over. >> we shall see. he was there today. bloomberg politics.com right now, john mccormick's great piece is up there about clinton's spending binge on the olympics. sayonara. coming up, "hardball with chris matthews." unhinged? let's play "hardball." good eecvening. hillary clinton was endorsed today by a veteran national security official but it was the language she used describing her opponent donald trump that's most shocking. the former acting cia director praised clinton as highly qualified for the presidency. his other reason for backing her is what he called his alarm over the prospect of a donald trump presidency. michael morell said trump is not only unqualified for the job but

may well pose a threat to our national security. morell went on to suggest that vo vladimir putin sees trump as exploitable. pointing to trump's temperament has become a major theme of the democrats this year. >> imagine him in the oval office facing a real crisis. a man you can bait with a tweet is not a man we can trust with nuclear weapons. >> yes, i think the republican nominee is unfit to serve as president. i said so last week and he keeps on proving it. i think i was right and mitt romney and john mccain were wrong on certain policy issues but i never thought that they couldn't do the job. >> well, today the clinton campaign debuted a new ad

quoting conservative critics of trump. the message, trump is too dangerous to be president. >> if he governs consistent with some of the things he said as a candidate, i would be very frightened. >> he's been talking about the option of using a nuclear weapon against our western european allies. >> this is not somebody who should be handed the nuclear codes. >> you have to ask yourself do i want a person of that temperament in control of the nuclear codes. and as of now, i have to say no. >> northboubc's hallie jackson wisconsin where donald trump is expected to endorse paul ryan tonight. i'm also joined by msnbc analyst mike murphy and valerie plame, former covert cia officer, a surrogate now for hillary clinton. thank you for coming on tonight. i gues i want you to just take the time now to talk about the issue of nuclear weapons and how the president of the united states has the nuclear football, the codes for using, deciding on

whether to launch those missiles which hasn't been done since the days of harry truman when we had the two bombs over japan. what do you think about trump as a commander in chief in the nuclear age? >> the notion of donald trump having his fingers on the nuclear button is absolutely terrifying. it's august now, people are at the beach, but i think they are sort of seeing this through the clouds of their vacation. his temperament simply is not up to it. as has been said, he's a man who is provoked by 140 characters. that is not the sort of temperament you need. you have about 12 minutes when you as the president, when you are warned there's a possibility of an incoming nuclear attack. within that time, you have to determine if it's accurate and how to respond. you absorb the first attack or do you launch on warning is what it's called, which is you immediately give the signal and

our nuclear weapons arsenal is launched. and trump time and again on this issue and so many others has shown not only his ignorance but his rashness. >> do you think he has an itchy trigger finger? >> i think he hasn't really thought much about it, chris. he sort of answers on the fly. in an old interview he said he could learn everything he needs to know about the whole -- our whole nuclear posture in an hour. he's such a good negotiator. and he has said so many things you never know what his statement is except that maybe it's kind of true in his head at that moment. they include as i think in your interview that he said first of all, well, you know, sort of so what if other nations get nuclear weapons. i think he was referring to japan. he didn't take off the table the idea of using nuclear weapons in europe.

it is very important for the president to be very careful of how they speak about either the use or non-use of nuclear weapons. he clearly thinks he's smarter than anybody else including vladimir putin and i agree with morell's assessment that he is in fact an unrecruited asset of putin. putin is far craftier than he is and is obviously manipulating trump for his own purposes. >> let me ask you about something we all wonder about occasionally. we know the president carries the code with him. it's called the football. can he declare a launch just by his own say-so? >> yes. >> he can. the secretary of defense says no, what happens then? >> yes. >> what happens? >> well, you know, of course the constitution says as you know that only congress has the power to declare war but there's no question that the president and the president alone has this

incredible responsibility of declaring nuclear war. there have been cases notably when nixon in the waning days of watergate when i guess he was drinking a little too heavily, that the secretary of defense and secretary of state sort of quietly put out the word to the nuclear command control that, you know, the orders needed to go through them first. it's not very clear, it's not made public exactly how that goes, but the possibility of an accident is already so high. do you want to put it in the hands of someone like donald trump? >> well, this afternoon, donald trump tried to flip the script, you might say, calling hillary clinton unhinged and unfit to be president. let's watch. >> unstable, hillary clinton, lacks the judgment, temperament and moral character to lead this country. she's a dangerous liar.

