john: i am john heilemann. mark: i am mark halperin. with all due respect to donald trump's mimicry, we are getting the impression you are a one trick pony. donald trump: here is jeb bush, donald trump is not a true conservative. charles krauthammer, donald trump is not at 50%. poor mitt romney, donald trump should not run. donald trump. glenn beck. donald trump. ted cruz. donald trump. lindsey graham. donald trump's strategy does not work. the washington post. donald trump wants to let japan go nuclear. donald trump does not like nato. he will not do well. he does not know foreign policy. he should not be allowed on the debate stage. donald trump is not christian. tim kaine --

donald is this, use that. hillary clinton. donald trump. donald trump. donald trump. donald trump. donald trump will not become the president. ♪ john: welcome to the best of "with all due respect." the final week before the first presidential debate, the nation's attention was focused on the violence in the streets of a major american city. we discussed how the latest police shootings in north carolina and oklahoma and the state of race relations in america, and how they impact the 2016 presidential race. mark: yet another police shooting that has captured the nation's attention. protests arrested yesterday in charlotte, north carolina, after police shot and killed 43-year-old keith lamont scott. police say keith emerged from his vehicle with a gun before he was killed. his family has disputed the

police account, saying he was unarmed. after all that, demonstrations turned violent last night as protesters vandalized businesses, threw rocks at police, and at one point blocked a highway by looting a truck and setting fire to a pile of boxes. all of this happened of course a day after police in tulsa, oklahoma released that video showing an officer shooting an unarmed african-american man, terrence crutcher, who appeared to have his hand in the air when he was shot. at a campaign stop in ohio, donald trump was asked about that footage. mr. trump: to me, it looks like he did everything you were supposed to do, and he looks like a good man. maybe i am a little clouded because i saw his family talking about him after the fact, so you get a different image, maybe. but to me he looks likes somebody who was doing what they were asking him to do. this young officer, i do not know what she was thinking. i don't know what she was

thinking. but i am very, very troubled by that. i am very, very troubled by that, and we have to be very careful. so i mean, these things are terrible. that was, in my opinion, that was a terrible situation. we have seen other swift statements. the police are aware of that. by the way, the police are troubled by it too. did she get scared, was she choking, what happened? but maybe people like that, people that joke, people that do that, maybe they can't be doing what they do. mark: hillary clinton commented on the latest shooting, taking a moment during her speech today in orlando to address the matter as well. ms. clinton: there is still much we don't know about what happened in both incidents, but we do know that we have two more names to add to a list of african-americans killed by

police officers in these encounters. it is unbearable, and it needs to become intolerable. i have spoken to many police chiefs and other law enforcement leaders who are as deeply concerned as i am and deeply committed as i am to reform. why? because they know it is essential for the safety of our communities and our officers. mark: so john, how do these latest police shootings of african-american men impact the presidential race, and how are the two candidates handling the situation? john: you know, mark, we talked about this yesterday, before the situation in charlotte had unfolded. we were going to do it about the shooting in tulsa at that time. this is the second time where in the police shooting and they have broken through in a significant way. obviously this is a huge problem in cities across the country.

and is a real challenge for both candidates. i thought donald trump and hillary clinton handled this pretty well today. donald trump takes a different line that he has taken in the past, different from what his campaign manager and vice presidential running mate took a few hours earlier, expressing more sympathy for the victim in the case in tulsa. and of course, hillary clinton talks about it with great fluency. they are both talking about it very well. i do not know what the political influence will be, but it is something that will be a topic of discussion so long as these events keep happening as we head toward election day. mark: no question that donald trump's remarks were more striking than clinton's, not because he spoke with more compassion than she did by any means, but because they were different than what mike pence talked, but the way he has largely talked about these matters. it is great in the face of tragedy for both to take time to reflect on it and to give us a sense of the kind of leaders they would be if they were president starting in january of

how they will deal with this. because it is pretty clear, although there is something of a national debate about remedies, this is still a problem that will bedevil the country for some time to come. john: if you think this is a systematic problem and one that is related to race and racial bias, it is not a mystery that a lot of the victims in these cases have been african-american men, in some cases justified. in many cases, way too many cases, unjustified or apparently unjustified. that qualifies hillary clinton to talk about this in a more comprehensive way than donald trump does, but as you point out, trump taking a very different town today. interesting to see where it goes. next up, we check on the state of the presidential race with two reporters from our nations capital who have been busy covering it closely. stay tuned. ♪

