>> jon meacham is an egg head who has crammed his head full of meaningless facts and should know more about pettycoat junction. >> sounds like a lot of people we know. >> billy joe? >> bobby joe. >> we're going to go now to the rage. steve kornacki. he's known in the building as the rage. kicks desks. says he's going to torch this place. steve kornacki right now. >> all right. good morning. i'm steve kornacki. we are now 169 days until the election. topping our agenda right now, a dead heat. hillary clinton's double-digit lead over donald trump gone. republican voters rallying around trump now that he's going to be their candidate. some of the party's top donors are still refusing to sign up. >> i don't care at all. these are people that won't have access to the white house, and they understand that. they'll not be able to tell me

what to do like they do every other candidate. >> trump won in the primaries without spending that much money but he set a $1 billion goal for the general election. is he going to have trouble making it, and is it going to cost him, if he doesn't? also on the agenda, keeping bernie sanders' voters in the party. >> i think the objective evidence is very clear that in virtually every national poll and every state poll, we defeat trump by larger numbers than does secretary clinton. >> sanders is not going to catch hillary clinton in the all-important pledged delegate column, but there is still a question of if and when he will try to unify with her. what is bernie sanders' plan? we're going to dive into that. rounding out our agenda, day five of the search for missing egyptair flight 804. search crews expanding, stepping

up efforts to find and recover the flight's remains and the black boxes before their batteries run out. investigators poring over debris found over the weekend. the cause of the crash still elusive. we'll bring you the latest ahead this morning. we begin at the big boorard. a dead heat now. the nbc news/"wall street journal" poll showing a tight race. just a month ooh this was an 11-point lead. donald trump locked up the republican nomination and became the apparent republican nominee and you can see his support among republicans, it is up 14 points since the last time we took one of these polls, since he locked up the republican nomination. republicans rallying around donald trump. what had been a double-digit lead for hillary clinton. that's pretty much evaporated right now. if there is a silver lining for hillary clinton in these numbers, it's this. this is her support with

democrats. so trump among his own party, among republicans at 86%. hillary clinton a little lower among her party. democrats. what's the reason for that? the reason is bernie sanders voters, some of them are still reluctant to get on board if she's the nominee. 88%, what's you see here are 88% of hillary clinton's voters in the democratic primary. if bernie sanders is the nominee, i'll vote for him. you can say that's easy for him to say because it doesn't look like bernie sanders will be the nominee. but flip it around. the sanders supporters, what do they say about hillary clinton as the nominee? only 66% of them. it's a much lower number. only 66% say they'll support hillary clinton over donald trump. now hillary clinton's great hope here is that that changes. things settle down over the next few weeks. bernie sanders gets out of the race, endorses her. the party unifies. that could bring her overall number up, if that happens. she's lagging a little behind donald trump right now when it comes to party support. the reason is the bernie sanders

voters. the big picture on this race right now, we talk every four years about how a lot of voters never seem too satisfied with the choices. we've never seen it this high. the dissatisfaction with both candidates. never been this high. 54% of all voters have a negative view of hillary clinton. 58% say they have a negative view of donald trump. if there's any good news, and i hesitate to use the term good news here if there's any good news for donald trump it's that this number, this spread was a lot worse a month ago. his net disapproval rating, which is now negative 29 points. a month ago it was negative 41. agone, what happened there? republicans now that he's going to be their candidate, a lot of them changed their tune on donald trump. his negative rating is still high but it's at least moving into the ballpark with hillary clinton's right now. i guess you'd call that good news for donald trump. look at the breakdowns. black voters, latino voters,

