john: i'm john heilemann. i'm donny deutsch. with all due respect to those mocking trump's assertion that campaigning his exercise -- mr. trump: i guess it is a form of exercise. who are you to judge how a man uses his hands? ♪

donny: i got tired watching that. don't sweat the small stuff. tonight, democrats' hearts are ting sound, found -- going hump, thump, thump, because it new poll shows hillary clinton beating donald trump by two points, and another poll shows .onald trump winning in nevada after three days spent resting with pneumonia, hillary clinton flew to north carolina and took the familiar course of "i feel good." afterward, clinton took some questions from the press,

including andrea mitchell, who --ed when exactly she was when exactly she informed tim kaine about her pneumonia diagnosis. ms. clinton: i talked with him last night. he has been a great partner, and he will be a great vice president. we have communicated, but i am not going to go into our personal conversations, and i feel very comfortable and confident about our relationship, and i look forward to working with him. donny: has she but this health -- has she put her health behind her, and where does she go from here? john: there is a lot to cover in this topic. there is going to be a lot of focus, a lot of scrutiny in the wake of the self incident that she had. if she continues to look as she looked today in north carolina, if she looks strong, if she looks stable, if she does not have any incidents that take place that relate to her health, i think this is in the rearview

mirror for her. not an, she is looking at whole new race -- some people said this would always be close, and certainly that is the talking point out of the clinton has a very but she different environment right now that she is dealing with. a month ago, you had democrats thinking they would have a landslide coming. now democrats probably are freaking out about how close this is. donny: absolutely, john. the health is about her campaign. here is what has changed. chooseoing to be, do you which is worse -- the untrustworthy, the unlikable, competent, the establishment candidate, or the new, unbalanced, but racist candidate? what has happened in the three side,is in the clinton the unlikable stuff has gone up, mexico,p, by going to by going to african-american

communities, by giving speeches with no horrible negatives, acting normal, the unhinged part has gone down, and that's what you see in these polls right now. john: one of the things that is interesting, somebody asked the question yesterday to our pollster about what was going on in ohio. our poll that we put out yesterday caused a lot of people to get freaked out on the democratic side. whether it was trump gaining strength or clinton fading. it seems like what has happened so far is the clinton support has faded a bit. that is bad news in that it suggests that the campaign is not going as well as it should, but it is good news because it is reflecting the health issue, and if clinton puts this behind her and starts making an aggressive case against trump and putting forth a positive vision on her side, she could start getting some of that fading support back and put herself back in a better position. donny: and let's not forget those balls were taken -- those polls were taken friday through

monday. as far as her health issues, the scary thing is that the enthusiasm numbers are leaning heavily towards trump. as you know toward -- as you know better than anybody, where is the excitement, the enthusiasm? her backers are much more begrudging than his are. candidates,ith the the interview donald trump with dr. oz finally aired today. we now know that he takes a type of drug that lowers cholesterol, and trump's testosterone level is a whopper in -- is a whopping 441, and the nominee is a wee bit overweight. mr. trump: i think i could lose a little weight. i have always been a little bit this way. i have sort of always been that. [laughter] mr. trump: i was probably a good swimmer. but i have always been this way.

would like to lose weight. it is tough because of the way i live. but the one thing alike to do is be able to drop 15 or 20 pounds. trump's campaign released only a brief summary from his doctor. well are details about his blood pressure and a recent colonoscopy, it is different from what his campaign said weeks ago when they said trump would publicize his medical records. trump is, by any standard, the least transparent candidate for president in a lifetime. will there be a time when he pays a price for this opaqueness? john: first of all, what's your testosterone level? take it,m afraid to because i don't think it will be very good, but that's a whole other discussion. i talked to my therapist about that, but we don't talk about that today. john: i think you would break the scale. you would be 500, 600. it is the case that trump remains the least transparent major nominee in our lifetimes.

