tiffany's. and live from new york, "politics nation" goes live on saturday night and we're still laughing about it. >> play catch the nazi in the back yard. we put a blueberry pie in a box and the nazi would come around and try to get it. suspect that like what the republicans are trying to do? steal our pie? >> welcome to "politics nation." i'm al sharpton. tonight's lead, the fight for fairness. it's a conversation we've been needing to have for a long time in our country. and it's a conversation that president obama intends to make the centerpiece of his reelection. >> the problem is that our politics has gotten to the point where we can't have an honest conversation about the greatest income inequality since the 1920s and we can't have an honest conversation about the irresponsibility that resulted in the worst financial crisis since the great depression without somebody saying that somehow we're being divisive. we're talking about being honest. >> the president wants to talk about making this country more fair. but the republicans simply aren't interested. five times senate republicans have thrown the middle class under the bus to protect millionaires. they did it by saying "no" to the american jobs act, "no" to jobs for teachers and firefighters, "no" to infrastructure jobs, "no" to payroll tax cuts twice and they're expecting to do it again this week. tomorrow, house republicans are expected to approve a tax cut for middle class americans. but they do it -- they want to do it by reducing unemployment benefits by 40 weeks, cut funding to the health care law and freeze pay for federal workers. all this instead of having millionaires contribute just a bit more. and that's the key point for the fight for fairness. and what's worse, when asked to defend their positions, too often republicans just walk away. >> mr. speaker, if the senate sends back a billion that includes some form of millionaires' tax -- >> bye. >> thank you, sir. >> that's their values and ultimately the president is preparing to win reelection by standing up against that. >> the question next year is going to be, do they see a more compelling vision coming out from the other side? do they think that cutting taxes further, including on the wealthy, cutting taxes on corporations, gutting regulations -- do we think that that is going to be somehow more successful? and if the american people think that that's a recipe for success and a majority are persuaded by that, then i'm going to lose. but i don't think that's where the american people are going to go. >> i don't think so either, mr. president. joining me now is senator bernie sanders, independent from vermont. he's trying to roll back the gop's attempt to protect corporations in the citizens united ruling. senator, we'll go into your plan in a minute. but first, how far will republicans go to protect the rich, in your opinion? >> i think there's no stopping them, i think that is what they conceive their political mission to be. they receive a lot of funding from campaign contributions from the wealthy and large corporations. and they're going to go down the line fighting to make sure that we continue to have the kind of horrendous income and wealth inequality in this country, fighting to preserve all of these incredible loopholes that enable enormously profitable corporations, in some case, al, making billions of dollars a year, not to pay one nickel in taxes. and then on the other side, what they want to do is balance the budget by slashing social security, medicare, medicaid and education. there's a lot of discussion about class warfare. i think these guys are waging class warfare against the middle class and working families, protecting the wealthy and large corporations. >> but when you see the mentality of these guys -- let me show you something that was stunning. lindsey graham this weekend calling the consumer financial protection bureau something from a stalinist era, i'm quoting. really, helping consumers is stall inist? look at this. >> this consumer bureau they want to pass is under the preserve, no appropriation oversight, no board. it is something out of the stalinist era. >> how can we deal with that kind of mentality and make progress, senator? >> well, the way you deal with it is educate the american people and say that we are in a horrendous recession now, 25 million people unemployed or underemployed. do you know why? we deregulated wall street against my votes. we allowed people on wall street to act illegally and immorally and they end up tanking the economy. and to say that we cannot have a strong agency to protect consumers against credit card rip-offs, against all of these mortgage rip-offs, obviously the american people don't agree with that. >> now, let's go to your proposal, your amendment on corporations. explain why this is important and what you're trying to achieve here, senator? >> thank you for the opportunity, al. look look, here's the story. citizens united was a 5 to 4 supreme court decision a few years ago. it was one of the worst supreme court decisions in the history of this country right next to dread scott. what this is saying is corporations are people. you didn't know it, but the good old bank of