in a country that protects all of us. all americans equally and fairly. thanks for watching. i'm al sharpton. "hardball" starts right now. ♪ >> trump versus bush, the punches keep on coming. let's play "hardball." ♪ >> good evening, i'm steve kornacki in for chris matthews. the trump/bush grudge match continues. yesterday bush questioned trump's conservativism in a splashy video. trump said that showed a level of desperation. >> well, i think he had really no choice. he's doing very poorly in the polls. he's a very low-energy kind of guy, and he had to do something, so they're spending a lot of money on ads. you know, he has a lot of money from the hedge fund guys, from the special interests, from lobbyists, so far everybody that's attacked me has gone down. let's see what happens here. he's probably going to now stop,

because it seems to be backfiring, based on the polls, it seems to be somewhat backfiring on jeb. >> for its part, the bush campaign continued to attack trump as insufficiently conservative. the campaign offers a quiz of sorts, asking which candidate you're more in line with, bush or trump. would you rather support a candidate who opposes the iran deal, or someone who thought hillary clinton would negotiate a good iran deal? a reference to a trump sound bite from years ago. also going after a reported trump quirk, another question asks, would you support a candidate who strives to shake every hand everywhere, or someone who is a germ-o-phobe when it comes to shaking hands? yesterday bush also spoke to reporters in spanish, calling trump essentially bully. [ speaking spanish ]

>> now, in an interview today with bright bart news, donald trump said, i like jeb, he's a nice man, but he should really set the example by speaking english while in the united states. joined now by washington post column nift eugene -- let me start with you. so jeb bush wants this fight now. maybe he feels he has no choice but to engage in this fight. i'm watching this and looking at the poll numbers with donald trump. i'm wondering who in the republican universe, who is jeb bush winning over by doing this? anybody? >> i'm not sure, but who doesn't love a great food fight? that's what we seem to have now. i think what jeb bush hopes to do is establish himself as the anti-trump, and so in a sense,

this may be distinguishing himself from the kasichs of the world and from rubio and from the others who have some establishment support. and he can figure that if he can be the anti-trump, then if and when it gets down to just a two-candidate race, trump versus the anti-trump, he'll be there and maybe he can take him then. >> is it convincing, though? trump's been taunting him all summer, calling him names, he's basically telling him, his response to all that, is speak english. is this convincing, bush's attempt to fight back? >> well, in terms of style and in terms of mano a mano in the streets, bush is never going to top trump. he's not going to do it personally. can he do it in advertising? maybe. although the pac that's

supporting jeb bush is getting ready to drop $12 million worth of positive ads about jeb. they're not going the negative route. in terms of jeb trying to say, look, he's not a conservative, but i, jeb bush, am, i don't think that's necessarily going to fly in this big field. because there are a lot of other candidates who are more thorough going conservatives than jeb bush. what could happen here, jeb spends a lot of money and time trying to nick up donald trump. jeb doesn't make much more progress, but he makes way for some more doctrine air conservative, who can become the true anti-trump. >> well, steve schmidt, former senior adviser to the john mccain campaign said today, we've reached a moment where conservativism is not defined by issues anymore for a big percentage of the country. kathleen parker wrote, he doesn't just sell indicate oil,

he milks the venom from the gathering throng of willing believers and then bottles it up and sells it right back to them, delicious with raw meat. here's some of that venom. >> you know, i'm a republican, i'm a conservative. but i'm just as angry with the republicans, because they go to washington, something happens. they become weak. if you want a nice person, honestly, you should vote for jeb. the country's going to go to hell, but we won't talk about it. >> i didn't want to go there in the first place, but now we take the oil. we should have kept the oil. now we go in, knock the hell out of them, take the oil. >> i said what about our children, what about our children who are in the country, why can't they be the dreamers? nobody ever talks about that. we talk about the dreamers, illegal immigrants, who by the way, are treated better than our vets. so uma is getting classified secrets, she's married to anthony weiner who's a perv -- no, he is. he is.