she's really pretty close to unhinged and you have seen it. you have seen it a couple of times. but people in the background know it. the people that know her, know it. and she's like an unbalanced person. hillary's central role in making iran the dominant islamic power that they are today in the middle east proves that she is totally unfit to lead. >> let me go to hallie jackson. it looks to me like operationally there he's translating from some other language. who is reading him those words? he has words like unhinged on a card in front of him. he's got words like unfit and he's looking down reading them. so somebody in that campaign decided to -- >> off of notes. >> -- script him with this tit for tat if you will with hillary. who is telling him to read that script? >> well, look, first, look at the language. you are talking about the language he's using. it's language the democrats use against donald trump. so it's a bit of the i'm rubber,

you're glue defense. for trump, he apparently believes this is going to be an effective line of attack. i'll tell you something. it is more disciplined than we have seen with him. he comes out onstage and instead of talking about polls or the latest media narrative, he's hitting hillary clinton and hitting president obama. he also called by the way clinton the queen of corruption. you know who's words those were? maine governor paul le page who said it at his rally yesterday. trump liked it, said it caught his imagination. i bring that up because le page said this week he had a talk with donald trump about being more disciplined. coming from paul le page, that's kind of interesting. but i do think it shows that trump knows he needs to be more on message. i will tell you this. he's telling his top advisors, donald trump, not only that he knows what he's doing, and he knows what he has to do. and that is continue to go after clinton and make sure the spotlight stays on her. i think that is what you are going to see tonight in green bay. after this, what we expect is an endorsement of paul ryan. which is also significant for

trump. it is a backtrack for him. that is something we rarely see from this candidate. >> mike murphy, i can't wait to hear from you. i want to presage what you say. when you bring wild ideas from le page to trump, you are sort of hauling a call to new castle as the brits would say. what do you make of this? you once said to me, i asked what was the heart of darkness about this guy, what's the real reason you won't back him, and you said his absolute ignorance of foreign policy. go on. >> yeah. no, look, i'm no trump defender and i can't vote for him, i don't think he has the judgment or the training to be commander in chief and the way he's out shopping for crazy things to say like it's open mic night or something is a troubling sign. that said, i think we are going a little too far on the nuclear button stuff. i don't think trump would be madly jabbing at the desk trying to launch our deterrent. i think it's a more every day problem, that he does not

understand foreign policy and his impulsive fly by the seat of his pants style could get him into all kinds of foreign policy trouble. he's already been the first president in decades to try to destabilize the nato alliance which is one of the foundations of our whole strategy. i don't think he understands nuclear deterrence which is all about the threat of nuclear weapons rather than the use of them. >> yeah. they are not like cinder blocks. you don't have to use them to have an effect. back in march, i asked trump about using nuclear weapons. let's watch what he actually said. >> look, nuclear should be off the table but would there be a time when it could be used? possibly. >> the trouble is when you said that, the whole world, david cameron in britain hear the president of the united states maybe talk about using nuclear weapons. no one wants to hear that. >> why do we make them? i would be the last one to use the nuclear weapons. sort of like -- >> can you tell the middle east we are not using the nuclear weapons? >> i would never say that. i would never take my cards off the table. >> how about europe? >> i'm not going to at a time

off the table. >> you might use it in europe? >> no, i don't think so. >> just say i will never use it in europe. >> i'm not taking cards off the table. >> valerie, here's the question. you have been in intelligence, you know what weapons we have, you know how we think and what deterrence is all about. what would be the advantage in terms of telling the europeans who are all our allies that we might use the weapon over there, the nuclear weapon in europe? what would be need to keep that on the table? >> well, sometimes even a blind pig finds the acorn. trump actually hit it right on. why do we have nuclear weapons if we're not going to use them. which is the broader existential question of our whole nuclear program. i'm a firm believer that now nuclear weapons in the 21st century do not make us safer. but he's just saying whatever comes into his mind in the moment and you know it. he can change at a whim.

