i think that our goal, what one would hope is we could see that humanity. what we would hope that it would help lead us, given the role the south has played in all of this would help to lead us toward a brighter future when it comes to how we get along. >> isabel wilkerson gets the last word. honor to have you all with me tonight. thank you all. >> thank you, lawrence. flag day. let's play "hardball." good evening. i'm chris matthews in washington. the party that fought for the union in the 1860s and backed civil rights in the 1960s has been caught offsides in the racial politics of the 21st century. in the past 24 hours republican

presidential candidates have been like circus elephants attempting back flips. it's not been a pretty sight. the question for us tonight, why is the political cotillion that fashions itself as the party of lincoln having a problem letting go of the battle flag of jefferson davis? eugene robinson is a pulitzer prize winning columnist for "the washington post" and michael steele is former chairman of the republican party. i wonder why your party's having this problem. it was very uneven. some came out early and said we've got to get rid of that flag in the wake of the tragedy in charleston. others have been hemming and hawing and only moving, most of them, after nikki haley had the courage to make that speech yesterday. >> what a wonderful way to set the right tone on this discussion. >> she did, finally. >> governor haley, so hats off to her. if you want to know how to lead on this issue, follow her. because she really, i think, set the mantle for us. now, let's back it up. you have candidates running for

the presidency who are playing to a particular constituency. they're looking at the state of south carolina for the upcoming -- >> the white vote in south carolina. >> the white folks primary in south carolina. a lot were hedging their bets. so they took the hands-off approach, didn't want to engage. but to me that's the perfect opportunity. you laid it out, our history both in the 1800s and the 1900s and now this opportunity to lead on civil rights again i thought was a very important but unfortunately missed opportunity. >> your thoughts, first. >> no, i think michael is right. i think they were hedging their bets, particularly the candidates who are still try to have a presence in the polls, right? >> the ones working for number one. >> exactly. the ones who aren't quite rising to the point. >> what about i thought he handled the issue of local decision-making and national values pretty well. he said if i lived in south

carolina, i'd be for taking it down. >> yeah, no, exactly. but you know who put them all on the spot was mitt romney, right, who came out over the weekend with his tweet saying, you know, get rid of the flag. >> and what makes it more free to say that? >> not just free, consistent. in 2007 mitt had that position and made it very clear going into the 2008 election that that flag should be taken down. >> it was sad because you remember john mccain back in 2008, he wouldn't do it. >> who now says that was a mistake. >> right afterwards he said it was a mistake. here's an issue i do care about a lot as well as we all care about the flag, i care about voting. reince priebus popped up behind south carolina governor nikki haley yesterday, yet the chair presides over a party engaged in efforts to block black voter efforts in nearly 20 states right now. donald trump today backed the move by governor haley. let's watch him. >> i think they should put it in the museum, let it go, respect

whatever it is that you have to respect because it was a point in time and put it in a museum. but i would take it down, yes. >> it's hard not to look directly at that hat. i don't know what his red hat was for. anyway, he's a red cap. now, trump spent years playing to the country's racists by insulting the president and questioning his legitimacy. >> why doesn't he show his birth certificate? and you know what, i wish he would because i think it's a terrible pale that's hanging over him. if you go back to my first grade, my kindergarten, people remember me. nobody from those early years -- >> that's not true. >> i love the way whoopi goldberg, her body language. what a joke. he's saying not only is he illegitimate, the guy snuck into the country illegally, he wint go to those schools, because nobody remembers him. he's a phantom. he's not even barack obama whatever country he came from. >> the manchurian candidate.

