>> thank you all for joining me tonight. >> thank you, lawrence. event, trump versus christie. let's play "hardball." good evening. i'm chris matthews in washington. p.t. barnum creator of the greatest show on earth says if you want a crowd start a fight. well today chris christie and the donald trump of new york. what do you think these two pugs will do when they get out there? they'll go toe to toe with trump shouts insults in every direction, christie throwing them back with attitude. can you see either of them ducking a punch from the other pretending it didn't happen? give me a break. they'll go at each other big time. this is the cute part, guaranteeing each a piece of the

front page. they won't stand a chance making hay when these two guys are out there throwing their sunday punches. tonight we look at the matchup of the biggest fight card in august, the republican debate with the main event matching the big little guy from jersey and the mouth from manhattan. donald trump versus chris christie with everyone else standing there watching. michael steele was rnc chair back when it was a normal organization. and stephanie cutter was campaign management for president obama and heather haddon with "the wall street journal." the only reason christie can get this this thing is to be christie. i don't think he gets in there as a wilting frail flower, a wallflower and acts well mannered and doesn't cut up anybody. do you agree with that that he has to get out there and slug it out? >> yeah, we definitely saw that today here at livington heights school where he formally announced and entered the race.

the speech he gave, some policy details but mostly all about his personality. the straight talker, i'm going to tell it like it is governor was on display here. he's down in the polls. he's not where he was in 2012, really the sheer force of his personality they're banging on at this point. >> in livingston, new jersey, christie jumped into the race with, yes, a promise to make us cringe. that was his word. >> people say aren't you shy in a crowd. i said you should see the family i married into. you're going to get whether you like it or not or whether it makes you cringe every once in a while or not. when i stand up on a stage like this in front of all of you, there's one thing you'll know for sure. i mean what i say and i say what i mean and that's what america needs right now.

i am now ready to fight for the people of the united states of america. we need to have strength and decision-making and authority back in the oval office, and that's why today i am proud to announce my candidacy for the republican nomination for president of the united states of america. >> i am not making this up, michael and stephanie. this guy wants to fight. he'll make his name by fighting. who is out there waiting for him in the center ring in donald trump who has been his latest peeing matches with nbc. they both seem to want to fight. >> they'll bring that energy to the table, and i think to the point that was made earlier, christie's not where he was in 2012. i think that's where they're starting. they're going back to that moment in time and picking up from that. >> the old personality. >> the old personality, that energy that got him the look from republicans and the national media. that's what you saw on that

stage today. >> gail -- i was going to call you gail. remember he said none of your business. you can't do that against a wall. you have to do it against another person. >> right. >> that show of macho that we just saw there was about taking on somebody. and trump does that every second of his life. i just think these two guys will take the air out of the room. jeb bush is muttering and, gee, i think i believe in this and these guys will overpower him. >> it will separate the boys from the men and the women. >> she might do okay. >> both of them have -- the only thing they really have going for them in this race is their personalities. and their bluntness. they both have significant problems otherwise. it will be entertaining to watch, but those problems will start to come out. >> heather, it seems to me one of the problems is not just bridge-gate but budget-gate. once bridget kelly starts talking on the stand, isn't this guy going to have to be part of the audience watching it? she's going to dominate the

coverage. because she has to beat him back for her to clean her record up. she has to blame it on him. >> yeah, i mean, the governor has said he's over bridge-gate, it's behind him, but clearly that's not true. we still have federal prosecutors have indicted two of christie's former aides. there's a trial that could happen this year, could happen next year when the campaign's really in the home stretch. so this is very much a question that still remains for christie. i don't think it's as done as he said it is. it's worth noting right after this announcement in new jersey he hightailed it right to new hampshire. he's spending five days there. new hampshire a place where they like mavericks, people that tell it like it is. but that lane has become crowded. there are other candidates who are really banking on new hampshire. they could duke it out there and the oxygen will quickly be taken up there as well. >> christie and trump playing

the big new media market in new york. christie told matt lauer that he isn't afraid of combat and he will soak up the media spotlight in this crowded field. here he is bragging already. >> i think what sets me apart is the state where i come from. i mean, this is hand-to-hand combat every day. and it's a democratic legislature who is fighting me all the time. we have to learn how to bring in and to craft compromise. and in red states they don't have a lot of experience doing that. >> very clouded. is that an advantage or disadvantage? >> hard to tell. the biggest problem with so many people is getting attention. i've never had any problem getting attention. i think i'll do okay. >> so they go to a noisy restaurant. a full interview of matt's interview with the governor will be on the "today" show tomorrow morning. you want to cover christie and trump or jeb?