women, young voters. these are the core constituencies for hillary clinton. this is where she's driving the bulk of her support. flip it around. where is trump's strongest? can we flip to the next one. three groups where he's running well. white voters, 16-point lead, senior citizens, men. also leading among political independents by five. but if you really look at this closely, what are you seeing in these numbers? what you are seeing is what we saw in 2012. these are the splits you saw in the romney/obama race. that's good news for hillary clinton in that obama won. the republican candidate this time has to improve on mitt romney. but think of all the talk you heard over the last few months from democrats who said donald trump is hillary clinton's dream opponent. you heard it from the never trump crowd. you nominate donald trump, no chance. he's going to lose by historic proportions. he's going to lose republican states. the reality is we're starting out the general election right now. we're looking at these numbers

and saying donald trump is where the last republican nominee for president was. he's going to have to improve on that if he wants to win. mitt romney couldn't win in the end, but mitt romney was close. a lot of the talk to donald trump is not even going to be close. he's starting out close. we can definitely tell you that. that's a look at the polls there. now as we head into the general election season, the countdown is on. 169 days away with a barrage of attacks from the clinton campaign still to come. trump is setting a $1 billion goal for raising money for this fall fight against hillary clinton. "the new york times" reporting that deep pocketed republican donors still not ready to jump on board the trump campaign. we're talking about donors such as paul singer, joe and marlene rickets. they're still on the sidelines when it comes to trump. questions about trump's values, about his tone, the way he's been running this campaign. seem to be working against him when it comes to the donor class. the people who could put up big bucks to try to put him in the white house. trump is looking to ease some of

their concerns in a moment. he's going to be meeting with senator bob corker. that's going to take place at trump tower today. corker's name has been suggested as someone who could play a big role in a trump administration. he's also been rumored as a potential vice presidential pick. it's the season for that after all. his tennessee colleague is a top trump supporter. he's floating a cabinet position maybe. he is telling a local paper in tennessee, i'm putting my money on secretary of state for corker. corker's extensive foreign policy experience would fill a perceived weakness for the trump campaign. trump telling "the wall street journal" in an article out this morning he doesn't think a foreign trip is in the cards for him during the 2016 campaign saying, i don't think it registers with the voters, to be honest with you. what i want to do is focus on our country and the election, but i might. let's bring in nbc's hallie jackson in front of trump tower

for that meeting. ahead of that meeting with bob corker n donald trump. interesting combination there. we talk about outreach, the republican establishment. that's what bob corker represents. >> reporter: he would fit two real needs for the trump campaign. you talked about it in that polling. this idea that trump trails in some of our polling. he needs to fill some gaps when it comes to foreign policy. corker, obviously, fits that role. he also has been in washington a long time. known as this pragmatist. someone who can work across the aisle. those will be areas the trump campaign needs to shore up. that said, corker doesn't have that razzle dazzle that one might imagine trump would want in a vice presidential candidate and a running mate. this is the veep stakes olympics, i should say. the time of year everybody speculates who could it be? what are some of the names bantied about? at least speculatively, people like newt gingrich and john thune, jone joani ernst.

corker is set to arrive at trump tower in a little bit. while the meeting may be about foreign policy, trump takes these conversations wherever he wants to take them. look at his discussion with jim baker a few weeks ago. focused much more on political strategy than anything else. than on foreign policy or international relations. we're hoping to get a read out after this meeting ends, and we'll keep you posted. >> all right, hallie jackson. thanks for that. more on trump's fund-raising issue. let's bring in alex burns. he wrote the article this weekend that is key gop donors still deeply resist donald trump's candidacy. who are these people? how much are they worth in terms of campaign money? >> over the last three election cycles, it was worth 90 to $100 million to republican candidates and outside groups that typically spend heavily to

support republican candidates. donald trump is operating from a serious organizational deficit as he enters this general election. only appointed a finance chairman this month. that's really unusual for a presidential candidate. still no sanctions superpac to raise money for that heavy outside advertising that's conventional in these campaigns. so what we found was once trump does get those operations up and run, he's going to have an incredibly rough sales job with a lot of these people. >> what is the resistance here? is it just personality? is it issues? what's the stumbling block? >> it comes from a number of different fronts. a big part is they see these big donors. a lot of them are ideological people that they're giving money to conservative groups and conservative candidates because they believe passionately in small government or free trade or foreign intervention or immigration reform. this is the checklist of issues that trump exploited in the primary to fit the republican base against the republican elite. so not a big surprise once you get to the general election the

