are no better the only person the only two people on the on the on the i'm not quite four and i think that have anything of substance to offer would be huntsman and ron paul and no wonder they just polled the highest it's pretty interesting though

. >> chris matthews has the latest on congressman weiner's admissions and we will see you here tomorrow. >> when all else fails, the truth. let's play "hardball." >> good evening. from washington, leading off, you got it. it gets much worse. anthony weiner just came clean, finally. all day long stories were saying that he engaged in consensual relationships involving sexting and sending photos. he admitted, yes, he did sometimes after his marriage. he lied all last week. he did tweet that infamous picture of himself to a woman in washington state. wiener apologized to his family and con stit gents and insisted he would not resign. it is an explosive story and we are covering it from every angle. can wiener survive this sex scandal. some resign immediately. others like bill clinton survive. what distinguishes them. howard fineman is is a political analyst. gentlemen you are the experts. first here is the news. here is congressman weiner late today. >> last friday night i tweeted a photograph of myself that i intended to send as part after direct message as part of a joke to a woman in se

chris matthews show last week -- [ unintelligible ] the "new york times" talks about bastille day beingth of july. it would be as if this country celebrated the l.a. riots. it was attack on a nearly empty prison. eyesore based on rumors. result of a mob. extremely anti-religious revolution. they desecrated notre dame. vandalism had to be created because of the french revolution. they destroyed ancient valuable monasteries, ripped them to the ground, hacked priests to death, gave mock sermons, wiping their behinds with the host, talking about the whore the virgin mary. it was followed in russia, cuba, china, cambodia. by the way liberals in this country and "the new york times" cheered on all those revolutions that followed the french revolution. the successful revolution, our revolution fought by christians, englishmen, thinkers, debaters that has not been followed around the world. the tea party the original boston tea parties with not warmly embraced by our founding fathers. they were worried because they thought it was the action of a mob. >> sean: let me just go. right out of the bo

i'm chris matthews up in new york. don't look now, it just got worse for weiner. drip, drip, drip of revelations. what toppled anthony weiner. this afternoon a tabloid website published racy and explicit facebook exchanges between weiner and a las vegas blackjack dealer. even before that, democrats were backing away from weiner and it is not at all clear he can survive this storm or that the democrats can continue to separate themselves from it. plus, weiner patiently answered countless questions at that amazing news conference yesterday afternoon, but many of his answers may have gotten him into more trouble. let's go to the videotape tonight. >>> also, i said it yesterday. if she doesn't run, sarah palin doesn't run she will be the republican kingmaker. it is her mission to stop romney and i think bachmann as well. but with whom? with anybody? >>> here is one from i told you so. with bush consistently against all evidence that would increase revenue and balance the budget, ten years ago today they were signed into law, those tax cuts. let's see how wrong the peo

most of it was, well, hang on -- >> chris matthews, joan walsh and some other guy.nd matthews just asks about -- >> i'm only talking cnn. >> that's not the point. instead of talking about weiner, you attack the deliverer of the news. >> it is natural to be suspicious of mr. breitbart. >> really? i wasn't suspicious of that guy chris lee. i demand to know who put that photo out. same thing with mark foley. do i even know who put out the mark foley story? >> do you ever calm down? >> you're taking a long question when i'm trying to give an answer. >> is it not understandable that people might be at least skeptical given his track record? >> i don't know who exposed mark sanford, a conservative's reaction is not to say, who put that out? let's attack that person. >> why didn't the republicans expose -- >> would you see -- >> arnold schwarzenegger. >> good, get rid of him. >> arnold schwarzenegger. >> no one said, dam that l.a. times for exposing this. >> too late for any damage to be done, other than to his family. >> it wasn't too late in the case of john edwards, eve

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i've seen her on chris matthews' programs, a lot of these candidates won't do that. michele bachmann whether you like her or not and viewers and voters are divided on that, she goes out there and she gets into the fray and i got to give her -- she won't come on tonight to answer this question but in general, i give her respect for doing that. >> she'll come soon and you know she will. i've had her on the program where she made some ludicrous thing about libya and she said she saw it in a newspaper report. you had her on and you grilled her about the president's trip to india when she quoted the ridiculous blog posting and she said, well, i was just quoting the report. i had her on about a month ago and she says now she understands that there's a higher bar now and she can't make factual mistakes like that. but that's the thing, you have to give her credit. she's not afraid to go out and take her harpoons. >> that's the difference between michele bachmann and sarah palin. michele bachmann is willing to confront these issues. lots of republicans at first called her the

