Show: THE ED SHOW
Date: November 20, 2014
Guest: Karen Desoto, Jeffrey Gardere, Paul Douglas, Steny Hoyer, Mary Kay
Henry, Henry Fernandez, Robert Greenwald
ED SCHULTZ, MSNBC HOST: Good evening Americans and welcome to the Ed Show
live from Detroit Lakes, Minnesota.
Let`s get to work.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: My whole life I`ve been watching Cosby...
BRIAN WILLIAMS, NBC NEWS ANCHOR: Sexual assault allegations surroundings
Bill Cosby.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The man once known by many as America`s T.V. dad...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And now after all the -- after person, after person,
after person (inaudible) story, it` just -- you just look the whole thing
differently.
BILL COSBY, ACTOR, COMEDIAN: I don`t talk about it.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: NBC pulled the plug.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That`s right, NBC T.V...
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: ... woman who claimed to have been sexually assaulted
by the comedian.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It`s the same memo. It`s the same old story.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think he did it but there`s just not enough here to
prosecute.
COSBY: There is not comment about that.
JANICE DICKINSON, COSBY ACCUSER: How dare you. How dare you taking
advantage of me.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The voices of the victims are finally being heard.
COSBY: There`s no response.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SCHULTZ: Good to have you with tonight folks. Thanks for watching. It`s
one of those, you got to be kidding me stories.
We start tonight with the story that the country is talking about, the
sexual assault allegations against an America icon, the man known for clean
comedy, Bill Cosby. Cosby has been a fixture and a figure in many American
living rooms for decades, the widely popular "Cosby Show" run for eight
seasons over the course of eight years on NBC.
In recent years Cosby has been doing standup comedy going on tour around
the country, very popular. Cosby has been accused of sexual assault by 16
women over previous decades. Accusations Cosby has denied in the past.
Four women have come forward recently to repeat the decades-old accusations
of being drugged, raped or molested.
Supermodel Janice Dickinson is making the most recent accusation against
Cosby.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DICKINSON: I remember before I passed out that I had been sexually
assaulted by this man. The last thing I remember was Bill Cosby in a
patchwork robe, dropping his robe and getting on top of me. And I remember
a lot of pain.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SCHULTZ: Comedy writer Joan Tarshis also accused Bill Cosby of sexual
assault and allegedly happened when she was 19-years-old.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOAN TARSHIS, COSBY ACCUSER: He said, "Well why done we write a monologue
together" and I said, "Well I`m working something about the big tremor that
we had last month." And he said, "Oh that sounds good." So I went up to
his cabin, his cottage or his bungalow and we -- he made me another Red
Eye, we started to talk about the earthquake. And the next thing I know, I
was on his couch and he was pulling my underwear off.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SCHULTZ: In 2006, Cosby settled a civil suit related to a sexual assault.
A former prosecutor told NBC news there wasn`t enough proof to charge the
entertainer.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Cosby was guilty and had done something wrong but that
-- I mean, I can`t stand up in court and tell the judge and the jury my gut
tells me he`s guilty.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SCHULTZ: Cosby has never been charged in conviction with any of these
allegations. Cosby`s attorney called recent allegations, "Decades-old and
discredited". They called the most recent allegation from former
Supermodel Janice Dickinson, "A complete lie".
Dickinson also published a book where she describes an encounter by Cosby.
In the book Dickinson said she rebuffed his advances rather being a victim
of sexual assault. On Wednesday, the Associated Press released a recent
interview with Cosby. Cosby was asked on camera about comedian Hannibal
Buress making a joke about Cosby`s rape allegations.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I have to ask you about your name coming up in the news
recently regarding this comedian.
COSBY: No, no. We don`t answer that.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK. I just wanted to ask if you wanted to respond at
all about whether any of that was true.
COSBY: There`s no response.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK. Can I ask you if -- with the -- is the persona
that people know about Bill Cosby, should they believe anything differently
about what...
COSBY: There`s no comment about that.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK.
COSBY: And I`ll tell you why.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK.
COSBY: I think you were told, I don`t want to compromise your integrity
but, we don`t -- I don`t talk about it...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: As the interview wind down, Cosby then continued the
conversation. The camera was still running and Cosby and his wife wearing
lapel microphones.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you very much.
CAMILLE COSBY, BILL COSBY`S WIFE: Thank you.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Appreciate your time.
C. COSBY: Thank you.
COSBY: Now can I get something from you?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What`s that?
COSBY: That none of that will be shown?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I -- I can`t promise that my self but you didn`t say
anything...
COSBY: I know I didn`t say anything but -- I`m asking your integrity that
since I didn`t want to say anything but I did answer you in terms of I
don`t want to say anything of what value would it have.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don`t think it will...
