>> ted simon, thank you for your guidance on this tonight. appreciate it. hardball is up next. trump doubling bush up in new hampshire. place your bets on who can stop him now. let's play "hardball." good evening. i'm chris matthews in washington. well, the smart money says there's more to the donald trump wave than dumb showbiz. he's picked them well. a coterie of time servers who might look okay in a cabinet but fail to stir the stall. is this why he's smashing through bush and walker and rubio and huckabee like a bowling ball through a setup of ten pins or like a hot knife through a stick of butter that's been left out of the fridge so

many nights and days that it's actually begun to ooze? whatever it is, it's not the way this campaign for 2016 was supposed to go. back when the republican regulars -- call them hacks if you want to -- all thought they had this treehouse to themselves. gene robinson, amy walter and mark leibovich. anyway, on fox news last night, donald trump bashed president obama and warned that the country is, quote, going to hell. >> he's probably the worst president in the history of our country. he's a very divisive person, which is why he brings this kind of stuff up. and he should have devoted more time to working on a good nuclear deal with iran instead of what he's doing because he has just been a disaster for our country. i'm running because we're not going to have a country soon. we don't have borders. we don't have law enforcement. they've taken all of the power away from our policemen. and sure you have a couple of bad apples and you have some bad decisions being made. and i hate to see it when i see it.

but the fact is we don't have law and order. we don't have -- i mean, our country's going to hell. >> anyway, trump's been rewarded for his rhetoric. new polls show him with a strong lead up in new hampshire. the latest from monmouth university shows him with twice the support of jeb bush. no one else come close. the results were similar in a nbc news marist poll. he's written about it for "new york times" magazine. i think there's something there. he's grabbed on to the zeitgeist of the white working class who are a big part of the republican coalition now. something he's got that none of the other guys got. >> being aligned with the crazies as john mccain called him out, is not a terrible place to be especially in a crowded primary. you have a niche that you're going tore to -- it's a good place to be right now. who knows how long it's going to last?

>> is he smart about it or he fell into this by accident? somebody had to say something would work. because these other guys are not grabbing our attention or even the voter, anybody. >> it's somewhere if between. unclear how calculated this all is, but from the very beginning of this primary there's been a race to be the person who is crazy, who is other, who is not of the political establishment. ted cruz, chris christie in different ways. trump has sort of owned it. >> amy, huckabee talks to the christian conservatives, maybe some jewish voters he's getting to now. i look at this guy, trump. he starts with cops, starts with illegal immigrants, then goes to cops. people say the cops need to be put under better regulation. he's saying unleash them.

he's carving himself a love affair with white working class guys out there. >> which is a growing constituency in the republican base. we think of the republican primary electorate with this country club crowd. that's not there any more. the white working class vote. >> the residual republican vote is white working class. new york, philadelphia, the rest. >> absolutely. trump sort of has come at the expense of mike huckabee. look at where he was in the nbc marist poll in iowa -- >> do we feel bad for mike huckabee now. >> now you understand why he's doing what he's doing. >> how can he go more crazy than anybody? he seems worst than trump is. >> absolutely right. this has got to be a time when huckabee thought he would really be getting some traction, gaining ground, establishing himself in the upper echelon of that top tier maybe, who knows. that's what you think when you run for president.

nobody is listening to huckabee until he starts saying crazy things. >> yesterday chris christie confronted a trump supporter who said trump would make a better president than chris christie. watch this battle of the big guys. >> when he says that he's going to build a wall across the entire 2,000-mile border between the united states and mexico and he's going to make mexico pay for it, now, that's a great line, right? everybody loves that. great. we're going to get the wall and we don't have to pay for it. >> got a lot of attention with that. >> of course he did. see, i thought we were talking about actually governing our country and not getting attention. >> not right now -- >> no, listen, if the goal here is to find the person to be president of the united states who can get the most attention,

he's going to win hands down. if it is the person who can most effectively govern our nation and deal with the world, i suggest to you that i'm in this race because i think i'd be better at it than he would. >> this is a guy that got his name and street cred from saying to a woman, shut up, gail, none of your business. now he's got new jersey trying to outmouth new york. the two big city guys. i think what do you call his vetting of his plan is a little too obscure for most people. >> it's almost as if he invented this person to sort of be in the audience to focus on. trump is getting attention. that's a big thing. almost as if christie can sort of take that and hit it out of the park. what's also interesting is you have this visages of northeast republicanism, trump, christie and even add jeb bush to this, the yankee sort of traditional -- >> and -- >> and these are different flavors of outrage or different flavors of how to approach a republican primary when theoretically, we're talking

