first woman is running, and to be part of that conversation, and part of the change that's happening in america. i mean, it is the american opportunity. >> you're also going to hear why they decided to pay women in the film more than men. sort of flipping the tables there at 7:00 eastern right here. i'm poppy harlow in new york. see you back here at 7:00. thank you so much for being with us. "smerconish" begins right now. ♪ i'm michael smerconish. the democrats have left town, but i'm still in philly. the conventions are over, and now just 100 days remain, including three presidential debates. that's all that stands between now and election day. in an election cycle already full of surprises, like dnc hacked information produced by

wikileaks, might there be an october surprise that changes everything? plus, she introduced her mother at the convention, just five weeks after giving birth. now will chelsea clinton become the first first daughter to serve in that role a second time? i'll talk to her mother-in-law. and is the real story of this election the fact that we in the media and establishment politicians don't understand what it's like to be working class? but first, might there be a real october surprise in this presidential race? you know, back in 1972, right before the election, secretary of state henry kissinger promised, peace is at hand in vietnam, which wasn't true. but it helped president nixon vanquish his anti-war opponent, george mcgovern. since then, virtually every presidential election has raised the prospect of another october surprise. but this time, it might actually happen. we got a possible preview this

week with dnc e-mails and voice maples. julian assange has well-documented antipathy toward hillary clinton and has promised nor releases of embarrassing information. remember, james comey said he couldn't be sure whether hillary clinton's private e-mail servers were hacked. but he did conclude that those with whom she regularly communicated were compromised. so imagine this scenario. in the weeks before the election, e-mails surface that originated on clinton's private e-mail servers. that they're of a public nature, but were not among the thousands handed over to the fbi for its investigation. their content need not be particularly damaging. the only thing needed to harm clinton would be that they were e-mails that should have been shared with the fbi, but instead were deleted and nevertheless ended up in hostile hands. that would confirm republicans' worst charges about how clinton

jeopardized national security in a manner that james comey himself characterized as extremely careless. unless, of course, donald trump bobbles the potential gift before it falls in his lap. and that's entirely possible, since trump has no filter, and just can't help himself. on wednesday, he encouraged russia to find the e-mails and then later trump and his team tried to say, well, he was just joking. it was a missed opportunity. what trump should have done is condemn all hacking by actors, foreign and domestic, and then lay low. instead he provided democrats with an opportunity to cast him as siding with vladimir putin against america, which, if successful, could obscure clinton's negligent behavior. if this whole escapade were a political paper back pop boiler, his chief protagonist, john cory, would muzzle trump, condemn clinton, depose putin and maybe ensure that khazir

khan, the father of the slain muslim soldier who was the breakout star of the dnc, he would be the next american president. i know, it all sounds far-fetched. but given everything else that's happened this cycle, i'm not counting out. david sanger has been covering the hack for the "new york times," their chief washington correspondent. david sanger joins me right now from the aspen security forum. here's the front page of the "new york times" today. you contributed to this story, the headline says, "russian spies said to hack clinton's bid." what's the latest, david? >> well, the latest out of that story is that the clinton campaign said that a database that they shared with the dnc appeared to have been compromised. that doesn't mean that the russians got into the clinton campaign tone networks. we know, of course, that somebody, and it's believed to be russia, and u.s. intelligence officials certainly seem to

believe it's two russian spy agencies, did get into the dnc. that is a different they think than getting into the campaign's own computer networks. but the broader question, which you raised, michael, and raised rightly, is, we don't know where the bottom of this is. because we don't know what additional material the russian hackers, if the intelligence agencies are right, might have. we don't know how much of it, if any, has been passed on to wikileaks or other publications. it's not just wikileaks that turned this out. there were others, as well. and we don't know what the impact is going to be. and then, of course, you had the remarkable scene that you mentioned earlier this week, when mr. trump went out and basically invited, whether it was sarcastically or not, the russians to go commit what would be a felony under u.s. law, which is to go into computer systems and pull out confidential data.

