and reaches the late senator joe mccarthy level. as a member of congress with a seat on the house intelligence committee, mrs. bachmann, you know better. shame on you, michele! you should stand on the floor of the house and apologize to huma amedin and muslim americans for your wild and unsubstantiated charges. other republicans call for bachmann's charges to be recalled. they called out lindsay graham. today john boehner was asked about it. here's what the speaker said. >> i don't know huma, but from everything that i do know of her, she has a sterling character. and i think accusations like this being thrown around are pretty dangerous. >> well, you might get the idea, joan, if you're somebody like michele bachmann with her intellect, you may get the idea this is okay because you have the other guys throwing this stuff around. you go further but in kind. i think it is unkind with what we are getting from the other guys. your thoughts? >> let me start by saying michele bachmann is joe mccarthy in lipstick and she's a dangerous welc

the language she's using is to paralleled to what joe mccarthy said. you've got to know your history and you cannot make these accusations without some real hard proof and to demonize someone like that is a huge mistake. >> i think i brought this up, you can't turn on an american television show, a sitcom if you will, without at least one of the characters being from south asia, the middle east. but now toingle out people not in a happy way, welcoming to our culture, but to single them out as dangerous the way this character has done and i think ed rollins has a point. this is something that has to be addressed on the floor of the house. any way, the romney campaign, you have any thoughts on that, joan, since i brought it up with you? >> yes, i do think they need to denounce it on the floor of the house. i don't know who he's referring to, but trent franks, who signed the letter, gomer, he's crazy. it's not, it's easy because she is a little bit kind of a crack pot, i said it, to demonize her, but she's got some company. and i also think this works bec

and going back to the joe mccarthy period, it is worth remembering that there were -- >> joe mccarthyaul and not gene. joe. and when mccarthy was making wild charges about this or that person being a communist when they weren't, a lot of honorable republicans stood up. i think mccain and boehner are in that tradition. again, it's hard other than internal republican politics to explain why cantor would not want to be on that side of this question. >> thanks for your time tonight. catch melissa filling in for rachel maddow tonight here on msnbc. >>> coming up, late night comedians are thanking willard romney for all the material. but can punch lines have a real impact on campaigns? >>> and remember the smoking 2-year-old baby? well, he's got some competition now. you won't believe who picked up the habit. your summer break is up next. ashley was not only my little sister, she was a best friend. she was very giggly. if you could get her to laugh really hard, she would even snort sometimes. it was so funny. this is the text from me that my sister was reading. right before she flipped her

i think it's in kind. >> let me start by saying michele bachmann is joe mccarthy in lipstick and she's a dangerous american. and i want to start by welcoming john to a zone of decency where senator john mccain took us and ed rollins is taking us. chris, the rhetoric in this country right now is so dangerous that it's important to acknowledge they have now staked out a lunatic fringe. they've now said certain kinds of comments are beyond the pail. that's a good thing. and we should applaud that today. you know a however is coming. however -- >> here's i like fehry a lot. he has to defend the indefensible. in this case he's saying the right thing. michele bachmann is off the rails. here's someone who agreed with her. she was on today with glenn beck. >> oh, yes. >> beck defended the congresswoman and attacked john mccain who he said is marching to the orders of the muse limb brotherhood. that's john mccain being accused this time. you've got to keep up with your crowd. they're frisky out there. let's listen to glenn and michele. >> john mccain and all of the e line with the muslim brothe

murrow challenged joe mccarthy, he wasn't standing up for communism, he was standing up for american values. i'm not standing up for any particular religious group. i'm standing up for america's freedom of thought in america today. just simply being a member of a particular religious group does not make you radioactive. >> you asked for a full accounting of the evidence these members of congress were using to make their claims. you got a 16-page letter back. does their evidence hold up? >> no, it's 16 pages worth of nothing. it's 16 pages worth of repeated false allegations. just regurgitated nonsense. 16 pages doesn't take nothing and turn it into something. it's still nothing. the fact is i would hope that we would just let our saner more courageous spirit prevail. and say look, you know, in america, everybody counts. everybody matters. people can be included. people can be a part our american political scene without fear. that's what i'm standing up against here. >> have you seen any evidence of deep penetration, the words bachmann used. into the security apparatus of the united s

