i don't know what it's actually doing. thanks to my panel. i'm chris hayes and i'll be back tonight, not at this diesk, not with the wheel of death, but downstairs for "all in with chris hayes," don't miss that. first, though, "mtp daily" starts now. ♪ if it's wednesday, donald trump set to hit capitol hill just over 15 hours from now. a slew of face-to-face meetings, starting with house speaker paul ryan. getting up close and personal win over the skeptics? this is "mtp daily" and it starts right now. >> good evening, i'm steve kornacki in for chuck todd. welcome to "mtp daily." we've got the countdown clock up and ticking down now and it's not a primary this time around. instead it's the most anticipated closed-door meeting

in recent memory. donald trump, house speaker paul ryan, republican national chairman reince priebus, the three of them will sit down together behind those closed doors tomorrow morning at 9:00 a.m. eastern time. this will be just the first in a series of capitol hill confabs on thursday for donald trump, the republican party's presumptive nominee. there's a need to heal the wounds from a bruising primary, to solidify the common principles and a desperate need to beat the democrats in november if you're a republican. but most of all, there are low expectations. snake belly low. for paul ryan, his message is clear. >> to pretend we're unified without actually unifying, we go into the fall at half strength. there's plenty of room for different policy disputes in this party. we come from different wings of the party. the goal here is to unify the

various wings of the party on common principles, so we can go forward unified. >> he's not making any promises about the outcome of tomorrow's meeting. >> about the meeting tomorrow, do you see a possibility of two separate messages, the traditional gop message and -- >> look, we've got a process we're just getting started. the last thing i'm going to do is say what the end of this process is going to be when we're just beginning this process. >> and during an interview on fox news, donald trump gave a preview of how he plans to kick off the meeting, but his idea of what unity looks like was a little bit more solid and perhaps a little more telling than ryan's. >> well, i think the opening statement is, number one, i have a lot of respect for paul and i think we'll have a very good meeting, i hope. and i think the big thing is, in the history of the republican party, nobody has ever gotten more votes than i've gotten in the primaries. >> when it comes to what it means to be a republican, the differences between trump and

ryan, they are stark. ryan wants to cut entitlements. trump says he doesn't want to touch them. ryan is a proponent of comprehensive immigration reform. trump wants to deport 11 million people. ryan is against raising the minimum wage. trump says he would prefer the states to do the tinkering, but he says he'd be okay with an increase. ryan supports the tpp. trump's disapproval of that trade deal is a cornerstone of his stump speech and another hallmark of trump's platform, a temporary ban on muslims entering the united states, that's a plan that ryan has forcefully condemned. now trump says he's open to negotiation, as he told chuck on "meet the press." his plans are proposals, he says, the floor is open for negotiation. but what does that mean for tomorrow's big meeting? we'll know when that countdown clock hits zero. speaker ryan got ready for tomorrow's trump session by warming up with trump's

congressional supporters today. nbc's luke russert has the latest on that. so, luke, what did paul ryan hear today? gonna have any effect on how he approaches the meeting tomorrow? >> i think he just did a masterful job of laying out the personal differences speaker ryan has with donald trump. but those differences they extend to the house gop conference as well. i think it's fair to say the house gop conference is split in three camps. always trump, sometimes trump and never trump. and they're trying to figure out what's a way to move forward to unite. take a listen to member charlie dent of pennsylvania and what he sees as the breakdown of the conference. >> there are two breaks here. there are some on the right who are concerned about donald trump's lack of ideological purity and that doctrine. there are some like me who are

concerned about the lack of policy specifics, the conflicting and contradictory nature of some of those policies, the few that they are and very incendiary comments. >> reporter: ryan has to feel personally comfortable, and then he has to try and unite the conference, the one that's very divided, easier said than done. the meeting that the trump caucus had with ryan today, while it was overall described as podsative, there are some differences and there is a worry amongst trump-supporting members that the longer that paul ryan takes in doing a full-on endorsement of trump, the longer it will take for the party to unified, and the longer the divisions will be created which will not allow them to beat hillary clinton in november. i can say from a personality standpoint, steve, trump and ryan could not be more different. one is a very sober-minded family man. the other is much more bombastic with his share of issues. so those issues are going to