where's the most fun? >> obviously trump versus christie. that doesn't mean it will be all positive coverage. it will be very entertaining. a month from now, they both know how to make headlines. unfortunately usually by telling somebody to sit down and shut up. >> you know the party, your party. these two guys could sell well in new hampshire. >> absolutely. >> it's gritty, granite state. they like this sort of knock this off my shoulder guy. >> they do. >> in iowa, they're anti-war, anti-noisy, they're probably anti-war certainly and they're anti-bad manners, my guess. >> they're very anti-bad manners. for someone like christie and trump, which is why they're not going to play there as the other candidates will, meaning iowa, they have that problem because they cannot necessarily translate that for that audience in a way that's credible. so they start in new hampshire. they lay the ground. but then it gets interesting. because then it's the south after that. christie has to figure out a way

to navigate going on. >> ultimate yankees. the republican debates would be spectacles of nasty attacks with donald trump and christie doing their worst. let's watch a preview. >> after you graduate from law school, you conduct yourself like that in a courtroom your rear end will get thrown in jail, idiot. damn, man, i'm governor. could you just shut up for a second? >> you don't take criticism all that well. >> i lash back. why wouldn't i lash back? >> you should shut up. >> sit down and shut up. >> do you have to hide that side of your personality outside of new jersey? >> there's no hope of that. >> when mexico sends us people, they're not sending their best. they're bringing drugs, they're bringing crime, they're rapists. >> they think this is jeb bush's race to lose. >> if the elites in washington who make backroom deals decide who is president is going to be, then he's definitely the front-runner. >> i can't believe bush is in

first place. i'm not thrilled. how can this guy be in first place? this guy can't negotiate his way out of a paper bag. >> this is a clown show. i don't make this up. jeb bush's wife is mexican and he's treating them all like trash. he's just saying this stuff. >> it's insulting, honestly. >> i think msnbc decided that two weeks ago. >> they're going to get significant coverage, there's no doubt about that. but i don't think the coverage is type of coverage that gets you votes. >> the explanation he said, i can't change. there isn't some other flip side nice soft spoken chris christie. there's only this. >> but stephanie makes a good point. one that's important to watch. coverage is one thing. how it is translated and resonates with the voters voting in primaries is something very different. while you focus on christie and trump in one frame --

>> they're going into this debate. >> but rand paul isn't going to take any -- we've seen the scuffup between paul and christie. >> with guys willing to go right back at you? do you want to be a guy taking on trump and christie? they'll go right back at you. >> it's how you engage initially. >> is there a subtle way to break these guys? >> at the end of the day voters are looking for somebody presidential, that can be your president. >> really? >> if these guys are having a boxing -- >> is that true early primaries? it makes noise. let me go to heather with another question. is there another chris christie for the business press? is there another guy that can actually down and just talks budgets, taxes, policy that would influence an actual voter? >> yeah, i think it's worth noting his people have been really working hard to sort of tone down his gruff manner. he gave a series of policy

speeches. many of them in new hampshire where he was presenting the sober chris christie, the big ideas guy and really were trying to distinguish themselves as the one in the field that put forward detailed policies way ahead of anyone else. he talked about tax policy, entitlements, foreign policy. one after another speeches where they're really trying to distinguish themselves and present him as the sober, rational candidate. the speech today you didn't really hear about policy. it was much more personality focused. we'll have to see which one will he emphasize and which one gets the most attention. >> i think i know which one gets the most attention. ic help you with that one, heather. i'm just kidding, but he's going to get attention when he says i'm going to make you cringe. never heard that from another politician. thank you, heather, haddon, michael steele and stephanie cut. >> we're getting more and more

american all the time. this is a cow boy country. the court errs on the side of do what you want to do, buy yourself a gun if you want. it's just what the american public actually when you look at the numbers seems to want, as scary as that is. president obama is an roll. now his poll numbers show it. how could this not help hillary? and what can republicans do to stop down the momentum which will help hillary? and clown car tuesday. bobby jindal with the most absurd reaction so far to the gay marriage court ruling. finally the twin republican battles being waged between now and next winter. who will win iowa and who will win new hampshire? those two states are fighting against each other as to what the republican party stands for.

