PoliticsNation, Monday, November 26th, 2012

POLITICS NATION
November 26, 2012

Guests: Ana Marie Cox; Keith Ellison, Joe Madison, Ryan Grim, Dana Milbank


REVEREND AL SHARPTON, MSNBC HOST: Thanks, Chris, and thanks to you
for tuning in.

Tonight`s lead, they still don`t get it. For millions of Americans,
the 2012 election came down to one issue, economic fairness. People voted
in droves for President Obama because they are sick of our system being so
rigged in favor of the wealthy, where billionaires pay a lower tax rates
than their secretaries and that`s why the Republican argument right now
taking place in Washington is just surreal. Didn`t they just lose the
election defending tax breaks for the richest Americans? Not that they
aren`t good at talking a good game about compromise. One by one, some are
coming out against the anti-tax crusader Grover Norquist, condemning his
pledge never to raise taxes.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R), SOUTH CAROLINA: When you`re $16 trillion in
debt, the only pledge we should be making to each other is to avoid
becoming Greece and Republicans should put revenue on the table.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SHARPTON: How`s that for a profiling courage? Senator Graham is
standing up to a pledge he made to an unelected official in charge of a
group that most Americans never heard of. A pledge that`s 26 years old.
But at least Graham is voting to raise taxes on the wealthy. Right?
Wrong.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GRAHAM: Raises tax rates will hurt job creation so I agree with
Grover we should not raise rates. I will violate the pledge, long story
short, for the good of the country only if Democrats will do entitlement
reform.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SHARPTON: So he won`t raise tax rates and entitlements need to be
gutted. But that`s more like it. Let`s see some more brave talk from the
GOP.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I`m not obligated on the pledge. There`s a menu
of options on the revenue side and on the entitlement side and as long as
there are two parties that are willing to solve this problem, this is a
very easy thing to do technically. What it takes is political courage.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SHARPTON: Guess what? That political courage doesn`t include ding,
ding, ding, higher tack rates for the top two percent. But don`t pay any
attention to that. Republicans want us to know that what`s really
important is that they are rejecting the Norquist pledge.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. ERIC CANTOR (R-VA), HOUSE MAJORITY LEADER: The lot that has been
said about this pledge and I will tell you, when I go to the constituents
that elected -- re-elected me, it is not about that pledge. It really is
about trying to solve problems. And so, if right now the question is, how
do you do that? Well, John Boehner went to the White House ten days ago
and said Republicans in the house are willing to put revenues on the table.
That was a big move, right?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SHARPTON: A big move? Huh? The GOP has always been open to raising
revenue. Governor Romney even promised to do that. It seems awfully
similar to what speaker Boehner offered a year ago during debt talks.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. JOHN BOEHNER (R-OH), SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: We have an agreement
on a revenue number. There was an agreement on some additional revenues.

I stuck my neck out a mile and I put revenues on the table.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SHARPTON: Revenues on the table? The GOP is essentially offering the
same thing they did a year ago. Plus, they want to keep tax rates for the
wealthy the same. They want to cut entitlements, postpone Pentagon cuts,
and now they are putting health care on the table.

Mr. Cantor says the GOP has presented a big move. Losing an election
is big. I`m still waiting for the move part from them.

Joining me now is Jared Bernstein, MSNBC contributor and former chief
economist for vice president Joe Biden and Michelle Cottle, Washington
correspondent for "Newsweek" and "the daily beast." Thank you both for
coming on the show.

JARED BERNSTEIN, MSNBC CONTRIBUTOR: Thank you, rev.

MICHELLE COTTLE, WASHINGTON REPORTER, THE DAILY BEAST, NEWSWEEK:
Thanks, rev.

SHARPTON: Michelle, let me go to you first. Let`s leave the other
tax reform issues for aside for the moment. How can they defend not
raising rates?

COTTLE: This is fundamental to the house Republicans got elected and
who they are. Taxation is stealing under any circumstances you don`t raise
the tax rates. And this whole Grover Norquist pledge, I agree, is a
complete distraction.

No matter how you feel about taxes, you don`t want to look like you`re
tied to and being given marching orders by somebody who people have never
heard of. I don`t think the Norquist pledge really matters. The house, in
particular, has a problem with any kind of tax rate hike.

SHARPTON: Now, Jared, you`re the economist. What is the economic
part of this? Give me how the economy is impacted by the rates as opposed
to what they are saying.

