gop fight night in california. we are just hours away from round two of the republican debate at the reagan library. the candidates are signaling there could be plenty of fireworks. >> i'm going to mix it up because i like to rumble. >> i think mr. trump's going to be hearing quite a lot from me. >> i hear they're all going after me. whatever. whatever. texas-sized controversy. a ninth grader named ahmed muhammed is arrested at school for a homemade clock he brought to show his teachers. police said it was a suspected hoax bomb. now thousands are rallying behind him all the way up to the oval office. and jon stewart takes to capitol hill trying to shame congress into extending health care funding for 9/11 first responders. >> i'm embarrassed for our country. i'm embarrassed for new york. i'm embarrassed that you, after serving so selflessly, with such heroism, have to come down here

and convince people to do what's right. tonight's gop debate is being dubbed fight night. and all eyes are on donald trump, of course, because it might be very different from the first affair with many. of the 11 candidates on stage promising to come out swinging, trump, the undisputed front-runner who leads all national and early state polls, could draw the brunt of the attacks. trump is going to see what low energy looks like. predicted one adviser to jeb bush. i think he deserves both barrels, warned rand paul, i want to make sure everyone in the whole country knows he's a fake conservative. >> i'm going to mix it up because i like to rumble. i think electioneering, running for office is combat. it's intellectual combat. and you have to differentiate yourself from others. >> we've got to share more passion. we've got to be aggressive. you don't want to be rude or obnoxio obnoxious. people want to see that passion. >> also with her sights on trump, carly fiorina. >> i think mr. trump's going to

be hearing quite a lot from me. donald trump and i are in totally different businesses. he's in the entertainment business. >> meanwhile, others are planning to focus not on trump but on themselves. >> but i don't think that my strategy's going to change at all. it's going to be to tell the truth and to talk about, you know, my vision for america. >> this is not a game show. it's not a production. you're deciding the commander in chief of the most powerful military and the leader of the most powerful country on the planet. and that's a serious endeavor. and that's how we take it. that's how we prepare for it. >> as for trump, the man who's launched more attacks than all other candidates combined, he says in a new interview that he may actually, quote, tone it down. >> i think i could tone it down a little bit when pressed. i think i have a great temperament. i've had a great -- you couldn't build a great business like i built if you didn't have good temperament. but i think maybe i can sometimes tone it down when somebody hits, you can hit a little bit less hard. you need a person of tremendous

strength, but i think i could tone it down a little bit, and i'll try. >> joining me now from the reagan library in simi valley, california, msnbc political correspondent kasie hunt. thanks for joining us. it sounds like more fireworks are expected at this one. are you hearing the same from the campaigns? >> reporter: hey, ayman. for sure. last time we went into this with the fox news debate in august, all of the conversation was about how to basically be so boring that you didn't stand out by making a mistake. it was introduce the country to your record. give them the basic outline of your biography and then basically try to stay out of the firing line. everybody was concerned about trump. there were a couple of exceptions to that. rand paul and chris christie really got into it on that debate stage. but otherwise it was essentially trump versus the moderator and everybody seemed content to let that be the case. i think it's completely different this time. i think these poll numbers have really scared a lot of these more establishment, more conventional type of candidates. and i think from all of the

camps i'm talking to, instead i'm hearing about how they are going to mix it up. how they are going to go after each other. now, they're kind of hiding behind the moderators in some way. we do know that cnn and jake tapper, the main moderator of this event, have talked about how they want to get the candidates to engage with one another. i'm hearing from some of these campaigns that you know what, may, we made these attacks. cnn knows they're out there. all they've got to do is ask and they're going to be willing to go ahead and make them. i also think some of the staging that cnn has put up here is going to impact that as well. the candidates are actually going to be really physically close to each other. the podiums are only 20 feet -- or excuse me, 20 inches apart, which is half the distance that they had between each other in cleveland and considerably less than what we saw in 2012 when it was around 34 inches. think about 20 inches, it's not much longer than your arm. and for two big guys like bush and trump who are going to be standing next to each other, the opportunity for physical interaction is going to be pretty high. and we have seen a little bit of