>> hillary clinton was the worst secretary of state in the history of the united states. >> he's probably the worst president in the history of our country. he's a very divisive person. he's just been a disaster for our country. >> we're not going to have a country soon. we don't have borders. we don't have law and order. we don't have -- i mean, our country's going to hell. >> well, that quote from steve schmidt jumped out at me. the idea that maybe the definition of conservativism is changing and maybe that's what we're watching here. i wonder what you think of that. donald trump, you see it in the bush attacks. so many vulnerabilities that in the past would have sunk any candidacy. but trump is defying it with, he's selling bluntness and swagger and authenticity, and that seems to matter more to the base right now. >> well, just for the record, speaking to something that he just said, i think it's interesting when he talks about our children and their children being dreamers, four of his five children are the children of immigrants. so i think that's something that

he might -- should have to react to at some point. but i think steve's not wrong about that. i do think that there's a significant part of the republican party base that is angry. they're not necessarily doctrine air conservatives and maybe they never were. if they were, they wouldn't follow him. he's clearly not a conservative. but he is speaking to a portion of the base that's very angry and frustrated and wants to send a message to the establishment, and nobody in the field says establishment like jeb bush. >> well, on morning joe today, senator lindsey graham said trump is tapping into a dark vein of republican politics. >> he's consolidated all republicans who think obama's a muslim. [ laughter ] and that he was born in kenya. so whatever block that is, that's what he's got. and i'm going for the other crowd. i'm going for the crowd that says, okay, i think he's a

christian. i believe he's born in hawaii, but he's a bad president, and he's been a very poor commander in chief. mr. trump's solution to destroying isil is as follows. i'm going to send our guys and gals over there to take oil from iraq and syria to pay our wounded warriors. i don't think that destroys isil, harold, i think that destroys our standing in the mid east and he's leading. so pay attention to what the guy is saying on national security. he's making no sense. >> they're saying he's at odds with the conservative base. lindsey graham said he makes no sense. when i watch these speeches for donald trump, i think the appeal in a way is very simple. he talks about his poll numbers. he talks about his opponents' in very negative, personal terms. he says the things that people know every politician, every candidate is thinking, but no candidate and no politician actually says. it's powerful just the fact that he says it. >> right. i agree with you. i think there are a few elements

to his appeal. one of them is what you just said. it's pure combat withim had. so he's reduced presidential politics to what in certain respects it already has become. pure, naked, wwe on cable television. that's number one. number two, he talks the language of the people. he talks plain english. he doesn't beat around the bush. and he also is not -- and i agree with steve schmidt on this, it's not ideological so much, as it is against the system that we have. it's against the congress, against the president, against the press, against the politicians. that's really not that ideological. and last, i think there is an appeal if not directly to race all the time, to this notion that we're being beset by others, by outsiders, by the chinese, by the japanese, by the anchor babies, by the undocumented immigrants, by the big "them" with a capital t.

you put all those together, you get donald trump, and there's no sign yet that anybody, and least of all, the most advertisement of republicans, jeb bush, can counter that power. >> yeah, and gene, trump keeps saying too, we talked about this yesterday. no more clintons, no more bushes. the idea that even republicans don't like the idea of another bush, and i keep thinking about it. i think there's a constituency there in the republican party that says, we went along with romney and mccain and with bush and dole, and what did we get for it? i think there's a lot of that out there. >> exactly. a lot of the frustration in the republican party is precisely that. that we did what you said, we went along with the establishment pick and, look, you're not doing anything. you haven't accomplished what we sent you there to accomplish. and so in that sense, i think what trump is selling is

efficacy. that he's different. he's not like those guys. and he will actually get something done. now, if you actually -- if you parse, how he intends to get anything done, he doesn't really say. and a lot of what he says he's going to do doesn't make literal sense. but nonetheless, he gives voters the impression that he'll go to washington and do something. and they believe they sent up a lot of candidates who went to washington and did nothing. >> a report in new york magazine yesterday suggested that some insiders are hoping mitt romney will jump into the race. according to a senior member of his campaign race, mitt wants to run. he never stopped wanting to run. another advisers suggesting, these guys like walker and perry, big deals in their state, but you get them to the national stage and it's a different story. it's like they were in middle school, and now they're freshmen in high school getting their faces slammed in the toilet. [ laughter ] do you think he wants to run

still? >> i don't think he wants to run. people that run for president want to be president. that's why they run. he did that twice. i think, you know, you don't lose that desire to serve in that role, but i don't think he has any desire to jump into what's going on here. and i don't think he's reconsidering his decision at all. i think his spokesman yesterday made that pretty clear. but let's not lose sight of the fact that donald trump's numbers aren't even approaching what mitt romney had in new hampshire in the primaries in 2012. so it's not as though donald trump is speaking for a majority of the republican primary base. he's in the 25% range in most of these surveys. he hasn't grown dramatically. he's appealing to that portion, but it's not a majority of republicans -- and i'll say it again, he will not be the nominee. >> i hear you, katie, but take a step back and add donald trump, plus ben carson, carly fiorina,

