>> well, let's focus on john sununu. for john sununu, a moment's thought is a moment wasted. [laughter] he knew what he was saying. >> he had dug himself into a hole and he felt there was about it -- >> word in defense of john sununu. he has laid out a formulation that colin powell should be proud supporting barack obama because they are of the semis, which means that, obviously, john sununu, being white, is proud to be supporting mitt romney did john sununu is, believe me, and i've known him for a long time -- he is writing a new book called "dale carnegie was wrong," and it will not be a bestseller. [laughter] >> everybody has crazy uncles in the attic, and romney has john sununu, and he has donald trump, who is offering $5 million if the president will release -- >> he won't keep senate in the attic. -- sununi is in the attic. >> colby is right, they are putting him out regularly. they are not putting out stavridis or spokespersons that are not speaking with the unspoken. obama had a good line about, on the leno show. >> "it also g -- all goes back when we were playing soc

>> well, let's focus on john sununu for just a second. for john sununu, a moment's thought is a moment wasted. [laughter] he is well known for coming up with lines like that. he knew what he was saying. >> you could see him picking himself into a hole and then feeling nervous about it. >> award in defense of john sununu. he basically had a formulation that colin powell should be proud of supporting barack obama because they belong to the same race, which means that obviously, john sununu who is white is proud to be supporting mitt romney. john sununu is -- believe me, i have known him for a long time -- he is writing a book called "dale carnegie was wrong." [laughter] and it will not be a bestseller. >> everybody is crazy uncles in the attic, and romney as john sununu, and he also has donald trump, who is offering $5 million if the president would just releases college records. sununu in thekeep at. >> colby is right, they put sununu out there regularly. whenever you say about mitt romney's campaign, is a very disciplined campaign, and th

john, you heard mr. sununut general colin powell suggesting that the only reason he voted for the president was because he looks like him. and even john mccain came out today and told "national review" it was colin powell who got us into iraq, so i guess it wasn't george w. bush, dick cheney, done rumsfeld, but it was colin powell. >> at least mccain wasn't racist like john sununu who it's never mentioned, the guy was thrown out of the white house -- >> oh, we've mentioned it today. >> good, i'm glad you did. >> of course. but you see this attempt to rubbish the endorsement from a man who actually knows something about the world, is something of an american hero, and so what happens is they have to denude the endorsement. >> and what's happening to mccain is he's getting a lot of pressure from the right because you saw that he thought that mourdock -- wasn't even an apology, mourdock's statement wasn't nearly good enough and suddenly turns around and says maybe it was good enough. so mccain, you know, is in a p

for standing with him. >> that was former new hampshire governor and top mitt romney surrogate john sununue colin powell of issuing a racially-motivated endorsement of president obama. sununu has an active role in the romney campaign. this isn't the first time that sununu has race baited while advocating for the republican nominee. and yet the romney campaign just keeps putting him out there. >> the president clearly demonstrated that he has absolutely no idea how the american economy functions. i wish this this president would learn how to be an american. >> he has no idea how the american system functions. and we shouldn't be surprised about that. because he spent his early years in hawaii smoking something. >> people saw last night was a president that revealed his incompetence, how lazy and detached he is. >> governor, i want to give you a chance maybe to take it back. did you mean to call the president of the united states lazy? >> yes. >> joining me now is michael eric dyson, msnbc political analyst and professor of sociology at georgetown university. michael, great to have you with

laughter] and it will not be a bestseller. >> everybody has crazy uncles in the attic, and ron has john sununu, and he has donald trump who is offering $5 million if obama w would just releases college records -- >> he doesn't keep sununu in the attic. >> colbyby is right, they put sununu out there regularly. the romney campaign is very disciplined, and t they are not puputting out surrogates or spokespersons who are not speaking what they want spoken. >> the president had a good line when asked about donald trump on the jay leno show. >> the president said, "it all goesack to what we were growing up together in kenya and we were playing soccer and he was not good at i" probably the best line i've hed ththe president delivered in the whole campaign. >> unfortunately people out there say, "c, i told you." we are almost there, we are almost at the finish line could we will talk about that next week. see you next week. >>>> "inside washington" is brought you in part by the american federation ofof government employees, proud to make america work. r more infortion about afge and membership, visit