COSBY: What did you say?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sorry?
COSBY: What did you say?
C. COSBY: I don`t think it has any value either.
COSBY: Yes. And I would appreciate it if it was scuttled.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I hear you. I will tell that to my editors.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SCHULTZ: The professional and personal fallout over these accusations has
been severe.
On Wednesday, NBC decided to cancel a sitcom it was developing with Cosby.
T.V. Land is pulling reruns of the Cosby show effective immediately. Cosby
canceled an appearance next week on CBS` Late Show with David Letterman.
Netfix canceled a special that was set to air on November 28th titled "Bill
Cosby at 77". And at the age of 77, Bill Cosby clearly is experiencing a
fall like we have never seen before in entertainment.
For more let me bring in Dr. James Peterson, MSNBC contributor and Director
Africana studies at Lehigh University. Karen Desoto with us tonight,
Defense Attorney and Professor of Political Science at New Jersey City
University, and Psychologist Dr. Jeffrey Gardere, great to have all of you
with us tonight.
DR. JEFFREY GARDERE, PSYCHOLOGIST: Thank you.
SCHULTZ: Dr. Peterson you first, Bill Cosby has been in American living
rooms for decades. He`s known for clean comedy. And this is a man who`s
been role model to American youth not just black youth. He`s been critical
of black youth. He`s been instructed of black youth.
Called them out on some of their actions, and that`s what`s so shocking
about all of these. What is your reaction to this tonight and how does
Bill Cosby recover from this as you see it?
DR. JAMES PETERSON, MSNBC CONTRIBUTOR: Well, Ed I`m not sure if there`s
recovery from these allegations and the accusations and the firestorm
around them. I think, you know, I`ve talked a lot in the past publicly
about my thoughts about Mr. Cosby`s critic of young black folks and him
sort of targeting the pathology that he sees about understanding the
structural things that inform the conditions in which black folk live, also
spoken about that.
And I think when it comes to this situation, there are some important
takeaways Ed. Number one, don`t think that you know what the face is of
sexual assault and sexual sort of predatory nature because, you know, we
want to say this, you know, we know what the person looks like, we know
what the stereotype or prototype looks like and that`s simply is not the
case.
And number two, you know, we are very, very good, you know, at engaging the
sort of celebrity culture snafu. So we`re really good at elevating and
making celebrities really exceptional and we`re really good at contributing
and piling on at their downfall. And the reality is, is that celebrities
are not always the best role models no matter who they are and no matter
what they do.
They`re real people just like everybody else, they make mistakes and in
this case, Mr. Cosby has allegedly made some pretty severe mistakes and
damages some lives here.
SCHULTZ: Dr. Gardere if these accusations are true, who is Bill Cosby?
GARDERE: Well, what we`re finding out is exactly what Dr. Peterson is
saying, that Bill Cosby may not be the person that he represent himself as
being America`s dad and so on. Dr. Cosby is a very complex individual who
I believe may fit into the pattern that we`ve seen the past if this is
true. If this is true, a person who has a lot of power, who`s been enabled
by many in the entertainment business where people have a cognitive
dissonance where they can`t live with the thought that America`s dad might
also be a very dangerous person.
So I think what we`re learning is, what we`re seeing on the screen is just
perhaps a little bit of the tip of the iceberg as to who someone really is.
But I will tell you tonight, I believe Dr. Cosby is in a lot of emotional
pain as are the alleged victims.
SCHULTZ: About the alleged victims Dr. Gardere, what would motivate them
to come out so late after so many years and talk about this publicly? Is
this somewhat therapeutic for them? Your thoughts on that.
GARDERE: I believe it`s very, very therapeutic and it is not atypical for
rape victims in general to come out years later when they feel that they
are healed enough or have the power to be able to talk about what has
happened because then they can begin to finally get some of that resolved.
And to that point Ed, I mean for someone to make this kind of allegation,
we see that it`s not about the money from what we know. This is something
that they truly believe has happened and perhaps may have happened.
There`s no gain in making yourself a rape victim because as much as we
should understand and love and support any kind of victim especially the
rape victim. Too often they`re trampled upon the media and by others who
don`t believe them.
SCHULTZ: Karen Desoto, what is the legal arena look like with all of these
accusations flying around, is there any recourse for either side?
KAREN DESOTO, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Well no, there a statute of limitations.
I think anyone who seen "Law & Order" know that there`s a statute of
limitation problem. Listen Ed, we know from covering these type of cases
that anyone can file a case, that that doesn`t mean that it can survive,
could there be some kind of obscure physical continuing injury for one of
these victims? It`s possible, anyone can file it.