BERNSTEIN: Well, it`s a very important question because the argument
underlying the Republican position is that if you increase the tax rate on
the top two percent of households, you`ll somehow bring the economic
recovery to its knees. Well, in fact, that`s basically supply side
trickledown economics which we`ve seen time and again is a complete hoax
and most recently we have the congressional budget office, the nonpartisan
score keeper, telling us that -- allowing those tax rates to expire just at
the tippy top there would have virtually no impact on growth next year.

So, they don`t have that. You don`t even hear them talking about that
anymore. So now they have this vague notion that, yes, we want to put
revenues on the table but not through rates. It has to be through
broadening the base. Now, if you press them, exactly where are we going to
broaden the base, guys and gals. They king just tell you what they are
going to take off the table, not what they are going to put on.

SHARPTON: So, they are not serious as far -- if the top two percent,
according to the nonpartisan analysts of this are saying it will have
nothing to do with growth, Michelle, then it does not seem like they are
being serious. Then let`s add to that, congressman Cantor was on FOX News
today and said that the president must prove he`s serious in the debt talks
about putting health care on the table. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CANTOR: If the president is serious about joining us and fixing the
problem, he ought to be putting Obama care on the table. There`s no
question in my mind.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SHARPTON: How does that make sense, Michelle?

COTTLE: Well, it makes sense because Eric Cantor`s team lost the
election and their hopes of repealing Obama care is pretty much shot. So
their last chance at undermining a bill that they all hate and campaigned
on repealing is to try and make it look like the only thing reasonable for
the defendant to do is to throw it in the mix. Of course, that`s not true.
They are, you know, they just grasping at last straws here.

BERNSTEIN: Can I make a moment on that, Reverend?

SHARPTON: Yes. Go ahead.

BERNSTEIN: If I were President Obama and I were sitting in that room
and negotiating with these members and someone brought up -- if Eric Cantor
brought up putting affordable care act on the table, I would be well within
my rights to stand up and walk out of that room. That is absolutely
ridiculous.

Now, I totally agree everything should be on the table when it comes
to fiscal policy. But this election was an endorsement of the affordable
care act. The Supreme Court has decided that that is a legal. These guys,
I think, are really nuts to try to raise that as an issue in this context.

SHARPTON: Well, the other part that to me adds a lot to that is,
liberals know that they have the upper hand particularly since the
election. Politico reports that of growing bloc of emboldened liberals say
they are not afraid to watch defense spending get gouged and taxed go up on
every American if budget deal doesn`t satisfy their priorities. In other
words, they`d rather walk the country off the cliff than watch President
Barack Obama gave on long-held liberal priorities.

Michelle, they are willing and it is growing number according to
"Politico" to call the Republicans bluff on this?

COTTLE: The progressives are clearly feeling their oats at this
point. They are feeling good about the election. But I think also Obama
feels like he gave away too much or he was too conciliatory last time
around. You know, the last debt crisis we had made the Republicans look
back. It hurt their image and you can see them trying really hard this
time to paint the picture as they are the reasonable ones, it`s Obama who
is being unreasonable. That said, I think what we`re probably looking at
is they are going to kick this can down the road again, come up with some
short-term resolution to get us passed January and then come right back and
do this all again next year.

SHARPTON: Yes. But at the same time, Jared, the public is supporting
the progressives or the Democrats on this. Polling shows this, 72 percent
Republicans should compromise, 72 percent of the of the people polled, 67
percent want a mix of spending cuts and tax increases, 56 percent taxed the
wealthy to help the poor, 53 percent unfavorable view of the GOP. The win
is behind the back of the liberals on this.

BERNSTEIN: I agree. And I think the -- really the sentiment that I
hear from all of the polling data is, come on, it is really time to
compromise. And with the outcome of this election to Republicans, that
means accepting that the top tax rates on the top two percent of the
households have to expire. To Democrats, that means that they are going to
have to be some spending cuts in the mix as well.

Now, the fact is that there have already been significant spending
cuts so putting new revenues in the deal is absolutely essential and it
can`t just be the vague Boehner kind of phrase about revenues. It has to
be tied to either the expiration of the top two tax cuts or specific base
broadness and I haven`t heard anything when it comes to the latter.

