this morning msnbc's joe scarborough described the op-ed as being laced with racial overtones. >> theepublican party, if they were smart, their looters today would condemn it. but they're not smart, they're scared, they're going to get hammered in future elections if they allow this clown to continue to lead them around by their nose. they're shameful, they need to be leaders. >> all of this comes as gun control advocates rally again in connecticut to encourage lawmakers there to enact stricter gun laws. joining me now, democratic strategist david goodfriend and rachel smoke. first up, wayne la pierre refers to hurricane sandy under hellish conditions. new york observer says silver lining sandy, still no murders after the superstorm. regarding border security, according to huffington post, 2010 report said that the u.s. mexican border is among the safe es in the u.s. so there's a few facts to put into this. rachel what are we to make at least as joe scarborough pointed out, will republicans come out and say that they agree or decision agree with this. >>> this is a very highly charged

my colleague joe scarborough. here's the question.his huge tent the republican party has built in the last 30 or 40 years with people from the south, the west, the miners, the ranchers, the religious right, all those people that have decided the republican party is their natural home and yet you have people in the fringe costing you your image. >> well, you've got to stand up to people on the fringe. you know, when parties go extreme they get roundly defeated. it happened to democrats in 1984. it happened to the republican neocons on 2006. it happened in the off-year elections back in 2010. americans thought democrats went too far to the left, and they punished them and to almost historic proportions in that election. but 2012, republicans got punished because they were the party of todd akin instead of the party of colin powell. they were the party of richard mourdock instead of the party of george h.w. bush. he wanted nothing to do with except that a guy like powell is necessary if you're going have two wings. chris, we've lost five

that a lot of people who are conservative and republican are dealing with this kind of hysteria, joe scarboroughday ripping gop for being stuck in their own media world. >> for conservatives that think they have to stay in their own little media world, since rush limbaugh went on the air and became a national figure, republicans have lost five out of the last six presidential elections in the popular vote. since fox news went on the air in 1996, republicans have lost four out of five. >> and that's what i really want to deal with. it may make them feel good in their chamber to say things that they feel they all agree with, but they can't win. they have lost the relevance of their party. i think that's the point that scarborough and a growing list of conservative republicans are saying. is this has ridded them ineffective? >> absolutely. every now and then the truth smacks them upside the head. as happened to karl rove when he was on fox news on election night, sitting there simply refusing to believe that obama was winning re-election. so, it hasn't served their party well at all to have a conti

. >> when you look at the fact, victor victoria, joe scarborough who hosts "morning joe" here, he and on much. but he even talked about it. take a listen to this. >> underlines how out of touch the movements are. it underlines just how little they care about actual electoral victorie victories. they have a coalition that cares about talk radio ratings. they understand you have to say extreme things to get those ratings. it's about resentment and hating democrats and hating -- of course that's not how you win. apparently these days being a republican is not about winning. >> so, i mean, what is happening to this party? how can they survive when you even have people to the right like joe scarborough saying it's not about winning. tell me how we can deal with this party? i'm looking at the bigger picture of what is going on with this party that it seems that it can't get back on track. >> in nature we noel fants are mostly blind. so it's interesting to see the same with c-pac elephants. that they are blind to the issue. and chris christie speaks to the blindness not just of alienating mo

joe scarborough says she looked like a jackass. >> that would be liberal media taking her.he held her own. she got klob ird including jon stewart. the national rifle association should take note, she better spokesman pr them wayne and all the rest of those types. she made it personal. >> jon: even judy is nodding in agreement? >> i think wayne lapeer has done hawaii his cause a lot of harm, attacking background checks that he used to support and not seeming to care about the victims in this. i agree with you. she was much more effective. >> jon: what about gabrielle giffords? >> i think it was tremendous tv. someone who has a story and back story that the american people know and the halting manner of speech it was compelling tv. i think it was unfortunate that more lapere had to try to countered act it. it was abrasive in the prior press conference, he still acts as if, you guys are the ones who are in violation. you have no understanding what at lie play here. since we're month o news watch is a subject of great fascination that it never happened. there are conspiracy the

angela rye on my show quoting joe scarborough. you for your time this evening. >> thanks. >> don't forget to catch krystal on "the cycle" week days at 3:00 p.m. on msnbc. >>> still ahead, my interview with the activist maya angelou. >>> plus tiger in chief. the golfing legend reveals who won his big game with the president. [ indistinct conversations ] [ male announcer ] when you wear dentures you may not know it, but your mouth is under attack. food particles infiltrate and bacteria proliferate. ♪ protect your mouth, with fixodent. the adhesive helps create a food seal defense for a clean mouth and kills bacteria for fresh breath. ♪ fixodent, and forget it. to volunteer to help those in need. when a twinge of back pain surprises him. morning starts in high spirits, but there's a growing pain in his lower back. as lines grow longer, his pain continues to linger. but after a long day of helping others, he gets some helpful advice. just two aleve have the strength to keep back pain away all day. today, jason chose aleve. just two pi

