it was good to see them get it done. >> first country to hit 1,000 medals. christina macfarlane in rio. thank you so much. want to wish you a great sunday morning. make great memories. thanks for being with us. >> "inside politics" with john king starts right now. trump keeps talking, and the controversies keep coming. >> isis is honoring president obama. he is the founder of isis. >> now some republicans want the party to put its money where his mouth isn't, on more winnable races. newly revealed e-mails raise more troubling questions about the clinton foundation's ties to the state department. >> a couple of very bad ones came out. and it's called pay for play. and some of these were really, really bad and illegal. the battle for blue-collar voters. >> there is a myth out there

that he will stick it to the rich and powerful because somehow he's really on the side of the little guy. don't believe it. >> clinton's challenge to trump. release your tax returns. "inside politics," the biggest stories sourced by the best reporters. now. welcome to "inside politics." shanks for sharing your sunday with us. i am in for john king. it's been three tumultuous weeks since donald trump's nominating convention. this week the republican candidate called president obama the founder of isis and made a second amendment comment that critics called out of bounds, just the latest in a series of controversial comments that have prompted tom goppes to run, not walk away from trump.

and hillary clinton tries to get trump to release hit tax returns. with us. cnn's phil mattingly and maggie haberman and errol louis of time warner cable news. it's been less than a week, but it's already hard to remember that it was supposed to be a week of donald trump staying on topic, staying on message. instead, he ignited a fire storm with a report about second amendment people doing something about hillary clinton and her liberal judges. then we got a two-day tangent about the founders of isis. >> he is the founder of isis. he is the founder of isis. >> i call president obama and hillary clinton the founders of isis. they're the founders. barack obama and hillary clinton, these are the founders of isis. >> last night you said the president was the founder of isis. i know what you meant. you meant that he created the vacuum, he lost the peace. >> no. he is the founder of isis. i do. he is the most valuable player.

i give him the most valuable player award. i give her too. >> he is not sympathetic to them. he hates them. >> he was the founder. >> trump making himself pretty clear right there, right? well, not exactly. >> i said obama is the founder of isis. the founder. and these dishonest media people, they're the most dishonest people, they said, oh, did he mean that? didn't he mean that? i said the founder of isis. obviously i'm being sarcastic. then, then -- but not that sarcastic, to be honest with you. >> what? last night we got another tangent. monica lewinsky's blue dress made it into the speech. trump says blame the messenger. >> i'm not running against crooked hillary clinton. i'm running against the crooked

media. that's what i'm running against. it's true. >> let's begin. errol louis, blame the media. that's, one, not new for any politician. two, not new especially for donald trump. but he took it to -- it felt like a whole new level last night with the -- they're turning off their cameras when clearly that's not true. they're not turning off their cameras. it's a pool camera as he's railing against the media. he thinks it's working. yes? >> well, it works for him in the room at the time. this really reflects, i think, the problem that donald trump is sort of mired in, which is that the 5,000, 10,000, even 20,000 people in front of him will be delighted by these comments. nobody else really cares. it starts to sound like whining at a certain point. it also -- people are -- in the cases that he says the media has somehow distorted things and been crooked, it's the kind of sequence that you just showed where people can see with their own eyes that it's not like some producer or cameraman caught him

in some off moment. he says over and over and over again the president is the founder of isis. then he reverses it and then reverses the reversal and then somehow it's the media's fault. most people are sophisticated enough to realize that it's not all the media's fault. it kind of wastes time. we're not hearing him talk about jobs or about trade, one of his signature issues. we are not hearing him talk about public security or any of the things that are supposed to get him across the finish line. and in some ways it's a distraction from his own message. >> it became really the main message coming out of last night. i guess maybe first i need to ask, are you sure you have your press credentials after his speech last night, maggie? >> he seemed uncertain whether he was banning. he was thinking about it. >> he was mulling it over. getting to your reporting, fascinating reporting that donald trump took particular exception with and kind of the amendments to have the man pivot and the man that they're dealing with now. >> there was an enormous amount

of frustration. this was a story we spent a lot of time on. there is an enormous amount of frustration by people close to the campaign in the campaign, around the candidate, who see basically it get announced every couple of days there is going to be this new version of him this week or he's going to do a speech or read off a teleprompter and that's now where the bar will be set for him doing better. that's not what his instinct is. his instinct is to do what we saw last night from that video. there is sort of a groundhog day about this. our story began about the need for him to get in gear about this and focus on a teleprompter and give more sort of targeted events on june 20th, the day he fired his campaign manager. there was another meeting talking about a change in tone before his second amendment comments from a rally that became very controversial.

