does the matter what he says? let's play "hardball." good evening, i'm chris matthews back in washington. does the trump voter care if he's telling the truth or the attitude he's selling? when the billionaire says, for example, that president obama is a foreigner and therefore, constitutionally banned from the presidency, does the trump supporter believe that? or does he hate obama enough to ditto the dishonesty? when trump says he saw people in new jersey cheering the fall of the trade towers, does the supporter think he's solid or simply like the guy's screw-you attitude to people who try to keep on his track of such things?

does the fact report are say one thing and trump another that his followers double down in his defense? media criticism verifies what trump just said? >> what if he makes fun of the reporter's physical handicap? is that as okay as making fun of a female candidate's face? are people so committed to his nationalist message they don't care what he says as long as he snarls at the big shots while he says it? katy tur covers the trump campaign for nbc news. fergus cohen, and howard fineman. global editorial director of the huffington post. on "meet the press" yesterday, trump refused to take back his statement he saw thousands, i love the way he said that, thousands of muslims in new jersey cheering the attacks of 9/11. let's listen. >> where did you see this? >> chuck, i saw it on

television. so did many other people. >> in jersey city? you saw jersey city -- >> i heard paterson, excuse me. i heard jersey city and paterson. it was 14 years ago. i saw it on television. i saw clips. so did many other people. now, "the washington post" also wrote about tailgate parties. we are looking for other articles and other clips. i wouldn't be surprised if we found them, chuck. but for some reason, they're not that easy to come by. i saw it. so many people saw it, chuck. so why would i take it back? i'm not going to take it back. >> as "the washington post" fact checker reported this week or last week, there was video taken overseas showing palestinians on the west bank celebrating the attacks, while trump may have confused that footage in his memory, no video emerged showing as trump described as happening in new jersey. today new jersey governor chris

christie also told reporters that it never happened. >> i was there on september 11th. i wasn't across the river in new york city. i was there, and not only myself but the state attorney general at the time john farmer, good, smart republican has said the same thing i said, that it didn't happen. the worst part of his claim is he says he saw it on television. no one has been able to unearth any video of any such thing happening. if it was widely enough shown on network television in new york city, you can usually find that video fairly quickly. >> let me go to katy tur on this. you follow the guy. you don't like to go beyond reporting to interpretation. when you report and you see people mouths open as he puts this stuff out. do they believe that president obama is a usurper, is not a legal citizen, born to foreign

parents, i suppose, and somehow snuck the american presidency away from us? do they believe when they say that the pollsters? >> a number of them do believe that. i wouldn't say all of them believe that. a lot do not like this president. >> i'm talking about a fact question. do they believe he is a foreign usurper? >> some of them do. >> and somehow became president? >> some of them do. not all of them, but some of them do express that. some of them do believe that. i wouldn't go so far to say all at trump rallies believe obama was born overseas and that he is a muslim and not out here or he usurped the presidency. most of them, the vast majority don't think he is the president they voted for. >> of course not. they didn't vote for him, first of all. >> they don't think he is representing their values.

donald trump will push back against that. >> it's the attitude they like? his attitude of complete con temperature for the establishment? >> it is. it doesn't matter what he says, as you've been talking about. it's an unconditional love they have for him. regardless of what trump says, they are going to keep continuing, they'll continue to support him. even though the pastors i spoke with, some of them said it doesn't matter what he says about black lives matter protesters. they like him because they think he is going to create jobs in this country and be a strong leader. it's unconditional love. the kind of thing you hope to find in your life. donald trump found it with throngs of supporters across the country. >> just to check our own facts, in the september research poll, 43% of republicans, not just trump people, 43% of republicans said they believe president obama is a muslim. howard, it sounds like eric

seigel, love means never having to say you're sorry. >> i covered a rally with katy. they are a little like rock concerts and like revital meetings. they are secular political revital meetings, where it's about belief and it's about faith that because donald trump is willing to say anything, no matter how obnoxious, the more they believe in him. they feel culturally shackled. they feel like they're in chains. he is the guy who can, by the sheer force of will, saying the most politically incorrect things, saying the most unsupportable things, he is such an outsider that he is in a different reality.