SHARPTON: Now, Jared, you were in the rooms last time during the debt
talks. Are you sensing anything different this time around?

BERNSTEIN: Absolutely. I sense that the president, the White House,
the Democrats have a lot more conviction, a lot more spine as to the
position that they`ve staked out. You can see that pretty clearly. They
also recognize that if nothing changes, if nobody does anything, we really
do go over this cliff and that`s, frankly, that is something that everyone
would really want to avoid.

SHARPTON: Yes. Now, Michelle, I`m hearing senators come out like
Graham and others saying they will violate their commitment to Mr.
Norquist. But I`m not hearing leading Republicans in the house say this.
Is it that important and isn`t that where the battle is going to be fought?

COTTLE: Absolutely. And that has been the problem in the past. I
mean, because the conventional wisdom is that this Senate is more
conciliatory and has to compromise more because one guy can filibuster
forever. The House also has the problem of those House districts are
getting more and more partisan. And you know, whether it`s through
gerrymandering or just the way the districts are drawn in general. Your
liberal conference is getting more liberal and the conservatives is more
conservative. And that does not leave a lot of room in the middle for
good, bipartisan negotiations. Governing is hard. And the current kind of
blood sport makes it all the harder.

SHARPTON: Jared Bernstein and Michelle Cottle, thanks for both of
you. Thank your time this evening.

BERNSTEIN: Thank you, Rev.

SHARPTON: Coming up, FOX News keeps saying that the Libya scandal is
a scandal. The real scandal is how FOX has handled it.

And the truth came out on air today. We will show you the bizarre
ending to an interview today.

And big news tonight. Ambassador Susan Rice will meet face-to-face
with John McCain tomorrow.

Plus, he is the symbol of everything wrong with everything with
politics in America and now even Donald Trump`s kids know it. What
happened in the Trump family political intervention?

And we will tell you what Joe Biden is doing in this picture.

You`re watching "Politics Nation" on MSNBC.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SHARPTON: What did the GOP learn from that devastating election
defeat? Not enough. In some places they just picked up where they left
off before the election. That`s next.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SHARPTON: Republicans spent the last two years attacking voting
rights and women`s rights all across the country. And it blew up in their
faces on election night. But they didn`t learn their lesson. And now they
are at it again. In Virginia, Republican lawmakers will interviews a new
voter I.D. bill in January.

In Ohio, Republicans are pushing new bills to limit abortion rights
and defund planned parenthood. New anti-abortion laws are coming in
Wisconsin as well, where the state`s governor, Scott Walker, also wants to
scale back voting registration.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. SCOTT WALKER (R), WISCONSIN: States across the country that have
same day registration have real problems because the vast majority of
states are poll workers who are wonderful volunteers who work13 hour days,
most are retirees and it`s difficult for them to handle the kind of - value
the folks that come at the last minute. It would be much better if it was
done in advance of Election Day.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SHARPTON: It would be much better for whom? Republicans? What are
these people doing? Voter suppression that alienates minorities, abortion
laws that alienates women. This is the kind of thing that led to losing
the election.

Senator John McCain went on FOX News yesterday. And while he didn`t
say much that I agreed with, he did say this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R), ARIZONA: There is no doubt whatsoever that the
demographics are not on our side and we are going to have to give a much
more positive agenda. And as far as young women are concerned, absolutely,
I don`t think anybody like me. I can state my position on abortion but
other than that, leave the issue alone.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SHARPTON: Leave the issue alone. And if Republicans don`t, they will
pay the price again on the next Election Day.

Joining me now is Zerlina Maxwell, contributor to thegrio.com and
Alicia Menendez, host and producer for "Huff Post Live."

Thank you both for joining me.

ZERLINA MAXWELL, CONTRIBUTOR, THEGRIO.COM: Thank you.

ALICIA MENENDEZ, HOST, HUFF POST LIVE: Thank you, Rev.

SHARPTON: Alicia, let me start with you. So the Republicans lost the
election and now Republican governors and lawmakers are pushing the same
kind of policy that caused their big disaster on election night.

MENENDEZ: Yes. I mean, it`s pretty unbelievable. And at the same
time, it makes sense. If you can`t win the new coalition, if you can`t win
African-Americans, Hispanics, women, young Americans, then you just stop
them from voting. And that`s part of what we`re seeing in Virginia.

