Across america gets that from this movie. Thanks for watching. Im al sharpton. Hardball starts right now. Friday night bites. Lets play hardball. Good evening. Im Chris Matthews in washington. Let me start tonight with the theater of the absurd now known as the republicanled u. S. Congress. You thought house of cards was bad. At least on that show they get things done. Here in the nations capitol on august 1st, 2014, they stay up late. They stay up late on a friday evening for the most ridiculous of reasons. Start with making it look like theyre working. Theyre here showing that theyre here, got it . So i and other commentators
cant attack them for truancy. Next reason, call it feeding time at the zoo. Some of the hard vicious right need to have votes they call their own, in other words, votes that cast scorn on the president. Cast them in a safe position having done nothing to help barack obama, only to keep him from doing anything. Why . Because any and every action by this president
Racial politics of the 21st century. In the past 24 hours republican president ial candidates have been like circus elephants attempting back flips. Its not been a pretty sight. The question for us tonight, why is the political cotillion that fashions itself as the party of lincoln having a problem letting go of the battle flag of Jefferson Davis . Eugene robins is a Pulitzer Prize winning columnist for the Washington Post and Michael Steele is former chairman of the Republican Party. I wonder why your partys having this problem. It was very uneven. Some came out early and said weve got to get rid of that flag in the wake of the tragedy in charleston. Others have been hemming and hawing and only moving most of them, after nikki haley had the courage to make that speech yesterday. What a wonderful way to set the right tone on this discussion. She did finally. Governor haley, so hats off to her. If you want to know how to lead on this issue, follow her. Because she really i think, set th
A rapidly growing wildfire near Yosemite National park. It is called the rim fire, and it grew overnight covering about 64,000 acres up from 16,000 just 24 hours earlier. The park remains open and mostly smokefree. On thursday, governor jerry brown issued a state of emergency. The declaration frees up money and resources for the 1800 firefighters on the ground. So far, nine structures have been damaged, 2,500 remain threatened. Lets take to you syria where more horrific images are servicing from what Syrian Rebels are calling a mass chemical attack but the claims are still not verified. If these reports are true, it would be an outrageous and flag grant escalation of use of chemical weapons by the regime, so our source is on nailing down the facts. More than 100,000 are dead and nearly 2 million refugees from that. Nbcs yousef gamal eldin is in cairo. Yousef, whats the latest there . Reporter the betty, the numbers are shocking the community and theres certainly a lack of clarity that
Second time, you have to get the illegals off your lawn if youre headling for the white house. Can he run for president a third time . This fella showing his deep commitment to the fight against poverty. Thats right, a guy who as elevator foss his car, who throwing illegals off hits lawn but ties rover onto the room. Hes still for the iraq war, still for marriage between one man and one woman, has to keep the numbers straight for selfdeportation, and now hes betting he can sell himself on the personal well doing the Elizabeth Warren third try the trick . How does affect the rest of the feel . Could they carve up the establishment vote leaving a clear lane for a rand paul other even scott walker to win the nomination on the right . Joining mess is former rnc chair Michael Steele and former dnc chair ed rendell, both of msnbc political analysts. I want to start with governor rendell. How can mitt romney do this complete change from who le is for a guy who was a intel, who know is a Bobby
Would gut many components of the Affordable Care act and cover fewer people according to the Congressional Budget Office, which looked at an earlier version. 24 million more people will be uninsured over a decade now. Republicans apparently needed a little inspiration yesterday before the vote. According to the associated press, catch this. Like boxers before a big fight, republicans pumped themselves up with a pounding music of the 1980s anthem eye of the tiger. Thats of course from well, it is of course from rocky 3. And taking care of business. After the vote they were in a mood to celebrate. According to the hill, quote, shortly after the narrow 217213 vote, the gop conference celebrated with beer and cigars and went to the white house rose garden for victory speeches. Well, the Vice President t actually, they cheered, grinned, smirked, and highfived one another down at the white house yesterday. The celebration of course is premature. The next stop is the u. S. Senate, and some re