PoliticsNation, Wednesday, April 16, 2014

POLITICS NATION
April 16, 2014

Guests: Jess McIntosh; Patricia Murphy; Angela Rye, Ted Strickland, Jamaal
Simmons, Mark Potok


REVEREND AL SHARPTON, MSNBC ANCHOR: Good evening, tonight`s lead, GOP
extremism going from bad to worse. Their 2014 candidates are showcasing
the most intolerant radical views of the party, making a mockery of all
their talk about GOP rebranding.

Take Mississippi senate candidate Chris McDaniel. We just learned that in
the mid-2000s, he wrote blog posts criticizing poor people affected by
Katrina. Calling them quote "the welfare depend citizens of New Orleans"
and saying people of all races in that city quote "ignored common sense and
waited for the great federal father to save them."

That`s the vile way a leading GOP candidate talks about those who endured
the horrors of Katrina? Welfare dependent citizens? And he has equally
offensive views on everything from immigration to reparations for slavery.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHRIS MCDANIEL, MISSISSIPPI SENATE CANDIDATE: Social security, we`re
broke. Millions of illegals pouring across the border trying to become
citizens, and they`ll all want theirs. And then reparations. Let me just
get crazy with it. If they pass reparations and my taxes go up, I isn`t
paying taxes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SHARPTON: I isn`t paying taxes. This man could actually win a Senate
seat. He`s getting bankrolled by major conservative groups like the club
for growth, and he`s typical of the extremism we are seeing in a new crop
of GOP candidates.

At a recent forum in Georgia, the GOP Senate candidates were asked if
they`d impeach President Obama.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Clinton was impeached for perjury. Obama has
perjured himself on multiple occasions. Would you support impeachment if
presented for a vote?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SHARPTON: Three of the candidates on stage raised their hands. Not one,
not two, three! And in North Carolina, the right is rallying behind tea
party candidate Greg Brannon. He`s referred to Senator Jesse Helms as
quote "a modern hero" and he recently equated food stamps to slavery.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GREG BRANNON (R), NORTH CAROLINA SENATE CANDIDATE: The government is now
keeping themselves in power by giving these goodies away. The answers, the
culture should go away at the federal level. And now, 80 percent of the
farm bill was food stamps. That heck, it enslaves people. It`s crazy, but
it`s true. Give people fish instead of giving them fish. When you`re in
behest of somebody, you`re in slavery to them.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SHARPTON: Forget all the GOP talk about rebranding, this new field of
candidates promotes ugly, divisive talk on issue after issue. They are
extreme on economic rights, on women`s rights, on civil rights. If this is
the future of the party, then we should all be concerned for where it`s
headed.

Joining me now, Jess McIntosh and Jonathan Capehart.

Thanks to both of you for being here.

JONATHAN CAPEHART, OPINION WRITER, THE WASHINGTON POST: Thanks, Rev.

JESS MCINTOSH, EMILY`S LIST: Thanks for having me.

SHARPTON: Jonathan, let`s go back to Chris McDaniel, ridiculing the
welfare citizens of New Orleans for staying in the citizen during Katrina.
I mean, is this the kind of person Republicans really want to represent
them in the Senate?

CAPEHART: It certainly sounds like it, because from what I`ve been able to
read, the incumbent, Senator Cochran, is facing a serious challenge here.

The problem that State Senator McDaniel has is that, you know, he has a
record that he`s now going to have to be held accountable for. It`s not
enough to say that, oh, Democrats and McDaniel`s opponents are bringing up
things ever said years ago. We`re talking about things that were said less
than ten years ago and on the air waves for all to hear and things that
were patently offensive.

And so, if the Republican primary voters want to vote for someone who holds
those views, who doesn`t repudiate those views and hasn`t shown any effort
to moderate those views or show those views have changed, well, you know,
let them make that bed.

SHARPTON: Jess, I don`t even hear the leading Republicans in terms of the
heads of the party calling on him to apologize for those views, clarify,
take them back. It`s like going without any kind of reprimand or concern
being shown by the leaders of the party. And then you add to that Chris
McDaniel, he had more to say about Katrina victims in the blog post.

Quote "others seized on Katrina`s opportunity to assault, loot, and steal.
Note to the left, unless you live in Detroit, the basic necessities of life
do not include big screen plasma TVs, Randy Moss jerseys, air Jordan
sneakers, or any type bling-bling."