♪ mark: the best political reporters in america join us now. the chief white house correspondent and dan of the washington post, in the papers newsroom, thank you both for being here. dan, i will start with you. how do you think, based on the performance of the candidates this past week and into the debate monday, how do they look in terms of fighting form to be ready for that showdown? dan: they both need work and a lot of practice over the next few days and they will do it in their own way. hillary clinton is going to be down much of that time during the debate going through a rigorous series of mock debates. donald trump will do it his own way, which will be, i will not call that a relaxed approach, but it will be a different approach. he will not cram himself full of facts and figures.

but he will have a sense of strategy that he wants to take into the debate. i think both of them have to be a little bit nervous because this is a more unpredictable environment. the topics are very broad that lester holt has laid out, and we don't quite know what donald trump will be like. there has to be nervousness on both sides. mark: margaret, how do you think they are headed trajectory wise at monday? margaret: what we are seeing with clinton is she is trying to project a calm and prepared approach, sticking to the facts. her appearance at the u.n., kind of showing off her statesmanlike credentials. she wants to remain calm and unflappable. i think just as much to convince herself that she can do that on monday as anything else. if she can keep that up and go in there in a "i am not going to take the bait kind of mode," that is ideally what she wants. the campaign is afraid of any reason why everybody in the world will tune in to see whether the she can pull that off. john: in terms of what you know

about how they are dealing with debate prep, this is the biggest topic out there -- how do you think she is, technically speaking, going about the process of trying to get ready for the unpredictability of donald trump? margaret: in many ways, i will give you some educated guesses because we know a lot more about what she is not doing and what she is doing. they have been careful about not sprinkling in many details as we all wants. we know she is not like off at a resort outside of las vegas in debate camp. she is trying to avoid president obama's kind of ritual and some of his mistakes from 2012. and we know the way she has traditionally done debate prep is to go through kind of everything. she knows what her policies are. but to review her own work, what her opponent has said and done in the past, and to try to be prepared not only to defend her own positions or explain her own positions, but to be able to check him and cross him if either he says something that

she knows is not true or if the debate moderator himself fails to go in that direction. i expect that is a lot of what she is doing, but i would love to tell you, is she in a room in her house watching video, that she do it in the kitchen or is there a tent in the backyard, we do not know a lot of those sort of details. the campaign is holding that really tight. john: dan, you made a comment when you are answering mark's question that you did not want to go quite where donald trump is handling his prep in a relaxed fashion. from what we know, he will be relaxed. what do you think the dangers and the strengths are going about debate prep the way donald trump seems to be, in a much more -- not nearly as rigorous, let's say, or structured away as hillary clinton generally does? dan: let's start with a positive. he is very good on live tv settings. or very often is, and he

demonstrated that in a lot of the republican debates. he is comfortable in that environment. he knows how to make a quick, he knows how to make someone off balance, and he enjoys doing that. in a performance sense, he comes to it with a kind of a naturalness that she might not. he spent many years in reality tv, and he likes and enjoys that environment. the challenge i think obviously or the risk is that this is 90 minutes, there is no break, it can be very substantive depending on how the flow of the debate goes. he will have to produce deeper or more complex answers about some of his policies or more consistent or coherent statements about his policies. he will have a greater difficulty kind of skating across the top of some of those issues that he might have been able to do in a debate with four, five, six, seven, eight people that he did in the republican debate. i think that is the bigger risk for him. mark: margaret, a democrat who supports hillary clinton told me today that she thought things