new information tonight on the prison break in upstate new

york. the district attorney prosecuting the case says richard matt and david sweat made a dry run the night before their escape. and they actually popped open a man hole and got a look outside. well, that news comes as prison officials have suspended three prison executives and nine guards as part of their investigation. adam reiss joins us from outside the prison in dannemora. what's the newest information here? >> now that the manhunt is over, chris, heads are starting to roll here. three members of the executive team, including the superintendent, have been put on administrative leave as well as nine members of the security team. they'll bring in a new team to run the jail for the time being. this as officials in albany are outraged at the breaches of protocol that took place here. and david sweat, he continues to talk to investigators, telling them on a couple occasions they narrowly were caught. they eluded police once when the border patrol surrounded them, they were able to escape. another time they came upon a

sheriff's deputy, richard matt fell over, made a noise but they were able to escape. the night before the escape, they went through the pipes, they went through the catwalk and stuck their heads out of the manhole cover, but that was just a dry run. >> they should have made a run for it that night. thank you, adam reiss, what stories you come up with.

welcome back to "hardball." to listen to ted cruz and other conservatives tell it, last week's supreme court decision on same-sex marriage was the outlaw act by unelected judges. >> today some of the darkest 24 hours in our nation's history. yesterday and today were both naked and shameless judicial activism. this radical decision purporting to strike down the marriage laws of every state, it has no connection to the united states constitution. they are simply making it up.

it is lawless, and in doing so, they have undermined the fundamental legitimacy of the united states supreme court. >> mike huckabee said i will not acquiesce to an imperial court any more than our founders acquiesced to a british monarch. but paul is following the country's lead here. 57% of americans back same-sex unions up from 27% in 1996. and it fits a pattern in this country. "the new york times" points out, a dominant theme in american history is over time civil rights do expand and discrimination ebbs. back in 1958, for example, only 4% of the country then in the late '50s approved of interracial marriage. that number in 2013 as recent as that 87%. in the past decades people have grown more and more comfortable with someone being president

that is not a white male. in 1937 only a third said they would vote for a woman. on civil rights issues the country marches forward not backward. that's my argument. i'm joined by "washington post" opinion writer jonathan capehart who is somewhere outside in colorado. and they're all in open spaces there. she's with the nice backboard at least somewhere in 30 rock. let me ask you this. i sense, as mr. dooley said of great age and vintage, that the supreme court follows election returns. that this country has in our lifetime moved very dramatically toward acceptance of equality, marriage equality, the whole works when it comes to gay people. the supreme court is either almost in tandem with this. your thoughts. it reflects our culture. your thoughts. >> it was very close. a 5-4 vote. significant opposition.

but a resounding vote nonetheless. you have to listen to the language of justice kennedy and realize that conservative supporters of gay rights over the last 10, 15 years have really succeeded in using the language not just of rights but also of love and even of responsibility in saying that gay people are entitled to a marital relationship which is the foundation of our society. there's been a real success in developing arguments that would appear to use conservative language. i don't think ted olsen was faking it. but that way of arguing to the court also widened the acceptance of gay marriage. that's important to those of us who are liberals who want to thing about how they expand the sphere of justice even wider. those arguments had an effect. >> jonathan, you're a gay man and i've always wanted to know about this. it seems to me the iconography

of the gay world has changed dramatically in my life. 20, 30 years ago, gay pride parades, putting on rather aggressive behavior. there was the talk of the bathhouses and all that. now when you think of gay couples, what you think of is two people on the steps of a court house embracing in loving ways that corresponds to good marriages, heterosexual marriages. is it just a different iconic way we look at it? i don't know what that means exactly. but when you think of gays getting married, you think of like us, too. it doesn't seem alien. >> no, it's not alien. what you're seeing is gay couples really trying to emulate for, i would think, a majority of them, either the family lives they came from, a family with either one or two loving parents who were together and the security and stability that that provided or if they did not have it and longed for it for themselves, now they have the opportunity to do it.

you know, all gay people got with that supreme court ruling was the right to marry but also the right not to marry. and there are a lot of people who now would love -- now are going to celebrate the fact that they now have the option, one, and, two, to sort of revel in the fact that probably for the first time in their lives or in our lives we feel completely whole with this country. you know, chris, i was one of the many hundreds, by the time was out, thousands of people who went down to the white house to see the white house bathed in the rainbow colors. because we needed to see it with our own eye. not only was that supreme court decision so spectacular and made us feel more american than we probably ever felt in our lives, but to see the white house and the president of the united states celebrate that decision not just in words earlier in the day but on the very house he lives in was a truly spectacular moment.