And when it comes to these questions of reproductive rights that we`re
seeing out of Ohio, it doesn`t make sense. Planned parenthood, only three
percent of the services that they offer are abortions. The rest of the
services are about rural women, four women having access to --

SHARPTON: Only three percent?

MENENDEZ: Only three percent. And so, when you choose Planned
Parenthood as your target, that means you`re not actually arguing about the
sanctity of life or about stopping abortions. It means that you`re picking
a political fight. So, they are doing this. They are doing it very
purposefully and just it`s going to backfire against them.

SHARPTON: Now Zerlina, when you look at the 2013 map, 24 states will
have Republican governors with Republican legislatures, 24. Will these GOP
politicians just ignore the lessons of the election and just try to ramp
through the far right legislation?

MAXWELL: I think so. And that`s very unfortunate because what is
going to happen is s they are going to continue to put anti-choice
legislation through the state legislatures and they are going to pass
because right now there`s already, in many of the states, registration that
is unconstitutional, according to Roe V. Wade. So, it`s going to come up
again to the courts to some and then it is going to the court all the way
up to the Supreme Court. And then, we have a conservative court.

Fortunately, President Obama came out on top. And so, likely he`s
going to appoint the successors to Ginsburg and even perhaps Steven Briar.
So, we are going to see what is happening, but they have completely ignored
the lessons of any election that is taking place, whether it be 2012 or
2010 and they are going to continue along this path.

SHARPTON: Now Alicia, when you look at Scott Walker ending saying the
voter registration in Wisconsin, I mean, let me show you where he says,
there`s no way we`d be in favor of that, the Wisconsin municipal court
association said. He is claiming that they are over work. The association
themselves are saying, they wouldn`t in favor at. But the courts, being
conservative, may uphold them on this, which is why the fight is continued.

MENENDEZ: You know, we should have -- it should be the easiest day of
the year to register to vote. It`s the day where there`s the greatest
interest and instead of having that conversation of how we get more people
to vote, we`re having a conversation about limiting voter. At least now
we`re not hearing this jargon about voter fraud. Now, we`re hearing an
entirely new mythology about the fact that we have poll workers simply too
overworked. I mean, neither of those means hold up. And I think that
you`re going to see that. I mean, this is absolutely ridiculous. We
should want more people voting. We should want a stronger democracy. We
should not be trying to keep people out of the system.

SHARPTON: You know, Zerlina, the night of the election, the night of
the big defeat, you started hearing all of this about expand the party, we
need to reach out, we must be more inclusive and with good reason when you
look at the exit polling with unmarried women, the president was ahead, 67
percent to 31 percent. Hispanics, 71 percent voted for President Obama as
opposed to 27 percent for Mitt Romney. African-Americans, 93 percent voted
for President Obama, only six percent for Mitt Romney. Yet, now you have
the governors and these legislatures ignoring all of that. It seems like
they are going on like the election never happened in some states.

MAXWELL: They have amnesia, apparently. Because they are getting the
gold medal and doing things that nobody wants done. And so, I think that,
you know, Republicans mean a complete overhaul of their party. The problem
isn`t extremists like Akin Mourdock, it is the fact that they are not
extreme within the Republican party. They are actually the mainstream,
right? Akin and Mourdock expressed vocally, what is actually in the party
platform. And so, it is just that they are outside of the mainstream of
the country. And of course, they are going to ignore because they need a
complete overhaul and that takes a lot more effort.

SHARPTON: Alicia, let me ask you almost the same thing. How -- what
happened to the rhetoric the night of being more inclusive or broadening
their base and now we see the governors in these states going back to the
same kinds of legislation and rhetoric they had before?

And not only the governors and the states, let me put this in
addition, as an addendum to my question. The house has a new bill, on
immigration, GOP house members. And it`s an immigration bill. The good of
the bill is it helps green card members bring families to the U.S., but the
bad is it ends a visa program aimed at immigrants from Africa. So they
can`t even have a straight immigration reform bill that doesn`t almost
cancel itself out.

MENENDEZ: Yes. I mean, this is what we`re used to seeing. This is
representative Lamar Smith basically wiping out diversity visas and
replacing them with visas for foreign students who come to the U.S. and
have degrees in math, science, technology. There is no argument about high
skill immigrant. The argument that we`re having, in this country, the
conversation that we need to have is about the 11 million immigrants who
live in the shadows, most of them are low-skilled workers. And so, what we
see here are Republicans like representative Smith, robbing Peter to pay
Paul. And there is no reason you need to do that. We can increase access
for those high-skilled immigrants at the same time that we increase access
for low-skilled immigrants. But that`s the conversation that we need to
have. And the fact that they hide under the guys, and increasing family
unity is disgusting in my mind.