were going pretty well. the most recent wave of polling including a new nbc wall street journal poll, better news for clinton than last week's polling in the wake of the problems she had over the weekend but they also said it could be that this is such an overwhelming change election that there is nothing we can do. we can run a perfect race and donald trump could overwhelm us. do you get the sense that is a prevailing view within democratic circles, this could be a donald trump year and there is nothing clinton can do? margaret: no, hillary clinton and her campaign are dedicated to the proposition that the ground game, the infrastructure, the planning, all that sort of stuff, actually does make a difference, particularly in florida, pennsylvania, ohio, maybe that scenario applies. that is not entirely clear yet. the polling has gotten better since the initial total fallout of pneumoniagate which was a really dumb move on their part. to the extent that she is beginning to put a little space

between her and donald trump, these tend to be polls of likely voters. if their presumption is they can actually push that a little bit further because they are doing work to turn out people that polls are not building in in the -- into the sort of prediction models, then they can feel a little better than they could one week ago. i do not think they think this is a runaway year that they can do nothing about. i think they firmly believe all of the stuff they are doing, the manpower on the ground, traditional campaign stuff makes a difference. how much of a difference obviously we do not know yet. mark: dan, analysts and people in the clinton campaign say states where donald trump is doing well like iowa and ohio, a lot of white voters there. in the states where he is doing well, battleground states where he's doing better like ohio and florida where i am, what else is going on? what else is helping donald trump beside white voters? dan: florida, as you know mark, is always close and will be close, it has been a battleground over the last several elections, and i do not

think anybody in either campaign thought that one candidate or the other was going to get a big advantage in florida. that was the closest as i recall in 2012, and very well may be the closest this time around. i think the fact that he is doing well there is fine and expected. in other states, it is a function of the percentage of the electorate, the white electorate that has college degrees or does not have college degrees. the lower that percentage, the better trump does, the higher that percentage, the more challenged he is, and that is what i think is what we are seeing in some of these battleground states. john: you are the dean so i will close with you. in this nbc wall street journal poll it says that people were asked what concerns them most about donald trump. at the very top of the list is him not having the right temperament to be commander in chief. a little further down the list is his comments about women and immigrants. and the bottom of the list, 6% the thing is his failure to

release his tax returns. looking at that poll, can we deduce that there is no way we will see donald trump's tax returns before election day? dan: even if that number had been twice or three times that 6%, i do not think we would see them. he has made a decision i think that they will stay hidden as long as possible and well after the november 8 voting. i think it is interesting and reflective that the things we talk about a lot are not that important to a lot of people. he is breaking precedent by not releasing them, no question about that. but is not necessarily going to be a voting issue, and i think he has concluded that more harm could could come from releasing them then not. john: anything else about the tax return? margaret: he decided there is more downside in releasing them than ever there could be in making them public. mark: coming up, we get our very own press briefing from white house secretary josh earnest who paid a visit to our studio in

new york on monday. ♪

♪ john: we have a lot to unpack with our next guest. white house press secretary josh earnest joins us from our set in new york. josh, we are sorry we are not there with you, but it is good to have you on the show. josh: i am going to rearrange the books on the shelves while you are gone. john: i figured that would be the no good you would be up to. just give us an update about where the president, what the president thinks in the wake of this weekend. he gave a statement today. bring us up-to-date on where things are. josh: give credit to men and the first thing we have to do is women in law enforcement. we saw coordination between local officials and federal officials. you got the law enforcement guys

on the street walking the beat, doing the good police work to track the individual. you also have fbi experts using their forensic skill and technology to trace this person. in the space of a little over 24 hours ago from a device going off somewhere in manhattan to a name being released by the fbi as a potential suspect and that person just a few hours later being brought into custody. this is really a testament to the heroism of the men and women and law-enforcement. the investigation is continuing, and we obviously want to learn more about this individual, what motivated him, what ties he had to other people who may have been involved, and that work is just beginning. mark: do you agree with the clinton campaign that donald trump, through the words he uses can actually hurt america's security? josh: i think the rhetoric we have heard from a lot of republicans including the nominee is contrary to our values and does undermine the argument that we are making against isil.