that in some past debates. it's always a pretty striking moment. >> i think any interaction between those two will be entertaining to watch tonight. kasie, stay with me. i want to bring in amy holmes and sam stein. good to have you both. sam, let's begin with you. your take on what she just said, not just the fact that they're going to be so close to each other literally, just inches apart, but the fact that you have multiple candidates promising to be more aggressive tonight, what do you think that aggressiveness looks like? >> well, i guess it depends on the policy topic, to be honest with you. there are real policy differences that are sort of getting brushed aside among the more stylistic discussion here. but take, for example, the iran deal. i'm curious to see if anyone will jump on trump for saying that he wouldn't rip the deal up, that he'd police it. that is a fundamental policy difference between the rest of the field and donald trump. on taxes, donald trump and jeb bush actually are for raising rates on hedge fund managers. they are the two in the field that have a distinct policy difference. and i'm curious if another

person on the stage will take that opportunity and go after him on that. i'm curious to see what those policy differences are. sorry, go ahead. >> i was going to say, but you're raising some serious policy issues and difference issues -- differences issues on important things like policy. we haven't really seen that yet throughout the campaign. why would we expect that to happen tonight and not just kind of like back-and-forth arguing? >> because it's an easier way to attack him, without engendering some sympathy towards him. if you go after him for being brash, which he is, for being ego 'tiss e egotistical or narcissistic. if you point out the fundamental differences on policy, if you point out that there are some places where he hasn't been a conservative, health care, for instance, then you start to sort of create a fissure within that basis of point that he has, that have been so adamantly attached

to him through all these -- you would call them gaffes over the past couple months. >> iamy, do you trump to be the main focus once again, or do you expect him to be as aggressive as he was in previous debates? >> i expect him to be the main focus. we've heard the candidates saying they intend to go after him. and for our sake, as viewers and people in the media, i hope so. i hope that they do mix it up -- >> for entertaining or for the sake of -- >> for both, entertainment's sake and illuminating the issues as sam was discussing. carly fiorina promised she intends to go after trump on his business record. he's been campaigning as a businessman, the dealmaker, the guy who can negotiate. and you're already seeing conservative bloggers and pundits road testing trump's bankruptcy record and that america, they would say, can't afford trump's business record of piling on debt and then filing for chapter 11. and also eminent domain. just in the past few days, trump's record on seizing private property has really

heated up on conservative blogs and conservative columns, and these candidates intend to go after him about it. and we may even see coordinating between them. >> he said he's going to tone it down. are you buying that you think he's going to tone it down? what does toning it down look like for trump? >> your guess is as good as mine as to what that might look like. again, i hope not, and i hope that donald trump is his authentic self. you were asking how conservative -- or rather the candidates tonight might go after him. you've already heard rand paul say he intends to attack him as a fake, a phony, a flip-flopper, and the club for growth has already put out ads saying he's just a politician. he's not this truth-talking outsider maverick. he's more of a huckster. >> kasie, for many of the candidates, this is real desperation time. it's going to be make or break for several campaigns. plolitico calls this scott walker's last chance. without it, the money might dry up. who has the most riding on this debate in terms of a bad

performance that could effectively kill their campaign after tonight, you think? >> look, i do think that scott walker has a lot at stake here. and i think his camp is treating it as such. he has all of his top advisers out here in california. they've been huddling over the course of the last 24 hours. it's a marriott down the street trying to get him ready for this. all of his top strategic people are here. that's not always the case for every campaign or for every event. so i think that they really know that it's do-or-die time. and i think other sources that i've talked to have said you know what, while on the one hand if this is a performance that doesn't go his way, yes, it could be a major problem. on the other hand, it does present an opportunity. and that's the thing about these debates is that they are unpredictable. they create these unpredictable moments. i think the question is can scott walker rise to the opportunity to revive his campaign, or is this going to be something where he is silent and sort of fades away? i don't think it's at the level where -- he needs to do more than just not make a mistake. if that makes sense.