america, goldman sachs, exxonmobil, just like you and me, they're entitled to first amendment rights which means they can take hundreds of millions of dollars out of the treasuries of these corporations and use it in political advertising. i don't think that most people in america think that what democracy is about is for large corporations to spend unlimited sums of money without disclosure, trying to defeat candidates who stand up against them. that's not american democracy. i'll tell you something, al, we just put a petition up on my website, sanders.senate.gov, three days ago. we got 120,000 names already. we want to bring back the democracy that allows the ordinary person to have say in this country. >> let me show you mitt romney, willard himself, said corporations are people. this is not an exaggerated flow of rhetoric from senator sanders. watch this. >> corporations are people, my friend. every new corporation there ultimately goes to people. where do you think it goes? >> it goes into their pockets. >> whose pockets? whose business? human beings, my friend. >> so if corporations are people, then they have first amendment rights, they can do whatever people are supposed to be able to do and that's why your amendment becomes important, senator. people that want to sign your petition should go where? >> sanders.senate.gov. >> senator bernie sanders, there's none like him, thank you for joining me this evening. >> thank you, al. coming up, our exclusive interview with the woman who says the president's health care law literally saved her life. of course, this is the same one republicans want to repeal. but first, romney is starting to sweat. he's fallen so far so fast that a $10,000 bet may be the least of his problems. >> rick, i'll tell you what. 10,000 bucks? $10,000 bet? >> i'm not in the betting business. >> this was an outrageous number to answer an outrageous charge. >> you're watching "politics nation" live on msnbc. 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[ male announcer ] for unsurpassed fruit and veggie nutrition... v8 v-fusion. could've had a v8. so i used my citi thank you card to pick up some accessories. a new belt. some nylons. and what girl wouldn't need new shoes? we talked about getting a diamond. but with all the thank you points i've been earning... ♪ ...i flew us to the rock i really had in mind. ♪ [ male announcer ] the citi thank you card. earn points you can use for travel on any airline, with no blackout dates. earn points you can use for travel on any airline, it's time for us to occupy wall street, occupy washington, occupy alabama, we're just getting started. we're getting ready to organize! at our jobs and justice rally in october, we said we were just getting started and we're following up on that promise. over the weekend, the national action network rallied in 25 cities calling once again for jobs and justice. labor leaders, politicians and activists came together fighting for congress to pass a jobs bill and help get people back to work and deal with voter id laws. the passion and emotion was running high in baltimore. >> save our state! save our state! >> encourage our citizens and our elected officials that we can and must do more to get more people employed. >> can't just keep talking about stuff and not acting on it. we can't keep having these leaders come in, saying they're fighting for us and the people not standing up and backing us up. >> this is what's going on all over america. it's time to have a real conversation on jobs and justice. we won't stop fighting. and i'll say it again. we're just getting started. and i served a tour in iraq. all the skills that i learned in the military are very transferable into the corporate and real world. chase hired me to be a personal banker. the 100,000 jobs mission has definitely helped me get my foot in the door. chase is giving opportunities to vets who don't think that there's any opportunity out there. chase and these other companies are getting a great deal when they hire veterans. chase is proud to help 100,000 veterans find jobs at home. welcome back. willard mitt romney wants voters to think he's just an everyday joe. but he's got no idea how joe makes ends meet. here's willard's idea of a friendly wager. >> rick, i'll tell you what. 10,000 bucks? $10,000 bet? >> i'm not in the betting business, but i'll -- >> oh, okay. >> $10,000, willard, your 1% is showing again. 10,000 grand may be betting money to you. but to the average iowan, it's just not chump change. it's about two months' salary in iowa where the average household income is $50,000. it's also enough to cover the $7,500 tuition at iowa state university. the average iowan could use that $10,000 to pay the rent for at least a year. willard, you're hopelessly out of touch. but the other gop frontrunner isn't any better. newt ran up $500,000 tab at tiffany and bragged about how much he charges per speech. >> i did no lobbying of any kind, period, for a practical reason -- i'm going to be really direct, okay? i was charging $60,000 a speech. >> what newt and willard don't seem to get is that millions of americans, democrats and republicans, are hurting. joining me now is bob herbert, senior fellow at