>> i don't know that it does. i have not heard anyone make the arguments that you're making now. >> that's why i'm here. >> no one is talking about the president's birth certificate. >> forget that now. is donald trump taking it back? >> i don't know, but he's not talking about it. >> like one of those blackboards that disappears when you pull the -- >> just like hillary clinton doesn't talk about issues of the past. >> how about reince priebus showing up yesterday pretending he cared about black rights when he's been fighting voting in 20 state. he keeps doing it. >> having had the job, you're not responsible for state legislatures of 50 different -- >> what is the leader of the republican for -- >> but he's not writing the legislation. >> he shouldn't say what's right and what's wrong. >> he can speak to it. >> has he? >> he has not spoken to it. >> okay. thank you. here's rick santorum who even

now refused to take a position on whether stars and bars should get off that lawn. to answer a question while running for president would cheapen the issue. let's watch. >> i'm just suggesting that it's a decision that should be made by south carolina and politicizing this and putting it into the context of a presidential campaign i think cheapens it. i think this is an issue that's bigger and more important than that. i'm trying to focus in on what i think is really amazing, the reconciliation both with the flag and what's going on here at the church. i don't think necessarily my entering into that and telling what i should do or what i would do is any more telling or more important than what the people are actually doing here. >> explain it, gene. i was going to say explain lucy. >> the only explanation i have is that he's worried about losing whatever percentage it is of south carolina republicans who are, you know, flag-that

will hold on to the flag until they pull their cold, dead fingers off of it. >> that's charlton heston. >> i don't think he's getting much out of this, frankly. i don't think he'll get those votes with this stance. the whole republican party in south carolina, basically all the power brokers were there. >> he's fighting for the jumper's seat in a clown car. this reminds me of our history in this country. remember nixon when martin luther king was arrested down in georgia right in the middle of the election in 1960. thanks to harris word, kennedy got on the phone to mrs. king and changed everything. blue bomb came out of that, the big vote. >> by republicans. >> nixon wouldn't touch it. jackie robinson got on the train and said, you got to do something, mr. vice president. nixon said that would be grandstanding. it just sounds like rick santorum, i would cheapen the issue. why do people come up with these phrases? >> it's fear and political

calculation. it's the lack of moral certitude on something as important and significant as dr. king being illegally jailed or a flag that, you know, a significant portion of the population view as racist and antithetical to their interests. so getting beyond that fear has been a real struggle for a lot of politicians. >> i wonder, could any other guy, besides nikki haley, have done the dramatic thing -- i know how affected you were by it because we played a clip of it and i didn't grow up down there like you did. this was one of the rare times when someone looked like a leader. >> i thought she was terrific, yesterday, i really did. i thought her tone was just right. not just the content of what she said, which very carefully, you know, kind of explained, we're talking earlier, like she was mama saying this is the way it's going to be from now on. she said it very sweetly, but she said it. i thought her tone was perfect,

her voice was confident. she did a really good job. >> could anybody else have done that? >> nobody -- i don't know. >> i say no, because they didn't. >> lindsey graham could have done it. >> i say no, but they didn't. >> nikki haley, indian american governor off this terrific performance. i'm confident she's going to get the flag down. flanked by tim scott, elected black senator from south carolina. will they go beyond the flag? will they go beyond the symbol of the flag? >> the republican party or south carolina? >> to begin to show the republican party how to -- it can get on the right side of -- >> what jack kemp tried to do. >> will they be the new jack kemp? >> who is the new jack kemp? who is the new kemp, the face of the party that's credible? >> she showed some evidence of it. i think you've got someone potentially like rand paul who

has spent a lot of time in the community. he was late in his response here, but, you know, he at least has a record that he can fall on. but just on nikki haley, the one thing that i think is important to take away from that is how she wove together two disparate interests. she had that southern white conservative and everyone else. and she in her statement wove them together in a very important way i think that, to your point, is going to help her have that flag taken down. >> today senator rand paul was asked about the flag issue. let's listen to what he said. >> i think the flag is inescapably a symbol of human bondage and slavery, and particularly when people use it, you know, obviously, for, you know, murder and to justify hatred so vicious that you would kill somebody, i think that symbolism needs to end, and i think south carolina is doing the right thing. >> according to rush limbaugh, removing the flag has nothing to do with taking down a symbol of hatred.