he is simply like your other guest mike murphy said, he simply does not have the knowledge, the background, nor the discipline to even learn about this, to understand what's the difference between nuclear use, nuclear deterrence policy and how you speak about these things responsibly without the rest of the world leaders having their hair on fire over this. >> let me get back to hallie on this. go ahead, michael. >> no, just everything trump -- everything is negotiating a parking lot deal so he's confusing nuclear weapons with tactics rather than the strategic purpose of nuclear weapons which is you don't use them because of the deterrent of the idea. nuclear strategy is a big complicated thing that's gone through a long complicated debate in our national security establishment and he's totally ignorant of any of it. it scares the hell out of people when he throws terms like this around because it underlines his ignorance. >> hallie, a lot of people including me, are always hopeful about candidates. we watched people come to the

presidency like ronald reagan who behaved much more moderately than a lot of his critics had reason to believe he would perform once he got there. people on the left, for example, center left. reagan turned out to be one of our great presidents objectively said. people don't like hearing that, but look at the list. anyway, and then what shatters that with regard to trump is he got the nomination of the republican party and hasn't changed a whit from the guy out there duking it out with 16 other opponents in the primaries, lihe hasn't adjustedo the fact he's now the party nominee, one of the two people that's probably our next president. that shatters the idea he will change if he actually gets inaugurated. doesn't it? >> here's just the thought experiment, sort of the thing i would say to potentially rebut that. that is this. for months, yes, after donald trump became the presumptive nominee i believe it was may 5, he continue to relitigate the primaries, talk about his primary opponents even when a lot of republicans felt like my goodness, why aren't you focusing on hillary clinton for these five weeks when she was

still locked in the battle with bernie sanders. what did trump say at the time? it was my campaign doesn't really begin until after the convention. whether you buy into that line or not, that is some insight into donald trump's psyche and why there are still some who are hopeful, who kcontinue to have eternal optimism that perhaps donald trump, now that we are out of the conventions and turned to the general election, could maybe change. i will tell you this, too. i think one thing you hear from folks who come to these rallies, even people just out, i crisscross the country talking to people, one thing you hear about donald trump is well, he's really not going to do that, necessarily. that's something i heard from some of his supporters. >> i know all about that. no wall. >> they say well, right, they say, because here's the thing. they like what he portrays, what he symbolizes, even if they don't necessarily agree with the policies he's talking about. potentially for them it's gamble but they believe it will pay

off. >> thank you. thank you, mike. valerie, good to have you back. coming up, as donald trump stumbles some republicans are taking a good hard look at the libertarian ticket this year. former new mexico governor gary johnson. and former massachusetts governor could have a real impact on the ballot come november. they come to "hardball" right now. plus, inside the newest poll numbers and it's a dire picture for donald trump. he's losing ground with virtually every demographic group in our new nbc poll. among african-americans he's polling at 1%. we have the numbers coming up. in a rare back and forth with reporters, hillary clinton was asked questions about trump, her e-mail and why many voters don't trust her. some of her answers were very revealing and in some cases disturbing. let me finish with where this presidential campaign has actually landed on the nuclear issue.