elite is not thrilled with that. some of that is skepticism of trump as a personality. he spent the primaries attacking these people. some of them by name on twitter and on television and in his speeches. they obviously did not take kindly to that. and some of it is skepticism of his organization. they feel some of them are big donor to mitt romney, jeb bush. they feel they wasted a lot of money over the last few cycles and the idea of saying let's write a big check to donald trump and we trust him to spend this wisely. that's a heavy lift for them. >> he didn't spend a lot of money. he didn't have the huge television advertising campaign, those sorts of things. he set this goal for $1 billion for the general election. looking at the primary, does that tell us the traditional rules about all the money you need in the fall, maybe they don't apply? >> they probably don't apply one to one, the same rules to mitt romney and donald trump. trump has the ability to drive a message and get out there in the media that no other candidate we've seen in recent times has

been able to do. at the end of the day, a presidential campaign needs to fund the turnout campaigns, data operations. for the sake of the entire party. what makes a lot of republicans nervous about trump is they see the republican national committee as essential cash cow for everybody in the party. if the rnc isn't spending money on vote are targeting and turnout and mechanical basics of the national campaign, this is sort of a receding tide that sinks all ships. for donald trump, he may be able to get away with big media events thevent s. >> some people might have the more basic question here. donald trump, rich guy. how come he's not funding this himself? >> this is something a lot of the donors will say himself. some are saying it rhetorically. you say you're worth $10 billion. why don't you throw some of that out there. it's a pretty good question if trump finds himself in the position where it's the middle of august and he's gasping for

money, does he consider selling is a building or leveraging some properties not leveraged yet? this is where we'll see the real test of what his assets are. >> a new twist in the campaign season. alex burns, appreciate that. the challenge for democrats, how to assure bernie sanders voters are going to stick around and be with hillary clinton in the general election. our latest poll shows that challenge in stark terms. nearly 90% of hillary clinton's voters say if bernie sanders is the candidate against trump, we're on board with that. only 66%, though, of sanders voters right now say they're with clinton when it comes to a matchup against donald trump. let's bring in evan mcmorris santoro. he spent a lot of time covering the sanders campaign. he wrote the article bernie world debates, what's next. this is a big question. is bernie sanders going to end this primary process, saying i

gave it my best shot. now it's time to get behind hillary clinton? is that the plan or what are they going to do? >> well, bernie has said over n over that he's going to support the nominee and try to defeat donald trump in the general election. the big question is, what happens to all the energy and momentum he built up over this really surprising year he's had where he suddenly catapulted himself to the top of the progressive heap in terms of being able to influence the democratic party. i recently had senator al franken on my podcast who is a clinton supporter but sort of a bernie-type person on a lot of issues. and he says that bernie has made clinton a better candidate by helping to push her to the left on certain issues. but the question for inside the bernie campaign now is what are they going to do? what is their talk after the voting is concluded? and the story i did with ruby kramer sort of describes this

split inside the bernie world about what they're going to do because there's, on the one hand, this new combative tone that bernie has returned to in recent days after the nevada democratic talkus or nevada democratic convention. now trying to run against debbie wasserman schultz, the dnc chair. on the reverse side, a lot of people think you can use his massive e-mail list and his groups of supporters and his message and his -- all that stuff to push the democratic party left. is he going to be a combative bernie or kind of like a chiding uncle bernie. that's the question right now. it's not clear because bernie hasn't decided yet. that's the story i wrote, what it's about. >> debbie wasserman schultz, the sanders campaign, they have vociferously criticized her throughout this process. she only had a few debates.

