do it. thank you, david corn and bobby ghosh. coming up, she hasn t been nominated. she hasn t won a primary. she hasn t announced. the republican right is trying to take hillary down. also for the first time ever, an active player in a major american sport has come out as gay. it s jason collins. whether his announcement is met with a shrug or shunning will tell us how far sports and the public have come in accepting gays. also you probably heard president obama is getting great reviews for his performance at saturday s white house correspondents dinner. some people don t think i spent enough time with congress. why don t you get a drink with mitch mcconnell, they ask. really? why don t you get a drink with mitch mcconnell? i think that was my favorite. behind the jokes, that one, there s a lot of truth behind what he was saying. as always, the punch line carries the message. let me finish tonight with the hawks. two-step dance to sell american
i m seldom jealous of others, but hearing what joe had done filled me with envy. i was proud of him for participating but angry as a closeted gay man i couldn t cheer my straight friend on as a spectator. if i d been questioned, i would have concocted half truths. what a shame to have to lie at a celebration of pride. i wanted to do the right thing and not hide anymore. i want to march for tolerance, acceptance and understanding. i want to take a stand and say, me, too. well, today u.s. congressman joe kennedy put out a statement praising his friend, for as long as i ve known jason collins he has been defined by three things. this is really nice. his passion for the sport he loves. his unwavering integrity, and the biggest heart you will ever find. without question, or hesitation, he gives everything he s got to those of us lucky enough to be in his life. i m proud to stand with him today and proud to call him a friend. joining me right now is sports illustrated senior writer, joh
player in the nba. there will obviously be, this is a polarizing issue, but i think the support will overwhelm any criticism. you know when he gets in the game, he s not a starter, joe. i m learning all this because i m not a big fan of some of these teams. i should be. he s not a starter. when he comes off the bench, i think there is going to be a wow. absolutely. that speaks to the transition we ve seen. this is this is a moment when, you know, it feels like folks just don t want to kind of be supportive, they want to express their support. what s the greatest thing that happened today besides the beautiful remarks by joe kennedy? boston red sox asked him to throw out the first pitch in an upcoming game. wow. so branch rookie strikes again. this is a late breakthrough. right now the first lady just a few minutes ago tweeted these words. why does she have to tweet? sha she has a press conference. so proud of you, jason collins. this is a huge step forward for our country. we
new all-time highs. the nasdaq climbing 27 points. the markets today bolstered by a better than expect pekted 1.5% jump in pending home sales. plus reports showing consumer spending and income also moving slightly higher in the month of march. that s it from cnbc, first in business worldwide. now back to hardball. welcome back to hardball. with these simple declarative sentences, quote, i m a 34-year-old nba center, i m black and i m ga whery, jason collins. in a cover story for sports illustrated in this passage collins described when he knew he had to come out. i realized i needed to go public when joe kennedy, my old roommate at stanford and now a massachusetts congressman told me he just marched in boston s 2012 gay pride parade.
mo. that mo signoff means the tweet is from michelle obama. i get that. that is her signature. let me ask you about the game. you know, i remember back here, years ago, we had dave of the redskins who i believe after his career came out, if you will. is that something that s happened before? john? yeah, there have been a number of athletes who after their playing days have come out of the closet. i mean, you know, really in all four major sports. this is, again, the first active athlete to do this while playing. you know, he s a free agent. it will be interesting to see where he ends up. we re talking about jason collicom colli collins. this player is still in the throes of his career and this is unprecedented. i think the country is still, you know, been fighting this fight for 20 years now of marriage equality now. the country is obviously not unanimous in either direction right now. and it s still somewhat of an issue that isn t quite settled yet. see it in the courts now being