demos.org, and alex wagner, host of "now with alex wagner." she's responsible for everyone losing weight because no one eats at noon anymore. >> starvation of america. >> you have to give the republicans credit. they've found the perfect frontrunners for their out-of-touch policies. >> these are the perfect guys because this is what that party is. it's the party of by and for the rich. these are both rich guys. it's funny, newt wants to tease romney about being out of touch because of romney's wealth. but you just showed newt the same thing. he's the tiffany candidate. >> now, alex, how do you deal with the fact that in the middle of a debate where you're talking about individual mandate, rather than debating the health of sickly people, the needs of working class people, he comes up with a $10,000 wager? >> that, i think, speaks to so many things about mitt romney's character. first and foremost is what you guys are both saying. this is the party of the 1% or the .1%. mitt romney's personal wealth is estimated to be as high as $250 million. this is someone who's renovating his multimillion-dollar home in la jolla, california, and he's said, let the foreclosure crisis bottom out and let the markets work themselves out. as far as the individual mandate, this is not a party that's taken a particular interest in the needs of the poor. sidestepping an issue about individual mandates, it would be part and parcel to what mitt romney has been about thus far on the campaign trail. >> the problem is not that they're wealthy. we've had wealthy candidates before. the kennedys were very wealthy. the problem are that these are wealthy guys whose policies are geared toward the very wealthy in our society and in opposition to the interest of working people, the middle class and the poor. >> i think also -- the president talked about core values on "60 minutes." and i want to show this and i want your response to that, alex. i think one of the things that bothers me is that with this flip-flop, there's really no core values. what do these people really believe in other than making money and protecting those that are making money? let me show you the president. >> it doesn't really matter who the nominee is going to be. the core philosophy that they're expressing is the same. and the contrast and visions between where i want to take the country and where they say they want to take the country is going to be stark. >> the core values, where they want to take the country. and it seems like that flips back and forward. i come out of civil rights where you believe in what you do. >> right. >> for years, i never even got a salary. and then when i finally got it, i go back to the company and lend back. these guys are bragging about $60,000 speeches? >> newt gingrich has a litany of questionable financial endeavors including $500,000 of private air travel during his campaign, charging his own campaign $42,000 for use of his rolodex. the democrats and the white house really have the wind in their sails on this, which is a fundamental argument about the american social compact and what we're going to do with the poor, the disenfranchises, the neediest. where are the solutions and which party fundamentally cares about the problems? here i think obama has, as i said, he has the advantage. democrats have the advantage. >> bob, do you think the country has changed in terms of where the conversation is and the republicans just don't get where the country is and where the people are now? >> i think the republicans don't get where the country is. but working people -- the middle class. but more importantly, i don't think they care. i think they are interested in achieving power, maintaining power and that using that power in favor of the interests of the privileged in our society -- and in order to do that, they don't really talk about those issues that are important to working people and to the middle class. they talk about these issues that are very divisive. they try to divide the country between us and them and exploit that sort of thing. we've seen that. we saw it back during the civil rights era and we've seen it all the way through. that's how the republicans and the right wing have been winning these elections and they're trying to do it again. >> this is a party that is balking at extending unemployment insurance and payroll tax cuts. there is no argument to be made if they're looking out for those out of work and working class, just based on their policy positions alone. >> that's right. >> and additional tax cuts for the wealthiest -- >> and the extension of payroll tax cut, they will say, fine, let's cut from 99 weeks about 40 weeks unemployment insurance. let's do all of these different -- all to working class people. >> the poor should give to the rich, the people who are out of work should give even some of their benefits to the very wealthy. >> reverse robin hood. >> there you go. >> and the logic that the bush tax cuts don't need to be paid for is a huge question mark. >> the politics of it, though, when you see newt gingrich and divisive as his language has been from foreign policies to talking about poor people in this country to calling the president a food stamp president, which