now, he says that he was being sarcastic, and i think you have to allow that this is a campaign and people say all kinds of odd things at odd moments. but we're at a very different place here, because we have never before seen a moment where a foreign power, at least that i can find, where a foreign power appears, and the critical word here is "appears," to be stepping in to try to manipulate some kind of electoral result. that creates a lot of -- different issues for the obama administration. >> and that was my next question. is this routine espionage if there is such a thing or intended to influence the outcome of the american election? >> well, michael, it's entirely possible it began as routine espionage. the first attack on the dnc dates back to june of 2015, when no one could have foreseen that donald trump was going to emerge

as the republican candidate. but it was a pretty good bet that hillary clinton would emerge as the democratic candidate. and we know that vladimir putin believes that hillary clinton was meddling in the 2011 apartme parliamentary election in russia and that the u.s. has mettled in his mind in ukraine, where the russians seized crimea and have been active in gurla movements going on elsewhere in ukraine, low-level stuff and, of course, he resents the american activity in georgia, as well. so it's very possible that in the minds of russians, this is simply payback for something the americans started. >> final question, david. it seems to defy logic that the russians, if it, in fact, is the russians, would only be interested on the democratic side of the aisle. what do we know, if anything,

about their efforts to get to the republicans? >> so far, we haven't seen much. and we have been asking that question. and that is one of the reasons that many people in the intelligence world and law enforcement world believe this may have been an effort by the russians to put their finger on the scale. but it's very possible that we could see efforts to get at material from the russians, as well. if you go back a few election cycles, in 2008, the chinese were in both a democratic and republican campaigns. barack obama's and john mccain's. there was evidence of foreign intelligence gathering in 2012. the difference here is not intelligence-gathering. we do that to the russians, including the political institutions. they do that to us. it's the selected release of information that appears to be intended to alter the election. now, to those who are highly suspicious of hillary clinton and her e-mail practices, which

as you point out, were criticized very severely by james comey, this is a sideshow, and what the real issue is what's in the e-mails. to a lot of other people, the russians getting into the system is the main story. >> david sanger, so much for your reportage and being here today. we appreciate it. when looking to blame someone for the cyberattack, russia was more than convenient. is this a new cold war or political pot-stirring? does this accusation have any basis, in fact, and if not, could it cause real harm? here to discuss is steven cohen, american scholar of russian studies at both princeton and new york universities. professor cope, does vladimir putin indeed have a dog in our u.s. fight? >> vladimir putin wants to end the new cold war and so do i. let me say i have no ties to the trump campaign or the clinton campaign. but if i were to write your headline for you today, i tried on the way down here, i couldn't fit it on the front page, but it

would go like this. "we're in a new and more dangerous cold war with russia. we're approaching a cuban missile crisis nuclear confrontation with russia, both along russia's border and possibly over syria. there is absolutely no discussion, no debate about this in the american media, including, forgive me, on cnn. then along comes, unexpectedly, donald trump, who says something that suggests he wants to end the new cold war, cooperate with russia and various places. what we used to call de tonte and now called mccarthy charges that he is a russian agent, a manchurian candidate and putin's client. the real danger is what's being done to our own process. this is a moment when there should be, in a presidential year, a debate. because mrs. clinton's position on russia seems to be very

different, has been a long time. trump speaks elimitcally. you've got to piece together what he says. but he seems to want a new american policy toward russia. and considering the danger, i think we as american citizens deserve that debate, and not what will be -- where we give it in the media today, including on the front page of the "new york times." i end by saying, that these reckless branding of trump as a russian agent, most of it is coming from the clinton campaign and they really need to stop. >> okay. i don't know where to begin. in unpacking all that you just offered to us. but i guess i'll start as follows. as one who can't match your credentials, here's what i see from the outside looking in. i see donald trump having said to the "new york times," just within the last ten days, that he's not so sure he would stand with nato allies, and i'm paraphrasing, he would want to know whether they would be pulling their own weight. the inpart of his comments seems