here is joe mccarthy. >> there is a small, close-knit group of administration democrats who are now thee prisoners and under the complete domination of the bureaucratic communistic franken tine which they themselves have created. even if there were only one communist in the state department, there would still be one communist too many. [ cheers and applause ] >> now look at how frightening similar michele bachmann's language is. >> it appears that there has been deep penetration in the halls of our united states government by the muslim brotherhood. the muslim brotherhood has been found to be an unindicted cold conspirator on terrorism cases and yet individuals associated with the muslim brotherhood who have sensitive positions in our department of justice, our department of homeland security potentially even in the national intelligence agency, and i am calling on these various departments to investigate to see who these people are, and what access they have to our information. >> now i guess we can call this bachmannism, kind of like mccartneyism. somebody asked the muslim brotherhood

should michele bachmann i mean the last time this happened joe mccarthy was actually a censure by congress. clearly she hasn't gone as far as he has and hasn't drag this out as long as he did but it looks like she's not backing down and in fact there's people like newt gingrich jumping on the bandwagon but where is this going and do you see any possibility that congress that her colleagues might put the pressure on her to stop it seems like they're trying the great good fortune here is that michele bachmann is not in control of a committee that's where she could do some enormous damage holding hearings the let her the way dare i say exactly exactly. i think it is time though for republican leadership to reconsider her position on the house intelligence committee because it's an individual that's going to push those kind of conspiracy theories put forward half truths unfounded allegations of guilt by association and you have to question whether this is an individual who's got the appropriate level of gravitas to be a part of such an important committee president obama went over to egypt som

any time i write that you're compared to joe mccarthy is not good for your political career. this is nothing new to michelle backman, she courts controversy but usually you can turn on a cable tv show and she is talking. she went silent in the wake of this criticism. host: and i have to tell people it's the person you don't expect few people predicted joe biden, few people predicted sarah palin. guest: no one predicted sarah palin, no one predicted joe biden, you're right. host: in terms of establishment, tea party, minority, house senate >> guest: it kind of depends. in some ways it depends on what you want. we have a tendency to think the number of people being vetted is larger than the actual number of people being vetted. i wrote a piece that said if you've ever seen fight club, the first rule of fight club is don't talk about fight club. that's how the veep pick works. people who know what's going on, i would say that's mitt romney, ann romney, bev myers, leading the search and probably matt rhodes, campaign manager, those are the four people who can give us a full pictu

joe mccarthy reliving. >> i believe there's about 70, 80, to 81 members of the democrat party that are members of the communist party. >> there you have it, brian. how many communists do you figure in the congress? i say zero. this guy has it up to -- he's very precise, this is so joe mccarty, precision, a great tool of the nuts. >> it is, whaand what he's doing is getting the number directly from a progressive democratic a ally iance alliance. i don't agree with most of those folks, but to call people we don't egree with communists or to label people who are muslim as enemies, this does a disservice. i have students who want to go into government service and have them experience this is really a disgrace. >> it's part of our past that keeps flashing back. thank you so much, brian, and thank you as always, ron. >> let me finish with the republicans trying to sell a candidate they don't love. let's face it, in order to beat a president they hate. you're watching "hardball," the place for politics. >>> let me finish tonight with this, you know, when you step away from this campaign for a

this is so joe mccarthy. precision is a great tool of the nuts. >> it is.rom a progressive democratic alliance. look, i don't agree with most of those folks. but to call people we don't agree with communists or to label people who are muslim as some kind of enemy, this does a disservice. i have students who are patriotic muslim-americans who want to go into government service and this is a disgrace. >> part of our past that keeps flashing back. thank you so much. >>> when we return, let me finish with republicans trying to sell a sd they don't love. let's face it. in order to beat a president they hate. you're watching "hardball," the place for politics. if we took the nissan altima and reimagined nearly everything in it? gave it greater horsepower and best in class 38 mpg highway... ...advanced headlights... ...and zero gravity seats? yeah, that would be cool. ♪ introducing the completely reimagined nissan altima. it's our most innovative altima ever. nissan. innovation that excites. ♪ >>> let me finish tonight with this. when you step away from this campa

difficulty with her facts with with, but this is downright vicious and reaches the late senator joe mccarthy level. the republican party is going to become irrelevant if we become the party of intolerance and hate. mrs. bachmann, you know better, shame on you, michele." so guys, the obvious question is, how much does this help bachmann's possibilities of being named mitt romney's vice president? mark thompson? >> well, i hadn't thought about it that way. it could help. but i think -- >> she's actually not on our big board of possibilities, but after today, you know, this could do it. >> well, i think what bat girl does is, she helps appeal to this lowest common denominator. they're doing the dog whistling, they're trying to do anything that could be considered xenophobic, to appeal to a reactionary base. and frankly, that's what mitt romney, up to a certain point, we thought he was being held hostage to. it seems he's bought completely into that, and michele bachmann continues to maintain that type of argument, that type of discussion, unfortunately. >> and ari melber, this raises a problem