>> and who has the hardest job tonight? bottom line, who do you think has to go out there and really knock it out of the park? >> beyond jake tapper as the moderator? >> he's got the shoes to fill in. last time fox had three up there. >> he'll have others up there, but he'll do well. >> we have faith in jake. >> yeah, i have faith. i think, you know, you could make the case that all of them have critical moments ahead. and you could gain why that is for each of their cases. scott walker, i think, among all of the candidates, has probably underperformed the most. people had high expectations for how he would do because he sort of fit both the establishment credentials and the nonestablishment conservative credentials. and he just hasn't been a very effective candidate. but i will say this. you know, we are still in the early stages. and if you look back at 2004, a lot of what's being said about scott walker now was being said about john kerry then. and how could he fall so far behind howard dean? and what a catastrophe his

campaign was. and of course, he ended up as the nominee. and so people should be patient. there are a lot of candidates in the field. there's a lot of debates to come. i don't think this is a make or break for any one specific person. >> and amy, my question about carly fiorina, she's not backing away from trump. she said she expects to be more vocal in attacking donald trump. should she go after him, or is this not a smart strategy? should she just be doing what she's been doing all along, that has steadily moved heifer up the polls? >> well, she has said that she does intend to go after his business record. and donald trump has certainly said he intends to go after her. clearly she has to stand her ground, and she does need to score some points. i wouldn't be surprised if it cnn brings up right away at the top of the debate donald trump's appearance about carly fiorina and even possibly ask donald trump to apologize to ms. fiorina right there on stage. that's a small prediction. you can put your money down. >> it looks like you have some sources with cnn. >> no, i know nothing but i

wouldn't be surprised if we saw that moment. and would ms. fiorina be gracious? her look at this ad that she put out was incredibly powerful. it got applause from across the spectrum. i'm not a chick person. i'm not necessarily a feminist, and even i got tingles watching this political ad. i think she's on very solid footing with this. >> amy holmes, kasie hunt and sam stein, thank you very much for joining us. we'll have a lot more on the debate and the policies that may come up later in the show. but coming up, terrifying pictures out of california from that rapidly spreading wildfire. now firefighters are making progress. plus, a man in oklahoma scheduled for execution this hour receives an 11th hour stay. a group of vocal supporters including sister helen prejean and susan saran ron insist he's innocent. and later, cool clock. president obama tweeted his support for a texas tieenager after a homemade clock he brought to school was suspected to be a bomb. large and extra large.

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a fifth death has been confirmed today in zion national park, and three people are still missing after deadly flash floods swept through southern utah. the total death toll has now risen to 16 including 12 members of one family. killed when a wall of water washed two vehicles away. >> my family and my friend's family were swept away in this flash flood. we know god and highi inguiding and trust him. >> more than 60 responders are participating in search and rescue efforts. is and destructive wildfires continue to rage today in california. firefighters are making some progress battling one of the biggest blazes, the butte fire is now 45% contained, but it is still measuring over 71,000

acres. and very near that site, the valley fire is just 30% contained. it's measuring 70,000 acres. the two fires together have already destroyed more than 700 homes and forced the evacuation of 23,000 people. an appeals court today halted the execution of an oklahoma inmate hours before the state was to put him to death at 4:00 p.m. today. the decision was made after attorneys for the inmate, richard glossip, asked for time to review new evidence and after pleas to halt his execution. glossip who has been on death row for 18 years was convicted of ordering the 1997 murder of a motel owner. though there was no physical evidence tying him to the crime, the man who committed the murder testified that glossip hired him to carry it out. in recent months, glossip's case has attracted nationwide attention including from actress susan sarandon who played a nun trying to save a man from death row in the 1995 film "dead man walking." >> i really think that he's

innocent. there's absolutely no dna, no physical evidence linking him to the crime. there's no physical evidence or motive, and he's always said he was innocent to the point where he wouldn't, you know, make any kind of a deal, which is, of course, the mistake that people make when they're innocent. they think that the truth will free them, which is true if you have good representation. but if you don't, then people never hear the truth. >> glossip's execution has been rescheduled for september 30th. just ahead, a muslim teenager is arrested for bringing a homemade clock into school. that story has sparked a massive response online with th the #istandwithahmed. and president obama is also weighing in. plus, a dramatic escalation on the hungarian border as police use water cannons and migrants and refugees on those mig rants and those refugees, rather. that's next. enhance the experience. so why just clean your baby, when you can give him so much more?