SHARPTON: Alicia Menendez and Zerlina Maxwell, thank you both for you
time tonight.

MAXWELL: Thank you, Rev.

MENENDEZ: Thank you.

SHARPTON: Coming up, the made-up Benghazi scandal is filling
(INAUDIBLE). They just can`t get enough of it. But today, the truth came
out. And tomorrow, ambassador Susan Rice will meet with her harshest
critic, John McCain. Will we see an apology from the senator?

Plus, Donald Trump is under fire with ugly attacks against the
president from his own family.

You`re watching "Politics Nation" on MSNBC.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SHARPTON: Have you joined the "Politics Nation" conversation on
facebook, in our facebook family kept the conversation going during the
thanksgiving break. Lots of folks loved this photo of vice president
Biden, taking the cold turkey plunge for charity in the chilly water near
Nantucket on thanksgiving day.

Mike says, I love Joe. He is so down to earth and cares about people.

And this photo of Mitt and Ann Romney on Thanksgiving in the kitchen
had everyone talking.

Ginger says, he sure looked relaxed. Never looked like this on the
trail.

And Sandra says, I think he`s relieved to be over it all.

We want to hear what you think too. Please head over to Facebook and
search "POLITICS NATION" and "like" us to join the conversation that keeps
going long after the show ends.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SHARPTON: Welcome back. For many weeks now the right wing has pushed
a phony scandal about U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice and the attacks on the
U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya. Sources tell MSNBC news that Ambassador
Rice has requested meetings with U.S. senators this week and this is news,
tomorrow she will meet with three republican Senators John McCain, Lindsey
Graham, and Kelly Ayotte. On Wednesday, she will meet with republican
Senator Susan Collins. But forget the facts that make this a no scandal.

FOX News just keeps its scandal drumbeat going. For the past three
months is on a never ending loop. They have concerns about the Obama
administrations response. They talk about cover-ups, what did Susan Rice
know and when did they know it was terror. But today, the truth came out.
Listen to what Tom Ricks, the defense expert, author and Pulitzer Prize
winner -- listen to what he had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MAN: Senator John McCain has said in the past that he
would block any attempt to nominate Susan Rice to become Secretary of
State. She`s currently the U.N. ambassador. He seems to be backing away
from that. What do you make of it?

THOMAS RICKS, AUTHOR: Well, I think that Benghazi generally was hyped
by this network especially and now that the campaign is over, I think he`s
backing off a little bit. They are not going to stop Susan Rice from being
secretary of state.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SHARPTON: Benghazi was hyped, especially by the network, but it
didn`t stop there.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MAN: You have four people dead including the first U.N.
ambassador, U.S. ambassador
for more than 30 years. How do you call that hyped?

RICKS: I see this focus on what is essentially a small fire fight. I
think number one, I`ve covered a lot of fire fights. It`s impossible to
figure out what happens on them sometimes. And second, I think that the
effort of Benghazi have been extremely political partly because FOX was
operating as a wing of the Republican Party.

UNIDENTIFIED MAN: All right. Tom Ricks, thanks very much for joining
us today.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SHARPTON: Yes, Tom, see you later. Take that troop somewhere else.

Joining me now is Joe Madison, nationally syndicated radio host of
Sirius XM, The Power and Ryan Grim, Washington Bureau chief for "The
Huffington Post." Thank you both for your time tonight.

RYAN GRIM, "THE HUFFINGTON POST": Thank you.

SHARPTON: I want to talk about FOX`s role in pushing this fake
scandal but, Ryan, let`s start with the big news tonight about Susan Rice
meeting with the McCain tomorrow. What are you hearing?

This was simply an unsustainable opposition. You know, especially
after the election for McCain, Graham to be standing in the way of an
African-American woman who hasn`t even been nominated yet to be Secretary
of State simply because she went on television and repeated what the CIA
was telling everybody at the time, that was simply unsustainable. You
know, Tom Ricks said it well. It was purely political. The campaign is
now over. And a lot of facts have come out shown that if shown that she
wasn`t lying.