on msnbc you have chris matthews in love with michele bachmann. >> can you confirm that? >> what? >> have you confirmed that love affair. >> sort aftof a plutonic. >> i don't really know what this american choice means -- >> it that the root of the way we function in this culture -- >> it is not an old age of choice. we never had it. we had slaves. women couldn't vote. i say this golden age of choice is an aspiration closer to our fingertips. more achievable. >> there are ten difference notions of what the choice is. i would like to leave my job and not be incumbent to get healthcare. >> i agree with that. >> sam is getting at the great dissension between -- my understanding of freedom and his understanding of freedom. his is more after positive one. mine is saying nobody should use force or the threat of force to impose something on somebody else. if his employer says, he doesn't have an employer, he is free to do that in this country. but if his employer says you skr to wear a suit and paper hat -- >> in other words, i apply these values throughout the entire system. it is not j

the past, i mean the one people have really focused on in the last couple of days is she told chris matthews that she agreed with the motion that president obama was potentially unamerican, anti-american and she wouldn't really explain that, she backed off that a little bit this weekend. she has been adivisiveigure, one part of the reason he is so beloved by the right is because she said things right on the edge of acceptable and sometimes over about the president, and about the democratic party. >> rose: does this make it more or less likely that sarah palin will run? >> well, that is a good question, i always like to say predicting what governor palin is going to do islike predicti the actions of the north korean government , there is no rational data to rely on, i think governor palin could look at her and say i can do that and do it bter and bigger, so there is clearly room for me, on the other hand, she may say, michelle bachmann is now at the top of the polls in iowa and has a fund-raising base and up and running with a staff, maybe it would be difficult to overtake her given that they

there have been some funny moments, for instance when her supporters mocked host chris matthews for sayingeg while he mocked her. >> congresswoman bachmann, are you hypnotized tonight? has someone hypnotized you? because no matter what i ask you, you give the same answer. >> reporter: then there was the time she misplaced the start of revolutionary war. >> here you see where the shot was heard around the room. >> reporter: lexington and concorde are in massachusetts. she was speaking in new hampshire. one of her most uncomfortable faux pass wasn't even her fault. >> good evening, my name is congresswoman michele bachmann. if her eyes seem to be wandering off camera during her key party reply to state of the union, that's because they were. look no further. >> reporter: instead of looking at the network pool camera, she was looking

interesting last week, chris matthews, my critic, he does not like me.when joan walsh of salon tried to bring up the sherrod story to try to derail it, to try to change the subject. he said, no, i've looked at the video. i've read the article. nobody's read the article. nobody's looked at the video that he put out there and he kept in the part. he kept in the part that the media says that i didn't keep in, the redefrptive angle. if the media does its work and looks at the 1400 piece which was the attack on the naacp's false attack on the tea party, they will see that i will be vindicate in this lawsuit. >> my question is, did going through all of that, did i change the way you approach a story. when you were sent the information on congressman weiner. did it change? oh. >> i have to be honest with you. you have to dot your is and cross your ts. i know i'm going to be in an incredible level of scrutiny because i am who i am. i go out of my way to dot my is and cross my ts. when you talk to any news producer, when you put out a story of that level of contr

there's been funny moments, for instance when her supporters mocked host chris matthews for saying anhis leg, while he mocked her. >> are you hypnotized? no matter what i ask you, you give the same answer. >> then there was the time she misplaced the start of the revolutionary war. >> where the shot was heard around the world at lexington an concord. >> thing is, that's in massachusetts while she was speaking in new hampshire. >> one of her faux pass, wasn't her fault. >> good evening, my name is michele bachmann. if her eyes were wondering off camera, that's because they were. instead of looking at the network pull camera, she was looking further over at the camera mounted on the tea party camera where she looked fine. >> it was an honor for me to speak with you. >> it was an honor for "saturday night live" to harpoon her. >> the economy is headed for a disaster as you can see from this chart. >> real michele bachmann -- >> staggering 10.1%. >> fake michele bachmann. >> as this chart clearly shows. >> michele bachmann is back, instead of trying to grab the president, she is trying to

chris matthews said msnbc believes what i said is a slur. i am not sure why because it is the truth. obama himself has said, "in america there is a failure to appreciate europe's leading role in the world." america fought two world wars to save europe from tyranny. president obama is flat wrong. i say it is europe who has failed to see the leading role of the united states. [applause] i believe that america is an exceptional nation. president obama does not. we do not have to copy the failed socialist policies that have come out of these many european capitals to know that. the fact is, america is a center right nation and it will take an american pro negative free market policies to get our economy growing again. we're the last line of defense in the crypt that is obama's socialist agenda. to secure the economy, we must rein in our 14.5 trillion dollar debt. citizens united endorsed a bold plan by jack kingston that will stop the fiscal suicide if implemented that is being committed in washington. it limit spending to 18% of gnp -- gdp. thi