have to come to a head tomorrow. reince priebus will be the referee. they are oil and water. >> hard to see where the common ground is going to exist if it does. luke russert on capitol hill, getting ready for a big day tomorrow, thanks for that. let's talk about the differences, that common ground, in if exits. al cardeenas, currently a senior partner. thanks for joining us. you're withholding your support right now from donald trump. i saw the other day you said that his emergence as the republican nominee represents potentially a crisis for conservativism. you heard paul ryan saying his goal is to find common principles, when you look at paul ryan, yourself and donald trump, do you see any common principles? >> well, look, tomorrow won't be about policy, i presume. i think they need to figure out, one, does paul ryan feel like donald trump believes in separation of powers, does he believe that the executive and

legislative branches have the same exact power when it comes to exacting policy. number two, they're not going to agree on policy, but there gotta be some common goals, figure out some sanity in our entitlement programs, how we do infrastructure, defense goals, keep ourselves self-sisht. those are goals. >> you talk about entitlements, bring some sanity to it. paul ryan's definition of that is to cut spending, medicare, social security, the path to prosperity. trump's idea is to stop putting proposals like that forward. stop trying to cut medicare and social security. it seems like a fundamental difference. >> i know, but look, we've had over a year worth of politicking and very little talk about governance. tomorrow will be the first time when paul gets to sit across the desk from donald trump and say, do you believe in separation of powers? do you believe that we should get together and try to probe

solutions? we're not going to be deadlocked. we don't want you doing executive orders like president obama. we want you to partner with us in coming up with solutions. we may be far apart, but at some point in time, we have to find something that works for everybody. that's the gist of tomorrow's meeting. it's not going to be a policy discussion. it's going to be a, are we agreeing on common goals of governance discussion and we'll see how that goes. >> with trump emerging as the republican nominee, does the idea of conservativism, the definition of it, does it need to be updated, does it need to be changed to reflect what donald trump has shown by garnering all the support he's gotten from rank and file republicans? >> listen, solutions might change, but values can't. you have to be -- milton freedman, paul highback, buckley, all these guys came up with a game plan as to how you thing of values. circumstances change, but how

you view problem solving, that, you know, that has to be -- that has to be based on your value system. and we're not going to make donald trump a conservative moderate. we don't know what donald trump is, to be candid with you. we do know there's got to be a respect for principles if you're going to govern properly. where he stands on this moving forward, this is brand-new territory, man. everybody's finding out every day where he stands on these things. he's got two months from now until the convention, to get some comfort level that he's going to govern based on principles and values that all of us can be comfortable with. >> al, thanks for the time. appreciate it. >> thanks. turning now to sam clovis, national co-chair of the trump campaign. thank you for joining us. i'll ask the same question to you. i started off with right there, common ground. common principles between donald trump and paul ryan, do you see any? >> oh, yeah. i think there's a lot of common ground. i think what it's about is defeating the democrats in november. i think that's really -- if you want to have one goal, that's

the goal. then you have to figure out how you're going to get there. and i think you have to put a lot of these things aside. they'll figure it out. i thought was al was efficient on some of the comments he made about the idea of agreeing on common objectives and common goals. we want to have a high growth economy. i think we can agree on that, how we get there is really for debate. we want to be able to secure the nation, we can all agree on that, then we have to figure out how to do that, how to afford that. we have to make sure that we keep the promises that we made to people. we can agree on that, let's figure out how we're going to do it. this isn't just inside the republican camp, this is a bipartisan approach. we have to figure these things out across the board. i was really interested in the notion here, because i think for far too many years, the term conservative, and i thought steve, you brought that up, it's a great question. because i don't think the definition of conservative has changed. i think there are people who

wrap themselves in the notion of conservativism who have no idea what it is or what it means. i think a lot of that happens right here in this city. we have a lot of people who call themselves conservatives who have not done anything to limit the size of government, who have not done anything for fiscal responsibility, who have done nothing to secure this nation, or at least allow this nation's military to be gutted. and they've not done much to protect our culture of values. those are the four pillars of conservativism. and there are a lot of people in this town that call themselves conservatives who have done nothing to secure any of those. >> let me follow up on that, because paul ryan has been one of the most sort of forceful people in defining to the public, conservativism over the last few years, and his definition of conservativism has been, for instance, on immigration, he's been fiercely in the jack kemp camp. he's talks about it all the time, sort of an open borders camp, a comprehensive immigration reform camp. it's been cutting social security, cutting medicare, cutting safety net programs.