to suggest he could provide putin with unfettered, unityterred access to the baltic states whose independence he resents. so it all seems to fit, therefore, that putin would have a dog in this fight, would want to see donald trump win this election so that he, putin, could do as he pleases, in that part of the world. cnn is covering that. i have to defend the network in that regard. but why does that not all fit, and why does it not all fit in the headline in today's "new york times," which says russian spies said to have hacked clinton's bid. >> said to have. said to have. that's not news, that's an allegation. james clapper. i don't know who hacked. everybody hacks everybody. i mean, we hacked into chancellor merkel's cell phone. we learned that from snowden. everybody hacks. the point is, and i know you said it, not to defend it, but as a provocation, that let's take the position you just set out. that putin wants to end the

independence in baltic states. there is no evidence for that. none whatsoever. the point is, is that on the networks -- and i'm not blaming cnn, and there's none on any network. there is none in the "new york times." i am old enough to remember that during the last cold war, all these issues were debated in that you had a proponent to each point of view. but you have now got accusations, both against putin, both against trump, which needed to be debated. the most -- let's go back to what you said -- trump said about nato. trump said early on, he wanted to know 60 years after its foundation what was nato's mission today. 100 policy walks in washington since the end of the soviet union, 25 years ago, have asked the same question. is nato an organization in search of a mission? for example, it's a mission for the last 20 years as to expand ever closer to russia. so people have now asked why

isn't it fighting international terrorism? that's a legitimate question. but we don't debate it. we don't ask it. we just say, oh, trump wants to abandon nato. i don't defend trump. trump raises questions. and instead of giving an answer to the substance of the question, we denounce him as some kind of kremlin agent. that's bad for our politics, but still worse, given the danger we're not addressing it. >> i love this conversation. and i could go on for hours with you on this subject. i wish time afforded that. i've not regarded him in that respect. and i think that we have just had this conversation. the conversation that you say is so desperately lacking. thank you for being here. i appreciate your time. tweet me your though thoughts @smerconish. still to come, donald trump's biggest constituency, poor, quite voters. why have they made him their candidate? i'll talk to someone who knows. he grew up a self-described hill

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like crab lover's dream. crack open tender snow and king crab legs, and twirl creamy crab alfredo. or try the new alaska bairdi crab dinner. sweet and straight from the icy waters of alaska, you've gotta get it... to really get it. but it won't last forever, so hurry in. i am so grateful to be her daughter. i am so grateful that she is charlotte and adan's grandmother. she makes me proud every single day. >> that was chelsea clinton, introducing her mother, the last night of the democratic convention. now, i've got a story for you about her mother in law. in 1993, president bill clinton's budget was deadlocked in the house, he asked a freshman democratic congressman named marjorie margolies to cast the tie-breaker vote. she did.

her colleagues waved bye-bye and she did end up allowing her seat in the next election. funny how things work out sometimes. 17 years later, her son married chelsea clinton. and this week, marjorie margolies found herself in the cat bird seat. she joins me now. congresswoman, how did mark and chelsea meet? >> well, we were invited to go to renaissance weekend, and that was in '93. and mark has a lot of brothers and sisters. i think we took nine kids or something. and mark and chelsea met there. so he was 15 and she was 13. and they just remained friends. they became best friends. they went to the same college a year apart. they went to the same graduate school a year apart. and they became really dear friends. talking all the time. it was -- it was such a nice

relationship. and she is a gem. >> so you grandparent the same children as the clintons. how do you divide those responsibilities? you know, all of us in our phone families know that when the holidays come, you have to decide, are you going to be with them, are you -- how does it work in this unit? >> i say anything you want is fine. i say, just -- anything you want. sometimes we will -- because we have so many people. sometimes we'll say, okay, thanksgiving, you did thursday, friday, we'll do saturday. who cares? my response is, hmmm, that's a good idea. >> chelsea is friendly with ivanka trump. is mark friendly with the trump clan? >> he was -- he was friendly with jared, yes. he has known him for a while. >> it's amazing they can

