Davises, and the Trayvon Martins of the world should not be open to people feeling they can do whatever they want and not have to be held accountable. Thanks for watching. Im al sharpton, have a great weekend. Hardball starts right now. A czar is born. Lets play hardball. Good evening, im Chris Matthews in washington. What a week it was. Ebola goes to the white house. President obama puts a czar in charge. He takes the story from dallas, to washington, d. C. From the cdc to 1600 pennsylvania avenue. Razzledazzle. Who gives a damn if charlie likes his fan . You stop the debate for this . Plus, who did you vote for . Dont ask, dont tell. And hooray for gays. Pope francis opens his arms to samesex couples. And guess who will emcee next years oscars . Neil patrick harris, thats who. And a push for African Americans to vote republican. Lets see what the week looked like. Yes, we have confirmation, ron klain will be the new ebola czar. Why are you reluctant to give an answer on whether or not you voted for president obama . Bill, theres no reluctancey. We have an extremely peculiar situation now. Somehow there is a fan there and for that reason, ladies and gentlemen, i am being told that Governor Scott will not join us for this debate. In a groundbreaking move, the vatican appears to be considering greater acceptance of gays and lesbians. Hes hosted the emmys and the tonys, but now hell have a date
with oscar. Im in. Nice. A round table tonight for the end of the week program. Jonathan capehart, Michelle Bernard and david corn. The president took ownership of the ebola crisis and picked a point man for the effort. Ron klain, former chief of staff to biden and gore. Best known for his role in the florida recount crisis. In the hbo movie about that event, he was played by kevin spacey. The Florida House has already voted to award the state to the bush. Then we just file two lawsuits. One to set standards, the other to halt the legislature. We can do this. Ron, nobody can fault you no, mr. Vice president , please, listen to me. You cannot concede, not yet, sir. I beg of you, sir, just give me one more shot. Pretty chilling stuff. Anyway, today the president s press secretary explained why klain was chosen. What we were looking for is not an ebola expert, but rather an implementation expert, and thats exactly what ron klain is. Hes somebody who has extensive experience in the federal government. Hes something that has extensive Management Experience when it comes to the private sector. Is he a czar . Is that his title . What is his title . His title, he is the Ebola Response coordinator. I know theres some republicans and even some pundits who are describing him as a czar. Theyre certainly welcome to do that. We describe him as the Ebola Response coordinator. Hes the czar. Last night the president answered a question, do you think you might have to pick a czar. They begin picking a czar. Its not the title in the books. But heres the question. Within seconds of his being named after the republicans and everybody, especially republicans, said pick a czar, they said, screw the czar. [ laughter ] theyre all a bunch of bol cheffics. Historically at least. Why do they hit him when he was just picked . Because he was picked by obama. Theyre for a travel ban. Obama isnt. Theres nobody he could have picked other than john boehner that they wouldnt have protested. I know ron klain and the way josh describes him is exactly right. His job is not to be the chief doctor. We have people at cdc. He is to be there for dod and hhs and cdc jam together on this stuff and to smooth it over from a bureaucratic perspective. Now, is that truly necessary . Maybe, maybe not. [ all speak at once ] we need somebody thats going to have policy, someone who is going to set the policy, slam the door on west africa or we
dont. Somebodys got to do something on preparation, training nurses, make sure that gets done. And someone has to explain the whole damn thing to the country. This person has to wear a lot of hats. A lot of hats. But does his appointment as ebola czar make the general public feel any safer or more confident . I think the answer is no. When you say somebody has to be in charge. The person who should be in charge and the president of the United States and the Surgeon General that we still dont have. Right. We need to look, we need to have a Surgeon General upon. Whos fault is it that we dont have a Surgeon General . Its congresss fault we dont have a Surgeon General. The president knows who he wants and congress doesnt want that person because its the president of the United States making the decision. Take a look at this. Before today, many republicans were pushing the president to appoint a czar. Today many are attacking the new czar already. John fleming of louisiana
tweeted, obama appoints a czar, not even a doctor. Congressman from maryland, worst ebola epidemic in history. President obama puts a government bureaucrat with no Health Care Experience in charge. And here comes stephen king, he tweeted, president obama will name political operative ron klain as ebola czar. Too much Obama Administration competition to name him ebola spin czar. Ted cruz said, we dont need another socalled czar. We need president ial leadership. This is a Public Health crisis and, the answer isnt another white house political operative. The answer is the commander in chief who stands up and leads, and banning flights from those nations and acting decisively to secure our southern border. The southern border, the african traffic, hes covering all the