one of the big things that has happened is we are starting to finally see the reporters and others starting to turn their trump, tryingds to hold them accountable to a greater degree. whether that will stick or not -- i know there are people all over the country that think that if we reporters just do our jobs and talk about the many areas where trump is engaged in behavior, whether it is his charitable foundation, his tax records, both areas of huge concern, but if we focus on all our fire on him, that that will somehow change the calculus for the electorate. i do not think that is true. it does not mean we should do it, but i am not sure that will necessarily mean there will be some huge drop-off in his support. donny: i absolutely agree with you. there is an advertising term called permission to believe. trump supporters want to believe in him regardless area you say -- regardless. you say, well, he's kind of a

good businessman. they are so distraught by the status quo. have such dislike for hillary clinton that unless he goes rogue and starts saying horrifically bigoted things, it does not stick. the hateful things stick. the lies don't stick, the coverups don't stick, the state -- the hateful stuff sticks area -- sticks. john: for people like you and people like me, our lives have gotten better over the last 20 or 25 years. there are a lot of people in this country who have seen nothing but degradation of their lives over decades. they look at the establishment politicians on the left and the right. they have had clinton, bush, and obama, and nothing has gotten better, a lot has gotten worse, and some of them who do not agree with a lot of what trump has said, they are still willing to roll the dice because they think they could not get worse.

the clinton campaign wants people to understand that it could get a lot worse. a snake oilcall him salesmen. what a snake oil salesman does is, when you've tried everything for your cure, try this snake oil. coming up, you've got mail. we will talk about colin powell's inbox and more, right after these messages from our sponsors. ♪

♪ is your donald trump outreach update. yesterday as part of his outreach to african-americans voters,african-american donald trump spoke in a predominantly black church at flint, michigan.

fica -- he thought also wrote out, among other things, six weeks of paid maternal leave for trump. it has gotten blowback. trump this morning had a classic founder with his good friends on "fox and friends." mr. trump: the treatment was great, but something was up, because i noticed she was so nervous when she introduced me, and she called nbc, abc -- she , andhe owns the networks we smile together backstage. when she got to introduce me, she was so nervous that she was shaking. i said, wow, this is sort of strange. she had it in mind, no question about it. clinton called trump's comments insulting and wrong.

vodka -- ivanka also said that pregnancy is an inconvenient thing for business. trump reachesme out to his non-base voters, it blows up in his face. does he keep reaching out? john: i think he will continue to do it and continue to try to do it for the reasons we talked startedeks ago when he his ostensible minority outreach. thes trying to assuage fears of a lot moderate suburban republicans, especially suburban women. i don't think it is going to work with him for those groups. you can see that today. flint, talksrip to to an african-american pastor. the next day, he is taking shots at her on television. i would express outrage the way hillary clinton did and say that it is insulting, but he hacked the pope previously. you think that if you can get away with attacking the pope, he

going compunction about after someone no normal politician would go after, a female african-american minister. but henot only that, lied. in a subsequent interview, he said people basically started doing her when she interrupted him. it was the opposite. play . .- blatant lie i think he should continue to do it, because the headline reads "mexico," but when he goes mano a mano with an african-american priest, he loses. khans. that with the that was the little guy. if he can't help but reached to fire, he should keep his hands in his pocket. former e-mails from secretary of

state -- former secretary of state colin powell were hacked, and they reveal what he thinks about the 2016 race. he called trump a "national disgrace," and he wrote "everything hrc touches he screws up with hubris." he also said clinton comes across as "lazy." -- "sleazy." he also made a reference to bill clinton's infidelity. trump wrote, i was never a fan of colin powell, and after his weak understanding about weapons of mass distraction equaling disaster, we can do better. this is the highest profile hack we have ever seen. what kind of fallout can we expect to see from this late in the next 55 days in the selection, and as a country? -- in this election, and as a country? john: let's start with colin