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pepper spray on hundreds of migrants trying to break through a great on the border with serbia. this comes just days after hungarian authorities closed off that border. in the days since, refugees and migrants have been taking alternate routes to reach germany and other parts of western europe, traveling through croatia and slovenia. and this is the story burning up the internet today. a 14-year-old muslim student arrested after showing off his homemade clock. ahmed muhammed is an irving, texas, ninth grader and an amateur inventor who fashioned it out of a pencil case. he says he showed it off to his english teacher on monday after the clock beeped during class. >> i showed it to her, and her eyes got open. she was, like, is that a bomb? and i was, like, no, it's not a bomb. it's a clock. and she's, like, well, it looks like a bomb. don't show anyone else. and she decided to take it from me. >> later that day he was placed in handcuffs, taken to a juvenile detention center and

interrogated. part of a response that he called discriminatory. >> they searched me and they took my fingerprints and mug shots like i was a criminal. it's discrimination. it's not just happening to me. it's happening to other kids around the irving strict. >> police released a photo of the clock. they say they're adamant that their response would have been the same if ahmed were white. >> our reaction would have been the same either way. that's a very suspicious device. we live in an age where you can't take things like that to schools. >> ahmed's three-day suspension for the incident remains in effect, but he's getting huge support online with th the #istandwithahmed trending all day. in fact, mark zuckerberg has invited him to drop by facebook and the white house says it's invited ahmed to next month's astronomy night after president obama tweeted today, "cool clock, ahmed. want to bring it to the white house? we should inspire more kids like you to like science. it's what makes america great."

ibrahim hooper is national director for the council on american-islamic relations and he joins us now. thank you very much for joining us. >> thanks for having me. >> police say his background had nothing to do with his treatment, that this was an abundance of caution around a suspicious device. what do you think about that? >> i think it's clear anyone would realize that if his name wasn't ahmed mohamed and he wasn't dark-skinned, if he wasn't muslim, this would have never happened. so i think it just any reasonable person would understand that that is the case. i think it's just symptomatic of the growing islamophobia we're seeing in our nation. it happens to muslim kids that we get reports of bullying all the time. it happens to people who aren't muslim. a sikh man was beaten up and called bin laden in chicago. we just had another person sentenced to a long time in prison for beating up another elderly sikh man in california.

muslim religious institutions are targeted with vandalism. we're seeing this unfortunate rise in islamophobia, and this is just one symptom of that. >> and mr. hooper, the police chief indicated he'd be meeting with ahmed's family this afternoon. has the family gotten any kind of apology from police? i mean, do you think that they deserve an apology? >> well, they clearly deserve an apology, and they may deserve more than that when this is finished. i haven't seen any apologies coming from officials. we are connecting the family with legal advice. we've been with the family since yesterday. and, you know, we'll do what's needed to make sure that his rights are protected and that this doesn't carry with him throughout the rest of his life. can you imagine being forced at 14 years old to do the perp walk in handcuffs out of your school in front of everybody? i think the president was right to invite him to the white

house. i think if he goes to the white house, this may help get rid of that stigma that he's now facing in school. >> the response online, as you mentioned, has been overwhelming, going all the way up to the white house. and i want to play what white house spokesperson josh earnest said today. take a listen to what he said. >> in this instance, it's clear that at least some of ahmed's teachers failed him. that's too bad. but it's not too late for all of us to use this as a teachable moment. and to search our own conscience for biases in whatever form they take. >> is it enough to make this a, quote, teachable moment, or does there need to be more accountability here? >> well, it should be a teachable moment not only for the teachers and school officials but our nation's leaders. for too long, our nation's religious and political leaders from the top on down have failed to speak out against the growing islamophobia in our nation.

and the hatemongers out there take that as acceptance for what they're doing and what they're saying. this doesn't happen in isolation. it happens in an atmosphere in which the entire internet is a cesspool of anti-muslim hate. it happens when school board officials in minnesota and virginia post anti-muslim statements on facebook. it happens when all of these things happen, and they need to speak out and push back against this islamophobia. >> all right. ibrahim hooper, thank you very much for that. and we'd like to tell our viewers that ahmed mohamed will be chris hayes's guest tonight on "all in" at 8:00 eastern right here. so you don't want to miss that. coming up, jon stewart takes to capitol hill, explaining why he's embarrassed by congress's treatment of 9/11 first responders. plus, the second presidential debate is just hours away. how specific will donald trump get on his policies, and will he be attacked for it?