he is in a different reality. >> i take new hampshire seriously. maybe not the newspaper that just made the endorsement of chris christie, but i take the state seriously. it's of sound mind and body, as far as i can tell. will they be put off by a guy making fun of another guy's physical handicap? >> sure. 2/3 of the republican party does. i hope people aren't under the misimpression donald trump's views are shared broadly with the republican party. there are a third that are entertained by him. 2/3 recognizes this is not harmless fun. it's doing terrible damage to the republican party brand and think will not support him in the end. >> wait a minute. i like your speech. i like the attitude. just the attitude. the numbers aren't right. trump is now leading by 2-1 over rubio who is in second place in new hampshire. you say they don't like him. 26% is only 1/4, but he's the leader. how do you explain it in new hampshire? >> back in 1996, pat buchanan

won the new hampshire primary but with 28% of the vote because mainstream republican vote was hopelessly fractured between bob dole, lamar alexander, steve forbes coming in fourth that year. the day after the primary, bob dole came downstairs, reframed the race as a contest between the mainstream and extreme, started beating pat buchanan 2-1 in primary after primary and had the nomination sewed up. it took pat buchanan winning to united republican party in favor of bob dole. >> we've got to wait next year for wednesday to know what happened on tuesday? we can't go by election results tuesday night as to who actually won? if trump wins the new hampshire primary, are you going to give that same speech? >> it's going to take more than one caucus and more than one primary to nominate a candidate this cycle. >> you are not selling that primary, you are not selling the republican primary in new

hampshire if you say it doesn't matter. >> no. >> that's what you are saying. >> there will be good candidates who will finish fifth or sixth and be out of the race after that. more than one or two candidates will survive new hampshire this year. that's okay. >> you must have loved it when bill clinton called himself the comeback kid. defending his remarks about new jersey, muslims, trump cited a 2001 article in "the washington post" that stated law enforcement authorities detained in question a number of people allegedly seen celebrating the attacks. those allegations were debunked and the author of the piece since said he does not remember any celebrations taking place. now trump has been under fire for appearing, that's putting it nice, to mock his physical disability, a condition that limits the movement of his arm. >> now the poor guy, you've got to see this guy, i don't know what i said. i don't remember. he's going, i don't remember.

maybe that's what i said. >> well, in response, he told "the washington post," the sad part about it is, it didn't in the slightest bit jar or surprise me that donald trump would do something this low rent. what a great phrase, given his track record. and "the new york times" where he now works, "we're outraged he would ridicule the physical appearance of one of our reporters." trump said he does not know him. he asked "the new york times" for an apology, trump did. >> the person has a disability. the person said i know him, i know him, but you know -- i said when? in the 1980s. the 1980s. that's a long time -- 30, 35 years? that's a long time ago. but i don't, believe me i don't know. now he's going, we knew me. give me a break. the problem is he's using what he's got to such a horrible degree. i think it's disgraceful. i think "the new york times,"

frankly, should give me an apology. i do. i think they should give me. i'd love to have the apology before they go out of business. i would love that. >> there we have some proof there you watched those arm gestures of donald trump all the time. they are expansive, reaching out in both direction, sort of like bernie sanders. they both do the same thing, are you with me or with me not? in this case, he does this thing. he's doing this thing about a guy whose arms are constrained in that way. was he making fun of that reporter or not? >> i don't think anybody in the crowd in south carolina got that he could have been making fun of serge. those who knew him saw. if it is true, it wouldn't be the first time he's been at least accused of mocking somebody's disability. in the interview i did with him in july, he said charles can't buy a pair of pants. he called him a rodeo clown.

charles is in a wheelchair. at that same rally, he did an impression of the cnn reporter. donald trump might not want to say he's doing impressions or say he remembers serge kovaleski, but circumstances point in a different direction. >> do you think republicans are different than democrats and feeling sympathy with people with handicaps or less sympathetic? >> absolutely they are. trump's behavior is indefensible. it's outrageous. a lot of responsible, reasonable republicans are going to start calling him out publically saying this behavior is not acceptable. we wouldn't accept it in an elementary school. >> i really like your wing of the republican party. howard, i hope it exists. >> quickly, chris christie was endorsed by joe mcquaid in the manchester union leader.