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welcome back to "hardball." with the republicans losing confidence in their nominee donald trump, some on the right and center right are looking around for other options. one place they might look is the libertarian party. this year's libertarian ticket features two former republican governors, gary johnson and bill weld of massachusetts. according to the latest nbc/"wall street journal" poll, hillary clinton leads trump by nine points with johnson getting 10% of the vote and green party candidate jill stein at 5%. in order to qualify for a presidential debate spot this fall, a candidate must have a level of support of at least 15% of the national electorate as determined by five national public opinion polling organizations selected by the commission on government

debates. right now, gary johnson has an average of 8%, supporting him according to real clear politics polling averages. joining me is the libertarian party ticket, gary johnson and his running mate, the well nonpopular governor of massachuses, bill weld. a couple things. are you going to make 15 and is 15 a fair measure whether you should get in the national debates? we all know from perot's experience, if you get in, anything can happen. if you don't, it won't. your thoughts? >> well, you hit it on the head and yeah, we got some serious momentum and we are believing that we will be in the national debates by all of our aun analytics, things are picking up dramatically. >> i think your numbers have stayed about high single digits

for weeks now. why do you say it's changing? i have been looking at eights and nines for a long time now. >> i believe you think that that's the case but from our vantage point it's racheting up. a fox poll here a couple days ago at 12%. bottom numbers, if you go back six weeks ago, were 6%. top numbers now are 13%. so different viewpoint here. >> let me go to governor weld. >> not making it up. not making it up. >> we can argue. doesn't bother me. governor, what happens if you're at 14.9%, you don't quite make the 15%, is that fair? is this arbitrary? could you live with it? would you walk away and say that's the way it works? >> you know, i'm pretty sure i can feel in my bones we are going to get there. the last ten days, gary's right, it feels different out there. we are getting incoming calls from republican office holders. i'm thinking of endorsing you guys, i might -- i'm thinking of

announcing i'm going to vote for you guys. the ice is really cracking. i think people are coming to realize that the problem in this country right now is not so much an economic problem a a political proble the monopoly of power in washington between the two parties is starting to behave the way a monopoly always does. choking off creativity, power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely. monopoly power corrupts in a strong way. the parties almost seem to exist for the purpose of killing each other. we think if we drive the car right up the middle of the road, we are fiscally responsible, socially open and inclusive, that describes about 60% of the american people. most of whom don't know who we are. when they learn more and more about who we are, i think you will see those figures escalate dramatically. of course, if we were able to pick up some prominent endorsements from republicans or middle of the roaders or even democrats, that would accelerate the figures even more.

if we go into say mid-september with 20%, 25%, i firmly believe anything can happen. >> let me ask you about the possibility of being a spoiler. we all know what happened to ralph nader in florida, 92,000 votes, threw florida to a "w." are afraid you might take votes away from the left that would throw it to the other side or take votes from the right and throw it to the other side as well? >> well, this is a party that needs spoiling, chris. really -- >> which one? >> clinton gets elected, trump gets elected, the polarization in congress is going to be greater than ever before. our line is elect us, we will be bipartisan, we will hire democrats and republicans, all of them libertarian leaning but being able to call out both sides to come to the middle and let's deal with issues that we can come together on. it's a broad six-lane highway

do the middle that neither republicans or democrats right now are occupying. >> who's the last independent to win a state? presidential history? >> george wallace. >> yeah. can you imagine his success, any region of the country? >> oh, sure. gary is already polling within a couple points of the lead in the state of utah. other states in that pillar from the dakotas right on down to the rio grande. he's very popular out west. we might pick up even without this tsunami that i'm talking about, some states in the northeast. but what we are aiming at is winning the whole thing. nothing less. we think it's a gradual progression as people get to know us better, we think we have not only a potentially winning argument, a winning argument that we represent a mix of policy points of view that represents the majority of people in the country. the reason they are casting around and befuddled and uncertain because they are fighting against that thought i have to vote d or r.