they said she was trying to insulate, protect hillary clinton. over the weekend, debbie wasserman schultz is getting a primary challenge in her house district back in florida. it's attracted a lot of financial support from sanders people. and bernie sanders was asked, do you support that challenger. this is what he said. >> in florida, are you with wasserman schultz or are you with her opponent? >> well, clearly i favor her opponent. his views are much closer to mine than is wasserman schultz's. let me also say this in all due respect to the current chairperson, if elected president, she would not be reappointed to be chair of the dnc. >> let us talk -- how big a deal is this? >> this is a really big deal. this is not the sanders -- this is not bernie sanders saying he's upset with debbie wasserman schultz, doesn't like the way she runs the party.

he's saying i want her gone, and i'm going to use my influence to get her gone because beyond that comment he made with jake tapper, he also sent out a fund-raising e-mail to all of his millions of donors asking them to give money to help defeat debbie wasserman schultz in a primary. this is before he goes to a convention run by debbie wasserman schultz as the dnc chair and tries to have influence over the party process there. this is a really big deal, and it's one that during the course of our reporting, for the story that we put out on sunday, it wasn't clear what sanders wanted to do. this sends a much stronger message that he's going to be a combative, for lack of a better term, kind of liberal tea party type that maybe some of his supporters expected or wanted. because what he's doing now is saying, look, wively want to defeat these establishment democrats we do not like. >> host of their podcast, "no

one knows anything." a good title. evan, thanks for joining us. >> thanks, steve. it's not about you. >> definitely could be. coming up, the crew searching for egyptflight 804 is under the gun trying to find the black boxes. weather conditions are not helping. we'll have a live report from cairo next. you know when i first started out, it was all pencil and paper. the surface pro is very intuitive. i can draw lightly, just like i would with a real pencil. i've been a forensic artist for over 30 years. i do the composite sketches which are the bad guy sketches. you need good resoluti, powerful processor because the computer has to start thinking as fast as my brain does. i do this because i want my artwork to help people. [ "dreams" by beck ]

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turning to the latest in the ongoing search for egyptair flight 804, where crews are up against the clock now as they try to locate the plane's black boxes before time runs out and the batteries die. so far, no luck. >> we haven't recovered them yet. we haven't -- i haven't got any

information from the military operation team that is in charge of the search. and we will announce when we get close to them or at least identify where they are. >> egypt's president says it's important not to speculate on the cause of the crash which killed all 66 people who were on board. over the weekend, he said all scenarios are possible. nbc foreign correspondent ayman mohyeldin joins me from cairo where the plane was headed. every time we get a tragedy like this, we're always talking about these black boxes. it seems particularly critical just given all the speculation that's is out there about what did or didn't happen. >> yeah, absolutely. following up on that point the president made that all scenarios are possible, determining what actually happened is going to rest upon finding that black box that includes both the cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder. over the weekend the egyptian president in his first public announcement announced the egyptian government had deployed a submarine out to the search

area. they haven't narrowed the search area down but we know in addition to that submarine, the u.s. also has p3 orion planes flying above. they are trying to locate it because it could shed light on what happened. now over the weekend, we heard some of those final minutes recorded by a website that records the live streaming if you will of air traffic control communication with the plane. keep in mind nbc has not independently verified it, but it comes from a website that records this. and here's those final minutes. >> egyptair 804 contact padova. good night. >> padova control, egyptair 804. thank you so much. good day -- good night. >> just those few seconds there, an indication that at that point of the communication all things seemed to go well between the pilot and the air traffic control.