ethnic bases. Yeah, yeah. Hispanics, blacks, probably got something for arabs too here. Its so blatantly tribal and not useful whats the southern border got to do with it has nothing to do with anything were talking about. Senator ted cruz, from texas, at reign of april. This 28 wtweet was fantastic. Im not sure how you can ban flights from africa, but not out of texas. All of the cases are from people who worked with thomas eric duncan, who died, the first person who had ebola in the United States and died. Now amber vinson, nina pham, the person on the cruise ship, all from texas. Why arent these people calling for a ban on flights from texas. Do the people on the Carnival Cruise line know who is cruising with them . They do now. This is going to be like jonah and the whale. Whats still amazing, the Republican Party is once again doing their war on science. You ask any Public Health expert on this, and theyll say a travel ban is a bad idea. [ all speak at once ] i know emotionally tell me why it is. Because the way to deal with ebola is to stop the fire where its burning brightest, which is in africa. If you have a travel ban, people cant get in, people cant get out. I so, so totally disagree on this. British airways has enacted a travel ban. We have to be really serious about this. Why import it into the country . Were not importing it. But there can be exceptions made, doctors, Health Care Providers that need to go to africa and deal with the crisis
can fly let me finish. [ all speak at once ] imagine if you are the person who, for example, all the women who were in this bridal boutique in texas over the weekend, shopping with someone with ebola, doesnt know it. My 8yearold daughter has asked me, why are we not treating people in africa . Somebody answer that question. Politico has a great story, they talked to transportation experts who say, that if you ban all commercial flights, theres no way you can get people in and out to deal with this the way you need to. The military aircraft can do that. We dont have that happening. But we can have it happen. Secretary levitt who is hhs secretary under bush was on this Network Earlier today saying that every study thats been done with travel bans and epidemics has shown that they dont work. [ all speak at once ] didnt we go through this . Theres precedence here. Didnt they shut down all traffic and and what did we do with h 1 n 1 influencea, with the pandemic. There were all kinds of things that were enacted that were still not doing. We dont have all the answers. [ all speak at once ] its not the right thing to do. But the Public Health we dont want people to panic, but the Public Health experts have also told us you cant easily transmit it. Where are you on this . I think its a bad idea, also because, one, you cant do it because there are no direct flights, as Jeremy Peters said. Its through brussels and paris right. But you lose the ability to monitor and track. You will have people who will slip out of guinea, sierra leone, the other country that i cannot remember. Liberia. Liberia, thank you. And come through europe and other places where the person looking at passports are not going to see theyve come from these places. I think its important from aPublic Health standpoint that we know who has the disease wont they still see the origin, where they came from. Lets say theyre coming through australia. Do the australians let them on the plane . Lets say theyre coming through singapore. [ all speak at once ] people who dont have passports from these countries. The experts state its not practical and wont have real benefit. I know people are freaked out, but weve had only three cases so far and no american is yet to die from this. And its three too many. The question i would ask is, if we cant control, if the hospital cant control, i think its texas presbyterian, didnt even keep a list of all of the people who were in contact with the gentleman who died, how on earth do we think that we are safe by continuing to allow people to come in the country and we dont even know if theyre sick . Well, travel ban wont lead to better hospital practices. And thousands of more people die
from the flu in this country than ebola. For liberals, progressives and moderates on this panel, tough question. Is the president trusted on this . Or do people think hes being politically correct . Do they trust him to make a National Security on this, or are they saying he doesnt want to offend the african countries . Thats what i keep hearing. I think i trust the president to do the right thing, but the appointment of klain as a czar that doesnt direct does not report directly to the president , but reports to susan rice and to the Homeland Security people, that smells of politics. He should be reporting to the president. He should be a czar . Absolutely. And i agree with michelle on that. But we have to keep in mind, there are capable people in the places where they need to be. Dr. Frieden is a very respected person in the field of infectious diseases. I agree. Hes been an incredible leader of the cdc. Why dont they make him the
czar . [ all speak at once ] we dont want to take him away from what hes doing. Theres a different philosophy, even in moderate form, the republican philosophy. There has to be a clear chain of command, fivestar general, and work your way down to colonel and Everybody Knows who to salute. When you have somebody at the hhs and somebody at Homeland Security, and theres one person to report to all of them. Are they the boss and hes the spokesperson . Theyll say, wait a minute, whos idea was this . Is this susan rices idea . Is it monica whats her name, is it her idea . And this is the problem. Its structural. Im telling you, this has been the president s problem from the beginning, no chief of staff, not a clear line of authority and the people dont believe in his effectiveness. Anyway, the round table is coming back and how close are the midterm elections . So close the smallest, most trivial things, like a guy using