he forgot to call him when he and i were meeting with the president, but i'm sure it's just slipped his mind, why is he rising in the poll? why are people gravitating toward this? >> i think mitt romney said, i will not be a bomb thrower but i think some part of the gop base wants a bomb thrower. they want a fire-starter. someone they feel will be a, quote, unquote, fighter. newt gingrich is good at speaking. he's more forceful than mitt romney who comes across as wooden and out of touch and very awkward. for that reason, i think he's rising in the polls. >> well, i think also when you deal with the fact that both of these guys, though, don't know what the average life is -- and you have people that have money that understand what average people go through because they, as you say, from the roosevelts to the kennedys, they had that kind of common touch and could identify. but these guys clearly don't when you consider -- stand up on the stage without even thinking and make a $10,000 wager. i guess if you were looking at what $10,000 buys at tiffany's, it buys a pair of earrings or tiffany's bubbles ring. >> i like that you've done the research, reverend. >> yeah, i had to research it. when you get in their world, if it's an earring set or a bubbles ring, i guess it's wager stuff to you. >> i think this is what newt has lived for. i think that he always wanted to be a rich guy. he was always milking the system for whatever money he could get from going back decades. but i think what is really important is, depending on whether one of these guys gets the nomination, i think newt is the kind of guy that would self-destruct in public. and i think he's the kind of guy that frightens moderate suburban voters and independent voters, whereas i think mitt romney is a shrewder character in a general election. the question is, what happens in the primary? >> we're going to talk about that later in the show. bob, for years, people read your column in "the new york times." you know why alex's show is so good? >> tell me. >> we all think somebody like her would be having fun on weekends. she's at home reading "the new york times." >> you know what i saw in "the new york times" this sunday, is you were the answer to one of the -- i think it was 49 down. >> i'm out marching. she's home reading "the times" and practicing how to make us all look bad. >> you're in the crossword puzzle. >> she's doing the puzzle. i'm marching. bob and alex, thanks for joining us tonight. rick perry goes back to the gaffe factory. we've got it in tonight's edition of rick perry is so funny it hurts to watch. and speaking of so funny it hurts, "politics nation" makes it to "saturday night live." we're still laughing. >> republicans are stuck between voting for tax cuts and voting for millionaires, two of their most prized priorities. ♪ ♪ ♪ [ male announcer ] everyone deserves the gift of a pain free holiday. ♪ this season, discover aleve. all day pain relief with just two pills. it's time for tonight's edition of "rick perry is so funny it hurts to watch". >> that's right. folks, welcome to tonight's edition of "rick perry is so funny it hurts to watch" because when rick's in front of the cameras, you never know what he'll say. at a campaign stop in ames, iowa, this weekend, rick blasted the president's handling of government spending. and he couldn't stop himself from giving us another oops moment. >> no greater example of it than this administration sending millions of dollars into the solar industry and we lost that money. i want to say it was over $500 million that went to the country solyndra. >> oh, the great country solyndra. i hear it's lovely this time of year. better book your trips before it gets too crowded with tourists. >> i'm sorry. oops. >> but don't worry, rick, it fits right in with the rest of your campaign. >> it's like, live free or die, victory or death, bring it. it's three agencies of government when i get there that are gone -- commerce, education and the -- what's the third one there? let's see. are that. activist judges, whether it was -- not the -- >> sotomayor. >> sotomayor. >> the third one i can't. oops. >> oops is right. hey, rick, thanks for the laughs. how can you get back pain relief that lasts up to 16 hours? with thermacare heatwraps. that's 8 hours while you wear it, plus an additional 8 hours of relief after you take it off. can your patch say that? for up to 16 hours of relief... try thermacare. how about the beat of a healthy heart? campbell's healthy request soup is delicious, and earned this heart, for being heart healthy. ♪ feel the beat? it's amazing what soup can do. spark card from capital one. spark cash gives me the most rewards of any small business credit card. it's hard for my crew to keep up with 2% cash back on every purchase, every day. 2% cash back. that's setting the bar pretty high. thanks to spark, owning my own business has never been more rewarding. [ male announcer ] introducing spark the small business credit cards from capital one. get more by choosing unlimited double miles or 2% cash back on every purchase, every day. what's in your wallet? this guy's amazing. welcome back to "politics nation." the war of words between gop