ted cruz, you're over 50%. >> yeah, without a doubt. but i think that if somebody was going to be for trump, they would be for trump. they're not sitting there supporting ben carson right now, going, oh maybe i'm for that other big loud mouth guy. they may not like the establishment, but they're not for trump. they're going to go with somebody else. it might not be jeb, but there's a lot of candidates in the race. >> thank you all for being here. coming up, president obama's big win on the nuclear deal with iran. he now has the votes he needs to get the deal done. and for his critics, the effort to tank the deal this summer has been a major bust. plus, that county clerk down in kentucky, who continues to refuse to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples despite a ruling from the u.s. supreme court. tonight we'll talk to one of the couples who was denied a marriage license. and joe biden is ramping up his political schedule, fueling more speculation that he might be getting ready to jump into

the presidential race and challenge hillary clinton. and finally, donald trump, jeb bush, and joe biden are all headed to the late night comedy shows next week. we'll look at how the comedy shows can make or break the careers of politicians. this is "hardball," the place for politics. and ballistic missiles. there won't be surprise anytime-anywhere inspections. and after ten years, restrictions are lifted and iran could build a nuclear weapon in two months. congress should reject a bad deal. we need a better deal. the only difference: that little blue thingy. you see it? that's a sensor. using ge software, the light can react to its environment- getting brighter only when it's needed. in a night, it saves a little energy. but, in a year it saves a lot. and the other street? it's been burning energy all night.

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we can sum it up by saying that without this agreement, the iranians would have several potential path ways to a bomb.

with it, they won't have any. >> welcome back to "hardball." it will be front-page news tomorrow and for good reason. that was secretary of state john kerry in philadelphia today speaking about the iran nuclear deal on what is a historic day for president obama. because today the senator from maryland became the 34th senator to announce support for the president's nuclear deal with iran. now president obama has the support he needs to protect the agreement in congress. if the support holds, it would mean a historic victory for the president's legacy and a major legislative defeat for republicans who have painted this deal as a one-way tick tote the apocalypse. tom cotton from arkansas said the deal would likely mean nuclear war. dick cheney predicted it would likely lead to the first use of nuclear weapons since hiroshima and nagasaki. ted cruz said it would make the obama administration the world's

leading financier of islamic terrorism. and mike huckabee said he's marching israelis to the door of oven. the washington bureau chief with mother jones, editor at large for the atlantic, and a republican strategist. steve, let me start with you. you know the nuts and bolts of this deal wisal requests anyone. it likes like this deal is safe. i guess my first question, how safe is this deal long-term? a year and a half from now, we'll elect a new president. if there's a republican president in january 2017, does this deal survive? >> i think no matter who is elected on the republican side, i would hope the day they came in, they wouldn't start a global international crisis with our allies on the first day. donald trump said he wouldn't rip up the deal, just lawyer the

heck out of it. that was a good response. so maybe donald trump will win and we'll be okay. scott walker is a different story. a lot of people said they would destroy this bill, but it would create such a collapse of confidence in the united states that it would be the president shooting himself. >> isn't it unclear how they would actually do that? i mean, one of the issues that we've had and that republicans refuse to address, maybe john will, is that we can't impose sanctions on iran on our own, that have the impact of the sanctions that have been multi lateral. we have unilateral sanctions, some will even continue after this deal. but the real carrot here was lifting the multi lateral sanctions. >> david, with all due respect, you're being sane. you're talking multi lateral -- [ all speak at once ] >> let's try to put some context to this with some polling numbers.