>> do you know how spectacular the view is behind you right now? we're looking at the white-capped rocky mountains. polls show a steady increase for gay marriage over the years, the story is different in other controversial social issues, gun rights, abortion and the death penalty. "the new york times" analyzed opinion polls and found in the paper today that over the years the needle hasn't budged much. gun laws a wide majority of americans support stricter gun loss or keeping laws as they are now but a small growing minority want the laws to be looser. abortion rights, four in five say it should be legal in all cases. support for the death penalty has remained consistent for 80 years, up there around 60%. joan, your views? sometimes libertarianism is a progressive thing and sometimes it strikes me as a right-wing thing. but the individual makes the call. you want to own a gun, you want to spend money on a campaign,

you want to marry someone, it's almost like, yeah. >> right. >> and if you want to kill somebody, fine, we'll kill you. there's another case. you made the call, buddy. >> right. >> i think there's a toughness and a cowboy toughness even when i don't like it and you don't like it, like with guns, to the way the court rules. your thoughts about this american character they keep try to root or or succeed in catching. your thoughts? >> look at that abortion number, that's 80%. the number of americans who support legal abortion is higher than the number of americans -- much higher than the number of americans who support gay marriage. so you know, the court's been kind of silent on it what's been happening in the realm of abortion rights is conservative states have begun really restricting access and passing bogus laws. the supreme court is probably going to have to get involved and rule whether those restrictions are unconstitutional. we'll see. but that is an area where people even in the face of such incredible opposition in the

last few years, we've actually seen the number tick up from 75% to 80%. that's a victory on the pro choice side. >> when people say in certain circumstances, they mean in their circumstances. everybody says, be very restrictive except if i want to make that decision, i want to make it. >> that's a very good point. >> jonathan capehart, good luck out there in that beautiful country. >> coming home tomorrow. >> joan, it looks nice. a very nice backdrop for talking about americanism. one place where the supreme court's decision isn't sitting well is texas. they're telling clerks to refuse marriage licenses to same-sex couples if it violates their own personal beliefs. when a moment spontaneously turns romantic why pause to take a pill? and why stop what you're doing to find a bathroom? cialis for daily use, is the only daily tablet

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welcome back to "hardball." despite last week's landmark, the u.s. supreme court decision establishing the right to gay

marriage, republican leaders in the lone star state are balking. on sunday ken paxton told his state's county clerks they could refuse to issue marriage licenses. county clerks and their freedoms that may allow accommodations of their religious objections to issuing same-sex marriage licenses. paxton anticipated there would be lawsuits filed against the clerks, but he added, quote, numerous lawyers stand ready to assist clerks defending their religious beliefs. and fellow texan senator ted cruz said the supreme court had undermined its legitimacy and agrees with his fellow republicans back home. here he is. >> we had five unelected lawyers determine that the policy views of 320 million americans didn't matter. i would urge everyone to recognize this decision for what it was, which was political judicial activism and lawlessness. >> senator ted cruz will be here

on wednesday a week from now, a week from tomorrow. joining me from austin is political analyst jim moore and he's the author of "bush's brain." you explain it. a gay couple walks up to some justice of the peace office in texas and what happens now given the way this sort of nullification thing is going on down there? >> well, they're not going to get a permit in every county in this state. the dallas morning news has been doing research today and about a third of the counties that they've called are still not issuing permits. over in east texas where the piney woods are over behind what some folks call the pine curtain, there was a couple that went in to get a permit and they were denied and they filed suit and the county relented and gave it to them. some counties have been doing it. the major counties are issuing permits but there's still resistance.

