"politics nation with al sharpton." i'm not going anywhere. i just learned how to read the teleprompter. thanks for watching. i'm al sharpton. have a great weekend. "hardball" starts right now. from the e-mail controversy to joe biden to donald trump, the msnbc exclusive interview with hillary clinton. let's play "hardball." good evening. i'm steve kornacki in for chris matthews. let me start tonight with a somewhat rare occurrence. for only the third time since launching her campaign, hillary clinton gave a one on one national television interview today. nbc's andrea mitchell sat down with the democratic front-runner this morning for a discussion that covered her e-mails, donald trump, joe biden and much more. on her use of private e-mails clinton acknowledged it wasn't the best choice.

>> are you sorry? do you want to apologize to the american people for the choice you made? >> well, it wasn't the best choice. and i certainly have said that. i will continue to say that as i've also said many times, it was allowed and it was fully above board. the people in the government knew that i was using a personal account. but it would have been better if i'd had two separate accounts to begin with. >> andrea also asked clinton about the potential of vice president joe biden jumping into the race. >> he has to make a really difficult decision. you can see him struggling with it, and i just wish the best for him and his family. if he gets into this race, there will be plenty of time to get into the debate and the back and forth. >> they also talked trump specifically the republican front-runner's personal attack against clinton's close aide huma abedin. >> he's great at innuendo and conspiracy theories and really

defaming people. that's not what i want to do in my campaign, and that's not how i'm going to conduct myself. >> and andrea mitchell joins me now along with mother jones washington bureau chief david corn, an nbc political analyst. let's watch what hillary clinton had to say about her use of private e-mail while secretary of state and whether that raises questions about her judgment. >> did anyone in your inner circle say this isn't such a good idea, let's not do this? >> i was not thinking a lot when i got in. there was so much work to be done. we had so many problems around the world. i didn't really stop and think what kind of e-mail system will there be. >> does it raise judgment questions? >> well, i don't think so. the facts are pretty clear that we had a lot of hard work, hard choices to make in those four years, and i'm very proud of the work we did. i'm very proud of all the people that i worked with. i think we really served our country well.

and now the state department has everything that they could have. so at the end of the day, i am sorry that this has been confusing to people and has raised a lot of questions but there are answers to all these questions. >> she says there's answers to all these questions. she says earlier in the interview everything was done in an above-board way seeming to say that everybody who needed to know knew about this. is that an accurate -- is that an accurate take on this and put this to rest? >> certainly a lot of people within her circle, the top advisers, senior staff at the state department apparently knew because they were e-mailing back and forth with her. the help desk didn't know. we know that because of the latest batch of e-mails indicating the i.t. people in the state department did not know. it was not illegal at the time, but they were plenty of advisories as i pointed out to her. there were cables even one under her signature which is routine telling everyone in the state department not to use personal e-mail for work-related issues.

so it's still pretty ambiguous. they know they'll have to add more questions. as she said, she's going to be as transparent as possible certainly when she goes before the benghazi committee on october 22nd. that about he her opportunity in public contrast to what happened to cheryl mills her very close aid yesterday for more than nine hours. she's demanded and finally received that hillary clinton will appear in public. that question and answer will be seen by everyone. >> you asked hillary about a recent quinnipiac poll to ask people the first word that comes to mind when they think of hillary clinton. >> but the first words that came to mind when asked about you were "liar," "untrustworthy," "crooked." how does that make you feel? >> certainly doesn't make me feel very good. but i'm confident that by this campaign has run its course, people will know that what i've

been saying is accurate and i will have a chance to do that in front of the entire world with the congressional committee hearing. they may disagree, as i now disagree with the choice that i made, but the facts that i have put forth have remained the same. >> you mention, andrea, a minute ago those hearings coming up a little over a month from now. because there's a couple ways of looking at this question of trustworthiness with the clintons. maybe she could put questions to rest a month from now. the other is a lot of ways these questions have been out there for a generation now going back to the 1990s and is there anything she can do to satisfy the critics after all these years? >> there's nothing she can do to satisfy some of the critics. but even many of her friends and supporters are raising questions. ed rendell the other day on our show and in other programs said that the way she handled this was atrocious. he told that to "the new york times." he's one of her closest supporters in a key state of

