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The Ed Show for Wednesday, May 2, 2012

Read the transcript to the Wednesday show

Guests: Bernie Sanders, Robert Draper, Karen Finney, Chris Kofinis, Kim Schwarz, Matt Bradford, Robert Greenwald


ED SCHULTZ, HOST: Good evening, Americans. And welcome to THE ED
SHOW tonight from New York.

Wall Street fat cats are asking President Obama to apologize for being
so mean! Tonight, I`ll prove how the 1 percent should apologize.

This is THE ED SHOW -- let`s get to work.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: For way too long, we`ve
had a financial system that was stacked against ordinary Americans.

SCHULTZ (voice-over): Brand-new income inequality numbers are out.
It`s ugly for middle classers. But Wall Street bankers are whining about
class warfare. The middle class will not survive a Mitt Romney presidency.
Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders is here.

BRIAN FISCHER: This is absolutely huge. A homosexual activist in a
very prominent place in Mitt Romney`s campaign has stepped down.

SCHULTZ: Republican homophobes claim victory after a gay Romney aide
quits.

FISCHER: I will flat-out guarantee you, he is not going to make this
mistake again.

SCHULTZ: Why is Mitt Romney silent on this issue?

Karen Finney and Chris Kofinis are here.

The Republican assault on public education is getting uglier in
Pennsylvania. That report tonight.

And new polling in Wisconsin shows Scott Walker is in deep trouble.
I`ll ask Robert Greenwald if the Koch brothers can bail him out.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SCHULTZ: Good to have you with us tonight, folks. Thanks for
watching.

It`s still all about jobs and all about the economy. And that`s why I
want to start the show tonight with a few charts. Because they`re so
unlike Mitt Romney, they don`t lie.

The Economic Policy Institute has a new report out. It`s called the
state of working America. Whoa, we`ve got some information here tonight.
This is the growth of worker productivity in hourly compensation going back
more than 60 years.

Take a look at what has happened as we entered the 1980s. Don`t you
see these two lines starting to split a little bit? See the Republicans,
they love to talk about Reagan and Reaganomics. Here we go, here`s the
split. It`s on its way.

Productivity continued to skyrocket. Look at this. I mean, from
1980, we have increased our workload and productivity on workers by 120
percent. But the hourly compensation for American workers, what has it
don? It has flat-lined over those years.

Now, according to EPI, the gap between the very highest earners, the 1
percenters, and all other earners, including other high earners, reflects
the escalation of CEO and other managers` compensation and the growth of
compensation in the financial sector. Keep that in mind.

But it reminds me of our vulture chart. We love to show this one all
the time. It`s amazing.

Income for the top 1 percent is really at its highest point ever.
Average wages, where are they? They are stagnant.

Now watch what happens when you combine the two charts. It is
absolutely amazing at how it all follows. The average wages -- well, they
match up pretty close with the hourly compensation, don`t they? And the
people earning those wages are working harder and longer than ever before.

Now, according to the orange line, you know -- hey, look who`s reaping
the rewards in all of this. Son of a gun, it`s the red liners, isn`t it?

Look, the income gap is destroying the middle class in this country.
These charts don`t lie. These are trends. These are facts. This is not
ideological speak right now.

The man who will be the Republican nominee for president says it`s
President Obama`s fault, because he just doesn`t have experience in
business.

Here`s the latest ad from the super PAC supporting Mitt Romney.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NARRATOR: How many jobs did Barack Obama create as a community
organizer? As a law professor? Maybe now you see the problem.

Mitt Romney turned around dozens of American companies and helped
create thousands of jobs.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHULTZ: Well, of course, Mitt Romney has not had to contend with a
do-nothing Congress.

Now, check these numbers out. This is where your tax dollars are
going. In the first 127 days in 2012, members of the United States
Congress have worked 41 days. They have passed fewer public laws than any
Congress in the last 40 years.

Would you like to have that vacation package? Hell, you only work 127
days out of the year, you only have to work 41. But, of course, they`re
out raising all kinds of money.

But according to Mitt Romney -- oh, it`s all President Obama`s fault.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MITT ROMNEY (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: What the president did was,
one item after another, make it harder and harder for small business to
thrive and to grow and to start up. It was the most anti-small business
administration I`ve seen probably since Carter. Who would have guessed
we`d look back at the Carter years as the good old days, you know?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHULTZ: You know, it`s really funny how Mitt Romney keeps jamming
Jimmy Carter on just about everything, because look what happened when
Carter left office. Trickle-down economics, anti-union politics, increased
outsourcing, worker wages staying right where they are while productivity
climbs, and President Obama is the problem?

No, he understands this election and what it is all about. It`s about
the middle class and it`s about the working poor in this country.

Take a look at some of the speeches over the past month.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OBAMA: Choose which direction we want this country to go in. Do we
want to keep giving those tax breaks to folks like me who don`t need them,
or to give them to Warren Buffett. He definitely doesn`t need them.

In fact, one in four millionaires pays a lower tax rate than millions
of hard-working middle class households.