i know the power of that paper that still remains. basically, christie has been hired by the union leader as the prosecutor to try to destroy donald trump in new hampshire. christie will be covered to a fair-thee-well if he does it. that's the role he's been asked to play. this is my interpretation knowing joe and having talked to him about who he picked. >> continuing to endorse him day after day unless he does that job? >> christie will get the full backing and full coverage to the extent he is willing to do what he was picked to do. i know mcquaid doesn't like trump and thinks he's a phony. >> this is a contract. thank you, katy tur. whack the guy or you will lose your coverage. katy tur, love your coverage. fergus, nice to meet you. i do hope that party you talk about exists. >> it does. the politics of planned

parenthood. did the heated anti-abortion rhetoric on the right contribute to a deadly shooting at a colorado clinic? if so what should we do about it? 13-14 democratic female senators, women, are standing alongside hillary clinton tonight to show their support for her presidential bid. guess who was the holdout? guess, guess, elizabeth warren. >> on the republican side, chris christie is gaining steam in new hampshire. i guess. he is still in seventh place. now donald trump has taken notice. could christie be the establishment favorite to beat back trump, cruz and the rest of the wild bunch? >> let me finish with the stuff dreams are made of. a 21st century train ride across our country. this is "hardball," the place for politics.

president obama is in paris with week with 130 other world leaders with talks to find a global agreement on climate

change. he held meeting with the president of india and president of china. this morning he urged global leaders to get together as an act of defiance in the wake of those paris attacks. >> we salute the people of paris for insisting this crucial conference go on. an act of defiance that proves nothing will deter us from building the future we want for our children. >> what greater rejection than those who would tear down our world than marshalling our best efforts to save them?

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gives me the opportunity to give a little bit back to my community. i have three boys. they're what keep me going every day. our friends, families live in the area. and it is important for all of us that we keep our community safe. together, we're building a better california. welcome back to "hardball."

there's been potent political rhetoric at planned parenthood for months. the aftermath of killing three people friday, some wonder if words can do more than hurt. there he is robert lewis dear, appeared in court. his motive is not clear. two law enforcement sources told nbc news the suspect rambled on about president obama, politics and abortion saying, no more baby parts when he was taken into custody after the standoff with police. here are several gop presidential candidates' reactions to those who question whether tough talk on planned parenthood might have been related to the colorado killings. >> i've never seen the kind of rhetoric we are seeing from presidential candidates that are demeaning, not only planned parenthood but woman who go to planned parenthood, doctors at planned parenthood. the fact there is safe and legal abortion in america. >> the president of planned

parenthood feels her organization remains a target and wants the talk to be tamped down. kathleen parker and eugene robinson are both nbc analysts. we are talking abortion rights, tragedy that took place at planned parenthood. two things we know. this assailant, killer, went to planned parenthood. he knew where he was going. most men wouldn't know where planned parenthood is unless they looked it up in the phone book. >> i wouldn't know. >> secondly, they wouldn't have been focusing on no more baby parts without some mentally connecting that to what they just did, kill three people. >> i think he obviously made a connection and went there to kill people. >> why? >> i don't know why. you don't either. >> why did he say baby parts? >> he's been hearing about these videos where they said they were harvesting fetal parts to use for research.

>> they would be put on sale is what the video showed. >> that's what the first videos indicated when they said how much can you get for this piece of flesh? >> he is not a reasonable person. >> a reasonable person could have gotten an idea from that video. >> absolutely. most people don't shoot people because of it. also, by the way, if we are going to go that route, we have to concede violent movies make people commit violence at higher rates, pornography results in higher rape statistics. >> does it? >> beats me. we've never done a cause and effect with those things. we don't think things are that simple. >> because nobody rapes somebody and says i just saw a movie. >> you want to connect this. >> i'm asking about what facts we know. >> all we know is he did go into the planned parenthood with intent and he did kill people. >> and he said no more baby parts.