pennsylvania, former democratic chair. so this is not limited to either the press corps or the vast right-wing conspiracy that she once phrased it in an interview also with matt lauer on "today." this is very much out there. people who don't understand it want answers or at least have some feelings according to people that come up to me on the street and ask me about it that something was a little fishy. and she was trying -- and i think the whole campaign is now try to get out in front of it. >> hillary clinton also had strong words for donald trump and the kind of campaign that he's running. >> donald trump, among other things that he's done, has really personally attacked one of your closest aides, huma abedin. what was your feeling about that? >> well, he's attacked so many people including my close aide and myself and many other people. you know, i can take that. i mean, that's just par for the course. i do regret that he is going

after so many people, many of them by name. from great basketball players to people who express different opinions from him. i think it's an unfortunate development in american politics that his campaign is all about who he's against, whether it's immigrants or women broadcasters or aides of other candidates. he is the candidate of, you know, being against. >> well, david corn, what do you make of that answer? because we've had to now begin entertaining the possibility that a year from now we're dealing with a trump versus hillary general election. >> yeah, and i thought what was interesting there is the way andrea phrased the question. what is your feeling about this? she never told us. she got very kind of clinical and was very distant and calm about it. now, i understand she doesn't want to celebrate trump and get into a you know what match with

him right away. but i think one thing, you know, people s people say she comes across as cold and calculating. there are times show what you feel and what you're made of. i think a perfectly good response would have been, hey, he can say whatever he wants about me, that's politics. but when it comes to personal attacks, personal aides, he should just lay off. that's not appropriate. show some fire. defend someone who is close to you. i understand the reasons not to do that, but there are reasons for her to show more gumption. and it reminded me of what happened to michael dukakis when he was asked what he would think of the death penalty if his wife was raped and killed. it was really kind of detached. if she wants to make connections with people outside of coffee shops, she has to show a little more heat and passion about day-to-day stuff, not just policy, when it comes to these

interviews on television. >> you asked hillary about joe biden and his potential to get into the race. >> are there real differences, big differences between you and joe biden on domestic or foreign policy? >> you know, i'm not going to address any of the political questions around my friend, joe biden. he has to make a really difficult decision. you can see him struggling with it. and i just wish the best for him and his family. if he continues as vice president, he'll continue to serve with great distinction. if he gets into this race, there will be plenty of time to get into the debate and the back and forth, but i think everybody should give him the space and respect that he deserves to make what is a very difficult choice for him and his family. >> last night speaking at a synagogue in atlanta biden gave an extremely frank and personal answer when asked when he'd

decide to jump in. >> i'll be straightforward with you. the most relevant factor in my decision is whether my family and i have the emotional energy to run. everybody talks about a lot of other factors, the other people in the race and whether i can raise the money and whether i can put together an organization. that's not the factor. the factor is can i do it? can my family? i have to be honest with you and everyone who has come to me, i can't look you straight in the eye and say now i know i can do that. this is as honest as i can be. >> well, andrea, the answer to your question from hillary clinton sort of the politically correct answer there i guess from hillary. but that performance, that speech from joe biden last night we just played. you've covered him for a while. i'm curious to what your

reaction was to watching the vice president speak that way. that's a tone we don't usually see from him. >> i know. i've known joe biden since he first became a senator. i was a local reporter in philadelphia, in delaware, used to consider itself as the third pennsylvania senator. he is heartbroken. and he doesn't know, according to all of my reporting, whether he and his family have the emotional strength to make this race. that said, he wants to do it. he would love to run for president. he thinks he's more qualified than hillary clinton according to a lot of people who have spoken to him. but he doesn't know that he can actually do this. i think for one that it would be a terrible political fact for clinton if biden were to get into the race, because i don't think it helps her and toughens her up, it just divides the party and makes an opportunity for republicans to be much more competitive. >> she also had some tough talk for iran.