Now`s the time to double down on smarter investments to build a strong
and secure middle class. Now`s the time to double down on building an
America that lasts.

I believe our economy is stronger when workers are getting paid good
wages and good benefits. I believe all of us are better off when we`ve got
broad-based prosperity that grows outwards from a strong middle class.

This is a make-or-break moment for the middle class, and everybody
who`s aspiring to get into the middle class.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHULTZ: I agree with the president. This is the last great stand of
the middle class in America, this election. If the middle class and the
poor lose their advocate in this election, this chart behind me will
continue to go down. As union membership goes, so goes the middle class.
You can`t deny it.

President Obama needs to stand with this portion of the population,
because the other side of the population just is not going to stand with
him.

According to "The New York Times," an Obama campaign official met with
wealthy Wall Street donors. Get a load of this. Some of these Wall
Streeters, they asked for the president to give a healing speech about
class and inequality and urged, in quotation, "urged an end to the attacks
on the rich"?

Give me a break! I mean, these guys are sitting on the top of the red
line, they want a healing speech about class and inequality in this
country, when it comes to incomes? Give me a break!

Now, the top 1 percent in this country, they ran this country into the
ditch with their philosophy. They profited from an economic catastrophe
and they made more money than ever. They lobbied to kill Dodd/Frank. They
don`t want any oversight.

And they say they`re under attack right now.

Hold it right there. Remember what I just said? The top 1 percenters
feel like they`re under attack right now and they want President Obama to
give them a special speech about how tough it is in this country.

Later on in this broadcast, I will bring you a story from
Pennsylvania. I`ll show you who needs a break. And I`ll show you what
they`re doing to the poor and the middle class in this country when it
comes to education, because this is where all the breaks are going.

Mitt Romney`s policies will protect these Wall Streeters. He wants to
return to the supply-side economics of Ronald Reagan.

Reagan was a nice guy. He was just wrong.

The unpaid tax cuts of the Bush administration, of 2001 and 2003 --
and hold it right there. We did a story on this the other night and we`re
going to do a lot more on it. The territorial taxes in the Paul Ryan
budget.

Now, let`s face it. People that watch MSNBC are smart. We`re
lefties, we like to research, we love facts, we love charts, we want
interviews, we want people saying stuff.

Here`s your assignment, folks. Go dig into the Ryan budget. It`s
fun. Do it. Dig into it. And find out what the territorial tax really
will do to this country and to the vultures at top of that chart.

I mean, it is going to grease the skids like you`ve never seen before,
for the top 1 percent to own our government. That with Citizens United,
the middle class right now has a very special in American history to stand
up and to support a man who undoubtedly cares about your well-being and
cares about your future opportunities.

Now, as far as Romney -- I mean, it`s only going to separate these
lines even further. His policies, more jobs are going to go overseas.
That`s what the territorial tax will do. More tax breaks are going to go
to the wealthy, as if they need them.

The blue line will sink further to the bottom. Is that where you want
to go?

You`re damned right this is a make-or-break moment for the middle
class in this country.

And I want to ask you independents out there who just aren`t sold. I
know that there are a lot of independents that are on that blue line. What
is it that you don`t like about President Obama and the Democrats?

Well, let`s see. He hasn`t raised your taxes. In fact, he`s given
you tax cuts. He`s killed the number one terrorist in the world. He`s
killed more terrorists than George Bush ever did in his administration.

We`re on our way out of Iraq. We`re going to shut down operations in
a couple of years in Afghanistan.

He saved the automobile industry. He was handed the worst economy in
some 70 years. He`s protecting the middle class. He wants women to
advance in our society and has legislation to back it up.

What is it about President Obama that you don`t like? Oh -- so it`s
those guns, isn`t it?

You know, this thing about guns started about when Bill Clinton
started coming into the national scene. I just want you to know, I own
more firearms now than I ever did before Bill Clinton came on the scene.
They ain`t going to take your gun, OK? They`re not going to do that. You
head shakers out there, don`t worry about it. They`re not going to take
your gun.

Oh, it`s that socialized medicine. You blue liners, there`s a United
States senator who is doing pretty good with the health care. In fact, his
daughter is benefiting from his health care plan, what`s in the provision,
in the health care law.

What is it that infuriates you about the Democrats and what infuriates
you about a party and a president who only wants every American to have a
fair chance and doesn`t want the government to be squeezed by a few?

Get your cell phones out. I want to know what you think. Tonight`s
question: can the middle class in America, can it survive a Mitt Romney
presidency?

Text "A" for yes, text "B" for no to 622639. You can go to our blog
at Ed.MSNBC.com. We`ll bring you the results later on in the show.

This man is a fighter for the working folk of America, and that is
Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont.

Senator, great to have you with us.

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (I), VERMONT: Good to be with you.

SCHULTZ: Will Mitt Romney`s policies mark the end of the middle class
if he gets in?