maintain those kinds of relationships, given the tone of this -- that's playing itself out around us. chelsea wanted to humanize her mother, and she did in that final night of the dnc by sharing with us things we didn't know about hillary. tell us something we don't know about chelsea. >> you know, i think she's been under the spotlight for a really long time. she's -- she has a great sense of humor. she is very, very patient. as you can -- well imagine. she's -- she is so smart. and endlessly energetic. endlessly. you can tell. she exercises and she is -- she's very, very, very responsive. she is a gem. and i think you saw a bit of that when she introduced her mother. she is just a terrific person. >> you know that the wedding

planning -- the wedding planning gets discussed with regard to those, quote, unquote, damn e-mails. every time i heard reference to the private server and the e-mails that dealt with yoga or the wedding, i thought of you. did you share wedding planning responsibilities with the secretary of state? >> i was very, very careful about -- as the -- i've had daughters getting married, so i know what that responsibility is. but as the mother of the son getting married, basically, i stepped back and said, ah, it's perfect, everything you want. and we had had so many weddings. we knew that this was going to be a tad bit different. but no, i tried really hard not to put my two cents in, because everyone was putting his or her two cents in. >> final question.

bill clinton still owes you one for that '93 vote. do you rule out serving in a hillary administration? >> i don't rule out anything. but i think it's -- that kind of thing has to be completely up to them. >> all right, congresswoman, thanks for being here. >> thank you. up next, donald trump's most loyal voters are noncollege educated whites. what's his appeal to them? a new best-selling book by jd vance has the answer. here's your tweets. this election will be decided by e-mail revelations, period. that's my take. it could end you beenim the ultimate october surprise. we'll find out.

some of the richest people

in this country are people that can't even read or write. they're called friends of mine. contractors. they might not read or write, but they're a lot smarter than the guys coming out of harvard. i want to tell you. they can take them -- they can take them and wrap them around their finger. >> that was donald trump on friday, complimenting construction workers that he deals with. he's actually appealng to one of his strongest affinity groups. according to the cnn orc poll from after the rnc donald trump enjoys 62%. a new best-selling book might old the answer. "hill billy elejy" was written by a marine who grew up on the wrong side of the tracks before going to law school. explain this appeal. because i think you have your finger on it. >> yeah, well, let me just paint

a picture of the areas where these folks live. on the one hand you find that industrial job loss means it's harder to find a good job, a job you're proud. on the other hand, just to give you a sense of the ohio county where i grew up last year, heroin overdose deaths outnumbered natural cause deaths. so you have in combination with these things a feeling of hopelessness and a feeling, frankly, that the political elites aren't listening, don't appreciate the scale you have to face. and donald trump talking to those construction workers, no one else is really talking to construction workers any more, and talking about their concerns and the places they leave. so it's not surprising they support him. >> what i took away from the book was not so much an explanation of this portrait that you point based on, say, income equality. but rather more looking toward cultural influences and chief among them, the role of religion. speak to that.

>> yeah, absolutely. one of the things i write about is that we think of these areas as the bible belt. but actually, church attendance rates in southern ohio, eastern kentucky, have actually fallen out. what that means, church provides a sense of community, but also a group of people that can lift you up when you're feeling down. what has happened is, people have gone to church less and less. they still identify as evangelicals, of course, but not quite as happy and don't have quite the same sense of community. so i do think it's a critical part to understand what's going on in folks' lives. to ask why aren't they going to church as much and how does that affect their lives. >> jd, as i was reading the book, i was thinking about a controversial -- turned out to be controversial at the time, statement that president obama made in the midst of the '08

cycle. let me remind everybody what i'm talking about. the quote was this. you go into these small towns in pennsylvania and like a lot of small towns in the midwest, the jobs have been gone now for 25 years and nothing has replaced them and they fell through the clinton administration and bush administration and somehow these communities are going to regenerate and they have not. and here's the key part. it's not surprising then they are bitter. they cling to their guns or anti immigrant sentiment or anti trade sentiment as a way to explain their federation frustrations. was he ahead of his time? >> i think he was ahead of his time in that people are frustrated but i think that reveals an attitude that turns a lot of people away from the democratic party and turns them toward someone like donald trump. there is a sense when you grow up like i did, among the people who i grew up among, we're