She was repeating what the CIA had said was their best guess at that
moment. It turns out to have been wrong. But to try to block her from
being Secretary of State simply for that was completely unsustainable and,
you know, the meetings that are going to happen this week are the first
step in her confirmation if the President does nominate her. I think that
it would be very difficult for them to stop her.

SHARPTON: Now, Joe, they hammered Ambassador Rice. McCain hammered
her but now he seems to be changing his tone. Look at what he said then
and look at what he is saying now. Watch this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R), ARIZONA: Susan Rice should have known better
and if she didn`t know better, she`s not qualified. We will do whatever is
necessary to block the nomination that`s within our power as far as Susan
Rice is concerned. If this select committee if appointed clears her of any
wrongdoing, besides not being very bright because it was obvious that this
was not a, quote, "flash mob." I think we give all nominees the benefit of
the hearing process, et cetera. Maybe she could start out by publicly
coming back on this show and saying, I was wrong. I gave the wrong
information on your show some several weeks ago. That might be a
beginning.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SHARPTON: So those are pretty hard, direct attack statements but then
listen to what he`s saying now, Joe.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHRIS WALLACE, "FOX NEWS SUNDAY": Is there anything that Ambassador
Rice could do to change your mind?

MCCAIN: Sure. I give everyone the benefit of explaining their
position and the actions that they took. And I`d be glad to have the
opportunity to discuss these issues with her.

WALLACE: She could conceivably get your vote for Secretary of State?

MCCAIN: I think she deserves the ability and the opportunity to
explain herself and her positions, just as she said. But she`s not the
problem. The problem is the president of the United States who, in a
debate with Mitt Romney, said that he had said it was a terrorist attack.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SHARPTON: So now all of a sudden she`s not the problem. We can talk
about it after a litany of attacks, all aimed at her professional as well
as career integrity.

JOE MADISON, SIRIUS XM RADIO HOST: I think what happened, Reverend,
was that Senator McCain probably also, in addition to what has been said,
really underestimated just how well thought of Susan Rice is, not only in
the State Department but I think, and generally among the public, she has a
wrong record of service, people have a tremendous amount of respect and
when her track record, her educational background got out, people realized
that this was a very talented, bright woman.

In addition, here`s what else happened. I believe that people started
calling Senator McCain`s office. They jammed those phone lines. They let
him know that they didn`t appreciate the approach that he took and he also,
thirdly, found himself a lone wolf.

SHARPTON: Yes.

MADISON: He didn`t have as much support as he hoped he was getting.
And then finally, I think all along, they had lost the presidential
election and this was more of a way to go after President Obama. They
wanted a loss and here was a way to pre-empt -- have a pre-emptive strike
and hoping that this would catch on and it would be a loss early in his
second term.

SHARPTON: But it wasn`t, Ryan, just Senator McCain. It was FOX over
and over and over again. Watch FOX`s role in this and some of the
highlights of their continuing to try and incite the scandal that wasn`t
there.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MAN: FOX News sources telling us CIA officers on the
ground in Benghazi during the attack sent requests for help but were
denied.

UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: In fact, there were three separate requests to
aid not only the attack that was occurring at the consulate and to try and
help with that attack but also requests for outside help, outside military
to help, to help once there were gun fires and fire fights at the CIA
annex. Those requests, we`re told, came from higher headquarters. They
were told to stand down. This is somewhat explosive information that three
requests were denied from higher headquarters to not only help the
ambassador and his team at the consulate but also to send in outside
military help that could have helped in this ongoing fire fight that went
on for six hours and 20 minutes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SHARPTON: But several news sources, Ryan said, none of that is true.
In fact, the Los Angeles Times reported and I`m reading at the quote from
the Los Angeles Times at every level in the chain of command from the
senior offices in Libya to the most senior officials in Washington,
everyone was fully engaged in trying to provide whatever help they could.
A senior intelligence official said in a statement, "there were no orders
to anybody to stand down in providing support."

MADISON: Right.

SHARPTON: This is on the record, L.A. Times senior adviser, senior
official said this and to our knowledge, FOX has never apologized for these
false reports.