the fact of the matter is the president has organized an international coalition to go after isil, and we have taken 14,000 airstrikes in iraq and syria combined and had success in taking senior isil officials off the battlefield come into dust including two extra no plotters in the last couple of weeks, and we also know that they are trying to propagate a radical ideology, a bankrupt false mythology, and trying to inspire vulnerable individuals of carrying out acts of violence. we are not just taking the fight to isil on the ground. we are going to destroy this organization, but we will do it with something close to our strategy that does not make the case that they represent true islam in a war against the west. john: josh, you made a comment about how the battle between the west and isil was about a battle of narratives. the donald trump campaign said you were out to lunch and out of touch by framing the battle in

those terms. how do you respond to that charge? josh: there is no denying we have starkly different views about the way to take on the fight. but the rhetoric we hear from republicans does often undermine the case that we are making against isil. first of all, our first and foremost priority is protecting the american people, and that includes using our military power, our intelligence, our law enforcement to keep the american people safe. the president has demonstrated a willingness and a success in making those orders, designing that strategy, and then implementing it. the fact there is a battle that isil wants to wage of narratives. they want to drive the narrative, that they represent islam and are represented islam and the war against the west. that is false. it is not true. there are millions of patriotic muslims in the united states now that are serving in our

military, serving in our law enforcement, that are also our teachers and lawyers and doctors and nurses. these are individuals were making an important contribution to our great country. and to deny that fact or to obscure that fact to win political points is shameless and inconsistent with our values and undermines our effectiveness to degrade and ultimately destroy isil. mark: right, and the rare exception to that are those people who come here and commit terror after naturalizing. donald trump says the system needs to be changed dramatically to keep that from happening. is that a fair charge, or are there things that need to change to that people who come in to keep those instances from happening, as rare as they are, from happening? josh: something our critics do not a knowledge is that refugees who come to the united states are subjected to more vetting that any individual that enters the country, more than somebody who enters on a tourist visa or business visa. refugees have to do a background check. they have to undergo an in person interview, biometric

information is collected about them. then the information is run through a variety of national security databases that are maintained by our military, intelligence community, international law enforcement organizations. they are thoroughly vetted. i will say that if there is more we can do to strengthen that even further, we are certainly open to that. we should not enter into a situation where we are doing some republicans have suggested which is essentially imposing a religious test on people who seek to enter the united states. a muslim ban, saying -- mark: short of a religious test though, are you saying the fact that this happens on occasion is just the cost of doing business, or we should not accept the fact that some people are welcomed into this country and then commits acts of terror? we should change the the system to stop it? josh: the most effective way to deal with this is not to keep people out of the country, but we should seek to ensure that we have strict vetting of refugees for entering the united states.

that is exactly what we have done. we need to implement an effective homeland security strategy in terms of law enforcement and making clear to people who are at risk, of potentially being radicalized by isil that they have a home in the united states. john: i want to take you back to a couple of events a couple days ago and point out what seems to me to be two events that seem to be somewhat in contradiction to each other. the first was president obama on friday when donald trump [indiscernible] withdrew himself from the posture of asserting that president obama may not have been born in the united states. the birther day. the president said, "i do not want to talk about this, we have got more important things to focus on." literally the next night, the black caucus, he was literally as fired up as i have seen them at a campaign event, saying that if people do not vote for him -- for hillary clinton that is -- he will consider it a personal

insult. it seems he is riled up about donald trump, and around the birther thing, he tried to sluff it off. what is his emotional state right now relative to the cause of stopping donald trump? josh: i think the president is quite energized about this campaign, and he understands the stakes of this campaign. the stakes in this campaign are not about repudiating donald trump, they are about building the progress we have made over the last eight years. let's make sure we build on the affordable care act and expand access to health care to even more americans. let's continue to build on the economic progress we have made by continuing to raise wages for low and middle income families. making sure we are continuing to reduce the deficit. let's make sure we are building on our progress in fighting the causes of climate change. let's make sure we are more effectively and limiting wall street reform strategy in a way that strengthens our economy. that is what is at stake. that is why the president is fired up and ready to go. ♪ john: next up, a call to capitol hill were a donald trump supporter breaks down the presidential race after these

words from our sponsors. ♪

♪ mark: joining us now is senator david purdue from the great state of georgia. he has been a long and strong donald trump supporter. thanks for joining us. david: good to be with you guys. mark: senator, tell me what you think the state of the race is? david: i think he has touched a nerve in the electorate. voter turnout was up 60% and i lived that same thing in my race in georgia, and i think he has touched a nerve out there that i do not believe is going away. i do not believe these national