SANDERS: Well, given the fact that under the Bush administration, we
lost 500,000 private sector jobs, worst economic performance in modern
history, that Bush administration policies left this country and the entire
world on the brink of financial collapse, and given the fact that Mitt
Romney has nothing new to say, other than the same old trickle-down
economic theories, more tax breaks for the rich and large corporations,
more deregulation, more unfettered free trade -- I can`t help but believe
that a middle class today that is suffering will only be much, much worse
off under the Romney policies.

SCHULTZ: Senator Sanders, do you think President Obama should give a
speech to the Wall Streeters and the 1 percenters because he`s just been
too tough on them and it`s time now for a healing speech? What about that?

SANDERS: Well, I think you`ve heard me say, Ed, that quite the
contrary. I think that President Obama has been much too soft on Wall
Street.

And certainly, if there`s an apology, which is due, and there is one,
it is from the crooks on Wall Street, the people whose recklessness and
illegal behavior drove this country into the horrible recession we`re in
right now. Millions of people lost their jobs, lost their life savings,
lost their ability to send their kids to college, lost their homes.

And you know what? Interestingly enough, Ed, I have not heard any of
these guys on Wall Street say, you know what? I`m sorry for my greed, I
really am sorry that we destroyed so many lives.

So I think if there`s an apology that is due, and it`s long overdue,
it`s from these guys on Wall Street, certainly not Obama.

And from Obama, what we need is to begin to stand up and be even
tougher on these guys.

Right now, Ed, you`ve got six financial institutions in America who
have assets equivalent to two-thirds of the GDP in America. You got four
banks that issue two-thirds of the credit cards, half of the mortgages.

You know what I think? And you know what some many other people
think? Maybe it`s time we started breaking these babies up so we had some
real competition in the marketplace. So we got some real capital out to
the product economy, so businesses can start creating real jobs.

So, again, if an apology is due, it`s certainly not from Obama, but
it`s from Wall Street.

SCHULTZ: This election is all about the middle class and all about
the working poor, if we are going to have some prosperity in this country,
where everybody`s going to have an opportunity to succeed.

Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, great to have you with us tonight.
Thanks so much.

Remember to answer tonight`s question there at the bottom of the
screen and share your thoughts on Twitter @EdShow We want to know what you
think.

Coming up, new details about the GOP`s efforts to obstruct President
Obama. I`ll talk to the author Robert Draper.

And the Republican assault on public education continues in
Pennsylvania. This is a story I was telling you about. And poor school
districts are hurting the most and they are getting squeezed. What about
their families?

And two people who are battling against Governor Tom Corbett`s cuts
will join me in that fight tonight on this program to save those schools.

Stay with us. We`re right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SCHULTZ: Coming up, the Republican plan to stop President Obama, like
you have never heard it before. Author Robert Draper is next.

A campaign aide to Mitt Romney says he was run out of town because he
is gay. The candidate has been silent. I think he needs to smack down the
homophobes of the Republican Party.

And for years, lefties had been trying to blow the whistle on the Koch
brothers. Today a big-time righty joined the cause. Find out who it is
and filmmaker Robert Greenwald has all the info on the Kochs.

Share your thoughts on Twitter using the #EdShow. We`re coming right
back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SCHULTZ: Welcome back to THE ED SHOW.

President Obama was in office less than a day when his opponents were
literally plotting against him. On the night of the inauguration,
Republican leaders gathered in a Washington restaurant to lick their
wounds, share their stories of sorrow. But you know what? They hatched a
scheme to regain power. Keep in mind, the country was facing the greatest
economic crisis of our time.

According to a new book, Newt Gingrich, Eric Cantor and Paul Ryan were
among the Republicans plotting against President Obama on the night of the
inauguration. Pollster Frank Luntz was also there.

This is far worse than Mitch McConnell saying his top political
priority is to make President Obama a one-term president. The country was
shedding 700,000 jobs a month and we needed bipartisanship if we ever did.

Whatever happened to the country-first attitude? Well, it went out
the door.

Let`s turn to Robert Draper, contributing writer for "The New York
Times" magazine and author of, "Do Not Ask What Good We Do: Inside the U.S.
House of Representatives."

Robert, good to have you with us tonight. Great book, appreciate you
being here.

ROBERT DRAPER, AUTHOR, "DO NOT ASK WHAT GOOD WE DO": Thanks ,Ed.

SCHULTZ: Just what happened and what was their motivation? Take us
back to that conversation among these GOP leaders that night.

DRAPER: Sure. It was the evening of January the 20th, 2009, the
evening of the inauguration, and 15 Republicans gathered together. Frank
Luntz had put it -- put the program together in the caucus room, which is a
Washington, D.C. steakhouse. And it was -- he sort of described it to the
others as saying, look, we`re all irrelevant now, we don`t control
anything, so let`s just be irrelevant together.

But Luntz, in fact, did have a scheme in mind. He wanted everyone to
bear their souls and them come to a kind of solution and that`s in fact
what transpired. Newt Gingrich led off the talk and had Gingrich, like
several of the others, had been at Obama`s inauguration. It was a
depressing spectacle for them to see 1.8 million people out there on the
Mall. And so, they began to talk about how the Republicans had lost their
way and what had gone wrong.