what we saw last night at the rally is trump says -- errol says people can see for themselves. we had the former partner of his top adviser. trump has been effective at structuring the narrative the way he wants to. it's harder to do that in a general election. >> are people giving up on a pivot? >> they're not sure how coachable he is. he can get to a person point and after that it's very hard for him. there is frustration and anxiety and that the candidate himself is very upset and is lashing out. candidates very rarely tend to blame themselves. this is not unique to trump. but it may be more pronounced with him. >> good point. maybe it dovetails into maggie's reporting, this new tone this week. for the first time acknowledging or at least setting a bar of i might not win, i might actually lose. and the comment in the interview about it, it's okay, i'll just

take a very, very long vacation. what is behind that? >> tracking with a lot of reporters who are planning a very long vacation. i think there is for the first time a recognition when he is looking at the poll numbers which were the basis for so much of his remarks throughout the primary. when he's looking at kind of the mechanics of how campaigns work. watching what's going on around him. not attacks from democrats and the media, but attacks from inside his own party that this isn't that fun, a, and, b, this is a very complicated process. that's something i took out of maggie and alex's reporting. campaigns are hard. the process of campaigning is difficult. the process of running a campaign is extraordinarily difficult. you sense that there is a lot of frustration and a lot of, man, i didn't know this was what it's all about. you're struck consistently by when you talk to his senior advisers, they're unified and believe this is a path and a message forward, there are serious opportunities for donald trump going forward.

it's his inability to follow that pathway that breeds a lot of the frustration, and i think you're seeing his frustration when he makes comments like that. >> and maybe coming off that frustration, donald trump, instead of taking the message his advisers want and pushing it foos forward, he's already taking on the message that the election is rigged. he pushed that message last night in pennsylvania about pennsylvania. let's show it for the viewers. >> call up law enforcement, and we have to have the sheriffs and police chiefs and everybody watching, because, if we get cheated out of this election, if we get cheated out of a win in wednesday, which is such a vital state, especially when i know what's happening here, folks. i know she can't beat what's happening here. the only way they can beat it in my opinion -- and i mean this 100% -- if in certain sections of the state they cheat. >> and the campaign now, m.j., they're asking people to sign up on the website to be election

monitors, to look for fraud. what are they going to use these e-mail lists for? what do you take from it? >> one thing that i thought was striking in your story with alex, is that we're three months out from election day and we're seeing a portrait of a campaign in total despair and a candidate that is very frustrated not to mention the aides that are around him. it's very unusual to see a story like this so far out from election day. and i think donald trump, you know, as we have seen over and over throughout this election, he is someone who likes to take things to the extreme and really sort of test how far he can take things. the problem for him, though, is at this point in the election voters really want to be convinced that he is a serious candidate. we have anecdotal evidence of this kind of thing really hurting him. a couple of weeks ago i was at a clinton rally. there was a republican voter who voted for donald trump in the primaries and now he is supporting hillary clinton. and he told me that the turning point for him, when he changed

his mind, was when donald trump made the comment about how russians should hack into hillary clinton's e-mail and then went on to say he was being sarcastic. this person said, i don't think this is the kind of thing that any person running for president should be joking about. >> on the issue of donald trump laying the groundwork that the election is rigged. it's striking that while you ask people to sign up as an election monitor, why are you asking them to sign up to get out to vote? is he trying to manage expectations or set the bar for this is who i can blame if i lose? >> a lot of people came away with the thought that that's what he's looking for. if it does not as planned -- but you're correct republicans are watching this and saying, why would you be spending this much energy on this. to be clear, having poll watchers is not unusual. this is done in lots of campaigns. the question that arose about his doing it is that there is an

rnc consent decree about how this can be done and whether it would work. his campaign is not the rnc, but why are you not also trying to open up a number of field offices? why have you not been doing that all along? why are you not trying to develop a targeted data program? why are you not trying to make sure that you have sort of a specific message? to the media point about the things he's complaining about and about it being rigged, he is at the end of the day really just bringing the focus back onto himself over and over. the media is out to get me. the polls are rigged and cheating me. voters vote on the economy, terrorism, national security issues. they vote on issues for their own lives. donald trump's treatment is not, other than for his hardest fans, not among them for most of the voters. >> he has a paid media problem, right. cnn reporting that since the end of the primary season the clinton campaign has spent close to $43 million on ads. the trump campaign has spent zero. if you pass up all of these