right now either way. i think there is a lot of noise in the system and quite frankly the intensity behind trump support does not show up in the polls. so i actually think he has got a chance to win this thing. i do think it will be close in some battleground states, but i think the high ground is lack of the performance in the obama administration and the fact that hillary clinton is really offering no change in direction. and the people want that more than anything else. we were promised hope and change eight years ago and it never happened. mark: when you say he has a chance, can i take that you still think he is the underdog? david: i operated every day in my race as an underdog, and he is working every day as if he is an underdog. my prediction is he will win big, and i believe this is bigger than donald trump and bigger than me. this is about the direction of our country, and people are realizing the direction we are taking right now is failing. this is the weakest economic recovery in seven years. right now the growth -- gdp growth by a compound basis is

under 1%. people are hurting out there struggling to get from payday to payday, and a lot of times these polls and the way we look at that is through the lens of the washington establishment, sometimes misses that, and i think that is what is going on right now. john: senator, you are a former ceo of a fortune 500 company? david: right. john: i want to ask you about a story in "the washington post" that suggests in his business when he faced legal problems that he agreed to make charitable donations to make lawsuits go away and use money from his 501(c)(3) charitable foundation to make those donations. would you consider that proper behavior on the behalf of a person? ivid: i'm not sure accept the premise of the question. if that goes through the court and he is convicted

obvious that is a problem. we have the same thing on hillary's side, she was in a government position taking personal advantage of the government position. those are serious allegations. the real issue right now in my mind is that people in america want to see a direction for the country. they want to have hope again, and right now, we are not seeing that out of the hillary campaign. we are talking about changes of that are increasing taxes, small -- more regulation, smaller military -- these are things that bother people when they see a crisis globally, but also here at home economically. this debt is a very real issue right now. we are seeing no solutions from the hillary camp. john: i know you are a deficit hawk, and you do not like the debt. there is not a single nonpartisan analysis of the tax plan that does not suggest that it would add trillions of dollars to the national debt. just make the case for the trump tax plan why it is acceptable. sen. perdue: i am excited about it as a first step. it is one of the first things that needs to happen. what he is talking about is tax reform pushing back regulations

and unleashing this energy boom that we have been given are great first steps. i would love to see us move to a repatriation tax in the nation as well, but we have to do with redundant agencies and saving social security and medicare and arresting the spiraling health health care costs that i think he will begin to address it in a campaign. i think it is a great first step. i'm very excited about it. mark: whether you have given private advice to the campaign or not, give us some advice here publicly. what should donald trump do? sen. perdue: don't change a thing. i don't think he is changing anything. i think right now if he goes in there and takes the high ground he is taking right now, and that is to address the failures of the obama administration and talk about the fact that hillary clinton will double down to give us a third term and talk about the hopes and aspirations of america and how they have been disappointed, how the liberal progressive movement of a barack obama administration of now a potential hillary clinton administration have failed the very people they claim to

champion. if he does that, it doesn't matter what the questions are, he will come on top on monday. mark: give us an example of a question you would like to see lester holt asked hillary clinton in the debate. sen. perdue: how do you put people back to work? she has no experience doing that. he has created thousands of jobs in the real world. nobody has had a perfect career, but he has had to survive in the free enterprise system and he knows how to fight for people. he has said that. i want an american president that stands up for american interest and national interests and create a level playing field around the world both from a national security perspective but also in an economic perspective. he will do that, and i think that will be clear as we go through the next several weeks. you know guys, it is seven weeks from today. as what is that is to believe -- as hard as they did -- that is to believe. i am optimistic you will see this intensity behind the trump campaign grow over the next few weeks. the ground game is taking force in my state and i think north carolina, new hampshire,

colorado -- you will see increased activity. john: i have one last question. i know you expressed disappointment that your fellow republicans have not unified more fully behind mr. trump. just what do you think explains that? why do you think the party is not unified, why are there so many holdout critics of the party nominee? sen. perdue: i hate to be blunt, but i think it is self-interest versus national interest. we have a stark contrast in two different directions offered by hillary clinton and donald trump, and i do not understand republican, any conservative republican thinking that a direction of hillary clinton would be better than a direction of donald trump. it is time to put our big boy and big girl pants on and step up and tell the american people a better way, and that is what they are hoping for in the next seven weeks. mark: senator purdue, senator from georgia, thank you so much for joining us. first presidential debate is less than a week away, which means the candidates are making final efforts to set expectations. take for instance donald trump last night on "the o'reilly factor."