And in the course of that, they began then to develop a strategy of
how to pull themselves out of it. And that strategy was basically to
oppose, in unity, all of President Obama`s policies, to attack his cabinet
members, such as Tim Geithner, to attack vulnerable Democrats.

At this point, they couldn`t attack Obama, because he was too popular.

SCHULTZ: So the first one he went after was Tom Daschle, on the use
of some car. And that kind of gave them a little bit of momentum, when
they got Daschle`s head, did it not?

DRAPER: Sure.

SCHULTZ: Because he was going to do health care. That kind of gave
them a little mojo on what they wanted to do, right?

DRAPER: It did. What gave him the most mojo, I think, was being able
to be united in opposition against Obama`s stimulus plan. I mean, then
when they realized that they could actually get unanimous votes against
that, they realized that as long as we can keep our numbers together, keep
our opposition pure, then we can start to develop a narrative, and start
both with what the Republicans stood for and what the Democrats stood for.

SCHULTZ: Was it Obama?

DRAPER: Yes.

SCHULTZ: Was it the man? Was it the first black president? Was it
his agenda?

DRAPER: No, no.

SCHULTZ: What was it?

DRAPER: Ed, I really think that the Democrats walked right into the
trap that was laid for them. I mean, it was -- you know, after this $780
billion stimulus and then the Democrats led off with the energy
legislation, cap and trade, which was destined to die in the Senate, but
which Nancy Pelosi insisted as speaker was her signature issue. The people
in the White House didn`t want Pelosi to push it, but she insisted she had
the votes.

And then after that came the Affordable Health Care Act.

SCHULTZ: Yes.

DRAPER: So what`s the Republicans were able to say was, here`s the
narrative, folks. Democrats don`t care about joblessness, they don`t care
about helping people pull out of the recession, they care about their own
big government agenda.

SCHULTZ: So when Senator Jim DeMint of South Carolina said about
health care, that this could be Obama`s Waterloo, that really was a
culmination of what they were trying to get to.

DRAPER: Absolutely.

SCHULTZ: That was expressing the sentiment of all Republicans at that
time.

DRAPER: Sure. Yes. But I think that in particular, the cap and
trade bill was such a heavy lift for the Democrats, that by the time they
got around to health care, already a lot of political capital had been
expended and already this narrative was developing. I mean, in swing
states, people were asking, why with unemployment are we talking about
greenhouse gases? And so, the Republicans began to use this to their
advantage.

And of course, then their plan, Ed, was to win back the house and to
use the House then as a point of the spear against the Obama
administration, which, of course, is what we`ve seen over the last year and
a half and what the subject of my book really is.

SCHULTZ: And you document the record number of obstruction, record
number of filibusters -- all of that was all part of the plan. So, the
Democrats actually had it right. It was just the party of no. So --

DRAPER: Well, the thing is, actually, they had an agenda. The
problem is that the agenda was so far to the right of anything that could
plausibly be passed by a Democratically controlled Senate and signed by a
Democratic president, that what it guaranteed was paralysis in government.

And so, you can`t say quite that it was a do-nothing Congress, but it
was a do-nothing, you know, plausibly passable Congress.

SCHULTZ: All right. Robert Draper, great to have you with us. Great
book. Thank you so much.

DRAPER: My pleasure.

SCHULTZ: Social conservatives are claiming victory after an openly
gay member of the Romney campaign resigns. What does this tell you about
Mitt Romney? I think plenty.

Karen Finney and Chris Kofinis will weigh in next.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SCHULTZ: Romney campaign spokesperson Richard Grenell abruptly
resigns. And the far right wing, they are taking all kinds of credit for
it.

But the problem isn`t Grenell`s misogynistic tweets, or his role as a
mouthpiece for the warmongers of the Bush administration. The problem is,
is that Richard Grenell is openly gay.

Grenell was hired two weeks ago to speak on foreign policy and
national security matters for the Romney campaign. Well, progressives,
they took issue with Grenell`s Twitter feed, in which Grenell personally
attacked Michelle Obama, Hillary Clinton, Callista Gingrich, and even our
own Rachel Maddow.

But Brian Fischer of the American Family Association is claiming
social conservatives got together and put pressure on the Romney campaign
to get rid of this gay guy named Grenell. Well, here`s Fischer doing a
victory lap on his radio show.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FISCHER: Ladies and gentlemen, this is a huge win and it`s a huge win
for us in regard to Mitt Romney. Because Mitt Romney has been forced to
say, look, I overstepped my bounds here. I went outside the parameters
here. I went off the reservation with this hire. Pro-family community has
called me back to the table here.

And here`s what`s important. This is why it was important that I take
Governor Romney on, that we as a pro-family community take Governor Romney
on, is that I will flat-out guarantee you, he is not going to make this
mistake again. There is no way in the world that Mitt Romney is going to
put a homosexual activist in any position of importance in his campaign.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHULTZ: Yes, I bet you Rick Santorum fills in for that guy.