do you read the primary results, the fact that donald trump has emerged from this primary as a rebuke of paul ryan's conservativism? >> i think it's a rebuke of what's been going on in this country for the last 30 years, since ronald reagan. the people are disaffected, they're really angry. i don't seem to be able to make this clear to everybody that when i talk to them in this town, whether it be to the news media or politicians, or activists or people in think-tanks, they still seem to be in denial over what's going on in this country. they need to wake up to that. they have two months until the convention, they can't continue to stick their heads in the sand and say this didn't happen. because it did happen. donald trump has gotten more votes than any other republican in history and we're not through yet. so this is something people have to pay attention to. the things that you're articulating from paul ryan's perspective, i have a great deal of respect for the speaker. he is the speaker of the house. and this is a tremendous

position and a responsible position, and he is a sober, intentional person. but we have to take a look at what the mood of the country is, and what people think, because what's been working in all of these issues that paul has been advancing, where he has secured these issues on trade and immigration and all this, this is not what the american people want. and so sooner or later, people have to figure that out. >> just want to get your reaction as well. mitt romney, the last republican nominee, obviously a sharp critic of donald trump, saying this afternoon on facebook that trump needs to relee his taxes. trump had indicated in an interview that's not going to happen before the election. romney saying, mr. trump says he's being audited. so? there's nothing that prevents releasing tax returns that are being audited. mitt romney saying donald trump by not releasing his taxes is showing he has something to hide. should donald trump release these taxes before the election? >> well, i think it's pettiness of governor romney and i'm really disappointed in him for

taking this tact. he is leading the pack in the not trump issue here. the issue of tax returns is up to the individual. we have that -- mr. trump's running for president of the united states. his attorneys will tell him when it's the right time to release those returns, and not mitt romney. let's be clear about that. >> sam clovis, trump national co-chair, thanks for the time. >> thanks, steve. great to talk to you. as we keep the countdown clock ticking to tomorrow's poll, donald trump, paul ryan, face-to-face meeting. a poor sign of party unity. no love for the best known governors on the trump stump. and later, hillary clinton's out of this world campaign promise. we'll discuss clinton's interest in the truce that could be out there. stay tuned.

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of fortune for hillary clinton in west virginia. check out today's map. back in 2008, she swept all 55 counties in west virginia in the democratic primary. she crushed barack obama in that state by 41 points. but last night, eight years later, same state, look at that. clinton goes 0 for 55 in west virginia. bernie sanders winning every single one of those counties against her last night. on the republican side, donald trump also sweeping all 55 counties in the mountain state. mcdowell county in particular, that is now donald trump's best county in the united states of america. he won 91.5% of the vote there last night. pretty clearly, trump not going to have trouble carrying west virginia this november. a state, though, by the way, just a generation ago that went for dukakis in the republican landslide of '88. that's how much it's changed. our new nbc exit polls showed a

third of all democratic voters last night in west virginia say they would vote for trump in the general election. we'll be right back with an exclusive "mtp daily" feature, showing that some of trump's potential vice presidential picks are among the country's least popular governors. this is claire in phoenix. can i help you? yes! great. correct! ma'am. this isn't an automated computer... operator! ma'am. i'm here. i'm live. wait. you're real? yeah. with discover card, you can talk to a real person in the u.s. day or night. plus, we're not going to waste your time trying to sell you a bunch of other products you don't really need. that is really nice of you.

i feel really bad about shouting at you. oh, you weren't shouting. you were just speaking in all caps. at discover, we treat you like you'd treat you. 100% u.s.-based customer service. here to help, not to sell. when donald trump hits the hill tomorrow morning, he could cross paths with a few of his former presidential rivals. despite the likes of ted cruz and marco rubio saying they're not interested, trump still says he's not ruling out tapping one of his former opponents as a running mate this year. "mtp daily" is getting an exclusive early look at the country's most and least popular governors, and it may make trump think twice about one name on the list. new jersey's chris christie is the first sitting governor who endorsed trump. he's a frequently mentioned vice presidential prospect for donald trump, he's the country's fourth least popular governor right now, according to this new poll.

