cory booker was being cory booker, not a surrogate. >> guys, you're hopeless, let me tell you something. what's the word nauz -- nau serks ating mean? he said he was nauseating. >> cory booker is taking his career and putting himself as the truth teller above all this. if you hire him as your surrogate, you have to be aware of that because at the end of the day, it's about cory booker. he was not serving the president well, but he thought at the time he was serving himself. >> right, i think he's the man who shot liberty valance himself. he said, i like firing people like i like firing people. he quotes like he's si synchronizing swim ingwiming wi president. here he is, mayor of newark. >> i'm not about to sit here and indict private equity. we're getting to this ridiculous point in america. if you look at bain's record, they've done a lot to support businesses, to grow businesses, and this to me, i'm very uncomfortable. this kind of stuff is nauseating to me on both sides. it's nauseating to the american public. enough is enough. >> here he comes back with, i like to fire people, too.

i stand with cory. with cory booker. i don't think i need a spoiler alert here if i let you know this the republican party in reality is very unlikely to actually stand with cory booker. mr. booker is the democratic progressive fire brand mayor of newark, new jersey who supports president obama's re-election. the republican party is making a big show of saying they are standing with him because they say cory booker is a victim who needs people to stand up for him because he can't stand up for himself. because it's the republican party, the person that is victimizing cory booker is mathra, i mean godzilla. i mean president obama. it does do you know what obama does with people who stand up for job creators, he silences them. they had pressured booker into taking back support of the free market. this is how far president obama has sunk running an all out assault on job creators and in his own democratic party anyone who dares to defend them must be silenced. if you agree sign our petition. i stand with cory booker. if you

i stand with cory. i stand with cory? with cory booker? i don't think i need a spoiler alert here if i let you know this the republican party in reality is very unlikely to actually stand with cory booker. mr. booker is the democratic progressive firebrand mayor of newark, new jersey who supports president obama's re-election. the republican party is making a big show of saying they are standing with him because they say cory booker is a victim who needs people to stand up for him because he can't stand up for himself. because it's the republican party, obviously, the person that is victimizing cory booker is mathra. i mean godzilla. i mean president obama. they sent out this e-mail to republican party supporters. it says, do you know what obama does with people who stand up for job creators? he silences them. they had pressured booker into taking back support of the free market. this is how far president obama has sunk, running an all-out assault on job creators and in his own democratic party, anybody who dares defend them must be silenc

i stand with cory. with cory booker. i don't think i need a spoiler alert here if i let you know this the republican party in reality is very unlikely to actually stand with cory booker. mr. booker is the democratic progressive fire brand mayor of newark, new jersey who supports president obama's re-election. the republican party is making a big show of saying they are standing with him because they say cory booker is a victim who needs people to stand up for him because he can't stand up for himself. because it's the republican party, the person that is victimizing cory booker is mathra, i mean god zzilla. i mean president obama. it does do you know what obama does with people who stand up for job creators, he silences them. they had pressured booker into taking back support of the free market. this is how far president obama has sunk running an all out assault on job creators and in his own democratic party anyone who dares to defend them must be silenced. if you agree sign our petition. i stand with cory booker. if yo

but someone forgot to tell cory booker. he's what he said on nbc's "meet the press" on sunday. >> this kind of stuff is nauseating to me on both sides. it's nauseating to the american public. enough is enough. stop attacking private equity. stop attacking jeremiah wright. this has got to stop. >> booker has since dialed it back calling obama's ads on romney reasonable. i'll talk to another man about being reasonable. newt gingrich. plus an interview on marion jones. about the olympic triumph and the doping scandal that sent her to prison. >> i realized laws in prison, in solitary in particular, that being number one and marion jones meant nothing in there. >> and only in america. robin gibb with a moment that changed his and hollywood's history. >>> we begin tonight with our big story. joining me now a man with a fascinating view of the campaign, formered the newt gingrich. mr. speaker, welcome back. >> good to be with you. >> i'm gripped in fact by what you're about to tell me of what you make of the bain capital fury give

