former democratic congressman from tennessee, harold ford jr.f the national review rich lowry. managing editor of the grio.com and msnbc contributor joy reid. a lot to pick up on. speaker gingrich, the terror debate which can extend from benghazi now to syria to threats to the homeland after boston. how is the president doing? >> oh, i think in the long run not particularly well. i think mayor giuliani stated a good example. 42 months after ft. hood we are pretending that this is a workplace incident when somebody jumps up, yelling allah and kills a bunch of american soldiers clearly related to radical islam. on the fbi most wanted list, 30 -- for terrorism, 30 of the 31 are islamists. yet the coverage of the first two days after boston was, gee, i wonder what motivated these two chechens? now, we still refuse to come to grips with how serious and how long term this problem is going to be. i think it could be a 50 to 70 year problem. >> joy, it's a political question. it's a security question. two years after osama bin laden has been killed, are

harold ford jr. is still with us. >> beautiful, isn't it?us from washington, associate editor of the "washington post" and political analyst eugene robinson. >> i'm glad he's here. gene, really quickly before we go to the other people. honeyboo-boo's parents reportedly getting married. what's your response in washington? >> i think there's shock and dismay, but general rejoicing. >> what does it say about us? what does it say about us that honey boo-boo's parents are coming together and getti intin married? >> i think this is a seminal moment the evolution. >> there's no doubt, we're coming together. people are getting married. bill bennett was right. the societal forces that were pulling us apart in the '60s are now bringing us together. and i do suspect that 100 years from now, people studying such things. i don't know what you call them, sociologists, i don't know, what will -- i don't know what they'll be called 100 years from now. they'll look back to this date, this moment. >> think about that. >> this is when we started -- when we sta

harold ford jr.h robert gibbs in washington and joining us now president of the council on foreign relations, richard haass. he is the author of new book "foreign policy begins at home the case for putting america's house in order." it's doing well, your book. >> i hope so. >> good to have you. >> and especially if it's paired with us. you buy this and people often buy "obsessed." >> they are gorging and eating when they read your book. its a culinary movable feast. >> we should have a joint event and make all of the sense in the world. >> they are from the "morning joe" collection and why do you think we put game change over the top? >> that is so funny. my father is going to be horrified. >> i was worried your father had a eating disorder! >> that's great. my father is going to cringe. >> he is. if j. lo didn't turn the channel. a lot to talk about this morning. once again, horrible weather breaking out across the midwest. some tornadoes in wichita. we were up in minnesota yesterday. the house of h

harold ford is an msnbc political analyst and former representative of tennessee. senator brown, i don't get it. i don't get it. the reason the right is winning these discussions is it's the only discussion in town. what are we going to talk about? benghazi or the irs this week? that is why they keep pounding and the president plays defense. why is the democratic party not the jobs party? why don't they have a big construction plan out there with pictures of what we're going to build, so we can, how about this, catching up to europe? just catch up to old europe. how's that for an idea? >> yeah, exactly right. i think we should talk about infrastructure, comparing what we invest with what china's now investing and what much of europe is now investing in infrastructure. talk about medical research. talk about college affordability. talk about our china currency bill to level the playing field with china trade. a populous progressive economic message. even though reporters ask us about these quote/unquote scandals, always turn the conversation to jobs and moving forwa

harold ford jr. you know, mika, a little known fact.ther in nam. >> okay. this is going to end up in the holiday inn on 57th street somehow. it always does. >> if i can just say we have our reunion of the guys that went. i can't call it what we called it. okay? we were in the bucket, man. but anyway, so willie, he's still doing it. i kind of got out of shape. >> got out of the game. >> out of the game. smoked a few. they still called willie back and they say, hey willie, we need your help in a secret location. so willie showed off yesterday. >> what? >> what are we looking at here? >> is this willie? >> that's old army training. >> that is a tough mudder they call that. one of these adventure races. that's the end of a long obstacle course. it's a greased up quarter pipe so they lube it up. >> oh, my. >> the real problem was, let's be honest, i was up at the top every time. i wasn't getting a lot of help. >> who is that? >> here's the thing. i'm a big man. >> you're big. >> i'm about 6'4", 210. that is asking a lot. >> willie. >> will,

heilemann and msnbc political analyst and visiting professor at nyu, former democratic congressman harold fordood morning. >> editorial director for the national journal group ron fournier and in washington msnbc senior investigative correspondent lisa myers. >>> president obama is expected to lay out a broad vision for american foreign policy in the speech later today, including a shift in the way the u.s. uses unmanned drone strikes. according to "the new york times" president obama signed new classified guidelines limiting strikes in pakistan, yemen and somalia. the move follows revelations that the u.s. has killed four americans outside the battlefield including a radical muslim cleric anwar al awlaki. hundreds of low level afghanistan and pakistani militants were killed and none who had apparent al qaeda affiliation. >> why did we get the information from the justice department yesterday, ron? and is this yet another revelation the obama administration would prefer not to have come out? >> i think so. let's step back and set aside the ovebvious questions. is it right for the president to

. >> we never let harold ford get his three talking points out.et you. >> he has to. >> we are not going to let you get your talking points out. this is not 1998. it's not hannity and combs. we don't allow that here. the question is. >> it is cross-fire when we used to debate. >> what did hillary clinton, what mistakes did hillary clinton make here? >> well, i think that from the very beginning, hillary clinton and the white house should have put everything out on the table and explained what happened, but i do think what hillary clinton -- >> what about the security issues, though? she had an ambassador saying i need more security. as lisa said. the state department gets information out there. it's just not true about this level of security. >> i'm going to get this fact out whether it's hannity and combs or not. >> thank you so much, lanny davis! great to have you here! >> she wanted a complete investigation. harley criticized ambassador pickering and admiral mullens the senior department and she took responsibility and did the right thing in th

. >> i'm going to be harold ford here for a second. i agree with ron and howard and maggie. really do. i do agree with ron but, at the same time, howard, it used to shock me how newspapers would beat the hell out of me and other people every single day. and if you ever went after them, they would if, this is a challenge to the first amendment of the united states of america! they are -- i had a newspaper that would write crappy editorials about me every day and then i started fighting back. i did a couple of different things. they said you can't talk about it's a chilling effect. you sit there going, give me a break! they sit there talking, you know, they are the most powerful institutions in the land. politicians are, you know, are led around by the nose. there is a politician in me speaking right now. i put on my political hat. you know, it's amazing how i would -- there would be editors that would go, you know, i'm just -- i'm just protecting the first amendment. you got all of this power and i've got -- you sit there going, you have more power in your pinkie and what you