>> we heard that. did we hear anything else he said? do not put me in the position are defending him or any of the rhetoric i think is overheated. we don't assume anything because we are journalists and we don't do that. you cannot say because of a then b. there is more to the equation. >> gene, your thoughts? >> i agree with kathleen. >> thank you. >> be careful here. >> four words of what apparently was a much longer soliloquy he gave to police if he was ranting about abortion and ranting about president obama and whatever, as there was some indication. we still can't draw a straight line but maybe a crooked line. maybe there was influence there one thing we do know, he had a gun. we know this guy seems to be whacko and had a gun. it does, i think, implicate once again gun laws and gun policy in this country.

>> if we want to talk about toning down the rhetoric across the board, we have an argument to make on that count. across the board when it comes to immigrants and refugees and a number of subjects that have suddenly become kryptonyte for the political arena, it's, there is a case to be made for that. i think you have to be careful. the next cause and effect is the republicans caused this man to be crazy and to kill people. >> that is a partisan argument. i think people walk away with it -- just a few years ago in this city we saw the holocaust memorial attacked by a guy who shot the guard on his way in, killed him. we can assume that guy had an attitude about jews. >> totally. >> when you go after planned parenthood facility, you can assume he had a certain attitude about planned parenthood. >> that's unquestionable. >> his information which he spilled out there on the scene after he was picked up was they sell baby parts.

this is to me not coincidence. >> a clear obvious connection. >> you can call it a connection. was rhetoric a part of his motivation? was it just seeing the videos? was it his anti-abortion views or was he a person who was allowed -- >> i would bring of those words in court. >> of course you would. >> i'm sorry. >> i was going to make a further connection on the gun issue. we skip past. the gun issue is there. then we can get into rhetoric, for example. we can get into the position that second amendment absolutists would have, now that everybody ought to be armed and that's how you stop a guy with a gun, right? are they now going to argue abortionists should have guns? >> we have to keep guns out of the hands of deranged people. here are some of the

republican presidential candidates. they are not as pleasant as these two people. rhetoric against planned parenthood might have been connected to the colorado killings. let's watch. >> i think any hateful rhetoric districted at anyone from any source is too much. it's something we need to get away from. we have to stop allowing ourselves to be pushed into different corners and then throwing hateful barbs at each other. >> this is so typical of the left to immediately begin demonizing the messenger because they don't agree with the message. the vast majority of americans agree what planned parenthood is doing is wrong. >> it's unfortunate to see so many folks in the press bending over backwards to try to use this horrible crime to advance a political agenda.

this man is a despicable murderer and should be punished to the full extent of the law. not that changes the reality that planned parenthood is in the business of buying and selling the body parts of unborn children. none of that changes the reality that planned parenthood was caught on video committing a pattern of felonies. >> i want to get to cruz before i do anything else. cruz says they're in the business of selling, buying and selling body parts. >> that is completely false. >> you think that might encourage somebody in the hills right now who thinks i've got to do something? >> i think somebody inclined to do that might say he's a smart guy, he's running for president, he's justifying it. >> what did cruz say it? >> i don't know. >> does he believe it? buying and selling. >> i think he's smarter than that. surely he googles and would have to find out that is a falsehood. carly fiorina did that sort of exaggerated description during

one of the debates. it was too horrible. i don't even want to repeat it. >> and ben carson who was against all harsh rhetoric referred to syrian refugees as rabid dogs. >> it was an analogy, i think. >> what is great about this country, people, the most pro-life people in the world really think there is a difference, a central difference between abortion and gunning people down, essential difference. therefore, they see this as a tragedy. >> of course. >> some people's words are encouraging this kind of behavior. i heard him say, no more baby parts. to me that was motive. i would nail this guy on hate crimes. it's already murder. >> we are not the court. i thought we were talking politic. politics is taking us into a realm that is offlimits.