>> what do you say to your friends, many of them in the jewish community, who think this is a terrible deal? >> i believe that the agreement is not perfect. it is by no means some kind of validation of iran. you know, my view is don't trust, and verify. but it is a very important step and it is better than the alternative. so on wednesday, i will be outlining in great detail both why i support the agreement but equally importantly what i would do as president to enforce it, to hold iran accountable and to make clear that no options were off the table, that they can never, ever have a nuclear weapon. >> you know, david, it's so interesting. i'm thinking back eight years ago obama versus hillary clinton in the democratic primaries and the issue of how to deal with iran or whether to deal with iran was sort of a dividing line between them. here we are eight years later and hillary clinton will run on

the legacy of this obama administration and its dealings with iran. >> she's inheriting this accord which will survive, i think, the congressional opposition to it from the republicans, and so she has to make a good argument for it. i think that part of the interview showed hillary at her best, the whole foreign policy portion because she speaks with a certain amount of credibility, authority about these very difficult issues, much more so than we've seen with donald trump recently. and i think the speech she gives next week will be really important, perhaps even more important than some of the things the president has been saying about the deal with iran because this is the future. the democratic party has this deal. it's part of whoever the democratic candidate's going to be, part of their platform. and so she's going to need to talk about it in a commonsense way that registers with people when the republicans out there demagoguing and have an easy case for demagoguery.

you can't trust the iranians, they're terrorists. she has a harder challenge. and her ability to do that will show, i think to a large degree, how effective she can be in a general leaked. >> andrea, the politics are what is interesting. because we asked that question in the polls. do you support this deal, do you oppose the deal? the oppose side is winning pretty big right now. >> in our latest poll. depends how you ask the question. hours was 35-33 1/3 not having an opinion about it. the polls are all over the place. the last i checked which was yesterday and the day before. but that said, she has to own it because she helped launch the secret negotiations. she can't walk away from this. >> andrea mitchell and david corn, thank you for joining us. andrea, again, congratulations, a fantastic interview. >> thanks so much. >> you can watch andrea's full interview with hillary clinton tonight at 9:00 eastern on the "rachel maddow show." when we come back, trump is on the war path again, not just

with jeb bush but with radio talk show host hugh hewitt. plus with that county clerk behind bars, same-sex couples are finally getting marriage licenses in morehead, kentucky. we'll get the latest on that story ahead. with labor day upon us, it's the official summer of trump as this one was known. we know trump's the big winner this summer. who are the biggest losers? and finally heard of trump's "art of the deal," well tonight the art of the squeal. trump's most outrageous moments from the campaign trail so far. imagine - she won't have to remember passwords. or obsess about security. she'll log in with her smile. he'll have his very own personal assistant. and this guy won't just surf the web. he'll touch it. scribble on it. and share it. because these kids will grow up with windows 10. get started today.

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welcome back to "hardball." donald trump has escalated another war of words with the media, this time it's with conservative radio hoes hugh hewitt. on his program yesterday he posed a series of tough foreign policy questions to the front-runner. he asked trump about the leader of a division of iran's notorious revolutionary guard known as the quds forces as well as other high profile terrorist figures in the middle east. trump stumbled through the interview before the conversation turned into a debate about the fairness of what trump insisted were gotcha questions. >> are you familiar with general

suleimani? >> yes. but go ahead. give me a little go ahead. tell me. >> he runs the quds forces. >> yes, okay. right. ic the kurds -- >> no the quds forces. >> i thought you said kurds. >> no i'm looking for the next commander in chief to know who who hassan nasrallah is and zawahiri and al julani and al baghdadi. do you know the players without a scorecard yet, donald trump? >> as far as the individual players, of course i don't know them. i've never met them. i haven't been in a position to meet them. if -- if they're still there, which is unlikely in many cases, but if they're still there, i will know them better than i know you. >> i don't believe in gotcha questions. i'm not trying to quiz you. >> that is a gotcha question. i mean when you ask me about who is running this, this, this, that's not -- that is not -- i'll be so good at the military your head will spin.