we're live in simi valley, california. and tom brady is weighing in on donald trump's run. what's popping is straight ahead. 40,000 sets of eyes, or a million sleepless nights. whether it's building the world's most advanced satellite, the space station, or the next leap in unmanned systems. at boeing, one thing never changes. our passion to make it real. ♪

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welcome back, everyone. here's what's happening right now. searchers in utah have found the body of a fifth hiker killed in flash flooding near zion national park. two others are still missing. the national guard joined some 600 people searching for them today. but a third day of rain threatens to slow down those efforts. winds are helping firefighters gain ground on a massive wildfire in butte, california. the fire is now 45% contained, but it is still measuring over 71,000 acres. police in irving, texas, say they will not charge a 14-year-old high school student with possessing a hoax bomb. teachers alerted police when ahmed mohamed brought a homemade clock to school to show his engineering instructor. police say it was a misunderstanding, but the teen's father says he is being

discriminated against because of his muslim faith. the stage is set and the candidates are arriving for tonight's debate at the reagan library in simi valley, california. but the real test tonight will be how the candidates perform on the issues. yesterday donald trump gave a preview on how he will handle questions about his national security policy in a speech aboard the "uss iowa" in los angeles. >> we're going to come out with some plans in a very short time. we're going to be building up our military. we're going to make our military so big and so strong and so great. and it will be so powerful that i don't think we're ever going to have to use it. nobody's going to mess with us. that i can tell you. >> joining me now from the site of tonight's debate, cnbc chief washington correspondent, john harwood. john, thanks for joining us. i want to talk a little bit about some specifics. not a lot of specifics from donald trump. you heard him say that he's

going to make the american military great, powerful, so much so that nobody's going to mess with us. do you think he will be specific on some of the details tonight? >> reporter: i kind of doubt it, ayman, if he wasn't last night. so big, so great, so powerful is not a plan. but, of course, donald trump has not been about issues or policy. he's been about emotion and about the aspiration and the frustrations of some elements of the republican base. so over time he's going to have to, if he intends to be a serious candidate, lay out some policies. i wouldn't expect much tonight. he certainly didn't do much in the first debate. >> john, you've been speaking to these other candidates. what they been telling about their strategy and plans for tonight? >> reporter: well, carly fiorina intends to go hard at donald trump. she's the new star on stage tonight. so she's going to have a special platform. and she's been criticized by trump about her appearance, her

record at huelewlett-packarhewl voice. she said trump's going to be hearing from me a lot tonight, and i would expect similar aggression from the likes of jeb bush as well. >> cnbc's john harwood, thank you very much for joining us. i want to bring in our panel, "washington post" columnist and fellow at the brookings institute, e.j. dio e dionne, emily mcintosh, thank you all again for joining us. e.j., i want to play what rand paul had to say about donald trump's policy positions. take a listen to this. >> he's been for obamacare. he's also been for the government stimulus package that president obama put forward that he was for the government bailing out the banks. these are all the things really that got me motivated to run for office because i was opposed to every one of them. and donald trump's been on the other side of every one of those. >> he also called him a, quote, fake conservative. do you think this is going to be the theme tonight, that candidates are going after trump

on issues and that he is a fake conservative, as they said? >> i think that a lot of candidates are going to do that, but i don't think telling donald trump's base that he's not a real conservative is going to be persuasive to them. first of all, trump has been pretty open that he has changed his mind on some things. that he used to be a democrat. and i think they just view these attacks on him as unfair. they just sort of say that on their own. i think that carly fiorina has the most to gain tonight of anybody because if she makes her attacks on trump work, she could stand out. i think ben carson, oddly, may have the most to lose because the two guys who have really moved in this race are trump and ben carson. and carson has been closing on trump. no one has much of an idea of what ben carson thinks on foreign policy. and the last thing is, these guys are going to have to say some pretty striking things to