about a southern populist party. >> now, it is a party. it's an angry party. that's why i don't put bush on the list. i don't see how they can have this love affair with anger, which they're going through now and end up picking bush as their candidate. >> this isn't new. trump didn't invent this anger. he didn't unleash it. he's connected to it in the same way marco rubio is, in 2010, cruz connected in 2012, then what happened in 2014, the establishment said uh-oh we better connect to this. >> you think the establishment is going to win the republican party? >> yes. then who will it be? >> they got a year off. >> and it will be who? >> it doesn't happen very -- >> i added up all the votes of people on the right. comes up about 50%. all the votes of the people in what we used to call the center right, about 30. they're way outnumbered. if this thing winnows down to a right wing versus establishment fight and trump wins the right wing primary basically, beats

all the other guys like huckabee and he's left standing to go against bush, look out bush. >> you think that bush -- >> wow. >> -- would be the established candidate? >> i don't think it would hurt his standing. i like kasich, i think he's the real deal. working class guy. >> you lost them both. >> i think i have, but he's moving up quick. he may make it to the debate. i think he surprises everybody. the cinderella kid. because he's got the working class roots and i.d. when he takes on a big money guy like trump, wait a minute, i am the guy you're talking to. i am that regular guy that came up the hard way. you went to wharton. i went to ohio state. okay? nothing wrong with ohio state. but you're bragging about your ivy league credentials. you're the elite, buddy. >> but does anybody take him on that way? >> i'm afraid they'll all get the treatment scott walker got the other day. he has a dossier walking around with him. you want to fight? let's talk about the jobless

rate in your state. talk about the road problem, the deficit problem. he's got it all ready to spit out. there is no trump to attack. what are you going to go after him for? >> i think what really gets traction probably in the debate are liberal positions. >> that's right. like you're really -- >> that's how they got rubio -- what's his name, got rudy giuliani. got gay roommates? what they got on him? >> hillary clinton was at his wedding. you can go issue by issue. there's a pretty fat dossier of thing that are real third rail for trump. >> you really think he's going to get stopped by that nitty bitty stuff? >> yeah, i do. >> i don't like people who disagree with me, but let's go on here. in "the wall street journal," the characteristic of this cycle is the positive streak running through both parties. populists on the left and right disagree on many things but they agree that the political establishment is distant and that the forces of big money are

steering events in a nefarious manner. perhaps order will be restored, still we haven't seen anything like this since the 1990s when pat buchanan talked about peasants talked about coming with pitchforks and they shocked the system by running for president. on the left that positive streak is heard loud and clear in bernie sanders' message. here's bernie, the senator. >> enough is enough. the billionaires and their friends cannot have it all. our country, our government belongs to all of us, not just the few. the top of my agenda is to say to corporate america, you want us to buy your product, well, you damn well better start producing those products here in the united states of america. what we are living in is a rigged economy.

people work longer and longer hours, fall further and further behind. people on top make out like bandits. >> and in "the wall street journal" today, we haven't seen anything like this since pat buchanan in the mid-'90s. >> you watch the establishment, all the knights and barons will be riding into the castle, because they're coming, the peasants are coming with pitchforks. >> i covered that. a lot of fun up in new hampshire. but he didn't go on, he didn't have the money. i believe this is a phenomenal election coming. they're not all the same. it's boredom on part of the democrats, frustration with the center-left government. it hasn't turned them on at all. bernie sanders sounds like the '60s. and everybody looks back at the '60s with nostalgia. with all the trouble with assassinations, it made people feel politically alive.