what ted cruz is doing is blunt-force stupidity talking about lawyers who are unelected which if they've recently upheld in the past many things that senator cruz and other conservatives in texas are in favor of, then they like the court. now they don't like the court so much in texas. >> cruz, for a guy that went to law school and did well there, acts like he just discovered the existence of the supreme court. it has always been controversial and done something against a political point of view, whether fdr. he tried to pack the court. people like eisenhower picked the warren court that ended up giving us the brown case. he didn't like it. he said it was the worst decision ever made. but he acts like he's the first guy. this is what drives me crazy about cruz. he acts like he's a lone pioneer of existence out there. never knew about the mccarthy period, never knew anything that came before him. talk about ego. >> well, exactly. and he's spreading this kind of

disinformation and fear among county officials. and like ken paxton, our state attorney, chris, when he says we're going to provide the lawyers that you need if you resist, they're trying to use this fig leaf of religious liberty. but unintended consequences, obviously, is if the counties resist and they do not grant these permits to these gay couples, then they're going to end up getting sued and there's going to end up being large settlements to taxpayers in this state are going to have to pay. it will be the result of behavior and comments by senator cruz and others like him. >> it reminds me of the court house door or the schoolhouse door with george corley wallace. >> same thing. >> where he stood in the doorway and katzenbach who was taller than him moved him aside. the author of "bush's brain" which is still in question. can republicans do anything to slow him down? bigger question, is how well he's doing right now going to help hillary clinton win the election next year? we'll get to that with the roundtable.

the republicans have already forced more than 50 votes in congress to repeal or dismantle

this law, all without offering a viable alternative. i think we can sum up the message from the court and the american people in just two words -- move on! >> move on.org. that was hillary clinton telling republicans to quit attacking president obama's health care law and, quote, move on. after last week's triumphs for obama on trade, health care and same-sex marriage, hillary clinton is looking to capitalize on his momentum and that's making some on the right nervous. president obama reflected on his successful run last week earlier today. here he is. >> so in many ways last week was simply a culmination of a lot of work that we've been doing since i came into office. how am i going to spend whatever political capital that i built up? you know, the list is long. and my instructions to my team and my instructions to myself have always been that we are going to squeeze every last

ounce of progress that we can make when i have the privilege -- as long as i have the privilege of holding this office. >> isn't that great, even the president of the united states has to make lists of things he tells himself to do every day like everyone else is trying to do. "obama's victories are a gift to democratic front-runner hillary clinton. the president is on a roll at the moment and the democrat who hopes to follow him to the white house is looking to roll along. republicans need a focused strategy to stop the momentum. that's byron york, as always a smart guy. let's bring in the roundtable. anne gearan for "the washington post," clarence page, with the chicago tribune and sabrina siddiqui. hillary clinton, sitting in her compound wherever it is and people around the circle in hillary-land, they must have

feared a very declining obama administration looking at it the other way. it was going to fizzle out by time he got started. it wouldn't be anything to defend. but now? >> absolutely. when obama is seen as a lame duck and ineffectual, there's a residual spillover effect to her. she's arguing to be the third term. they hate that comparison, but it is. the third president presidency in a row, that's historically difficult to do. her argument would be, things are working. this is great. keep it going. so when things are going well, it does definitely help her. >> sabrina, you think she's comfortable with that third term notion? third obama term? >> so long as some of the priorities of the current administration are vindicated as they were last week. >> health care. this gets health care off the

hook. >> has been the biggest attack dog for republicans have certainly viewed that as their biggest point of attack for what, now, three elections? this takes it off the table from 2016. i think also the third term is something republicans are certainly using to try and cast this as obama's third term for people who are disappointed. but the key with some of the polls the president at 50% for the first time in more than two years you have to be able to convince the american public that a third obama term is a bad thing. and if he's doing well, then obviously a harder case to make. they have to differentiate their agenda. >> let's get to the self-interest, had health care lost 6-3, the aca fallen apart because they couldn't give subsidies. that would have been two disastrous health care plans in a row. hers in '94 and this one republicans could have mounted their guns and said, these guys don't know how to do it. >> could have left republicans off the hook, because they

haven't been able to come together around an alternative. >> because they don't believe in an alternative. >> you have different ideas. you have minorities of republicans who want to do this or that but they can't come together around an alternative so they're off the hook, too. hillary clinton of course doesn't want to be the third obama term but she certainly doesn't want to be cast as a continuation of an unsuccessful term. so long as obama succeeds -- >> people like winners. alan abramowitz says the election will depend on the economy and president obama's approval rating. if obama's approval rating is close to 50% and the economy's growing at a decent rate in the fall of 2016, both of which seem quite possible maybe even likely then hillary clinton will have a decent chance of winning. while we're 16 months out from the election, president obama's approval rating at 50% the highest since 2013. the poll shows the rating for