Now, again, as Jonathan said, this is not 20 years ago and things that
people say and all of us have said maybe I shouldn`t have said that.
Talking about recent statements and extended statements showing this is his
thought process. This is in the 2000s.

MCINTOSH: And this is just disgusting, hateful, racist rhetoric that was
used during one of the country`s largest tragedies. I think the vast
majority of Americans were crying for New Orleans and were feeling for the
people who were displaced from their homes, who were sick -- I mean, this
is so far against what America believes in. I can`t imagine the guy
getting traction.

I think it`s interesting that he`s running against Senator Cochran, who`s
not a moderate. The man that he is challenging is not Olympia Snowe. He
is not Kay Bailey Hutchison. The Republican Party has lurched so far to
the right that they can`t see moderate anymore. If Todd Akin were running
this year, he would be hailed as one of the reasonable candidates out
there. It`s not just Mississippi. You pointed out Georgia. It is in
North Carolina. These are extremists running this year.

SHARPTON: And Jonathan, the statements that we`re talking about here are
not being made during this race, but it is within the 2000s. But I`m
saying, it`s not even an issue in this race. They are not even saying to
him, why did you say this in recent history, why should we feel you`ve
changed, have you changed? The fact that it`s not an issue in the primary
and an issue for the national party and he`s getting traction, as you said,
is what I`m raising.

CAPEHART: Right. Look, I think the issue here is that perhaps the
national party is just hoping that if they don`t say anything, people will
ignore or forget they are in the race and that big money folks within the
Republican party who are also equally aghast at the far right extremists
that have taken over their party, they`ll flood money into the coffers of
the candidates, who are more moderate, who are more in line with the old
way of the Republican party. That they will somehow win out.

But the idea -- that the fact that we`re talking about someone in yet
another election cycle, more than someone, a whole crop of people in yet
another election cycle who are to the right of the people who are already
to the right of the people they`ve unseated is something that should
concern the country, but definitely concern the Republican party as a whole
and shape them out of their sort of silent stupor, because if they are not
careful, what`s already become more and more a regional reactionary party
is going to cease to exist.

SHARPTON: You know, Jess, the GOP candidates in this election are also
very, very far to the right on women`s issues, and after 2012, this is
startling. Candidates in Colorado, Arkansas, Montana, North Carolina,
Georgia, Iowa, Michigan, and Louisiana have all backed personhood
amendments, which would essentially ban abortion. Not that long ago, this
was considered a pretty extreme view, even in the party.

MCINTOSH: And many forms of birth control, too. It would ban many forms
of birth control, too. I mean, women voters decide every election. We saw
what happened in 2012 when Republicans pursued these incredibly reactionary
retro-raid agendas, trying to make it harder to get birth control, not
believing that gender discrimination in pay was a real issue.

I mean, obviously, those kinds of positions turn off women voters.
Alienating 51 percent of the population is a bad electoral strategy and let
me tell you why. I think we`re seeing them go down exactly the same road
they went in 2012, only on hyper-drive.

This is worse than it was in 2012. The Tom Tillises and Greg Brannon, and
in North Carolina, the Phil Gingrich (ph) and Paul Browns (ph) in Georgia,
these guys are even more extreme than the extremists we ran against and
beat last year. So luckily, we have fantastic women candidates that
provide a very, very clear contrast to their agenda, but we need to make
sure that we turn out voters to the polls in November. It is absolutely
critical.

SHARPTON: Jonathan, I see you nodding. I mean, all of this is being done,
keeping in mind, that the chairman of the party Priebus had called for an
autopsy and a change in tone. And it seems like extremists are gaining
momentum in primaries in his party in various parts of the country.

CAPEHART: Well, the problem is they put out this 99-page truth-telling
document. I mean, it really is an incredible analysis of what happened to
the party, the 2012 presidential election, put out all of these
prescriptions for the things the party needed to do, must do, in order to
attract the voters, the very voters they are going to need in future
presidential elections, and almost as soon as it was released, it hit the
shelves, the party started doing things that completely undercut everything
that they said that need to be done in that autopsy.

And I think, again, we`re seeing this crop of extremist candidates within
the Republican Party, because the party itself hasn`t more forcefully acted
on the autopsy and there`s no grownup in the Republican Party willing to
tell these people to stand down.

