people line john cornyn of texas is following leadership of ted cruz. you've got a hard right party against a center left party. even centrist left party. it's not easy to fight and understand the issues. thanks for your questions. really good ones. on monday, by the way, 1:00 p.m. eastern i'll be hosting our first live q & a on the new msnbc.com. i'll answer your questions about my book that's out there right now. tip abdomen the gipper, when politics worked and also everything to do with "hardball." just go to hardball.msnbc.com. you'll see the live q & a post. click join the discussion and start leaving your answers in the let's play hardball group thread. see you there monday at 1:00 p.m. eastern. >>> that's "hardball" for now. up next, "your business" with jj ramberg oat formula that creates a moisture reserve so skin can replenish itself. aveeno® for those nights when it's more than a bad dream, be ready. for the times you need to double-check the temperature on the thermometer, be ready. for high fever, nothing works faster or lasts longer. be r

people line john cornyn of texas is following leadership of ted cruz. you've got a hard right party against a center left party. even centrist left party. it's not easy to fight and understand the issues. thanks for your questions. really good ones. on monday, by the way, 1:00 p.m. eastern i'll be hosting our first live q & a on the new msnbc.com. i'll answer your questions about my book that's out there right now. tip abdomen the gipper, when politics worked and also everything to do with "hardball." just go to hardball.msnbc.com. you'll see the live q & a post. click join the discussion and start leaving your answers in the let's play hardball group thread. see you there monday at 1:00 p.m. eastern. >>> that's "hardball" for now. up next, "your business" with jj ramberg. the best generation of dawn power, platinum! [ bell dings ] here we go! [ female announcer ] dawn platinum power clean's micro-scrubbing enzymes give you the power of an overnight soak in 3 minutes, and 3 times more everyday grease cleaning ingredients. for all your dishes. so if you

people line john cornyn of texas is following leadership of ted cruz. you've got a hard right party against a center left party. it's not easy to fight and understand the issues. thanks for your questions. on monday, by the way, 1:00 p.m. eastern i'll be hosting our first live q & a on the new msnbc.com. i'll answer your questions about my book that's out there right now. and also everything to do with "hardball." just go to hardball.msnbc.com. you'll see the live q & a post. click join the discussion and start leaving your answers in the let's play hardball group thread. see you there monday at 1:00 p.m. eastern. >>> up next, why are the republicans waging a war on the poor? they surely are. why? you're watching "hardball," the place for politics. ire event? your ford dealer. who has 11 major brands to choose from? your ford dealer. who's offering a rebate? your ford dealer. who has the low price tire guarantee, affording peace of mind to anyone who might be in the market for a new set of tires? your ford dealer. i'm beginning to sense a pattern. get u

he can barrel contain himself, wants him to run against john cornyn so bad. so, who knows? he could unseat this guy in texas, could unseat the second most powerful republican in the senate. that was the news just today from the republican civil war. the republican war on its own incumbents. and every day is a new amazing story that way about the way republicans are attacking themselves, but it's not all just promises, it's not all just frothing at the mouth and exciting glenn beck about what might be some day. sometimes it's real concrete action and elections, and tomorrow we're actually going to know the result of one of these fights, in alabama. the fight in alabama is between these two republicans. they're in a runoff to fill a congressional seat. the guy on the left is bradley byrne. he's been in public office for a lot of years, went to the university of alabama's law school, he served on the state board of ed, was a state senator for two terms. the guy on the right is dean young, a business guy, and he is the tea party guy in this republican-on-republican contest. "th

he can barrel contain himself, wants him to run against john cornyn so bad. so, who knows? he could unseat this guy in texas, could unseat the second most powerful republican in the senate. that was the news just today from the republican civil war. the republican war on its own incumbents. and every day is a new amazing story that way about the way republicans are attacking themselves, but it's not all just promises, it's not all just frothing at the mouth and exciting glenn beck about what might be some day. sometimes it's real concrete action and elections, and tomorrow we're actually going to know the result of one of these fights, in alabama. the fight in alabama is between these two republicans. they're in a runoff to fill a congressional seat. the guy on the left is bradley byrne. he's been in public office for a lot of years, went to the university of alabama's law school, he served on the state board of ed, was a state senator for two terms. the guy on the right is dean young, a business guy, and he is the tea party guy in this republican-on-republican contest. "th