obviously, the questions going to be what happened immediately after that because egyptair has confirmed it has had zero communication at any point with the cockpit or the pilot. that's going to be critical time period to try to fill in there. meanwhile, the country does continue to mourn the loss of those passengers. egyptair will hold a memorial prayer service or condolence service later this evening here at a mosque in cairo's suburb. they are expecting a large turnout as the country continues to mourn from this disaster. >> ayman mohyeldin in cairo, thank you for that. coming up, we'll turn back to politics. we're going to take a look at our most important number of the day. we said this race is tightening, hillary clinton versus donald trump. how tight is it at this point compared to past elections? we'll try to put those numbers in perspective. before we head out to break, let's check in with john oliver who had something to say about the choice voters are going to have to make this fall. >> both parties nearly have

their nominee. and it looks like america will be choosing between donald trump, america's walking, talking brush fire, and in all likelihood, hillary clinton, the woman who intermits either too much or too little of every human quality depending on who you ask. ♪jake reese, "day to feel alive"♪ ♪jake reese, "day to feel alive"♪ i've been blind since birth. i go through periods where it's hard to sleep at night, and stay awake during the day. learn about non-24 by calling 844-844-2424. or visit my24info.com.

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that's why we're making our meals better. like using 100% natural chicken breast in our chicken strips and adding real cream to our mashed potatoes. so now, there's more to love with banquet. now serving... a better banquet. it is 28 minutes after the hour. here your headlines. polls showing him now in a dead heat with hillary clinton, donald trump set to hold a meet with senator bob corker from tennessee this morning at trump tower in new york city. no set agenda for the sit-down, but corker's name being mentioned as a possible vice presidential con tender. also the clock ticking in the search for egyptair's black box recorders. a submarine has joined the hunt. egypt's president says there is still no clear indication of what happened to it. one hour from now a judge in

baltimore is expected to hand down his verdict in the case of a police officer charged in the death of freddie gray. president obama, meanwhile, lifting a decades-old embargo on weapons sales to vietnam. says the u.s. has developed a level of trust with the asian nation. and the defending champion golden state warriors took a big beating last night. they lost game three of the nba finals to the oklahoma city thunder. that series is now a 2-1 lead for the thunder. the margin of victory last night for oklahoma city, this was shocking. it was 28 points. and that's a great segue. 28 points, you can be sure the margin of victory in the presidential race is going to be much, much smaller than that. and that brings us to our most important number of the day. and today it's a fraction of a number. it's 0.2. what does that mean? what could that possibly mean? if i could learn how to do this board. let's see if this will work. there it is.

0.2. that's the lead right now that donald trump has over hillary clinton in the average of all the polls. you see this, some of these sites. this is from real clear politics.com. they take all the polls out there. they average them together. you get a poll every day it seems sometimes. one way to look at them all is to average them together and see what it shows. and realclear politics shows donald trump leading hillary clinton by 0.2 points. that's basically a dead heat. let's put this in context. at this same point in may, in that same polling average from real clear politics, we can go back and look at the last three presidential elections. this time four years ago, barack obama was ahead by 1.7 over mitt romney in the average. he won by 3.9. in 2008 ahead by nearly five points over john mccain in the average. he won by seven. look at this. back to 2004 at this same point.

john kerry, it was john kerry who had the lead in the polling average in 2004 at this point. but it was george w. bush who won the election. when you're ahead by 0.2 points in one average, it isn't much of a lead. having the lead, no guarantee it's going to hold until november. but still for donald trump, somebody who has written off a couple of weeks ago as the weakest possible candidate republicans put out, somebody destins fstined to lose in the lanslide. he leads by 0.2%. we'll keep an eye on that number as this campaign progresses. trump receiving support over the weekend from the national rifle association. "snl" ending its season on saturday night and they found some humor in that. >> the nra on friday officially endorsed donald trump. i assume because they didn't do a background check. if they had, they would have seen when president obama called

for gun control in the wake of the newtown shooting, donald trump tweeted president obama spoke for me and every american in his remarks in #newtown. he wrote #newtown but forgot to write #might have to completely change my views if i end up being a republican. it's a drone you control with your brain, which controls your thumbs, which control this joystick. no, i'm actually over at the ge booth. we're creating the operating system for industry. it's called predix. it's gonna change the way the world works. ok, i'm telling my brain to tell the drone to get you a copy of my resume. umm, maybe keep your hands on the controller. look out!! ohhhhhhhhhh... you know what, i'm just gonna email it to you. yeah that's probably safer. ok, cool.