the republican party's grand vizier, it is to target the south. let's listen to the underwater walrus and see what he has to say. >> i have a prediction. this senate's not going to stop with the confederate flag because it's not about the confederate flag. it's about destroying the south as a political force. it's about isolating, targeting and identifying the south as dylann roof. do not doubt me, folks, and i'll make another prediction to you. the next flag that will come under assault, and it will not be long, is the american flag. >> why do people listen to that crap? i mean, nobody thinks the american flag's under assault. who is sitting in their car buying that garbage? >> well, look, the thing about the south and i'm sure rush knows this and appreciates this, it's changing. the south carolina today is not the south carolina of ten years

ago let alone 50 years ago. >> or two weeks ago. >> or two weeks ago. >> or two weeks ago. >> we look at the south a state like north carolina and virginia, states like that voting for barack obama. there is changes that are happening there. >> events matter. pearl harbor matter. >> the party's got to be in with those changes and know what's going on. >> it was said that being a politician is essentially a learning profession. you must learn all the time. >> republicans learn that charleston matters. what happened last week in charleston is going to matter. >> it wasn't the organization, it wasn't this police force, it was this kid that was somehow channeling the hatred that he inherited somewhere from this society. thank you, eugene robinson and michael steele. you were great yesterday, by the way. contributed campaign dollars to four of the guys running for president. what is it about the republican party that this guy likes so

much? plus the big vote by the senate to back president obama and deliver a signature achievement of his presidency, the pacific trade deal. it's clown car tuesday. in the driver's seat, donald trump. he's got all the seats. let me finish why eleanor roosevelt deserves to be on u.s. currency. thanks for calling angie's list. how may i help you? i heard i could call angie's list if i needed work done around my house at a fair price. you heard right, just tell us what you need done and we'll find a top rated provider to take care of it. so i could get a faulty light switch fixed? yup! or have a guy refinish my floors? absolutely! or send someone out to groom my pookie? pookie's what you call your? my dog. yes, we can do that. real help from real people. come see what the new angie's list can do for you.

bit behind jeb bush. but as he ramps up his campaign,

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dylann roof says he was inspired by the writings of the white supremacist group called the council of conservative citizens. he writes, quote, at this moment i realize that something was very wrong. he's talking about the country. that group is run by earl holt iii, a man who has spewed some of the foulest hatred you're ever going to read. a few years ago in an online comment thread he used the user with the same name wrote, the real enemy is africanus criminalis, the laziest, stupidest race of the world. that's earl holt talking there. when president obama was elected the same man wrote this, i never dreamed that even a nation of dolts, gamblers, borrowers and personal injury plaintiffs would elect a phony nigro with three moslem names. that's earl holt talking.

they were also promoting republican candidates. in the last few years he, that man you're looking at, contributed at least $70,000 to dozens of republicans including presidential hopefuls like rick santorum, rand paul, scott walker, ted cruz. the party now finds itself scrambling to distance itself from holt and his group, of course, and every one of those politicians has rejected holt's money now by donating it to charity. richard cohen tracks hate groups like this, howard fineman is director at the huffington post. i want to go to richard first on this. give us a sense of this group. is this the successor to the notorious white citizens councils that grew up during reconstruction? >> that's exactly right, chris. they were built, in fact, on the

mailing lists of the old white citizens council. at one point in the late '90s, they boasted about 15,000 members including many, many prominent republican office holders. >> why do they like the republican party? i know it's a basic question, but i need to hear it. >> i think the real question is why does the republican party like them so much during that time. it was part of the southern strategy. people like trent lott routinely spoke at their conferences. and for the people involved in the council, the republican party, they were the most conservative game in town. >> what about this guy scalise of louisiana, the guy in leadership now, didn't he speak to one of those groups? >> i believe so, that's correct. he claims like all of them, he didn't know whatty was talking to. such a common refrain that you hear. can you imagine trent lott or haley barber going to a group and not knowing anything about them? they've got more advanced people than that. >> in 1993, arkansas' lieutenant