MCINTOSH: Well, the autopsy isn`t suggest they changed their positions.
The autopsy didn`t suggest they moderate their agenda. They said try new
messengers. It`s not the messenger that`s the problem, it`s the message.
Voters are rejecting the Republican agenda, not the packaging that it comes
in.

So they can say, yes, we understand we have a problem over and over again
for a year, but unless they are willing to address the substance of the
problem, which is that America wants economic opportunity, they are not
going to get anywhere.

SHARPTON: I absolutely agree with you, Jess. It is not just the people,
it is the agenda. I really do have to go.

Jess McIntosh and Jonathan Capehart, thank you both for your time tonight.

MCINTOSH: Thanks, Rev.

CAPEHART: Thanks, Rev.

SHARPTON: Coming up, we`re hearing more good news on the affordable care
act, but move over cooking the enrollment numbers. They have a new
conspiracy theory today.

And caught on tape. Watch a GOP congressman tell a worker that higher
minimum wage, quote, "not right."

Plus, we`re learning more about the white supremacist charged with
murdering three in Kansas, a chilling interview surfaces.

And Nelson Mandela came to New York City after being freed from prison in
1990. Tonight he`ll be honored at Yankee stadium. My memories on that
trip. Stay with us.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NELSON MANDELA, FORMER AFRICAN PRESIDENT: You`ll now know who I am. I am
a Yankee!

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SHARPTON: President Obama wants to raise the minimum wage. So do most
Americans. But Republicans just don`t get it. And now one GOP lawmaker
ran into a buzz saw from his own constituents. We`ll show you tape of that
next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SHARPTON: Today, President Obama ramped up his push for fairness in
America. It`s a direct challenge to a GOP agenda that seeks to turn a
blind eye to the growing gap between the rich and everyone else. But it`s
getting harder and harder for Republicans to pretend they can`t see this
injustice.

This week a dramatic example at a town hall event when a voter confronted
Republican congressman Dennis Ross for opposing the minimum wage.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Would you support the Obama act of raising the federal
minimum wage?

REP. DENNIS ROSS (R), FLORIDA: No.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And why not?

ROSS: Because I think it would do more harm to our economy than anything.
If you are garbage deposit, the cost of products, the cost of services are
going to go up. Markets do work, and I`m not suggesting that we go away
with the minimum wage, that`s not it at all. But the minimum wage is not a
career wage. It`s a wage to make sure workers aren`t being taken advantage
of by business owners. But if we`re going to make it a living wage, who`s
going to pay for it? Who`s going to pay for it? I`m going to pay for it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I will. I`ll pay 20 cents extra for a hamburger.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SHARPTON: The congressman asked a question and got an answer he apparently
didn`t expect. Americans support fairness, including a raise of the
minimum wage. But that didn`t seem to matter.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROSS: If the government`s going to tell me how much I`m going to get paid
and when I can work and can`t work, then we have a serious problem in this
country. We need to make sure that we protect our ability to our God-given
rights to excel the way we were meant to excel and for one nation that
mankind has ever known, it is this one that`s allowed that opportunity.
How much more government do you want in your life?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SHARPTON: How much more government do we want in our lives? How about
enough for fair minimum wage? The congressman said he`s not suggesting
getting rid of the minimum wage, but then he says it`s a serious problem if
the government sets a minimum wage. His answer makes no sense. And
neither does the GOP economic agenda.

Joining me now are Angela Rye and Patricia Murphy. Thank you both for
joining me.

ANGELA RYE, POLITICAL STRATEGIST: Thank you.

PATRICIA MURPHY, EDITOR, CITIZEN JANE POLITICS: Thank you.

SHARPTON: You know, Angela, it`s amazing. Voters tell a Republican
congressman to his face that they support minimum wage and he still doesn`t
get it.

RYE: Rev., you know, what`s more disappointing about this is it is a voter
in his district, meaning it`s a constituent. One of the people maybe that
didn`t vote for him, but he`s now elected to serve. The bigger problem
here is the fact that this individual says take a walk in my shoes, come
work with me for 24 hours and his response is that he mowed lawns when he
was 12 and has been working all of his life so he can enjoy the fruits of
his labor.