frontrunner newt gingrich and willard mitt romney is heating up. willard couldn't land a punch on newt at this weekend's debate. but this morning, mitt's on the offensive saying newt should pay back the money he paid from freddie mac. >> do you believe he should give that money back? >> boy, i sure do. he was at a debate saying that politicians who took money from freddie and fannie should go to jail. he was in the business of connecting folks with government. he was on "k" street. this was a connection with government kind of business, working for freddie mac, getting paid $1.6 million -- one of the things i think people recognize in washington is that people go there to serve the people and then they stay there to serve themselves. >> as expected, newt fired right back -- >> i would just say that if governor romney would like to give back all the money he's earned from bankrupting something and laying off employees over his years at bain that i would be glad to then listen to him. and i'll bet you $10, not $10,000 -- that he won't take the offer. >> make no mistake, this race is shaping up to be brutal. mitt is fighting for his life. and two new polls shows he should be worried. in south carolina, newt has a 19-point advantage over willard, a 35-point surge since october. and it's the same story in florida where newt is up 15 points, a 38-point surge since october. with just three weeks to iowa, willard's got to be worried. joining me now, dana milbank, political columnist for "the washington post," and michael steele, former rnc chairman and now msnbc analyst. thanks both of you for being here tonight. >> hey, rev. >> michael, why is willard having so much trouble getting to newt? >> well, i think it's part of his overall persona. he's not one who throws heavy punches or certainly lands them. i think the fact that he makes the comment about the $1.6 million is after the debate, not during the debate while he's standing right there next to newt speaks volumes. it has less appeal and less effect after the fact. i think if he were to engage newt more directly in that vein -- >> michael, you say if you were managing willard or helping with his campaign, you would have told him, do that at the debate saturday night to his face? >> oh, absolutely. whenever i was running for lieutenant governor and the u.s. senate, i take my opponents head-on, not behind your back. face to face, mano a mano and see how your opponent reacts to you, to that size of aggressiveness. you're going to see more of it. but the question is, do you see it in the shad dose or is it going to be upfront? there are a lot of dangers, as you probably know, rev. but we'll see how he handles it going forward. three weeks left. >> dana, does this kind of new style persona for willard, trying to become a fighter now when he's kind of tried to play his campaign above the fray, almost a rose garden strategy when he's not in the rose garden, now he's going to fight, now he's going to attack his opponent -- could that backfire, as well as let me show you -- let me let you listen to this. he had a sitdown interview with politico today where he says this is going to be a long, protracted race. listen to this. >> governor, is newt gingrich the frontrunner in this race? >> he is right now. >> why is that? >> got me. i've watched over the last year and you've seen various people go from very low numbers to very high numbers. i don't think i'm in danger of losing the nomination to speaker gingrich either. >> why not? >> i think in the final analysis when people take a very close look at our experience, at our records, at our backgrounds, they'll recognize that my background and my experience as a leader is what america leads and that i'm best positioned to replace barack obama. this process of nomination takes, what, five, six months from here? this is not going to be decided in just a couple of contests. i think i'll get the nomination. i can't predict when i'll be able to -- >> april, may, june, what are we talking about? >> i don't have any idea at this point. i'm not a political scientist -- >> but certainly past super tuesday on march -- >> i certainly have to be in a position to run the full campaign that is probably not going to be done in a few weeks. it's going to take a few months. >> now, dana, here's a man who was first above the fray and played like he was mr. inevitable. now he's attacking. i agree with michael, not to his opponent's face, but attacking and doing interviews saying, this is going to be a long, drawn-out thing, which is clearly not what he inferred earlier. does this have the potential of backfighting or can he reboot his campaign doing this? >> well, reverend, mitt romney changeses personas the way you and i change neckties. i don't have any doubt that he can make this change and make yet another pivot here. and indeed he has to. this is newt-style politics. newt said over the weekend that he was going to be relentlessly positive. that lasted about 24 hours. this is the negative politics that newt invented and romney is going to have to play that game. and i do think that he can threaten a long, protracted battle regardless of whatever the polls are saying because he has a ton of money, a