What I could tell you is that it`s going to be very hard to sustain. We`re
outside of the criminal arena. Those charges have already been put through
the system, not enough evidence. I could tell you as a trial attorney who
has tried rape cases, even when you have evidence, these cases are
extremely difficult. So when you don`t have any rape kit, eye witnesses
and its years later, very, very difficult even within the time limit.
SCHULTZ: What would motivate these women to come out and trash a man who
is revered by many Americans? Dr. Peterson, you know, taken the other side
of it. Is this just a 100 percent trash job as you see it?
PETERSON: It is not that. I don`t see any ulterior motives or any
motivation. You could go back in time and look at the stories of these
particular cases and maybe in those specific timeframes, you could talk
about some kind of motive about careerism or trying to leverage Mr. Cosby`s
fame. But at this point in time, decades after it, it just doesn`t seem
that there seems to be ulterior motives.
Now everyone`s in the court of public opinion is welcome to their own
opinions about this and obviously there`s still a lot of people out there
defending Mr. Cosby, they think that those of us in the media are kind of
appalling. But you really have to ask yourself, what do these women have
to gain?
The reality is, is that they`re sort of coming into the public together
because they realize there`s strength in numbers. And for a lot of reasons
Ed, these things are sticking more than now than they were 10 years ago or
20 years ago. Some of it the collective piece of it...
SCHULTZ: Yeah.
PETERSON: Some of it, it`s because Mr. Cosby has been in their tour, you
know, around the nation and kind of espousing his rather conservative views
about the behavior of black folks. And I think the people would normally
rally around him just aren`t steeping up to that plate right now.
So it`s an interesting moment to think about why this story is sticking.
But as far as I can see, I don`t see any rationale sort of reason for us to
think that these women are just coming up and making these things up 20-30
years after with absolutely nothing to gain from it. But like Dr. Gardere
said, except for attention from the public, it`s probably unwarranted and
unwanted right now.
SCHULTZ: Well, nothing to gain from it on their part but there is
something to lose here on the part of Bill Cosby. He`s having shows
canceled, he`s having future plans canceled, businesses changing. Karen
what about? I mean it...
DESOTO: Well...
SCHULTZ: ... these women seem to be on the attack and professionally
injuring him right now. What`s his recourse as you see if any?
DESOTO: Well, obviously he`s not going to file a defamation suit because
then that`s just going to highlight it even more, right? This came up in
2006. He`s been surrounded with different types of cases. But Ed, in the
court of public opinion, this is problematic, it`s not like you have 1, 2,
3, 4, 10, 16? So, the problem is, is that each story becomes more and more
credible because each person that comes forward is corroborating the other
persons.
And there seems to be a pattern here. So, like I said back in 2006 when
the case -- the civil case was settled, there were 13 women identified Ed.
So this is, you know, this is very serious and the allegations are
extremely disturbing. So I don`t know if we could say that, you know, he`s
being trashed. Obviously there hasn`t been a criminal case but there has
been a civil case.
So yes, it`s difficult because it`s not just him that is harming, the other
actors, his shows have been pulled.
PETERSON: Right.
DESOTO: Obviously people are going to lose money from their royalties so
he`s -- there`s a lot of harm here. So, you know, would 16 people come out
and just say this and say that I`m a victim of rape? It seems to me from
the beginning of my career as an attorney until now, people are more likely
to call a person who says that they`re raped a liar, that was not so 15
years ago.
So, you know, this is a serious position and obviously if they don`t want
to run his shows that the court of public opinion.
SCHULTZ: Yes. Certainly an element of sadness all the way around on this
story, so moving forward for Bill Cosby, Dr. Gardere, how does he deal with
this?
GARDERE: Well, a lot of people are criticizing the way that he`s dealing
with this, that he doesn`t want to dignify it. But I think at some point
he does have to come out. If this is not true, he has to come out and talk
about it. He has to defend himself. You just cannot hide behind the cloak
of invisibility because it is like the emperor with no cloths.
People are seeing through this and therefore he has to come out and tell
his story if there is a story to be told.
DESOTO: Yes.
SCHULTZ: Dr. James Peterson, Karen Desoto, and also Dr. Jeff Gardere,
great to have both -- all of you with us tonight, all three of you. I
appreciate it very much for being on the Ed Show.
Coming up, Republicans freak out over the President`s immigration action.
Rapid Response Panel brings us the facts. I`ll have commentary.
But first, climate change rears its ugly head again.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How long do you live here?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: 30 years.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Have you ever seen like this?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Not in one day.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SCHULTZ: What`s hot, what`s not? Time now for Trenders.