that's not true. they can vote for whoever they want. when they analyze the situation we think they will come our way. >> let me ask about foreign policy. let's try to nail one thing down. i have a sense, this will maybe surprise you, won't surprise governor weld, hillary is a bit hawkish. i think she's not this president. she will be much more hawkish in terms of middle east, for example. middle east. i worry about that. i don't think we need to be more hawkish. on the other hand, trump is a mixed bag. he came off against these wars in the middle east, he said they're stupid wars. where would you guys be? let's assume trump is not a hawk, hillary is. where are you guys? are you as hawkish as hillary? >> i think -- no. no. when it comes to supporting regime change, i think that's had the unintended consequence making things worse, not better. we are at war with isis. it's a war we will see through to its conclusion. but involve congress in a declaration of war? how is it that we move forward

and just skeptical from the very beginning if we are putting boots on the ground, if we are dropping bombs and flying drones, that it have a strategic objective currently by doing all those things, we made things worse, not better. >> governor, do you agree with my proposal that hillary is hawkish and you would be less so, perhaps? >> no, i agree with that. having said that, we do believe in maintaining and demonstrating military supremacy in both air and naval power. you got to do that to help have a stable world out there. we do believe in constructive engagement. we do believe in cultural diplomacy, use of soft power. we are not stay at homes. we are the only free traders still left in this race. the other two have abandoned free trade which is the cornerstone of the world order these days. i think in a way we are the only non-isolationist ticket still out there. >> interesting. i would love to have you back.

i think we have a couple points about a more moderate foreign policy than we have seen from hillary at least in her voice and more free trade. she has buckled to the anti-trade crowd. i think she's a free trader but she buckled. thanks. it will be interesting if you do make the 15% cut. that will be one heck of a debate. i'm not sure based upon all the polling today, who is going to win. go ahead. your thought. last word. >> well, just having us here on your show, this will push us over 17. thank you very much. >> we have delivered bumps for lesser causes. thank you so much. governor gary johnson and governor bill weld. up next, inside the numbers. the new polls are dire for donald trump. if things continue, the republican party can suffer badly this fall, don't you think? what if anything can trump do to turn things around? if he wants to turn things around? this temperament thing is a question. what is he up to? why is he screwing around? ♪ mapping the oceans.

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i'm milissa rehberger. here's what's happening. the 19-year-old who allegedly stabbed an american woman to death in london and injured five others has been charged with murder and five counts of attempted murder. the u.s. central command says air strikes against al qaeda's branch in yemen killed three militants. it says the group is a threat to the region and beyond. they look tiny but the heaviest baby panda twins on record were born thursday in china weighing more than six and seven ounces each. back to "hardball."

is that concerning at this point in the campaign? >> it's very very early. i think we will do very well. >> welcome back to "hardball." donald trump says that in spite of what the new polls are saying it's still too early. but hillary clinton's cutting into his base of supporters and trump needs to rebound fast if he has any chance to close the gap and make this a race. according to our latest nbc/"wall street journal" poll, hillary clinton has a strong lead among women, of course, and a growing advantage with african-americans. a growing advantage. white voters with college degrees. meanwhile, trump's lead among men has been erased. in july he led clinton by seven points. now she leads him by one point. that's all men. clinton is also closing in on white voters. his lead among white voters without college degrees has also slipped. last month he led the former k secretary of state by 12 points. he's still ahead among white men

who have not gone to college. joining me are two people who know the numbers. cornell belcher. what do you think of these? you're losing white men who didn't go to college. that is a problem? >> it is a problem but i don't want democrats to celebrate too soon. when you look at the numbers, she's moving in line at 41, 42% among whites. i would call it sort of the ceiling. you look at where obama got and what kerry got, what's problematic for him is he's not running up the score among white voters. there's almost no way a republican can win if he's not running up the score like mitt romney. mitt romney got 59% of whites so he outdid reagan. he has no way if he's not running up the score with whites and you are seeing -- >> he's not running against barack obama. >> he's not running against barack obama. no. >> it's not a racial divide there such as it is. ed, you are always good. very hard to find you two days before an election. go ahead. >> i think you can't predict at this point.

we are in all new territory in terms of the data. we have never had two nominees for the party, over 50% in terms of their negatives unfavorability. and what was interesting is both of them started off at 55%. if you look at the average of all the polls today, hillary's at 52% unfavorable, he's at 58% unfavorable. these numbers are fairly baked in. i think what a lot of the people that are looking at movement every day on the polls are underestimating is that they both have a ceiling, they both have a floor. her ceiling is maybe a little higher than trump's. his floor is a little bit lower. but there is a point -- >> can't we elect somebody we like? is that allowed anymore? pennsylvania's where i'm from and i check in once in awhile, different people i know up there. when you say they are down on trump which i think people in my family, some of them are, not all of them, are down on him, i go well, what about hillary. they go no, i'm not going to vote for hillary. where are those people going to be?