>> apparently cory booker thought so. >>> which version of cory booker? he later came back -- >> a, not b. >> clearly there's a very big difference between those. two. >> let me bring you in on this. eric was defending the romney camp and he said these attacks are so old, they have cobwebs on them. we know it was an effective tool for newt gingrich. we brought that up time and time again. there seems to be a little fear factor even though they try to dismiss it as old with cobwebs which is a visual i don't need. >> i don't think it was an effective attack. gingrich used it against romney and so did rick perry and look where they ended up. the problem i think is that it is a very fine line. when team obama goes after bain capital, they go after private equity and that can translate into going after our capitalist, going after capitalism. so if you're going to attack private equity, which does in fact bring in money to help make unhealthy companies healthy, then you cross the line into a problematic area. >> tell me the example, specifically, where you beli

cory booker has apparently finally gotten the memo. he apologizes and gets back on message. >> when mitt romney himself says i was a job creator, not a successful guy in private easity i didn't return great investment for my people and my firm but when he says he was a job creator, i think that is a record that deserves inquiry, and the fact that the president is talking about that is something i will echo. the president was not condemning all of private equity he was focusing in on a guy who was bragging about his job-creation record. to me that is fair game. >> we're only attacking mitt romney. we're within the boundaries of the game. don't worry wall street! we're not attacking you. we're on your side. that is the coded message being sent out that is pattenly obvious. why? because cory booker gets a lot of money from wall street. first of all he got $115,000 in 2002 for his mayoral run and then another $450,000 from wall street, and $30,800 from bain executives. he doesn't want to go after bain because bain is giving him money. in t

that's a different cory booker. someone picked up the phone and said you wanted to be the rising superstar in the democratic party that you've been and continue to get the support of the democratic party? i'm guessing, they said then go up there and start walking it back. >> i think he's untouchable. >> interesting thing is last night, he continued to walk back his statements and now he's placing the blame on the g.o.p. for taking them out of context. but last night, i was flipping around to see how all the different networks and cable operations were going to handle the cory booker comments and you know what? on the left and on the right, they were handled in the same way. in fact, on the left, they were a little bit, you know, talking more openly about what he had said so i don't know if that's going to stand up that he can blame the g.o.p. for that. >> for the last 18 months, i'm trying to get judith baxter on the phone. it turns out this linguistic expert was on an 18 study into speech pat -- patterns including

this is what cory booker is talking about when he says enough is enough. booker says he's nau urks srnau attacks on bain capital? no, he's not doing any interviews but things changed during the day so he's going to be with rachel maddow tonight on her program, which is great. but i would like to know if mr. booker has thought about what this country would look like if mitt romney and these righties get control of our government again. mr. mayor, have you read the ryan plan? do you know what it says? do you know what these folks want to do? go read that. then you're going to want to throw up. i mean, i'm nauseated by people being laid off, losing their health care, their pension, their jobs to these as a rule tours who all they care about is increasing profits for their shareholders. democrats don't need surrogates like this, mr. mayor. if mr. romney becomes president of the united states, his record in the private industry is not only fair game, it is the only game. this is what we have to talk about. because this is what he goes out on the campaign trail

i'm looking forward to the cory booker interview. that's the interview in politics in the world right now. >>> thank you. that's an incredible segway. i'm looking forward to it. >> glad you're back. >> thank you. i appreciate it. thanks to you at home for staying with us for the next hour. if you go to the homepage of republican party right now, if you type gop.com into your web brow

cory booker doesn't believe that. if cory booker doesn't believe that that's fine but at the same time cory booker is not setting policy for how this campaign is run. he backtracked on his comments yesterday on another station and bottom line i think he is acknowledged that what he said was not something that reflected either his views or the views of the obama campaign. martha: i think the president is absolutely right it does go to the core of what this whole campaign is about and the argument with both sides and how they see corporate america. also future of the economy. >> quickly, martha, that atlantic point, is obama who he said he was in 2008? he is not. it is bigger than bain. much bigger. martha: see you later tonight on "the five.". >> you will. see you at 5:00. gregg: national debt setting records each and every second of every day but wait until you hear what the white house just spent $20 million of your money on. martha: he recorded his argument in which a teacher told him he could be arrested for slande

