joining me now is jamal simmons and michelle cottle for the daily beast.le, joe biden the listener. thank you both for joining me tonight. >> good to be here. >> thanks, rev. >> michelle, let me go to you first. what about this relationship works so well? >> very early on it was established that makes a great compliment for obama. but also persona. he's kind of warmer and more emotional than the president who's seen as cool and cerebral. highway has a lot of inside the beltway experience especially when it comes to dealing with capitol hill which president obama does not like to go up there a lot. and he plays a mean kind of inside game with careful negotiations whether it's the fiscal cliff or dealing with iraq or any number of diplomatic issues like dealing with the incoming chinese president. he's called on to handle these assignments. and it's worked out pretty well for the obama administration in a lot of different areas. >> now, jamal, a good manager knows how to deal with his team. and you know the president's team well. he goes to different people

khalil muhammad, and jamal simmons and carmen wong ulrich, and senator kyrsten sinema.ave had the lincoln film and the new django film and both of them were problematic for me in the way that they reduce the age agency of the enslaved people themselves and reduced the role that african-americans themselves played in the freedom struggle. is there something that as we are looking at the 150th of the emancipation proclamation to give us a chance to revisit it? >> absolutely. because partly as you said earlier, we don't know much about it collectively as a society. every generation that passes over the course of the 21st century loses a little bit of the historical memory and it is not about accident. the southern pov ti law center did a report pointing out that even the civil rights movement is not taught in a vast majority of the states. it is not a surprise that in this moment we have a collective amnesia and left with the top-down political narratives that shape our collective consciousness which belie essentially the reality of what happens on the ground. >> tell us w

jamal simmons, jackie calmes. and chris.hris, let me start with you, with the house republic caps, what about this idea that you can only control 33% of the policy part of this white house. can you accept 40% of what you want, rather than go to zero or 100%? >> well, this whole compromise argument, i think, is misleading because the compromise only matters where you start. are you going to start by growing government? or are you going to start by shrinking government? and the debate is always, well, let's compromise on how much we can grow government. so i think it's where you start more than whether you want to compromise or not. i think the fiscal conservatives some the house that can provide an opportunity for the vision of future. and that's their job. >> all right, jackie, white house chief of staff, an opening now not going to be announced today. two guys with different skillsets if you will. interesting that the president hasn't decided yet. >> no, there seems to be some concern that dennis mcdonough doesn't have a lo

yesterday in the senate judiciary committee on gun control, and i'm following on twitter, and there's jamal simmonsgratulations to my friend, mo calen. and i'm thinking who the hell is mo calen and then i realized he was just appointed the next senator from the state of massachusetts. who is he and what is he all about? nobody knows more about that frank philips from the boston globe. hi, frank. >> good to talk to you, bill. >> bill: so he was former chief of staff for the governor right? >> yes, he just left. the state house knows him very well. >> bill: was it a surprise to you? >> no, the governor made it clear he wanted a woman or person of color. and he wants to continue to break ground. mo has got a lot of respect in the legal committee. lawyers in boston know him, he was with mince levin in boston, and they think very very highly of him. he has a reputation around the power circles in boston but the general public doesn't know him at all. he was very low profile publicly when he was in the state house. >> bill: it's interesting the speculation about whom he might app point. i never heard mo

joining us is jamal simmons and ari fleischer, the white house press secretary for george w. bush. mal, should reverend giglio be punished now for what he said nearly 20 years ago? >> his views clearly don't reflect the president's views and i think the controversy that's erupted is going to overshadow any role that he plays in the inauguration. the thing that's interesting here, we're going to have an entire generation of trouble on this question because he's not a aloan. as we come to new reconciliation and understanding of gay rights, we're going to have to find a way to maybe rehabilitate people who have some views earlier or let them have views that are outside the mainstream on one topic and perhaps more aggressive on another. i think there's going to be a real struggle for us over the next few years as we bring all of this together after this really controversial issue. >> ari, where do you stand on this? >> i think gays are fellow citizens and should be treated with respect as such. tony perkins does make a valid point about there are people who disagree with me. should they