the president's handling of the economy has climbed up to 52%. first time that number has topped 50 in six years. sabrina, i mean, we had trouble with greece. i don't think anybody is going to blame obama for greece. but it seems like the economy's getting stronger, slowly getting stronger. this president is on a winning streak. and i wouldn't have suspected this just a couple of weeks ago. >> no. and of course, the approval ratings will continue to fluctuate over the next year and a half. a lot longer to go for the economic recovery. but the numbers are positive for this administration and hillary clinton leading up to november. a big part of this will be the americans who feel left out of the economic recovery. that's why you do hear hillary clinton talking about the growing income and wage gap. there will still be the case to be made for who is going to represent themselves in the party that can represent -- >> how do they explain that they left this country in the toilet? >> sorry. >> how do they explain that they left this country in the toilet

in 2008 when they left office. anybody who has money now has tripled it in the stock market thanks to this administration. and that means mostly republicans have tripled their money. if the market starts to fluctuate, they'll blame the market on obama. but when it's been triple, they haven't mentioned his name in that connection. they give us nothing. >> you notice how bill clinton became a nonperson when it comes down to jim carville's line, which didn't you like, the peace or the prosperity of the clinton years? so republicans do not talk about it. they won't talk about obama's successes either. >> i like when people are a little bit honest in their score keeping. >> and you like politics? my goodness. >> you hear it occasionally. the roundtable staying with us. if it's tuesday, it's the clown car. because it's clown car tuesday. bobby jindal is at the wheel.

wow, jeb bush released 33 years of his personal income tax returns. an unprecedented move in presidential politics. the returns, which were posted online, include the eight years since he left office as governor. they show a sharp increase of income as he served on numerous corporate boards. as our own chuck todd reports jeb's income doesn't even put

him in the top five wealthiest candidates running for president this time around.

we've got to stop being the stupid party. i'm serious. time for a new republican party that talks like adults. >> if it's tuesday, it must be the clown car. clown car tuesday is upon us. and warning republicans to not be the stupid party bobby jindal of louisiana had the most juvenile reaction to the ruling on same-sex marriage of the candidates so far. jindal said there's now, quote,

no point of having a supreme court at all. >> so now we've got a court that says we don't care about the meaning of words. we don't care about the constitution. a reporter asked me about it. i said flippantly. might as well get rid of the supreme court and save some money. i mean, what's the point? they're not a judicial body any more. they've become a political body. >> jindal's presidential bid also comes as he hits new lows in his home state. he's viewed favorably by louisianans by just 32% of the voters down there like this guy. according to a poll last month. and that's a very red state, of course. he doesn't register on our national poll from last week for president. we're back with our roundtable, sabrina, clarence and anne. there's lots of reasons to run for president. one is you think you might win. i don't think that's one of his reasons. what are the other reasons why bobby jindal will go out there and run? >> cabinet positions. >> which one do you have your eye on? >> hhs. you look for prominence, you look for a sweet contract.

>> what does he bring -- >> gain national prominence. diversity. but obviously he's doing very poorly. >> do you think he wins in a contest between he and nikki haley? >> no. >> i think nikki might have the nod on him. >> another reason he is probably in this now is because he is doing so poorly at home. i mean, there's only one -- actually, zero of the state-wide republican officials even showed up for his announcement speech. he's unpopular at home. we've got to stop being the stupid party. i'm serious.

than the naacp, however, they were not a civil rights organization until after the kennedy assassination, jfk, 1963, and suddenly there was a big push to go after mail-order rifles, et cetera. before that, the nra was a gun safety organization. and wanting gun training, et cetera. they became a civil rights when it came down to defending the second amendment. >> if you're bobby jindal and barely registering in the polls, you need attention, so you say things that grabs headlines, like saying this about the nra and saying we should get rid of the supreme court. because he has nothing else going for him. >> in case you're worried, the president will defend us against trans fat. radical islam, not so much. ann? what is that supposed to teach us? >> or what's his alternative? the list of cliches from the announcement speech was interesting. i mean, he didn't really have much to offer.