mr. trump: if she treats me with respect, i will treat her with respect. it really depends. people ask me that question, you will go out there and do this and that. i really do not know, you will have to feel it out when you're out there. i can talk about her deleting e-mails after she got a subpoena from congress or talk about her record which is a disaster. >> i suspect you will do that. mr. trump: i will be doing that. we will go back-and-forth and she has a lot of baggage. i tell you what, she has been there a long time. mark: and here is what hillary clinton told jimmy fallon about the unpredictability of trump. jimmy fallon: which trump are you going to get? do you have any idea what -- because he seems to be changing a bit. mrs. clinton: he is trying to somehow convince people to forget everything he has said and done, and i do not think he will get away with that. at least judge us on who we are and what we have stood for --

maya angelou has this great line, and i was fortunate enough to get to know her. she said when someone shows you who he is, believe him the first time. mark: so, john, both candidates are talking about what they expect, what they planned to do, what they don't plan to do, sit down the table and also try to play their own expectations. who is winning the predebate skirmishes right now? john: i don't know. people are so set on what they think, we have discussed this a few times. i think a lead up assumes -- i think you need opinion -- elite opinion assumes hillary clinton is the better debater and she will be the favorite. i think among the average voters, i think a lot of trump trump will think hillary clinton's clock and vice versa on the democratic side. i am not sure any of the expectation setting will matter at all because this is such an

unusual debate with so much expectation and huge high-profile combatants. mark: i reserve the right to change my mind before monday, but i will say this. one thing working in the clinton campaign's favor is to get the media to judge this not as a crazy unorthodox contest where the old rules of judging debates goes out the window but to judge it by normal standards. and i think they feel confident that if it is judged by normal standards of a presidential debate is judged, they have a much better chance of clinton doing well. that does not mean the normal standards are all that healthy for democracy, but i think they will be fine, they will be comfortable if it is judged the normal way which is a lot about theater criticism, a lot about gaffes and big moments. they do not want trump to be judged by some trump standard. john: this is a little off-topic, but i am interested in your answer, because i actually do not know what you think about this. do you think that the moderators should do fact checking in real time if he lies on stage? if donald trump lies gratuitously, is it their job to step in or do they leave that to hillary clinton?

should break they the rules and let the candidate get in. i don't think the moderator should do it. john: i have not made of that -- made up my mind, but i will get around to it by monday. up next, early voting is about to begin. we will talk about the ballot map before election day when we come back. ♪

♪ john: as we get closer to election day, two of our colleagues at bloomberg politics are counting up votes in key battleground states for the eight-part series that we are calling "battlegrounds 2016." we are joined by bloomberg politics contributor sasha eisenberg. and a producer on the show. it is hard to tell which of you is smarter, more handsome, or shorter. tell us about your project this week, sasha. this is all about early voting. sasha: we looked at individual voters.

early voting begins this friday. more than a third of the electorate will vote before election day, and it changes the strategy and tactics the candidates need to get to their winning number in these at a grand states. john: let's focus on trump and figure out what the stakes are here. hillary clinton has more infrastructure and capacity to move on her voting, but where is trump in this game? sasha: they are very reliant on state parties and the rnc. the ohio republican party knows how to get to its voters in the early vote period. the day you send in a request to the secretary of state, the state party already has your name going to a direct mail vendor. you get a piece of mail, and if you have not returned your ballot in 10 days, they chase you down. the challenge for donald trump is they know how to vote for the republican ticket, but donald