Well, the fact of the matter is, Rev., the fact that this minimum wage now
has not been on par with inflation, has never been ingested, and if it was,
it would be $10.76 and not this $10.10 increase folks are seeking, maybe
people would be able to enjoy parts of the fruit of their labor.

But right now, they are just trying to pay the bill. They are just trying
to make ends meet. And he`s so out of touch and so desiring to support his
tea party friends and the people that would benefit from these billions in
tax cuts that he just voted for with the Ryan budget that he doesn`t know
what he`s talking about.

SHARPTON: You know, Patricia, Oklahoma Republican governor, the Oklahoma
Republican governor, actually signed a bill this week banning cities in her
state from raising their local minimum wage. I mean, it`s an absolute, in
my opinion, it`s an absolute sad policy. Let`s put it that way.

MURPHY: Well, I think that the polls that you talked about show that
Americans agree with you and Americans, I think, agree that $7.25 an hour
for somebody who works a full-time job, leaves them at the poverty level.
And when we talk about the issue, we hear the word "fair" a lot. I think
we should just find out what is empirically a living wage and most
Americans I think it is right to have somebody living out of poverty if
they have gone out, looked for a job, got a job, and they are working 40
hours a week and the current minimum wage is not that standard that leave
people living below the poverty level, even though they go to work every
day.

So I think that`s the piece of the debate that really should change. Most
Americans agree with that. I think that Congress would be absolutely right
to follow that. And even if you made $10.10, which is the current
proposal, that`s not a lot of money. And these are not teenagers. Eighty
eight percent of people who earn minimum wage are over 20-years-old.

So again, I think there`s a lot of misinformation around the topic, even
with the misinformation, most Americans agree that the minimum wage should
be raised.

SHARPTON: But even with the misinformation, Angela, Republicans in
Congress have actually turned opposing the minimum wage into a talking
point. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. PAUL RYAN (R), HOUSE BUDGET COMMITTEE CHAIRMAN: I don`t think raising
the minimum wage and history`s very clear about this, doesn`t actually
accomplish those goals.

REP. JOHN BOEHNER (R-OH), SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: When you raise the price
of employment, guess what happens, you get less of it.

SEN. MARCO RUBIO (R), FLORIDA: I want people to make as much as they can.
I don`t think the minimum wage law works.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SHARPTON: You know, Angela, but as Patricia said, even with all of that,
Americans overwhelmingly support raising the minimum wage. Ninety three
percent of Democrats are back the plan, 69 percent of independents and even
52 percent of Republicans.

RYE: Yes, I don`t know if "Politifact" has tested this theory yet, this
talking points they keep using. But it flies in the face of logic and it
also flies in the face of several studies that say the exact opposite. It
doesn`t reduce unemployment. It reduces unemployment, rather, to increase
the wage, and in addition to that, Rev., it would generate $30 billion in
additional economic activity and create 143,000 more jobs.

So I don`t know where they are getting their talkers from. Perhaps the
person you named as their de facto chair, but it`s errant. It`s very, very
wrong.

SHARPTON: You know, Patricia, and they are doing this in a climate where
the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. As it almost sounds like a
bumper sticker slogan, but when you look at facts, new numbers out today
show an enormous and growing gap between CEOs, for example, and minimum
wage earners. In 2013, CEOs made an average of $11.7 million. Minimum
wage workers got just over $15,000. That gap is enormous, Patricia.

MURPHY: That gap is enormous. That gap is, frankly, wrong. I think most
Americans believe that. When you look into detailed polling about right
track, wrong track, when most people believe that the country`s on the
wrong track, a big piece of that is because of what they see, just an
enormous disparity between people.

Again, everybody who is going to work, going to work every single day and
just a massive pay increase for the people at the very, very top, middle
class extremely stagnant and people at the lowest end of the wage scale,
those real wages have not just stagnated, they`ve gone down. If you make
$7.25 four years in a row, you`re not doing better, you`re actually doing
worse even though you`re working every day. That`s a frustration for
people. Again, we hear a lot about people with work ethics, people who
want to do the right thing, and I really think most Americans believe
somebody working every day should be awarded for that with a living wage.

SHARPTON: Well, let me thank Angela Rye and Patricia Murphy. Thank you
both for your time tonight.