the romney campaign deployed former governor john sununu to respond.ngs got ugly. >> when you take a look at colin paul, you have to wonder whether that's an endorsement mace basted on issues or whether he has a slightly different reason for preferring president obama. >> what reason would that be? >> well, when you have somebody of your own race that you're proud of being president of the united states, i applaud colin for standing with him. >> did you catch the first line from sununu? here it is. >> when you take a look at colin powell -- >> he said, when you take a look at colin powell. as if it's obvious why powell would endorse a black president because he's a black guy too, right? this is outrageous. this morning a radio host had an interview with the president and asked the president if he was offended by sununu's remarks. >> any suggestion that general powell would make such a profound statement in such an important election based on anything than what he thought was what's going to be best for america i think, doesn't make much sense. >> here

now the question comes from john sununu, does mitt romney agree with john sununu that barack obama is think mitt romney ought to say something about that. but let's also keep in mind that john sununu is not the only person who was disrespectful of the president. let's remember jan brewer. and the health care speech september 9th, 2009, congressman joe wilson who yelled out you lie in the middle of a presidential speech, i think we had never seen anything like that before. so my question to you. being president is tough. democrats and progressives were pretty tough on george bush when he was in office. my question to you, the callers, was what happened with john sununu do people treat barack obama differently? or is this just a sign of the times? are people being too sensitive? all the time on twitter i hear from people who say you don't call him barack obama, you have to call him president barack obama, or president obama, and i think people should call him president obama, but sometimes i don't call george w. bush president. if you have a point of view about that please call our numb

the surprise is what john sununu told me last night is not going to go away. it could become a big problem for romney. sununu, a key romney surrogate, has put race and frankly, charges of racism front and center in the final days of the campaign when romney would have least wanted him to. let's get right to it. i asked him last night about former secretary of state colin powell's endorsement of president obama. this is what sununu said and why it's creating a political firestorm. final question. colin powell has decided to opt for president obama again despite apparently still being a republican. is it time he left the party, do you think? >> well, i'm not sure how important that is. i do like the fact that colin powell's boss, george herbert walker bush, has endorsed mitt romney all along, and frankly, when you take a look at colin powell, you have to wonder whether that's an endorsement based on issues or whether he's got a slightly different reason for preferring president obama. >> what reason would that be? >> well, i think when you have somebody of your o

john sununu is a racist. i'm just going to call it.m just going to say it. >> i was not responding to you when you said john sununu is a racist. i understand what you're saying but bill maher is not a surrogate for the obama campaign. >> no, he's not. >> he's not been interviewed and making the case. he donates his money. that's his business. but it's not the same thing. >> and also i think it's not right to judge somebody a racist without knowing them. >> i just string together -- if this was just a one-time comment, then you're right, i wouldn't say that. but if you just look at what this man has said about the president, about black people over the last 3 1/2 to 4 years, i don't understand how anyone who doesn't have those sort of view, harbor those sort of views, either you're such a monstrous politician who's going to manipulate a base as much as you can and you don't care what you say or do in other words to do so or you're a racist. this is just me. i don't know the man personally. but if you say racist stuff over and over again

john sununu, the top romney surrogate, barks at that lazy one in the white house who doesn't know how to be an american, who sarah palin mocks for shucking and jiving, and donald trump accuses again and again and again of being from kenya and playing monkey business with the country's economic numbers. you know, the same fellow romney says cheats on the welfare checks to feed his political base. the guy gingrich calls the food stamp president. listen to sununu last night yelling at former governor bill richardson to shut up saying general colin powell's political judgment is based on racial bias. trump offering a big bet the president won't show his student transcripts all to diminish the president's academic rise to editor of the harvard law review. yes, it's all directed at drumming up the blue collar white vote for the republican ticket and, yes, it smells. david corn is author of "the 47 percent" and joy reid is managing editor of the grio. both are msnbc political analysts. if the romney campaign is really winning, you have to ask, then you wouldn't think they'd be acting like th