trump's mass will need to eat into the democratic party base. the republican parties may not know how to mobilize those voters. i think it will be a challenge in ohio. there is a big republican ticket in ohio, but they are down to county offices turning out republican voters. some of the trump voters we talk about, eastern ohio, might be running for democrats the rest of the ticket but voting for him at the top. mark: talk about the democrats in the early voting. what are the stakes in that side for hillary clinton? >> we will see the disparities in these two campaigns when it comes to infrastructure. hillary has the larger infrastructure. she has staff all over the country. particularly iowa will be a key state where we can watch her in part because iowa is a state, not -- the amount of early votes there is not the largest in any state in the country, but it is one of the earliest. it starts next week, and so we will see hillary clinton try to turn out her more unreliable

voters in iowa that she really needs to win, because when you look at a map in iowa and other states, republicans have a larger base, and the reason democrats win the states is they are able to reach out and turn out more unreliable voters. this is what we did with obama. if she can do that, then she can win states like iowa, nevada, and other ones. but she is going to need a head start, and democrats have been historically better at turning out early voters than republicans. mark: north carolina is interesting because it has a changing electorate. president obama won it once, and governor romney won it. talk about the situation in north carolina. sasha: 50% of african-americans voted early in 2012. democrats have done a good job getting african-americans to move up to their voting, the

early voting period, which is why the recent court decision is overturning some of the election reform laws. what we could see -- hillary clinton's path to victory in north carolina relies on, could rely on mobilizing the existing democratic coalition. if she does that, she would know by late october she basically has the state in a bag and move to persuading other states where she needs to be more persuadable with other voters. john: you guys can fight over the answer. in nevada where i was, a pretty democratic state the last two cycles, now they are polling trump ahead. showing nevada is a big early voting stake. there is a smaller window. it is about 2.5 weeks. they have been really good at turning out a lot of voters in that time. in that condensed period, voters of 2012, 62% of voters in 2012 voted early and those are voters still on the rolls now. the reason that matters is because if donald trump is going to win those states, he needs to

turn out persuadable voters and he has less time to do that and as of now, donald trump is not on the air in nevada, and so hillary clinton is making a play for those persuadable voters, and we have yet to see donald trump go there as a traditional campaign would and convince them. john: let me ask you the dumbest question in the world. i am not the dumbest person in the world, but i will pretend to be someone who does not understand this at all. if you are a candidate whether, why do you care whether someone votes early or late? sasha: there are different ways of approaching this. some campaigns say let's clear out our most reliable voters early so that as time goes on, we can reach into the more difficult parts of the electorate and mobilize people who are unreliable or persuade. others see it the other way which is what we see in iowa where we go to people who are not reliable election day voters and take advantage of the convenience of voting early.

part of it depends on the composition of the electorate in these states. this is the challenging thing in nevada. trump's late starts on the airwaves for persuasion and on the ground for mobilization means that his strategic path, he will have fewer options as he gets closer to election day. this is one great debates that happens among tacticians -- if you have a month to turn out, voters, what sequence do you want them to vote in? john: the notion of let's bank some votes. we have always got to bank some votes. the sequence of these questions seem like important tactical decisions you have to make about ing and you are bank what you put on your shoulder. steve: if you can bank enough votes early you can pull out and diverse resources to another state. "battleground 2016" series from now until election day every tuesday. ese guys here, being really smart. bloomberg politics released our latest slice poll.

this is focused on likely voters with an annual household income of $100,000 or more. the poll found in a four-way race, hillary clinton leads with 41% of the vote and donald trump carries 37%. compare these numbers to mitt romney's performance in 2012 where he won the group of rich people. 54% to obama's 44%. we are joined with the managing director of purple strategies. here in the first question i have for you. why do we care about how rich people are going to vote? >> i think what is most important is looking at different divides in the electorate, and when you compare what we found here which shows clinton in very good shape compared to romney, and you compare that to the last -- less educated voters, you see a huge schism. can trump put together those groups, the coalition of those who support him by strong measures, and win the election? john: it seems a strange thing. the basic deal here is that rich people normally vote for republicans and in this case, hillary clinton seems to have the advantage.

talk more about the previous poll and the schism because it seems to me like maybe in addition to education it is one of the biggest schisms -- a new schism this electorate is producing. doug: absolutely. there has been a divide. pew found results that there was less difference between white college-educated women and white downscale men was dramatic and something that is growing. if you look at our whole, you see the same thing. you have wealthy well-educated voters -- generally well-educated, that is -- supporting her by four points and you have white downscale voters less educated voters supporting him by 22 points. john: coming up, some vp voices. our exclusive interview with joe lieberman and dan quayle from our showtime documentary series. right after this. ♪

