i do think the timing of it is actually healthy for the clintons and a potential clinton run. >> to get it out of the way. >> asked and answered. inoculation is the best medicine in american politics. even though we're all, you know, we cannot resist a good monica lewinsky story and reliving it and reliving it and re-reliving it, there's only so many times we're going to be able to sit around this table. >> oh, from your lips -- >> on her fourth piece in "vanity fair" perhaps we won't be talking about it. so i think it's healthy for a clinton presidential run to have this discussion now. >> let me just satisfy everyone at the table that republicans will have plenty more to talk about when it comes to hillary. there's benghazi, relationship with goldman sachs, missing state department record. there's plenty to go after. ruth, be honest with you. it seems as if there is a bubble around hillary. liberals are very cagy. there's a whole list of things you cannot wring up when it comes to hillary clinton. her past is one of them. >> i never got that list, s.e. this is what you're talking abou

that woman, as bill clinton referred to her in his infamous disclaimer, a loony tune, as hillary clinton said, a stalker, as a clinton aide was portraying her. tonight, we discuss whether republicans are the stupid party and go after the story with the same piety or the shrewd party for the callous treatment of a young woman who got in the clinton's political way. howard fineman is an msnbc political analyst and nia malika henderson is a national political reporter at "the washington post." howard, how did you see this? did you read the article? when you read all the way through, you have to look, i think, as a political analyst, as you do and i do, and see where there might be ammo. where i see it, it's not again whether bill clinton did something wrong. we all know that, or whether hillary clinton was hurt by it and embarrassed by it and we all know that, and actually how she's prevailed against it herself. but this whole question of whether the clintons were just too damned callous in trying to make her into a stalker and, of course, hillary clinton called her a loony tune, bill clint

a stalker and, of course, hillary clinton called her a loony tune, bill clinton said that woman and almost didn't use her name, that attempt to minimize a person in order to get by a problem politically. that might sting. your thoughts? >> chris, i agree with you about the piece. i read the entire piece and the bomb shells are buried in the bottom at the end, where i think monica lewinsky allows herself to unburden herself a bit of the bitterness she has about the campaign that was run against her. chris, i lived through all this, i was at "newsweek" at the time writing about it. mike isikoff was our lead reporter on the story. i saw it moment by moment from the inside, and i also saw the campaign that was run against monica lewinsky. as she says in the piece, this was a consensual relationship, and then she was destroyed to the extent possible by the clinton administration. she says in the piece, you know, i was the unstable stalker, a phrase disseminated by the clinton white house. she goes on to say, the clinton administration, among others, were able to brand me, and that brand

this is one of the biggest parts of the clinton story, if you will, part of the clinton soap opera and that is why it is there. lynne cheney threw out the theory that perhaps this helps the clintons by getting ahead of the story so it doesn't weigh them down. there is something to her being the first victim of the internet age. i interviewed donna rice for the "daily beast," a victim of a major sex scandal over involvement with gary mart she talked how different the coverage is and she also pointed out that gary hart went away and the clintons have not. so why won't she shut up? it is possible she is asking the same, if she went away her name would not be in the public eye. >> and there is an upside and a down side so being in the position if she had the same universe when this happens, she would have gotten the serious fame and had some sort of internet show, reality show, and she never got any of that is it could be where she is asking for it a. >> she tried it on fox. she tried making hand bags, that didn't work. she had has a hard time getting traction. >> she had the barbara walte

it's hillary clinton or nothing. if you want to card martin o'malley, but elizabeth warren is tugging the party to the left. i don't see a ton of other people getting in. bernie sanders is talking about an independent run. god bless you. that's the extent of your bench. >> well, and obviously having one person is enough to terrify your entire party into attacking her all the time including your own boss, reince priebus. i want you to hear it. i'm sure you saw this despicable horrible thing he did over the weekend. let's listen to your boss talk -- >> i think that health and age is fair game. it was fair game for ronald reagan, fair game for john mccain. people came at john mccain and said maybe he's not psychologically not fit because he was a prisoner of war. >> now, where he's going here is saying in may 2014, karl rove is right to be making up stuff about brain damage. is that your strategy, just to go down the -- >> first of all, it was president clinton as you recall who actually came out and said actually the c