>> well, still seething from that exchange trump took to mocking hewitt today in a phone interview on "morning joe." >> when you say quds versus kurds, this third rate radio announcer. gotcha, gotcha, do you know this one and that one. he worked hard on that. >> this hap aappears to be a far pattern for trump as he talked about megyn kelly at the first debate. joined by joy reid as well as senior political writer at buzzfeed. is it a fair question, is it a gotcha question or is a gotcha question a fair question? >> i think the difference between what happened with hugh hewitt and what megyn kelly did, megyn kelly was asking trump about his own statements. which is legitimate. on foreign policy there's actually a difference.

not to defend donald trump who i think for a lot of different questions should be questioned on everything he says and does. who is the leader of iran and who is the leader of the quds forces. i doubt most journalists could. most people know who zawahiri is. do they? i don't know. most will dismiss this as smarty-pantsism on the part of mr. hewitt who is a harvard guy and intellectual right winger host. i don't think it will hurt trump at all with his fans. >> today marco rubio told cnn that trump's response to hugh hewitt's questions is a red flag. >> i think if you don't the answer to those questions, you're not going to be able to serve as commander in chief. it should be part of the reason you're running is you understand the threats that the world is facing. you have a deep understanding and an understanding of what to do about them. and if someone doesn't, i think it's very concerning. >> yesterday jeb bush also told reporters that trump's answer doesn't cut it. >> you got to know who the players are. you need to know what the

capabilities of the united states are. you need a strategy. all this stuff, you just can't flip antly say, well, i'll hire the best people and it will be done. you got to have the sense of what's at risk here. >> okay, we know they're going to pounce. his opponents are looking for anything to take him down in the polls. here's an opportunity. pick up on what joy was saying. i'm wondering about the average voter's response to this. the average voter doesn't know much more than trump about these questions. does the average voter give him a pass for it? >> the thing with trump is and why he may survive this better than most, is what people like about him is not his mastery of the issues they like his attitude. when he said i'll be so good at the military your head will spin. that's funny to a lot of people in the media and pundits, but a lot of voters believe him. and they don't care if he knows the name of specific leaders in

ir iran. what they care and believe is once he gets in office he'll take care of business if he has to, right? and i think that that's something that helps him overcome little stumbles like this along the way. >> we're getting used to these stumbles. that should take down any other candidate, and it doesn't work with donald trump. a candidate for president jeb's brother was asked to name the leader of pakistan, general musharraf. but he was unable to come up with his name. >> can you name the name of the general? >> is this a 50 questions? >> no, four questions of four leaders in four hot spots. >> the top man in pakistan is general pervez musharraf who overthrew an elected government. >> in the new pakistani general has just been elected. not elected. this guy just took over office. it appears he'll bring stability to the country and i think that's good name. >> and you can name. >> the general. i can name the general. >> and it's?

>> general. >> while embarrassing bush's answer was not a major setback for his campaign. then front-runner herman cain was asked a similar question. not only was he able to answer, he gave a mocking response. >> are you ready for the gotcha questions? they're coming from the media and others on foreign policy. who is the president of uzbekistan. all of this stuff. >> i'm ready for the gotcha questions. and they are already starting to come. when they ask me who the president of ubebeki stan i'll say i don't know. >> obviously didn't work out, joy, for herman cain, but there's other reasons that the herman cain campaign didn't work out. i remember that george bush thing. that was andy heller, that caused a big stir back then. was that fair, was bush set up? but a pretty good answer. bush was the front-runner when that happened. he took a lot of heat from the