he can barely contain himself, wants him to run against john cornyn so bad. so, who knows? he could unseat this guy in texas, could unseat the second most powerful republican in the senate. that was the news just today from the republican civil war. the republican war on its own incumbents. and every day is a new amazing story that way about the way republicans are attacking themselves, but it's not all just promises, it's not all just frothing at the mouth and exciting glenn beck about what might be some day. sometimes it's real concrete action and elections, and tomorrow we're actually going to know the result of one of these fights, in alabama. the fight in alabama is between these two republicans. they're in a runoff to fill a congressional seat. the guy on the left is bradley byrne. he's been in public office for a lot of years, went to the university of alabama's law school, he served on the state board of ed, was a state senator for two terms. the guy on the right is dean young, a business guy, and he is the tea party guy in this republican-on-republican contest. "th

texas senator, john cornyn, really surprised me. he immediately tweeted out, "amazing what white house will do to distract attention from obama care." really? senator, did you do this, or did one of your interns or low-level staffers? think about that. our people have been meeting with their people for months on end. so they think it's a distraction from obama care? can you imagine that conversation? president obama picks up the phone and calls john kerry, secretary of state. johnnie, i'm getting killed by obama care, dude, you've got to get a deal! get a deal with the iranians. it is amazing the level of rhetoric they'll throw at the american people. but not to be outdone, mike rogers, who happens to be the chairman of the house intelligence committee, said, "it's almost like it's a deal just to get a deal." really? it's a deal just to get a deal. so can you imagine that conversation? president obama saying, we've got to get something with the iranians, because this obama care website is a little bit slow. well, maybe the republica

now the shocking undercover video has senator john cornyn calling for an immediate end to the program. >> here is one telling undercover enrollee to lie about his taxes and his income. >> don't get yourself in trouble declaring it now. >> three workers reportedly have been suspended and one fired as a result of video. jonathan you say scrap the whole program? >> eric, you need a government appointed navigator to help you choose what cell phone to buy? what computer to buy or house to buy or restaurant to go to? no. in a free country we make decisions on our own. obama like juan doesn't believe that peoe can make their own decisions. they are political thugs. >> help old ladies across the street, the sons will mug the old lady. >> hold on. >> go ahead and lie about your income. >> saying get in trouble now. >> are you shocked by this? they haven't denied they allow people with felony construction. there is a crime of moral turpitude. that is the person that is telling you it gets better. then there are people work with them that is tied to acorn. is this a joke? it's a scam. >> the ame

now the shocking undercover video has senator john cornyn calling for an immediate end to the program. >> here is one telling undercover enrollee to lie about his taxes and his income. >> don't get yourself in trouble declaring it now. >> three workers reportedly have been suspended and one fired as a result of video. jonathan you say scrap the whole program? >> eric, you need a government appointed navigator to help you choose what cell phone to buy? what computer to buy or house to buy or restaurant to go to? no. in a free country we make decisions on our own. obama like juan doesn't believe that people can make their own decisions. they are political thugs. >> help old ladies across the street, the sons will mug the old lady. >> hold on. >> go ahead and lie about your income. >> saying get in trouble now. >> are you shocked by this? they haven't denied they allow people with felony construction. there is a crime of moral turpitude. that is the person that is telling you it gets better. then there are people work with them that is tied to acorn. is this a joke? it's a scam. >> the a

senator john cornyn out of texas was asking kathleen sebelius just moments ago, she admitted to him that it is possible to convicted felon could become an obamacare navigator on the website and hit a personal information. the context of that no doubt, we are following this closely and they are talking about problems with the website and those problems continue and there she is, kathleen sebelius in the hot seat. please stay with us when we made our commitment to the gulf, bp had two big goals: help the gulf recover and learn from what happened so we could be a better, safer energy company. i can tell you - safety is at the heart of everything we do. we've added cutting-edge technology, like a new deepwater well cap and a state-of-the-art monitoring center, whe experts watch over all drilling activity twenty-four-seven. and we're sharing what we've learned, so we can all produce energy more safely. our commitment has never been stronger. jon: a fox news alert. the senate finance committee hearing from the secretary of health and human services, mrs. senator john thune of south dakota aski