And let me say, as long as that big gap between the rich and the working
poor and working middle class is as broad as it is, again, average CEO,
this just out today, made $11.7 million last year. Average minimum wage
worker, $15,093. This should not happen in our nation without some real
safeguards to protect working people.

Still ahead, think you`ve heard every crazy right-wing theory about the
president`s health care law? Think again. There`s a new one making the
rounds, and it`s exposing the GOP`s own desperation.

Also, disturbing new tapes of the white supremacist accused in that deadly
shooting rampage. What he said about blacks and Jews and a frightening
glimpse into the world of extreme hate. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SHARPTON: Iowa`s Republican secretary of state Matt Schultz is running for
Congress this year, and eager to prove his right-wing credentials, he`s
pushing a voter I.D. law, hunting for voter fraud, and trying to purge the
voter rolls. He`s made it very clear what`s behind it all.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MATT SCHULTZ (R), IOWA SECRETARY OF STATE: A whole lot of issues that we
care about, you know, abortion, gay marriage, a whole lot of social issues
that we care deeply about. But you have to start caring about voter I.D.
and election integrity, as well, because if you don`t have that, you`ll
never be able to make a difference in any other issue you care about.
Never. Because they will cheat.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SHARPTON: So passing voter I.D. laws is really all about banning abortion
and gay marriage, but what happened to all that voter fraud he was supposed
to find? It was essentially nonexistent. They have only been 26 alleged
cases out of millions of votes cast. And seven have already been
dismissed, but it turns out there is some fishy business happening at the
polls in Iowa, only it`s not coming from the voters. It`s coming from Matt
Schultz.

A review recently found at least 12 people had their votes wrongly rejected
in 2012. Schultz blamed it on inaccuracies and data entry mistakes in the
state`s list of ineligible felons. Maybe if Matt Schultz hadn`t been so
busy on his crusade to find voter fraud, he would have noticed that the
real problem was in his own office.

Did Matt Schultz think we wouldn`t notice who the real voter fraud is
coming from? Nice try but we got you.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)


SHARPTON: The more good news we get about the health care law, the
more the right scrambles to find a scandal. First, they accused the White
House of cooking the books on enrollment. Now it`s the census. "The New
York Times" reports the census bureau is changing the questions it asks
about health insurance, because, quote, "Census officials and researchers
have long expressed concern about the old version of insurance questions
and for more than a decade the agency has been trying to make it more
accurate."

So, they want more accurate information. Pretty normal for the census
bureau, but it`s very suspicious to the right. From the Judge report,
convenient, census survey revisions mask ObamaCare effects. The Daily
Caller is accusing the administration of destroying reliable data. "The
Wall Street journal" calls it "cooking the ObamaCare stats." Wow, they
love talking about cooking. And staffers for Speaker Boehner, Eric Cantor,
and Ted Cruz have all tweeted snarky comments about the change. Good thing
no one on TV is taking this seriously. Oh, wait.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: There was a big scuttlebutt about the fact that a
lot of the census keeping duties were moving from one office over to the
White House. Are we seeing the ramifications of that now?

STUART VARNEY, FOX BUSINESS NETWORK: That`s a possibility. We really
don`t know the precise impact of ObamaCare on the health insurance market.
A lot of people are saying, oh, how convenient, why now?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SHARPTON: Oh, how convenient! Here`s the reality. The new questions
on insurance will cover 2013 and 2014, comparing insurance levels before
and after the health care law went into effect. And the director of the
Census Bureau says the changing are the culmination of 14 years of research
and two national tests in 2010 and 2013. This isn`t cooking the books,
it`s getting better information. The only thing that`s cooked are the
right wing attacks.

Joining me now are former Ohio Governor Ted Strickland. He`s now
president of the Center for American Progress Action Fund. And democratic
strategist Jamaal Simmons. Thank you both for being here tonight.

JAMAAL SIMMONS, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: Thank you.

FMR. GOV. TED STRICKLAND, CAP ACTION FUND: Thank you Rev for having
me.

SHARPTON: Governor, the Census Bureau is part of a plot to hide
information about the health care law? I mean, who else is in this latest
conspiracy, the Easter Bunny?