proud. we love the communities and people we're around and don't like to be judged. and there is this sense that folks like president obama, and frankly, a lot of folks in the republican party, too, they look down on people like me. and if you want to understand, i think, why folks are really frustrated at political elites, you have to talk about the policy and substance. but you also have to talk about that sense of what i'll call smug condescension. and don't be surprised people who look down upon don't feel appreciated by people who look down upon them. >> there is blow back from the rust belt states my own pennsylvania, because he cited pennsylvania. and i'm looking at the golden gate bridge behind you and i'm reminded of the climate in which he offered those comments was a wine and cheese i think in marin county. but there was truth in what he was offering. i don't read the judgmental nature of it that you do, but then again, i don't grow up the way you did. >> i do think his comments were

definitely directed -- i think they were well-intentioned, i'll say that. but i think they came across wrong. i don't think there is anything any politician has said in the past five, ten years that rises quite to that level in still being able to fire people up. i think maybe what hillary clinton said a few weeks ago when she said she wanted to put a lot of coal miners and a lot of coal businesses out of business. but to your point, i think the problems he's bringing up are very legitimate. these places have lost a lot of jobs. these places are struggling. and i think because of that, they have become frustrated and in some ways resentful. but i think the answer is to ask really tough questions about why they're resentful and what we can do to turn things around. and unfortunately, i think the political class has not done a good job at showing sympathy to these places. that's really all that you need to do. it's one of the things i've realized in writing this book. so many people come up and say, thank you for being honest about the problems. but thank you for being sympathetic. and i really think that's what

folks need. they need sympathy. and they need understanding. >> the book is a best-seller. i wish you continued good fortune. jd vance, thank you for being here. up next, presidential debates have evolved into talking points with no risk, no spontaneity and can they be fixed. john wants to introduce oxford style debating. and he's here to explain. plus, here's one of your tweets. the folks that make this country work are not the techno accurates and couns counters an home at 5:00. amen to that. thank you. this is how you apply

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>> there it is. >> he knows exactly -- >> there it is, the memorized 25-second speech. >> i'm not even answering that question. >> you get to ask the questions you want, i to give the answers i want. >> you can raise it in new york or los angeles or seattle. >> i'll worry about it. i'll worry about it little marco. you ought to -- >> gentlemen, you've got to do better. >> even though all those clips were from events called debates, you can see a lot of the time they rarely resembled anything like a debate. but post-convention, the three scheduled presidential debates will be the biggest showcases for the major candidates. will we really learn anything from them? john don vant is a practitioner of what he preaches the moderator of intelligence squared, which started a petition to at change.org and joins me to explain. john, i'm a patron.

i have several times been out in the crowd watching you and i've listened to all of them on podcasts so i get it. but explain to my audience, what is oxford style debating of the type you practice? >> the oxford style debate comes down to this. the debater has to prove something. it's not slogans. it's not assertions. it's not zingers. it's not putdowns of the other guy. you have to prove something. and so you have a resolution. a motion. we call it. that's put before the audience and the debaters. for example, it could be something like, give undocumented immigrants a path to citizenship. yes or no. for or against. or it could be the u.s. intervenes too often. yes or no, for or against. the debaters get up on our stage and they have to prove that their argument is right. while at the same time, disproving their opponent's articles. as a result, they really have to go into depth, they have to marshal facts, they have to present logic, they have to be pervasive and the ideal thing, the audience actually gets to

hear two sides of a very good argument. >> so how would it apply to the presidential race where there are three dates that are on the calendar? >> well, you know -- what we see with the president debates, and we really haven't been doing that that long, back to 1960 with a lot of years skipped. the candidates get up there and they don't really come in intending to debate. they come in with speeches that they have memorized and they look for opportunities to unfold their speeches really basically ignoring the questions and most of their speeches are about putting down the other guy. they move along from topic to topic. the moderator is in there trying to play gotcha and that puts the candidates on the defensive. if we could go ahead with the debate program that actually introduces the oxford model, we would see candidates having to prove themselves. prove what they believe. their core beliefs will come out, if they actually have to argue for or against a motion in a way that we have never seen before. and we have done 120 debates so