opportunities to have a carefully crafted, targeted message that you can send over and over again to the people who you most need to get it to, if you pass on that opportunity, the numbers are go against you in the polls, the morale in your campaign will fall apart. he's really sort of reaping what he sowed. if he can get that back on track, he has a chance to get back in. coming up, some republicans say it's time to cut and run away from donald trump. we'll discuss where they want the gop to cut and run to, put its money and its efforts now. first, politicians say the darnedest things. what's in a name? a lot according to hillary clinton. she noticed a trend when it comes to donald trump's economic council. >> so today in detroit he's got, i don't know, dozen or so economic advisors he just named. hedge fund guys, billionaire guys. six guys named steve, apparently.

be the you who doesn't cover your moderate to severe plaque psoriasis. be the you who shows up in that dress. who hugs a friend. who is done with treatments that don't give you clearer skin. be the you who controls your psoriasis with stelara® just 4 doses a year after 2 starter doses.

stelara® may lower your ability to fight infections and may increase your risk of infections and cancer. some serious infections require hospitalization. before treatment, get tested for tuberculosis. before starting stelara® tell your doctor if you think you have an infection or have symptoms such as: fever, sweats, chills, muscle aches or cough. always tell your doctor if you have any signs of infection, have had cancer, if you develop any new skin growths or if anyone in your house needs or has recently received a vaccine. alert your doctor of new or worsening problems, including headaches, seizures, confusion and vision problems these may be signs of a rare, potentially fatal brain condition. some serious allergic reactions can occur. do not take stelara® if you are allergic to stelara® or any of its ingredients. most people using stelara® saw 75% clearer skin and the majority were rated as cleared or minimal at 12 weeks. be the you who talks to your dermatologist about stelara®.

craso come dive into disheser like the new alaska bairdi crab dinner with sweet crab from the icy waters of alaska. or try crab lover's dream with tender snow and king crab legs. love crab? then hurry, crabfest ends soon.

...another anti-wrinkle cream in no hurry to make anything happen. neutrogena® rapid wrinkle repair works... ...in one week. with the... fastest retinol formula available. it's clinically proven to work on fine lines and... ...even deep wrinkles. "one week? that definitely works!" rapid wrinkle repair. and for dark spots, rapid tone repair. neutrogena®. "see what's possible." man, it's like pure power at your finger tips. like the power to earn allstate reward points, every time i drive. ...want my number? and cash back for driving safe. and the power to automatically find your car... i see you car!

and i got the power to know who's coming and when if i break down. ...you must be gerry. hey... in means getting more from your car insurance with the all-powerful drivewise app. it's good to be in, good hands. . some republicans are worried. they're frustrated with the top of their ticket and scared about what kind of trump effect they'll see trickle down. but, if you've watched rnc's reince priebus in the last few days. it's all fun and wonderful. nothing to see here. he talked about trump. the head of the party tried public unity on for size telling the public, hey, all good. >> we're so honored to be working with donald trump and the campaign that raised $82 million in july to beat hillary clinton. and don't believe the garbage you read. let me tell you something.

donald trump, the republican party, all of you, we're going to put him in the white house and save this country together. >> the pressure is on for priebus. dozens of republicans are circulating a letter urging the party to pull resources away from trump and focus on more vulnerable house and senate races. the letter did not mince words. it said we believe donald trump's divisiveness and record breaking unpopularity risk turning the election into a democratic landslide and only the immediate shift of all available rnc resources to vulnerable senate and house races will prevent the gop from drowning with a trump emblazoned anchor around its neck. phil, tell me how you really feel is i think the question there. what is the calculation? what is the conversation for reince priebus right now? >> subtle message from those republicans. the reality is the rnc is all in with trump, whether they like it or not. they are joint fund-raising with him. he is a big part of their

fund-raising operation. >> that's not just nothing. that's a real thing. >> absolutely. >> you can't just break that away. >> they signed an agreement which stands through november. that is very real for them. reince priebus, more than anybody else, was the one who declared donald trump the presumptive republican nominee. he's done everything in his power with regular phone calls behind the scenes with donald trump, phone calls with other republicans to try and make this work. that's why you saw him out showing this public front of unity. the interesting thing here, as you watch the republican party and its growing uneasiness right now, they're all looking down-ballot. you are not going to see -- a lot of republicans are pregnant here, if you will. they've backed him. they're for him. they felt like there was no other option with him at the top of the ticket. when do you see them start to drive off the ship? senators and house members running for re-election. it's all about poll numbers and if their races are actually in jeopardy.