powell. this guy has been the most sought-after endorsement for both parties in the last two election cycles. everyone expected him to endorse obama in 2012, and he did. he is one of the big names out there in terms of endorsements. he is now out there as having criticized both sides. normally, if powell had just attacked trumping the way he did, the left would be cheering. instead, he attacked the trump and both clintons. apparently colin powell has a lot saltier language than he does in his public television appearances. donny: on the micro level, it does take him out of the endorsement business, but i don't think we are in the endorsement business in the election. both of these candidates are so polarizing, i don't think any surrogates are going to swing one way or another. the scary thing to be is on a bigger level, us versus society,

and this needs to be a wake-up call for us. there is not a single human you went into if their texts, you will find things there are nasty. it is a very scary wake-up call. we have seen these begins e-mail hacks, and so far some of them have been quite explosive politically, but none of them have had the flavor and texture. this is the first one that has really had that, with a genuinely famous person saying things genuinely embarrassing to him and others. it really is -- it for tells future releases of this kind. we are waking -- we are waiting for wikileaks to drop more. i think some of these could be quite impactful if they are in this direction. up, donald trump gave a speech about taxes today. we will talk about that. ♪

is laura tyson, a professor of economics at university of california-berkeley. donald trump delivered his tax speech today. give me your big overview. what do you make of it? laura: it was a speech that started with taxes and focused very much on taxes. we have made -- it made an argument we have heard many times before, that it is not supported by data and analysis. if you have very large tax cuts that disproportionately favor the top through a trickle-down, supply-side effect, you will create some much economic growth that there will be no increase to the deficit, no increase to the debt. he actually put together remarkable numbers. he started out with the size of his tax cut.

he then take away half of the effect on the deficit by saying that would just be growth. he then said that his regulatory forms -- another dose for growth. at the end of the day, if we had deficit reduction left over, it would just be waste, fraud, and abuse. the plan was not a plan, and it does not have evidence behind it. john: i believe what you're saying is that you consider this voodoo economics. would that be fair? laura: i did not use that term. it has been used before to characterize a similar approach, so we can call it the new economics, -- we can call it trickle-downics, economics. it is not verified in data or analysis. john: one of the things that trump does here is he takes the tax code and says, let's go over some things that a lot of conservatives have wanted, which is to have a simpler code. in principle, is that a good idea? and in practice, given where he

has set those three tax rates, does it make any sense to you whatsoever? the issueon't think of simplification is really an issue around tax brackets. you just go and figure out what bracket you are in. this is actually about the way that our deductions and credits system work. if the issue is simplicity, i would say this is not an issue of the brackets, this is an issue of how our credits and inductions work. ofhink that the issue brackets is really the issue of the rate. debate over what the top rate should pay. what he did not mention is, in his corporate tax policy, where he is saying 15%, a lot of the income that is partnership income and high income what actually fall

to the 15% rate. it would not be his top rate anymore. there are other things going on. it is important to look at the fine print. i don't think three brackets is the issue of simplicity. , what isissue here is the amount of tax revenue lost, who is paying the taxes, what happens to the deficits, what do you have to cut in order to have a sustainable death going forward if you use this kind of maxygen -- if you use this kind of massive tax cut disproportionately biased to the wealthy? donny: to answer that question, it is three chilean dollars -- $3 trillion. i want you to take off your economics at for a second and just put on your mom had, yout working hat, you're out to dinner hat. i have not had one discussion candidate's on any

tax plans. stand this one, i can't stand that one. does it even matter were trumping is coming out? don't fall over it as you have. it is almost irrelevant at this point. laura: is that addressed to me? tend toeconomist, and i want to, if i go into those kinds of conversations, i tend to want to get people to talk about the economic issues. maybe it is true that, in the initial conversation, people are talking about something else, but i am an economic advisor, and i tend to look at the two candidates in terms of what they are proposing economically. i think that she has a very sound, very sensible plan that .ctually includes some tax cuts for example, there is simplification on tax cuts for small businesses, very important. she has some very important program of investment --