media. it didn't trickle down when the voters cast ballots. >> and nine, nine, nine. i'll remember that from herman cain. i'm an ordinary guy even though i come from this famous political family, i'm kind of just like you. the big risk for jeb bush is that everything that he says about this particular topic reminds people of two things, number one, his brother wasn't exactly known for being an intellectual wasn't enough to cram for the answers and didn't stop him from being president. but that jeb himself may know the answers to those questions because he's being advised by the same neocons that got us into iraq. trump is running against that sort of thinking that got us mired in a war we didn't have to fight courtesy of jeb's brother. marco yubio who has no more foreign policy experience yet he's on the committee. he was head of the house of representatives in florida. so none of the candidates really have the portfolio to say that

they've got so much more knowledge just because they're elected officials than trump does. so unfortunately, i think it's just a problem for all of the candidates. none of them are respect foreign policy heavyweights. >> jeb bush also rebutted trump's assertion that he should speak english while in the united states calling trump's criticism a dog whistle. >> english is the language of our country, and people that come to this country need to learn english. that doesn't mean that they stop speaking their native tongue. i just -- i think this is kind of bizarre, to be honest with you. the other offensive notion was that i went down to the border and spoke mexican. these are dog whistle terms. we're going to be hopeful and optimistic than sending signals to prey on people's angst. >> using the term "dog whistle." usually means using racially coded language. that's what he's saying trump is

doing. >> there are two things going on with jeb's response. one is that this is a personal issue for him. he's married to a mexican woman. he's raised children where they often spoke spanish at home. and he left texas and moved to florida when he was young with his young family partly because of the racism that his wife would confront. and so this is obviously something he cares about deeply. and he really doesn't like sort of the nativist wing of the party. politically, taking on donald trump in this way, he's not going to take away votes from donald trump. they're not going to go to jeb bush most likely. that said, i think jeb is setting himself up as the single leader of the establishment of the more moderate wing. and by incessantly attacking donald trump, he makes the show, makes the campaign basically jeb versus donald. that's good for him in the end. that's why we're going to keep seeing him hammer away at jeb on this and every other issue -- or at donald. >> agreed. >> thank you both for joining

us. >> thank you. >> up next we go live to kentucky as clerk kim davis remains in jail. her staff is issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples. when is your flu shot more than a flu shot? when it helps give a lifesaving vaccine 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. i found her wandering miles from home. when the phone rang at 5am, i knew it was about mom. i see how hard it's been on her at work and i want to help. for the 5 million americans living with alzheimer's, and millions more who feel its effects.

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you can't predict it, but you can be ready. another step on the journey. will you be ready when growth presents itself? realize your buying power at open.com. welcome back to "hardball." the kentucky county in the midst of a firestorm over gay marriage has ended its ban on issuing marriage licenses. clerks issued licenses to same-sex couples. the clerk kim davis who refused to issue licenses because of her religious exceptions to sail-sex marriage has now been jailed after a federal judge found her in contempt of court. kim davis' lawyer spoke to the press after he visited her in jail today. >> kim davis slept well last night. she slept with a very good conscience. and she was in very good spirits. she has a clean conscience even

though she's incarcerated behind these bars. she has no intention to resign. she'll continue to serve the people of rowan county as she did for so many year. number two, she'll never violate her conscience and never betray her god. >> nbc news's gabe gutierrez caught up with davis' husband earlier today. >> we might as well be in russia. we might as well be over in iran or something because we have no religious freedom no more. and if we the people don't take it back, we're in trouble. not only are they coming after the christians, the next step will be the preachers. >> how long is your wife prepared to stay in jail? >> as long as it takes. >> gabe gutierrez joins me from rowan county, kentucky. the husband says as long as it takes. she's not giving an inch on this. how long could that be that she's behind bars? >> well, that is the big question right now. her lawyers say they expect her to be in the jail behind me until at least through tuesday is what they're saying. they also said that she is doing