she takes a swipe at hillary clinton. she says no one it seems can escape the unforgiving gaze of the internet or gossip, half truths and lies take root and fester. the pundits are parting again, like it's 1968. >> he should not have slept with her. she should have had the state of mind as a 23-year-old woman to not sleep with her boss. >> oh, come on. >> she was not a child. >> monica made a point which is true. hillary clinton attacked the woman. >> if dumping on monica lewinsky was a way to protect the president, haul away. it shows the morality of the moral callousness that the clintons were capable. >> joining us now, laura ashburn, mary katherine hamm and kelly goff, special correspondent for "the root." monica says the media made her a scapegoat. is this a plea to the press for kinder, gentler treatment? >> sure. she's been shame by the media for all of these years. she's shaming the media back. it's working. listen to these headlines, bill maher said i literally felt guilty. andrea pieser, that mean spirited criti

i think that speech actually had more to do with bill clinton that hillary clinton. bitter isn't necessarily the right word. but he feels he's not getting enough credit for what he did on inequality in the 1990s. the idea that nobody was talking about this in the early to late 90s is crazy. i ran on a populist theme. i was a populist president, you know, an i did x, y and z in order to reduce income inequality. and he wants that credit. i think that has a lot more to do with why he gave the speech than actually anything related to 2016. >> but isn't this really about tenor and attitude that elizabeth warren is seen as kind of a trust buster, an old progressive who is willing to go in and make enemies. and really be known as someone wall street doesn't like. i'm your nemesis, your worst nightmare. his friends, all the people i know in wall street are friends of the clintons. social friends, financial friends. they help them in their campaigns. isn't there a wall they will not cross or jump over. they're not willing to say i'm standing outside of wall street calling fo

is hillary clinton was always about protecting her political meal ticket, who was bill clinton. even at the expense of throwing these women under the bus. this suggestion somehow, and we just heard it from yes caw, but we constantly hear it from the left, it's okay to overlook men on the democratic side who abuse particular women, whether it's monica lewinsky or ted kennedy, any of that, okay to overlook that because they're good on women's issues. i they think that's a very corrosive and destructive thing. >> jessica, your response. i don't want to be two on one, but juanita brodrick, i interviewed her a long time ago, she said she was raped by bill clinton. she had a fat lip. this was not an insignificant charge against bill clinton. and some corroborating evidence, at least. so again, he's -- you can't touch bill clinton. he's a global celebrity. but is this relevant today? will this be relevant in 2016 with hillary, or are people going to say monica lewinsky, she just wanted a little bit of attention and she doesn't have a job, apparently, so maybe she wanted some money. is

they didn't just let up on the clintons, they started to lionize the clintons.p a new clinton caricature. no wonder were necessity radical immoral ideologues. suddenly with barack obama their new enemy in chief, republicans began talking about the clintons wistfully. this from "the new york times" in 2010 under the headline some in gop find soft spot for bill clinton. senator orrin hatch will go down in history as a better presidency than the sitting one. he was referred to as good ole bill. republicans in congress began speaking about him with respect, even pining. when barack obama became president instead of hillary clinton, the right tried to rewrite its own history. forgot all about monica lewinsky and impeachment and that old caricature it had of hillary and praising the clintons became a way of attacking barack obama, holding up bill and hillary as examples, as shining examples really of practical, cooperative, bipartisan democrats, examples that in their telling the current president fell far short of. here's what that strategy did. that is the trend lin

bill clintonr and said ta ought to be considered in hillary clinton's candidacy for the presidency. and secondly, the release of those papers from the clinton library in which hillary clinton talking to her late close friend diane blair described monica as a narcissistic loony toon. and what monica says in this article is first of all, on rand paul's comments, predatory behavior, look, make no mistake, this was a consensual relationship that she had with bill clinton. that, of course, is something she has said and made clear many times before. but on the other point, reacting to hillary clinton's sort of dericive comments about her, she reminds us about the -- what may have been the most critical moment in this whole scandal and that was january 16th, 1998 when star's prosecutors and fbi agents confront her at the pentagon mall and take her up to a hotel room and threaten her with multiple federal felonies for perjury, obstruction of justice saying she could go to jail for years if she didn't coop