pro-growth investments. he says nothing about education. the stuff that we have heard about this week, the childcare and paid leave, if you look at this, i can change the conversation at a dinner party by basically saying we are the only country of the developed countries without paid leave. planshe has offered is a that is sensible in terms of the extent of time, in terms of the motherst it would cover and fathers, in terms of the replacement value of the wages. those are things which all the other industrial countries are already doing, and they are doing fine. i tend to want to turn it back to the -- donny: i know you do, because you are an economist. let me turn it to the dumper guy -- dumber guy, john. i have never seen anything like this. even to the point, as laura says, where you can debunk everything trump says, it does not matter. the issues don't seem to matter,

at least the substance of the issues don't seem to matter. john: donny, i think it is important -- and i am with laura tyson on this -- if we have a heat race right now, one of the things we have to do over the next two months is talk about what it would mean if donald trump became president. one of the jobs we have and the clinton campaign has is to try to elucidate what the impact would be of donald trump's policies were implemented. lara, let me turn the question back to you on this front. how do you explain the appeal that donald trump seems to have two working-class voters across the country, when the policies he is putting forward our, in your judgment, obviously bad for most working americans, especially when it comes to this tax plan? laura: you're the political pundit, not i.

what i can say is there is a fraction of the trump voters who indeed have had a difficult time. look at that census report that came out this week. there was a lot of great news in that for the median family. there was a lot of great news in that for lower and middle income families. on the other hand, if you go back to where they were in 2000, or where they were earlier, some of these numbers were in 1993, what you see is that the median household income has actually not recovered to its previous peak. therefore, there are a lot of people who don't think the economy is working for them. donny: we've got to wrap it up, laura. ♪

♪ back, sports fans.

great mike murphy, a strategist who rode to rise jeb bush. ask for coming on the show. for everybody who does not already know this, mike is never trump. we had donald trump junior on the radio this morning in philadelphia. he made a perplexing comment that i don't even really understand, but he invoked the notion of gas chambers. the clinton campaign jumped on it. their director of jewish outreach put out a statement saying this is ridiculous, abominable for him to use that in casual conversation. a lot of other things the trumping campaign has done that suggest -- the trump suggest has done that anti-semitism. what do you think about going back to these tropes? to figure out.d

every time things are going right for the trump campaign, it is like a signal goes off. his attack on the pastor in flint, and now this gas chamber thing, which i don't know the full context of. donny: i was offended when i saw it. donald trump, talking about hillary clinton -- donald trump junior, the media has been her number one surrogate in this. without the media, this would not even be a contest, but the media has built her up area they have let her sips -- they have letter -- built around. they have let her slide on every discrepancy. if republicans had done that, they would be warming up the gas chamber right now. mike: it is not a normal campaign, it is not a normal anything. they fly by the seat of their pants and they give this kind of language, and they pay a price. donny: it's interesting. i did not know we were going to

talk about that. i was completely taken aback by that as a jew. to have that as part of their vernacular, to flippantly use that. i did not even know that expression existed -- warming up the gas chambers? i thought that was disgusting and offensive, and i think he jews an apology for that. mike: what we are judging in a campaign is the quality of the person running for president, who becomes a moral authority in the country, and he should say something about this and repudiate it, but he won't. he's donald trump. donny: this was donald trump junior. mike: but still, he was speaking as a surrogate for his dad. the campaign should do something about it. john: the campaign has had many opportunities to distance themselves from and repudiate anti-semitic tweets. they never have done it. i can't figure out what he thinks he is getting out of that. mike, let me ask you a question

about the state of the race. i saw you in l.a. before labor day weekend. you told me the race was over that friday before labor day. it does not seem like the race is over right now. what is going on? mike: trump said it was probably over, and i thought trumping was probably going to lose. we work in a business where it is unacceptable for a race to be over. we now have new polling data that shows the race tightening a little bit. but every time the race t ightens, which sets off all these alarm bells, it is never trump rising so much as hillary dropping down. i think there is a new 42%-40 2% whole coming out. it means people don't like either of them. is, what do those voters look like you have to