>> who in the democratic coalition was alive in the 1960s. >> bernie sanders. >> but think about this -- exactly, you're trying to get people. and the irony right now is it's the older people who were born in the '60s are supporting hillary clinton. if you look at bernie sanders' support, people under 45. >> how do you explain the phenomena of bernie sanders that nobody could have predicted a year ago. >> that's right. >> the mood of the country which is a little asymmetric. you're ready to say something. >> no, i think that that leftward populism has been alive and well for a few year. the fact that barack obama didn't have a primary challenge -- i don't thing he would have in 2012, had no expression throughout the obama presidency. hillary clinton is being saved by the fact that this is a very weak field. bernie sanders probably has a ceiling, i think the ceiling is moving up. but in a sense, he's a positive foil for her because, you know,

if and when she gets the nomination, she'll be able to move more -- >> and he's not attacking her. >> no. >> gene, you're the wisdom one here. is this unique or typical? >> boy, see, i tend to think things tend to regress to the mean. they tend to regress to form. i'm not ready to say -- >> i know. like the french we've historically gone to the center despite all the talk. the bourgeois. it's like the guy said to me, the catholic cop i work with, the little man why does he love his country? because it's always god. they feel like the nation has been taken away from them. they feel like everything is coming in on them, taxes, borders. eugene robinson, thank you, sir. amy walter, mark leibovich. >> he's tripped down on that

comment comparing the iran nuclear deal to the holocaust. not just huckabee. they're right there with him in the clown car. john kerry's on capitol hill today defending the nuclear deal just as a new poll shows majority of americans actually want congress to reject it. plus, president obama knows he's on a roll. he says if the u.s. constitution allowed it, he could win a third term. the most desperate scramble for turf since the opening of the cherokee strip. the country's closely split

the country's closely split on president obama and the job he's done as president. according to a new poll, 49% approve of him. 47% disapprove. but americans are asked if they're better off than three years ago, again 49% say yes, 38% say no. 12% say they're the same. that's a leader indicator of how

voters are feeling.

you ever see it get this nasty this early? we have donald trump gobbling up the oxygen out there. huckabee says he'll be responsible for the second holocaust. and ted cruz is snuggling up to most of them. it's clown car tuesday. huckabee's tripling down on his criticism of the iran nuclear agreement. he said that president obama would take the israelis and march them to the door of the oven. the israeli ambassador to the u.s. slammed those comments saying, these are not words that i would use or that i think are appropriate. in an interview with matt lauer huckabee dismissed that criticism and has tripled down. >> the israeli ambassador to the united states calls your words inappropriate. fellow republicans have called them offensive and outrageous and the anti-defamation league

spokesperson called them completely out of line and unacceptable. you're not backing down an inch. >> not at all. the response from jewish people has been overwhelmingly positive. >> as president of the united states would you use the words march the israelis to the door of the oven? >> yes, i would. >> his march of defiance continued a few hours later on fox. here he is again. >> of course, the reliable left wing democratic voices like debbie wasserman schultz and the adl, yes, they have condemned me. what are they going to say? no, iran's a wonderful country and we need to sit down and smoke a peace pipe with them. we've seen this before. it did not end well and ended horribly for 11 million people, 6 million of them jews in large measure because people didn't take the threats seriously. they said nobody's that crazy. >> dnc chairman and presidential candidate and a republican strategist. governor, what do you think of this approach? is this trying to outshout a crazy trump? >> i think so.

with trump ahead in iowa, he has to -- >> are there enough that like this kind of talk? >> here's the problem with all the this. in theory huckabee could get enough christian fundamentalists to help him win. he does not look capable of being president of the united states when he talks like this. and i think he's toast. >> it's interesting that a pretty hard right guy, former american israeli ambassador put him down. the adl, a great organization. i don't think they're a typical libber at democrat. i don't like that comment. nair not a partisan group. >> this is the trump effect. huckabee is trying to get coverage. he got it with that outrageous statement. i condemn them. they're really out of line. look at ted cruz calling mitch mcconnell a liar. all these candidates going over the line to get coverage because

that's the only way they can get coverage in this trump world we live in. the only person sitting pretty is jeb bush. he's laughing about these guys and they're making fools of themselves. mike huckabee, he ran a good campaign last time. he looks like a fool. >> which one? >> mike huckabee. >> whoever stands up to these guys will be the republican nominee. i think that's jeb bush so far. >> the concern across the board about terrorism and over the top zealotry in the middle east. and they're beginning to sound like those guys over there. you know? the over the top accusations, the craziness you hear in middle east media, the way people talk about each other in the arab press. in the wake of huckabee's comments on the iran deal we've seen a torent of critics attack him. fox news is not among them. fox news stands by huckabee and his comment. cruz told him it's a sad day when the president of the united states cannot or will not see the truth. that's cruz talking. rick santorum is also defending huckabee's comments.