the damage is going to be done to cory's booker's ambition. they don't know who he is and they don't care. new jersey is not a battleground state. >> the rnc would like to make him the poster child. >> the rnc want to talk about romney's record at bain taking companies apart. let's keep that as the front line. >> exactly. there are a couple of national polls out today of registered voters showing president obama's leading washington post abc news has the president up 49 to 46 nationally. wall street journal has it at 47 to 43. again, the president up. what do you make of that? >> nothing. >> i agree. >> we are an eternity away from the election. >> so far away. these are just voters. why are people wasting their time on polls? >> they have to write a story and there is not much else to talk about right now. so we are sort of at a lull period in the presidential campaign. >> that's very normal this time of year and every four years. it's quiet relatively quiet. the voters aren't paying attention yet. what will really matters, the point, there a

now we have cory booker and one has to wonder were it not for cory booker's gaffe would we not have heard those strong words from the president forming an attack on mitt romney's bain capital book ground. >> i think the surprise is from which side of the aisle it came from. sooner or later we were going to have this debate. i paid close attention to what the president said in chicago yesterday, and i think there's a lot of merit to it. what he's essentially saying is mitt romney had to respond to his investors. that was his job. i have an entirely different role. my role here is the general welfare of the american people. mitt romney would not have had to be guided by an 8% unemployment rate when he was running a private equity firm, but that's the job of the president of the united states, and one doesn't necessarily transfer to the other. >> a little bit later we will talk about this new nbc news poll that's out regarding some of these issues, but "the washington post"/abc news poll asked regarding handling of the economy, michael. it shows president obama and mitt romney both at 47% th

that's cory booker. you did say romney would make a good mayor so i guess we made him a mayor overnight. we know the comments by now. third world education. he was greeted, not so warmly by annul of people in philadelphia. michael nutter went after romney as well. >> i think that part of the problem is there is a flip-flop. until recently romney was talking about cutting education budgets. even eliminating the department of education or melding it into another department. where is he coming from? i think there is concern about that. a lot of what he's saying has already been said by president obama and acted on by him so it is kind of interesting. >> one of the pushback issues was the issue of unions. romney accused of president of basically benn being in bed with the unions and his people came out and said that couldn't be further from the truth. he's talk about charter schools. if you're in a room full of teachers, they are on the attack as soon as you bring that up. >> yeah. i can't imagine anybody ac

. >> i think cory booker is an outstanding mayor. he's doing great work in newark and obviously helping to turn that city around. >> do you think all of this has hurt in any way cory booker's political future? >> it's hard to imagine that it has. steve is absolutely right that it does highlight his wall street ties and that may damage him in the minds of some on the left. but i think there was a lot of cheering for what he was saying on both sides, although i did hear some disappointment from people who liked his first statement that he was sort of marched in front of the firing squad and ended up walking it back. look, i spoke to democrats who agreed with booker that they were uncomfortable with this sort of veering into economic populism, that these attacks on bain were taking and felt like the president did a much better job yesterday of walking that fine line of saying, yes, we have to examine romney's record but we can't turn into -- become anti-business. >> i want to pick up on what you just said there. private equity, under fi

i love cory booker. he's a great mayor. if my house was on fire, i would hope he's my next door neighbor. on this i agree with what he said later. this is a legitimate area for discussion. >> well, he said that the attacks are nauseating. and. >> he was talking generally about the negative tenor of -- i understand andrea, we're running against an opponent who's 90% of the media he's running, he's runs tens and tens and tens of millions of dollars of media have been negative. he was talking about that. he was talking about this issue last week with the super pac and the proposal relative to reverend wright. he was talking about a whole range of things. but on this particular -- in this particular instance, he was just wrong. there are specific instances here that are speak to an economic theory that isn't the right theory for the country. when bain capital can bankrupt companies, walk away with tens of millions of dollars while workers are left without their benefits, with reduced or without retirement health care benefits a

who is right cory booker or president obama. >> i have the greatest respect for mayor cory booker, but president obama has the argument because this is the core of mitt romney's campaign. that he is a job createor. it is perfectly appropriate to go after that core to question his experience with regard to creating jobs, the creation of jobs, look, i mean, private equity is part and parcel of a wall street culture that we've seen in this country get a lot of people in a lot of trouble. i mean, you have people making--who are in private equity like the rest of wall street making huge bets with other people's money. and if the people who are making the bets get a lot of money, as is the case of private equity they get their money in financial gain. but they are not risking their own capital. and if the bets go wrong, you know what happens. i mean, we've seen it already. those bets going wrong not can effect the financial system but can cause an awful lot of people to lose their jobs. the point the president is making is that we don't want that type of mentality to be in charge of the econ