Join our Ed Team social media. You can catch us on Facebook@edshow. And
that`s where you can tweet us. All right, now you can get my podcast on
iTunes free 24/7, it`s right there for you, it`s all free and you can find
it at wegoted.com, rawstory.com and ringioffireradio.com.
Ed Show social media nation has decided, we`re reporting.
Here are today`s top trenders voted on by you.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Who`s talking about fear? We`re talking about a moat.
SCHULTZ: The number three trender, on guard.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ... examining review by the Department of Homeland
Security blames the Secret Service for a series of performance,
organizational, technical and other failures.
It`s supposed to be the most heavily protected secured address in the
world.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We should dig a moat.
SCHULTZ: Congressman Cohen wants to go medieval on White House security.
REP. STEVE COHEN, (D) TENNESSEE: Would a moat...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A what?
COHEN: ... water, six feet around be kind of attractive and effective?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sir it maybe.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We`re not building a freaking moat in our yard.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We are not in a process working with our partners at
the National Park Services to see if we can do something with the fence.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Just think of it as a little, round swimming poll.
SCHULTZ: The number two trender, bearing it.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Playing in the snow not just for kids.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Snow day, snow day, snow day.
SCHULTZ: Toronto`s zoos panda enjoys play time in the snow.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is Da Mao.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He`s a six-year-old panda at the zoo in Toronto.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This camera caught him hitting the sledding hill time
and time again.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That`s what they called bear-bagging.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Remember don`t try this at home kids I am a
professional.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He seems to be loving every minute of it.
SCHULTZ: In today`s top trender, double trouble.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The snow and the misery it`s pilling up across the
Great Lakes Region.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We`re not out of the wood yet.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Never in my life I see anything like this. This is
crazy.
SCHULTZ: Buffalo braces for a second big wave of lake-effect snow.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: These are neighborhoods here virtually cutoff.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Even plows are getting stock.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hunker down. Wait for the storm to pass.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The heaviest band of snow is expected to pushback
into this area later today.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So some of those spots have already seen close to five
feet. How about an additional two feet on top of it?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That will get some places to 90 to 100 inches.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This snowfall may break all sort of record and that
saying something Western New York.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SCHULTZ: Joining me tonight is Paul Douglas, Senior Meteorology at Media
Logic Group in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Mr. Douglas great to have you with
us tonight. Put in prospective for us, what are we seeing unfold here?
Have you ever seen any kind of snow event like this one before?
PAUL DOUGLAS, SR. METEOROLOGY, MEDIA LOGIC GROUP: No Ed, I have not. I`ve
been doing this for over 40 years and I have never seen snow falling at the
rate of seven inches an hour. One to two inches an hour that is consider
heavy snow. But seven inches an hour I don`t care how big your plow is,
you`re not going to able to keep up with that and keep the roads clear.
It`s analogous to a line of summer thunder storms that stalled out. But
not just for a couple of hours literally day after, day after, day after
and that`s why we`re getting these outrageous snowfall amounts.
I`ve never seen anything quite like this although the trends if you look at
the number, if you look at the data. We are seeing more of these extreme
events. The weather has always been extreme. But, the extremes are
becoming more extreme and more frequent.
And we actually have some pretty good data going back to the 1930 showing
that lake-effect snow is on the increase and it probably has something to
do with the fact that Great Lakes are trending warmer, we have less ice on
the Great Lakes. About 73 percent drops since 1971. And when you have
that cold air passing over the open water or when that water is warm as it
was this week.
Low to mid 50s water temperature in Lake Erie. The result, you just get
these incredible snow burst with snow falling at the rate of four, five,
seven inches an hour, outrageous.
SCHULTZ: It is outrageous. It`s hard to fathom. What part does climate
change in your opinion play in this extreme whether? Obviously the science
is out there now more than ever, your thoughts on it.
DOUGLAS: Well Ed, I -- I`ve been tracking this since the 1990s and it
wasn`t Al Gore and it wasn`t even the peer reviewed science. It was the
increasingly weird jaw-dropping, eye-pooping weather that got me talking
about this climate volatility. And I think volatility is the right word.
When you use global warming, people look out the window if it`s cold like
it is today across much of the nation, people say, "Well, (inaudible)".
And, when you use the term climate change people say "Well, Paul weather
has always change, the climate has change, we had an ice age, you know".
I think it`s really volatility. And that`s what we`re seeing in the data,
and for instance this past weekend we had a five-sigma event over Alaska
and Northwestern Canada, that`s five standard deviations away from the min.
You can expect that once -- roughly about 1 in 23 million chance of having
a 5.5 sigma event. And what -- really what happened, what was left over
from Typhoon Nuri which was a category five super typhoon of the Pacific,
energized the jet steam which helped to pull this very cold air southward
which lead to the ingredients, which have shutdown much of Buffalo.
