tomorrow. go to bloombergpolitics.com right now. we'll be back tomorrow. sayonara. >> coming up, "hardball with chris matthews." gun play. let's play "hardball." good evening. i'm chris matthews in washington. donald trump is spending tonight seeking to defend his charge that once hillary clinton has gained power, she will terminate the right to bear arms and that the only way to stop her once she possesses that power will be for those trump-called second amendment people to take action. let's watch. >> hillary wants to abolish essentially abolish the second amendment. by the way, if she gets to pick -- if she gets to pick her

judges, nothing you can do, folks. although the second amendment people, maybe there is. i don't know. >> wow. don't treat this as a political misstep, said connecticut senator chris murphy. it's an assassination threat. seriously upping the possibility of a national tragedy and crisis. senator elizabeth warren was more personal. trump makes death threats because he's a pathetic coward who can't handle the fact that he's losing to a girl. that's an unusual use of the word girl these days. what trump is saying hillary clinton's campaign manager reacted in a statement is dangerous, a person seeking to be the president of the united states should not suggest violence in any way. trump's communications advisor, jason miller, said the media was misinterpreting what trump meant, saying it's the power of unification. second amendment people have amazing spirit and are tremendously unified which gives them great political power and this year they will be voting in record numbers and it won't be for hillary clinton. it will be for donald trump. the problem with that defense is

that trump was speaking about what second amendment people would do if hillary clinton wins and gets to pick judges, not what they can do in this election. with me tonight, connecticut governor danel malloy, michael steele, of course, former chair of the republican national committee and msnbc political analyst. governor, your thoughts when you heard, i was watching the gentleman behind trump when he says it. he just goes wow and looks at the person next to him. he can't believe he just heard the guy saying second amendment actions here. your thoughts? >> i instantly thought about israel and rabin. there were rallies going on in israel where death to rabin was shouted and no one responded. i will respond. this is insanity. it's a sickness, it's evil and republicans and democrats, independents have to stand up to this. we have to reject this. otherwise this insanity will play itself out in our own

country and over our existence, we have had enough assassinations. we have had enough deaths. and we just have to reject this and people have to come out to the polls and respond. and the final thing, this idea that she doesn't support the second amendment, i have been in the room when she has argued the second amendment. she understands the significance of that. that doesn't mean we sell guns to terrorists. it doesn't mean we sell guns to people who are mentally ill. it doesn't mean we sell guns to people when they come out of jail. we have got to stop the insanity. >> here's what trump said. hillary wants to abolish, essentially abolish the second amendment. by the way, if she gets to pick, if she gets to pick her judges, nothing you can do, folks. although the second amendment people, maybe there is. i don't know. at that point, the guy behind him goes wow. he's talking about second amendment solutions here. what's that about? >> it's insanity. it's this threatening, this

bravado, this sick bravado of donald trump where he's just tougher than everybody else and because he's so much tougher than anybody else, he can just put anything out there and then somebody will clean up the mess after him. he's got more housekeepers than anybody i know cleaning up the mess after this guy. but i am in infuriated that someone running for the highest office in our nation would play with the kind of language. this is not a dog whistle. this is a confrontation which he's calling for. >> michael, i want you to look at this with me. here's the man behind donald trump as he made that reference to second amendment actions. watch this. he goes wow and his partner, maybe his wife laughs and he sort of chuckles. he can't believe the candidate for president has just said quote, the second amendment people, maybe there is. they can do something. by the way, he's talking about what happens if hillary wins and gets to pick the judges. not about how you vote in the election. what's he up to here? >> i have no idea what he's up

to and i stopped trying to figure the out. i really have. i'm not going to be -- >> that guy thinks he knew what he meant. >> i'm not going to be that far off from where governor malloy is. there comes a point where mr. trump, the campaign, everybody has to realize that words mean things. given the history up to this point that when you start speaking again off script, when you start trying to pull the audience into you because you may feel like you're losing the audience -- >> we were talking about that before we went on. his fear of flop sweat is so extreme that he has to keep the audience ignited like he did. then throws down the little ambiguous thing, maybe you can use your gun. >> whenever he's speaking he does that pause, after he read what he's supposed to say, then he goes oh, by the way. i'm like okay, here we go. here comes the rest of the shoe. >> what did you think? i thought of sharon engel, talking about second amendment solutions in nevada. >> even if you give donald trump