governor mike huckabee spoke to a group's convention by videotape. in 1998 trent lott and bob barr addressed the group's convention. in 2004 haley barbour posed with ccc staff at a barbecue. let's talk about the republican party's problem here. they've got this on their fingers here. they've got a connection to a guy that inspired a guy that shot nine people. >> this is the nightmarish other side of the southern strategy. a little history. the south was democrat. >> solid south. >> solid south. then the civil rights movement happened, caused a depth charge in the south. eventually the republicans led by richard nixon saw the chance to take the south from the democrats and make the south the base of a new republican party. and that, in fact, has been the case consistently from the late '60s and early '70s through to today pretty much except for places like virginia and north

carolina occasionally around the perimeter. the solid south of the republicans. and in the old days, it used to be considered almost shrewd that they would play to the edges of this. ronald reagan in 1980, one of the first campaign stops of the fall of 1980 for ronald reagan was at the county fair in philadelphia, mississippi, right down the road from where some civil rights workers had been killed. that symbolism -- >> chaney and the other guys. >> that symbolism was not lost on anyone in the south. that was dog whistle politics, that was dog horn politics. people called him on it at the time. but that's 30 years ago in american politics. we are a different country, we're a multicultural country. we're a country of many races, not just the black/white story. and the southern strategy is now coming to haunt the republicans. and if they don't find a way to disengage themselves from it,

they've got no way of winning a presidential election, none. >> as i mentioned they are donating the money they got from holt as racist to charity. rick santorum said i abhor the sentiments mr. holt has expressed. these statements and sentiments are unacceptable, period, end of sentence. senator cruz believes there's no place for racism in society upon learning about mr. holt's background he immediately instructed that all those donation be returned. what do you think about that? should politicians be aware? should a bell go off when they get money from the council of conservative citizens? >> well, sure. but we don't know if any of them knew where the money was from. it says something about this holt character where he wants to put his cash, but i'm not sure what it tells us about the republican party candidates other than they're his favorites. make one other point quickly -- >> i want to stop you there. why does he give money to people if he doesn't agree with them?

>> oh, no, i'm sure he does agree with them. >> what does he like about republicans on race? what does he like about republicans on race? >> well, they're the most acceptable candidates to a racist like him. i mean, that's what it tells you. the supreme court has said that money is speech and he spoke very loudly, $70,000 worth. one point i wanted to add is that nikki haley in 2013 was tainted a bit by the council. one of the persons who is on her re-election steering committee, a fellow named rowan garcia quintana himself is a council board member. the council is absolutely interested in having a foot not just in the extremist world but also in the foot of mainstream politics. and that's a dangerous thing, obviously. >> i think that the republican party now would like to get away from their own history.

the sordid part of the southern strategy. but this guy is haunting them. i think he's contributing partly because he wants to say, uh-uh, don't forget about us. we're a part of your coalition. he's doing it for his own credibility to try to latch on to a republican party that's desperately, i think, going to increasingly trying to get away from them. whether they can get away from their own history is a question that will be looked at in this campaign. >> it's not your bailiwick but it's howard and mine. the weird politics, the republican party, which has been to scramble after the droppings of the other party. like they go after whites who are angry about black advance. they go after anti-gay people because of same-sex marriage because they go for what's left over, politically. and that's not how you build a party. thank you, richard cohen, howard fineman. police may be closing in on those escaped killers, maybe. the chase is getting hot. what clues the investigators are