>>> so bill clinton got to take a crack at carl rogue's medical diagnosis of hillary clinton today. you have been asking about lawrence. we have a special update tonight. stay tuned for that. but first, it's bill versus karl. >> former secretary of state hillary clinton is speaking in washington. maybe she will have something to say dr. rove's 2016 diagnosis. >> i didn't say she had brain damage. she had a serious health episode. >> we know that the health is fair game. >> however, this -- >> maybe karl rove isn't the best messenger. >> i didn't say she had brain damage. >> now you are going to say she had brain damage. >> i never used the phrase. she had a serious health episode. >> they first said she was faking the health issue. >> fir taste said she faked her concussion. >> she didn't want to testify about benghazi. >> now they say she is auditioning for "the walking dead." >> so inconsistent to be laughable. >> there is no evidence that karl rove knew it would become public. >> nothing was reported. >> clearly reversing. >> rove is nasty. is he nasty stupid? or nasty smart? >>

. >>> the clintons go to war. let's play "hardball." >> a now open partisan battle between the clintons and the republicans. clinton may have blown the starters whistle himself when he said the current attacks on hillary's health are, as he put it, just the beginning. the clintons have avoided so far by saying this is just the beginning of the attacks on the former secretary of state. he's predicting a future of republican attacks on candidate hillary clinton. he said this is just the beginning of the attacks. so is she running? if she doesn't run, what campaign attacks can he be talking about? this was supposed to start a year from now and on clinton's timetable. instead it's bellowing up now on karl rove's timetable. instead of talking about the country's future, which moub the propelling topic of any presidential campaign, it's right now over whether hillary clinton's health will keep her from getting in. can hillary drop back to the sidelines? can she get that year of not being a candidate she seemed all along

>> well, i think that the clintons have been essentially immunized from stories about bill clinton'spossible potential impact is that hillary's in some sense from the past already. and these stories remind people about the past. so that makes her a little bit vulnerable. but in terms of the lewinsky story itself, i think there's nothing there that can actually harm the clintons. >> and that a woman should not need to answer for her husband's indiscretions and as well pointed out yesterday, a man should not have to answer for his wife's indiscretions as well. equal opportunity. >> and no voter wants to live this 1990s. it wasn't a good decade for any of us. >> for fashion or anything, no, i would say. >> it's good for the economy. >> there you go. high point. >> there was that. >> sally, david, thank you. >> thank you. >> let us know what you think about monica lewinsky speaking out. look at herpes and tell us what you think. tweet us with a #newday. >>> coming up on the show, hillary clinton also weighing in on the kidnapped nigerian girls and their captors as first lady michelle oba

foundation and bill clinton?ot comment, they did not come back. but since then we have gotten a lot of support for the clintons, all of the letters are written in a very similar way saying the clintons are really not to blame here, that there were lots of problem, but bill clinton, what did he have to do with it? and that i find very strange because he was the point person in haiti for the last four years. >> this is fascinating stuff. big picture quickly, how much will this affect hillary clinton's campaign if she is runs? >> it's a perfect example of the sort of problems hillary clinton will have, because the clintons together are just questions of conflict of interest get raised constantly. that does not mean they're doing things illegal or wrong. but they are political problems. and it's going to be endless land minds for hillary, the whole time she's trying to run for president, with her husband. >> when we come back, our hits and miss of the week. memorial day weekend? looks like fun. but what about this? i

bill clinton is partially

hillary clinton is not bill clinton either, so i think this is what is so problematic. >> that's what'scrazy to me, if hillary clinton is a victim if anything in this. what does this have to do with her? but everything's a conspiracy with this crowd, joy. they thought that chelsea clinton planned her pregnancy to help her mom and that hillary had a shoe thrown at her on purpose. i mean, listen to this. >> when i say staged, i mean, i have to believe she's pregnant if she says she's pregnant. i don't mean they are making up she's pregnant, okay, but what -- what great timing! i mean, purely accidental, purely an act of nature, purely just left up to god. >> i don't know why anybody would be throwing a shoe at hillary unless maybe it's an attempt to make the benghazi people look like nuts and lunatics and wackos. >> you couldn't make this up. >> you couldn't. i think what's interesting about it, one thing that has not changed in more than 20 years is the utter paranoia that the clintons elicit in the right, that sees a web of conspiracy behind anything that they do or say is still just as