STRICKLAND: Listen, Reverend Al, the Republicans have been
criticizing the census ever since I can remember. They are always looking
for some nefarious motivation, and we know what their motive is. Their
motive is to try to continue to discredit the effects of ObamaCare.
Reverend Al, some 12 million Americans this year will have health care
coverage that would not have had it without ObamaCare. We should be
celebrating that. It makes me proud of our country to know that we are
finally taking this major step and making health care affordable and
available to the American people. We ought not to be looking for boogey
mans. We ought to be celebrating the accomplishment.

SHARPTON: You know, Jamaal, the right is also claiming the enrollment
numbers are bogus. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: They know they`ve got a math problem with
ObamaCare and the numbers are not going to work out.

UNIDENTIFIED MAN: I don`t think it means anything, Chris. I think
they are cooking the books on this.

SEN. TED CRUZ (R), TEXAS: Well, look, I mean, the numbers are a bit
of funny math.

SEAN HANNITY, FOX NEWS HOST: With millions of ObamaCare applicants
appearing out of thin air now in the last few days, Kathleen Sebelius is
fighting off allegations that they are cooking the books.

RUSH LIMBAUGH, RADIO TALK SHOW HOST: The real question is, when have
they not lied about ObamaCare?

DONALD TRUMP, ENTREPRENEUR: You know, they say they had seven million
startups. Now does anybody really believe that? OK. Just an
impossibility. It`s actually impossible.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SHARPTON: Well, you know, Jamaal, if the Donald says it, it must be
true. I mean, we had the birthers, now we have the truthers on health
care.

SIMMONS: That`s right. Reverend Al, you say all the time you`re
entitled to your own opinions, but not your own facts. And I think what
the Republicans are doing here is trying to create an entirely different
alternative set of facts. They are attacking the real facts about where
Americans are, what they need, and what it`s going to take to fix their
health care problems. I was back in the Commerce Department in the 1990s
where we`re trying to get ready for the 2000 census.

Republicans have been fighting the census and accurately detailing the
condition of the American people for as long as anybody can remember, and
the reality is, they know that Americans are not advancing as far and as
fast as they need to. The last segment you had talking about wages, we see
it in those stories, that Americans are not making as much money as they
can and they should. The Republicans know that if the real facts are told
and they are out there, it makes their arguments and their opinions harder
to up-stand.

SHARPTON: You know, Governor Strickland, you ran a state. Give us
your assessment as one who was the chief executive of a state on how this
health care plan is doing now and what it means to people on the ground, as
one that ran a state.

STRICKLAND: Well, Reverend Al, the fact is, that millions of
Americans across the states have access to health care now that a few
months ago was well beyond their ability to achieve. There are people
today who have serious health conditions, who had pre-existing conditions,
who had been denied coverage and today they have access to coverage. There
are people across -- in my state of Ohio, thankfully, our governor decided
to expand Medicaid and I applauded him for that. We didn`t set up our own
exchange, which would have made I think even more successful the effort in
Ohio, but you take a state like Texas, where so many people are without any
access to health care and they refuse to expand coverage, it`s just beyond
belief.

I don`t understand it. I think it says something about the values
that these governors hold dear when they choose to deny their own citizens
access to affordable health care when the federal government is accepting
the larger share of the burden for several years and 90 percent of the
burden thereafter. It`s really a sad situation.

SHARPTON: I mean, that is not only sad, it`s as the governor said,
Jamaal, it`s outrageous. I mean, the federal government is going to cover
90 percent of it, it costs the state little or nothing, and for politics
you`re going to hold this back that affects the citizens in your state? I
mean, you quote me talking about different opinions, but you can`t have
different facts. Let`s look at the facts. Gallup finds a big difference
between the states embracing the health care law and the states that
aren`t. In states that expanded Medicaid and set up their own exchanges,
the rate of uninsured residents has fallen 2.5 percent. In states that
didn`t expand Medicaid and didn`t do the exchanges, the uninsured rates
have fallen .08 percent. These are facts, Jamaal.

SIMMONS: These are absolutely facts and underneath those facts are
real-live human beings who are struggling to make ends meet in their
family, struggling to make sure they are being taken care of, and instead
of taking care of their citizens, Republicans are deciding to play
politics, and so you`ve got people trying to, you know, get cute with these
numbers and get cute with policies and going and having 50 votes against
ObamaCare that don`t mean anything.