our own joe scarborough, for example.>> i don't really think it's as much about the positions that we've taken as it is over the past four years calling the president a racist, saying he hates all white people as glenn beck has done. since rush limbaugh went on the air and became a national figure, republicans have lost five out of the last six presidential elections in the popular vote. >> is it possible, dana, perhaps, just possible, that by spewing hatred and racist invective, mr. rush and mr. limbaugh -- mr. beck are actually hurting republicans more than they think they've been helping them? >> well, that may be, martin, but it strikes me as a little bit toot convenient here because where would rush limbaugh be and glenn beck be if it weren't for republican officials and leaders raising them up in prominence, giving them interviews, reacting to them? they in many ways created their own monsters in the republican party, so now it would be a little -- look, joe scarborough has been on both sides. he's been in the media

he that issed to joe scarborough today. i think they're trying to reserve some running room here for real negotiations, and i have been told mike and chris that democrats on the hell think that the senate democrats at least think that john boehner is ready to make a deal for all the tough talk going into this. >> he is being outflanked by eric cantor, and he is ready to negotiate. >> i think the problem, though, andrea, is it's two-fold. first john boehner has said publicly i'm not getting into any more one-on-one negotiations with the president. you know, maybe is he going to do a broader negotiation, but ultimately it's hard to imagine that statement -- adding to john boehner running for a deal. second well, saw this with the fiscal cliff. john boehner being ready to cut a deal or trying to position himself to cut a deal does not mean that a deal can pass the house, and that's the fundamental problem here. president obama does not have a foil on the republican side. he does not have someone that he can deal with. mitch mc

. >> but when you listen to what joe scarborough was saying and the illusions made in this op-ed, some saying that is exactly what the reaction might be, there are racial overtones. >> and, again, i'm not going to respond to that because i think that's whoever wrote it, that's them. i'm not going to say what could be alleged. i don't think they meant it that way. the nra has never shown a history of that. the bigger question, though, is how are we going to respond to what are rights of americans to own guns. the whole idea of a right is that you have to keep that even though some people don't like it and get to the real argument about is there going to be some type of standard that we're going to keep and protect people's rights or not. and this emotion on both sides is just inflaming it and not moving the ball forward for anybody right now. >> karen, in addition to what we were just quoting from the actual op-ed and the reaction, john lapierre mentioned drug gangs from mexico. what's your thought? >> but he also specifically talks about latin american drug gangs. that's where some of

>> angry joe scarborough. >> look at me. >> cheetos. are you going to be okay, joe? >> i loved this. he is on his fourth or fifth blog now. >> maybe not at all. >> keep writing. you are making me book good with republicans. i love it. >> i learned that i'm in the minority in thinking we have shrinking deficits and that's good news. we need to worry about jobs. >> you are right in the minority. >> do you have something fun? i could get a lot of hits, but my colleague said don't watch the state of the union. >> the numbers don't lie. the american people want something done and hopefully tonight that will begin. >> very good and you know what, the republicans final word. don't deny science. democra democrats, don't deny math. "morning joe," a happy cheerful morning at all times. stick around. here's chuck. >> the state of the union is 12 hours away. they are putting final touches on the speech that can feel clintonian, a laundry yes of priorities. strengthening the economy and add jobs. responding for the republicans is marco rubio. this will surely be the biggest audie

joe scarborough who i like has been going off on quentin tarantino and calling him a jack ass for releasingnchained"ded". let's

joe scarborough broke that down this morning. take a listen. >> this underlies the big problem about the conservative movement over the past few years. it's not about winning. it's just not about winning. it is not about winning. it is about sitting inside of an echo chamber of resentment. >> ron, let me ask you. is the right going to start winning when they actually put out a candidate who understands that to be able to win they also have to afford to be able to lose? it seems that most of these people that have been invited to cpac are trying to hock a book. they understand that if there is somebody on the left, they could lose but they have to be willing to stand out front and lead. >> well, that's right. i mean, the republican party has to ask itself, do they want to tie itself to this sort of tea party far right religious right ideology and you will end up with two republican parties. it will split in two. you'll have the extremists on one side and the other. the deep weeds forever at that point, the democrats will always wi