land somewhere at the end of the election? they look more like anti-trump then pro-trump. know you have advised for the red team. let me put you on the blue team. i have advised for hillary. i would say at this point, you cannot run out the clock. you have to go on the offense. you have to be, in a very prosecutorial cut of way, so laser-sharp, so aggressive. back him up. you just can't play defense or play neutral at this point. correct? mike: i never believe in playing defense, but the offense that needs to play is on hillary. bank's problems are built it -- trump 's problems are built in. the clinton campaign needs to take advantage of the structural advantage they've got, and they are not. they have had a terrible 10 days, which is why things are tightening. john: mike, i am going to

continue with donny, basically making you act like a clinton advisor at this point. if the problem is enthusiasm along members of the obama coalition, what would you advise her to do to fix that problem? mike: if i am going to be giving hillary advise, i don't want water. i would like something a little stronger here. i don't think the problem is based in enthusiasm, but what you do is turn the president lose. her problem is swing voters who are fiscally conservative or looking for somewhere to land, and she has to lay out a welcome mat for them and be careful of the ideological stuff for the swing voters and disaffected republicans. i would not -- number republican base politics. i think the president and other surrogates -- i would not double down on republican base politics. problem isampaigns swing voters who don't like hillary or trump.

donny: i would drum up the enthusiasm for the fear of trump. that is the hillary of play -- that is the hillary played. he is so all over the place on any given day. mike: but they have been investing a lot in that. they have been doing scary trump a lot. because the debates, trump will always, in the end, the trump. donny: when come back, a look at trump rang's -- a look at trump's charitable giving coming up. we will be right back. ♪

♪ donny: we are joined by a man whose reporting has been called

"disgusting congo and that's probably because he is a journalist that has been doing disgusting," and is probably because he is a journalist that has been doing the most digging into trump's charitable giving's. david fahrenthold, thanks for joining us. i happen to think your retorting -- your reporting is fantastic. you have spoken to charities campaign hasp rang campaig "given money to." i want you to talk about the trump campaign holding that event in mara lago. i think it sums everything up. 's business depends on being in the good graces of charities. for instance, the palm beach foundation rents out mara lago. this is a charity with business that is very important to donald

trump. he decides to give them a donation to give -- to keep in the good graces. he does not actually keep his own money out of his own pocket. he instead goes to a foundation of a front of his who is now dead. that friend, look online raising money for the palm beach police foundation, can you give me a little bit. they say, sure, here is $150,000. then takes the money, he gives it himself to the palm beach police foundation under his own name, and he gets the credit. he gets a crystal palm tree at his next all for his selfish report -- for his selfless donation. he is not used any of his own money, it is all other people's money. donny: and he made money as a result. that's right. a great country. donny: john? guys, i can't hear john. ok, he's back.

john, start again, we do not have you for a second. john: sorry, guys. david, the totality of the work you have done has been kind of grate. i just want to know what you think, at this point, in total, what is the takeaway? people are looking at all the work you are doing and they are saying, it looks like these charities are totally corrupt. is this the kind of conclusion you are ready to draw at this point? is notwith trump, it just corruption. what is interesting about this is it is sort of a moral test for trump. this is a guy who is very wealthy. he lives along very wealthy people. those folks often feel some sort of responsibility to get back to the communities they live in. what we see about trump is that all the evidence points back to him not feeling that responsibility. he knows he has to live charitable, and instead he finds other people that are willing to do for land or before him. he is not seeking to have the

actual sacrifice of the full and derby. he is seeking to have the appearance of it, and he is having other people a for it. john: right. david, i want to ask you a question about taxes. one of the big stories you have been on is this illegal donation that the trump charity gave to pam bondi's super pac. the question is, what would we actually learn if we had donald trump's tax returns? from the standpoint of what you are looking at, what would you learn if you had donald trump's tax returns? heid: for me, it would be if gives any money out of his own pockets to charity. but his folks have told us all along is, yes, he has not given any money to the donald j. trump foundation since 2008, but there is all this other money that he gets out of his own pocket personally. he does not want people to know about that. i have not found any evidence that is true. i have called 300 charities that seem close to him. if we look at his tax returns, we will know if he is telling the truth.