let's listen. >> i'm a little shocked that this is getting the kind of pushback that it is. i think it is clear that this is iran's intent. we'll put them on the bath to nuclear weapon, we'll restore the conventional weapon to them. and then we're going to protect them as they go about trying to systematically destroy all of our allies and us. >> is this intramurals? i long thought there were two battles for the republican nomination. it's probably kasich, bush and maybe walker. and then there's the right wing, the tea party people. each one of these guys is taking it from the other guy. if donald trump wins and goes on to go to the primaries and do well, you can forget huckabee, cruz, all of them. cruz seems to be betting on the fact that he'll burn out and he can take his place. >> five other people lined up behind trump and now huckabee

could be as crazy as trump is. if trump for some reason burns out, you've got huckabee. this is a contest for iowa. whoever wins iowa will come out with an enormous advantage. and 12 people will drop out after iowa. >> this is not at all ideological. everybody wants to get in the news so they can raise the money so they can stay in longer. that's why they're going over the top with this language because they want the attention on them we're all masters to click bait. >> click bait means that -- >> you get clicked online on your website. huckabee's comments about the second holocaust comes as he ramps up his attack on hillary clinton. quote, ignoring the warning calls from dying americans in benghazi -- in other words, deliberately letting her friend chris stevens die. what do you make of that?

why would he say something like that? there's no evidence that hillary clinton was sitting around fiddling when her friend was getting killed. no phone calls from dying americans. he's completely made this thing up. this is what a lot of them on the right -- hillary didn't give a damn. >> this is why trump is actually helpful to the republicans. >> no, this isn't trump, this is huckabee. >> i understand. but he's right. you're either going to the right because of trump, they're going to say crazy things. this is crazy. nobody is going to vote for somebody they think is crazy for president of the united states. if huckabee got the nominee, if he got to 35, he'd be very lucky. they're all killing themselves and somebody like jeb bush will come in and say -- >> i didn't think about it before, but this attack on mitch mcconnell call him a liar on the floor of the senate. i don't think they allowed that. then you do that and this guy huckabee accuses hillary clinton of not having the wrong policy,

not of being weak but of basically being a traitor. not defending her own people over there, a friend of hers. letting him die because she was ignoring it. no one has brought evidence that hillary clinton didn't try to save the lives of those people. he said ignored it. >> we need a proper -- >> ignored the calls for -- >> we need a proper investigation of benghazi. they're doing that. we need all those -- >> how many do you want? >> what we don't know is this kind of hyperbole that ruins the whole discussion. >> if i'm not mistaken, mike rogers when he left the house, republican chairman of the intelligence committee said there was nothing, this benghazi stuff was a lot of crap. >> gowdy said they don't have anything yet? >> they're still looking at it. a proper and sober investigation is necessary. this mike huckabee comment doesn't help things. >> i don't think mike huckabee is investigating the truth, he's not interested in the truth. >> of course not. >> that's the work character assassination i've heard in a long time.

>> it doesn't help the investigation, let's put it that way. >> it doesn't help mike huckabee. >> he's become a joke. up next, the national football league upholds the suspension of tom brady. and brady ordered his cell phone destroyed so they couldn't look at it and look for text messages. this is looking bad for mr. brady. 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 approved to treat erectile dysfunction so you can be ready anytime the moment is right. plus cialis treats the frustrating urinary symptoms of bph, like needing to go frequently, day or night. tell your doctor about all your medical conditions and medicines, and ask if your heart is healthy enough for sex. do not take cialis if you take nitrates for chest pain as it may cause an unsafe drop in blood pressure.