The Romney campaign telling a different story tonight on the of
Grenell`s departure. They say Grenell quit before his official start date.

Romney adviser Dan Senor says Grenell was exceptionally qualified for
the position and claims the campaign begged Grenell to stay on.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANDREA MITCHELL, MSNBC HOST: Was he pressured to be forced out?

DAN SENOR, ROMNEY ADVISOR: Not at all. He was being pressured to
stay on. When the campaign learned that he was considering stepping down,
the campaign went out of its way to try to persuade him to stay. Everyone
from the campaign manager to senior foreign policy advisers to the
campaign, I mean, outside advisers to the campaign.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHULTZ: Everyone except Mitt Romney. Grenell personally thanked
Romney in his resignation. He says, "I want to thank Governor Romney for
his belief in me and my abilities and his clear message to me that being
openly gay was a non-issue for him and his team."

But it seems that Grenell`s sexual orientation was an issue for Mitt
Romney and his team. They allowed social conservatives to call the shots
on personnel issues. Romney`s silence on the matter speaks volumes on who
Mitt Romney is as a leader and as a person.

Let`s turn to Karen Finney, MSNBC political analyst and former DNC
communications director, and Democratic strategist Chris Kofinis. Chris,
good to have you back with us. It`s about time.

CHRIS KOFINIS, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: Thanks, Ed.

SCHULTZ: I want to play this for you. Here`s Romney`s senior
adviser, Eric Fehrnstrom, moments ago talking about this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ERIC FEHRNSTROM, ROMNEY CAMPAIGN SENIOR ADVISER: Yeah, and that`s
disappointing. Whenever there are voices of intolerance within the party
or the Democratic party, for that matter, it doesn`t matter where it`s
coming from, it`s disappointing. And the governor has taken the
opportunity in the past to denounce those voices of intolerance.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHULTZ: Karen, can we believe this?

KAREN FINNEY, FORMER DNC COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR: Of course not. I
mean, they sent a very clear message that their party and their campaign is
hostile to people who are openly gay, in the way they`ve sent the message
they are hostile to women around the war on women issues, they are hostile
to immigrants around the SB-1070 issues they are pushing.

They are hostile to African-Americans around the voter I.D. bills that
they`re pushing. I mean, this is a party that is in retraction, because
they don`t accept the broader fabric of America. And I`ll tell you, Ed,
Andrew Sullivan is reporting that actually last week on a conference call
that was supposed to be in response to Joe Biden, Grenell was told to be
quiet.

He was specifically told to be silent on the call while this kind of
blows over. So what Eric Fehrnstrom just said doesn`t match up at all.

SCHULTZ: Chris Kofinis, you`ve run staffs. How out of the box is
this? And how out of the norm is it to handle a situation like this?

KOFINIS: It`s pretty extreme, to say the least. I mean, I think
what`s really bad here for the Romney campaign, it just builds on this
narrative that they are so out of touch, and on top of that that they`re
kind of beholden to this extreme right-wing agenda. And this is kind of a
bad hangover from a Republican primary that went really far, far to the
right.

SCHULTZ: Chris, do you think that Mitt Romney has said enough on
this?

KOFINIS: I haven`t heard him say anything. At some point, he`s going
to have, if you will, for lack of a better way of putting it, a kind of
Sister Souljah moment, where he`s going to have to stand up and actually
speak to the right and say we -- these are not my values, I don`t believe
in what you`re saying.

He hasn`t done that. And until he does that, this is going to
continue to haunt him. And when you look at some of the recent polling I
was looking at today, he`s got demographic problems with young voters,
Hispanic voters, women voters. And when you`re talking about gay
Americans, they`re not a big demographic, but we have gay Americans in
families, who are friends of ours, and they`re a key group.

So the notion that you`re going to alienate this body and not going to
have political consequences doesn`t make a lot of sense to me, you know,
for someone who wants to actually win.

FINNEY: But you know what, Ed?

SCHULTZ: Go ahead, Karen.

FINNEY: This is a preview of what a Romney presidency would be like.
Because you heard the guy saying it on the radio. He said, we reined him
back in. We yanked his chain, right? So the deals that Romney is willing
to cut with the far right wing are such that he is going to be beholden to
all of these interests.

And what Chris was saying, he won`t be able to have a Sister Souljah
moment. He won`t be able to stand up to those folks, because he`s so in
bed with those people, he`s cut so many deals with those people that he`s
really sort of given away the farm.

SCHULTZ: But, Karen, doesn`t this put Mitt Romney really in a tougher
spot? Because now he would have to come out and denounce that talk show
host. And where is that going to put the right wingers? Where is that
going to put the social conservatives? That`s going to alienate them even
further.

I mean, he has to get in lockstep with these folks, so he does damage
either way, doesn`t he?

FINNEY: That`s exactly right. And like I say, that`s what a Romney
presidency would be like. He`s got to get so much farther in bed, as you
say, with these guys, he would be so beholden to them. And it`s really
sad, Ed, because I think we all know moderate Republicans who don`t like
what`s happening to the Republican party, but they are not standing up and
saying, guys, enough is enough!

