stop right there. >> gene robinson, thank you. up next spent over $700 each.te shoppers. p procrastinators may be just what the economy needs. back in a moment. ♪ >>> could we be quite quick? >> faftissimo. ♪ >> what's that? >> it's a cinnamon stick. >> actually, i can't wait. >> you won't regret it, sir. >> you want to bet? >> so that was a scene from the 2003 film "love actually." it's likely a night mayor if you're one of the last minute christmas shoppers out there. here to help procrastina torch rs. mark happen aspirin specifically -- >> i buy everything by arbor day. >> through amazon. >> delivered by drone. >> two of five us. one of them is you. late shoppers make up 42% of the american population but they spend 57% of all the dollars in the final three weeks of the year. it's one of the rest of us. >> is that because we think we'll get a better deal. >> part is the deal, part is procrastination. >> you'll pay more when you're desperate. you pay more when you leave everything to the last minute in a need the gifts. >> that's not what the data says overa

people are saying gene robinson respond to joe. that was going to be my next question. r to respond to my hands up gesture. so now is the time to do it. >> well, no. the hands up gesture, this gesture has become -- it has come to represent the fact that you acknowledge that you've talked about for a long time now which is that there are two justice systems. one for young black men and one for everybody else. you know, i think that rams players were perfectly within their rights, their first amendment rights to do it. i think the team and coach fisher in particular was right to say that they are not going to be punished. and, you know, the grand jury while it seemed to act as the finder of fact in this case, in fact it's not the total role -- that's the role of the trial jury and there were witnesses who said that at some point he had his hands up. so, you know, again, the physical evidence shows that at the moment that the bullets tore into his body he had his hands up. probably not. does it say that at some point his hands might have been up or were going up or were com

joining me now is msnbc contributor, gene robinson.r being here. >> great to be here, rach. >> i have to say, people apologizing isn't a political news story, but this is a way that the obama family is treated in politics, and whether or not we're getting any better at apologizing for doing terrible and stupid stuff. >> well, first of all, i thought it was a pretty bad apology, to tell you the truth. for this reason. she didn't apologize to them. she should have apologized to the people she offended. she offended sascha and malea obama. she doesn't mention them in her apology. she should address her apology to them because those are the people she offended with words, as far as i'm concerned, beyond the pale. this president is treated differently. let's face it. and that's fine. he can deal with that. but to treat his daughters that way is just way beyond. and that line about dress for respect and not for a spot at the bar, boy, at my house, that occasioned some slamming down of things. it plays into this subconscious stereotype of bla

. >> gene robinson talked about growing up in orange burg, forth carolina. same thing what he went through, willie, you look back at what was happening 50 years ago, 59 years ago, rosa parks still being told "get out of your seat. you can't sit there, a white man is going to sit there." you look at what's happened through the years and it's interesting you got barak obama, the president of the united states, eric holder, the attorney general, the ceo of american express african-american, ceo of mcdonald's. can you go through every realm of american life and see extraordinary progress. there is one area, though that continues to haunt this country. >> that is the criminal justice system from the streets to the courtrooms to the jails him we got to clean it up. we got to have a real conversation about it. not just have people pointing to each other. that's where we are right now. >> that's why it's been actually disappointing. when every one of these issues comes up. we say it's time for an actual conversation you have both sides going to each other and scream

also with us at the table host of the msnbc ronald farrow daily as well as gene robinson.rybody is talking about special prosecutor. you opened to the possibility of special prosecutor to investigate cases where police officers shoot unarmed civilians. >> i'm open to considering any number of possibilities that i expect will be debated with the governor, the legislature in the upcoming year. i got to say that d.a.s are elected to do the job when it comes to making decisions on difficult cases. >> right. >> that's the nature of being a prosecutor. >> so what happened on staten island? because most americans, you know, we had a fierce debate over ferguson. >> right. >> and split, you know, down the middle. there's no debating staten island. everybody sat and saw that. what the hell happened? >> well, did you ask that question what happened on staten island? >> i think there's understandable anxiety all over the country and not just limited to communities of color but across spectrum. >> what about you personally? what was your emotional reaction when you saw they weren't ind

. >> you gene robinson, new york city is filled with great emergency medical technicians. eric garner got the bad luck of getting what looks like the worst emt team working in america that day. they, i believe, should have been as much worried about the jut come in that grand jury as officer pantaleo. the idea that only one person there was possibly legally responsible for that death i think is fiction. i think there was a gross dereliction of duty by the emts and others. >> i think they may have been the worst emt team in the world operating that day. and frankly, the first time i saw the they had, that was almost more shocking to me than the altercation and the chokehold. the fact that people whose jobs it is to save lives clearly saw a life that wasn't worth saving, as far as they were concerned. or even trying. and, you know, this has got to change. this simply has got to change. it's cold comfort to say that maybe people will realize this after the events we've seen. it shouldn't take this sort of thing to make people do their jobs and do their jobs in the proper way.