get into attention at all. the rest of the candidates besides trump and carson. so they risk saying some outlandish things, but they've got to stand out because they are at single digits in the polls right now. >> john, do you agree with that? >> yeah, actually, i do. you know, i think this race is over because tom brady just announced that he was endorsing donald trump. i just want to put that on the table. >> it pains me. >> we're going to get to that in a little bit. that's definitely important news. >> i think what cnn wants to do is really encourage the candidates themselves to go after each other to have kind of a big food fight. and i think you're going to see that, especially with fiorina and trump. i think all the other candidates are going to try to somehow get in the scrum. although i think for each of the candidates, the most important thing is to define themselves for the voters and not to define themselves only as being in opposition of donald trump to what e.j. said. if you're just defining yourself in opposition to trump, you're not spending any time talking about the good things you want

to do for the country. and i think that's a danger for all the candidates tonight. >> i want to play how trump responded when he was pressed on foreign policy by hugh hewitt earlier this month. >> i'm looking for the next commander in chief, to know who hassan nasrallah is and zawahiri and al julani and al baghdadi. do you know the players without a scorecard yet? >> no, you know, i'll tell you honestly, i think by the time we get to office, they'll all be gone. >> now, i don't believe in gotcha questions. and i'm not trying to quiz you on who the worst guy in the world is. >> well, that is a gotcha question, though. i mean, you know, when you're asking me about who's running this, that's not -- i'll be so good, your head will spin. >> do you think trump will be more prepared, or do you think we're going to hear more of the same? >> i think that trump hasn't been spending enough time getting prepared. i mean, he's had this ridiculous schedule running around the

country doing these large events while everybody else is hunkering down. usually debate prep is a thing that is all-consuming for a campaign. and since trump is clearly starting with a deficit of basic knowledge, you would have expected him to do that. and i don't think he has. so i think he's going to attempt to talk over hugh hewitt and past the moderators and do the same. i mean, coming up with a line like "i'm going to be so good at the military, it will make your head spin," that's not something that you come up in a prep session. that's an on-the-fly moment. but i know hugh hewitt got a lot of attention for the way he was the only one so far who has been able to put trump back on his heels in an interview. i would expect that he's coming ready to do that again. so hugh was actually the person that i am most looking forward to watching tonight. not even trump. >> john, another big issue that has divided the republican field recently has been the issue of same-sex marriage. how do you expect that issue to play out tonight? >> well, you know, that's a good question. i would imagine that all the

candidates will largely agree that they are generally opposed to same-sex marriage with some candidates like donald -- with like ted cruz and others like him, you know, going hard after it and guys like john kasich and jeb bush saying that we need to kind of, you know, try to appeal to a bigger tent. >> we have the kentucky clerk up there on the screen. and i think that, you know, a lot of this has been brought up by her case and the politicians weighing in on it, don't you think? >> well, yeah. i think once again you'll have cruz saying she was right. and john kasich saying she should follow the law. and then i think you'll have all kinds of graduations in between. you know, it's a real scrum. i think you'll see kind of the diversity of opinion on the party on this issue. >> e.j., the president today actually mentioned an area of agreement, to the surprise of some, with both donald trump and jeb bush. here's what he had to say about tax reform. >> people in both parties, including some of the leading republican candidates for president, have been putting out

proposals, some i agree with, some i don't. you've got two leading candidates on the republican side who have said that we should eliminate the carried interest loophole. >> so has trump actually pulled the gop to the left on the issue of tax reform? and do you think that he's made the party actually a little bit more populist overall? >> well, i don't think he's pulled the whole party to the left, and i think it's no accident that the first group or one of the first groups out of the box to attack trump is the club for growth whose main interest is in cutting taxes on the rich. i think he's caused the party real trouble on this issue, which is why the favorite person to quote on taxes among the democrats is going to be donald trump over the coming months. and there are few tax reform elements in jeb bush's program that otherwise cuts tax on the rich. but i think he speaks for a lot of working-class, lower middle-class republicans who never bought into the tax-cutting ideology in the same