paul lepage, he endorsed trump just hours after christie. he's the fifth least popular governor in america. the most popular governor in the country right now is the republican governor of a very blue state, massachusetts, charlie baker. he says he will not vote for trump in november. and number two on the list, larry hogan of maryland, another governor in a very blue state. he said trump shouldn't be the republican party's nominee. now he said he has no plans to enforce. i'm joined by the managing editor of morning consult. a lot to digest here. interesting to see christie and lepage, the two most prominent gubernatorial backers of donald trump, two of the least popular governors in america, i guess there's some temptation there to say there's a correlation that trump might have brought this unpopularity on them, but on the other hand, there's also a

stylistic comparison too. these are very much trump-like figures within their own states. >> that's very true. one of the things that you'll see in this data that we're releasing tomorrow morning is that chris christie's endorsement of donald trump has really adversely affected the way voters in his own state of new jersey feel about him. >> also interesting to see, we said charlie baker there, a republican in massachusetts, doesn't necessarily get a lot of attention nationally. he's the most popular governor in america and the way he's handled this trump question, trump of course won the republican primary in massachusetts, but republicans are such a small part of massachusetts, he's very unpopular outside of the republican party, it looks like. this is emblematic of why charlie baker has managed to conquer a very blue state. >> that's right. charlie baker has managed to ride a high tide of economic success since he's stayed in office. he's stayed out of the

spotlight, hasn't played party politics. he's well liked independents and many democrats in the state. >> what about people in the news now, pat mccrory, he has to run for re-election in presidential election years. this is potentially going to be a big battleground state. how does he handle something like this trump question in a battleground state in a year like this? >> so mccrory has dipped a little bit since we released our first rankings back in the fall. but if you drill down on the data, which you'll have a chance to do tomorrow morning at 6:00 a.m., you'll see that since the hb 2 stuff has hit the news cycle, it is beginning to take its toll on mccrory's poll numbers. and having to deal with the trump question will just add another layer to that. >> that's interesting. if you're donald trump and you're looking for a vp, he's been saying he's got it narrowed down to five. a lot of guessing about who that might be, but if he's looking

for a governor, there's always the question of who would be willing to run with him. any advice, anything stick out from your findings that might be useful to him? >> well, one name that's not on that list, who has said that she's interested and would pick up the phone if donald trump were to give her a call is oklahoma governor mary fallin. and what we've seen from our new rankings is that she has dipped considerably since last november. >> interesting. cameron easily, all the numbers on the governor, thanks for the time. appreciate it. >> thanks for having me. still ahead, as donald trump gears up for tomorrow's big face-to-face meeting with house speaker paul ryan, we'll look closer at trump's evolution in optics from casanova to candidate. and later, it's bernie sanders versus the democratic establishment, debbie wasserman schultz will join me to discuss. stay tuned.

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welcome back. on the front page of today's "washington post," there's this headline. before candidate trump, there was playboy trump. the image donald trump cultivated in the '80s and '90s, so important to his brand, it's now being pushed aside by his presidential campaign in favor of trump the businessman, trump the unifier. and that trump, the guy who is trying to be that trump is headed to capitol hill for a meeting with paul ryan tomorrow. no matter the staneg of his career, it's always been about the optics. it doesn't matter who the real trump is, just the image the public sees. everything he touches is branded in his own image, potentially including the republican convention this summer. trump said, the concept of some entertainment from a great singer, a great group, i think would be something maybe to break things up. previewing his explanation for the convention a little bit.

joining me now is josh king, former clinton campaign and white house staffer and the author of a new book called offscript." so, josh, this is interesting to talk to specifically in advance of this meeting tomorrow morning. we're all waiting to see what happens tomorrow morning. donald trump is meeting with paul ryan. all the republican big wigs in washington. all the optics, the still photos, the videos, what do you think he has in store for something like this tomorrow? >> when a visitor goes to capitol hill, you are very much under the control of the radio and television correspondents. you're the guest of the speaker of the house. he's going to control the access into the speaker's office and what happens at the stakeout. so it will be a very interesting

question, but what kind of being pictu -- of pictures will be allowed, will there be a photo op, or only a photo release, propaganda from the speaker's office or donald trump himself. but what you had set up over the weekend, basically this great showdown between the presumptive nominee and the speaker. and in some ways, i was thinking over the past few days, it's as it should be. you don't need paul ryan to jump on the bandwagon the first day. the big question is whether between now and when they get to cleveland, he will find peace with backing this nominee or whether he's going to play the optics and the stage craft to be distant from him, perhaps setting up for his own run in 2020. >> donald trump stands out for how image conscious he is. every politician is in some way, but with donald trump, you feel like everything there is a

