Sunday, August 25, 2013

Meet The Press – August 25, 2013


Guests:
Rep. John Lewis (D-GA)
Al Sharpton
Sheryl WuDunn
Doris Goodwin
David Broooks
Mayor Cory Booker (D-Newark)
Gov. Bobby Jindal (R-LA)
Raul Labrador (R-ID)

Gregory: wow it's been 50 years since
MLK gave some speech and more
importantly appeared on Meet The Press

Audience: John McCain wasn't available?

Gregory: welcome John Lewis

Lewis: hi David

Gregory: you spoke as a young 23 year-old
at the first March and spoke again
as an elder statesman – that's amazing

Lewis: we were part of a non-violent revolution

Gregory: you said forces want to take us back

Lewis: I see people saying 'I want
my country back' – back to where?

Gregory: back to the future?

Lewis: when I came to Washington
it was segregated – not like now ha ha

Gregory: do you see the same fears

Lewis: I see fears of progress but
we are changing as a nation

Gregory: is there a backlash?

Lewis: yes but let's not be afraid –
embrace the change

Gregory: black unemployment is still 
twice that of white people

Lewis: it's very troubling

Gregory: who is to blame?

Lewis: all of us – businesses, schools, government

Gregory: Tavis Smiley wants Obama to propose 
a bunch of liberal proposals

Lewis: I met with JFK and LBJ and 
we pushed and pulled

Gregory: thanks for coming Congressman

Lewis: thank you Fluffy

Gregory: how does King's message relate today?

Sharpton: it paved the way for a black
President and black Attorney General

Gregory: awesome

Sharpton: but we still have voting rights
struck down, economic inequality and
gun violence in our community

Branch: Civil rights leaders linked 
their caused to Lincoln and the Founders

Goodwin: right – the Founders created
an ideal that all men are created equal –
Lincoln and MLK and others pushed
the nation ever closer to that ideal

Gregory: wow

Goodwin: it was an amazingly hopeful time
we need that again

Brooks: A Philip Randolf and Bayard Rustin
exposed their enemies bigotry
through their great dignity

WuDunn: students at Tianamen Square
invoked the King's speech

Gregory: I love Colin Firth

WuDunn: righty-o

Gregory: at the time white people were
terrified of large numbers of blacks marching

Sharpton: we still hear those complaints today

[ break ]

Gregory: Cory you are trying to become
only the second black person in the Senate 
how far have we come in 50 years?

Booker: the challenge is equality –
we still have too many people in poverty

Gregory: you have expressed frustration
with young people's apathy

Booker: the power of the people is
greater than the people in power

Gregory: ooh

Booker: sure politics can be depressing
sometimes but you can't just sit on
your couch – you gotta get out there
and work for change

Gregory: unemployment is high in
New Jersey and in your city

Booker: if Chris Christie and I didn't
work together Newark wouldn't 
be booming right now

Gregory: is it?

Gregory: yes and then I worked with the
right-wing Manhattan institute on over-incarceration

Gregory: so what will you do in the Senate?

Booker: argue for strategic investment
in education and young people

Gregory: we tried that and America is a failed state

Booker: we need Republicans and
Democrats to work together

Gregory: is the American dream still alive?

Booker: we all need each other –
when a child succeeds it benefits us all

Gregory: We asked Snoop Dogg
and Mitt Romney to riff on Martin Luther King

Dogg: I have a dream of safe communities
for our children

Romney: I have a dream that I didn't
call half of America lazy and
was actually elected President
then I woke up darn it

[ break ]

Gregory: OMG we might go to war in Afghanistan 
Iraq Iran Libya Syria

Engel: the rebels have just received
tons and tons of weapons from Turkey

Gregory: sweet

Engel: also Assad was almost assassinated
and it pissed him off and he personally
approved spraying chemical weapons on the rebels

Gregory: wow

Gregory: Assad says he will allow
weapons inspectors in Syria

Welker: yes but the White House
says there is little doubt chemical
weapons were used in Syria

Gregory: Obama said we need to
address inequality

Brooks: inequality shows up by age 2 or 3

Gregory: um okay

Brooks: we need more love

Gregory: what about the American dream?

WuDunn: the civil rights issue today
is thriving in an inner city with
bad schools and poverty

Gregory: and less opportunity than before

Goodwin: the lesson of the civil rights
movement is great change can happen
with effort and commitment and we
need to commit to fight poverty

Gregory: is Obama blind to poverty
and too focused on the middle class?

Sharpton: Congress just cut Head Start!

Gregory: Raul you became a mormon
and a lawyer and a single mother

Labrador: I was born poor to a mother
who decided not to get an abortion
and sacrificed to get me a good education

Gregory: wow

Labrador: my mother said I should speak English 

Gregory: I've heard that's useful 

Labrador: your panel is bunch of depressing losers

WuDunn: well sorry Raul but social
mobilization is worse than ever and
while Washington dithers America burns

Brooks: Head Start is a terrible program

WuDunn: wrong!

Brooks: America has Juwan and 
Pedro and Goldbergs

Goodwin: my father was an orphan
but succeded because of WWII
and income taxes

Sharpton: Martin Luther King directly
attacked America's bad check given to blacks

Labrador: King's principal message was
that America is great and so everyone
should have hope

Sharpton: no his message was to fight injustice

Gregory: the President says we don't
have an urgent deficit crisis and
called for more spending to
help children – what do you think?

Jindal: the debt is $17 trillion!

Gregory: what else?

Jindal: the reality in America is that
too many kids go to bad schools

Gregory: true

Jindal: in Louisiana we have privatized
schools and created Charter Schools

Gregory: I love it

Jindal: now we allow minority kids
to take their dollars with them

Gregory: I love you

Jindal: thanks

Gregory: Colin Powell says there is
a vein of intolerance in the GOP

Jindal: the left spent 8 years
attacking George Bush

Gregory: uh-huh

Jindal: we shouldn't impeach Obama -
we should repeal Obamacare and
anti-poverty programs have made
people poor so we should repeal them too

Gregory: Obama is not going to sign
a bill repealing Obamacare

Jindal: Obamacare is taking away
people's doctors and raising costs

Gregory: would you shut
down the government over it?

Jindal: why not?

Gregory: what does the American
dream mean to you?

Jindal: my Dad came here knowing
nobody and succeeded – its amazing story

Gregory: and that's another
episode of Meet The Press

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