SCHULTZ: You know, seeing what`s going on in the Midwest and in Great
Lakes Region, pretty unusual deep freeze, place like Alaska and Greenland
are seeing warmer than average temperatures for this of the year. Is this
plays into the extremes that you`re talking?
DOUGLAS: It does and it comes down to perception. Sarah Palin can look
out her window and see a Russia. I cannot look out my window and make
judgments for the rest of the planet. I think it`s our caveman DNA to look
out the window and, "Hey, its cold today",
You know, "Global warming has to be farce it`s a hoax, it`s" -- and if you
look at the data, if you really keep that global prospective. The United
States accounts for maybe one and a half percent of the entire earth`s
surface.
Obviously we live here. We`re hypersensitive to what happens here. But
this is why we have climate scientist to help us track what`s happen world
wide. The 6th...
SCHULTZ: Yeah.
DOUGLAS: ... warmest months for ocean water temperatures have been in the
last six months. And 2014 is probably going to be the warmest year on
record globally in spite of lack of El Nino. It`s still looks like El
Nino...
SCHULTZ: Yeah.
DOUGLAS: ... may kick in later this weather and hopefully that will
prevent us from another polar vortex situation like we have last winter.
SCHULTZ: Well, in the NFL the Buffalo Bills and the New York Jets will not
be playing in Buffalo this weekend. And they`re rescheduling and trying to
relocate the game for week 12. But I have to quickly ask you the people of
Buffalo, is this the way it`s going to be all winter long I mean, do they
have to brace. I mean this is going to be a continual thing or what?
I mean I don`t know why those people are shoveling their cars out. Where
the heck they`re going to go?
DOUGLAS: Yes that`s true and it`s going to be in the 50s in Buffalo by
Monday. So, they could literally go from apocalyptic snow to flash
flooding back into the deep freeze. It`s going to be a long tough winter
down into the Great Lakes and I`m forecasting a parade of big storms for
the East Coast. I think it`s going to be a very stormy winter for the
East. But I don`t think we`re going to have the month, after month, after
month where the polar vortex should sits.
SCHULTZ: Sure.
DOUGLAS: So, a little bit a good news and bad news. But we`ll get through
it.
SCHULTZ: Paul Douglas great to have you with us tonight. Thank so much
for your time sir.
Coming up, the executive action freak out. The Rapid Response Panel taking
immigration coming up.
Plus, Wall Street`s first-class flyers, well they get one over on the
little. Jet Blue lands in pretenders tonight.
Got your questions next on Ask Ed Live, stay with us we`ll be right back on
the Ed Show.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SCHULTZ: Welcome back to the Ed Show. Appreciate all your question in our
Ask Ed Live segment tonight.
Our first question comes from Christopher. He wants to know, "What do you
think about the networks not airing the President`s speech?"
Easy to figure out, it`s a sweeps, its money and the speech is not about
National Security. So, a sense of urgency I think that they would carry
it. But this is about an executive order. So, and I think the networks
probably thinking you can look other places in see it like right here on
MSNBC. We`ll our coverage start at 8:00.
Our next question is from Valencia (ph). She wants to know, "What do you
look forward to hearing most in the President`s speech?
Well I think the President has to drive home the point that anything the
Congress passes will remove any executive action he takes and announces
tonight. I think it`s very important for the American people to understand
that his doing this to motivate the Congress, to get off there duffs (ph)
and do something legislatively when it comes to immigration reform which I
do not think a Mitch McConnell Senate will do or a John Boehner House will
do.
Stick around, lots more coming up here on the Ed Show. We`ll be right
back.
HAMPTON PEARSON, CNBC MARKET WRAP: I`m Hampton Pearson Market Wrap.
Stock finish with gains, the Dow rises 33 points, the S&P adds 4, the
NASDAQ climbs by 26 points.
Falling fuel prices and an improving economy mean more are traveling this
Thanksgiving. AAA says more than 46 million people will travel at least 50
miles next week. That`s the most since 2007.
Meanwhile filling for first time jobless claims fell more than expected
last week. They decline by 2,000 to 291,000.
That`s it from CNBC, first in business worldwide.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SCHULTZ: Welcome back to the Ed Show. Thanks for joining us tonight. In
less than three hours, President Obama is set to announce the details of
his highly anticipated executive action on immigration. He said he wanted
to make this a year of action.
We`ll tonight it`s going to be a night of action. There are roughly 11
million undocumented immigrants in the United States. Our immigration
system is broken and Republicans have refused to take meaningful action to
address it. They had their opportunities.