senator john cornyn of mexico, we heard from the top republican leader, mitch mcconnell. and he said this is a big deal over nothing. >> at capitol hill, we're looking now at senator minority leader, harry reid, talking about the situation. and let's just listen for a moment. and we're not hearing anything, so we won't listen any long home run. we want to return to the situation in afghanistan. a lot of afghan citizens are proposed to any deal with the united states. they said that they want all foreign troops out of their country. wthey have been maintaining jurisdiction over u.s. troops. >> reporter: his family walls plurallewasmurdered by an ameri. they were all killed, along with 12 other afghans, by u.s. army staff saturday, robert bales, and now he wants all of the u.s. forces out of his country. >> they will not give military bases and we don't want them. they killed our people and destroyed our villages. they came at 4:00 in the morning in the house, and my children were sleeping in the room, my own family. >> reporter: the majority of american forces are due to l

we've got senator john cornyn tweeting amazing what white house will do to distract attention from obama care. and then david plouffe tweeting back, no, a real distraction would be war, like iraq. and then we've got the washington post explaining republicans are embracing the wag the dog. republicans do anything and everything obama does through the plichl of his health care law speaks to the massive level of distrust between the parties right now. so, john, is the partisan bickering, is it really going to get in the way of governing and how we move through in the long term here, especially when we look at all of this through the global lens? >> well, partisan bickering is the background noise of governing all the time, as you know, thomas. it's ridiculous to think that the administration is cooking up this deal to distract the attention from obama care. that's not -- that wouldn't be an effective strategy if you tried to do it. it's the kind of reflex partisanship that we've come to expect from both sides over a number of years. but i don't think that in the end as long as democrats con

. >> john cornyn actually -- this is the most incredible thing today. he actually -- john cornyn -- gets in there and says i have a simple question. the people that will have all of our information, which we're assuming might be at risk, is there a background check on them. listen to this conversation. >> isn't it true that there is no federal requirement for navigators to undergo a criminal background check even though they will receive personal -- sensitive personal information from the individuals they help sign up for the affordable care act? >> that is true. states could add an additional background checks and other features but it is not part of the federal requirement. >> so a convicted felon could be a navigator and could acquire sensitive personal information from an individual unbeknownst to them? >> john cornyn has legal background as a judge. so there is no background check. i can't feel secure if i log on. you can't feel secure if you log on. they're still trying to do the cyber fixes, still trying to get the website up. we know the navigat

cornyn a texas senator never misses an opportunity to bad mouth president obama but saturday night he took a shake a little too far revenues growth of the u.s. and iran had reached a deal over the islamic republic's nuclear program cornyn sent out the following tweet from oozing with the word hose will do destructive from obama. is trying to prevent another war in the middle east is such a cynical and unnecessary or tickle move it's amazing what some republicans will do to try to slander this way particularly this one. and the very very ugly john derbyshire for national review writers no law is no stranger to racial controversy the reason derby share is a former national review writer in the first place is that he wrote a column about the death of trayvon martin the centrally told white parents to warn their children about black people this latest piece for dot com may actually be worse than that offensive trayvon martin. derbyshire or the new movie twelve years a slave is abolitionist warns the portrays slavery is worse than it actually was never mind the fact that you know twelve ye

cornyn the texas senator never misses an opportunity to bad mouth president obama but saturday night he took a shake a little too far revenues growth of the u.s. and iran had reached a deal over the islamic republic's nuclear program cornyn sent out the following tweet from oozing with the word hose will do destructive from obamacare or. is trying to prevent another war in the middle east is such a cynical and unnecessary political move it's amazing what some republicans will do to try to slander this way this particularly this one. and the very very ugly john derbyshire for national review writers no one is no stranger to racial controversy the reason derby share is a former national review writer in the first place is that he wrote a column about the death of trayvon martin the centrally told white parents to warn their children about black people this latest piece for dot com may actually be worse than that offensive trayvon martin column. or the new movie twelve years a slave his abolitionist warn that portrays slavery is worse than it actually was nevermind the fact that you kno

cornyn is suggesting the turkey vote is just another distraction from obama care. >>> finally, did you know tales of spare turkeys stretch all the way back to the lincoln days? yep. in 1963 j.f.k. sent his live turkey back saying, folks, we'll just let this one grow, but president george w.h. bush was the first president to officially pardon a turkey, and that is your morning dish of scrambled politics. >>> aaron black from the washington post reports us. >> fwm. >> i wanted to get back to the race for illinois governor because there's a new tv ad showing off his modest $18 watch saying his success has never changed hem. i want to ask you, will this tactic work even though hez real estate portfolio shows he has nine homes, including a $10 million penthouse in new york? >> i think everybody wants to be avoid being the next mitt romney these days. if anything in recent years, elections have shown that a candidate's wealth can become an issue. wealth where i candidates, wrovl, john kerry. there was a story about all of john mccain's houses. he wasn't sure how many he had. to the extent th