full steam ahead for republican critics of the deal and there's good reason for that, because in polling, 2/3 of republicans opposed the nuclear deal, according to a cnn poll. 80% say they have no trust in iran to uphold the agreement. and today, republicans took to the stump to slam the president's victory. here they go. >> i'm frustrated that there's not enough votes to block it today. but as president, i will terminate that bad deal on day one. i'll reinstate the sanctions. i'll go to congress to put in place even more crippling sanctions and i'll convince our allies to do the same. >> if i'm president that deal won't survive. it's not a treaty. it's not legally binding. if people vote for me, they know they're voting to get rid of that deal. >> the media is spinning it that he's going to win. but we haven't passed the first step. i think the agreement is bad, i'm a "no" vote. >> next week, donald trump and ted cruz will hold a rally to protest the deal, the same day

that hillary clinton will defend it. trump has been slamming the deal with his typical bravado. >> i think it's going to lead to nuclear holocaust. i've heard people say, we're going to rip up the deal. i'm a deal person and -- >> you've -- >> let me tell you. i would police that contract so tough that they don't have a chance. >> and today, trump put out this video on his instagram page. >> a powerful display of american leadership and diplomacy, shows what we can accomplish when we lead from a position of strength. iran could move closer to a nuclear bomb. >> and hillary clinton meanwhile, taking a decidedly hawkish tone on iran. >> cheat and you will pay. and when you threaten the region and israel, you threaten america. we will keep confronting you on human rights and terrorism and make no mistake, we will never allow you to acquire a nuclear

weapon. not just during the term of this agreement -- never. [ cheers and applause ] >> john, the republican side of this, here's what i'm curious about. you look at the polling, obviously within the republican party and even among the general public, not a lot of support for this. but look at the rhetoric we're playing. the idea of huckabee saying this is marching israelis to the oven door. have republicans set a standard that is so high for what this thing is going to do, that it's actually going to be fairly easy for the administration to say it was a success? >> time will tell. this is one of those few issues that unifies the entire republican party and divides the democrats. and from a political perspective with the american people largely on the side of the republicans, there's no down side for them to have these votes against it. the president will sustain the

veto apparently and we'll go on to other things like having other votes on sanctions on terrorist activity and other types of sanctions and we'll see what happens when we have a new president come in. i think you can safely say the next president to come n on day one, is not going to tear up this agreement. because i think there's a lot of risk to that. but -- >> is this something like -- we're hearing about it right now, it survives congress, does it sort of disappear as an issue for the rest of the campaign? or is this a theme? is this something the republican party is really going to be pounding in 2016? >> i think international security, including iran is going to be a theme. i think isis will be a theme. i think fighting terrorism will be a theme. i think making the country safer will be a theme. i also think that being the strongest ally possible to israel will continue to be a theme in this election. >> and steve, is there a way between now and the election a year and a half, i know this deal runs longer than that, but

is there something the administration, something the democrats can point to over the next year and a half and say, see, it's working? >> well, it all depends on iran. if a few months after the deal survives the veto threat, i think if you begin to see iran release prisoners, american prisoners, if you see iran play a constructive role as it's flirting with right now, in places like syria, where it just floated a plan that ends up with a syria without bashar al assad. fascinating to see that. if it plays a more constructive role, with the saudis on yemen, a number of those things, if they begin happening, then the bad, nefarious, evil iran story begins to dissipate to some degree. >> i have to say, now steve is making the mistake of talking like a sane person. i do believe that for the next year and a half, the republicans almost no matter what happens, will demonize this deal and iran, and very doubtful that

even positive steps that steve laid out, enough of them will happen to change the overall american impression of iran. they'll find some ayatollah somewhere saying death to israel and death to the united states and tie that to the deal and say this is who obama made a deal with. now, whether that plays with the electorate probably depends more on what's happening externally with national security matters and whether people are attuned to that type of message. but i have no doubt that every one of the 17 candidates out there will take that type of line of attack one way or another. >> yeah, you're right. it's been almost 40 years since the embassy siege in tehran, the hostage situation there. that's a lot to overcome in a year and a half. but thank you now to everybody. up next, kentucky county clerk kim davis isn't standing down from her refusal to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples. i'll speak with a couple who were turned down by her just this morning and they're not

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>> anybody that, i mean, knows us, we are deeply in love, as deep as you can be, and for her to see that love and deny it, and say the comments that she said and invoke god and to bring god into the equation, god would not condone this. >> welcome back to "hardball." a kentucky clerk today continued to deny marriage licenses to anyone because of her personal conviction against same-sex marriage. robbie blanken ship and his fiance jesse cruz went there this morning and kim davis refused to give them a license. [ all speak at once ] >> we have the paperwork ready. and we are getting a marriage license. >> not here today you're not. >> davis has been ordered by a federal judge to issue the

licenses, but she says she is acting on god's authority. >> we're not doing marriage licenses today. >> why? >> because i'm not doing it pending an appeal -- >> under what authority? god's authority! i knew you would say that. >> davis said her christian faith stops her from issuing the licenses, but blankenship says this is purely a civil matter. >> we're here to get a civil marriage. this is not a church. this is no steeple. it's not a temple. okay, we deserve the same rights as any other couple. >> kim davis has made multiple legal appeals to remove her name from the county's marriage licenses, now a federal judge has ordered davis and six of her staff to appear tomorrow that they should be held in contempt for their refusal. lawyers for the couple don't want davis to go to jail. they want her fined.