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stop taking cialis and get medical help right away. ask your doctor about cialis for daily use and a free 30-tablet trial. welcome back to "hardball." searchers are intensifying the search for prisoners who broke out 18 days ago. they're focusing their attention on a densely wooded area filled with wild animals, mosquitoes and ticks and daily downpours drenching law enforcement and the desperate murderers themselves. a hunter spotted a man running away from that cabin we're looking at in the village of owls head 21 miles from the prison. sources familiar with the investigation tell nbc news that the dna recovered in that cabin match both convicted murderers and they are likely to still be together. in an exclusive interview, lyle mitchell, the husband of the prison worker accused of helping the inmates escape, says his

wife joyce mitchell is lucky to be alive today. joyce mitchell was supposed to drive the getaway car but reportedly got cold feet. >> if she had gone in that car -- >> she would have been dead within half an hour, i figure. she would get away, they were going to kill her, they were and all they wanted was that vehicle. >> lyle mitchell has not been charged with anything and his lawyer says he's cooperated with authorities. joyce mitchell has pled not guilty to providing the tools to help the escape. she smuggled hacksaw blades, drill bits and a hole punch into the prison by imbedding the items in ground beef. it's not uncommon for prisoners to have hot plates in their cells to grill hamburgers. adam reiss, and michael baird, an expert on dna evidence from cincinnati. first, to adam for the news. what's going on right now? we're hearing about a lot of activity up there. >> well, officials believe that dna evidence they found on

saturday and now we've learned underwear found in that same cabin are their best leads so far. they want to take advantage of those leads, secure this perimeter and make sure they don't leave this area. two hours ago they got a tip. we saw cars racing by here to an area about two hours from here called mountain view. a little lake area, some small cabins. they swarmed the area, there were choppers overhead, but they came up empty. they still believe these guys are together, they're on foot somewhere in the adirondack mountains, very difficult terrain. the sheriff told us it's very difficult. there's streams, the underbrush is very difficult to walk through. they're probably cold and wet and tired and hungry, which makes them even more desperate and dangerous. >> how cold does it get up there this time of year in that area? >> well, it drops pretty bad. maybe 70 or 80 during the day dropping to 50. it's been raining continuously for the past several days. a week ago it was raining, two

weeks ago it was raining. so this area has been drenched on an almost daily basis. so the conditions out there, you can bet, not only are uncomfortable for the escapees but for the searchers, very uncomfortable conditions out in the forest, in the area here, in the mountains of the adirondacks. >> is the assumption they've burrowed down deep into the terrain avoiding large swaths of open land. are we assuming they're moving or hiding somewhere? >> there's certainly a lot of places they could hide here. there's small cabins. the sheriff described a little hunting cabin where the dna was found. it's just a small little hut. there might be a table, there might be a little kitchenette, there might be a bed. there are plenty of places like that here in this area. places that people don't come. there are plenty of people who live here year round but there are many of these places where the people only come during the summer, maybe on weekends. plenty of places they could hold

up for days maybe weeks on end before being identified. >> adam reiss, thank you very much. let's go to michael baird, a dna expert. what do you think they have their hands on, the authorities, that they're looking at trying to figure out where they're going? >> it sounds like they have a lot of evidence that they can utilize including a jug of water, some underwear, socks, boots, even items that may have been touched in the cabin. all those items could be used for dna testing, and once they establish that the profile matches one or both of the individuals, they basically identify that they've been there. >> is this certitude? is this pretty close to human certitude that it's them? >> yeah, it really is. i mean, dna is a unique identifier. it will determine the profile that only that person will have. no one else in the world. so dna technology has gotten to the point where it can uniquely identify an individual to the exclusion of everyone else. >> and how do they get their

records? how do we match it up? do all prisoners have dna samples now that they have to provide them because they're incarcerated, they have to give up a dna sample? >> yes. that's correct, chris. when someone's convicted of certain crimes including felonies, a sample will be taken from that individual, a dna profile generated, and that profile will be kept on file, on record. there's a database called codis that's maintained by the fbi. any time a crime is committed, they don't know who it is, they can determine the profile of the evidence at the crime scene and compare it back to that codis database. >> powerful information here. powerful technology. thank you so much, michael baird on dna evidence. up next, the senate votes to bail out president obama on trade. they're going to work for him. that's coming up in the roundtable. big win for the president. plus donald trump at the wheel of the right-wing clown car. it is clown car tuesday.