. >>> a tense exchange between secretary sebelius and texas senator john cornyn on whether the president flat out lied with the americans keeping the health care plans if they like them. >> we know that lying to congress is a crime, but unfortunately lying to the american people is not. i would like to ask you simply true or false question. is that statement on the white house website true or false? >> sir, i think the statement. >> is it true or false madam secretary. >> the plan, the vast majority of americans who are insured are in the employer market and in the public plans and veteran's plans and those plans have stayed in place and continue to offer benefits. the 11 million people who are in the individual market, a majority of those individuals will keep plans that now will have stronger coverage and others will have to choose if they have a brand new plan. >> my time is limited and i will ask that the record be note that you have refused to answer my question whether it is true or false. >> senator cornyn went on to demand criminal background checks for the navigators. and secret

snartd john cornyn tweeted, quote, amazing. what the white house will do to distract attention from obama care and the right wing media agrees? >> these people will do anything to distract us from how bad obama care is. including let the iranians get a nuclear weapon down the road. >> now sparking many to believe it is another attempt to distract from the disastrous rollout. >> isn't that curious timing? look. john kerry pulls a rabbit out of his hat and changes the subject. it's handy for them. >> it is handy for them. put it that way. >> here's a hint to folks on the right. if the president was in the market for a distraction, he could have started a war with iran. that would be a distraction. but as the greatest country in the world, america shouldn't be afraid to use diplomacy first. >> i firmly believe in what president kennedy once said. he said let us never negotiate out of fear but let us never fear to negotiate. i believe that. >> joining me now are joan walsh and former congressman patrick murphy. thank you both for c

john cornyn, running for reelection, senator, a republican, tweeted out pretty immediately after the deal was announced, amazing what white house will do to distract attention from o-care. it may be a distraction from obama care, but it was not hey let's get an agreement with iran so we cannot talk about health care, this week, right now, it's really bad. >> any american president, republican or democrat would risk the security of your country to distract from even the worst political disaster you could imagine which may end up being obama care. however, weakness invites the wolves. when you're in a weak position politically, as leader of the united states, you do maybe look for -- you're a little more open to things that you should. be open to. i think senator cornyn might have reworded that to be a 4rib more accurate. >> there's a danger republicans can overplay their hand on this sort of thing. >> i think as long as there are democrats opposing this deal, then they really still have a leg to stand on. but again, i think people need to acknowledge that the sanctions brought us to t

here at home senator john cornyn, republican out of texas, tweeted it's amazing what the white house will do to distract attention from obamacare. that sparked a response from former senior white house advisor david plouffe, he tweeted a real distraction would be war like iraq. steve says i bet iran has more nuclear sites hidden than we know about and no amount of inspection is going to uncover it. raul says it doesn't matter. theul continue to develop nukes in secret. not a lot of support from our followers for this nuke plan but some support for senator schumer's take that this new deal will make bipartisan support for new sanctions closer to reality. william writes it's the first time i've ever agreed on anything with schumer. log on to fox news.com for the latest development and follow us on twitter at shannon breen. coming up next stprobgz stprobgz, an exclusive -- coming up on "fox & friends," an exclusive reaction from sarah palin about martin bashir's comments about her. >>> the olympic force's journey to moscow took it below the sea. that is a water resistant flare. that sta

you left out john cornyn's tweet this was all a distraction from obama care as if they had planned this out eight months in advance. gene's right, but if you read the document what they toub alk about with enrichment levels. it's not like we're leaving iran to their own devices. there's going to be independent inspectors with what's happening in the country, a microscope over iran. this goes back to the idea that obama will enter this agreement and get duped by the iranians and in six months time we'll find ourselves in a bad position. they can always reverse the sanctions if they determine iran is cheating. they can go back on them. i'm not sure why everyone is condemning it as surrender where there's nothing permanent about it. >> exactly. it gets monitored. day will be, daily, as a matter of fact. they'll have less uranium then they have today. >> we bombed them with everything we got, they react. they go after the straits. they make moves on that. we had have to go in by land. we stop them somehow. we use sea battles. sea launched aircraft and bombing raids. and that won't work. the

