0 cull the herd. fox will have 20 debates and ten i'll have a few on some other networks who play by our rules. let us pick the moderators and the format. in other words, it's an inside job. >> well, yeah. 's playing the refs, and he's saying that nbc and cnn won't be fair, and that they're in the tank for hillary clinton, which is ridiculous. she's had her own problems with the media over the years as you know. >> thank you for that. >> even more, listen to what he said to his friend sean hannity. listen to what he said to his friend sean hannity. i mean, it would be unhealthy. it was unhealthy to have all that exposure for our candidates. yeah, it was because you had a bunch of crackpots running for president and they did wound themselves every time they got out there. there were enough debates for perry to forget which agencies he was going to abolish in the federal government. right? so, yeah, i can see from his perspective, you want to go to the friendly confines of fox news. you want to have loving moderators like a sean hannity. you want to tell your story there. the problem is that that did not work in 2012. in fact, living in the friendly confines of fox news made those republicans think they were going to win, that they could beat barack obama, that he wasn't a popular president. >> let's go back to reality, joan, with this. as your point is made, there's a long tradition ofnous anchors moderating debates. i moderated the republican debate at the reagan library last election, 2008. >> right. >> despite that history, reince priebus defended his threat to shut out nbc and cnn, saying he wants to be in business with participating outlets. participating. let's listen. >> yes. >> i think it's just about time that our party stands up and protects the party and our candidates from networks that are not in the business of promoting our party. they're not in the business of promoting our candidates. they're not in the business of doing anything but promoting the democratic party. and i'm not going to sit around and watch this happen anymore. >> that's kind of a dull comment to say he only wants to do business with those in the business of promoting their candidates. admit it, i admit we're not in that business. >> right. this is the question i have based on what the chairman just said. so where do you go? >> fox. >> the only place -- so fox is going to have every debate? that's not credible, number one. >> comedy central. >> fox is not going to do it, number two. i just think you're painting it a little broad with the brush here. this is more the political play to the base. and sort of we're going to fight this with the hillary documents coming up. >> what would you have done? i know i work for an nbc company and i can't get involved in this debate very much. i want to ask you the question. i can ask joan too. you're all outside of here. you're guests on the show although you're both analysts i suppose. what do you do when you are reince priebus and you see they're going to do a documentary on hillary. a documentary can be tough. documentaries can be tough. >> sure. >> it can be all of those things. what would you have done if you'd seen this half? they might be on the move to doing a puff. what is the smart move? >> to be honest the smart move is to get out in front what he's doing. >> to threaten you're going to control your debates. >> look, chris, it is the late summer of 2013. this noise into an echo that has no one on the other end to hear it. >> doesn't it make him look like he's weak as if he doesn't deliver? he has to deliver now. he has to shut everybody out of the debates. but joan, i think he should have threatened something he doesn't intend to do. >> there's no loss in playing to the base. this is red meat for the base saying the mainstream media is the lame stream liberal media pleases everybody. he doesn't -- you know, when he doesn't get his way from cnn or nbc, which he will not, that will just prove that they're biased against him. he's within this echo chamber where all this stuff works. the problem is as michael well nose, when you take it out of the echo chamber and you have to talk to real voters and real people who may like hillary clinton who may find this fascinating and don't hate nbc or cnn, then you're making your argument to people who you're not used to talking. to and that's a problem. >> let's say assume the production company doing the hillary story doesn't do the way they do tv. they've got some sex in it, some excitement in it, some tabloid type stuff. they go through the whole relationship of hillary and bill and his philandering. they do the whole thing with monica, the whole thing with gennifer flowers, nothing new, just public record stuff. then they do the whole stuff about how she was angry about his unfaithfulness. all that. and then she was on the wrong side of the iraq war in the 2008 election, how she lost an upset victory to an african-american guy that nobody thought had a prayer. how does all that necessarily help her be elected to president? i'm just saying. >> from a certain standpoint, it doesn't. that's the problem with coming out before the video, the documentary, the film is even produced. or the script written. we don't know. >> by the way, joanie, after hearing that whole story i just told, i didn't mean to sell it that bad, but that whole clinton story, who wants the jelani sequel? >> it would work that way. it could work that way. >> again, of making the noise before you actually know what the noise should be made about. this is more the politics of it. >> the smart thing would be to ask for a preview copy. >> that is the smart thing to do. ask for a copy. >> this is an even harder one. cnn, commissioned a documentary, a documentary can be on anybody. and there is no reason to believe it's going to be favorable, joan. >> right. >> why would they attack cnn? everybody will do a documentary. i'm sure fox has probably thought of doing one. >> sure. >> how does that suggest unfairness or a heavy thumb on the scale? >> it doesn't, if you're really an honest person, it doesn't. but if you're playing to your base, playing to that paranoid segment of gop voters that believe the media is against them, chris, then it always works. it always works to bash cnn. it always works to bash nbc. it always works to bash "the new york times." that's what he is doing. there is plenty of fodder for this to be negative. i would be nervous if i were her a little bit. who knows how it could go. this is a play for the base. >> by the way, those who talk about the tight relationship between msnbc and barack obama, for example, count the number of times he's been on this network. zero. >> right. >> michael steele, thank you. >> all the things they've said about him. >> he agrees with us and we agree with him sometimes. i actually have my views and he tends to coincide with them. thank you, michael steele. i was right on the iraq war and so was he. your side was dead wrong. joan walsh, thank you. you were right too. you were for the iraq war, weren't you? >> no. >> okay. you're covered. some on the right are excited by a weird term in a weird way they insist president obama is losing the fight with al qaeda. as it turns out, they could not be more wrong, as we know. also, if you love newspapers as i do, the sale of "the washington post" to jeff bezos comes as a stunner. we about to see millionaires of all kinds like the koch brothers buying up newspapers to promote their views? and if you thought the last was unproductive, the current one is even worse. and the republicans running the place are downright proud of it. and old birthers don't die, and they don't fade away either. they just keep coming up with more. we keep coming up with more every day here, and they're all alive. birthers. this is "hardball," the place for birthers. we'll be right back. yummy, scrumptious bars. hmm? i just wanted you to eat more fiber. chewy, oatie, gooeyness... and fraudulence. i'm in deep, babe. you certainly are. [ male announcer ] fiber one. i'm in deep, babe. you certainly are. wit's hard to find contractors with the passion and the skill, and that's why we use angie's list. online or on the phone, we help you hire right the first time with honest reviews on over 720 local services. i want it done right. i don't want to have to worry about it or have to come back and redo it. with angie's list, i was able to turn my home into the home of my dreams. for over 18 years, we've helped people take care of the things that matter most. join today. well, former president bill clinton finally broke his silence on anthony weiner, the former president told cnn he and former secretary of state hillary clinton are maintaining a healthy distance from the new york mayor's race. quote, this is great clinton. we are 100 miles from that race, he says. and everyone understands that we are not going to be involved as long as our personal friends and people we feel obligations to are involved. beautifully stated. mr. clinton said even though weiner's wife huma abedin is a close confidante of the former first lady and is not now, they're not involved in the weiner campaign at all. clinton said there are too many people running for mayor who have been my supporters, who supported her for senate, her for president. and we'll be right back. more. 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