here's what republican joe scarborough said today about karl rove. >> is karl rove right that you gotople who are like party chairs, big fund raisers? >> course. i don't know that karl rove after his performance in 2012 should be the gatekeeper. he was inside the bubble as much as anybody else. >> ari, i'm not neutral on this because like the ad said, i am an obama following radical hollywood liberal. when they say that about ashley judd, i'm really hurt. zeshlgs y >> well, you booked the right guest. we have that in common. >> ashley judd, look at this ppp poll of kentucky voters, ashley judd at 43%, mitch mcconnell at 47%. now, what that means is mitch mcconnell is in grave trouble. as you know, ari, an incumbent is supposed to poll over 50%, usually significantly over 50%. whenever they poll before bee low 50 they're in grave trouble. the presumption is if the election was held literally today, the undecideds would go to the challenger ashley judd. she's a shoe-in, is what i'm saying. >> there's a lot of time but there's no doubt that mitch mcconnell has a problem here. he has not

chris matthews, joe scarborough, pat harvey, brian williams, soledad o'brien, wolf blitzer, keep up the great work. willie geist, you're talent pd stop with the talk-show shenaniga shenanigans. it's bizarre. how much should we care about what this guy says? >> it's bizarre. i think, you know, first of all, that's one list as a journalist you probably don't want to be on, the killer's list of favorite journalists. we should care about it because he's a murder suspect and it's worth covering. the other media story here is there's all these allegations in his manifesto against the los angeles police department. you know, a question for the media. should they be investigating that stuff? is he credible given the fact he's probably killed people, is he credible in the accusations he's throwing out at the lapd? >> it's fascinating that all of these people that we know and see on tv are on this list. but the question really is do we want to publicize what this person is saying? he put it on facebook. facebook has a billion people on it. everybody is going to read this. so "the new york times"

>> well, joe scarborough had it exactly right this morning.g is once again engaging in the scare tactics and trying to avoid focusing on the actual proposals that we've put before the congress. i took carol price to the state of the union. she lost her son in a tragic accidental gun shooting a few years ago. and she and all the other moms and dads and brothers and sisters are simply asking congress to vote on this proposal. universal background checks so that criminals and folks who have been found mentally unstable cannot get a gun. two, limit the size of these magazines so you can only have ten rounds, and three, deal with the military-style assault weapons. and the nra doesn't want to talk about the specifics of most of those issues. rather, they want to engage in these outrageous scare tactics, pretend that people are coming after them to take away all their guns, which is not true, and hopefully given the amount of public attention this issue's getting now, those scare tactics and total distortions and lies will no longer work. >> congres

. >> let's listen to what republican joe scarborough said wayne lapierre is up to. >> this is so lacedracial overtones. >> oh, absolutely. >> that the republican party if they were smart, their leaders today would condemn it, but they're not smart. they're scared. you know, they keep running scared, they're going to lose more votes, they're going to get hammered in future elections if they allow this clown to continue to lead them around by their nose. they're shameful. they need to be leaders. >> e.j., is it your sense that republicans in washington are, many of them, actually get what joe is saying? that he's absolutely right about that? >> i think they do. i think some significant minority, at least, of the republican conference in the house gets it which is why i think they are going to find a way to push john boehner to let them vote on some gun legislation as the president called for in that speech. i've heard that at the republicans' retreat some of them raised this and said we want to vote at least on a bill to provide, for universal background checks. a lot of suburban republi

here he is with our own joe scarborough. >> we're hearing in the end most likely he's going to pass andsecretary of defense, so why hold him up over a recess when the pentagon desperately needs somebody at the helm? >> because in a funny sort of way, joe, it's exactly what mccain said. it's a way of getting their pound of flesh. >> julian, pound of flesh. is that really what this is all about? given that our troops deserve a leader because they serve with every ounce of their bodies, they give their bodies. >> well, i don't know that they will get a pound of flesh and it is a rizable reason. politics is about picking good fights. this is a fight the republicans will lose and it's a bad fight and you wonder why after what's happened to the republican party they continue to pick bad fights they're going to lose. they're going to lose, one, because there's pressing security issues. two, because there's no precedent for holding up a secretary of defense. and, three, you ask about mccain's principles here. mccain has uttered four different conflicting positions since february 4th about wheth

then i want to play what joe scarborough said this morning. >> where has he been?resident -- has the president been vacationing for three months, four months? where has he been? >> do we have the president's remarks from earlier this week, guys? >> republicans in congress face a simple choice. my door is open. i put tough cuts and reforms on the table. >> so that happened earlier this week. he is saying i put tough cuts and reforms on the table. there were congressional dems who said to the president they didn't want to see medicare, medicaid, social security up for cuts. but the president is willing to talk turkey when it comes to the reality that things need to be shored up. and not just when it comes to talking about revenues but that we need both to balance the books. >> absolutely. the president has been saying that. the problem is no one has been very specific on the cuts talking more specifically about the revenues. this is what the hold up is and the republicans have with the president's plan. they don't want to budge. they say they budged on revenues when