i don't think we're at the tipping point but we're walking up to it right now. that's the concern if you're reince priebus and the republican party. you can't have that happen right now because unity matters, until they decide to break off. >> this could be a different conversation at the end p september, beginning of october than right now in august. >> there are a lot of questions about the timing of when you do this. a lot of it is on polls. donald trump has a base of support that's not grown. but that is the base of the republican party. you have a lot of senators who are going to need knothose vote and a lot of congress who need those voters. there is concern, if you break off at a certain point, do the votes still come out? that's a real issue. >> doesn't research show that voters don't really split the ticket anymore, right? >> less so. with a polarized electorate like we have now they're pretty much going to stay within their

party. the notion of widespread ticket splitting is not realistic these days. the breaking point i'm hearing people will be watching for is that first debate. if he kills it in the first debate, they have a chance to sort of bring everything back together and say that's our standard bearer. he's going to take us over the finish line. if he bombs, if he has a problem in that debate, that will be the point where things like the letter you just excerpted. you'll hear that more publicly and more loudly and the decision will have to be made at that point. >> look at the map. why spend time -- when you are having trouble bringing in more voters, why spend time in places like connecticut? why spend time in places like maine, when you're looking at traditional republican strongholds, they're kind of in question right now. >> this is yet another example of donald trump fundamentally misreading what you need to do to win a presidential election. yes, we have talked so much about how sort of skilled he was

at reaching out to the republican base during the primaries, but that is so different from what he needs to achieve to be victorious in november. and i think, if you look at some of the republican members of congress who have come out against donald trump, the charlie dents of the world. they represent affluent suburbs. that shows the weakness behind his strategy. if you don't win the minority vote you have to win with a working class and edge vaucatede voters. we know he's not doing well with educated white voters. that doesn't leave much in november. >> when you look at north carolina, that struck me when it came out. he's really down. this is a place that he really needs to hold when you look at his map. are we to a place, phil, where you think you can say, he already had a narrow path, and it is very much narrowing now?

>> no question about it. you look at is georgia going to turn blue? pretty unlikely. people have been predicting that for the last four cycles and republicans always figure out a way to win. the fact that it's close causes a lot of consternation in the republican party. perhaps he has to spend money there. that would be problematic. look at the states where he absolutely almost has to win. north carolina he has to hold. pennsylvania everybody says he has to win. ohio has kind of the voter demographic that he continues to point to as his pathway forward. kate, talk about ground game. ohio, unquestionably the greatest state of the union, no doubts about it. the only state that matters. >> what's your home state? >> it's ohio. it's cool. you talk about ground game. you talk about what matters. ground game in battle ground states, hugely important. the clinton campaign is in ohio in force. donald trump's presence there, while he's hired some top-tier

staffers is minimal. one person on the ground i spoke to this week said it's dismal. that stit ate is super plugged john kasich, who beat donald trump by 240,000 votes in march. that team, if donald trump could activate them could win the state for donald trump. all they've done is battled with kasich's. the ohio republican party is mostly frozen and donald trump is now in a major deficit both spending, staffing, data, in the state where he has to win. >> so many people are scratching their heads why he was taking on kasich when he was in ohio, at the convention. why continue to beat that how he was. stand by. a lot more tocomeincluding this. new e-mail questions for hillary clinton bring up concerns about her time as secretary of state. olympiad take our "inside politics" quiz of the day. who would be best to handle the economy? donald trump, hillary clinton, jill stein or gary johnson.

(burke) at farmers, we've seen almost everything, so we know how to cover almost anything. even mer-mutts. (1940s aqua music) (burke) and we covered it, february third, twenty-sixteen. talk to farmers. we know a thing or two because we've seen a thing or two. ♪ we are farmers. bum-pa-dum, bum-bum-bum-bum ♪

is it a force of nature? or a sales event? the summer of audi sales event is here. get up to a $5,000 bonus on select audi models. bloating? pain? you may have ibs. ask your doctor if non-prescription ibgard is right for you. ibgard calms the angry gut. available at cvs, walgreens and rite aid.

my name is jamir dixon and i'm a locafor pg&e.rk fieldman most people in the community recognize the blue trucks as pg&e. my truck is something new... it's an 811 truck. when you call 811, i come out to your house and i mark out our gas lines and our electric lines to make sure that you don't hit them when you're digging. 811 is a free service. i'm passionate about it because every time i go on the street i think about my own kids. they're the reason that i want to protect our community and our environment, and if me driving a that truck means that somebody gets to go home safer, then i'll drive it every day of the week. together, we're building a better california.