hillary clinton certainly would be relevant. this will be falling at the time hillary clinton becomes public again and worth remembering her book is going to focus not in small degree on benghazi and what happened and so how that matches up with what ends up coming out of this committee will be interesting, too. >> it's definitely great campaign fodder for republicans for their base but you have to understand the conservative psyche here a lull bit, too. i think there is still to this day regret that mitt romney did not embrace this more in the fall of 2012. call that a bit of revisionism. they're so convinced this is something, that this was something then and there's regret he did not use more of it. >> that's absolutely true. >> it's why in may of 2014 it's still here. >> that does go to the point this is at least at this point a base issue. it's not like you see the american public clamoring for more information about benghazi. you look at the polls, people are concerned about the economy just as we were talking about before

clinton, that it's not going to be easy. it's not going to be a free ride. >> reporter: bill clinton says he expects the attacks to get harsher. >> this is just the beginning. >> reporter: and no doubt, the clintons, both of them, will be taking plenty of shots, too. for "this week," jonathan karl, abc news, washington. >>> let's bring in the roundtable now. i'm joined by bill kristol. editor of "the weekly standard." jennifer granholm, senior adviser of the ready for hillary pack. peggy noonan of "the wall street journal," and keith ellison. was this a shrewd move by karl rove? or did he overstep? >> i don't think it was a particularly shrewd move. we'll see how secretary clinton's health is. she'll be out campaigning. i imagine she will be fine. people can see for themselves. there's no reason for karl rove to speculate about it. >> one of the reasons we saw, jennifer granholm, the clinton camp hit back hard. the most extensive statement we've seen from secretary clinton's staff, responding to any kind of a charge. but she

bill clinton wasn't even asked to hide, right? he was able to maintain his leadership as this great statesman. fine. look at david vitter. look at spitzer and weiner. sure, she haven't had the political success they want to have, but they still have pretty successful and profitable careers and the women are tarn i should -- tarnished. this is a pattern over and over again. we want to forget but we're not allowed to. >> you're in politics, you know spitzer and weiner keep coming back. >> because they're shameless and they benefit from male privilege. >> i agree that the criticism of monica lewinsky at the time was terribly unfair and vicious and sexist and also perpetrated by hillary clinton, let's remember. did she put out word that monica lewinsky was a deranged stalker? we learned now that she considered her a narcissistic looney tune and she tried to undermine this woman trying to work for the most powerful man in the world. >> speaking of male privilege, the only male on the planet ane not getting much privilege besides me. >>

bill clinton, chelsea clinton leaving the hospital on wednesday, january 2nd.ck to work the next wednesday. her deputies gave her a football helmet. not joke there. and the spokeswoman at the time said that she appeared to be fully recovered. listen here to bill clinton this past week suggesting the recovery actually took a lot longer. >> i was sort of dumfounded. they went to all this trouble to say that she had staged what was a terrible concussion that required six months of very serious work to get over, something she never low balled with the american people, never tried to pretend didn't happen. >> molly ball, six months to get over. she didn't talk about it that much. she did do an interview, in the joint interview with "60 minutes," steven kroft asked her about her health. listen to this. >> how is your health? >> it's great. it's great. i still have fingering effects from falling on my head and having the blood clot. the doctors tell me that will recede. thankfully i'm looking forward to being at full speed. >> i notice your glasses -- >> i have some l

. >>> the clintons are in the ring. let's play "hardball." >>> good evening, i'm chris matthews in washington. let's start with the best fight in the country, the clintons versus karl rove. rove started this battle royale over hillary's health, this brain injury he's mixing it up about. the clintons are hitting back with a combination of punches, the defense of the former secretary of state is 100%, that rove is dealing with some kind of sickness himself, or, according to bill, the republican operative's charges are so inconsistent as to be laughable. well, the question now looms up there in the air, is this nasty stupid politics or nasty effective politics? did rove hurt himself, which really doesn't matter in the big world, or did he hurt himself but also hurt hillary clinton in the act? this matters. if hillary's forced to play defense on health, will this rob her of a clean, upbeat future campaign, forcing her to play rear guard tie her to the past, putting the focus on what she's been through, not where she wants t

are all eyes on the clintons? or the alternatives? tonight on "crossfire." >>> welcome to "crossfire." i'm stephanie cutter on left. >> i'm s.e. cupp on the right. in the "crossfire" tonight a pair of top political strategists. have a message for karl rove, thanks but no thanks. bill clinton took your silly softball pitch and knocked it out of the ballpark. look, it's neither sexist or out of bounds to raise serious legitimate questions about hillary's health. so i appreciate the effort, but imposing a ridiculous conspiracy theory, all you did was buy her a week of sympathy. and karl, you turned it into a punch line that gave bill clinton a perfect setup. >> now they say she's really got brain damage. >> you think they're just trying -- >> if she does, i must be in really tough shape because she's still quicker than i am. >> hardy-har-har. let's not make a habit of gifting singers to bill clinton. we'll take it from here, karl. >> you know, actually, i don't disafr agreagree with a thing y >> i bet you don't. >> kpexcept for this that