far, all over the country. and i have to say, it may sound like it would be hard-going to listen to. it's the opposite. you have been there. audiences come out electric filed. they are glad glatators. >> i know, but you and i are a couple policy wonks. maybe a little nerdish. do you really think the american people want the substance that you would be offering in this type of a format? >> look, the fireworks are fun, there is no question about it. and you and i are wonks, there is no question about it. but we fill halls all around the country, a lot of times with people saying they were dragged along by their date, coming out saying i never knew a real debate, a real debate, which is not what we're seeing from the presidential debates. a real debate could be so exciting. my answer to that is yes. and we have had on our petition, change.org, 55,000 people have signed the petition in just the last few weeks. millions have looked at the video that goes with it. we have hundreds of thousands of

shares. once people sort of get the idea, my answer is that to is yes, we all have a hidden wonk in us, but it doesn't have to feel wonky. it's actually exciting to see it happen once it happens. >> two final observations. one, i'm just wondering aloud, would candidates go for this and secondly i want to congratulate you on the publication of "in a different key," the story of autism. >> thank you very much. >> i have so often heard you say. thank you, john, i appreciate it. >> it's a pleasure. still to come, the convention circuses have packed their tents in both cleveland and philly. in their wake, what kind of bump did the candidates get? keep tweeting me your thoughts @smerconish. hi, i'm dominique wilkins. when you have type 2 diabetes, like me, there's a moment of truth. and with victoza®, a better moment of proof. victoza® lowers my a1c and blood sugar better than the leading branded pill,

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now you can watch nbc's coverage of the rio olympic games live at home or on the go. we're now just 100 days until the election and have just passed a significant milestone. what did we learn from those conventions? joining me now, mary catherine hamm, senior writer of "the federalist" and august hennigan. mary catherine, i was there for

all eight nights. i want to just take you inside my cynical mind. because on the final night of the dnc, i looked at the roster of speakers and i saw someone was listed named khizr khan. i said, i never heard of khizr khan, they must be bringing in a nobody to lower the bar so when hillary speaks she'll knock it out of the park. then he got up to the roster and here is what he had to say. >> donald trump, you're asking americans to trust you with their future. let me ask you, have you even read the united states constitution? [ cheers and applause ] i will gladly lend you my copy. [ cheers and applause ] >> it was the most stunning moment of all eight nights, in my view.

mary catherine, now i'm reading the back story and finding out that he did it without notes. will you react to that, gentlemen? >> i think it was a great moment. and here is the interesting thing to me about it. this is a muslim couple with a son who is a combat vet who gave the ultimate sacrifice in iraq, fighting for his country. they have a pocket constitution. this seems like a couple that maybe in a world, a parallel world not too far from here, george w. bush would have consult invaded cultivated a relationship with this family because of their faith and would have perhaps ended up on the rnc stage rather than the dnc stage. this is a lane that the trump campaign left open for democrats to have that message on their stage, not on the other stage. >> ellis, i know you probably didn't even get to see it because i'm sure you were watching fox, i say tongue in cheek. and they didn't even show that speech live.

neither did they show general john allen. neither did they show the mother's movement, which is interesting, because it's now a post-roger-ailes world. i guess their branding and approach is not going to change. >> they missed some good stuff there. what made it powerful, honestly, was the authenticity of it. here was a guy talking from his heart about something that has affected deeply, deeply his own family. and by the way, the other water wasn't allow his relatives to come into the united states today, because they're not fit to be here. it's just an eloquent, simple, powerful moment, and real good television, no doubt about it. >> i think, mary catherine, that both parties had good conventions insofar as they were able to stoke their base. the one difference i would note is that i thought there was more of an effort, and in particular i'm thinking of michael bloomberg, but i thought there was more outreach from the d's toward the r's and independents.