>> that's the fluidity of it. that's why she hasn't put this race away. and again, if you look at where he's underperforming, those aren't people who have been voting democrat. you look at a lot of those reagan democrats, those are people who have not been voting democrat. do they vote hillary or sit home? >> what about the guy we just had on? will they go to gary johnson, libertarian? i mean a real libertarian? >> we are in uncharted waters. i don't believe a third party will get $ross perot was aphenom n -- phenomenon. if he gets to 15%, all bets are off. >> i would put bill weld in a presidential debate and figure he's the favorite. he's smart. >> we talk about the negatives. to put it in perspective, only 3% of the country liked both candidates. usually it's about 30%. 30% dislike both candidates. usually it's only 10%. that kind of puts it in perspective of what type of race this is going to be and why it's such uncharted waters.

>> will this be the lowest watched inauguration in history? >> well, more importantly, what not many people are talking about right now is that independent voters have a 60% unfavorable on both of these candidates. they may decide by the end of this campaign a pox on beoth yor houses. >> that usually hurts democrats. >> not necessarily, because look, barack obama didn't win independents in 2008 or 2012 but take a state like new hampshire where a large swath of that group is independent voters and you see the polling numbers where he's down 15 points or so in new hampshire because independent voters, particularly independent women, are breaking from him. he's got to win back some of those voters. it is having a down ballot when you look at ayotte's numbers. rn >> clinton's advantage with achach african-american voters is

growing. she leads by 90 points. i have grown up, before the '60s it was about two to one democrat. now it's just unbelievable. i don't know who the 10% are. >> the republican party has to start listening to smart guys like this. you can't win a national election if you get 1% of support of african-american. look what george bush did in ohio. he competed in ohio, got double digits in ohio. if a republican can get 15%, 16% support in ohio a republican can win ohio. you can't win ohio with 1%. >> georgia is an interesting state. it shows hillary clinton with a four point lead over donald trump. the last democratic presidential candidate to win georgia, bill clinton in '92. utah is another crazy situation. >> one of the things we are seeing right now, there are some blue states that are loo much closer and some red states that are looking much closer. >> which blue state's closer? right now? >> well, not this week's polling. if you look up until this week,

look at michigan, pennsylvania, wisconsin, they are certainly within the margin. but you also have missouri -- >> utah. >> you have georgia, you have utah. utah's a whole different thing. we did a poll of utah and trump's negatives in utah was at 67% but hillary's was at 73%. no one was getting on the ballot over 35%. that's where gary johnson ought to be spending his time. >> he does well according to them out in the west. the plains states and mountain states. remember how george mcgovern did better out west? >> what's so important about georgia, in 2008 we actually, obama campaign polled in georgia and it was close but it was so expensive, we would have to pull out of another state to go there. the clinton campaign is talking about going down in virginia and colorado. guess where they can now spend that money? a state like georgia. she has the ability to expand the map. >> talk about thhow this race c change. we have seen horrendous

terrorism. this catholic priest saying mass and having his head cut off. that's a religious war. this guy was targeted because of his religion, because he's practicing his religion, saying mass. what happens if that kind of thing continues? will trump be able to exploit that? will the whole thing change between now and november? >> perhaps. polling this week showed they were even on handling terrorism where he had a 10 or 12 point advantage. >> that's because we haven't had terrorism recently. >> it goes back to at the end of the day, this campaign's going to be about the middle class. and whoever can go to the middle class and say i'm going to make you safer, i'm going to bring prosperity to you and i'm going to bring the american dream back within your reach, and this is how we are going to get there, not just -- >> okay. why doesn't he do that? why doesn't trump come out with a three point program? i will build like you have never seen, not just high rise, i will build rapid rail, i will put so many construction guys to work you won't believe it, they will be jobs that pay $29 an hour,