donny: i know this reported started with you, with the money that he gave to the veterans that he had not given until he was called on. we can say wonderful things about trump and a lot of bad things. i find this one of the most reprehensible things, too. not giving euro money but taking other people's money and taking is credit is being -- reprehensible. when we come back, we will catch up with two reporters after this. ♪

♪ we are joined by two of our favorite political reporters, but great casey hunt of nbc news, who is by the brooklyn bridge, and the magnificent james pindell of the boston globe.

to have you. i want to start with casey. surely clinton back on the cap -- hillary clinton back on the campaign trail. what are your takeaways? i think first and foremost, her team seems to be trying to use humor to handle this event. fallon, for example, send me a statement last night about trump talking about her lying by saying, donald seems cranky, maybe he needs a happy meal. her staff came out to "i feel good" by james brown today. that is how they are trying to make light of what is going on, but clinton herself seemed to use this as a way to talk about the campaign in a broader sense. she talked about how she spent three days at home in hous -- and how this has made her more reflective. it was a little more thoughtful in some ways, a little more personal. they clearly want to make sure

she is sending the message that she is trying to pick up where she left off. this is not something where they need a reset. this is why you saw her go back out and talk to reporters today, like she had been before she got hit with this pneumonia. john: memo to our friends in brooklyn, i believe it is the case that james brown may have died of pneumonia, so you may whento rethink that music you have hillary clinton come out on stage next time. james, i am in new hampshire right now. this is a state you know well. this state looks close when it did not look that close just a few weeks ago. what is changing on the ground where i am, in new hampshire, where donald trump will be shortly? what is making a tight? james: i think you have a couple of things, but one of them is that donald trump has largely been silent. he has not had a new controversy. you are also finding republicans beginning to coalesce behind him. if you look at some of those numbers, republicans are coming behind him more.

the real battleground will be independent voters. dynamic in new hampshire is the same as it is in iowa were in florida, or ohio, or north carolina, where hillary clinton has a large field operation with well over 150 staffers and donald trump has a very small operation. however, you have to give donald trump credit. he is showing up. hillary clinton has not been here. i think this is the third time he has been here in a month. t the: casey, let's health issue to decide for hillary. rebooted inmpaign terms of staff and in terms of message. obviously, hillary clinton did not change her staff. are you getting inclinations from her people that there will be strategic shifts in the polls , now that they have changed dramatically in the last few weeks? there is i think that

an acknowledgment inside the clinton campaign that they need to do more than just prosecute donald trump. i think i heard you guys talking earlier in the show, and i think it may have been howard that was making this point that they have been effective over the summer in criticizing trump. she has found her footing in doing that. the challenge is making sure hillaryds up with clinton's message, and that clinton herself is making this positive change. that is my sense from talking to them privately, that that is what they are feeling in these polls. they feel like they need to move some of these numbers by making the affirmative case for her. she was set to do that starting this week, until she was hit with this pneumonia. their challenge going forward. they will also push back and say are some of these polls likely voters versus rated --

versus registered voters. the way the pollsters are cutting the data is that this race might be closer. the challenge is, what assumption do you make about how many white, working-class, especially male voters are going to show up, and how differently will they act from how they have in the past? part of why you have seen hillary clinton spend more time in pennsylvania, for example, than in new hampshire, where james is. he will be back in philadelphia on monday. i feel like we have spent the last three weeks in pennsylvania. donny: picking up on casey's point on up taking the affirmative's hillary clinton, -- the affirmatives for hillary clinton, i don't think you can move her affirmatives up and you do have to stay on the negative. david: one thing that has changed, -- james: one thing that has changed is this has become a