well, that she's in isolation and that she's saying that things are going -- that rather, that things -- that all is well. another thing her lawyers were saying is that they think the licenses issued by those deputy clerks are invalid without kim davis' approval. the county attorney in rowan county says that they are valid. just now it appears that their legal arguments are not flying with the judge. the judge in this case, a federal judge that sent kim davis to jail yesterday and found her in contempt, he just filed paperwork saying he refused to put this contempt order on hold while kim davis' attorneys appeal. the attorneys say they will fight this. there's a rally that's being planned on tuesday to try to gain more support for her. but again, her legal team is trying all that they can, but right now the federal judge

seems not inclined to listen to any of it or at least to rule in their favor right now. >> gabe gutierrez down there in kentucky, thank you for joining us. up next, the art of the squeal. we'll take a look at how donald trump has provided us much needed comic relief this summer. you're watching "hardball." can a business have a mind? 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? what did iran's supreme leader get in the nuclear deal? to start with, $100 billion. they keep their nuclear facilities and ballistic missiles. there won't be surprise anytime-anywhere inspections.

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i'm milissa rehberger. thousands packed a texas church to mourn deputy darren goforth who was fatally shot a week ago at a gas station. a suspect is charged in capital murder in that shooting. the shooting of a fox illinois police officer say they've received more surveillance video that's relevant to the case. in hungary thousands of desperate refugees gave up hope of traveling by rail to austria

and germany. they began walking a journey spanning hundreds of miles. back to "hardball." welcome back to "hardball." labor day will mark the unofficial end of summer. like it or not, you have just witnessed one of the strangest, wildest, most entertaining or, depending on your political per situations, most frightening chapters in the history of modern politics. this has been the summer of trump. never before have we seen a candidate hit the stump quite like this. >> trump or jeb? how about this? trump! or hillary? she's married to anthony weiner, you know the little bing, bing, bing. i love you very much.

so now think of it -- it's like puppets, the bing bing, bam bam boom. you know the old day, bong bong, bing, bing, bing. you know what that is, right? i'm used to dealing with killers. people that go ah-ah. >> you call women you don't like pigs, slobs, disgusting animals. >> only rosie o'donnell. >> no, it wasn't. >> when i told my wife i'd be very presidential so i'm not going to attack people. but cher. and i'm not going to attack rosie o'donnell. she's not for me. how could bush be in first place? this guy can't negotiate his way out of a paper bag. >> all republicans who think obama's a muslim. and they do it again.

so whatever block that is, that's what you got. >> oh, what a group. what a schmuck. what a stiff. what a stiff. every country in the world thinks that the united states is represented by stupid people. and they're right, of course. no, they're wrong. very stupid people. they think we're run by a bunch of idiots. i don't wear a toupee. it's my hair. i swear. come here, come here. is it mine? look. >> it is. >> say it, please. >> yes, i believe it is. >> thank you. >> and have i ever met you before? no. >> no, you haven't. >> but you're very nice. thank you, nice to meet you. >> what's it all mean? and what happens now? the roundtable tonight. "new york times" reporter jeremy

piers, and ken vogel. jeremy, let me start with you. we all said that the trump thing would last a week, maybe a couple weeks, be over by the fo of july. it is coming up on labor day and this is still going strong. how long can this last? >> i stopped making predictions about that a long time ago. every time you think he's put his foot in his mouth he seems to climb higher in the polls. there's an inevitable crest to his popularity. we may be nearing that. but i just don't think any of us can pretend. i think you've got at, steve, part of the reason why he's so popular. look how much fun the guy is having. he's got that cheshire cat smile on his face. i don't even think the darrell hammond portrayal of him on "saturday night live" couldn't be that good. it's almost infectious. when you look like you're having fun, you look like you're

winning. >> i completely agree with that. some of the things that trump does that you don't see any other candidate for office at any level do, they ask him about the polls. every politician in america tells you, i don't read the polls. the only poll that counts is election day. ask them about their opponents. i respect my opponent. my opponent is a fine american. trump speaks like the average american would speak about the polls and about his opponent. that does connect with people in a way that we've never seen with a politician. >> right. the only folks that aren't laughing or folks in the latino community. because he uses them as a cheap scapegoat. the only way for him to get to the white house is through the latino vote. we're seeing increasingly our allies saying this is enough. it was funny until people started getting hurt. two weeks ago, steve, there was a homeless latino man that was 58 years old beaten nearly to death by two trump supporters citing him as the reason why they went after this latino guy.