♪ mark: as the health of both candidates came under scrutiny last week, new attention turned to their running mates. one tragedy away from the executive seat if the ticket gets elected. we talked about this topic on "the circus," our show on showtime we do in conduction with bloomberg politics. the past episode on sunday. for that show, our cohost mark mckinnon sat down with conversations with two men who know what comes with the being number two. ken krall, who served under george herbert walker bush, and -- dan quayle, who served under george herbert walker bush, and al gore's 2000 running mate joe lieberman. >> because hillary clinton got sick and had to go off the trail, it shines a spotlight on the importance of the role of the vice president, a heartbeat away from the presidency. how are you? mark mckinnon, great to meet you and how are you, mr. vice president?

>> you know, there was a lot of jokes about the vice presidency that come through our history. one is the one about two brothers and one went out to see a and the other became vice president and neither was heard from again. it is much more than that. >> can you tell us what it was like when you got a call and learned you are the vice presidential nominee? >> i was walking back to the hotel, and we had beepers in those days, we did not have cell phones. the beeper went off, so i got back to the hotel, got the phone number, call it, and i get jim baker. i go, darn, i lost. >> expecting to get bad news? >> yes, i was expecting vice president george bush to call me. >> so when it was baker, you assumed -- >> he said, hang on for the veep, the vice president. so the vice president gets on

and says, "i would like to offer you the vice presidency." i said, what is my assignment? he said "you need to show up at the spanish plaza at 4:00," and it was 2:00, and i said where the heck is the spanish plaza? he said, "i don't know, but this is your first assignment so do not screw it up." one of the first calls i get is from president nixon. he said, "i was about your age when eisenhower picked me. let me tell you something, it changes your life forever." >> most people say when you are making the decision, the foremost must be the capacity, experience to step into the presidency. >> ultimately the person the presidential nominee chooses has to pass the most important test which is the american people will think he or she is capable of being president. >> tell me a little bit about what it was like to figure out

you were on the short list in 2000. >> toward the end, it was down interestingly to john kerry, john edwards, and me, and the money -- the smart money over the weekend seemed to be that it was going to be john edwards. warren christopher apparently said to al gore, mr. vice president, this election will say more about you than it does about the person you are selecting to be your running mate, and if you select senator edwards, you will have to explain to the american people why you are taking a person who, two years ago, was practicing law in north carolina, and you are putting him second to the most powerful governmental position in the world and apparently that turned the conversation. >> can you tell me what it was like serving as vice president when he got sick at the japanese dinner where he was incapacitate?.

>> i got a call from sam skinner about 4:00 in the morning saying we have a problem in the -- in tokyo. the president passed out at dinner. seconds later, barbara bush is on the line and i said what is going on over there and she said overdid it, he is fine, he has got the flu." >> because she was the real second-in-command. >> that's right. [laughter] >> do the voters have a right to know what is the status of the health of the candidate? >> i think candidates have a responsibility to reveal their baseline health. >> i have always been for disclosure, but it is not as important as the media makes it out to be. >> would you like to be the next vice president? >> not now. [laughter] mark: our thanks to former vice president dan quayle and former senator john lieberman. you can catch "the circus" at 8:00 p.m. eastern. sundays. a ton for watching this edition of "best of with all due respect."

monday is the big debate, and we are partnering with twitter for pre-and post game coverage of at 8:30 p.m. eastern, follow our twitter handle @bpolitics. until monday, big debate day, sayonara. ♪

>> welcome to bloomberg businessweek. >> we are inside the magazine headquarters in new york. >> an investigation of the helicopter killing u.s. troops. >> the $2 billion mistake samsung made in its rush to compete with apple. and in new credit card that is causing as much height. >> all that ahead on "bloomberg businessweek." carol: we're here with ellen pollock. editor-in-chief. you take a look at the most influential people when it comes to the markets. ellen: this is something bloomberg has done f s