karl, you got the wreed and even president clinton talking about hillary clinton's health. accomplished? >> look, let's put this in context. i was asked is she running? i said my brain says yes, but my gut says this is a more complicated decision, and i cited this 30 days of dealing with a very serious health issue. she comes home from the czech republic. she stops in belfast on the afternoon of the 7th of december, 2012. she is seen in public, and the next time we see her in public is back at work as the 7th of swran. we see her briefly on the might of january 2nd when she is leaving the hospital, but during that period of time she has a virus, she has a concussion. they announce on the 15th of december she's fallen and hit her head. we're not going to tell you what day or even where it was. finally, on the 30th of december she goes in for a routine follow-up and they announce she's got a blood clot, and they won't say for 24 hours when and where it is. hen they issue 119 word statement. it takes about a minute to read out loud that says it was between her inner -- >> let

it's not just bill clinton.rget it was also hillary clinton who allowed the abuse of multiple women because she had to protect bill clinton's power and protect her own power, which let's not forget before this affair happened, hillary clinton was not a popular person in washington, d.c. people felt sorry for her which is why she is where she is. >> i wish her the best, monica. i think it's sad what happened in the aftermath of all of that. >>> coming up, the video you're about to see in the next segment is absolutely horrifying. you'll watch this. a man caught on camera kicking hard an innocent cat. we're going to analyze people that harm animals this way. and also a left wing activist filming her own abortion. she calls it a, quote, positive experience. we'll talk about it next. my bli. my bli. so i don't let my blindness get in the way of doing the things i love. but sometimes it feels like my body doesn't know the difference between day and night. i struggle to sleep at night, and stay awake during the day. i

pick out the clinton favorites. peck out those ones, they win, she gets the record as well as bill with being in the winners. >> she did this in 1998 and 2000. >> schumer in new york. >> and others. she had a great record. a great won/loss record in 1998 and that helped her be a much more impressive senatorial candidate in 2000. >> i dependent know until this thing happened. >> you know why this is important, she hasn't campaigned in a long time. micks is always evolving, it's always different. the role she is played as secretary of state -- >> is it giving nice speeches where everybody cheers? or letting people ask you questions. it it's both. it's having a message and a vision. it's going elsewhere and it's doing it -- you know what, i'll book it -- doing it not just once a week, it's doing it every day over and over again. so she needs to get back up. >> that's always been my concern about any politician that leaves the field for eight years. you're not into the zeitgeist. every time you try a speech in the old d

we've been talking about hillary clinton a lot this morning.me lively reaction on twitter. ha ha ha, pause, sip of coffee. the idea that after this past month she might say, no, probably not. >> this really is -- there are republicans who believe their best shot at beating her is to do whatever it takes to make her not want to run because the demographic problem of particularly among older white women flocking to her candidacy the first time, i have looked at evidence of this with women candidates first time run for the u.s. senate and governor. it's real and it makes her almost unbeatable and that's what makes a lot of republicans nervous. >> all right. thank you all very much for being here. appreciate the discussion very much. that's all for today. we are not going to be here next week because of nbc sports coverage of auto racing, formula one. but we will be back on june 1st. if it's sunday, it's "meet the press." >>> good monday morning. right now on "first look," on alert. the first report of mers right here in the u.s. after exposure to

it's an act of terrorism. >> if citizen clinton feels that way, why did secretary of state clinton refuse to label them terrorists. score another big win for the republican establishment. >> it's been the mission all along, that is to beat kay hag gan and make harry reid irrelevant. >> the tea party rocked the system in 2010 and 2012. why is it getting crushed in 2014? "inside politics," the biggest stories sourced by the best reporters now. >>> welcome to "inside politics." i'm john king. sthan, for sharing your sunday with us, happy mother's day. malika henderson, maggie haberman, robert costa, juliana goldberg. it was a rather bizarre week in politics. there are 31 count them n the barack obama presidency. yet his first chief of staff, now chicago mayor ram emanuel decided to endorse hillary clinton for president. that was friday. one day after house republicans officially launched a new benghazi investigation. just the facts is what the republicans insist they're after. a fund-raising pitch sent out twice in six paragraphs say before any new facts have been gathered, the goal of this

