Ken Cuccinelli: The new face of the far right

>> it. joining us now is victoria soto, jimy williams , an msnbc contributor, and the great joy reid , managing editor of thegrio.com. i want to talk about another war, this one within the gop itself. there's an individual by the name of ken cuccinelli , he's virginia 's attorney general who let the anti-obama care charge. he's now running for governor. he's not just far right on policy. he's further right than any republican when it comes to tactics. he's bullied his states board of health into a stance that could force most abortion clinics to close and on climate change he's not only sued the epa, he troo i had to prosecute a university professor for obtaining grant money to study it. correct me if i'm wrong but isn't using the tools of government to suppress dissent the opposite of democratic government .

>> talk about doubling down on a losing strategy. if there's one thick that was clear from the 2012 election is there isn't an appetite for this far right politics, and virginia in particular. voting again for president obama and electing a democratic senator. virginia is increasingly a moderate state. we're not in texas, my home state. if kucuccinelli were running in texas, arizona , even in georgia, these types of politics wouldn't just hurt him, they'd help him, but he's not. he's running in virginia , the land of whole food moms and dads. but at a broader level i find the cuccinelli race interesting because i think it might be a precursor to what we may see in the midterms and perhaps in the 2016 presidential election . we already hear some rumblings about perry getting back into the race, santorum --

>> oh, lord help us, no. please.

>> i swear.

>> please, no, not the return of rick perry . you cannot be serious.

>> i swear to you.

>> oh, lord. okay, jimmy, mr. cuccinelli , he sued over obama care, lost. sued the epa, lost. is there anything more dangerous to a political party than a leader who consistently picks fight he loses?

>> how many times do you have to lose to be kaumd a loser.

>> right.

>> let's be honest about this, you have -- and i'm a resident of the commonwealth of virginia .

>> you are, indeed. you know this man.

>> well, actually no, i really don't. i don't care that he's a republican. to me it's not about your political ideology . it's about whether or not you think people ought to have equal rights . the theory of separate but equal is no longer the law of the land . under the 14th amendment we've said, and look at the panel you have on the screen now, you have a gay man, latino woman, and an african- american woman . under mr. cuccinelli 's sort of theory of law, the 14th amendment doesn't apply to me as a gay man. he said so in 2010 . under mr. cuccinelli , who wants to be the governor, my governor, he thinks, he believes that, in fact, the 14th amendment , which the commonwealth of virginia ratified in 1869 , that's hard for him to fathom, that it should not apply to me or joy ann reid or anyone else of color or minority. he thinks everyone should walk around and do what they need to do as long as they're white men. there's a single problem with that, martin. that's not what virginia looks like. that is not what the commonwealth of virginia looks like.

>> that's not what the country looks like. joy, let me read you his opinion on immigration because you'll like this one. this is from his website. illegal aliens who choose to break additional laws by stealing identities, dealing drugs, joining criminal gangs, driving without a license, or committing fraud must receive prompt justice and deportation. no ifs, ands this is not the face of the new republicans because that sounds very like one mitt romney , doesn't it?

>> and illegal aliens . that's like terminology from like the avenue '70s. maybe we should beam them back to their home planets. i think it's funny and i think we should pause for a moment to reflect on the fact that the guy who is running to be the next governor of virginia is to the right of whose claim to fame is vaginale probes. he is to the right of the civil war without slif ri guy and the vaginal probe guy. just thought i'd mention that.

>> that 's wonderful . victoria , speaking of immigration, sheriff joe arpaio , known for his extreme anti-immigrant views, has seen the light sort of. he told an arizona newspaper, i can get along great with the hispanics . in fact, i sure would like to meet them. would you like to give us what you think the reaction of what he calls the hispanics will be when he meets them?

>> well, joe arpaio , and i'm actually a native of arizona so i have seen him throughout the years, he may be many things, but he's not dumb. he sees the demographic electoral handwriting on the wall , and he knows that currently latinos are close to 20% of the arizona electorate. in the next electoral cycle they will be close to a quarter of the electorate. if he wants to stay in office he has to make nice with latinos. he cannot continue these policies. i find it so interesting that suddenly he wants to meet the hispanics .

>> jimmy and joy, jimmy first, i thought this was going to be a new refreshed republican party that bobby jindal was talking about after the election, but all of this sounds very, very familiar and old and obsolete.

>> well, listen, the president during the last debate, he talked about mitt romney 's view of the country and about a 1950s america. we're not in the 1950s . in fact, we're not even in the 20th century . we're in the 21st century . it's time for my former party, the republican party that i left in 1992 because of social issues to get with it. they have got to figure out that you can't tell gay people we want your vote but we're going to discriminate against you. you can't say we want you to vote for us because you're latino but by the way, we're going to stop you because you got brown skin and you're driving a car. you can't do that if you want a big tent . don't tell me you have a big tent . show me you got a big tent . if you don't do that, it's all talk and it's not going to get you -- you can't continue to be the majority party in the country if you keep doing these kind of discriminatory separate but equal sort of political theologists.

>> i this i the important thing is that this illustrates the difference between the conventional wisdom and the pointy heads of the republican party , the receive schmidts, the operatives. at that level they understand they need to change. i am glad all this is happening because i feel like i have been proven right a little bit. you can't do it when you still have the same people. it's not as if the base of the republican party has changed at all. it's still a party primarily of largely southern white men and their wives. it's still a very conservative, arch conservative party at the base level . no matter what the operatives know they need to do, you can't change the base.

>> joy reid , victoria soto, and jimy williams , i'm glad all of you are in this country safely and well. stay with us.