hillary clinton is again at the center of an e-mail controversy, a conservative watch dog group released nearly 300 pages of e-mails from clinton's time as secretary of state. they raise questions about the clinton's -- the clinton foundation's influence on the clinton state department. donald trump wasted no time bringing it up and labelling it pay for play politics. listen. >> a couple of very bad ones came out, and it's called pay for play. and some of these were really, really bad and illegal. if it's true, it's illegal. you are paying and you're getting things. >> in a statement released wednesday the clinton campaign brushed aside the accusations saying this. hillary clinton never took action as secretary of state because of donations to the

clinton foundation. republicans aren't the only ones raising questions about the clinton foundation. the fbi and justice department also wanted to know more about the relationship between the state department and clinton's charity. officials tell cnn authorities discussed opening up a public corruption case but eventually doj officials decided not to pursue it. here is my issue with the e-mail issues. it's compounded that you almost have to talk about which e-mail problem we're discussing at this point. i think that, even without getting into the details, speaks volumes to the problem hillary clinton has with -- it just muddies the waters and speaks to a branding that donald trump has successfully labeled her with. >> it speaks to the perception that's existed with the clintons for decades now. that's the interesting element here. the clinton campaign has been furious all week about the reporting related to the e-mails, the reporting related to cheryl mills going to new york on personal time to interview people with the clinton foundation. >> making a lot out of a little. >> out of something that doesn't

exist. there is nothing to say that she had anything to do with the e-mails. but it feeds into the idea the clintons have a different set of rules and that the foundation is a corrupt pay for play organization. there is no smoking gun. there is no direct evidence that there is pay for play. this is what people think of when the trust numbers for hillary clinton are in such a bad position. the more these things come out, they give donald trump and his campaign opportunities to talk about the trust issues and hopefully for their cases, build that case against hillary clinton. i think that's the biggest issue here is that she has major trust issues to begin with. all of this stuff feeds that narrative. >> beyond the public outrage thing, we're all making something out of nothing, funny, we hear that from both candidates on different topics. do you sense that there is concern, though, on the political -- the political problem this continues to feed for hillary clinton? does team clinton sense that? >> well, there is a political problem. they are very well aware of it and they've done something that

her husband bill clinton always did, which is just pivot away from it. not just sort of downplay it and say, well, it's much ado about nothing. also say, if you're not going to trust me, at least find me useful. i care about people like you. i have a program that you're going to like. i have a track record you can respect. that's what she does over and over again. it seems to work because the same polls sththat show her as s than honest show her doing well against donald trump. as a practical matter, she can find her way out of it. what both sides are missing is that you have to be specific. it's not enough to say it's crooked hillary or it's pay to play. you have to go through it. what exactly is wrong with having cheryl mills go to new york where, at her level, she is basically always on company time for the state department, and act as a personnel sort of manager representing her interests there. if hillary clinton becomes president, what happens to the foundation? what happens to those

relationships? what will her staff members be doing? what did she imply or direct her staff members to do? it needs to be a specific and sophisticated conversation. much more than you can do from a podium at a rally. >> bill clinton was asked on friday by a clinton supporter about why americans should trust his wife when she lied about her e-mails. listen to this. >> wait a minute. that's it. it's not true. the fbi director said, when he testified before congress, he had to amend his previous day's statement that she had never received any e-mails marked classified. they saw two little notes with a "c" on it. this is the biggest load of bull i ever heard -- that were about telephone calls that she needed to make, and the state department typically puts a little "c" on it to discourage people from discussing it in

public. does that sound threatening to the national security to you? >> bill clinton is doing what bill clinton does, he is trying to explain it. he is saying, the answer is it's not truthful. don't listen to this. >> the times when you see bill clinton get most frustrated in the campaign is when he feels she is being attacked. it's not a surprise. we saw it in 2008. we're seeing it now. the foundation is his baby. he's incredibly defensive and proud of it. the problem is, i agree with errol that it's a complicated story to tell. the problem is, there is a tremendous amount of defensiveness by the clintons about this. the campaign, you know, their officials sort of walked into this problem that existed before they got there. if you look at the e-mails that were replaced, these were part of foil lawsuits. the state department under hillary clinton did not respond to freedom of information requests over several years, so the timing of this is really almost entirely at their own hand in the sense that, if they had just released them at the time, this wouldn't be a big