republican senator john cornyn joins us. nice to see you sir. >> good to see you, greta. >> your staff obama care or no obama care. >> unfortunately obama care as long as it's the law of the land. we had a vote in the last little kerfuffle over the last continuing resolution whether we would eliminate this staff carveout that treats them differently, better than the rest of the population. all democrats voted against it. all republicans voted for eliminating the carveout but it lost on a partisan vote. >> if a member of your staff goes into obama care in the district, is it the same that if i signed up for the same option? would i have the same or do they get a little extra money some place? >> they get the employer contributions for employer provided coverage. >> that they get anyway? >> that they get currently now under the federal plan. but, no other american gets that same contribution from employer. actually prohibited from getting this. you would get a subsidy if you were within 400% of poverty. so that's why this spec

this weekend, senator john cornyn, the republican of texas, tweeted after news of this deal with iran, amazing what the white house will do to distract attention from obama care. do you agree with that? do you think the iran deal is some sort of wag the dog conspiracy to distract from obama care? is foreign policy supposed to stop until the website's perfect? >> i don't think it's a wag the dog deal, because you're not going to be able to wag the dog with how tangible this thing is. 5.3 million people canceled. the employer market about to begin in a few months. that's when tens of millions will be hit and will be into the exchanges for a lot worse deal in many cases. but i don't believe, by the way, this is the president's wag the dog sort of thing. i think this is a lousy deal and a lot of democrats have come forward. you may actually agree on this, that what we have seen and read so far, i'm not a scientist, i'm a lawyer, guilty, but what i see in a bipartisan way when the senate leadership, senator schumer is the first one out of the box with this is a bad deal, when israel, prime

john cornyn of texas had this ludicrous response via his twitter account. amazing what white house will do to distract attention from obama care. this is a grownup talking. if cornyn's twisted logic sounds familiar, you've heard it before. after the president joined us to end the blockade of second appointments, senators mitch mcconnell and dan coates both responded by attacking the affordable care act. here they go. >> they are desperate for something. they call it nuclear war, they want us to send missiles back the other way. it's on the minds on the people, the rollout of obama care. >> here's the problem with this latest distraction. it doesn't distract people from obama care, it reminds them of obama care. it reminds them of all the broken promises. it reminds them of the power grab. it reminds them of the way democrats set up one set of rules for themselves and another for everybody else. >> well, you know, i don't know how he's thinking there. he's no fool, but he's a propagandist. because clearly the democrats were able to pass obama care. they were

there were fireworks under john cornyn of texas. kathleen sebelius whether there were criminal background checks involved for folks like navigators who helped people try to get enrolled in the website. they said they were not -- cornyn said you're going to have possible fell ones dealing with this very personal information, that could be problematic. that's something of a nugget that will go big in the conservative blogosphere. but i will say overall, ari, she definitely performed better than last week. by taking responsibility sort of takes a little bit of hot air out when folks say she shouldn't rea sign, saying we're doing our best, moving right along. they are not going to put down the website but keep it up, even though there's a bipartisan call for it to be up until it's fixed. >> when you think about her situation, you think some some ways she's playing a tough hand pretty well here, you know what i mean? >> she's really -- there's not much she can do. she fell on the sword for the administration. she's base beingally saying,

this is john cornyn this week. >> if our friends across the aisle continue to move ahead with the court packing gam but, it will make this chamber even more polarized than it already is. i only hope they choose a different court. if this is why we're committed on this side of the aisle to stopping these nominations to these unneeded judges, and these courts, in this court, and making sure that judges are placed where they are needed, so they can engage in the fair and efficient administration of justice. >> the other thing that is striking here, though, is we can think back eight years to 2005 when george w. bush was president and there are a number of nominees to the court that democrats were objecting to, very conservative nominees and there was a big stand still there. there is ultimately a compromise in those judges were confirmed, do we expect that it is going to end up where there will be a compromise here? >> well, that's the issue, i think that for the republican party, right? coming off the shutdown that we just had, the whole government shutdown issue, the republican party too