that's what was so painful about what cory booker did. i'm going to disagree with jonathan, that never happens, i do fault cory booker for what he did. i think what he did was all about cory booker, making himself the new wall street democrat. i'm going to be nice to these guys. he did two things wrong. he will -- the president has never bashed private equity. he's talking about the bain experience. it's not as though democrats demonize all private equity. that was wrong. he did something that people haven't pointed to very much. he managed to equate reverend wright ad which was racist and horrible and also from a super pac potentially with the obama ads which are for the most part from the obama campaign, which zillions brave, which is absolutely what we're supposed to be doing. these are not the same things. it's not an outside group throwing dirt at mitt romney. it's the campaign saying, we think you should look at this. we think this matters. >> mitt romney came back saying this is character assassination. >> we've reached some amount

this weekend newark mayor cory booker criticized president obama over his attacks on mitt romney's time at bain capital now we've learned that booker has collected tens of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions from bain capital executives so what were the real motives behind booker's attack on the president also as austerity continues to battle to batter the eurozone nations there are new fears that a severe recession is on the horizon are we witnessing the end of capitalism in the global economy and if so what will take its place and the wealthy elite are taking over america and they're trying their hardest to turn the u.s. into a complete oligarchy how do we stop their destruction of our democracy and protect the values and ideals on which this country was founded. you need to know this you might remember over the weekend when newark mayor cory booker said this about president obama's attacks on mitt romney about bain capital . this kind of stuff is nor is the ating to me on both sides it's noisy to the american public anough is enough stop attacking private equity stop attac

moving on, david axelrod today echoed cory booker's youtube remarks. >> when governor romney offers his experience running for office, he never talks about his years as massachusetts governor, i think for a good reason. they weren't stellar years. this is his argument, i was a businessman, i can lead the economy. it be hives us to ask exactly what did you do. some of these cases are disturbing and they need to be looked at. >> president obama echoed what axelrod just said. >> governor romney's main polling card for why he thinks he should be president is his business experience. he's not going out there touting his experience in massachusetts. he's saying, i'm a business guy, i know how to fix, and this is his business. and when with you're president as opposed to the head of a private equity firm, your job is not simply to maximize profits. your job is to figure out how everybody in the country has a fair shot. >> president obama essentially double downed on the bain attacks today, saying this is not a distraction of the campaign, it's going to be a centerpiece of the campaign. critics

washington let's call it private equity evil or awesome this all stems from newark mayor cory booker's appearance on meet the press yesterday where he called democrats' attacks on romney for bain capital nas the ating although just a few hours later he released a you tube video clarifying his response and whether or not you think bain is evil it turns out employees of the company have given democrats far more money and they've given to republicans and speaking of money is it a waste to spend it on college education at least one of america's wealthiest men says yes and it's paying some kids to drop out and finally are lobbyist the bad guys the ones who should be kept as far away from politicians as possible why then are so many of them making repeated visits to the white house are monday hangover panel is here to hash it all out here to discuss this is matt welch editor in chief of reason magazine and jake brewer chief strategy officer at vision strategy. so let's take a look at cory booker on meet the press this week and a lot of people up in arms for what he said. just to say from a v

i think cory booker has integrity. this isn't an endorsement of romney in any way. what it is is a reflection of reality. he understands the role of capitalism and private equity, and in the end that's the only place i disagree with cory booker this. isn't a small issue. this is a big issue. we're debating capitalism here. >> yeah. will, i think you're absolutely right. it is a big issue, but what is refreshing about cory booker is that he's not toeing the party line and there's nothing more boring an mundane and unsaveable when the republicans can't do anything wrong and the democrats can't do anything wrong and they are infallible. nice to see somebody with integrity whether you agree with him or not. >> definitely. >> california's lieutenant governor definitely on message. >> there's nothing inherently wrong about that, not job creation. in order to maximize profit you've got to minimize cost. what's the biggest cost in a business, personnel? reducing jobs is the business of bain, not creating jobs. this is the proof point of the romney campaign, that he can crea