calculation about image. >> very consistent, steve. since last june, have we seen him in many other costumes since his blue suit? occasionally the red tie. but we haven't seen him gorgeing into a plate of food. we did the taco bowl tweet. >> but wasn't eating it. and ridiculed john kasich for eating too. >> exactly. the only time we know he eats is when he gorged into a plate of potatoes au gratin, but we never saw it on camera. you go back to 1989, about to inaugurate george h.w. bush, but trump is on the cover of "time" magazine. not bush. he's on the the bottom of the same gilded escalator. so he's been at this brand, at

this messaging, at this positioning for over 30 years. >> hillary clinton will have to stand on the same stage as him a couple times this year. in terms of optics, if you're the clintons, if you're the clinton team and you're thinking about what images people see when it's hillary versus donald trump, what kinds of things are they going to be thinking about? >> it's going to be very different than the primary. in the primaries, you had the debates that were hosted by the cable networks, sponsored by local political organizations, live audiences, disruptive. the debates that are staged for presidential debates, very consistent setting. the audience is pretty respectful, they won't hoot and holler the way we saw in the primary season. if you're secretary clinton, you're relishing those three nights that you're going to have, because that really does put you in a place where you can speak in a conversational tone and not get into a shouting match. the harder thing will be all the days in between when she's going

to have to be showing as much enthusiasm and momentum in her outdoor rallies as donald trump will and we've seen that he knows how to attract a crowd and perform to them. secretary clinton has a hard time doing that. >> and he's almost trying to brand her low energy, the way he did with jeb bush. thank you for joining us. more "mtp daily" just ahead, including how hillary clinton is getting ufo trackers very excited about her campaign, and dnc chair debbie wasserman schultz will be her to discuss how democrats are prepping for donald trump on capitol hill tomorrow. but first the cnbc market wrap. >> a sell-off for stocks today, the dow sliding 217 points, the s&p sheds 19, the nasdaq drops 49. fape staples and office depot abandon their plan to merge after a federal judge ruled against the deal, both stocks were sent plummeting, office depot dropped 40% and staples lost 18% during the session.

shares of macy's fell 15% because revenue fell short of estimates. that's it from cnbc, first in business worldwide. why do so many businesses rely on the us postal service? because when they ship with us, their business becomes our business. that's why we make more e-commerce deliveries to homes than anyone else in the country. here, there, everywhere. united states postal service priority: you

>> if the united states air force did recover alien bodies, they didn't tell me about it either, and i want to know. >> if i was president that's the first thing i'd do, go right into those files and see what was going on. >> right. >> he said he did that and that he didn't find anything. >> well, i'm gonna -- >> oh. >> i'm gonna do it again. >> the clintons officially joking or could a hillary clinton presidency really yield proof that we are not alone? this campaign cycle the candidate has made several comments about declassifying files on proof of alien life.

if there are any. the extraterrestrial hypothesis has long been a passion of former white house chief of staff and current clinton chairman john podesta. >> i think it's time to open the books on questions that have remained in the dark, on the question of government investigations of ufos. it's time to find out what the truth really is that's out there. >> and joining me now is world renowned theoretical physicist, this is our normal theoretical physics block in the show. thanks for joining us today for this. okay, so this idea that there's ufo files, there are secrets that have been kept from the public. do you think there's something that the government has that would shed serious light on this topic that people don't know right now? >> well, this is potentially a game-changer, because hillary clinton is playing the ufo card. this is going to put pressure on all the extraterrestrials out

there to register and vote. and it's going to put pressure on trump to play his version of the ufo card. >> do you think there's anything, or is this just a lot of science fiction? do you think the government is hiding anything? >> i think the government is hiding something, but not necessarily a question of national security, no. going all the way back to president nixon, presidents have been fascinated by the question of ufos, but they've never declassified the files. president jimmy carter actually saw a ufo, trailing him in the car. he asked the military to identify what that flying saucer was. and it turned out, they said, it's the planet venus. but it's been a subject of presidential debate for generations. but now -- >> why do you think they have declassified? if they've been interested, why do you think they haven't declassified? that's why people say they're hiding something. >> people use the guise of national security. area 51, for example, even though the military tried to deny its existence. you can see it by satellite on