We`re still awaiting specifics but the immigration policy institute
estimates that President Obama executive order could grant temporary
protection for as many as 5.2 million undocumented workers in this country.
Joining me tonight, Congressman Steny Hoyer of Maryland on the Democratic
Leadership Team in the House. Steny good to have you with us tonight.
REP. STENY HOYER, (D) MARYLAND: Good to be being with you Ed.
SCHULTZ: You bet. I want our audience to just a quick refresher course
here. The Senate pass something, send it over the House, Boehner had a
gang of eight working on this, encouraged them to keep working on it and
then never brought it to the floor for passage. Now Boehner is ripping the
President pretty good. I want to play this sound byte of John Boehner and
get your reaction. Here it his.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. JOHN BOEHNER, (R-OH) HOUSE SPEAKER: Instead of working together to
fix our broken immigration system, the President says he`s acting on his
own. That`s just not how our Democracy works. The President has said
before that he`s not a king and his not an emperor but he`s sure is acting
like one. And he`s doing at a time when the American people want nothing
more than for us to work together.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SCHULTZ: Congressman you have the floor. What`s your reaction to that
tonight?
HOYER: Well first of all, the underlying principle that the American
people think our Democracy is working in the House of Representative in the
Congress, they don`t. They have seen gridlock and confrontation and little
of any substance of action. As a result, the President said a year ago in
his State of the Union almost a year ago. That look, I want to work with
Congress, I want to cooperate with you to affect policy.
But very frankly, if we cannot do that, if there`s no forward movement I
the President have a responsibility to the American people who elected me
to try to fix that which is broken. Everybody including John Boehner
recognizes the immigration system is broken.
18 months ago the Senate sends a bill in a bipartisan fashion. They worked
together. They came up with legislation to fix the broken immigration
system. It has sat unattended for the last 18 months. I know personally
that John Boehner wants to see the immigration system fixed. He wants to
see a comprehensive immigration reform.
I frankly think this will give him the impetuous to get his members who
have been reluctant to follow his leadership in putting on the floor a
comprehensive immigration bill that will give them impetuous to do so. So
I think this is both the right thing to do by the President of the United
States, it`s the moral think to do. I think it will help our economy, it
will give believe to literally millions of people who are worried about it
being wrenched from their families.
As I said it`s the moral think to do. But it`s also economically going to
help our economy and it is a system of accountability. People are going to
have come forward.
SCHULTZ: And Congressman what...
HOYER: Yeah?
SCHULTZ: What is your anticipation about the Republican reaction is going
to be? They threaten to shutdown the government. They threaten to block
confirmation anonymities (ph). The word impeachment has been thrown around
overall of this. What do you their response is going to be, are their
going to be harder to work with, abstinent what do you make of it?
HOYER: Look, the American people want us to work together. Again,
Congressman Boehner the Speaker of the House has said he want to see
comprehensive immigration reform. For 18 months we`ve had in the House a
bill that was send to us with 68 members of the Senate, more than two-
thirds of the Senate with a large number Republicans voting for, which sent
a comprehensive bill to the House.
We haven`t work down on it, we haven`t put it on the floor, we haven`t
amended it, we haven`t had hearing in committee on it. The fact to the
matter is that the President feels a responsibility to act in a way that
can fix...
SCHULTZ: Yeah.
HOYER: ... a broken system. Now, it`s limited he can`t do everything he
would like and very frankly, when he`s acted, the Congress can pass law
which will substitute for the executed order.
So it`s not as if his is going to be the last word. But he is putting on
the table and ordering through executive order as Presidents have since
Eisenhower, some half-century.
SCHULTZ: Yeah.
HOYER: This is not an unusual action and of course we have the
Emancipation Proclamation which was an executive action of the President of
the United States.
This is the right thing to do. I would my Republican colleagues would
respond in an adult, calm, fashion and say, "OK, this is how the President
thinks we got to fix it. We may have another idea. If we do, we`ll put it
on the floor, we`ll send it to the President as a law", and I think the
President if we work together will sign such a law that fixes it as Boehner
wants to do. He said that.
And we shouldn`t have this overreaction and threats to one another about
shutting down the American people`s government in some sort of tantrum.
SCHULTZ: OK. Congressman Steny Hoyer, good to see you my friend. I
appreciate your time tonight. Thanks so much.
HOYER: Thank you.
SCHULTZ: Joining me now for more is Mary Kay Henry, who`s the President of
the Service Employees International Union, also with us tonight Henry
Fernandez who`s the Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress.
Ms. Henry, does the President have to do this? Tell us what you think if
human impact is going to be on this with this executive order.
MARY KAY HENRY, SEIU PRESIDENT: We think this is a life changing event and
that the President is taking an incredibly important step forward Ed. And
the Congress needs to finish the job and give a permanent solution for 11
million families in this country who want a pathway to citizenship.