. >> how do you say joe mccarthy. let's talk about the vice presidential race.w that is going to happen at some point in the next little over a month, maybe sooner, maybe later. what is your reporting indicating? we know that chris christie, thanks to jamie gangel's reporting, will be the keynoter. he's not in the mix. we didn't think he would be in the mix for vice president. that did not make sense. tim pawlenty was on our show yesterday. here's a little bit of that. >> have you gotten the call? >> which call is that, andrea? >> well, the call from boston or new hampshire or from governor romney. >> well, i am in contact with governor romney from time to time but this week i'm focused on some yard work and some business things, but look, the process will unfold in due course. >> who do you think is on the short list from your reporting? >> i think the short list is the same one we have been talking about for the last month and a half and it very much includes tim pawlenty, rob portman, maybe bobby jindal, i don't think so. maybe it includes paul ryan. i don't

sometimes has difficulty with her facts but this is downright vicious and reaches the late senator joe mccarthyel. patricia? michele bachmann was on glenn beck earlier and said, we did not infer she's a member of the muslim brotherhood or working on behalf of the husbamuslim brothd which is a great walkback. isn't it? i don't know what it is. it's some kind of walkback. i think it's, oh, people are paying attention to what i was saying? let me rephrase that. it's offensive. i have to say, it's a very good sign for the republican party that these two men that john mccain and her former campaign manager came out immediately and knocked this down. and there was a time, i would say, in this country when people wouldn't have come out quite so quickly and knocked that down. i think that it shows, even -- i mean, what else can you say? it's just so offensive. somebody like huma abedin who has worked for secretary clinton for 15 years and is very well trusted. mccain is very close to both she and to secretary clinton, and i do think it's refreshing that at least somebody's coming out and saying this is

congressman, michelle bachmann says, sort of elk owing joe mccarthy that the u.s.a abadeen, the top aide to secretary of state hillary clinton. to his credit, john boehner, we were just talking about, peter, if we have the speaker asked about huma abadeen. is she really a terrorist sympathizer. >> from everything i know of of her, she has a sterling character. i think accusations like this being thrown around are pretty dangerous. >> i do have to add because we have had e-mails from our listeners saying don't just mention michelle bachmann. she was joined in this assertion assertion, wild accusation by trent franks of arizona, lin westmoreland, and louie gomert from texas and what's going on? >> these members deserve minimally to apologize directly on the floor. anyone who knows huma huma abadeend -- and i do -- this is an incredible american and an american public servant who has done an extraordinary job for the secretary of state. and -- >> and for all americans. >> it breaks your heart to hear something like that and it's a shame when you poison the airwaves wi

coat tails, no o benetsore tn a bla ucus >>here aren someays i wod be easier to confuse him with joe mccarthynt that was being madewhetr w frurati i th eve wnhe demrats h euse, ty wen'tble to delir thblow u kn, th kind of thing. quite frankly, when it comes to publicperctionou broht oba car theolls are rlly inrestg. ithowshat peoe agre be wi widrgin wit the characteristics of the bill but they are against it. how can that be? >> i think it's very easy to be the party that ys, we are gog ttump conantlor e pele wavehe mt ney d theeoplwho ve e mooney aoing t ge usoneynde're goio be nded and paid for and we e do her and at ito p it mply i wod sathatalsowe he a ocespresent a crowe sociy. you kw, whaveorgoen f ma, ma yea, weave neraons peoe whhave not perienced process and through technology and everything else, t way we live and the way reee act and even ouowe tionare t us to pressi if u ca me an apple pie and show your kids how you make the dough and put it in and people understand what happens at the end, you smell it, but if you can have halfssed pie tt y tow into amicrave,e tak tt a mapho fow

any time i write that you're compared to joe mccarthy is not good for your political career. this is nothing new to michelle backman, she courts controversy but usually you can turn on a cable tv show and she is talking. she went silent in the wake of this criticism. host: and i have to tell people it's the person you don't expect -- few people predicted joe biden, few people predicted sarah palin. guest: no one predicted sarah palin, no one predicted joe biden, you're right. host: in terms of establishment, tea party, minority, house senate -- >> guest: it kind of depends. in some ways it depends on what you want. we have a tendency to think the number of people being vetted is larger than the actual number of people being vetted. i wrote a piece that said if you've ever seen fight club, the first rule of fight club is don't talk about fight club. that's how the veep pick works. people who know what's going on, i would say that's mitt romney, ann romney, bev myers, leading the search and probably matt rhodes, campaign manager, those are the four people who can give us a full