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this is a very important day for our country. we've demonstrated we can work together on a bipartisan basis to achieve something that is extremely important for america.

this has been a long and rather twisted path to where we are today, but it's a very, very important accomplishment for the country. >> who would have known? welcome back to "hardball." that was mitch mcconnell handing president obama a victory. the u.s. senate brought the trade package back from the dead to break a filibuster and clear the way for passage of the trade promotional authority otherwise known as fast track. and the president is going to sign this thing this week. president obama needs fast track to push through his trade deal, the transpacific partnership. it would become a cornerstone in mr. obama's global legacy. but those who oppose it made their displeasure with the vote known today. here's one. >> this is day of celebration of the corporate suites in this country to be sure because

they've got another corporate sponsor trade agreement. we make decisions here today that throw people out of work. we know that. across the political spectrum, that's acknowledged. but we don't do anything to help those workers who lose their jobs. so we make a decision to throw people in mansfield, ohio, and cleveland, ohio, out of work, then we don't take care of the workers that lost their jobs because of those decisions. it's shameful. >> this trade agreement was supported by virtually every major corporation in this country. the vast majority of whom have outsourced jobs to low wage countries all over the world. this trade agreement is supported by wall street. this trade agreement is supported by the pharmaceutical industry. this agreement was opposed by every union in this country working for the best interests of working families. in my view, this trade agreement will continue the policies of nafta, cafta, permanent normal

trade relations with china, agreements that have cost us millions of decent-paying jobs. >> joining us is michelle bernard, the president of the bernard center, sam stein of the huffington post and susan page bureau chief for "usa today." i want to know how they carves this thing up. winning is always better. in my experience. he wanted the trade deal as part of his legacy, like his legacy of going to cube barks of opposing keystone. you can see his legacy building what he's doing now. in this case his partner was mitch mcconnell and john boehner. he didn't get any help from the democrats. >> he got some. >> 13 senate democrats and 28 in the house. what's your reaction generally? >> i think it's a big victory for president obama. this is one of the few big things he was hoping to do in the final two years of his term. this, the iran deal and obamacare surviving the supreme court. all these things we'll know in the next week.

there's no way you can say you know that's not a victory. it's at the expense of his friends. >> were they his friends on this? >> no, not on this. >> i want to move it around here. michelle, you have feelings. >> unlike you. >> the president says he was hurt. he's not exactly a sharing kind of guy. >> yeah. >> like the vice president is. he said i'm hurt by the fact you think i don't care about the working person in this country. and he doesn't understand why the labor unions were able to gin up all this hatred and anger against this bill when he thinks it is good for labor. it's good for america. >> yeah. i agree with susan. i think this is a huge victory for the president. for all of the reasons that we discussed. i think if you go back and look at what bill clinton went through when they were trying to push through nafta, none of this could have been a surprise to the president. he had to have known what was coming his way and what can you do other than expect him to say. how could you think this about me?

i am a man of the people. that's just natural. it's normal rhetoric. but look, if bill clinton could get through nafta and president obama was not able to get this deal done, i think it would have really harmed his legacy. he needs so much more than obamacare to -- >> bill clinton was for this. i heard him say it. hillary clinton was for it 125 times, whatever. so i know she has to steer around this a bit because of labor's influence in the party and she'll need them come next november. i understand the politics of his position. but bill clinton's for this thing. what do you say about this thing, sam? >> i mean, there's been a longstanding rift within the democratic party over this type of economic policy, the new democrats are the traditional labor line democrats. >> who wins and loses when you have free trade? >> it depends on who is the president. >> no. virginia -- >> the coasts and the cities will win on this one. and to be honest, the industrial midwest will probably lose.