this one comes from senator john cornyn's office. amazing what white house will do to distract from obama care. political fallout for the white house here at home? do you think there's going to be any on this? >> well, you know, some of those quotes, i think, you know, are very policy driven. some are very political. the reality is you can't compare this interim agreement to an ideal agreement. you're never going to get an ideal agreement. of course, i would like to see iran agree just for the relaxation of some of this frozen assets to eviscerate their entire program, but that simply wasn't plausible. so we have to measure this agreement by reality, by what we could obtain and by the alternative, which is that iran marches forward over the next six months and enriches. it's always easier, alex, to say, no. it's always politically safer to say no. here, i think the responsibility thing to do is to see whether diplomacy can work. not to have trust, but to fully inspect and not to fall in love with this agreement if, in fact, it doesn'

senator john cornyn, republican from texas, a little more blunt, taking to twitter to complain, quote, amazing what the white house will do to distract attention from obama care. it is not just republicans. last week senator chuck schumer from new york signed a letter to secretary of state john kerry saying he didn't feel the terms of the agreement being discussed go far enough. pointed out that they don't even, quote, require iran to even meet the terms the prior u.n. security council resolutions. so how significant is the temporary agreement reached today in geneva? the very fact that an agreement has been reached after ten years of negotiations and more than three decades of authoritarian rule in iran, is that by itself significant enough? to discuss this wasn't to bring in now mark jacobson, senior advicer to the truman national security project, which trains leaders on national security issues. mark, i know you support this deal. i guess you're here to say this morning, yeah, the sanctions worked and we're getting something real because of it. >> well, we have a significant first

john cornyn running for re-election. senator. republican. tweeted out pretty immediately after the deal was announced amazing what white house will do to distract attention from o-care. he got pounded for that. i laughed because i thought he was kidding. but perhaps not. you know, it may be a distraction from obama care for a while. i'm not sure it was let's get a deal with iran so we cannot talk about health care. this week right now it's really bad. >> i don't think any american president, republican or democrat, would risk the security of your country to distract from even the worst political disaster could imagine which may end up being obama care. however, weakness invites the wolves. when you are in a weak position politically as leader of the united states, you do maybe look for -- you're a little more open to things you shouldn't be open to. i think senator cornyn might have reworded that to be a little more accurate. >> i'll give you the last word real quick. that is there's a danger republicans can overplay their hand on this sort

you left out john cornyn's tweet this was all a distraction from obama care as if they had planned this out eight months in advance. gene's right, but if you read the document what they toalk about with enrichment levels. it's not like we're leaving iran to their own devices. there's going to be independent inspectors with what's happening in the country, a microscope over iran. this goes back to the idea that obama will enter this agreement and get duped by the iranians and in six months time we'll find ourselves in a bad position. they can always reverse the sanctions if they determine iran is cheating. they can go back on them. i'm not sure why everyone is condemning it as surrender where there's nothing permanent about it. >> exactly. it gets monitored. day will b daily, as a matter of fact. they'll have less uranium then they have today. >> we bombed them with everything we got, they react. they go after the straits. they make moves on that. we had have to go in by land. we stop them somehow. we use sea battles. sea launched aircraft and bombing raids. and that won't work. then we'

moves toward signing agreement with iran john cornyn, number two in the senate accused president obama of wag the dog conspiracy. he tweeted amazing what white house will do to distract attention from obama care. that drew mocking responses like this one from middle eastern reporter jeffrey goldberg over in the house kevin mccarthy raised a similar charge with a hypothetical. >> i know they need some type of other news but that would be the biggest mistake any administration could do try to make a decision on a political basis when you're dealing with american and lives around the world. i would hope that would never be the case. >> just to be clear republicans offered no evidence that this was an obama care conspiracy. the reaction is odd, gop has plenty to sink its teeth into on the health care front. the administration extended initial enrollment by a week to december 23rd, pushed back next year's enrollment deadline by a month after november midterms a move that provided further ammo for critics that left some democrats looking a little despondent. >> the process is terrible. we're

john cornyn tweeted, amazing what white house will do to distract attention from o-care. all right. let's get a couple things straight here. first, both graham and cornyn are facing very difficult tea party primary threats. second, while many in the gop have waited -- have long wanted to bomb iran, as you heard earlier in the opening, and start a war, it was president obama who said in 2008 that america should lead a process of reining in nuclear weapons slowly. joining me to talk about the politics, "washington post" opinion writer dana milbank and msnbc contributor james peterson. thank yo thanks to you both for joining me. dana, i want to start with you. already there are suggestions maybe this is some kind of distraction from obama care. when we learned from the associated press that actually these talks began a very long time, in fact, something that the president said he wanted to be a priority right after he became president. >> yeah. well, from the point of view of the republican critics, this deal has one very important flaw in it. that is it was negotiated by the obama adm