. >> somebody was saying the other day, gene robinson, a much respected fellow around here, he has toess up and in some way address this. if he does that, let's face the litigation situation. if he were to admit he did something here, is there any way -- >> from a moral standpoint i think that's beside the point, if he did this, and certainly my opinion is looking at everything that's been reported, yeah, he probably did. >> should he just go away? >> no, but he's got to come to grips with what he did and what the real impact of that was on people, and if that means litigation and if that means paying out a hell of a lot of money, so be it. what he did based on my interpretation of it, just my opinion, but what he did was so significantly wrong that that really does have to be addressed. him just going away, disappearing, is really -- >> i would think one count is a felony. >> the statute of limitations has run out. what people are telling me, here is what they don't understand. celebrities do this all the time. why not sue for defamation of character? >> well, the statute of limitati

let me get back to -- we have gene robinson here and mary that ressa kumar and joy reid up in new york. the president -- you're a pro at these press conference preparations. they made a mistake, if i ever heard a dictated headline, that was it, on sony's reaction and i would say appeasement of the north koreans. >> i think when he was about ten seconds into that answer we thought, there's not a lot he can make this press conference make this not the story. i think it was clearly far away the headline. i thought it was interesting his analogy was in not showing this movie was in changing our habits after something that happens around a terrorist incident, and i think that was a very telling analogy. and i think this was -- this was a relaxed, confident president today in a what that we had not seen him at a news conference. >> i agree. let's take a look at that quote because i think it will be the nightly news, certainly on "hardball" and the papers tomorrow. here's the president dictating the headline with this press conference. >> sony's a corporation. it, you know, suffered significa

because as i have said repeatedly on this show, time and time again to people like gene robinson.orse than a young white man. on the street. in the courtroom. in jail. there are two americas when it comes to criminal justice. and i have said that repeatedly. but, donny, in this case, if my child or your child knocked other a convenience store and then went down the middle of the street shouting profanities at a police officer. let's say on staten islands, in queens. and then went into the car and started punching the police officer and grabbing for his gun, probably be shot in the car. >> yeah, i saw you this morning. i was on the show this week. i said, am inmissing something here. i kind of got you going. look, i am a little left of center. i'm right of center. i could not agree with every word you said more passionately. it's not a black/white situation. it's a thug/police officer situation. i sit here, you know, and i'm going to sound like a grumpy old white guy. but am i missing something here? am i absolutely miss something here? that a criminal who goes into a cop car, goes

this is a conversation that gene robinson and i had nonstop during trayvon before and after. it's not just in new york city. it's across america. the conversation that your father had with you is the conversation that most fathers have with their sons, with their black sons. gene would say, with their black sons you get pulled over, keep your hand up. like gene said -- >> don't mess with any police. >> now, of course, if i got out of the car and started moving towards a police officer they would scream and yell at me. but i am not presumed guilty. i'm not presumed to be carrying a gun. young black males by too many cops are. >> here's what happened. somebody is watching and saying yeah but you might have some folks that's involved in some type of criminal activity. the reason we know about racial profilling today it was middle class african-americans being pulled over on the new jersey turnpike in their nice cars. wait a minute i'm doing the right things. i went to school. i don't have any issues, you're pulling me over? the reality is forget your economic status they don't s

gene robinson nobody is standing up against this and everybody but mika seemed to be concerned aboutt the white house yesterday and spoke with a senior administration official who would not -- would not confirm, the white house was not ready to confirm or to say that it was definitively north korea, but this official did say that this was the kind of attack that does deserve a response and so they are going to do something. i don't know what. but made clear that this is not something that could just, can just be waved off. >> at the same time the argument is that they should show the movie, theaters show show the movie and people should go to the movie and that's standing up to terrorism. >> i think that's a good argument too. and the administration has said it did not see a credible threat against movie theaters. but that, of course, is a decision that first the movie theater chains made, they didn't want to show it. then sony made, i think, the only decision it could make under the circumstances, if nobody is going to show the movie, and there is this threat whether confirmed or no

. ♪ >>> time now for the must read opinion pages where we get to u gene robinson his headline the eric sickening outcome. also joining us we have congressman gregory meeks of new york and john mecham is here along with mike barnacle. i want to start by showing you all congressman peter king because he's the one person i've seen along the way who has a differing opinion about this. have you all met anybody else or heard any other voices that you agree with the decision >> i have not. >> i have not. >> i got a lot of conservatives emailing me. >> okay. i want to play this for your all. take a look. >> you have a 350 pound person who is resisting arrest, the police are trying to bring him down as quickly as possible. if he had not had asthma and a heart condition and was so obese most definitely he would not have died from this. the police had no reason know he was in serious condition. i know people are saying that he said 11 times or seven times i can't breathe. the fact is if you can't breathe you can't talk. >> mike barnacle. >> peter king is flat out wrong in that observation about w

. >> gene robinson in washington, d.c. i believe you have a question. >> yeah.ve a question for anthony. this is apparently a very safe aircraft. i'm not aware of any reports that there was -- that you know we know there was some weather issue, but i haven't heard anything serious enough to create you know that bad a problem for this aircraft. so is there any sense of what might have gone wrong? did it have to be something sudden and catastrophic or could it have been something else? >> we don't want to suffer from investigation bias and proceed with conclusions prior to having all the facts in. however, some of the facts just scream out at you at this time. this area is known as the intertropical convergence zone. that's the area around the equator in which the north and south air masses meet and form terrible weather. it's also the monsoonal season. and this creates extreme weather. this type of extreme weather, level five thunderstorms, can result in catastrophic failure of aircraft whether systems failure, engines failure or structural failure. it can also r

robinson. he's so sad. jeremy peters. jeremy needs to work. jane, can you give engine >> geneles. >> you can