i think he needs to release his tax returns. the only two we have show he hasn't paid a penny in taxes. and yet he goes around talking about make america great. you know, that's means paying for our military. that means paying for our roads. that means paying for the v.a. that means a lot of things. if you have someone running for president who is afraid to release his tax returns because it will expose the fact he pays no federal income tax, i think that's a big problem. >> that's hillary clinton on "meet the press." she sees an issue there. the issue of donald trump and his tax returns which he so far has refused to release. joined by real clear politics

reporter caitlyn huey burns. and i feel like i'm having flashbacks to four years ago. the republican nominee mitt romney emerges and all we hear is the taxes, the taxes, the taxes. it felt going through that 2012 campaign that that was hurting mitt romney. the issue of what is he hiding? why is he holding back. democrats trying to go for the same thing here. is it going to have the same effect, do you think? >> four years ago, the democratic president wasn't withholding speeches from goldman sachs. so that definitely hurts the argument in perfect messenger there. mitt romney was the most conventional of candidates. who knows what hurts trump. everything he's done should have hurt him and it hasn't so far. the things that will hurt trump are not things he shows he contradicts himself, what he calls or the media calls a pivot. i think it will just be statements that's show he's a scary, scary guy.

i don't know if the tax stuff will be dispositive. it will be things he does in the moment where the voter who is actually considering him says it's too scary, i can't do it. are taxes too scary? >> what is the message? you hear the clinton campaign emphasizing this. is there a chance he paid no federal income tax. they were trying to say that with mitt romney. also he's a rich guy, but is he really as rich? is he nearly as rich as he says he is? >> i think it's an effective attack for the clinton campaign. she's facing her own untrustworthy numbers. she needs something to deflect. also going after trump on issues that, you know, his main appeal, that's he was a businessman, made lots of money and that sort of thing. she really will need to undercut him on his strength. and i think this is a good way to do that. going after him on women, on personal issues and those sorts of things are baked in at this point. really trying to cut down his

message. i think she can do that through the tax return. >> do you think we change someone's mind? the person telling the pollster i'd vote for trump doesn't care about that. why should he be the only candidate in the last -- since essentially richard nixon not to do it? it would seem like one of those things where you'd say, i don't really understand trump's supporters beyond the word anger or frustration. why would this make them less angry or frustraitted? >> that's a bigger question we've been asking. you say thus. so many things we're trained to think, this is going to kill a campaign. started the day he got into the race. he said things then we thought, you can't run and win a national campaign saying these things. >> it depends on whether this continues to be an issue. if we see voters in polls and independents say it's an issue for them. i'm not sure it's something top of mind of people who are responding to these polls. if clinton continues hammering this, it makes it an issue, but trump as we know is able to deflect very easily and create

his own news cycles in a way. i can see him getting out of this with something else. >> speaking of creating his news cycles. he went to the nra convention. he said hillary clinton wants to abolish the success amendmeecond got into a back and forth with her. >> crooked hillary clinton is the most anti-gun, anti-second amendment candidate ever to run for office. and as i said before, she wants to abolish the second amendment. she wants to take your guns away. >> this is someone running to be president of the united states of america, a country facing a gun violence epidemic, and he's talking about more guns in our schools. that idea isn't just way out there. it's dangerous. >> i'm trying to figure it out, too. exactly what he's tapping into. what she's tapping into. and the best i can come up with is his statement there, that's the trump campaign.

somebody's guts talking. it feels true. and her statement is designed more to appeal to intellect. >> the appeal to intellect has long been a loser in presidential politics. maybe trump is the exception that it's so unintellectual. the best analysis of trump is he's a guy who watches the shows. that's where he's going to get his adviser. it's almost as if talk television has created a candidate who never was really against abortion, who never really was a second amendment absolutist. what would a second amendment absolutist say? he sees these guys on tv and says it. doesn't matter if that's true. and also we should know that again, i think it's a little like the tax return. the people who are really going to vote for the second amendment, would they ever vote for hillary anyway? this is more about placating the republican base so that's people can say, all right. maybe he seems more like a conservative than we thought. >> the other thing he slips in there is crooked. little marco rubio.