>> the people who are pro-life jumped too quickly attacking what they thought the liberal media was going to do. let the liberal media blame the bad guy and enemies of planned parenthood first. if you go first, you make it think like you're enjoying it like carly fiorina seems to be. thank you, kathleen. and gene, i don't have to thank you. you're always here. >> that's right. you don't pay me. >> has everybody at msnbc heard what she is complaining about? >> when you work for free, they have to say thank you. every single democratic senator endorsed hillary clinton except one, elizabeth warren.

welcome back to "hardball." this hour hillary clinton is winning the endorsement of 13-14 female u.s. senators. the one holding out is elizabeth

warren. the massachusetts democrat was absent from hillary's rally in boston yesterday where clinton received the endorsement of the city's mayor wally walsh. >> in 2016, it's time we stopped talking about having a woman as president. it's time we make it a reality. get your sledge hammers ready. we've got a glass ceiling to demolish. i'm proud to introduce my friend and yours, a champion for america and the next president of the united states of america, hillary clinton! >> that's pure boston. laura bass for the huffington post and bob cusack.

secretary clinton is killing bernie sanders in massachusetts. 54-29. why doesn't elizabeth warren, the senior senator say i'm with hillary? she's going to be the nominee probably. >> i think it's about leverage. i think elizabeth warren's power is her ability to bring the democratic candidates to the left, especially hillary. if she endorsees hillary, it gives hillary the freedom to drift over to the center where she is more comfortable being. this way she is still beholden to what elizabeth warren wants. >> bernie is not pulling her over to the left. everybody thinks of her as a centrist. i don't want to get hillary clinton in trouble, a moderate, center left? what can we say any more. what is acceptable in the face of elizabeth warren? if she is not going to support you, do you try to get her support or say, sorry, i'll live

without you. >> i think she is going to support hillary clinton but not for months. she wants to push clinton on policy, expanding social security, banking policy. banking law that president clinton eradicated. she wants to push hillary to left. elizabeth warren is a force in the democratic party. she has a huge following. >> back in 1960, governor rockefeller called nixon up to his apartment, one of the many places he could live and dictated terms to nixon. will she be that dramatic? >> i think so. they'll get a room and she will say this is what i want. the party will unite. hillary clinton has 132 endorsements already. >> she says she is going to do something about breaking up the banks? >> hillary said she wasn't going to renew glast eagle.

i think elizabeth will wait to the last minute when she can maximize her impact, the night before the new hampshire primaries, for instance, then come out and make a difference. >> 2013, all the senate's democratic women encouraged hillary clinton to run for president including elizabeth warren. she wanted her to run. is this like nancy and charlie brown? holding up the football? lucy, rather. >> all of the women, democratic women i should say, of the senate urged hillary clinton to run and i hope she does. >> if she does, she is your candidate? >> hillary is terrific. >> hillary is terrific. in february '15, this year, warren told msnbc she wanted to wait and see what hillary wanted to run on. >> i want to hear what she wants to run on and what she says she

wants to do. that's what campaigns are supposed to be about. >> what's the hot mood in the democratic party? the republican party seems to be all over the place. is hillary the face of the democratic party right now? women made it clear today, 13-14. >> 13-14, yeah. 3/4 of the senate, democrats, 2/3 of the house democrats, it's clear hillary clinton is the establishment candidate. she needs to woo young voters and woo the grassroots supporters elizabeth warren has. in term of being the establishment candidate, absolutely. >> you think young women are as aware of how important it is, i'm putting a judgment on this, that we have a woman president finally? >> absolutely. with planned parenthood under attack, feminism is having a moment. young women are excited about the idea of a female president. >> demographics favor the democrats.

hillary clinton, a lot of democrats say privately they are not that excited about hillary clinton, but overall think she can win. >> i think she is being helped by what's happening on the crazy side. it is crazy. i mean trump. we'll talk more about trump. we must. laura bassett, great to have you on. chris christie earns a key endorsement up in new hampshire. is the new jersey governor angry enough to capture trump's voter base or just too liberal?

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welcome back to "hardball." it's been a year of the nonpolitician in the republican presidential contest. will it be a primary sweep this winter? the hell raisers are running high in iowa. if these guys sweep the iowa caucuses, cruz and trump in new hampshire, it could be the death knell for the republican

establishment, don't you think? trump holds a double-digit lead. rubio is rising. new hampshire's biggest paper endorsed chris christie of new jersey. is new hampshire the republican party's alamo, the last chance to stop, dare i say get them a real candidate? i'm joined by people who will tell me that. the hardball round table. matt, it seems new hampshire always played a role. iowa is a little bit religious, evangelical and home schooling. new hampshire is the rock, ribbed republican type. conservative, lean to the right, but not over the fence, not over the wall. >> small government people. >> is it going to play that role this time and slow down the move to the hard right? >> i think it plays a huge role this time. your premise is right. if donald trump or ben carson grab these first two states or ted cruz grabs iowa, the insiders, as i like to call