RICKS: Yes. This is a real gut check moment for FOX. I mean, they
really emptied the clip on this story. They took all of the ammunition
they had to the end of the campaign, it continuing through today to try to
make this some type of Hoover scandal that would take down, you know, an
official within the Obama administration and they completely failed. And
not only did they fail, it backfired. They lost credibility on their
reporting as you just highlighted.

Susan Rice is more popular and more well known than she was at the
beginning and McCain looks humiliated by, you know, he tried to create this
committee out of full cloth. That went nowhere and so FOX has to kind of,
you know think now what is our role in the coming years if we can`t -- if
we can`t use all of our energy and affect a change here.

MADISON: Well, FOX is a propaganda machine.

SHARPTON: Joe, I want to be fair, there was one voice over there that
tried to make a little sense and that was late in the campaign, was Geraldo
Rivera. Listen to what Geraldo said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MAN: I think we have to stop this politicizing. We`re
getting away from the real issue, which is, why wasn`t there security
before this happened? Because that`s the issue. But these preposterous
allegations, reckless allegations -- do weapon want to know what happened?
Do we want to try and influence the election with a tragedy that happened
in North Africa?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SHARPTON: And they were fighting him there and then Geraldo even
tweeted on October 31st, quote, "GOP bloodlust regarding Benghazi gate
insincere desperate and reminiscent of Fast and Furious. Petraeus lie-new
rule if Issa is in charge truth not the goal." This is Geraldo, host over
at FOX, Joe.

MADISON: Well, and you know, thank God that Geraldo has come to the
point where he is willing to speak truth to power because they have the
power of his paycheck. Let`s be honest about it. And that Thomas Ricks.
We need more Thomas Ricks. He is the expert. You know, what was so funny
was that if you listen closely to that interview with Thomas Ricks, once he
said what he said, they cut that interview to what about 90 seconds and
then you could hear the anchor start to shuffling papers. You know, like,
oh my God, what do we do now?

MADISON: Because the interview was cut prematurely. But I`m going to
have to go.

Joe Madison, Ryan Grim, thanks for your time tonight.

RICKS: Thank you.

MADISON: Thank you.

SHARPTON: Coming up, Donald Trump is everything that`s wrong with
politics. Now his own kids know it. What is an insider saying about the
Trump family intervention?

And Mitch McConnell is his goal to make President Obama a one-term
president fail. So he`s ready to change, right? Think again. Stay with
us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SHARPTON: Had enough of Donald Trump questioning the President`s
citizenship? Here`s a news flash. So, did his kids. The kids take down
the Donald. That`s next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SHARPTON: It`s one thing when political experts get sick and tired of
Donald Trump`s attack on the President but it`s a whole other story when
his own kids want him to put a lid on it. An insider told the New York
Daily News, Trump`s children, Eric, Donald Jr., and Ivanka staged an
intervention last month advising their father to cool it on President
Obama.

The insiders saying, quote, "The three of them met, went to see their
dad in his Fifth Avenue office, they showed him a lot of respect but told
him he`s worked too long and too hard to build up the reputation that he
has. They understand completely he`s always been outspoken and that he
likes attention. But this is too much. This is a guy who got a televised
press conference when endorsing Governor Romney. A guy who once lead the
GOP primary polls and did it by winning over the Tea Party with disrespect
for the president.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, ENTREPRENEUR: All I want to do is see this guy`s birth
certificate.

There`s one line called place of birth. I`d like to see what he says.

Perhaps it`s going to say Hawaii. Perhaps it`s going to say Kenya.

If Barack Obama opens up and gives his college records and
applications and if he gives his pass board applications and records, I
will give to a charity of his choice a check immediately for $5 million.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SHARPTON: But the Tea Party star is fading. America is rejecting
this brand of ugliness. Tea Party stars like Joe Walsh, Allen West, Todd
Akin, and Richard Mourdock are gone. America is done with the mean
spirited attacks and so are Trump`s kids. The question is, is the GOP
leadership ready to hold their own political intervention?

Joining me now is Dana Milbank, columnist for "The Washington Post."
Dana, thanks for joining me this evening.

DANA MILBANK, "THE WASHINGTON POST": Hi, Reverend.

SHARPTON: If Trump`s children Dana, can`t keep him from talking about
where the President was born, can anyone?