trump's response was, oh, my folks are passionate. that's not presidential. >> is this how trump drew it up? if so, this is one of a summer to-do list. he insulted a conservative war here. then he went over the most conservative news agency in the country calling their prized female journalist a bimbo. he's talked to evangelicals about how he's never asked for god's forgiveness and described the holy communion wafer as little crackers. he's publicly bullied and demeaned the head of the party. he forbid iowa's largest paper from obtaining press ke den shalls to his event and ended the summer with no big endorsements. his biggest are dennis rodman and terrell owens. >> there you go. >> we're showing you that all the traditional rules of politics that we swear by in this business and we see a candidate break one, that will

be the end of that candidate. is donald trump rewriting some of the rules of politics that we've etched in stone over the years? >> he certainly is at this moment. the question is can it last. when he deviates from that and stops going with his gut and starts playing by the traditional roles. we've seen evidence of that recently including him signing the loyalty pledge with the rnc, including him submitting to more of these traditional grillings from hugh hewitt, the radio host, that made trump look horrible on foreign policy. totally clueless. the only plan he did release on immigration was sort of widely laughed at. where he's gotten in trouble is tried to play by the traditional rules. when he's done well is when he's totally flouted them. and so really it's tough to predict, as jeremy said, how this will end. but i think that where you start to see him potentially cresting and maybe reaching the limits is

when he starts to really try to be a serious candidate. he's not good at that. he's good at being sort of the jester of the campaign and he's found a very effective way to do that and ride that to the top of the polls. >> reminds me of the old seinfeld episode where george started doing the exact opposite of his instinct. and suddenly his life turned around. trump's opponents have hurled big insults his way. they called him fake conservative, cancer, carnival act. they called his support in the polls a temporary loss of sanity, jackass, birther and complete idiot. none of that has taken him down yet. but if donald trump is going to win the nomination, he has to keep this up, he has to keep up this level of interest, this level of excitement, this level of fun, this idea that every time he steps behind the podium, you have no idea what will come out of his mouth. is it sustainable for six months? >> that's what i'm wondering. and i wonder if there's a candidate out there that's kind of an antidote to trump who is

just as much anti-establishment but doesn't have the same kind of loose cannon attitude that trump has. and i think that person could be ben car son. these predictions in this cycle have often been wildly off. >> maria, what do you make of jeb bush lately has been fighting back for donald trump about his comments for speaking english and jeb bush accusing him of dog whistle politics basically saying he's using racially coded language. how will that play out in the republican primary universe? >> this is much stronger. this is what people were expecting from jeb back in july when trump said horrible things about immigrants. this is the party. when people said they were tired of establishments, they were saying they didn't want anybody in politics because you can't trust them. this is one of the reasons why

trump is rising in the polls and why people are interested in ben carson and carly fiorina. this is the slate that the republican party has built. up next, as trumps a risen we'll reveal some of the other winners and the losers so far. ♪ mother nature can turn in an instant; don't turn back. introducing the new 2016 ford explorer. be unstoppable. ♪ this is my fight song...