in their motion, they urge the court to impose financial penalties sufficiently serious and ownerous to compel her compliance. as of today, two other counties have joined rowan county in refusing to issue all marriage licenses because of same-sex marriage. joining me now the couple that was denied a marriage license earlier today. more on a personal level, i think we're seeing the inevitable next phase of the battle over same-sex marriage. we talk so much about how public opinion's changed dramatically in the last ten years. legally it's now legal across the united states, but this is a reminder, and especially in the part of the country where you are, there's still an awful lot of people out there that look at this and say, i don't like it. >> you would be surprised. i was very surprised. i was actually also surprised at the support.

i had much support coming into the courthouse this morning. i had more support than opposition. however, you would think that most of the people in this part of the country were on kim davis's side, seeing how nobody's calling for her removal from office via the legislature, which is unlikely to happen in the climate of kentucky politics. >> do you think there's -- i mean, she's -- we had her lawyer on yesterday. he's talking about, there needs to be an accommodation for her. she has a religious objection -- >> no. >> -- to this. is there any kind of accommodation you could see? >> does this look like a church behind me? no. no. there should be no religious accommodation. okay, she has no more right to deny jesse and i a marriage license than a grocery clerk has to deny, you know, selling

products to a person of color, for example. there was an example not too long ago where a cashier in a supermarket, he requested his own cash register, because he did not want to handle pork products. now, that's another example. that is a secular establishment. this is a secular establishment. if you can't handle pork products, you can't be a cac cashier. if you can't issue marriage licenses, you can't work at the county clerk's office. >> jesse, let me bring you into this. you were in there today and this was a tense situation, but if you got a chance to sit down, maybe over a cup of coffee with kim davis and you got a chance just to deliver a message about your relationship and why you want to get married and why you think she should be issuing the license, what would you tell her? >> i would tell her that my love

is real. and that we just want to be married, be happy, be a family. >> and robbie, obviously there's going to be a court hearing tomorrow. are you optimistic that you are inevitably going to get this license? >> we are going to get the license. and it will come from this building right behind me. her opposition to giving out the marriage licenses, really has nothing to do with religion, whatsoever. we have freedom of religion and freedom from religion. she wishes to discriminate and turn people away. she's free to do so. churches have no obligation to marry any person that they don't wish to marry. the county clerk's office has no

such privilege. that would be a privilege, to be able to turn people away. he doesn't have that privilege. the court should heavily fine her, personally fine her, and imprison her, i would like to see. >> but that's not what's being sought at this moment. it's going to be continued in court, but for right now, robbie and jesse, good luck to both of you. thank you for joining us. >> thank you. up next, joe biden hits the road, fueling more speculation about a possible run for the presidency. is his travel schedule a sign that he's getting in the race? you're watching "hardball," the place for politics.

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>> here's what's lapping happening. a judge has ruled the six officers charged in the death of freddie gray will stand trial separately. gray suffered a several spinal

cord in custody and died a week later. authorities are searching for three suspects who shot a fox lake illinois police officer. a vigil for lieutenant gliniewicz is taking place at a local park. and 12 refugees, including five children drowned off the coast of turkey after their boasts capsized, hundreds of thousands of migrants have fled syria, iraq, and afghanistan bound for europe. thousands have died on the way. back to "hardball." ladies and gentlemen, we're in a situation where i know i'm referred to the press, or at least i have been, as the white house optimist. i'm optimistic and i've been around longer than all of them. but i'm optimistic, because i know the history of the journey of this country. what happens when you give the american people a fighting