the r's was all about going after their hard core constituency. >> there was more of a strategy with the dnc. both situations, you've got some chaos, you've got some lack of unity in the party, and you've got two candidates who frankly are not terribly likeable. the dnc showed it has a lot of stage craft and paneling geantr went off well, at least on tv, i've heard in the room it was a little more uncomfortable. that's the difference you'll see between donald trump and clinton throughout the next hundred days. he does donald trump. that's what he did during the convention. she's going to have a lot more strategy and machinery built around her to make up for her deficiencies, and both of them have them. >> ellis, here is a little michael bloomberg from the final night of the dnc. roll that clip. >> i'm a new yorker. and i know a con when i see one.

>> look, 42% of americans are i's, they're not d's. it was smart to bring him out, ellis, and put him on that stage in prime time. >> it was. and for the reasons you say. i would not call him one of the most eloquent speakers of the week. he was far down that list. but yeah, reaching into the middle is right. but michael, i don't buy the parity argument between these two conventions. truly one of them was an effective message, the other was pretty much of a train wreck, wasn't it? >> it was a train wreck to democrats watching it. >> even to republicans. >> i was in the hall, mary catherine, among republicans who were there, it had its rough patches in the end. but in the end donald trump vanquished ted cruz, cruz went home with his tail between his legs. people in cleveland had their heads on with regard to what they wanted to do with trump. >> cleveland was great. i don't think the convention went off as everyone hoped it would in their fondest dreams.

i'll give ellis that, it was not a great convention. but it comes down to, this is 2016, he got five points bump out of it, and you don't know what's going to happen, she may get no bump out of it. >> that's true, conventions do not have the impact they used to. we won't get a dukakis level double digit bump for any of these people. it's such a divided nation, it will be a mud wrestle until november. >> michael, in the end clinton is walking a really tough line and many of the independents and republicans who liked the patriotism, when she started giving out those liberal agendas, they were like, no, i'm back off board. still to come, your best and worst tweets like this one from

susan. don't denigrate the intelligence of the american people. we're interested in facts too. i know you are, susan, because you're watching this program. those new glasses?

they are. do i look smarter? yeah, a little. you're making money now, are you investing? well, i've been doing some research. let me introduce you to our broker. how much does he charge? i don't know. okay. uh, do you get your fees back if you're not happy? (dad laughs) wow, you're laughing. that's not the way the world works.

well, the world's changing. are you asking enough questions about the way your wealth is managed? wealth management, at charles schwab. welli do say that, you see... "well, fantastic!" a lot. i study psychobiology. i'm a fine arts major. nobody really believes that i take notes this way, but they actually make sense to me. i try to balance my studying with the typical college experience. this windows pc is a life saver! being able to pull up different articles to different parts of the screen is so convenient. i used to be a mac user but this is way better.

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hey, can i start with one of my own tweets? take a look at this one. this is my eldest son with me. he was with me working at both conventions. i am there testing that old adage about which candidate you would like to share a beer with. libertarian candidate gary johnson at the dnc passed my test. now, here are some of your tweets. maureen, the interview with the professor was one of the most honest points of view i've heard and you cut him off. dishonest media! maureen, i don't think i'll cut him off. we'll put that interview online and we can all judge. i would have liked to go all day with him but there are time

constraints. joseph says, the debates will be the highest rated show since "seinfeld" or "friends" finalies excluding super bowl. advertisers are doing back flips. i'm doing a back flip as well. i'm going on vacation. see you back in two weeks. 7:00 eastern. you're live in the cnn newsroom. i'm poppy harlow in new york. so glad you're with us. 101 days. that's when this nation will elect a president. right now democrats hillary clinton and tim kaine are on a three-day battleground bus tour looking for a post-convention bounce. the focus, ohio and pennsylvania. analysts say this entire election might come down to the rust belt. take a look at this, live picturestsburgh where clinton and kaine are set to speak any moment. right now clinton supporter mark cuban is