and that's just the way it's been. and the problem it's the way it's been for generations now. and this president has, you know, not just with trade. the buildup of the disappointment within the union circles with obama extends well into his early years when he couldn't get the act over the finish line. >> what's that? >> the car check. allowing more vehicles for easier unionization. he made these lofty promises. even in the affordable care act they had disappointments with the policies there. there's been a buildup of discontent with obama within the union community. it bubbled over here. but the truth is they were always going to be discontented -- >> everybody's self-interest. i'm not knocking anybody for self-interest. the unions have about a million and a half manufacturing jobs in the country. so it's really on their last legs. they're fighting for their lives. >> they make the argument this will cost wages for manufacturing workers and that will affect every member they have. >> it will bring down wages. >> it will bring down wages and

that will hurt workers everywhere, even those whose jobs are not directly tied. >> but the counter argument more that is every job that's a trade job, the income that someone is paid is normally higher. you might lose jobs in certain part of the country -- >> -- the jobs you lose than the jobs you develop. the jobs you develop are not union jobs. >> the best point that obama had to make was that you are essentially living with the status quo. you can let china come in and -- >> exactly. >> but you can let me do it. i was always curious why democrats weren't more attentive to that argument. the next president could come in with a republican president. >> if he had gotten out there and sold this baby, really sold it on national television, primetime, this is about our leadership of the world, this is about china. we don't like china, we could beat them with that, would this work better or is this better the cagey way he did it. >> i think it's better the way he did it. >> cagey. >> i think he did sell it. >> he came here on our show to do it.

i know he tried. up next, the clown car. donald trump grabs the wheel of it. he's the man at the helm, if you will, and this is "hardball."

well, new lows for new jersey governor chris christie. a new poll from fairleigh dickinson has his job approval at 30%, the lowest it's ever been. when the poll asked him whether they like him personally,

dislike his policies or dislike everything about him, a plurality in the poll said they dislike everything about him. he's expected to announce he's running for president in a few weeks.

we're back with the roundtable. michelle, of course, sam and susan. >> when donald trump filed his official paper bourque just yesterday with the federal election commission, signaling that he's serious about his white house run. there's already evidence trump is being taken seriously by voters in the key prior state of new hampshire. he's in second place with 11%, just a bit behind jeb bush. but as he ramps up his campaign, it's worth listening to some of

the more outrageous things he's been saying. most recently, he blamed president obama for the state of race relations in this country. here he was on fox. >> you would have thought with an african-american president if -- at a minimum you would have thought he would have been a cheerleader for the country and, frankly, it would have been better but it hasn't worked out very well. it's probably as bad as it's ever been. >> i don't know to make of that. trump has been anything but a cheerleader. he's disparaging america's standing in the world and bashing those who seek opportunity here. >> the american dream is dead. our country hasn't been thinking like a winner. we're totally on the defense. we're being laughed at all over the world for our stupidity. we have to be a rich country again in order to be great. right now we're a poor country. we're a third world country. we're becoming like a dumping ground for the world.

we're a dumping ground. i say it. it's horrible thing to say. we're getting drug dealers, sex offenders. we're bringing tremendous problem. they're bringing drugs, crime, they're rapists and some, i assume, are good people. >> well, his wife is an immigrant. i mean, there are -- arnold schwarzenegger is an immigrant. what is this story about immigrants? >> he -- anyone who takes him seriously should really, really, really be ashamed. from calling mexicans rapists to talking about the chinese and he says "i beat them all the time. but our politicians don't know what they're doing. some of them are good people, too, they buy my apartments at the trump tower." [ laughter ] >> well, this tough talk, will it work with the peeps? except to gig the system perhaps when they vote for him? >> you don't take him seriously as a nominee.