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today the nfl upheld its four-game suspension of star quarterback tom brady of the new england champions the patriots. they say brady deliberately destroyed his cell phone just before he met back in march with deflategate investigators. brady didn't tell lead investigators until june he had destroyed the phone. he said he routinely has his cell phones destroyed. the nfl didn't buy that

explanation. brady's deliberate destruction of relevant evidence went beyond failure to cooperate in the investigation and supported a finding that he had sought to hide evidence of his own participation in the underlying scheme to alter the footballs. nfl commissioner roger goodell said that brady engaged in conduct detrimental to the integrity of and public confidence in the game of football. yesterday he appealed the decision to federal court. thanks for coming on right now. this is a home issue with you, but you're a very independent guy. what do you make of this charge that he destroyed evidence? >> this is not a good day. america does not like destroying evidence. it looks like the act of a common criminal. you don't want to think your golden boy is that guy. >> what about the message he may have sent to his deflator? >> yeah, there's all kinds of incriminating texts by these rogue equipment guys who have since been suspended by the patriots.

and there's a million texts on that thing. he evidently decided that it was better to lose the thing than to let them have it and this idea that he changes cell phones every few months, that's fine. but he was aware for several weeks before march 6 that they wanted this information and it was destroyed the day before the hearing. >> but is this beyond this or outside the legal world? >> yeah. they don't have subpoena powers. i think the nfl players association will appeal on tom's behalf here. that's going to be federal court. but it's about the procedures or the punishing powers of the nfl commissioner. it won't get into the wells report or the science or the texts or that kind of thing, i don't believe. >> what about the argument that everybody does it. do they all have a method of getting the ball the way they like it. >> but tampering with balls after they've been approved. aaron rodgers says he likes them

overinflated. that's great. but once they're approved you can't take them to a bathroom and deflate them. which is what the patriots did. this team has a prior, somebody ratted them out and they got caught. instead of saying yeah, you got us, we won't do that any more. they said, you got nothing, come and get us. >> in that hub of the universe, which is another planet as far as most people are concerned, will they be mad at tom or mad at the commissioner? >> it is planet patriot here, chris, as you know. they're mad at the commissioner. they all need to parachute down from planet patriot and get in touch with reality. it is not playing nationally. again, i think fans who should be embarrassed are instead emboldened here. so it's just going to get more digging in. >> i want to be there when she explains it to gisele bundchen. that will be interesting. thank you so much, dan shaughnessy, a great reporter.

another push on capitol hill today as a majority of americans say congress should reject the nuclear deal with iran.

the alternative to the deal that we have reached is not some kind of unicorn fantasy that contemplates iran's complete capitulation. to those who are thinking about opposing this deal because of what might happen in year 15 or year 20, i ask you to focus on this. if you walk away year 15 or 20 starts tomorrow. welcome back to "hardball." this was john kerry making his opening remarks to the house foreign affairs committee today. tempers flared during the four-hour hearing as lawmakers opposing the deal attempted to undercut kerry's case. >> so do you care more about this deal or the u.n.'s approval or american sovereignty and the approval of the american people through their duly elected representatives? >> mr. secretary? >> congressman, i don't need any lessons from you about who i represent. i've represented and fought for

our country since i was out of college. >> and god bless you for your service. >> don't give me any lessons about that. we believe iran was marching toward a weapon and we rolled that back. >> that's your opinion. >> that's indisputable. >> let me ask you this -- >> that's a fact! >> when pressed secretary kerry often pointed out his opponents had no legitimate alternative to the deal that's on the table. >> what this agreement is supposed to do is stop them from having a nuclear weapon. now, i want to hear somebody tell me how they're going to do that without this agreement? >> mr. secretary, we're going to go to mr. william keating of massachusetts. >> what's the next step for the united states? nobody's answering that question. >> this comes as the new cnn opinion research poll shows the majority of americans think that

the congress should reject the deal with iran. also follows acap and other groups to pressure lawmakers into scuttling the deals. they're placing full-page ads in newspapers placed by billionaire michael steinhart in "the new york times." now they've teamed up with hollywood as well as queen noor to bolster the deal. here's a clip of their latest ad just out today. >> the agreement currently on the table is the best way to ensure iran doesn't build a [ bleep ] bomb. >> and it gives the international community unprecedented access to verify that iran is keeping up its end of the bargain. >> a strong view built on international diplomacy is the best way forward. >> and the alternative to that is war. >> look, we all love our children and the iranians love their children. >> [ bleep ]. >> we've got a deal on the table that keeps us all safe. >> do me a favor, okay? don't let some hot-headed member of congress screw that up.