way that the better-off republicans do. and i think when you look at trump's base, it's not just tea partiers. it's also those kinds of working-class republicans who voted for rick santorum. so the republicans have a real problem with trump on this issue. >> jeff, the issue in this race where donald trump has had the most impact, at least, has been immigration reform. he's really been driving that debate. here's how scott walker addressed the issue of birth right citizenship back in august when it was a hot issue. >> do you think that birth right citizenship should be ended? >> harry reid said it's not right for this country. i think that's something -- yeah, absolutely, going forward. >> we should end birth right citizenship. >> to me it's about enforcing the laws in this country. >> it's a simple yes or no question. do you support that line of the 14th amendment? >> i said the law is there. we need to enforce the laws including those that are in the constitution. >> so you're not seeking to repeal or alter the 14th amendment? >> no.

>> so do you think we're going to see a more aggressive tone on immigration tonight? is this issue a land mine for republicans going into the general election once the candidate comes out of the primaries? >> absolutely. i mean, the country wants comprehensive immigration reform. the country believes that we cannot deport 12 million people living in america. the country certainly understands that birthright citizenship is a founding principle of america. it's one of the things that makes us great is that we are a melting pot. the republican base seems to feel differently. so i guess that these guys feel that they need to pander to however far right trump can take them, and it is so much farther than any other republican running for president has staked out that ground. i mean, you had mccain saying build the dang fence which is kind of cute now considering that trump is saying end birthright citizenship and mexicans are rapists. so i think we're going to see them really do some major damage to themselves in the general election by the positions that they feel they are forced to take tonight.

>> john, we believe in equal time. i'm going to give you the last 0 seconds. go. >> well, listen. i think you're going to see a diverse opinion on this, too. jeb bush will be for kbre comprehensive form. trump will continue to say what he said, i think marco rubio will be somewhere in between. i think we have to appeal to a broader section and we need comprehensive immigration reform. >> john, e.j. and jess, thank you all very much for that insight. >> thank you. >> good to be with you. coming up, jon stewart goes to washington. the former "daily show" host is walking the halls of congress and demanding action for 9/11 first responders. luke russert talked to stewart. he's going to join us next. plus, tom brady weighs in on the trump presidency. it's what's popping. that's also straight ahead.

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and sleep deprived. bring us those who want to feel well rested. aleve pm. the only one to combine a sleep aid... plus the 12 hour pain relieving strength of aleve. be a morning person again with aleve pm. jon stewart is making good on his pledge to 9/11 responders. he joined a group of senators, first responders and their

supporters to push congress for a complete and permanent extension of the 9/11 health and compensation act, the act that provides health care benefits for first responders is set to expire next month, and lawmakers have yet to consider new legislation. luke russert joins me now from capitol hill. luke? >> reporter: hey there, ayman. this has been an issue that jon stewart actually had to shame congress into passing back in 2010. he came to the hill today to tell congress and america why it's so important to move this bill. they were the first to respond on 9/11. and 14 years later, they're still fighting for their lives. barbara burnett was an nypd detective on that fateful day. after working more than 20 days at ground zero, she developed debilitating health issues that came years later. >> i suffer from interstishal lung disease. it has limited my mobility. it has caused many side effects. >> reporter: much of barbara's

health care is covered by funds made possible by 9/11 first responders by congress in 2010. set to start expiring in november, representative carol maloney is fighting to preserve them. >> if we don't have this plan, they won't get the support that they so justly preserve. everyone calls them heroes, and they are. well, treat them like that. >> reporter: surprisingly, the legislation has proved controversial. some fiscal conservatives don't agree with 9/11 specific funds and say the care could be covered by existing programs. advocates for first responders disagree. >> the very same politicians that wrapped themselves in the american flag days ago on september 11th calling us heroes, when those same heroes are sick and dying as a result of service to their country, they're not supporters. i don't understand. you know, i don't think money for domestic veterans should even be a question. >> reporter: comedian jon stewart doesn't think so either. five years ago he lended his support to the cause.