boehner coming out and saying it's a pretty dangerous course to go down, they compared bachmann to joe mccarthy, former republican senator from wisconsin. as i write, any time you're compared to mccarthy it's not great for the political career. this is not new for bachmann, she is someone who courts controversy but usually you can turn the tv on and michele bachmann is on some cable tv show talking. michele bachmann went surprisingly silent in the wake of this criticism. host: and the latest on the convenience picks, i often tell people it's the person you don't expect. few people brict dollars -- predicted joe biden. guest: no one predicted sarah palin, very few predicted joe biden. host: you break it down in establishment, seed party, minority -- guest: in some ways it depends on what you want. we have a tendency to think that the number of people being vetside larger than the actual number of people being vetted. i wrote a piece that said if you've ever seen fight club, the first rule of fight club is don't talk about fight club. in a lot of waze that's how the convenience stakes works. a lo

. >> there are in some ways it would be easier to confuse him with joe mccarthy.at was being made, whether was frustrating is that even when the democrats had the house, they weren't able to deliver the blow. you know, this kind of thing. quite frankly, when it comes to public perception, you brought up obama care. the polls are really interesting. it shows that people agree, be with wide margins, with the characteristics of the bill but they are against it. how can that be? >> i think it's very easy to be the party that says, we are going to stump constantly for the people who have the most money and the people who have the most money are going to give us money and we're going to be funded and paid for and we are done here. and that is to put it simply. i would say that, also, we have a process president in a microwave society. you know, we have forgotten for many, many years, we have generations of people who have not experienced process and through technology and everything else, the way we live and the way reee act and even our owe motions are not used to proc

i can only hope other republicans will do so and then in the end, michele bachmann, like joe mccarthy leave congress in disgrace for attacks like that. that's my parting shot for today, folks. john larson, the congressman from connecticut will be with us tomorrow and eric burns from bullfight strategies in as a "friend of bill." go out and have a great day and come on back and see us right here again tomorrow.

mccarthy hearings. sort of looking for the modern version of joe walsh. welsh or walsh? >> walsh. >> joe walsh who was the chief counsel i think of that inquiry, who was thought of as above reproach. who was a person of honor. so that became our, our talking point. in other words, we wrote down whack we were looking for. it was that model. and we would like the idea if the person would be republican. in other words that would be even the best that could you get a republican chief counsel and the congressman made that point me a number of times. that that would be the best of all worlds, to show sort of a non-partisan. okay. so that was a criteria. so what we did is, we said, let's -- let's start with -- we had this book. we didn't use anything. so my thinking, my brother's thinking, was, we'd call -- let's call law deans, we said. you know. law deans know people. and we'll call maybe -- you call ten and i'll call ten. and we'll get them on the phone, and we'll lay out this criteria. tell them what we're doing, and we thought for sure they'll come up -- they'll be a name.

sometimes has difficulty with her facts but this is downright vicious and reaches the late senator joe mccarthyccarthyism! but bachmann is not backing down. take a listen to what she had to say on the glenn beck show today. >> one thing that the government looks at are your associations and in particular, your family associations. and this applies to everyone. it would be the same that is true with me. if my family members were associated with hamas a terrorist organization, that alone could be sufficient to disqualify me from getting a security clearance. >> jennifer: there is a lot more that should have disqual filed her. has she gone completely off the deep end or just doing prep work for the next phase of her career? sarah palin version 2.0. joining me now to discuss michele bachmann and the other political news of the day is christine pelosi. christine is the chair of the california democratic party women's caucus, welcome back inside "the war room." is she crazy? >> no, i think that john sununu in saying why can't he learn how to be an american, talking about president obama said somethin

joe mccarthy said that. asking the right questions. >> is newt desperate to remain relevant and get into the headline? you wonder how many times this cat will come back into our lives saying irrelevant, crazy things and how many times. the moments when newt gingrich used to say things that were reasonable and smart and he goes off the wall. this is heinous. michelle bachmann is rightly being condemned. she is the butt of humor anger, vitriol vitriol. she should be con democrated. >> for obtain to stand up. >> let's asplat the guys when they show sensitivity and reason. >> once in a blue moon. >> show them we can recognize ill give them credit. >> we have is that much to talk about and too much fun and we will give a hell of a show together. >> we will get you on our show. up, up at 4:00 in the morning. >> i am up for you. >> thank you for coming in. >> the bill press show. >>it's the place where democracy is supposed to be the great equalizer, where your vote is worth just as much as donald trump's. we must