deal. you can get into equivalent weights of the two campaigns on transparency, and lack of equivalency. but these are legitimate questions to ask about a future president, especially one talking about the lack of transparency about her opponent. >> you were at the event. >> yes. >> how was it received? >> people reacted well to bill clinton himself, but the fact that he sort of went out of his way -- and remember, he wasn't even supposed to take that question. the music started playing and he insisted on taking a second question. when he got a question about a trust issue, he clearly became very frustrated. that really reflected the campaign's overall frustration and really wanting to move on from this issue. i have to say, i don't think that secretary clinton in her response to the e-mail issues -- she hasn't always helped her own case. errol was talking about how the campaign needs to pivot away from the issue. that's correct. but her pivot hasn't been i'm sorry, i made a mistake.

let's move on. she said misleading things about comey's testimony and at worse inaccurate things about comey's testimony. it's true this is a complicated issue but, when she talks about these issues, she has to make sheer that the way in which she cherry-picks her answers don't create fresh questions of their own. >> a lot more to come, including this. hillary clinton releases her latest tax returns and says it is now donald trump's turn. what are the chances you think that's going to happen? the numbers and politics behind the move. that's next. f many pieces in my life. so when my asthma symptoms kept coming back on my long-term control medicine. i talked to my doctor and found a missing piece in my asthma treatment with breo. once-daily breo prevents asthma symptoms. breo is for adults with asthma not well controlled on a long-term asthma control medicine, like an inhaled corticosteroid. breo won't replace a rescue inhaler for sudden breathing problems. breo opens up airways to help improve breathing for a full 24 hours.

breo contains a type of medicine that increases the risk of death from asthma problems and may increase the risk of hospitalization in children and adolescents. breo is not for people whose asthma is well controlled on a long-term asthma control medicine, like an inhaled corticosteroid. once your asthma is well controlled, your doctor will decide if you can stop breo and prescribe a different asthma control medicine, like an inhaled corticosteroid. do not take breo more than prescribed. see your doctor if your asthma does not improve or gets worse. ask your doctor if 24-hour breo could be a missing piece for you. see if you're eligible for 12 months free at mybreo.com. t-mobile's coverage is unstoppable. and with extended range lte it reaches farther than ever. from the powder to the pavement, skylines, coastlines, out in the country, deep in the city. we got you covered. 311 million americans and counting. and we won't stop. come see why t-mobile is the #1 recommended wireless company in america.

i'm hillary clinton, and i approve this message. michael hayden: if he governs consistent with some of the things he said as a candidate, i would be very frightened. gillian turner: he's been talking about the option of using a nuclear weapon against our western european allies. max boot: this is not somebody who should be handed the nuclear codes. charles krauthammer: you have to ask yourself, do i want a person of that temperament controlling the nuclear codes? and as of now, i'd have to say no. [bill o'reilly sighs]

hillary clinton has a challenge for donald trump. release your tax returns. the democratic candidate's taxes show the clintons made $10.6 million in 2015. significantly less than the $28 million they posted the year before. also revealed in the 2015 returns, their effective tax rate.

30.6%. candidates releasing tax returns as we well know is not a new practice. republicans and democrats vying for the white house have made them public for four decades. >> would you release tax returns? >> i would release tax returns. >> how many years back would you go on the day you announce? three, five? >> i don't know. i would certainly show tax returns. i have no objection to certainly showing a tax return. >> but now there is that pesky irs audit allegedly getting in the way. at least donald trump says so. >> absolutely give my return, but i am being audited now for two or three years, so i can't do it until the audit is finished obviously. and i think people would understand that. >> except legally he's not bound to wait until the audit is over. we've now heard that many times. we're talking about it again because hillary clinton made the move and said she was going to release her 2015 tax returns

even though no one was asking her to release them. though we love more transparency than less. what did we learn, errol? >> in keeping with past practices it's a document that could be fairly called somewhat of a political document. she didn't seek out tax breaks that she was clearly eligible for and almost nobody at that level of income -- $10 million is a whole lot of money, which she made while campaigning, by the way. she wasn't really doing very much work. she didn't buy farms. she didn't buy rental property or set herself up for passive income. she treated herself as a middle class taxpayer with a couple extra zeroes at the end of the year. i think that's intended to make her more like the rest of us. >> more middle-classy. >> more middle-classy. when we found out four years ago mitt romney was paying an effective rate 14% because of so much investment income,