SCHULTZ: So, Chris, he could forget the gay community. I don`t know
how he`s going to step forward and fix this. He`s either going to be at
odds with the gay community, or he`s going to be at odds with his own
social conservatives. I don`t know. How do you fix it?

KOFINIS: No, he`s not going to fix it. And listen, I`m not sure that
they`re counting on -- you know, gay Americans were a key voting bloc for
Republicans. But it`s bigger than that. It really, I think, speaks to the
fundamental problem the Romney campaign has, in terms of speaking to the
American people, and to a wider audience.

And if you`re going to actually compete to win in a general election,
you know, this is not the way to do it. And I`m not sure they`ve figured
out this puzzle. And until they do, I think they`ve kind of dug their own
grave.

SCHULTZ: Being silent doesn`t work. Karen Finney, Chris Kofinis,
great to have you with us. Thanks so much.

There`s a lot more coming up in the next half hour of THE ED SHOW.
Stay with us.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NEWT GINGRICH (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I`m going to be the
nominee.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHULTZ: Newt Gingrich is not going to be the nominee. He`s calling
it quits. Tonight, we`re looking back at some of his finest moments.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Are you calling Mitt Romney a liar?

GINGRICH: Yes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHULTZ: Scott Walker is in the Koch Brothers` pockets.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. SCOTT WALKER (R), WISCONSIN: Thanks for all the support in
helping us moving the cause forward.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Absolutely. And you know, we have a little bit of
vested interest as well.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHULTZ: Filmmaker Robert Greenwald has the details.

And Republicans are destroying public education in Pennsylvania.
We`ll bring you the shocking story, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SCHULTZ: The assault on public education by radical Republican
governors is still going very strong. For instance, in Pennsylvania,
Governor Tom Corbett is systematically putting forth an effort to dismantle
the public school system. Look at the numbers.

In 2011, he cut 860 million dollars in public education. This year,
he wants to cut an additional 100 million dollars from the public schools,
which brings his grand total to almost a billion dollars of cuts since he`s
been in office.

And the poorest school districts are being hit the hardest, like York
City School District, where 79 percent of the students come from low-income
families. Almost 90 percent of the students are eligible for free or
reduced-price lunch, which is exactly the kind of thing Republicans have
had enough of all over the country and they want to cut that too.

Look at the Ryan Plan. This is an attack on the poor as much as it is
anything else. Last year, Tom Corbett cut the York City School District
budget by 8.4 million dollars, or 15.7 percent. The district is now facing
a 19 million dollar budget shortfall. They may have to close a couple of
middle schools and combine those grades with elementary schools.

Eighth graders going to school with fourth graders? You want that as
a parent? Meanwhile, Governor Corbett is in the tank for the school
vouchers and charter schools, even though last year a study from Stanford
University reported mixed results on the quality of charter schools. The
study ultimately concluded Pennsylvania charter students, on average, are
lagging behind students in regular public schools.

But Corbett`s buddies in the private sector, you see, they make huge
profits from charter schools, so the governor continues to support them at
the expense of public education.

I`m joined tonight by Pennsylvania State Representative Matt Bradford
and also Kim Schwarz. She is the president of the York Education
Association and a fifth grade teacher in the York City School District.
Great to have both of you with us tonight.

Matt, you first. What is this governor doing? What is he trying to
do?

MATT BRADFORD, PENNSYLVANIA STATE REPRESENTATIVE: Ed, it`s pretty
disturbing. And over the last two years, the last two budget cycles, we`ve
seen devastating cuts: K-12 education, higher education, at all levels.
Unfortunately, after having Governor Rendell really invest in education and
seeing great returns on those investments in education, we`ve seen,
unfortunately, a real pitting of school districts against each other and
really a defunding of our most vulnerable school districts.

SCHULTZ: So is he trying to kill public education in Pennsylvania?

BRADFORD: I sure hope not. But what we`re seeing here really is just
bad news for so many of our school districts. Cuts in my own districts of
up to a quarter of their state funding has been removed. And what`s really
disheartening is some of the districts that need it most are getting hit
the hardest.

SCHULTZ: Kim, what is this governor trying to do, in your opinion?

KIM SCHWARZ, PRES, YORK EDUCATION ASSOCIATION: I think he`s trying to
destroy public education and he`s too totally vested with the charter
schools.

SCHULTZ: What do you mean by that?

SCHWARZ: I think he would prefer all students go to charters as
opposed to public education. I don`t think he has any -- go ahead, I`m
sorry.

SCHULTZ: No, go ahead. You don`t think he has any what?

SCHWARZ: -- any faith in the public school system.

SCHULTZ: Well, he`s take a billion dollars out. He`s hurting the
low-income districts. And you as a teacher, what is that going to do to
families in those districts?

SCHWARZ: It`s devastating. The -- our students are taking the brunt
of his cuts. And it`s increasing class size. We are losing art, music,
phys ed. We`re losing guidance counselors, librarians.