lot more money than newt gingrich has and he's got a lot of core support in the establishment. he can drag this out the same way hillary clinton dragged out the democratic race last time and potentially more successfully. >> now, talking about the fact that he raised hillary clinton, michael, let's look at a little histo history. we can ask the question, is history repeating itself in this race? is it 2008 where hillary clinton was the leading candidate over barack obama in the democratic race and he came in as an outsider with popularity and won. or is it 1984, gary hart was leading walter mondale and this same scenario played over again with mr. mondale being the steady guy and he just waited it out and he won the nomination. which scenario do you think your party is going to end up with here if you had to guess? >> that's a good question. i would almost think it's a little bit closer to 2008 than 1984 simply for this reason -- you look at the 2008 race, what was the great driver for the obama machine ultimately? it was grassroots, it was how the base felt about the establishment. . it was how the base felt about hillary clinton. it was how the big money donors felt about the campaign that hillary and bill ultimately were running. i think this is a little bit closer to that in the sense that the base has already said for quite some time that mitt romney is a 22%, 25% candidate for them. 75% of the polls -- 75% of those voters are undecided or are willing to change to someone else if given an opportunity. so there's a great deal more fluidity here than maybe 2008. but i think it's a little bit closer to that. now, i don't know if that bodes well for romney in that he sees himself in the obama role. i think probably newt sees himself in that role. but i think it's closer to '08 than '84. >> dana, let me ask this -- one of the things that could be helpful to willard in iowa is ron paul because according to most of the tracking that i've looked at, paul's votes hurts gingrich more than it does willa willard. and ron paul has come out blasting gingrich, not romney. look at this. >> gingrich received up to $1.8 million from freddie mac just before it collapsed. his think tax has 37 million bucks from the industry. >> newt gingrich has been on both sides of a long list of issues. >> he went the other way when he got paid to go the other way. >> do you think voters are going to warm up to you because you're boasting about getting $60,000 a speech? >> he is the absolute symbol of that corrupt system. newt gingrich, this guy hasn't got skeletons in his closet. he's got a whole graveyard in there. >> dana, could ron paul be a deciding factor on how this growing ugly battle ends up? >> he has the potential to be a spoiler. it's not just ron paul. it's rick perry if he can pull away some votes. if michele bachmann can. it's basically everybody against mitt romney here who has his steady 20%, 25%, whatever it is. so if any of these other candidates rise, that's almost by definition is going to come away from gingrich. romney's often in a camp by himself. >> thank you, dana and michael. we had a very civil exchange tonight. i figure we were going to have to beat each other up. have a nice evening, both of you. >> take care. see you, dana. ahead, republicans said the president's health care law was just a job killer and vowed to repeal it. but it's actually working. we'll talk live with a cancer patient who made national headlines after she wrote an editorial saying president obama's health law was saving her. that interview next. 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[ male announcer ] now there's a mileage card that offers special perks on united, like a free checked bag, united club passes, and priority boarding. thanks. ♪ okay. what's your secret? ♪ [ male announcer ] the new united mileageplus explorer card. get it and you're in. welcome back to "politics nation." when republicans won control of the house, they vowed to repeal the health care law. >> we came out with our pledge to america and our pledge was to repeal obamacare. >> to repeal the job-killing obamacare bill. >> obamacare is a bill that simply must be repealed. >> there are 1.6 million reasons why we should repeal obamacare. >> but a funny thing happened on the way to the gop talking point because the affordable care act is working for millions of americans. it reduced the number of uninsured children by 1 million. it's helped 2.6 million seniors save more than $1 billion on prescription drugs. it provided 24 million seniors with free preventive care and is helping some 30,000 people with pre-existing conditions get the affordable coverage they so desperately need. people like spike dolomite ward generated a lot of buzz when she wrote an "l.a. times" op ed praising the president's health care law saying, quote, for me, it's been a lifesaver, perhaps literally. it's part of the law that really hits home for the president. >> my mother, when she contracted cancer, the insurance companies started suggesting that, maybe this is a pre-existing condition. maybe you could have diagnosed it before you actually purchased your insurance. ultimately they gave in but she had to spend weeks fighting with