what do you think about cory booker? not good. >> he's not happy, but the argument he's making, steve rattner, is it a fair one? >> yeah. i think in his statements yesterday he found the right place to be, because i think the worst of concerns about where he stood on private equity. what he's now basically saying, i hope, i think, is that private equity is a legitimate business, but its business is maximize profits not create jobs. >> you say, you hope? >> that's what i believe. >> but you're an obama supporter. cory booker was speaking to the concerns of a lot of democrats who support this president. right? >> yes. and i think a lot of us share the same concerns. we do not want to see in the course of questioning mitt romney's record, which we're all in favor of doing, how private equity, which we think is a legitimate business activity, not, not without its own flaws like every activity but legitimate, we don't want to see private equity dragged down with it along with mitt romney. they are two separate issue iss. one

. >>> gop is still buzzing about cori booker bain comments. but the bain bashing starting in their own party. queue up those tapes. that's next. switch to citracal maximum plus d. it's the only calcium supplement that can be taken with or without food. that's why my doctor recommends citracal maximum. it's all about absorption. oh. let's go. from the crack, off the backboard. [ laughs ] dad! [ laughs ] whoo! oh! you're up! oh! oh! so close! now where were we? ok, this one's good for two. score! [ male announcer ] share what you love with who you love. kellogg's frosted flakes. they're gr-r-eat! republican party still dealing with cory booker's bain comment. if they think the meet the press with delegit ma advertise the president's argument but they are forgetting something. republicans started the bain attacks. i'm serious. here, watch for yourself. >> we need to have more venture capitalism going on in america and less vulture capitalism. >> you really believe this country want to elect a wall street financer of the president of the united st

moving on, david axelrod today echoed cory booker's youtube remarks. >> when with governor romney offers his experience running for office, he never talks about his years as massachusetts governor, i think for a good reason. they weren't stellar years. this is his argument, i was a businessman, i can lead the economy. who are we to ask, what did you do? some of these cases are disturbing and they need to be looked at. >> president obama echoed what axelrod just said. >> governor romney's main polling card for why he thinks he should be president is his business experience. he's not going out there tauting his experience in massachusetts, he's saying, i'm a business guy, i know how to fix, and this is his business. and when with you're president as opposed to the head of a private equity firm, your job is not simply to maximize profits. your job is to figure out how everybody in the country has a fair shot. >> president obama essentially double downed on the bain attacks today, saying this is not a distraction of the campaign, it's going to be a centerpiece of the campaign. the attacks on

so what do you guys think why it was there a change of heart cory booker made the classic mistake of a good person i think genuinely good person he's demonstrated himself to be a man of character and integrity and he's done a lot of good things for the city of newark and the state of new jersey but he told the truth on the air and he said exactly what he thought about something that he's not supposed to say when it comes to presidential political time and i'm sure ben la bolt out of the shadow white house for obama called him immediately after and said hey you're a sarah get you've got to walk that back and then of course they released another video putting just the part that served them and i think that's why you see classically in a presidential election cycle and that's just the unfortunate part of of having somebody like where booker who's. known for being a truthful person and now being held throughout the day that i don't work with chris christie you know it's not just purely democratic you know is willing to reach across the aisle i mean what do you think that he. was he were

liberty mutual auto insurance. >>> cory booker is the mayor of newark, new jersey. not shy, loves to tweet and maybe you saw in the news he ran into a neighbor's house during a fire and played super hero. he fashions himself as a straight shooter and there is zero reason to believe he meant every word of this. >> this kind of stuff is nauseaating to me on both sides and to the public and enough is enough. stop attacking private equity. stop attacking jeremiah wright. this stuff has to stop. it under mines to me what this country should be focused on. it is a distraction from the real issues. it is either going to be a small campaign about this or a big campaign about the issues that the american public cares about. >> now, focus on the big issues. you heard there, solid advice from a solid guy. team obama went into immediate hyperdrive and pushed booker to take that private equity meaning bain capital part back. >> mitt romney has made his business record a centerpiece of his campaign. he talked about himself as a job creator and therefore it is reasonable and in fa