now he's saying crooked hillary clinton. i'm looking at the unfavorable numbers. his are sky high. no question about it. hers are way up there. it makes me wonder just the constant repetition like mike says when he decides to go after somebody, everybody he goes after, he makes it sound like it's the worst person ever to come along. >> he's been effective at branding candidates and getting them off their own brand. we saw that with rubio and cruz. he's able to get under their skin and get them off message. that will be a test for clinton since she's in a primary right now and hasn't really wanted to get down in the mud. the nra endorsement is a sign of the coalescing of the republican party in opposition to clinton. obviously, trump doesn't have a long history with nra policy. he's using that as a club for -- to go after clinton. that's what we'll continue to hear him talk about. >> looks like a lot of those republicans who weren't wild about trump now see that

contrast. clint versus trump and the contrast is easy. we'll see if that happens with sanders supporters. thanks for joining us. pennsylvania has voted for the democrat for president ever since 1992. but donald trump wants to turn it red. can he? msnbc's jacob soboroff is on the case. that's next. and so... my new packing robot will make jet warehouses even more efficient... and save shoppers money. genius! (smoke alarm sounds) oh no... charlene? ...no... charlene. no. charlene. why is she wearing earring why is it a she? shh... at jet.com, we always find innovative ways to save. get 15 percent off your first order.

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well, donald trump is going to have to win some key battleground states if he's going to beat hillary clinton, one that he's targeting is pennsylvania. that's a state that used to reliably deliver steel across america and also votes to democratic candidates for president. democrats have carried every election since 1992, but times may be changing. right now the latest poll in the keystone state shows a statistical tie there. look at that. hillary clinton 43, donald trump 42. msnbc's jacob soboroff just visited one town and spoke to some people there who were democrats for a long time but are considering switching over in 2016. jacob, this has been such an elusive prize for republicans.

they have been targeting pennsylvania every election since they last won in '88 but it really could be different this time. what did you find? >> you hear donald trump say over and over again i am going to win states that republicans normally don't win and he talks about pennsylvania. he talks about going to the wharft wharton school of business. this is a map of presidential election results from 1992 to 2012. as you watch as it cycles through, it gets progressively redder and redder and redder, specifically in western pennsylvania. this is where the steel industry was centered around the pittsburgh area. we went right here to this little county right there, beaver county, pennsylvania, home of a city called aliquippa. j & l steel was headquartered there at one time. they had 30,000 people living and working in that community. now it's down to 9,000. this could be ground zero for pennsylvania and that's why we headed there. take a look at what ewwe found.

these trains delivered steel across america and votes to democratic politicians, but times have changed and this blue state could possibly turn red. so where are we, mayor, what is this place? >> downtown city of aliquippa. >> who are your constituents. >> staunch democrats. it is a staunch democratic town, always have been. blue collar. >> i heard there's two republican county commissioners and one democrat. what happened? >> they don't believe in the politics anymore. they don't believe in the candidates anymore. this is downtown aliquippa. one time this was a bustling place. >> you'll have to forgive me, but it looks pretty dead. >> well, that's just the way it is. it's gone. everything is gone. these were all bars, restaurants, shops, markets. everything was here. >> and now what's going on downtown? >> now you can see what's going on downtown. not a lot. >> not a lot. >> yeah. >> this is the tunnel that, what, 11,000 people would come through every day? >> right. right here. >> aliquippa industrial park.