insurance companies while she's in the hospital bed and that happens all across the country. we are going to put a stop to that. >> joining me now is spike dolomite ward, the author of that "l.a. times" opinion piece. thanks for joining me tonight. what inspired you to write this? >> i was inspired to write it because i was in such despair having gotten the news that i had cancer. and that's a shock in and of itself when you're told that you have karcancer. you go to the worst place possible mentally. i was afraid i was going to die. all i could think about was my kids. and my family hasn't had insurance for two years and how was it going to pay for this? in shock, another good friend of mine in los angeles did research for me and found out about pcip. and i went ahead and i applied and i had to wait until december 1st for coverage. but during that time, i was in such despair and i was so afraid -- i was in such a dark place, i asked my husband if he wouldn't mind if i went ahead and i wrote about our experience because it would help other people and it would help me get out of my really dark place. and with his blessing, i went ahead and did that. >> let me, spike, show people what you wrote that is very interesting to us. this is a quote from the op ed page in which you formally apologize and you push the obamacare's message. you say -- i'm reading from the piece. it says, i'm sorry i didn't do enough of my own research to find out what promises the president has made good on. i'm i didn't realize he really has stood up for me and my family and for so many others like me. i'm getting a new bumper sticker to cover the one that says "got nope." it will say, obama cares. why did you write that? >> i wrote that -- and i wanted to out myself as an irresponsible citizen as well. i was so angry and so disgusted when i heard that in 2014 uninsured people were going to have to purchase health insurance from these companies that had already forced us almost into bankruptcy. and that made me so angry that i reregistered as an independent and i just quit listening. and it's an irresponsible thing to do. before that, i was a politically astute person. i'm well-known in the l.a. area for all my work with my nonprofit and public school education causes and whatnot. but by not listening, i didn't do my part as a citizen. and when i found out that this obamacare program was going to literally save my life, i owed it to the president to publicly apologize and to humbly admit that i had checked out and that's wrong. >> well, let me tell you something, the buzz you caused was well-deserved, not because some of us support the president but because you had the courage to stand up and say something that hopefully, maybe some of the people in washington will hear and other people that are in a situation that is life-threatening can get some relief. mrs. ward, thank you so much for your time. >> i hope so. >> and best wishes for your recovery. >> thank you very much. we'll be right back with "politics nation" on "saturday night live." [ alarm rings ] [ male announcer ] take the fixodent 12 hour hold challenge. fixodent denture adhesive challenges you to a 12 hour hold test. ♪ thanks to its time released formula, you apply fixodent once, and it holds all day. ♪ take the fixodent 12 hour hold challenge. guaranteed, or your money back. ♪ and for guaranteed freshness try fixodent cleanser, plus scope ingredients. ♪ that's good morning, veggie style. hmmm [ male announcer ] for half the calories -- plus veggie nutrition. could've had a v8. plus veggie nutrition. the best approach to food is to keep it whole for better nutrition. that's what they do with great grains cereal. they steam and bake the actual whole grain while the other guy's flake is more processed. mmm. great grains. the whole whole grain cereal. welcome back to the show. how was your weekend? me, not much. well, this happened -- >> joining me tonight are kelly o'donnell, an msnbc analyst here in our studio. >> nice to be here. >> and jim vander he ho of politicalco.com. >> it's vander hi. >> sharpton hi. >> i like this one, too. >> now, jim, those in the gop want to talk about helping people -- what? wrong camera? which one is it? the red light? there's red lights everywhere. on the top. so this one? you just switched it on me now. that's what i need to be asking you. have you ever been on tv before? >> and then they went after something near and dear to the beating heart of "politics nation" -- they went after my blueberry pie. >> when i was little, we would play, catch the nazi in the back yard. we put a blueberry pie in a box and the nazi would come around and try to get it. isn't that what the republicans are trying to do? steal our pie? >> i'm not sure -- >> i need a straight answer. kelly, are republicans trying to steal the nazi blueberry pie out of the boxes? >> we're big fans of "saturday night live." no doubt, they got me pretty good. some people on our facebook page thought it was a little rough. but i thought it was hilarious. we love a good joke. and they're right, i'm not a big fan of teleprompters and there's a lot of red lights out there and let me say to keenan, if you're going to do me, lose a little weight.