>> president obama needs to have 34 votes in the senate or 146 in the house to veto any legislation they may pass to kill the deal. all of you, whatever you know on this, i'd love to know. i'll start with somebody i know knows something i don't know. april. how does it look in the house, how does it look in the senate for the president to back up a veto if he has to exercise one? >> the white house says he has votes to sustain a veto. they're doing the tally of the votes. i've been trying to tally as well. i call it an unscientific poll. they say most of the members are in support of the deal. they're saying that the only ones really pretty much that will go against this are the once who have a large jewish contingent and that's new york. you have some other places that will as well.

but you also have representative david scott of georgia who went against it. we don't know why he did that. i've polled some people when it comes to the congressional hispanic caucus, about a third of the chc opposed the deal. then you have a handful of asia pacific caucuses that say they're opposed to the deal as well. the white house is thankful for any support they're getting. they made it clear that they received a note, a letter from 150 dems that sent a letter of support to them during the iran negotiations. so they're tallying the votes right now. >> they only need 146. what do you know? >> i don't know anything in particular, but this deal has become a partisan issue. republicans are campaigning on it. i think the fact -- >> the meeting with the house caucus, meeting with all the groups. >> yes. >> i think if this passes, it will be the biggest mistake that netanyahu ever made. the republican party which took away from his prestige as prime minister of israel. >> i would agree.

right now because there's this synergy between the republican party and netanyahu, this is giving some democrats to openly be more critical of israel. added to that is the fact that, because this has now polarized and partisan, my hunch is that democrats aren't going to want to deliver a defeat to the president. >> it would be like a no confidence vote. >> exactly. given that, i would be surprised if the white house can't get the votes it needs in other chambers. >> september roughly. >> you're counting, april, one group you didn't talk about was the jewish americans who are in congress. and there's a contingent of 18 members of jewish democrats who are in the house. and i think that's one place to look where republicans might be able to pull some votes. already two of them have clearly said they're with the president, but again there's a large -- >> i don't think -- i've been studying politics all my life, the jewish politics is hard to

read. i suspect that boxer will. it is a little because it's new york as to how chuck schumer is going to go. i think chuck schumer is enormously prestigious and they won't just say he did this for israel. they'll say he made a calculated judgment, he thought about it. i think he'll stick with the president when it comes to the override, i think. he may not be with him in the beginning. he'll be one of the 34 i think that hang with him. i don't know. >> the partisanship of it changes. >> they've got to stop this language. >> huckabee was wrong. >> if the white house can sustain the veto, they might have to thank mike huckabee.

>> you say pushback from members of his own party. here was his exchange with democratic members of congress. brad sherman. >> you're not going to be able to persuade them to change just by charm, although you bring a considerable amount of that. you're going to need to threaten them with new sanctions unless they change their behavior. is congress and the united states free under this agreement to adopt new sanctions legislation that will remain in force as long as iran holds our hostages and supports the side? >> we're free to adopt additional sanctions as long as they're not a phony excuse for just taking the whole pot of the past ones and putting them back. we can put them in place. >> secretary kerry, it's my time and i've got a whole lot of other questions. >> anyway, that's a -- he's the more liberal member of that when he had the fight with howard berman last time around in the

single-party primary. he's pretty hawkish there. >> any time you talk about sanctions and iran, you have to be careful. because when it comes to this deal, if there is no deal, if the u.s. doesn't have this deal, what happens to the countries that work for the deal and that have sanctions -- >> you mean china and russia? >> yes. >> they're not going to go back with us. >> no, no, but the existing sanctions against iran may unravel. so if our deal doesn't happen -- >> i don't think he's making a really hard case this is the only game in town. we'll see how that holds up. that's a very strong line. if you don't buy this, there's no deal, there's nothing. if he can win that argument, he wins the argument. if they get around him and say there's some other deal out there, some unicorn -- anyway, we'll be right back. the roundtable is sticking with us. president obama said he can win a third term if he ran for office again if the constitution permitted it. he's not swaggering that one. he just says -- what's he supposed to say? i couldn't win?

jon stewart's in his waning days of "the daily show." but it turns out obama's appearance on the show weren't the only time those two guys met. politico reports that jon

stewart was invited twice to the white house. once in 2011 and 2014 as the administration recognized stewart's power in the media.

we're back with the roundtable. april, jim, and francesca. president obama addressed african leaders and said the following. >> i love my work but under our constitution i cannot run again. i can't run again.