a fan, or a woman keeping a secret who she voted for could decide the whole shebang. And thats a fact. Whether you like it or not, this is hardball, a place for politics. Really important to us. You can just get on the plane and relax. I love to travel, no foreign transaction fees means real savings. We can go to any country and spend money the way we would in the us. When i spend money on this card i can see brazil in my future. I use the explorer card to earn miles in order to go visit my family which means a lot to me. A wakeup call. But its not happening out there. Its happening in here. [ sirens wailing ] inside of you. Even if youre treating your Crohns Disease or ulcerative colitis, an occasional flare may be a sign of damaging inflammation. Learn more about the role damaging inflammation may be playing in your symptoms
with the expert advice tool at crohnsandcolitis. Com. And then speak with your gastroenterologist. Two new polls to tell you about. Lets check the hardball scoreboard. First to colorado, a poll has Corey Gardner up by six now over udall. Gardners been leading in recent polls by six points, his biggest lead so far, it could be breaking gardners way. Next to georgia, Michelle Nunn is up one point over perdue. That race is close, but it looks like it might be moving to nine. Well be right back. receptionist Gunderman Group. Gunderman group is growing. Getting in a groove. Growth is gratifying. Goal is to grow. Gotta get greater growth. I just talked to ups. They got expert advise, special discounts, new technologies. Like smart pick ups. Theyll only show up when you print a label and its automatic. We save time and money. Time . Money . Time and money. Awesome. Awesome awesome awesome awesome all awesome i love logistics. Thank you. Ordering chinese food is a very predictable experience. I order b14. I get b14. No surprises. Buying business internet, on the other hand, can be a roller coaster White Knuckle thrill ride. Youre promised one speed. But do you consistently get it . You do with comcast business. And often even more. Its reliable. Just like kung pao fish. Thank you, ping. Reliably fast internet starts at 89. 95 a month. Comcast business. Built for business. Welcome back to hardball. Call it razzledazzle or trivial pursuit. Tight races in the country. Tied in the florida governors
race, 4444. Virtually tied in kansas. And baker and coakley are dead tide there. Nearly all the Senate Contests are all within the margin of error, and anything can move the needle on this stuff. Even the weird stuff. Yes, theres been weird stuff. Especially this week. Lets begin with that odd story in kentucky this week. This week, Democratic Senate candidate Alison Lundergan grimes battled Mitch Mcconnell, and they were peppered with tough questions, but it was the one that grimes didnt answer which has exploded into the headlines. Why are you reluctant to give an answer on whether or not you voted for president obama . Bill, theres no reluctancey. This is a matter of principle. Our constitution grants here in kentucky, the constitutional right for privacy at the ballot box, for a secret ballot. So you wont answer that
question tonight . Again, you have that right. Senator mcconnell has that right. Every kentuckian has the right for privacy at the ballot box. If i as chief election official dont stand up for that right, who in kentucky will . Principle . In an upcoming documentary she isnt afraid to tell you how she voted in a different 2008 contest. Take a look. Tell me about the first time you voted. Who did you vote for and what issues were most important to you . Well, i turned 18 in 1996. Unfortunately, it was after president clintons election. I had hoped to be able to vote for him. I got a chance to vote for secretary clinton in 2008. Theres the big smile, when i voted for clinton. My mom never told my dad ever that she voted for kennedy. Of course its a right. Of course its a right. Theres a principle. Its a secret ballot. Its okay to say you voted for hillary, and now i think it
may be more political. I honestly dont have a clue who she voted for. I suspect that there really is a possibility that she voted that she might have voted for romney, or maybe she didnt vote for president at all. Why wouldnt she vote for obama . I dont know. Maybe she didnt like him. Maybe she was out of loyalty to Hillary Clinton in 2008. Maybe she didnt like the direction of the country. Heres the problem for her. From my appreciate as perspective as a female, this is an opportunity as a female candidate to stick it to her opposition, to speak up and speak her mind and explain how she voted and why she voted. Because in 2012, the difference between who we saw speaking at the Republican National convention and who we saw speaking at the democratic
national convention, showed two fundamentally different visions of what the future of the country should look like and kentuckians would know that based on who she voted for. Shes being hammered for not answering the question. I get why she didnt answer the question. Politically, she cant. Shes running in a state that absolutely hates the president. And so for her to say, i voted for barack obama is to try to snuff out her chances against mcconnell. Would that be a headline . In kentucky it would be. For a democrat, yeah. Shes in a close race against the Senate Minority leader who could become majority leader. In a close race [ all speak at once ] you have a theory here. It was strategic, she had it ready. She was going to say it on principle. Did she know the documentary was coming out next week . Maybe she forgot about it. Lets say she voted for romney in 2012 or m