bill clinton is partially responsible, as well. bill clinton said, i did something terrible just because i could. i think that's about the most morally indefensible reason anybody could have for doing everything. tonight, monica lewinsky by her own doing is back in the spotlight after 15 years with a revealing article in "vanity fair." america loves a comeback and monica has never been able to garner herself one. i believe the public has largely moved on but she has not. she is stuck. i am happy that she has now realized that it is time for her to own her own destiny. because i was reprimanded by almost every one of my guests, tonight i got new ones. let's have at it. that was a joke, by the way. emily shirer is a report for the daily beast and amy holmes, michael levine is here, and, sally khan is a cnn political comment at a time tor and mel robins is a cnn commentator and cnn analyst, as well. if you think i was hard on monica lewinsky, check out the cover of the new york post. this is what the "new york post says." my life suck

. >> hillary clinton. >> hillary clinton. >> hillary. >> hillary. >> hillary clinton. >> the clinton poll numbers. >> a long time between now and 2016. anything can happen. >> hillary clinton in 2008. a front-runner. >> you may have heard, hillary had to dodge a flying shoe in a press conference. >> hillary clinton is a front-runner. >> democrats are very much united around her. >> i am somebody who has to mull things over. >> it is important that we make progress. >> there is -- less resistance to the idea of a woman president. >> in 2016, would you be, would you prefer to be called madam president or mrs. president? ready or not. hillary clinton has a new answer to the 2016 question. running for president. how do you make those decisions? >> great question. obviously thinking about that right now. >> i'm in for lawrence o'donnell. democrats focusing on this year's midterm elections may have gotten a boost today from some one definitely not on the ballot this fall. >> i have a little bit of experience in knowing that it can get discouraging when you are grappling with big challenges

clinton, correct? personally you know her? years. >> i didn't know her that well. i did one interview, spent a little bit of time. you correct me if i'm wrong because you've known her for years. she's not a micro manager kind of person. she's the front person. all right? that got sent all over the world, constantly on the go, doing, i don't know what she was doing half the time. couldn't really figure it out. i can't imagine hillary clinton sit there and saying gee, what is going on in benghazi today. >> bill, we do know what that mission was there and what the ambassador was doing. we'll have a better idea -- >> it seems almost impossible that hillary clinton would be paying attention to benghazi no matter how many warnings the state department got, they don't go to her, they go to other people. i just can't see it. is it wrong, remember watergate, the third rate burglary. that was the first. it was almost like the democrats today. it was almost like nancy pelosi, all most the same. third rate burglary. all right? doesn't mat

clinton didn't want them to?y fair, democratic politicians, i don't think she would. i don't know if this is coordinated or not but i don't think it would run if they didn't want it to. i don't think this is to rehash the scandal or re-examine whether the president should be i'm peached but monica made a point that is true, that is hillary clinton attacked the woman. she led, i was there for the whole thing, i covered every day of this, she led the effort to discred discredit monica lewinsky, an unmarried woman had an affair with amired man. they said she's a stocker. she's crazy. it's her fault. she's a pig. she's crazy. that's not how feminists behave. it was weird seeing hillary clinton run at this champion of women and women rights when she lead the way to crush this girl and ruined her life. she's stuck in 1998. she can't go on the street without being hassled. she hasn't had a job. hillary clinton should care because she's a woman. >> there is that argument this doesn't hurt hillary clinton because of the t

when it comes to foreign policy, everything gets run through the "how did hillary clinton cause this" filter on the right? is it all about fitting her with doubt to running in 2016? we'll also have the latest on the kidnapped nigerian girls with new disturbing claims by boko haram. 2014 super tuesday, it's a huge day of primary voting and it's just eight days away, a week from tomorrow on may 20th. half a dozen states from coast to coast will give us important clues about the mid-term landscape as we head into the summer of campaigning. voters in arkansas, georgia, idaho, kentucky, oregon and pennsylvania all head to the polls that day. early voting is already under way in two of those states, arkansas and georgia. voters have been mailed ballots in a third. oregon is an all vote by mail state. three of the contests will test the strength of the tea party, the senate races in kentucky and georgia in particular and the fight in idaho's second congressional district. then there's the race that combines big personalities, the highest legislative stakes and it likely to be one of the most