everything out here was steel? >> the whole valley. >> this is a big old empty lot. so this is where you used to work? >> over here, yeah. >> when you look at this now and it looks like we're walking on the surface of the moon, what goes through your head? >> man, there's a lot of -- lot of people got financially destroyed when the mills were gone. >> how many people worked out here? >> i think at one time there was like 13,000, i believe, worked in the mill. >> 13,000 people. if you polled those 13,000 people in its heyday, what would the politics be at that time? democrats? >> there was a lot of democrats, right. >> you're a hillary clinton guy? >> i like hillary, but things might change when it comes to the election. who foknows. >> you could go trump? >> i don't know. >> pennsylvania is usually in the democratic column. >> blue state. >> maybe not this year. >> i agree with you. >> how come? >> he says we're going to do this, i'm going to do this, i'm going bring jobs. >> and then they look at this.

>> there's nothing. >> steve, throughout the day we'll be talking about different statistics from this western pennsylvania area and talking to different folks as well. huge stat that everybody should be aware of, all 54 counties -- municipalities i should say within beaver county were won by donald trump in the primary election. when you look at that and all kinds of other things going on in this area of western pennsylvania, it's one of the big reasons that pennsylvania could finally, finally swing red if and when that does happen. throw it back to you. >> jacob, you're talking about steel there, but aliquippa gave us iron too. iron mike ditka, he's from aliquippa. >> that's right, you told me that on twitter the other day. they were smomore focused on th situation there but next time i'll search for mike ditka. >> legendary football coach chicago bears for those who don't know iron mike. i think everybody does. thank you, jacob soboroff, for that. since it's monday, many of us have missed some things other the weekend. cal perry for a look at the best video -- this happens every weekend, cal.

things pop up online, they go viral. we come in monday, everybody is talking about it at work. some of us missed it, usually me. >> there's a science to how does a video become viral. it's a very particular science. i have no idea what it is. candace payne is your viral video of the weekend. this is a chewbacca mask. she went in, she bought this chewbacca mask, she came out, sat in her car and shot this video. she's so excited. 130 million views, take a look. >> that's not me making that noise, it's the mask. here, listen. [ laughing ] >> all right. this ridiculous mask, this ridiculous mask, they couldn't sell this thing. $49. they couldn't get rid of this mask. she does this video, it has sold out. it is off the shelves. they're now selling for $250 online, private sellers. it's gone crazy.

kohl's has sent her all the free "star wars" stuff that she can get. she's been on all the morning shows. >> that is amazing. it's a lesson to all the kids out there. your company can make it with one viral video. someone gets excited and does that. cal perry, thank you for that. we're expecting a verdict in the trial for one of those officers charged in connection with the death of freddie gray. that's going to be the next half hour. plus, much more on the latest developments in the search for egyptair 804. i'm steve kornacki. jose diaz-balart is up next.

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thope to see you again soon.. whoa, whoa, i got this. just gotta get the check. almost there. i can't reach it. if you have alligator arms, you avoid picking up the check. what? it's what you do. i got this. thanks, dennis! if you want to save fifteen percent or more on car insurance, you switch to geico. growwwlph. it's what you do. oh that is good crispy duck. and good monday morning to you. i'm jose diaz-balart. up first, bernie sanders going after his own party as the primary season comes to a close. the senator promising to fire the head of the democratic national committee if he's elected. saying front-runner hillary clinton is jumping the gun by acting like the nominee. >> we need a campaign, an election coming up which does

not have two candidates who are really very, very strongly disliked. i don't want to see the american people voting for the lesser of two evils. >> in our new nbc news/"wall street journal" poll this morning hillary clinton and donald trump are locked in a virtual tie. a one-time double-digit lead for clinton is now all but gone. >> my campaign is not going to let donald trump try to normalize himself in this period. i do not want americans and good-thinking republicans as well as democrats and independents to start to believe that this is a normal candidacy. it isn't. >> as you can see a lot to talk about this morning. our political correspondents are spread out across the country this morning. i'm going to start with msnbc's steve kornacki. let's do some big boarding, steve. where do things stand? >> it's tightened up. in the last couple ofks