far less, in fact, than christie did today. >> speaking of christie. google's put out their list of what's trending right now. and people are still obsessed, excuse me, governor, with his weight. they want to know how much weight he's lost, how much weight he still has. >> not bridgegate? >> well, that's coming. but people are really -- if they're all interested in your weight, you're not going to be elected president. if that's the only thing they can ask about you. >> it is something people are genuinely interested in. here's this guy that is just out there, with you know, and he's not a thin guy. he does not look like your classic american politician. and he throws himself out there saying, look, this is me. you know, here i am. >> he went on a weight loss thing and slipped back. >> what about weight -- >> i don't like to talk about that. >> how about the royal way, when he says, we're working on it. who are the other people involved? i love that when he says, "we." >> there, i said it.

you want me to do that. but i sympathize with him. i, too, lost 20 pounds and gained it all back. but i think what happened to him, he did lose weight. >> but you're humble. >> i'm not running for president. >> bush went on a diet, too. >> i'll be back in the show tonight with a what i think is a combination of questions. how do you take sober-minded people who are actually trying to become president. and i include in that group scott walker, i include jeb bush, i include a couple of other ones who are really seriously running for president. you've got to keep the right, grab the center right with your whole heart, and move over and get the center. you've got to get all three to win the presidency, to get 51%. you've got to get right, center right, and center. you have to do it. otherwise you're wasting everybody's time. and how does it work together when they're in the same ring, donald trump in the same ring with jeb bush? >> i think we're going to see that at the debate. you're going to see four, five candidates who really have all the goods, right? and are going to --

>> how do they get the attention away from the comics, the clowns? >> if they're doing it right, they do it by looking presidential. they do it by having answers. >> what happens when the clown car starts attacking you? do you ignore it? >> no, they can't always ignore it. certainly, a lot of the stuff that is read as an attack on hillary clinton now by some of the candidates is really also an attack on jeb bush. at some point, he's actually going to have to -- >> he's attacking mexicans and jeb bush's wife is a mexican. can he stand there and put up with that? this is coming our way. sabrina sediqi, thank you, and clarence paige, so much. and ann garrett, thank you so much. let's start with the twin political battles being engaged. you're watching "hardball," the place for politics. e next great trip. got to study those tripadvisor reviews carefully. and now the tripadvisor you've always trusted for reviews, checks over 200 websites to find hotel savings up to 30%. book!

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let me finish tonight with the twin republican battles being waged between now and next winter. they are, it's important to know, the first two battles for 2016. one is the battle for iowa. this is about connecting with the middle part of the country, with the bible belt, with people holding hard traditional values on abortion, marriage, that sort of thing. and it's about midwestern banners, balanced budgets, skepticism towards foreign adventurism, dislike for big mouths. put down names here like mike huckabee and rick santorum and maybe scottwalk who has a fundamentalist orientation to his social values. you can also throw rand paul in this iowa group based on his

anti-war philosophy. now comes the battle for new hampshire. here the contestants are a different type altogether. new hampshirites value independents and a kind of flinty toughness and practicality. for them, picking a president isn't about bible studies, it's about keeping government down in their place, the whole live free or die thing. there are five candidates running for new hampshire, for the basic reason they need to do very well there or they won't get much further. one is jeb bush, his willingness to stand up for immigrants, to accept the ruling on same-sex marriage as a new reality and to think about issues like education, all of that sets him apart from the hard right of his party. the other new hampshire-prone candidates are scott walker, chris christie who got in the race today, john kasich, the ohio governor set to get in soon. and former new york governor for the state george pataki. so as you watch the early debates, think about which contest the candidate has his eye on. the right-wing contest out in iowa, or the battle for tough independent think for yourself fella up in new hampshire. and if it makes you dizzy it's because these two states and

their political cultures are actually in a battle with each other. and that's hardball for now. thanks for being with us. "all in" with chris hayes starts right now. tonight on all in. >> i am proud to announce my candidacy for the republican nomination for president of the united states of america. >> 14 candidates and counting. >> you're gonna get what i think whether you like it or not. >> chris christie is in, but did he already miss his shot? and can he get past donald trump in the polls? then, a brawl in south carolina over the confederate flag. tonight, why the resistance we're seeing to taking down the flag today is much different than what we've seen before. plus, given the latest evidence that president obama is reaganing -- >> you may be witnessing history here. >> --i'll ask if hilary clinton can take advantage. and as marriage equality sweeps