it's not just bill clinton.ot forget it was also hillary clinton >> hillary was a victim as well. >> -- in order to protect his power she had to do that because she has to protect her own power. let's not forget before this affair happened, hillary clinton was not a popular person in washington, d.c. people felt sorry for her which is why he is where he is. >> i wish her the best, monica. i think it's sad what happened in the aftermath of all of that. >>> coming up, the video you're about to see in the next segment is absolutely horrifying. you'll watch this. a man caught on camera kicking hard an innocent cat. we're going to analyze people that harm animals this way. and also a left wing activist filming her own abortion. he calls it a quote, positive experience. we'll talk about it next. ...and a choice. take 4 advil in a day which is 2 aleve... ...for all day relief. "start your engines" nowchoose one option fromith red lothe wood-fire grill,trios! one signature shrimp dish, and a pasta. all on one plate. thr

let me start with this preventive war being waged on hillary clinton. it's right out in the open now. from benghazi and nigeria, all the forces of the right are closing ranks to attack their common enemy for 2016. bill krystal, the iraq war field marshall of the home war has waged war on her title, secretary clinton. rabd paul has said to relish his direct line of attack on clinton, and now marco rubio looking for any chance to line up with the far right attack squad is joining the charge against the former first lady. some think this is preventive war, a nasty line of fire to scare hillary clinton from evening entering the presidential race. this is just the beginning, they're saying, of what we're going to throw at you. the second you throw your hat in the ring. if you don't like the heat, they're channelling harry truman here, stay out of the kitchen. well, this dreadful cam feign of personal attack suck succeed? will it drive the democrats' best hope from the field even before the battle? or will it shape the battlefield once he enters it, putting h

the faster of that was bill clinton. thank you howard fineman. coming up, can marco rubio as a member of the republican know nothings, the science deniers. he says he doesn't believe humans are causing global warming. doesn't believe that these scientists, he calls them have conclud concluded. he's trying to make his bones with the right. plus, rand paul has some advice for his party on alleged voter fraud. go ahead and pass voter id laws. just stop talking about it. people are on to you. and the wild cards, the senate race, democrats who have something to sell besides just being democrats. some good democratic candidates out there are making tougher for republicans than many people had expected. and back to climate change. the new sunday show, john oliver takes on the science deniers. >> the only accurate way to report that one out of four americans are skeptical of global warming is to say a poll finds that one out of four americans are wrong about something. anyway, this is "hardball" the place for politics. ♪ [ girl ] my mom, she makes underw

think about it for a minute, if senator clinton, secretary clinton, first lady clinton, if she's outere's not going to be any health issue, just as there wasn't a health issue with dwight eisenhower or ronald reagan. this is an absurdity and it typifies the republican consulting class, which wants to be negative, narrow, personal, avoid ideas, and not have to wrestle with the big issues. well, on this show, we're going to focus on wrestling about big issues where we disagree deeply, but there's serious real issues, not petty personal attacks, and i think karl rove owes secretary clinton an apology to bring up that kind of thing and suggest that kind of thing is what keeps a lot of decent people from getting in public life, because it ain't worth the pain of that kind of attack. >> so we agree? >> shocks me. >> that changed. >> in two minutes we'll disagree on policy. >> it's fair to question our sanity to being in the united states senate. >> on "crossfire" tonight, democratic senator tim kaine of virginia and republican senator lindsey graham of south carolina. so, do i get the firs

today, former president clinton went after karl rove's dirty suggestion, that hillary clinton might have brain damage. >> well, first of all, i got to give him credit, you know, he did that embodies that old saying that consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds. first, they said she faked her concussion, and now they say she's auditioning for a part on "the walking dead." >> he openly mocked rove and exposed just how absurd these attacks is. >> she works out every week, she is strong, she's doing great. as far as i can tell, she's in better shape than i am. she certainly seems to have more stamina now. i was sort of dumbfounded. they went through all this trouble that said she stayed, terrible concussion that required six months of very serious work to get over. something she never low balled with the american people, never tried to pretend didn't happen. now they say she's really got brain damage. if she does, then i must be in really tough shape, because she's still quicker than i am. >> the president's tone was light, but make no mistake, this was a warning to the right wing spin m