campaign in the last month that has been entirely about a particular candidate. we are discussing who is more racist rather than discussing racism. we are discussing who is healthier, we are not discussing health care. we are discussing hillary clinton's e-mails, but we are not discussing whether the nsa should snoop on yours. it is a campaign based on the candidates, not the voters. i think one thing that you saw is a different focus today. hillary clinton, in the beginning of the speech, said she would be more focused on the voters. one thing you will see from donald trump is if he can be the same way. john: james, i'm curious about something, about this state, new hampshire. you earlier mentioned that some of the things driving the dynamics are the same any other battleground states. one thing that is true here is that there is not a very large nonwhite population. i was up. with tim kaine, and he was making a number of patches -- a

number of pages directly -- pitches directly to millennial voters. what do you think the clinton campaign has to do to generate some kind of enthusiasm among millennial voters who have been so strongly in favor of bernie sanders in the state and others? james: that is a huge challenge. we talked to the staffers, that is the big challenge. how do you drive out millennial voters? they have not been that enthusiastic. one thing that hillary clinton has found in new hampshire, whether it was her comeback in 2008, or when she was riding high in new hampshire, is among women. that sweet spot of millennial women issue they are going after. that is absolutely hot spot for them. john: casey, another variation on the same question. ohio afterm going to the alarm bells have been rung in ohio, thanks to a bloombergpolitics poll in a couple of others. they are sending elizabeth warren and bloomberg -- and learning centers -- and bernie

sanders into the state. a sense that brooklyn is starting to become alarmed about this enthusiasm gap that we are seeing in the polls? i think there is a sense that this is growing and yountially problematic area could tell that on the trail this week with president obama. he campaigned for her in philadelphia. kind ofhear, if you read between the lines of that speech, you could tell that he and his team are very aware that there is a potential for a lot of people that showed up for him -- and he pulled so many new people into the system -- there is really no good way to tell necessarily who among those new people is going to stick around and vote for hillary clinton, and that, i think, is really the challenge here. and obviously, ohio is kind of ground zero for all of this. you area state where

seeing a republican who is running a strong race, rob portman, pulling far ahead of the democrats. , as well as the tightening polls at the presidential level, yeah, there are definitely alarm bells. thehave to combine progressive millennial base with african-american voters and making sure those turnout levels are where they were for obama. that is actually pretty challenging at this point. seconds, what to the clinton people think they have to do nine days from now in that debate? in one sentence. reporter: they have to not let donald trump exceed expectations. donny: james, i know you are not working on the campaign, but what would you think that donald trump needs to do in one sentence in that debate? not about the issues, but entirely about her. donny: we will be right back, guys. ♪

donny: thanks to my hero john heilemann for letting me protect the studio while he is in new hampshire. and thanks to the -- and had to bloombergpolitics.com and check out the special election issue. while you are there, sign up for the newsletter, called "the brief." it has everything you need to know about the 2016 race. up next, emily chang talks about the future of solar energy on "bloomberg west." sayonara. ♪

mark: let's begin with the check of first word news. after being sidelined with pneumonia, hillary clinton to the campaign trail today. she told a rally in greensboro, north carolina that the time off

gave her moment to reflect. donald trump today unveiled his economic plan, one that promises to lower taxes, cut regulation, and create jobs. he told the economic club of new york the only thing hillary clinton can offer is "a welfare check." >> not one single idea she has got will create one net american jobs, or one new dollar of american wealth. trump also said he would look to cut regulation, which he says has stifled american growth. he also says he wants to cut the corporate tax rate, currently at 35%, to 15%. a new york city police officer has been taken to bellevue hospital after authorities say he and a fellow officer were attacked near penn station by a man with a meat cleaver.