chance, they have never, never, never, never, ever let their country down, not one time. >> welcome back to "hardball." that was vice president joe biden speaking this afternoon in miami-dade college. biden appears to be picking up his travel schedule, testing the waters, and fueling speculation that he will make a third run for president. he's fund-raising for democrats, and selling the iran deal in florida tonight and tomorrow, delivering another foreign policy address in atlanta on thursday evening. also marching in a labor day parade with the president of the country's largest labor union in pittsburgh on monday. and in his inaugural week, biden will appear on the new late show with stephen colbert next thursday. all of this comes as the draft bidin pac has made key hires in new hampshire and south carolina, signaling the vp is still seriously considering a white house bid. and a new reuters poll says biden is the top choice among

democrats should hillary clinton's campaign collapse. for mow now, eliana johnson, washington editor of the national review. jonathan allen, chief political correspondent for vox. and francesca chambers, white house correspondent for "the daily mail". jonathan, he succeeded in getting the buzz going over the last month. the joe biden buzz is out there. now here come the public appearances. we played that clip there, that sounds like the kind of message a presidential candidate might be sharing. what do you expect over the next month or two in joe biden? >> i mean, it looks like he's going to get in. i don't understand why he would schedule this colbert appearance, march in a labor day parade in pittsburgh, and that's if you're going to look for a segment of the democratic constituency that will be with biden, i think afl-cio is most likely, their members. so this is what a ramp-up looks like for a presidential campaign. and unless he's teasing us,

like, well, i don't want to make a comparison to teasing us. but unless it's a big tease, joe biden looks like he's running. >> i know he wants to. and i wonder if he's seeing how much fun he can have with this before he pulls back. so i'm still a little skeptical. eliana, next week, the new ho, stephen colbert, we looked at history of candidates starting on late night tv. bob dole, fred thompson. i don't think you want to be compared to those campaigns, i guess. >> careful, steve. [ laughter ] >> he'll sit down, he'll be asked the question. colbert is going to ask him, are you running? what do you think he'll say? >> you know, steve, i paid close attention to what biden was saying today in florida. he was talking about the middle class. some people have asked about what his message would be. talking about the middle class has been his forte, and white,

uniized, middle class voters have drifted away from the democratic party, they were part of bill clinton's coalition, less so of obama's coalition. these people have drifted right and people who hillary clinton tried to appeal unsuccessfully to in 2008. i think you could see biden take that message and run with it, try to create a coalition for democrats that is slipping away as the party becomes more of a collection of minority and interest groups. that's something that could really appeal to higher-ups in the democratic party, depending which way they want the party to go, the old clinton olticoaliti or the new obama coalition. >> the idea, eliana, the higher-ups, the question of who's with him if he runs. you think about what a dramatic step that is for any big-name democratic politician leader to do. you got hillary clinton who we're sort of conditioned to see as the overwhelming favorite for the democratic nomination. he'll be controlling this party

again next year. she could be the next president. so to right now come out and say, i, major democratic figure am backing joe biden, you're taking a big risk there. >> i think that's what biden is still trying to figure out, who would be with him if he ran. they told me there's still no updates, they haven't made a decision. i think we'll have to wait and see. you talked about him ramping up. as someone who covers the white, i see this as his general schedule. he loves being out there, he stopped a lot of these activities after the death of his son. but part of what we're seeing now is joe biden getting back to normalcy. >> that's the great thing about being vice president, you can do two things at the same time. it's official travel and everybody says it's political travel too. i got to say, the one thing, we're thinking how serious is this. 2010, 2011, and the stories i read about hillary clinton replacing joe biden as vp.

got to imagine that drove him crazy and he's kind of loving tweaking her a little bit over this. >> talking about the middle class and -- >> i don't think he wants to be out of public office either. he loves people, he loves these types of events. he loves all of this. so i think he wants to still be out there in the public eye even after the white house. >> round stable staying with us. up next, funny or die. the top presidential contenders are lining up to appear on the late night talk shows. this is "hardball," the place for politics. a subconscious. a knack for predicting the future. reflexes faster than the speed of thought. can a business have a spirit? can a business have a soul? can a business be...alive?