them, are going to be worried about that result. new hampshire is the place to prove it. >> if you don't win new hampshire, you skip over to south carolina in the south where the hard right, religious conservatives, libertarians who don't like government win. >> you have three legs of the republican school. that's the three primaries. social conservatives in iowa, fiscal conservatives in new hampshire and defense hawks in south carolina. what new hampshire has given us the last two cycles, they picked pretty out there candidate. in the iowa caucuses you have rick santorum and mike huckabee. then mitt romney and john mccain. this time around, the field is so muddies on both sides, it's like two separate primaries. >> this was in "the l.a. times," the worry by the centrist republicans, nonfar right republicans, they would divide up their vote.

jeb bush would get some, chris christie would get some because he's an east coast guy and kasich would get votes because he'll be up there every minute between now and february. now they worry. the newspaper endorsed chris christie with the hope getting at least one guy, a contestant from new hampshire who is not a right winger. >> union leaders have done such a great job predicting in the past. >> two of eight. >> two of nine. >> i think these endorsements, some of these endorsements aren't necessarily helpful. particularly when you look at -- >> is it like chicken soup, it can't hurt? >> but doesn't necessarily help. if i'm donald trump i don't want union endorsement because that's part of the establishment. last thing i want is an establishment conservative newspaper to endorse me. i'll differ with my friends here

on the panel. i think donald trump will turn south. you look at his numbers in south carolina, he is running further ahead in south carolina. i think he will do really well in south carolina. when you talk about the south, you talk about a part of the country where xenaphobia. >> he is making fun of this new york reporter, claiming obama is actually a foreigner. >> that doesn't hurt him down south. >> fact checks don't mean anything. fact checks inside the newspaper don't seem to bother anybody. >> it's more the anti-immigrant, the anti-hispanic stuff is going

to -- that plays amazingly well, bizarrely in south carolina, where it's a right to work state a lot of people feel conscious about their jobs. there is job security problems. look at jim demint in south carolina. he was re-elected his entire second campaign on an anti-immigration position. >> lindsey is pretty good on it. he voted for the senate bill. he wanted it to go together. he backed comprehensive immigration reform. he had a lot of guts to do that. >> absolutely. he is the rare bird. >> i don't think it's that rare. >> there are sections in south carolina -- >> i worked for george w. bush. if you look at what donald trump is saying, everybody has to go home and the good ones come back, we called it a touchback. everybody had to go home and file their paperwork. the ones out of work were expedited. >> george w. bush couldn't win the republican primary today. >> all right, we'll stop. >> how will he win in george

bush made the -- >> you didn't listen to what i said. there is more the same what these candidates are saying. people like donald trump -- >> george w. bush couldn't win after taking us down that rabbit hole in iraq. up next these three tell me something i don't know. be cleand by a little bit of dawn ultra? oh yeah. one bottle has the grease cleaning power of two bottles of this bargain brand. a drop of dawn and grease is gone.

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it's not that far off in 2016. that's coming too. president obama will give his final state of the union. 12th of january. and i'll be back -- by the way, it will be before the iowa caucuses. february 1st. the earliest date since 1977. with an address by the president. that was president ford back then who also spoke on january 12th. i guess he wants to have a full year ahead of him. his last. we'll be right back.

we are back with the "hardball" round table. i love to be back here. tell me something i don't know. >> i think early on there was a lot of hand wringing about the obama coalition and a lot of conventional democrats went in saying you know, what we're not

going to need, you know, 95% of that coalition because hillary's going to do so much better with particularly white women. if you look at the kaiser bowl that recently came out on race relations it's clear we are not becoming less racially polarized as a country. i think there's going to be a lot of rethinking among conventional democrats about quite frankly we're not going to necessarily do better among whites than -- >> so hillary won't get that appalachian white woman, southwestern pennsylvania? she won't get her? >> she won't do remarkably better among white women. if you look at sort of how the polarization is, it's hard to make an argument she's going to do markedly better among white voters. >> i think some of those people identify with the old hillary from arkansas. maybe they identify now. i don't know. >> in 2011 i did a profile of paul ryan for "time" magazine and i went with him to the racine county fair where he competed in a goat milking contest which he does every year at the racine county fair. he always loses to the milk maids and the beauty queens who are very good at milking goats. but he's really competitive.