you do take him seriously as someone who could have a voice in the debate. he came in second in that new hampshire poll. >> what does it tell you? >> it tells you there are some voters who find it appealing and he's also employment security for fact checkers. >> here we go. when it comes to defeating isis, trump's tragedy is to simply take their oil. let's watch this. >> you take away the oil. you take away the wealth, you take away the money. they're building a hotel in syria. isis is building a hotel. do you believe they here in the hotel business? they're competing with me. [ laughter ] you go in and take the oil. we should have never given it up. they should have listened to me. never given it up. [ applause ] >> okay, would you explain that? it's underground. >> it's way underground. >> how do you take it? >> you build the world's biggest straw, you suck it out, you take it and you move it to mexico then you put a tariff on it, chris. >> he later clarified that he would bomb those oil feels. that's how he wants to take

them. >> you have to go in and take the oil. you kill them at the head. it's over. they took the oil from iraq. >> so you bomb the oil fields? >> i would bomb the hell out of them. i'd bomb the fields. >> trump has made it perfectly clear he doesn't think very highly of his republican opponents. >> i don't like a lot of these people. it's not even like. i don't respect some of these people. they shouldn't even be running for office. they have no right to run for office. and then i read i shouldn't be on the same stage with some governor who is a nothing or a senator who's a nothing. i'm not saying that a senator's nothing. i'm just saying some of these people shouldn't be on the stage. grow to the best college and you do great and then all of a sudden you're not supposed to be on the stage and you have other people that frankly can't shine your shoes and it's okay for them to be on it. >> he's the only republican so far to use a four-letter word on the stump. here he was at the freedom summit last month. >> here's what's going happen.

the lobbyists will come and see me but i don't gave [ bleep ] about lobbyist, stock? [ cheers and applause ] >> all told, trump has made it perfectly clear he's at the wheel of the right wing clown car for 2016. run through his impact on the campaign starting with the debates in august? what was his impact? it will probably be in the top ten. >> the impact will be that people will find him interesting and it will give democrats -- i think i saw "national review" on line might have said donald trump is winning the election for the democrats. that will give democrats a very big -- >> al sharpton said a few cycles ago. >> i think he will have an effect, a very aggressive effect. but i foresee another candidate in the field be by calling him out. >> who will call him snout who will knock his lights snout that will be the sister soldja moment of the millennium.

when we return, eleanor roosevelt deserves to be on u.s. currency. eleanor roosevelt. you're watching hard ball. you know, in any job any profession image matters. i want some gray...but not too much. only touch of gray uses oxygen to gently blend away some gray but not all for that perfect salt and pepper look. satisfaction guaranteed. just you and the look you want. just for men touch of gray

let me finish with a recommendation for the first woman to appear on u.s. currency, el noor roosevelt. to the millions of the people her husband called the forgotten

men, the name personifies the faith americans would have restored in their government, in their country. for all the horrors of the 1930s, there was one person out there demanding relief. for the husband who could not walk, there was a wife who could and did, visiting coal mine, migrant cramps, sharecroppers and all those new deal projects. eleanor was his eyes and ears, franklin said, and conscience, too. it was mrs. roosevelt who made sure mr. roosevelt's project went to where the need was worst. it was mrs. root says are who took a stand for african-americans, most dramatically when the daughters of the american revolution barred singer marion anderson from performing at constitution hall. resigning her membership from the dar right then and there. she pushed for a living wage and didn't quit there. as his widow, she carried on his commitment to the united nations, helping to write the universal declaration of human rights. as the u.s. treasury moves to recognize an american woman, el

noor roosevelt, a recognized partner in the most successful presidency of modern time, would be the perfect citizen to honor. and that's hard ball for now. "all in" with chris hayes starts right now. tonight on "all in." >> take it down. take it down. take it down. >> the take down the flag movement begins to take hold across the south as a kind of virtual appomattox halts sales of confederate flags from amazon to walmart. tonight, the backlash to the confederate backlash online. the man formerly known as the southern avenger is repenting for his confederate mask and he joins me live. and what happens after the flags come down? we will have some breaking news on that. plus, hillary clinton's strongest remarks yet on the charleston massacre. >> an act of racist terrorism. and why the donald trump surge in new ham