We`re having, you know, maybe upwards of 45 students in a class.
That`s what`s projected. We`re losing two middle schools. Our students
will go to K-8 buildings. That could be a positive.

SCHULTZ: And Mr. Bradford, this is all about the budget, or is it
about an ideology that public education isn`t necessary, and only a few are
going to make it? What does it do to opportunity?

BRADFORD: I think it`s about ideology and I think it`s about
priorities. For Pennsylvania, a state that`s always been a moderate state,
to really see such an ideological spin put on education, the defunding
really of public education, where you`ve seen a billion dollars in cuts --
again, districts in my own legislative area, where I`m blessed with some
wealthier districts and some that are challenged economically, have seen
funding for the accountability block grand, which funds full-day
kindergarten for our most vulnerable students, completely eliminated.

SCHULTZ: Well, I`ve got to ask you, I understand that the state of
Pennsylvania has a budget surplus. Is that correct?

BRADFORD: It doesn`t have a surplus, per se. But we`re running above
revenue for what the governor had projected --

SCHULTZ: Well, that`s a surplus. If you`re running above revenue,
why can`t that money go to education?

BRADFORD: Well, that`s what we`re certainly advocating for. We want
to see restoration of these cuts, but not just the cuts he`s proposing in
this year`s budget. We have almost 800 billion dollars -- almost 900
billion dollars in last year`s cuts.

So when he talks about restoration, we don`t just need restoration of
the 100 million dollars. We`re talking about the billion dollar cumulative
impact of two years of these cuts.

SCHULTZ: Well, this is happening in Wisconsin. It`s happening in
Michigan. It`s happening in New Jersey. These radical governors are
trying to balance the budget on the backs of the next generation of kids.
And it is ripping apart opportunities. And it`s hurting families.

SCHWARZ: That`s exactly right.

SCHULTZ: We`ll do more on this. Matt Bradford, Kim Schwarz, great to
have you with us tonight. I appreciate your time.

This is why this is such an important election. You might have to
forget who`s still running, but today Newt Gingrich finally said good-bye
to the campaign trail. We`ll tell you more about Newt`s greatest hits when
we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GINGRICH: It`s very hard not to look at the recent polls and think
that the odds are very high I`m going to be the nominee.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHULTZ: Not high enough. Newt Gingrich finally suspended his book
tour today. But not before holding just one more very long news
conference.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GINGRICH: My wife has pointed out to me approximately 219 times, give
or take three, that Moon colony was probably not my most clever comment in
this campaign.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHULTZ: I`ve got the admit, I`m sad to see the old Newtster going.
After all, he fired the first shot at the Ryan Budget.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GINGRICH: I don`t think that right-wing social engineering is any
more desirable than left-wing social engineering.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHULTZ: But as time went on, the Newtster served another purpose,
taking on Mitt Romney. Here are some of Newt`s greatest hits on the former
governor.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GINGRICH: There`s a huge difference between a Reagan conservative and
somebody who come out of the Massachusetts culture with an essentially
moderate record.

Massachusetts was fourth from the bottom in job creation under
Governor Romney.

What I find really frustrating, and frankly irritating, as a man who
wants to run for president of the United States, who can`t be honest with
the American people .

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Is he still the most anti-immigrant
candidate?

GINGRICH: I think of the four of us, yes. I don`t know of any
American president who has had a Swiss bank account.

If he can`t level with the American people about these ads, why should
we expect him to level about anything if he`s president.

Can we drop a little bit of the pious bologna.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Are you calling Mitt Romney a liar?

GINGRICH: Yes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHULTZ: With compliments like that, no wonder this was all Gingrich
could say about Mitt Romney today.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GINGRICH: I`m asked sometimes, is Mitt Romney conservative enough?
And my answer is simple: compared to Barack Obama?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHULTZ: Now it`s hard to see a guy like Newt Gingrich leave the
campaign trail. But Gingrich sure made this guy`s day.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You`re an embarrassment to our party.

GINGRICH: I`m sorry you feel that way.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Why don`t you get out before you make a bigger
fool of yourself?

GINGRICH: I`m sorry you feel that way.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHULTZ: And in the Big Finish tonight, T. Boone Pickens takes on the
Koch Brothers. Robert Greenwald has the story when we come back. Stay
with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SCHULTZ: ED SHOW survey tonight, I asked can the middle class survive
a Mitt Romney presidency? Six percent of you say yes; 94 percent of you
say no.

Coming up, Scott Walker is getting a boost from out of state donors
like the Koch Brothers. But it`s not helping him in the polls. Robert
Greenwald on the billionaire brothers` influence, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SCHULTZ: And in the Big Finish tonight, well, it`s a dead heat in
Wisconsin, just five weeks before the recall election. If it is the
Democratic nominee, Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett, he does lead Scott Walker,
47 to 46 percent among registered voters. Walker leads by a point among
likely voters.