>> angry joe scarborough. >> look at me. >> cheetos. are you going to be okay, joe?e not at all. >> keep writing. you are making me book good with republicans. i love it. >> i learned that i'm in the minority in thinking we have shrinking deficits and that's good news. we need to worry about jobs. >> you are right in the minority. >> do you have something fun? i could get a lot of hits, but my colleague said don't watch the state of the union.

he praises you, praises joe scarborough, brian williams, meredith vieira, that advice smiley, anderson cooper, he does have a great sense of the media. he clearly watches and understands what's going on and this message that he posted online certainly reflects that, and i don't know whether it was calculated or not, but as you say, he has gotten some support online and on twitter. >> yeah. i think it's one of those things in life, as we're seeing in this tragic case that will probably get more tragic as the hours go on, that people can have a high iq, tremendous sensitivity in certain areas, and also be emotional troubled to the point of this horror story. let's bring in former fbi profiler clint van zandt who really know this is kind of a situation. we're looking at a complicated case here, clint, and looking at someone who has high intelligence but has gone through a period in his life and through an indent which he has not been able to recover from and move on at all to the horror and to the death of several people now. >> chris, this is someone who has accumulated these wrongs agai

you know -- >> panders for cash, that's what joe scarborough does for a living. i mean, honestly. >> [inaudible] >> he's not conservative. and we should be calling him out on that. if he wants to start acting like a conservative, then start acting like a conservative. he wants to engage in character assassination so that he makes $8 million a year from msnbc, he can do that too. he doesn't get to sit there and play honest conservative while ripping on every conservative principle. i don't mind msnbc as much as i mind cnn. i want more of their voices heard because the more i hear of them, the worse they sound. the more that there is a lawrence o'donnell out there, the more there's a chris matthews who looked like he just woke up five seconds ago and they threw him in front of a camera -- will have will -- [laughter] the better it is for us. the more george stephanopouloss there are, the worst for us. this guy may not be objective, he might not be objective, in fact, he might be like a race-baiting criminal who incites riots. he might be that kind of person. might,

. >> joe scarborough is the republican that -- >> that is brave enough. >> -- saying something rationalhope that those republicans watching you this morning would come forward and say, we agree with joe scarborough. we're not saying -- >> listen. so let's do a little experiment. everybody in the senate gym exercises watching this show, and they say that. >> oh, yeah, looking good. >> you guys could do me a favor and look me more powerful than i actually am. actually, that's hard to do. but if you could just put out a press release saying we support chain cpi. >> before the fiscal cliff, you say harry took chain cpi off the table. but mitch mcconnell was quoted as saying it's okay to take chain cpi off the table. i would have held in there on the fiscal cliff and not kicked the can down the road again. so i think al's point. >> john boehner has 60 to 70 people in his party who are holding this whole thing hostage. >> there's one president. >> it's true. >> we can keep blaming him. >> okay. >> that's correct. >> and by the way, you can -- as ed knows, you can take a big old truck and run

. >> of course, i was having joe scarborough watch "the simpsons" at age 5. >> i took my kids to themon. i really can't -- yeah. >> how about this one from "the louisville courier"? makers mark bourbon publicly admitting its error in reducing the alcohol content from 45 to 42. they started using extra water to stretch the supply. despite the company's insistence there was no change in taste, customers were outraged by the move. now we're happy to say maker's mark has backtracked. going back to 45% alcohol. >> i want to tell you a story. couple weeks ago i'm out having a drink with willie geist. got a couple maker's going. he likes the maker's and ginger. >> ginger? sort of a girly drink. >> he said, there's something wrong with this. he ordered a different one. same thing. we went to a different bar. something is wrong with this. kept saying that. it turned out they'd reduced the alcohol by like 3%. willie picked it up just on taste. he was starting to get full of anger, full of range. started a campaign. now we're back up to 90 proof. >> it's a discerning palette. often on the rocks

i'm not joe scarborough, i can't afford that. >> no, you're not, my man.out the vatican and the pope in there, was that just fortuitous? >> this is a fantastic story about the pope's butler who was arrested and tried for stealing documents. and, you know, the pope's resignation this week in some ways, it's a spiritual crisis, but it's also, you know, i remind people, he is the head of state, the vatican state, and it's an institutional crisis as well. so our writer, sean flynn, spent time with the italian journalist who broke the story. there were more than 20 moles in the vatican who were leaking because they were concerned that the vatican has gotten sort of corrupt in terms of how it's managed. >> so this was just good timing that this all happened -- your magazine comes out the very week -- >> yeah, got it the week -- >> is this brad pitt again? >>, no, it's not. no. >> michael, thank you so much for being with us. >> thanks for having me here. >> and we're very excited, next week -- >> i'll be back, talking about my book. i think you're going to love