these will be amazing jobs, so many of them this country will turn around. i'm going to build like huey long built. why not keep the focus on jobs? >> i'm glad he's not. quite frankly, that would be message discipline. what we have seen from this candidate is no message discipline at all. he's throwing babies out of rallies. so the movement right now even in the polling is moving, actually numbers moving away from him than going toward her. that's why for democrats, be careful here. let's not start to celebrate. we won't have a ten point election. >> it's not as simple as just message. you have to go back to the 55% that were unfavorable towards him before he even got into this race. it was based on personality. it was based on his persona. he has to do it in such a way that he's giving specifics, not just talking in broad strokes. >> we will do this again i hope. up next, with a big lead in the polls, hillary clinton today did a rare back and forth with reporters. she was asked about her

trustworthiness and e-mail but also about donald trump. at times she was forced out of her comfort zone it's been said today. the roundtable is talking about it.

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welcome back to "hardball." hillary clinton addressed a rare audience today, journalists. appearing at a conference for the national association of black journalists and the national association of hispanic journalists, she fielded questions from panelists. she was asked about a recent interview in which she asserted that fbi director comey had declared her public comments about e-mail practices as quote, truthful. >> what i told the fbi, which he said was truthful, is consistent with what i have said publicly. so i may have short-circuited and for that, i, you know, will try to clarify because i think chris wallace and i were probably talking past each other, because of course, he could only talk to what i had

told the fbi and i appreciated that. >> well, joining me for tonight's roundtable, colleen nelson, white house correspondent for "wall street journal" and sam stein's political editor and reporter for the huffington post, francesca chambers from the daily mail. let's see if hillary clinton walked into more trouble. was her answer clear? did she clarify what she said to chris wallace and what the truth is? did she put it all together or not? >> she did not clarify this. what comey said was not that she was truthful in everything she said. what comey said was he had no basis to believe that she's lying in her interview with investigators. so she said well, she kind of, her word was short-circuited that by saying well, i was truthful to investigators and i have been truthful to the public and i have been saying the same thing all along so that all adds up to comey thinking i'm truthful. but if you look at comey's broader comments, he said that he had no basis to judge whether she's been truthful with the american public. he said that when he was confronted with her statements about not sending classified

material, he said classified material had been sent. so she again offered a very -- >> why would she keep saying that comey had said something that he hadn't when comey's alive and the transcript's available? why say something that's so not true? just let it go. >> this is a good question. comey clearly is not going to weigh in on this and go tit for tat with her on this. >> but we have tape. >> he said what he's going to say. this seems easy enough to clear up. she knows this question is still out there. she knows she will get asked this question again and again. it would be simple to say i made a mistake. >> i was confused about her answer today because she knew this question was probably coming. she is getting questions today and she did not provide a clear answer on it at all. over the entirety of this campaign, she hasn't seemed prepared to answer questions about your e-mails even though she's had 18 months to come up with answers on some of these things i. it was very convoluted today. >> sam, we all remember, the

nixon campaign, where the whole strategy was we got the lead, hold on to it, avoid press interplay because it will just get bad headlines. he had the pretend debate but he never debated, he avoided the press. is she strategically running that kind of campaign? avoidance of a lot of interplay with the press? >> running that prevent defense. if she is, she has been doing it for 240 days. it's been that long since she held a press conference although i don't know what you want to call this. obviously she's a bit averse to taking press questions. >> what's the big bad question she's afraid of? >> i don't know if there's any particular thing she's afraid of. i think she is basically doing what you said that nixon would do, which is to say i have a very comfortable lead, i'm doing good work on the ground, i'm making all the right moves, why would i want to trip myself up? >> here secretary clinton was