Well, today Walker was complaining about money from outside the state.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WALKER: My opponent`s always been and will continue to be after the
primary the massive tens of millions of dollars that out-of-state special
interests have spent in this state.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHULTZ: Excuse me? Walker has raised 13 million dollars for his
campaign and two-thirds of it has come from out of state, like his oil
billionaire buddies, the Koch Brothers. Walker has surrogates from out of
state, like Chris Christie, who headlined two fund-raisers.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. CHRIS CHRISTIE (R), NEW JERSEY: He will have affirmation of that
course on June 5th. And when he does, that will not only empower him to
continue to do the things that need to be done to move Wisconsin forward,
but it will send an extraordinary message to leaders all over this country.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHULTZ: Christie is right about one thing. Wisconsin is not alone.
The effort by the Koch Brothers to undermine the middle class is not
limited to the Badger State. Here`s Stephanie Cutter of the Obama campaign
talking about the Koch Brothers` dirty tricks.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STEPHANIE CUTTER, OBAMA CAMPAIGN ADVISER: They said we gave money to
a company building solar plants in Mexico. Nope, wrong again. Our money
is going to build a solar plant here in America, with American workers.

These guys are going to say whatever it takes to tear down the
president. They will literally say anything. They oppose expanding clean
energy. They oppose higher fuel efficiency standards for cars and trucks.
So we`re going to call their BS when we see it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHULTZ: Let`s bring in Robert Greenwald, founder and president of
Brave New Films. Robert, great to have you with us tonight. It`s pretty
amazing that Scott Walker complains about outside money when he`s so cozy
with the Koch Brothers and their influence.

Is it not just Wisconsin? Have they got their fingers into a lot of
elections?

ROBERT GREENWALD, BRAVE NEW FILMS: Yeah. They`re going to spend
probably -- well, we`ll never know exactly how much, because, you know,
they were very clever. They got the Citizens United ruling passed. They
invited the Supreme Court justices -- let`s not forget this -- Scalia and
Thomas to come to one of their hidden retreats before Citizens United was
before them.

Talk about a conflict of interest.

And then Walker was in Oklahoma with Koch Industries sponsoring a
fund-raiser for him. And Tim Phillips, head of Americans Prosperity, is
saying that we`re going to spend tens of millions of dollars just in the
next couple of months.

SCHULTZ: What is their philosophy? Get their kind of legislators to
do their kind of work and the profit goes to the top?

GREENWALD: Yes. They`re pretty clear that it`s a combination of an
ideology, so-called libertarianism, not true libertarianism, that serves
their economic self-interests. So over and over again, Ed, in the year and
a half that we`ve worked on researching the film, we`ve seen story after
story, and incident after incident where they literally are bribing
officials. They`re paying think tanks. They`re paying for grassroots
activists. They`re paying for pundits, so that they service one need and
one need only. That`s the Koch Brothers.

You might think after X billion dollars, what do they need more money
for and why. Why are they destroying our democracy in the process? But
greed is limitless.

SCHULTZ: What`s the most egregious thing that you`ve found in your
research?

GREENWALD: You have an hour or two?

SCHULTZ: Well, I`ve got about a minute and a half. It`s that intense
in there, that enthralled in doing all this.

GREENWALD: Yeah, it was pretty -- it was a very tough year and a half
finding all of this. I think probably the most upsetting single thing --
and it`s in the Koch Brothers film -- is that David Koch, who`s a cancer
survivor and is giving money for, quote, a cure for cancer, at the same
time Georgia Pacific, they`re one of the worst ten polluters in the
country, and we have on camera a small community of people saying David
Koch, you are giving us cancer. David Koch, you are causing this.

SCHULTZ: Here`s T. Boone Pickens on the Koch Brothers.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

T. BOONE PICKENS, OIL BILLIONAIRE: The biggest deterrent to an energy
plant in America is Koch Industries. They do not want an energy plan for
America.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHULTZ: Now, T. Boone`s a pretty good righty. What`s going on here?

GREENWALD: Well, it`s true. You know, again, they will do anything
that serves their economic self-interest. And you know, you want to say to
them at some point, Ed -- you want to shake them and say, hey, you`re a
member of this country. You`re a citizen. What is in your mind? How much
are you willing to destroy just to make more money that you don`t need.

SCHULTZ: What`s the website, Robert? You do some great work?

GREENWALD: Thank you, Ed. KochBrothersExposed.com, and the film is
being screened, by the way, thanks to you and your listeners and viewers,
in hundreds and thousands of places all over the country. And it`s driving
them crazy.

They`re attacking me on Twitter. They`re smearing me with ads. But
it means that we`re having an impact.

SCHULTZ: That`s what happens when you tell the truth, my friend.
Robert Greenwald, great to have you with us tonight. Thanks so much.

That`s THE ED SHOW. I`m Ed Schultz.

And next week, we`re going to have more stories from Pennsylvania.
How in the world can you cut a billion dollars out of school budgets and
expect families in America to have their kids get the proper education in
this great country?

"THE RACHEL MADDOW SHOW" starts right now. Good evening, Rachel.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY
BE UPDATED.
END

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