If the Republicans actually wanted to fix ObamaCare and not just play
around and try to repeal it, they actually wanted to fix it, there probably
are some things that they could come up with that the country would go
along with, but they are not playing straight. And until they play
straight, the administration can`t sit down with them across the table and
try to figure out how to fix the tweaks that need to be made.

SHARPTON: You know, Governor Mitch McConnell, he was back in his
district this week talking about the health care law. He said insurance
for everyone would be a great thing in principle and we`re going to figure
out a way to get this fixed. This isn`t going to stay the way it is. But
he`ll have a lot of explaining to do to his constituents, because 360,000
Kentuckians have enrolled under the law, cutting the uninsured rate by 42
percent. McConnell`s talking about fixing the law. How will that go over?

STRICKLAND: What`s the senator going to do, is he going to go back to
Kentucky, run for re-election, and say to the people, we`re going to take
your health care coverage away from you? Every governor, every senator
that wants to repeal ObamaCare is saying to the people who have achieved
coverage, we`re going to strip from you what you now have, we`re going to
take from you the health care coverage that you now have. I don`t think
they can do that and get by with it.

SHARPTON: Governor Ted Strickland and Jamaal Simmons, thank you both
for your time tonight.

STRICKLAND: Thank you, Reverend Al.

SHARPTON: Coming up, new tapes emerge of the white supremacist
charged of a murder spree in Kansas. He was on the federal radar for
years, so could it have been prevented?

And Nelson Mandela`s trip to Yankee Stadium just after being released
from prison. Tonight, a very special honor for him is there. Stay with
us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SHARPTON: We are learning more about the white supremacist who
allegedly went on a hate-filled murder rampage in Kansas City. The former
Klan member, Frazier Glenn Miller, is charged with murdering three last
Sunday outside a Jewish Community Center. Today, the Southern Poverty Law
Center, a group that tracks radical extremists, released a series of
interviews with him from last year. In the chilling conversations, Miller
talked about his ideology, his violent past, and his beliefs about race.

FRAZIER GLENN MILLER, NORTH CAROLINA-BASED WHITE PATRIOT PARTY FORMER
LEADER: Whites are in fact dying out. Jews are increasing.

HEIDI BEIRICH, SOUTHERN POVERTY LAW CENTER: God, Glenn, you and your
crazy numbers. You know, whites are not dying.

MILLER: I wouldn`t even be in the movement if not for that.
Everything that`s killing us was brought about by Jews.

BEIRICH: Killing us?

MILLER: Legalization of abortion that has already killed, what, 40
million white babies in the United States.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SHARPTON: And he then turned his attention to African-Americans.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MILLER: Why do blacks in Africa average IQ is 70? Why are their
brains smaller, lighter, and less convoluted? There`s not one black
neighborhood in this country that you can walk down the street at night by
yourself.

SHARPTON: If he`s convicted of capital murder, he could face the
death penalty, but how can we stop this from happening again? What can we
do to prevent this kind of tragedy?

Joining me now is Mark Potok, senior fellow at the Southern Poverty
Law Center. They track hate groups and radical extremists. Mark, thank
you for being here.

MARK POTOK, SOUTHERN POVERTY LAW CENTER SENIOR FELLOW: Thanks for
having me, Rev.

SHARPTON: You know, hearing him like that is pretty stunning. How
long has Miller been on your radar?

POTOK: He`s been on our radar for more than 30 years now. We really
tangled with him back in the 1980s when we brought suit against him and his
group, the Carolina Knights of the Ku Klux Klan and later a second group,
the White Patriot Party that he formed, very similar. These groups were
both essentially paramilitary Klan organizations, used to march through the
streets of North Carolina carrying weapons and wearing fatigues and all
that kind of thing.

SHARPTON: He even went after your founder, didn`t he, and your former
director?

POTOK: Yes. What actually happened was we ultimately got a consent
decree, rather an agreement, a signed agreement with him in which he agreed
to stop harassing and intimidating black North Carolinians and to stop
operating paramilitary groups. He very quickly broke that consent decree
and as a result was convicted of criminal contempt. He went on the lam,
was a fugitive for several months, was ultimately found by the FBI in 1987
holed up in a trailer with several other Klansmen, a lot of C4 plastic
explosives, hand grenades and a whole lot of weapons and a plan to
assassinate the founder of the Southern Poverty Law Center Morris Dees.
That`s when he was arrested.