But we celebrate that the President has taken this executive action. We`re
anxious to listen tonight on the fullness of the action but we know that
immigrant families are going to wake up tomorrow morning without the fear
of being deported and that`s a huge part of the relief that`s needed. And,
that all families are going to understand that 5 million people can step
out of their shadows and level the playing fields..
SCHULTZ: Yeah
HENRY: ... so that all working people can get an even shot at working
together to get this economy to work for everyone.
SCHULTZ: Well, you know, there`s a lot of predictions about how the
American people are going to respond to this. This is Oklahoma Senator Tom
Coburn, he was asked about Republican action. I was stunned by his answer.
Here it is.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. TOM COBURN, (R) OKLAHOMA: Oh I don`t think it`s so much a Republican
reaction here. The country is going to go nuts, because they`re going to
see it as a move outside the authority of the President. And it`s going to
be a very dangerous situation.
You`re going to see -- hopefully not -- but you could see instances of
anarchy...
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What do you mean?
COBURN: Well, you could see violence.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SCHULTZ: Isn`t that a real overstatement Mr. Fernandez? You really think
that we`re going to see possible violence and anarchy because of this
executive order tonight?
HENRY FERNANDEZ, CAP ACTION FUND: I just think that speech like that is
just completely inappropriate.
This is an incredible opportunity for millions of families as Mary Kay
said. And we should absolutely respect that this is going to be
significant change, this is a major civil rights moment in this country.
Tonight, you`re going to have millions of families listening to their
President hoping that they will be covered by this executive action, that
their parents, that their children will be able to wake up in the morning
for the first time and be able to come out of the shadows.
And we`re talking about significant numbers here. We think it`s going to
be about 4.1 million people who will be impacted by -- who are people who
have children, who are U.S. citizens or who are legal permanent residents.
And then probably about another 300,000 who will be impacted as a result of
the expansion of the differed action for Childhood Arrivals Program.
SCHULTZ: Yeah.
FERNANDEZ: In addition to that, we`re going to see significant reforms
with regard to programs like secured communities. That`s what we think is
coming.
SCHULTZ: OK. Mary...
HENRY: And Ed I have to tell you...
SCHULTZ: Go ahead.
HENRY: Sorry. I just have to tell you, I`m outrage that he would dare say
that.
We are going to organize and educate immigrant families and working
families all across this country. We`ve initiated a website called
iamerica.org as a way to help get people the information they need to
understand what the President is actually going to do. And then we`re
going to call upon a Congress to act.
There is nothing about the President`s executive action that prohibits that
Congress from creating a permanent solution to this broken immigration
system. And that`s really what we need...
SCHULTZ: Well that seems -- yeah. That seems to be the plan that the
President is doing this because he is trying to prod Congress along in
doing something.
Steny Hoyer says that John Boehner wants to do something about it. He`s
had his opportunity and he hasn`t done it. So, we`ll see what this does
and shouldn`t take a very long to react to it.
But Ms. Henry, I want to ask you. Do you think that this is going to
strengthen your union? I mean, we know that these are workers that, you
know, are lower-middle class income workers. Is this going to strengthen
the Service Employees International Union?
HENRY: We know it`s going to strengthen our families. We know it`s going
to strengthen millions of immigrant families and we know for working people
who have the courage to stick their necks out and join together and try and
raise wages and create good jobs.
The threat of deportation helps -- removing that threat helps workers to be
able to stand up...
SCHULTZ: Yeah.
HENRY: ... and join together. So I think it will strengthen our
communities. It`s going to do way more than simply strengthen our union.
SCHULTZ: OK. All right, Mary Kay Henry and Henry Fernandez, I appreciate
your time tonight. Thanks for joining us.
Coming up, Wal-Mart and JetBlue are playing the part of the Grinch this
season. I agree with that.
We have two stories of corporate greed gone wild. Keep it here.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SCHULTZ: And the pretenders tonight, bag it JetBlue.
JetBlue give Wall Street an upgrade today. After pressure from investors,
the airline will now charge baggage fees.
Customers will feel a financial and physical pinch. JetBlue is cutting
down on legroom too.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
WILLIAMS: The airline that initially offered an all new customer
experience is, as they put it to investors today, enhancing their revenue
performance.
They will now offer three tiers of ticket prizes, under the cheapest
they`re going to charge for bags. They`re also adding more seats to some
of their planes reducing net legroom.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SCHULTZ: The incoming CEO of JetBlue says, "We`re very proud of our
customer-first model, but we need to deliver a similar level of return as
other models."