basically acting like a wealthy person, it doesn't work so well for him politically. it didn't help his campaign. hillary clinton wants to help her campaign. >> 60% of their income came from speeches. that opens you up for another conversation about releasing the transcripts. they clearly think it's worth any risk of what they're putting out. >> they do. in fact, they were very concerned about going after donald trump on not releasing his tax returns themselves when the primaries were still going on because they didn't want to whip up the where are the transcripts by bernie sanders' team was -- thank you -- it's early on a sunday morning. [ laughter ] >> but they now feel like it is worth it to do that, and they think donald trump has enough self-inflicted wounds that it's a risk that's worth taking. i agree with errol that i think it is a political approach on two levels. the way they went about going at their tax returns, and it's also a political approach to release it now while the e-mail issue is

being discussed. what's striking to me is that, even if the speech's conversation comes up again, the campaign is basically laying out an offensive agenda against their rival every day. this is not what we are seeing the trump campaign doing still, and they could be. >> michaela pereike pence comin rescue for donald trump maybe. he says he's possibly maybe, likely, yes going to release his tax returns. here is what he said. >> i believe we're completing the forms right now as is appropriate under federal law and we'll be filing that. but i promise you, when my forms are filed and my tax returns are releas released, it's going to be a quick read, rita. >> so does that make up for everything? donald trump is not releasing his, but we've got mike pence's. >> donald trump is getting pressure from clinton and kaine, but his own running mate is saying he is preparing to release his. i talked to gary johnson over the weekend. he said he's happy to release

them. no one has asked him. you go down the list of candidates. they're all okay with doing what you normally do when you run for office like this. donald trump is really holding out. the more he does it and more the candidates around him say they're okay doing it raises questions about why he refuses to do so. >> to maggie's point, the clinton campaign thinks this is a winning issue and they'll pound on it non-stop from here on out. the trump officials feel we've already baked in that trump probably pays close to zoer ero tax rate. charitable donations. questioned business ties. so why give the clinton campaign and the reporters thousands of pages of potentially damaging stories when you can hold on to them. they're not going to release the tax returns. there is no way. there is too much of an opportunity. thousands of pages of story opportunities, of hit opportunities, hit

opportunities. there is not a lot of benefit if you talk to the trump folks, in them ever releasing tax returns. >> your final take on this. what could be the october surprise if we have one? gooseifer 2.0. releasing private e-mails. information, phone numbers of a lot of members and a lot of staffers. they're all feeling the fallout. nancy pelosi said she was on a plane and landed to a score of sick e-mails and calls coming into her phone. democrats have got to be worried. republicans should be worried too. >> republicans don't seem to be as much the targets. this seems to be target the toward democratic staffers, organizations, their personal e-mails and group e-mails. this is being done in such a way that it exists basically to destabilize, right, make voters not trust institutions and create a climate of fear. there is a lot of concern among democrats about what is going to be released. there was all sorts of damaging

information. not actually politically damaging but personally sort of embarrassing from the dnc leak. there will be a lot potentially of that and maybe more. >> who knows. more to come. our reporters give you a glimpse at tomorrow's headlines today, including donald trump looking at the election map and seeing red in a big state that's almost always blue. here are the results from the quiz. we asked which candidate do you think would best handle the economy? most of you said hillary clinton. we'll be right back.

crabfest is on at red lobster so come dive into dishes like the new alaska bairdi crab dinner with sweet crab from the icy waters of alaska. or try crab lover's dream with tender snow and king crab legs. love crab? then hurry, crabfest ends soon.

to be taken care of. in good hands? like finding new ways home, car, life insurance obviously, ohhh... but with added touches you can't get everywhere else, like claim free rewards... or safe driving bonus checks. even a claim satisfaction guaranteeeeeeeeeee! in means protection plus unique extras only from an expert allstate agent. it's good to be in, good hands.

let's head around the "inside politics" table and ask the reporters to help you get ahead of the political news in the week ahead. phil mattingly. first you. >> there has been a lot of attention on the tv spin. hillary clinton's campaign spent more than $15 million in the

general election, donald trump's zero. there are nuts and bolts infrastructure issues that a lot of people are concerned about. he had a huge fund-raising month. sources say it's going to ground game. interesting to me and worrisome to gop officials, what their data operation looks like. donald trump didn't have a data operation from the primary. the rnc does have a data operation. they spent a lot of money building it. donald trump is going to take the rnc data operation. makes sense. except for that data operation was built for a generic gop voter set. a voter that donald trump doesn't necessarily need if he wants to win. he wants gop voters who are not traditional. marrying the two groups is very difficult. the campaigns are putting a lot of effort into it. i'm told there are a lot of issues outstanding. the rnc operation was meant to be melded into an existing campaign operation. that's not what's happening. they have a lot of ground to make up. the clinton campaign have been doing it for 14 months. millions of dollars.