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imagine - she won't have to or obsess about security. she'll log in with her smile. he'll have his very own personal assistant. and this guy won't just surf the web. he'll touch it. scribble on it. and share it. because these kids will grow up with windows 10. get started today. windows 10. a more human way to do. we are back with the round table. jeremy peters, maria theresa cue mar -- kumar and ken vogel. on the day before trump not go the race it was a packed field with jeb bush, ben carson, scott walker and marco rubio toward the front of the pack, huckabee, tuesday, rand paul and chris christie were within shouting distance and trump wasn't even

on the radar. today, though, trump is soaring, carson has shot up, too, jeb bush has gone nowhere and ted cruz is surviving by hitch ago ride with trump. rubio has fallen, walker support has imploded nationally. then there's the crowd of folks who have evaporated. rick perry has run out of money. rick santorum, lindsey graham, bobby jindal, jim gilmore, george pataki are polling at basically 0 if you throw rand paul, chris christie and john kasich into this group, the combined support for these nine candidates comes in at less than 9%. we have a couple minutes left here. i want to go around the horn and ask you a two-part question. the first is this, we'll start with you, ken. i want you to tell me, the biggest loser of the summer in the republican race in the second part of this is a few months from now when the fall finishes, we said this was the summer of trump. who will we say it was the fall of? the autumn of? who will be the candidate of the autumn? >> i think the biggest loser has to be scott walker, you don't to look further than the polls to

know that. but even more so is the positioning, the expectations headed into the summer. scott walker was going to be the guy who bridged the divide between the establishment and the tea party base. clearly that hasn't happened. you have to think it's because trump has brought the base so far to the right that scott walker can't compete and he can't be -- he can't find a way to moderate that. as far as who we'll be talking about in the fall, i think jeb bush is in a pretty good position. he's managed to overcome, i think, or at least deal with, minimize, perhaps, his biggest hurdle which is not trump but his last name. he's done an all right job with that except for the stumble over iraq which was a problem. but since then and maybe john kasich depending on how he performs in the debates he's positioned to be an anti-trump. >> i'm writing you down for jeb on that one. jeremy, how about you? >> i think scott walker definitely has lost a lot of his luster. there's no doubt about that. i think if i could pick someone else, the sheen has kind of come off of, it would be rand paul.

he's had a lot of internal campaign dysfunction. i think he's also kind of given up on a lot of his message of being a different kind of republican. right now he's leading the charge to shut down the government over planned parenthood and you won't reach a lot of younger open minded bipartisan minded voters if you're talking about shutting down the government over women's issues. >> so rand's the loser. who will be the candidate of the autumn? who will that be? >> i think i would go back to carson. i'd like at carson. i don't -- i don't know that i see him actually winning a caucus or a primary, but i think there's going to be -- you're already seeing the kind of heavy flirtatious with carson. >> maria, the biggest loser, the candidate of the autumn? who is it? >> think the biggest loser is the rnc. they threw out their autopsy report last year, how do you engage women, hispanics and young voters and embraced the trump. so they're the biggest loser.

as far as candidates are concerned, i think kasich. kasich basically marks every single reason that jeb bush says vote for me, kasich has it without the political backage of the bush name and he's the anti-trump and he knows how to talk about what -- he knows how to talk about immigration issues, he knows how to tack to young people. he's the one that's the on the sidelines waiting if everybody to pile out on each other. >> the correct answer is walker is the biggest loser, kasich the candidate of the fall. jeremy peters, maria theresa kumar, ken vogel, "hardball" is back after this. everyone loves the picture i posted of you. at&t reminds you it can wait.

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don't forget you can watch andrea mitchell's entire interview with hillary clinton in one hour on the rachel maddow show. chris matthews returns tuesday and "all in" with chris hayes starts right now. tonight on "all in." >> we can, unfortunately, do what he's doing which i think is a bad development for our american political system. >> democratic front-runner takes on the republican front-runner in an msnbc exclusive as donald trump fails the so-called commander-in-chief quiz. >> are you familiar with general soleimani? >> yes. go ahead, give me a little -- go ahead, tell me. >> and the standoff in kentucky. >> she's not going to resign, she can't sacrifice her conscience. >> the lawyer for kim davis joins me live.