MILBANK: I don`t know. I like the notion in the -- first of all, the
Donald denied the report if the children haven`t done it they certainly
should. But it doesn`t appear that Donald Trump listens to anybody so it`s
not clear why he would listen to his family and it also seems that since
he`s continued to say outrageous things since then and to tweet out
outrageous remarks since then, that whether or not it happened, the Donald
is clearly going to continue to work his way into becoming more and more
irrelevant. But providing good fodder for your show.

SHARPTON: Well, attempting as it is. Let`s put him aside for a
minute. And let`s look at a cast of others that use a lot of ugly rhetoric
and ended up paying for it. Congressman Joe Walsh and Allen West both gone
now. Look at this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. ALLEN WEST (R), FLORIDA: I believe it`s about 78 to 81 members
of the Democratic Party are members of the Communist Party.

REP. JOE WALSH (R), ILLINOIS: They want Hispanics to be dependent
upon government just like they6 got African-Americans dependent upon
government. That`s their game.

WEST: Take your message of enslaving the entrepreneurial will and
spirit of the American people somewhere else. You can take it to Europe,
you can take it to the bottom of the sea, you can take it to the North
Pole, but get the hell out of the United States of America.

WALSH: President Obama, quit lying.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SHARPTON: So, they were defeated both of them. Does that say
anything to the Republican Party about the kind of mean spirited ugliness
that really leads to defeat among those that are ultimately the deciders in
this country and that`s the voters?

MILBANK: Well, Reverend, it does say that the American voter does
eventually to get it right. And certainly, they got what they deserved in
this case. I don`t think, unfortunately, that it`s reason for optimism.
Because while those two gentlemen may be gone, others have come, others
will take their place. If you look at the caucus, particularly among House
Republicans, it really hasn`t changed that much. Even when their
leadership is trying to be accommodating to the extent they are, it`s not
clear that they have any flexibility at all to do that. So, what I think
would be terrific to celebrate some republican return to sanity.

SHARPTON: Yes.

MILBANK: I don`t think we`re -- that point yet.

SHARPTON: Well, let me quote you something from Bob Shrum. You know,
the democratic strategist who`s regular guest on this show. He says, why
it`s going to be hard for them to do it. He says, "Economic conservatives
and wealthy Republicans have formed an unholy alliance with the religious
right whose views they don`t share but whose votes they covet. Now, they
are saddled with a base that could leave them with increasingly unelectable
nominees if what the GOP looks for now is a trick, what it will find is a
way deeper into the wilderness."

MILBANK: Yes, I mean, I think that`s the problem that they are up
against. And Bob was talking at the presidential level where that problem
exists. What I`m looking at here in the capital is that the House
Republicans feel that they`ve been vindicated, that their positions have
been vindicated, that the idea of no compromise has been ratified by the
voters. In fact, nothing of the -- happened, is because of gerrymandering
has made so many seats safely republican that while there is, you know, for
every Allen West, there are ten others who are -- can say and do whatever
they want and they`re going to be returned to office. And if they stray
from the Tea Party line too much, well, they are going to get knocked out
in the primary. None of that has changed.

SHARPTON: Well, I think that if it doesn`t change, we are going to
see more election nights like we did a couple weeks ago because the
American voters seem to have consistently said the same thing all over the
country to those that have used these kinds of ugly statements and ugly
forms of campaign.

MILBANK: Well, yes, Reverend. I mean, and certainly at the
presidential level, we`ve seen that happen. And we also saw it on the
Senate side of the capital here where the Republicans would have gained
control if not for a lot of these Tea Party candidates that threw away very
winnable races in these last two cycles. We`re seeing it there. Where we
are not seeing it is in the house and I don`t know what is actually going
to cause that to change. These guys have a pretty iron grip on power right
now without a whole lot of incentive to change.

SHARPTON: Dana Milbank, thank you for your time tonight.

MILBANK: Thanks, Reverend.

SHARPTON: We`ll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SHARPTON: We close tonight with more about the big news from
Ambassador Susan Rice. As we reported, tomorrow she will meet with three
republican senators, John McCain, Lindsey Graham, and Kelly Ayotte acting
CIA Director Mike Morrell will join her for those meetings. They have
called Ambassador Rice a liar. They have attacked her integrity.

Tomorrow, as they sit there, isn`t it interesting the acting director
of the CIA, the one who has all of the evidence, will be with her. I hope
they get past the demagoguery and I hope they remember four people lost
their lives. Americans don`t need politicking and posturing. We need the
truth and we need to move on.

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.
END

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