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president obama had a run-in today in alaska with a fish out of water. take a look at this. the president is holding a salmon on an alaskan beach when this happens. >> uh-oh. what happened there? did you see that? something got on my shoes. [ laughter ] generally, you don't want fish spawning on your feet. >> he said he was happy to see you. >> he said he was happy to see me. >> believe it or not, that's actually the second time today of a politician with a fishy moment. this is video of connecticut governor dan malloy getting photo bombed earlier today by a bell uga whale at the mystic

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we're back with the round table. political junkies have a lot of late night television to look forward to in the next week. the late show will feature jeb bush tuesday with the new host, stephen colbert. vice president biden scheduled to appear two days later on, thursday, and then friday, donald trump will be on with jimmy fallon on the tonight show. presidential candidates have made some big impressions on late night television in the past. there was bill clinton's rendition of heart break hotel and arsenio in 1992, during the 2004 primaries, john kerry tried on revv the engine of his

flagging campaign by riding a motorcycle on to the set of the jay leno tonight show. it goes back even further than that. starting back in the campaign of 1960. here was john kennedy's attempt at a joke about cowboys and indians on the jack parashow. >> have there been any amusing things that you can tell in 30 seconds? >> no, i was made an honorary indian and i now cheer for our side on tv. >> richard nixon would later follow suit in 1968 with a cameo on the wacky but beloved show laugh-in. >> oh, no. i don't think we could get mr. nixon to stand still for a sock it to me. >> sock it to me? >> i always love hearing him say that. in more recent history, george w. bush delivered a top ten list with dade letterman as the candidate in 2000.

here's one thing he said he would do if he became president. >> number six. just for fun, issue executive order commanding my brother jeb to wash my car. >> past cycles are any indication, 2016 holds a lot in store for late night. politicians logged more than 100 appearances on late night television in the 2008 cycle which was the last time the nomination of both parties was up for grabs. so jonathan, i always think back to bob dole at the end of the '96 campaign, oceans letterman's show. the race is over, he is lost and he is hilarious. everybody says if we had seen this bob dole for the last year and a half, i don't know if the result would be different but it might have been a more interesting campaign i always wondered who out there in this field has the potential like dole to shine on late night television? is there anyone? >> with the dole situation that falls under the category of the concession speech, the best of

the campaign. but in terms of the people going on late night this week, i think this is a huge opportunity for jeb bush who is known as donald trump says, for being kind of boring, putting the audiences to sleep, to try to find a way to be funny. don't obviously try to outdo the comedian, the professional, but i think there's more risk for jeb bush and joe biden to potentially, to not meet the bar of expectations. for jeb bush it is pretty low. if he seems a little warm, a little friendly, he might do himself a favor. >> not much of a standard there. also known to broach sensitive topics with their guests, when bill and hillary were on the arsenio hall show. he asked this question about their private life. >> have you ever found yourselves at home fighting? honestly? >> no. not about anything important. we fight about what movie we want to see. >> it's hard to think that you

never at some point said, who is jennifer? who the hell is she? i mean -- >> i know who she is. i know who she is. >> and you know what her problem is? >> she has lots of problems. >> i mean, wow. that also, that right there, that's the risk of late night television. there are questions that might be considered off limits in a more traditional interview or that would be phrased in a way they would never be phrased. how blunt that was, asking hillary about gennifer flowers like that. >> absolutely. i think it is this typically american thing where we want our presidents to be more hard working, more diligent and have better character than we do but we also want see the they're like all the rest of us but they can sit back, have a beer and crack jokes. which means they're anything but normal because the regular people are on the couch watching

with a bag of doritos. all of which to say they're not a monarch retiring to their throne. if you can't project the aura of being someone someone would want to have a beer with. and i don't think anyone would say they would want to hang out with bill and hillary together. that's a real problem. >> we have calm of appearances coming together. let's see who shinls, let's see who goes too far. a lot of interesting stuff happening late at night. "hardball" right back after this. cine to a child in need in a developing country. thanks to customers like you, walgreens "get a shot. give a shot." program has helped provide seven million vaccines. make your flu shot make a world of difference. walgreens. at the corner of happy and healthy. hi mi'm raph. tom. my name is anne. i'm one of the real live attorneys

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that's "hardball" for now. thank you for being with us. "all in" with chris hayes starts now. >> everybody who has attacked me has gone down. let's see what happens here. >> the attack continues as trumpl scolds jeb for speaking spanish. >> jeb bush is a low energy person. >> the new attack on trump over his relationship with reverend al sharpton. our guest, the reverend al sharpton. then, democrats give peace a chance. the incredible victory for obama on iran as the pushback gets even more vicious. >> every death that iran causes is now on barack obama's head. >> and the conservative chorus over black lives matter. >> cops across this country are feeling the assault. >> as news breaks in