SHARPTON: Mark, your organization reports that hate groups are on the
rise. A 2011 Southern Poverty Law Center report says the hate groups have
grown every year for the past 11 years. In 2000 there were 602 hate
groups. In 2011, there were over 1,000. Why are we seeing this rise, and
is there anything we can do to stop them?

POTOK: Well, very generally the rise has to do pretty directly with
the changing racial demographics of the United States. Ten, 12 years ago,
it was all about nonwhite immigration, essentially Latino immigration.
With the appearance of Barack Obama on the scene in the fall of 2008 and,
of course, his election of president, the group growth began to accelerate
quite a lot. We saw militia groups absolutely explode, go from about 150
to almost 1,400 groups in the space of four years, and that really has to
do, again, with the changing racial demographics of the country as
represented in the person of Barack Obama.

The Census Bureau has predicted that non-Hispanic whites in America
will lose their majority, will fall under 50 percent of the population by
about the year 2043. And that`s what`s really going on here. These groups
of individuals out there, you know, feel that the country is being stolen
from them, that they`ve lost certainly their dominant position and they are
angry and some of them are angry enough to engage in the kind of mass
murder that Miller allegedly did.

SHARPTON: Mark Potok, thank you so much for your time this evening.

POTOK: A real pleasure.

SHARPTON: Coming up, a new honor for Nelson Mandela. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SHARPTON: Now to the growing support for a grief-stricken Arizona
mother, who had her children taken away from her. This is the tearful mugs
hot of a 35-year-old Shanesha Taylor, a homeless single mother was arrested
last month and charged with felony child abuse. She allegedly left her two
kids, a two-year-old and a six-month-old in the car when she went on a job
interview. She spent 11 days in jail before being released on bail, but
her children are still in the custody of child protective services.
Yesterday, a petition signed by 12,000 people from all over the country was
dropped off to the county`s attorney`s office. The petition asks that the
charges be dropped. An online fundraiser has collected over $100,000.
Shanesha`s attorney had this message from her yesterday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BENJAMIN TAYLOR, SHANESHA TAYLOR`S ATTORNEY: The love, compassion,
and support of those of you around the world are nothing less than
phenomenal. I read a message the other day that reminded me, it takes a
village to raise a child. Thank you for all for being my village.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SHARPTON: She faces up to seven years in prison. Her next court
appearance is scheduled for May 22nd.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SHARPTON: I`m honored to be participating in a ceremony tonight at
Yankee Stadium paying tribute to Nelson Mandela. He visited Yankee Stadium
on a trip here into New York back in 1990, just four months after his
release from prison in South Africa. Mandela put on a Yankee jacket and
declared his solidarity with the huge crowd of New Yorkers.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NELSON MANDELA, FORMER SOUTH AFRICAN PRESIDENT: You now know who I
am. I am a Yankee!

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SHARPTON: It was just one stop on a whirlwind historic trip to the
city. He went first to my home borough of Brooklyn, visiting a high school
that now bears his name. Then nearly half a million people gathered for a
ticker-tape parade through the canyon of heroes in Lower Manhattan. He
addressed 200,000 more on the steps of city hall.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MANDELA: South Africa, country which banishes forever racism in all
its forms. Apartheid is doomed. South Africa shall be free.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SHARPTON: And on a trip to Riverside Church, Mandela had them
literally dancing in the aisles.

I had the honor of being with this great man a few years later on a
trip to the United Nations, and during his first trip to the U.S. as South
Africa`s president. He worshipped at the historic Canon Baptist Church in
Harlem, where Martin Luther King`s former executive director Wyatt Tee
Walker was pastor. Dr. Walker taught me that you can grow and change and
change the world. He made us read about how Gandhi said change must begin
with you.

Nelson Mandela went to jail for 27 years. He went in jail being
called a terrorist, one that was planning all kinds of guerilla warfare and
murderous acts, even in a land that they were being murdered and summarily
robbed of justice. He came out a healer, a savior, a unifier, one that
brought a nation together. He grew and the world grew, and that`s why
tonight where he said he was a Yankee, we will honor him and we will raise
his legacy.

Thanks for watching. I`m Al Sharpton. "HARDBALL" starts right now.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY
BE UPDATED.
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