. >> john sununu. >> when you have somebody of your own race that you're proud of being president of the united states. i applaud colin for standing with him. >> congratulations john sununu. >> does it take mitt romney off. >> the more courage to stand up and say what they said was wrong. >> of course if he refused to let the media ask you questions you never have to worry about giving them answers. >> president obama will hit the interview circuit today. >> doing a total of ten different interviews. >> saul about targeting young voters there. >> we're down to the turnout operations. >> obama's the one who is working it harder. >> 11 days left. there's 11 days left in this campaign. every move counts right now. >> are you fired up? are you ready to go? >>> with just 11 days until the election, which of course means 12 days until john sununu climbs back into his cave, and with only minutes left in which mitt romney can convince me to vote for him, mitt romney remains silent today about his favorite crazy people. mitt romney hasn't answered a single question about the only senate candi

than john sununu will do in a month.s the president of the united states and he has a lot of work to do -- >> professor, i think most people would agree that the president does more in his sleep than john sununu. karen finney, what was underneath this, referring to the president as lazy and a pizza boy? >> well, this is what we have seen time and again from the conservatives in terms of the lack of respect for this president. they have really demeaned the office of the presidency. you had a prominent conservative writer earlier this week essentially say the only reason, the only excuse possible as to why barack obama could be ahead in the polls is because he's black. i mean, this -- you also had john sununu several months ago say he doesn't understand what it is to be an american, which he tried to backtrack on that again. again andrea mitchell tried to give him a chance to save himself. time and again we have heard these kinds of attacks that, you know what? john sununu should just keep saying it. every time they say it

john sununu is a racist. >> yes. >> i'm just going to call it. i'm just going to say it. >> -- 3:30 in the morning in hawaii. all the islands are at risk of this tsunami generated by a 7.7 magnitude earthquake that hit off the western coast of canada. the issue right now in hawaii is they're about 15 minutes away from seeing this tsunami. they've only had one hour's notice to evacuate. it's saturday night, a busy night with parties, halloween coming as well. and some people are still stuck in their cars on the clogged roads. we heard from the mayor a short while ago, peter carlisle. he was saying, if that's the case get out of your car and start walking to higher ground. because he warned the people of hawaii, at this point, they were pulling out the police from the low-lying areas to keep them safe and that if anyone wasn't evacuating or wasn't able to evacuate, there's nothing they can do now, there is no police that could come to their aid. that's his message a few minutes ago. of course, many people are in hotels. and that's where they need t

night romney campaign co-chair not just a shill for the party the co-chair of the romney campaign john sununu was interviewed by c.n.n.'s piers morgan morgan asked him about the news that colin powell had endorsed president obama take a listen to what's in his response was. when you take a look at colin powell you have to wonder whether that's in the endorsement based on issues or whether he's got a slightly different reason for preferring president obama what reason would that be well i think when you have somebody of your own race that you're proud of being president of the united states i applaud colin for standing with the. korean sununu no way colin powell could endorse president obama on merit or policy positions now it's because they're both african-american and sununu has a history of making racially charged remarks about the president he's calling for and he's calling on american he's called him a lazy idiot he said we're not that bright you can't get better prepared. the sacrifices the dignity of the presidency for cool i mean this is this is really extraordinary this will come to a