a bill many thought could never pass made its way to the president's desk. this time stewart believes the stakes are just as important. >> i refuse to despair as long as i see the heart and courage and dedication of the men and women standing behind me. the thing that gave me strength that day, the thing that carried me through those terrible moments was the power and the heart of the first responders behind me. and it's still there today, sadly, the only people who don't seem to see it reside on capitol hill. >> reporter: for those like barbara burnett, they can't come soon enough. >> i think a great way to honor us would be to support the bill. >> reporter: now, ayman, as for what will happen to this legislation, it's set to start expiring in october. this time around it does have more bipartisan support. but right now it's falling victim to what is a very packed congressional calendar in the fall. remember, congress has to fund the government. they have to extend the highway trust fund. they have to raise the debt limit. there's a lot of questions about

how they're going to pull all of that off. now, i've spoken to hill aides that beav this eventually will become law again, but it's not clear when. expect to focus on this issue to be a lot up until about christmastime when folks say it should happen. we'll see. ayman? >> wait and see indeed. nbc's luke russert, thanks for that update. we're just over an hour away from the first debate of the night. coming up, we'll go back to simi valley to see how the candidates are making last-minute preparations. s yet, but one of these kids is going to change the world. we just need to make sure she has what she needs. welcome to windows 10. the future starts now for all of us.

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environments where he can feel free. interesting choice there. and tom brady's still got a donald trump make america great hat hanging in his locker. today brady was asked straight up if he's on the trump for president bandbandwagon, and it certainly sounds like he is. >> he's a guy that likes winning like you. do you think he's got what it takes? >> i hope so. that would be great. there would be a putting green on the white house lawn, i'm sure of that. donald trump gets the tom brady endorsement. now here's mary thompson with the cnbc market wrap. >> reporter: an update on wall street as investors await a decision from the federal reserve on interest rate. that happens tomorrow. meantime, the dow finished with 140-point game. the s&p 500 was up over 17. and the nasdaq finished with a gain of almost 29 points. that's it from cnbc first in business worldwide. why pause a spontaneous moment to take a pill?

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preparing? joining us, our campaign inbeds, ali covers the trump campaign. alex jaffe covers the carson campaign. and jordan frazier who is following the bush campaign. thank you all three for joining us. ali, let's begin with you. it seems like donald trump has been uncharacteristically keeping a low profile today. what is he doing to prepare, if anything at all? >> donald trump has not really changed what he said in the first debate. he said he's been preparing for this his whole life. he does feel that same level of confidence. we talked to him in dallas, last night, and he said that he really does feel confident about it. there was some thought that maybe we would be seeing a more measured donald trump in an interview that was released earlier today with cbn. he said he was thinking about maybe tempering the way that he hits back at other candidates. but then again, he did also tweet about cnn just a little while ago. saying that they were, quote, milking the debate for almost three hours. and that it was, quote, too long with too many people. so at the same time, while we

might be thinking that we might get a measured donald trump, it seems like we're going to be hearing the same blunt talk, at least just for tonight. >> it certainly seems like it. all right, alex, let's take a listen to what ben carson had to say about his strategy tonight. >> well, i don't think that my strategy's going to change at all. it's going to be to tell the truth and to talk about, you know, my vision for america. >> how is he preparing? >> he's been meeting with advisers, but really, he hasn't done much differently from last time around. like he said last night, he's not planning to attack. although his campaign manager did say earlier today if donald trump makes any stupid comments, ben carson will correct him. but he actually just arrived, and he walked right into the press file here at the debate, which no other candidate has done today, which we sort of read as a signal that he's prepared for anything. he's ready to be a little bit more aggressive, ready to answer questions from press. and respond to attacks on the stage. >> all right, jordan, what is jeb doing tonight? >> well, jeb, he just finished his walk-through here at the

debate stage, taking a look at his podium. earlier today, he went to church according to his campaign. and he also got in a little exercise, taking a hike with family members here in california and tweeting out a little friendly competition with his son, jeb bush jr., saying that they went on a great mile-long -- couple-mile-long hike here in california this morning. >> nbc campaign news embeds, thank you for keeping us posted. that does it for me. jonathan capehart picks up our live coverage next. good evening. i'm jonathan capehart. tonight, it's debate night in america. we're just hours away from what promises to be a showdown from the republican presidential candidates. and we're going to pregame it all. an hour from now, the seco second-tier republican debate will begin at the reagan library in simi valley, california. the kids' table will feature