an area of major concern if the race is very close in november. >> so it's ground game in air quotes it feels like. mj. >> the clinton campaign believes it is starting to see cracks in what is supposed to be donald trump's major selling point, and that, of course, is his business record. there was a new bloomberg poll that showed 61% of likely voters say they're less impressed with donald trump's business past than they were at the beginning of the campaign. the clinton campaign has been relentless in going after donald trump post-convention, especially in going after his business practices like ties made in bangladesh. if you look at her schedule in the coming weeks she is going to pennsylvania with vice president joe biden. ohio. these are plays where they especially want that kind of message to stick. >> she is trolling him online and in real life. maggie. >> we spoke before about the republican concerns about what to do in terms of the

down-ballot. there is some concern among republican officials about not just timing but the precedent. when everybody talks about the bob dole year, 1996, when essentially it became the senate will be the check and balance so we're not handing another clinton, bill clinton, a blank line here. bob dole was a different case. he was friends with the then rnc chairman and he was a soerenato. he had a different view of it. almost like with biden. that's not what you're going to see. the rnc is dependent on donald trump in terms of fund-raising. the resources are linked together in a different way than they were in that year. >> nothierrol. >> donald trump saying over and over again he wants to put different states in play that haven't really been contested by republicans. the question is whether new york will be one of those states.

we've had donald trump jr. at the convention saying we're going to make new york a swing state, we're going to play aggressively here. we have donald trump himself trying to get something on the schedule. it was later canceled. in upstate new york. it was an unusual choice. conventional wisdom dictates new york is out of reach. don't bother. down the ballot, at least half a dozen congressional seats in new york actually in play. so this is not something that the rnc will write off. it's a question of whether or not donald trump and the rnc can get on the same page, truly try to put new york in play for the congressional candidates and donald trump. >> how many blue states do you need to make swing states especially if you can't hold the red states? >> thank you you all so much. that's it for "inside politics." john king returns next sunday. up next, state of the union with jake tapper. have a good one. sn't cover your moderate to severe plaque psoriasis. be the you who shows up in that dress.

who hugs a friend. who is done with treatments that don't give you clearer skin. be the you who controls your psoriasis with stelara® just 4 doses a year after 2 starter doses. stelara® may lower your ability to fight infections and may increase your risk of infections and cancer. some serious infections require hospitalization. before treatment, get tested for tuberculosis. before starting stelara® tell your doctor if you think you have an infection or have symptoms such as: fever, sweats, chills, muscle aches or cough. always tell your doctor if you have any signs of infection, have had cancer, if you develop any new skin growths or if anyone in your house needs or has recently received a vaccine. alert your doctor of new or worsening problems, including headaches, seizures, confusion and vision problems these may be signs of a rare, potentially fatal brain condition. some serious allergic reactions can occur. do not take stelara® if you are allergic to stelara® or any of its ingredients. most people using stelara® saw 75% clearer skin and the majority were rated as cleared or minimal at 12 weeks. be the you who talks to your dermatologist about stelara®. a month after 9/11, i got a call from david and he told me he was going into the national guard.

he was sent to iraq to be a gunner on a humvee. a car pulled up in the driveway and three soldiers got out, and the sound of their boots as they came up those stairs will, will stay with me the rest of my life. you have moments when you really don't want to live anymore, it's a fate that i would not wish on anybody, not anybody. when i saw donald trump attack another gold star mother, i felt such a sense of outrage. ...wife, she was standing there, she had nothing to say, she probably... i would like to tell donald trump what it feels like, the sense of emptiness, that only losing a child can bring. those people should be honored and treated with kindness for the rest of their life, and i don't think that donald trump will ever understand that. priorities usa action is responsible for the contents of this advertising.

off message. trump claims sarcasm after his comments about obama and clinton fuel fury. >> he is the founder of isis. he is the founder of isis. he is the founder! >> as new polls show him behind in key battle ground states, can his provocative comments prove a winning strategy? his campaign chairman will be here live. and breaking point. some republicans say it's time to cut bait on trump and focus on winning other sources. trump says he doesn't even need their money to begin with. >> i am the one that's funding and raising the money. other people are getting to use the money