this is john sununu. and later that same day, he went on fox and was asked, you don't think there will be a better prepared president obama onstage next week? and he said, quote, when you're not that bright, you can't get better prepared. mitt romney was aggressive but polite. that was a civil debate. this is not, i have to believe what mitt romney wants to be representing himself. >> let's hope not but john sununu said a few weeks ago barack obama was not a true american. he says these things. he will say whatever he thinks. >> it also fits into the grander picture, what you're seeing among conservative commentators now is this whole emperor has new clothes, has no clothes thing and the whole teleprompter from the last four years. they actually believe this guy isn't intelligent, which is crazy or it is bigoted. chris: i think it sounded ugly, i'll put it that way. your thoughts? >> i won't speak for all conservative commentators. chris: you don't have to. >> you certainly can make an argument and conser

i have to transition to john sununu and colin powell. we can talk about numbers all day long but this is another buzz story. let me play what mr. sununu said on cnn. >> when you take a look at colin powell you have to wonder whether that's an endorsement based on issues or whether he's got a slightly different reason for preferring president obama. >> what reason would that be? >> well, i think when you have somebody of your own race that you're proud of being president of the united states, i applaud colin for standing with him. >> may it be the mourdock comment at the beginning of the week regarding rape or john sununu with this line here. he said colin powell is a friend and believes he based his decision on policies. but that's not what he said initially. what do you make of members of your party? we're talking about mr. sununu and his comment that colin powell was backing president obama because he's black. >> the reality is individuals make comments on both sides that both candidates don't agree with both campaigns. >> he's a surro

colin powell. >> yeah. >> bill: have you ever heard a more racist comment in your life. >> and john sununu say sununu, shut up, right? >> how many times has this now been that john sununu has said something wildly offensive and/or dumb. >> bill: he said that maybe president obama ought to learn to be an american. >> yeah. >> bill: but what an insult to think that colin powell would only endorse president obama because he is black. >> not because of the war, iraq afghanistan, went after al-qaeda. >> there is that. >> bill: got osama bin laden. in fact colin powell when he did endorse president obama he rattled off all of the reasons why. coming up senator sherrod brown up for reelection in ohio joe donnelly, democratic senate candidate in indiana, who is going to be the next democratic senator from indiana, no doubt about it will be joining us a little bit later erich pica is here to kick off the hour but first -- >> announcer: this is the "full court press." >> a big change coming to the nba, david stern announcing he is retiring in a year and a half after 30 years. >> good. good riddance.

. >> the job of scrubbing the deck fell to john sununu out in force to clear up any doubts about then's position. >> rape is a heinous vile act and horrible and when mourdock s says that romney immediately condemned that. >> was the unfortunate rape snafu cleaned up? perhaps. not before sununu went on to say this about former secretary of state colin powell and his endorsement of president obama. >> when you take a look at colin powell you have to wonder whether that's an endorsement based on issues or he has a slightly different reason for preferring president obama. >> what reason would that be? >> well, i think when you have somebody of your own race you're proud of being president of the united states i applaud colin for standing with him. >> what better way to compound a highly charged and emotional debate over race than by starting one over race. with a party like this, no wonder policy seems eager to leave the sinking ship and doesn't help when ship mates seem all too willing to throw you overboard. friends like these, wes, who needs enemies. let's talk about the republican pa

john sununu, the top romney surrogate, barks at that lazy one in the white house who doesn't know howo be an american, who sarah palin mocks for shucking and jiving, and donald trump accuses again and again and again of being from kenya and playing monkey business with the country's economic numbers. you know, the same fellow romney says cheats on the welfare checks to feed his political base. the guy gingrich calls the food stamp president. listen to sununu last night yelling at former governor bill richardson to shut up saying general colin powell's political judgment is based on racial bias. trump offering a big bet the president won't show his student transcripts all to diminish the president's academic rise to editor of the harvard law review. yes, it's all directed at drumming up the blue collar white vote for the republican ticket and, yes, it smells. david corn is author of "the 47 percent" and joy reid is managing editor of the grio. both are msnbc political analysts. if the romney campaign is really winning, you have to ask then you wouldn't think they'd be acting like this.