JetBlue isn`t thinking about their customers, the airline is thinking about
profit margins.
If JetBlue thinks cutting legroom will give them a leg up, they can keep on
pretending.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SCHULTZ: And finally tonight, Thanksgiving is one week from today.
Some people are being forced to work on the greatest American holiday.
Greedy retailers have been moving the Black Friday Frenzy earlier.
Kmart locations will open its doors at 6:00 A.M. on Thanksgiving Day and
remain open for 24 hours. Coworker.com survey 56 self-identified employees
for more than 13 states, only three people said that they have the option
to request to the holiday off.
"Think Progress" published some of Kmart employees` comments one said, "If
you do not come to work on Thanksgiving you will automatically be fired. I
made the request to work a split shift on Thanksgiving and was denied."
Many workers at Wal-Mart are also expected to show up on the holiday. Wal-
Mart locations are scheduled to open their doors at 6:00 P.M. on
Thanksgiving.
So certainly for many of these retailer workers, turkey, football and
petting a dog is going to get cut short. I think it`s anti-family, that`s
what it is.
Joining me tonight, Robert Greenwald of "Brave New Films" who directed the
2005 documentary "Wal-mart: The High Cost of Low Price."
Mr. Greenwald, good to have you with us tonight.
ROBERT GREENWALD, DIR. BRAVE NEW FILMS: Thank you. Good to be with you.
SCHULTZ: This is a trend that is taking place -- you bet, this is trend
that is taking place in American business.
Thanksgiving seems to be the most popular among big box stores like Wal-
Mart and Kmart and Target. What`s going to change this thinking? What`s
going to reverse this if anything?
GREENWALD: Well, I think it`s going to be action and activism Ed, and it`s
all of your viewers and others not going to Wal-Mart on those days. And
it`s supporting this incredibly courageous workers who had been doing sit
down strikes and are going to be boycotting stores and it`s spreading all
over the world.
So I think really, that`s our best chance because look, what Wal-Mart is
doing -- let`s make no mistake about it -- is profoundly anti-patriotic.
The family is worth $150 billion. They make $8 million a day without
working for it and we need to shout loud and clear that we`re mad as hell
and not going to take it anymore.
SCHULTZ: Should more states get onboard with blue laws to force shops to
close? Is that the answer, legislation?
GREENWALD: Well, I think with social change and at a time when we have
capitalism run the wild, you need everything. You need laws in states, you
need -- if we can ever make it happen -- federal legislation, you need
social movements, you need unions, you need all of the possible pressures
that we as consumers and patriots and citizens can bring to bare so that
the pressure of the pocketbook and the pressure of people says to these
stores and these companies?
No, that we will not support this behavior and the way you`re treating
workers.
SCHULTZ: You know, there`s a new report released today from the National
Retail Federation shows a fewer people plan to shop on Thanksgiving. I
mean, if the customers don`t show up, maybe this will fizzle out or are
they just too profit greedy, what do you think?
GREENWALD: Well again, I think we can hit the profit. We can hit the
moral issue. We can hit electoral pressure. We can insist that our
politicians do something. I mean, there was another report that came out
today, Americans for Fair Taxes, and Wal-Mart tax dodges $1 billion a year.
Think of what anybody could do with the billion dollars Ed. Maybe that`s a
question for your Twitter feed.
What would you be doing with the billion that Wal-Mart is taking by
avoiding paying taxes?
SCHULTZ: Well, we can probably do a little bit more health care in this
country, that`s kind of -- or maybe minimum wage increase.
GREENWALD: Yes.
SCHULTZ: To lobby the people to make sure that they get that done, that
kind of stuff.
You know, I just think that this is anti-family. It`s one of the few
holidays that we have on the calendar and it`s one of the great American
traditions and it`s on the verge of being spoiled by people who can
intimidate employees, threaten their jobs if they speak up.
If -- for all the wrong reasons they`re open I think -- and, the consumers
certainly have all the power. I`m as much for business as anybody else,
but the fact to the matter is, I don`t think their bottom lines are going
to increase too much because of this.
And you have to wonder how many managers of these stores are getting away
with telling employees that they`re going to be fired. You know, if they
don`t get inline to do it. And this kind of stuff makes the case for
unions because if there`s collective bargaining, there`s negotiation,
companies won`t get away with stuff like this.
Robert Greenwald, Brave New Films, you do a great work always have.
Congratulations on your 10th year anniversary. We`ll have you back to talk
more about the great work you guys have done.
That`s the Ed Show. I`m Ed Schultz.
PoliticsNation with Reverend Al Sharpton starts right now.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY
BE UPDATED.
END
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The Ed Show for Thursday, November 20th, 2014
Read the transcript to the Thursday show