asked about the issue of her trustworthiness. >> how would you lead a nation where a majority of americans mistrust you and what extra responsibility might you have to show that you are up to the task? >> well, let me start by saying every time i have done a job, people have count orded on me a trusted me. maybe, just maybe when i'm actually running for a job, there is a real benefit to those on the other side in trying to stir up as much concern as possible. >> well, that's not a bad defense. it only will work with your people, though. if you blame the other side by definition your side will agree and the other side won't. >> that's right. interesting timing. she by and large has had a very good week. she let donald trump -- >> she's the luckiest person in the universe this week. >> donald trump having all of these problems. so she's up in the polls but this not a press conference but this interplay with press today -- >> at this point, she's actually

right in respect. her polling numbers have gotten much better when she's not actually running for office but holding office >> so true. >> well regarded secretary of state. >> joe biden keeps going up all the time, by the way. he's not running. roundtable is staying with us. up next, they tell me something i don't know. when i crave a smoke that's all i crave. that's where this comes in. only nicorette gum has patented dual-coated technology for great taste. plus nicorette gum gives you intense craving relief. and that helps put my craving in its place.

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behr's most advanced paint. come find our top rated paints, only at the home depot. back with the "hardball" roundtable. tell me something i don't know. >> in honor of the opening ceremony of the olympics, president obama is not going to the olympics this year. he's never been to one in his presidency, but that's not atypical for presidents in the united states. in the past, they have not went if it was out of the country. it was george w. bush who broke with tradition and went to china. >> i did not know that. >> i was hoping you didn't know it. that was the point. >> so the smartest president we ever had hung out the jocks. just kidding. >> he was hanging out with the volleyball players. >> fair enough. >> donald trump doesn't want to kick babies out of his rallies. he just told us a couple hours ago, it was all a joke when he kicked the baby out this week. >> more crying.

>> a >> at the end of a week where hillary clinton is rising in her campaign, we're starting to see worries democrats could get overly confident. she implored her supporters, don't take anything for granted. >> you know what happens when you tell people not to take it for granted? they take it for granted. thank you all. when we return, we'll tell you where this presidential campaign has landed. you're watching "hardball," the place for politics. ♪

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let me finish tonight with a place where this presidential campaign has landed. it's the question of, in whose hands we place control of our nuclear weapons. why? because it's one issue we can all agree is vitally relevant to our vote and all the people of the planet, present and future. because this decision cannot be undone by all the future presiden presidents. once one is launched, there's no taking it back. once one is launched, the planet becomes a killing field. who is donald trump seeking to encourage or discourage by

saying he cannot imagine launching a missile into the heart of europe. but the real concern arises from the temperament issue. one gets the idea that anyone who takes a shot at him will lead to him retaliating, whether it's a nasty new nickname or some accusation of wrongdoing. one thing donald trump never does is let something go, whether it comes at him from a national leader or anyone along the campaign trail. it's this trait that has caused many to wonder that once in office, once in power, donald trump will be the same man he is today. here's the reasonable suspicion that's hanging in the air right now. there was once a well owned hope that donald trump once elected would begin to accept the constraints of the presidency, that he cannot engage in street fighting anymore. what's dashed that hope, trump's failure to adjust to his status as republican presidential nominee. the trump on the stage today is

no different in temperament and behavior than the guy who went to war politically in all the primaries. he hasn't changed. so why would we believe he would change if he's managed to be elected? and that's "hardball" for now. thanks for being with us. "all in with chris hayes" starts right now. tonight on "all in" -- >> unstable, hillary clinton, she's really pretty close to unhinged. she's like an unbalanced person. >> trump targets clinton as the former head of the cia calls him a threat to national security. >> all of my life i've been told, you have the greatest temperament. >> then, the republican nominee names his all male economic team. >> donald trump's problems go far beyond economics. >> plus, trump on the women he would appoint to his cabinet. >> there really are so many that are really talented people, like you. i mean, you're so talented. >> and his explanation for turfing a baby from his r