a statistic that was clearly foremost in the mind of texas senator, john cornyn, as he grilled hhs secretary, kathleen sebelius today on capitol hill. >> we know that lying to congress is a crime. but unfortunately, lying to the american people is not. >> oh, no, i'm sorry. that was senator cornyn calling the president a liar. the senator had exactly nothing to say about covering the uninsured in his state, which is pretty much the republican position nationwide. take virginia tea partier extraordinaire ken cuccinelli who branded his strident race as a referendum on the affordable care act. >> tonight you sent a message to the president of the united states that you believe that virginia understands that obama care is a failure and that you want to be in charge of your health care and not the government. >> right. supporters of the kuch sent that message somehow through his loss last night to democrat, terry mcauliffe. to be fair, it was a tighter race than anticipated. mcauliffe winning by just two-and-a-half points after being up six in a quinnipiac poll monday. if health care was a part o

senator john cornyn gave him a free pass. cornyn was the a.g. in texas at that time, didn't prosecute scott at all. instead -- after, interestingly enough, after scott had to plead the fifth amendment 78 times. now the fifth amendment is what somebody does when they're afraid they've committed some kind of criminal act and they're going to be prosecuted. unfortunately, ed, we ended up with rick scott down here. the reason he's getting so much money from people like sheldon addleson, the casino tycoon and donald trump, i think he had $250,000 from addleson, thousands and thousands of dollars from trump, is because they want him to build a casino business down here. but the real reason they love him, ed, is he -- he cut florida education by about 20%. he cut 10,000 jobs in florida. basically in the government sector in places like schools and prisons because he wants to privatize both of those things. he's cut medicaid by $4 billion. he wants to move it to the private sector. charlie crist is the guy to beat him. the numbers are staggering right n

among the most contentious back and forth questioning coming from texas senator john cornyn over if you like your health care you could keep it despite the fact that some documents showed the administration knew there would be a lot of people in the individual market who would be losing their plans. miss sebelius shot back that the numbers in those documents are inaccurate. >> that was a look back at how much churn there is in the marketplace. that was not a projection of what was going to happen in 2014. >> senator cornyn did not hide his contempt for that answer. >> the only thing i can conclude is that it's impossible to do something in this administration that gets you fired. it's impossible. you can lie to the american people. you can consistently misrepresent the facts, but it's impossible to get fired. >> president obama has maintained his support of secretary sebelius. he will be in dallas this afternoon talking to volunteers and navigators who are helping people sign up but, you know, bill and maria, this issue entered into the political race. there are those who say that the r

. >> i want to switch gears and point out something senator john cornyn tweeted because i think it shows what we are dealing with here. he tweeted, amazing at what white house will do to distract from o-care. our colleague dana millbank said, quote, this would appear to be the first time a president has been accused of distracting the public's attention by making peace. call it wag the dove. what do you make of that? >> you know, i think republicans in congress really, really, really want to talk about obama care and anything democrats do is seen in some light as a distraction from that. this is their moment to exploit all the bad things that are happening with this law, and this window might not last if the white house keeps to its word and fixes the website by the end of this month. things are going to go a lot better. come january, people are going to be covered. their window of opportunity will kind of diminish. so we've seen this with iran issue, we've seen this with senate democrats rationing back the filibuster with nuclear option. a lot of talk about, okay, senate democrats or de

and to have republicans say every time he brings up something else like senator john cornyn who tweeted the iran deal was an effort to deflect attention away from obamacare is absurd. bill: what about the million-plus who had their plans canceled because of the law. that's reality, too. >> what about the country been santa monica and d.c.? has he been there? you can't go anywhere in the country and not see shuttered stores or a country in decline. for the president to repeatedly return to hollywood shows a need for adulation. is there anybody in the world who has less contact with america and the so-called creative community in hollywood. the country is in trouble. leave d.c. and go receive the rest of it. bill: the middle class is getting crushed. >> i think you are ignoring what this president has done for the middle class, including getting millions of people healthcare who didn't have it. the fact that this president turned around the job market in this country and of course you are in denial because you want to get republicans back in power. because the republican party is rating m