google maps. children can see area 51 on their computers. area 51, we think, is where the stealth bomber was tested. that's why we see all the sightings of weird looking aircraft, because it's a stealth bomber and it looks strange. but i think it's outlived its purpose now. we had mountains of classified documents about sightings of ufos, but mainly perhaps triggered by stealth bombers, and there's no national security involved anymore. >> you're a theoretical physicist. the big question of, do you think there's intelligent life elsewhere out there? do you think there is and if there is, do you think it's visited us before? >> well, the big question is, is there intelligent life on the earth? and i think not. by looking at the presidential debates. however, we have to look at the fact that just this week, nasa released the fact that 1,200 planets were discovered by the kepler satellite just this past week. and so we now know that perhaps

there are a billion earth-like planets in our backyard, the milky way galaxy. go out tonight and have an existential shock looking at the night sky, realizing that there are probably a billion planets that are earth-like. >> i think i only had to memorize eight of them in school, i think i got off easy. >> to think we're the only game in town is kind of presumptuous. >> so the idea that there's intelligent life, do you think we've been visited by extraterrestrial intelligent life? >> i think they're out there, but on the question of whether they've visited us, why don't they land on the white house lawn and announce their existence. if you're walking down a country road and you see an ant hill, do you go to the ants and say, i bring you trinkets and -- >> that's what we are, the ants.

>> if they can go across thousands of light years to visit the earth, they're thousands of years ahead of us. we would have nothing to offer them. but they don't want to talk to us, because we don't want to talk to the deer and the squirrel in the forests. >> very interesting. thanks for joining us. up next, donald trump's northern exposure, and the new way for potential expats to look for love north of the border. stay tuned. safety doesn't come in a box.

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time now for the ws. the who, it's ted cruz. the so-called most hated man in the senate, filed paperwork today to run for a second term. going to be up for re-election in 2018. the what, it's a match made in canada. maple match, a new dating site is aiming to connect americans uneasy about a potential trump presidency with canadians. its slogan, make dating great again. now the where, it's brazil, where the senate is debating an impeachment trial for the president. if there's a trial, she's required to step away from office for 180 days. the vice president would then be in charge during the summer olympics. the when, it's july 13th, when google plans to eliminate ads for pay day loan providers from its searches. advocates are hayling the move as a protection for poor users targeted by predatory loan

agencies. and the why, a challenge to debbie wasserman schultz. he says he's nearing a $1 million campaign fund-raising haul, mostly fueled by small donations from bernie sanders' supporters. here's why that matters. we'll get reaction from wauserman schultz coming up right after the break. when youd something you love, you can never get enough of it. change the way you experience tv with xfinity x1.

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take on the entire democratic establishment. we've had to take on senators and governors and mayors and members of congress. >> bernie sanders today with my colleague andrea mitchell talking about taking on the democratic establishment. i'm joined now by florida congressman debbie wasserman schultz, also the chair of the democratic national committee. thank you for joining us. let me ask you this, we put the super delegates count up all the time. the lion's share have been backing hillary clinton, not bernie sanders. he said the establishment has been out to get him. has this process been fair to bernie sanders? >> of course it's been fair. we have managed this primary throughout the primary nominating contest in a neutral and fair way. and there are a number of primaries left. we will see those through to the end. each candidate is running their

primary, their election as they see fit and we look forward to uniting as a party once we have a nominee. >> let me ask you about this, there's some dispute about that. if we get to the end of the primary process, if hillary clinton has the most pledged delegates from that process, should she be the nominee? >> well, we have a process that will go through all the way to june 14th, when the last contest takes place in washington, d.c. then we move on to preparing, as we already are doing for the democratic national convention. our process allows for both pledged delegates and our unpledged delegates to cast a vote towards the total votes that eventually our nominee will earn. >> i'm asking because when we've talked to bernie sanders and his campaign, they offer two different scenarios here, for how they see themselves winning the nomination. one is, they say, if we can win the pledge delegate count during

the primaries, we'll say we have the will of the people behind us. the problem s there's no way to see them winning that in the primaries. you confront them with that, they'll say, we'll go to work on the super delegates and make an electability argument, and say, bernie sanders does better than donald trump than hillary clinton. you should support him even though he didn't win the pledged delegate count. so is that a legitimate way for somebody to win the nomination, to get fewer delegates out of the primaries, but then rely on the super delegates to put him over the top? >> you know, steve, frankly, it's not appropriate for me to comment as the dnc chair on the strategy that either one of our candidates has towards earning the majority of the delegates they need to become the party's nominee. like i said, we're focused on making sure we can prepare for the general election, making sure we have a convention that will be the best in american history, to launch our nominee to the white house in the fall and finish managing this primary so we can make sure that we wrap