i actually think i'm a pretty good president. i think if i ran i could win. but i can't. >> he also offered a glimpse of his life after he leaves the white house. >> and i'll be honest with you i am looking forward to life after being president. i won't have such a big security detail all the time. it means i can go take a walk. i can spend time with my family. i can find other ways to serve. >> anyway, they always want to spend more time with their families. how many times have we heard that? let me ask you this, that was in the context of telling african leaders it is not so bad to serve your terms as president and do something else. a little trickier in dangerous countries if you don't protect yourself after you leave office you are dead. but he seems to be making the case for smooth, democratic transitions. but the message back at home is he is bragging.

what did you think? >> you have to look in the context of the case he was trying to make. one clip, they're saying they're all so rich. i don't know why they would be in office. >> who was he talking about? >> some of the african leaders. they're so rich. why don't you just leave? the comments they did sound hubris, i could win again, keep staying here as long as i want. i think he distracted from his own argument by making the comments. >> i don't think it is terribly hubristic for president obama to say he could win again. 50%. economy is growing. if the presidential election was this year, he was incumbent. >> he could beat trump you think? >> i think. >> we've been waiting for that one. >> i actually did dig into the numbers. i will agree from that standpoint. if you look at 2011, same time, roughly the same as now. same thing leading up to the election.

why bring it up? why bring it up? >> why not? >> here's my concern. you mentioned you heard my concern. it is real. you have got to stay in your fighting stance as a politician until you are out of the game till the last minute. >> you're right, chris. >> i'm worried he is getting too loosey-goosey with comments he wouldn't made a year ago. it sound like bragging. >> i don't think it is bragging. this president now he has had to walk such a fine chalk line. you know this. the president that we saw first term is totally different from the second term fourth quarter president. he is a totally different person. he doesn't have anything to lose now. but you are right he has to walk that line still. but he feels like the weight of the world is off his shoulders. i remember. >> don't you think it's good to have the weight on your shoulders? >> to a certain extent you. stay on your toes. he is still on his toes. bill clinton towards the end of his presidency. so many people, african-americans wanted him to stay, in africa, people around the world.

he said constitutionally i can't say. i have do go into the world and do my bidding. president obama has to do the same thing. >> accusing republicans of playing, fast and loose, he is sitting there, playing loosey-goosey with some of the stuff as well. it is harder for him to make the accusation at some of the republicans running for president -- >> not donald trump stuff. he isn't doing that. >> strategic advantage in obama being bombastic. hillary clinton when sunny runs next year is going to need to have a democratic party completely behind her. barack obama being optimistic that helps her. >> you will not see hillary clinton being like this. >> thank you for this. when we return, let me finish with the most desperate scramble for turf since the opening of the cherokee strip. you are watching "hardball" the place for politics.

the most desperate scramble for turf since opening of the cherokee strip. the first republican presidential debate next thursday. to get in it which is the only way to get into this competition you have to score poll numbers in the top ten. if you don't you don't make the cut. you get to sit and watch the two-hour battle from the same seats everybody else has the.

the top ten get the good seats. all the rest get siberia. it used to be a contest who've could get political calm as to put you through the gate. a writeup on you and say, how you're getting noticed out there in iowa. some other comments would say, a hopeful was "being mentioned" for the nomination. all this led russell baker of the "the new york times" to coin the great mentioner the mysterious figure not that there was one that got you mentioned for president. therefore seen as being in the running to. day the great mentioner is gone. gate to entry is through the door set up next week for the first debate. ten candidates allowed through. our next republican candidate will most likely be among them. what we have now is not a great mentioner or political columnist or caucus. and a tv show. guess who is going to do well on the tv show? could it be the candidate who is there already made his bones on tv, deciding the verdict himself, bet on trump to be the star of this show.

hardball will be there to cover it before and after the fireworks. and that is hardball for now. thank you for being with us. all in with chris hayes starts right now. tonight on "all in." >> republicans continue a rhetorical onslaught on iran. senator dick dirben is here. donald trump soars in new hampshire and crashes in the daily beast. a trump adviser threatening a reporter and back trapping after insisting there is no such thing as spousal rape. then, the new sandra bland video that texas officials hope will end speculation about a cover-up in her death. the minnesota dentist accused of illegally killing a lion in zimbabwe. my interview with the fir ls woman ever hired to coach in the