and so every year he really works on his strategy and how to best milk a goat. and i was chatting with him on friday and he was really excited to tell me that this year he actually won his goat-milking contest. >> is it that goat smell on him afterward? the smelly goat smell. >> but it's important because it's a swing state. all politics is -- >> 30 seconds. >> chris christie's on a role. he had his best three weeks of online small dollar donors. a lot of money coming in. and the phones are off the hook because the union leader endorsement has got a lot more elected officials coming his way. >> what's with the white shirts? >> you've got to talk to him about his fashion. >> thank you, cornel belcher, jay newton small and thank you for the goat news. when we return, i didn't know that. let me finish with the stuff dreams are made of. a 21st century train ride across the u.s. of a. you're watching "hardball," the place for politics.

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so i can rest easy. what. you don't have a desk bed? don't be left in the dark. get proactive alerts 24/7. comcast business. built for business. let me finish tonight with the stuff that dreams are made of. it's of an america where you and i can get on a train and ride across our beautiful country, seeing the rivers and prairies, the mountains and wide open plains, the small towns where the school buses stop at the tracks. and you can go downtown right from your train car. where you see people's faces and enjoy the shared sight and sound and look of being an american. well, last week i did something i thought of doing for a long time, cutting across the united states by train. i wanted to see if you could still do it the way you used to in the days before jet airliners, before the north american continent itself became flyover country between gotham

and tinseltown. well, starting the sunday before thanksgiving, eight days ago, my hardy son thomas and i headed off to join kathleen and caroline for a family get-together out west with our other son michael, his wife sarah, julia, and brendan. and we went by amtrak. it was great. i want to share with you now what we saw out the window. first the stunning sunsets along the hudson as we headed north to albany. the amazing colors looking west from the empire state. then those snowy scenes from ohio as we headed to chicago following the old route of the glamorous 20th century line that used to take movie stars and vips from their first leg from broadway to hollywood. i love the scene of the local school bus waiting at the rail crossing in south bend, indiana home of notre dame. coming out of chicago monday morning we boarded the southwest chief to los angeles beginning with a great close-up look of the city's western suburbs. we woke up tuesday morning, there it is, to the golden glow

of new mexico and wide vistas of the american west including a climb to 7,000 feet and a stop at a classic town at the foot of the mountain. well, someday i want this trip throughout the heart of america to be there for all of us on a train that goes as fast as those in europe and asia, as fast as our pioneer ancestors would have loved to go and would if they could have combined their gumption and aspirations with what we in the early 21st century have in know-how. i've spoken a great deal about how i would love our country to reunite itself by rail to bring back the rail heads of st. louis and kansas city and albuquerque and all those great towns in between. we're too much a bicoastal country today, too much the liberal country on the coasts, the conservative country in the middle. we're not talking to each other. we're not living in the same country. you don't have a great conversation when one guy's sitting on a tractor and you're watching a movie at 39,000 feet. on a train, on today's amtrak you at least get to see out the window the real faces and real lives as you go from new york to los angeles and the folks boarding or getting off at the

next stop can tell you what life's really like out there. lincoln did it during the civil war. can't we do it better a century and a half later? that's "hardball" for now. thanks for being with us. "all in" with chris hayes starts right now. tonight on "all in" -- >> i have a great relationship with the black pastors. >> donald trump abruptly cancels an event that was planned to feature endorsements from black pastors. >> probably some of the black lives matter folks called them up, saying oh, you shouldn't be meeting with trump because he believes that all lives matter. >> tonight he shares the stage with herman cain. >> who's the president of uzbekibeki-beki-stan-stan. >> then can a big new hampshire endorsement distract voters from chris christie's record as governor? >> sit down and shut up. plus as a suspect from the planned parenthood shooting appears in court, politicians draw their own conclusions.