up the primary nominating contest and we can all come together, which i frankly will tell you, is going to be a lot easier than the process that's playing out on the other side of the scores of republicans, their former presidents, former nominees for president, a number of members of congress, united states senator who is aren't going to the convention nor endorsing or supporting the presumptive nominee they have already in donald trump because he's that extreme and they know what a drag he's going to be on their ticket. >> let me ask you about your own situation in your own congressional districts. we're being challenged. you're being challenged in your primary this august. you have a challenger who is a supporter of bernie sanders, who has brought in close to a million dollars. very unusual for a challenger going up against somebody in leadership to bring in that kind of money.

some of this money is coming from bernie sanders supporters in small dollars who do not necessarily think you've been a fair arbitor. how do you read that opposition? >> i'm focusing on two things. one, continuing to swerve my constituents to the best of my abilities and making sure that when i run for re-election, as i am right now, i talk about what i've been able to do for them and earning their support once again. two, making sure we do everything question to elect a democratic president. those are my professional responsibilities and that's what i'm focused on. >> your challenger said he sent you three letters asking you to debate. he hasn't heard back. he's had supporters shown up after your events and trying to get you commit to that. will you debate your opponent? >> i'm focused on the two things i said. making sure i can represent my

constituents to the best of my abilities and community about what i've been able to do on their behalf and making sure i can do the best job as the chair of the democratic committee. that's my focus. >> let me ask you again -- >> i'm here to speak to you as the dnc chair. i'm happy to talk about the presidential campaign. i've answered your questions. >> you haven't answered this one question. you're a candidate for re-election. it's a legitimate question. will you debate your opponent? >> steve, steve. again, i'm going to continue to focus on representing my constituents to the best of my abilities and doing the good job i've been able to do representing them for the last 24 years and making sure i run for re-election they know the work i've been able to do and making sure that as dnc chair i hope to do everything i can as a democratic president. >> thank you. thanks for the time.

>> thank you. our panel is next. a preview of tomorrow's trump-ryan face-to-face sit down.

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i don't need unity the way past nominees do. do you think there's much to that. >> it's worked for him so far. if he's going to step into this role as the presumptive nominee that will get votes from republicans across the spectrum, you can't have the two most powerful republicans in the country at war. that's what's going on now. speaker ryan is in a tough spot. he doesn't want to not endorse his party's nominee, but how can he do that and embrace trump's controversial views around muslims and deporting 11 million people. he's really caught between a rock and a hard spot. >> the character of domnald

trump, he's supposed to be great. >> he's said i don't really know him. let me get a chance to know him. if trump can do that in way that is, it will take over some of the out ward agreement to him then maybe there's something to build on. >> one of the questions is would it be enough for ryan or people like ryan if there was an agreement or understanding that i'm not going to try to put the muslim ban in the platform. i'm not going to try to get mexico playing for the wall. you guys write the platform. i'll respect it. i'll leave it alone, but i'm going to go out in fall and say what i'm going to say.

>> most people don't pay attention to the platform. i think the bigger issue to your previous question is trump will probably go in there and say a few things to ryan that he will say. he's been unreliable. it's something that no other politician can get away with. >> he will ska i won. >> he might very well. one thing that has to be on paul ryan's mind is this convention that's a time line even through a visible primary season. this is the time when the audience at large, the general population comes to know the republican candidate. trump is prepared to put on a big show. that could billion very, very

different from any kind of convention we have seen in the past given his showman ship. >> i have a feeling however it plays out, it will be different. >> miss universe pageant. >> there's a lot of possibilities. we'll be back tomorrow with more mtp daily. "with all due respect" starts right now. i'm john heilemann. >> i'm mark halperin. with all due respect to donald trump who started calling senator sanders crazy bernie. i think that nickname is already taken. >> crazy donald. >> on the show tonight, donald trump's day to shrug and hillary clinton's e-mail bug. paul ryan's dilemma to hug or not to hug. trump held a peace summit with republican lawmakers tomorr.