benefit of the doubt and say he didn't mean that, he meant political activism, what did people hear? what did that man hear? one of the things about candidates and presidents is that they have a lot of supporters and some of them are fantastic and some of them might hear a message that encourages them to do violence. >> where's john hinckley here? this is the sad part of our reality as a country. we lost lincoln, garfield, mckinley, teddy roosevelt was shot, fdr, the mayor of chicago got killed instead of him, harry truman had a puerto rican -- kennedy was killed, ford shot twice. of course, reagan barely survived because they had good doctors and three minutes away because he got there in time. this is a weird country. malcolm x, martin luther king. everybody. it's amazing. people have been killed in this country, political people. >> there's no -- >> bobby kennedy. >> i just think that the more we move away, our leaders take us

away from that space, the stronger we are. >> here's another -- >> can i just say -- >> i want to let one person talk here who was almost assassinated. responding to trump's remarks today, tonight, former u.s. congresswoman gabbi giffords. responsible, stable individuals don't take trump's rhetoric to its literal end but his words may provide a magnet for those seeking infamy. it must be the responsibility of all americans and donald trump himself to his supporters, to those who remain silent or oppose him to unambiguously condemn these remarks and the violence they insinuate. bernice king, daughter of dr. martin luther king tweeted as the daughter of a leader who was assassinated i find trump's comments distasteful, disturbing, dangerous. governor? >> let me just say this. chairman steele made a very important point when he goes off script, he's in trouble. can i just tell you something? i have been a mayor or governor for over 20 years. governing is off script. that's what it is.

you have to respond. you have to lead. you have to use the right language. you have to be able to compel people to do good things, not bad things. this is the most disturbing example, listen, right before we got on, he was talking about how nato is obsolete. if nato is obsolete, we are in big trouble. that's one of his lines. but this line, this crossed the line. we can't tolerate this. people of good will have to reject this rhetoric. >> let's take a look at something i think is in the political mind of all of us. this was what sharon engel did in that nevada race for the senate. let let's watch. i know i'm a politician who says something crazy like this, i better not say it myself. instead he did. let's watch. >> i feel that the second amendment is the right to keep and bear arms for our citizenry. this is not for someone who's in the military, this is not for law enforcement. this is for us. and in fact when you read the

constitution and the founding fathers, they intended this to stop tyranee. this is for us if our government becomes -- >> it my ight be right now. >> it's to defend ourselves. i hope we're not getting to second amendment remedies. i hope the vote will be the cure for the harry reid problems. >> so she's hoping we don't get to the fact we got to blow the heads off our politicians. god. that's what she's saying there. >> second amendment remedies. >> are there -- that's what i mean, trump reads the papers, doesn't he? he knows this happened. why would he repeat it? >> because he's not thinking about that in this moment. he's in a different vein, in a different mindset. to what we just said, he's trying to keep the audience with him, he's trying to expand on a point that he's just made to reinforce that point, and it takes him down a rabbit hole. >> here's rudy giuliani. listen to him for a second.

then you can react. he accused the clinton campaign, it's not just the clinton campaign, misrepresenting. here's giuliani moments ago. >> what he meant by that was you have the power to vote against her. you have the power, you have the power to campaign against her. you have the power to speak against her. you know why? because you're americans. so the clinton people, so the clinton people, this is how corrupt they are from their days back in arkansas, they were corrupt. this is how corrupt they are. they spin out that what he meant by that was that it was a joke and that what he meant by that was that they would kill her. >> governor, what do you make of rudy's attempt there? i'm not sure he listened carefully to what trump said. trump didn't say you can vote against this guy or you can use your army of voters from the nra

on down to stop her from getting elected. he's saying once she has the power there's nothing you can do about it. of course, second amendment people might have something to do there. that was an amazing statement of sequence, not about stopping somebody from getting elected. how to stop them from doing what they're constitutionally able to do once in office is what he was talking about. that's the scary part. >> donald trump does not need a chief apologist, particularly one who is going to grab things out of the air and make it up. the former mayor of new york has done some wonderful work in the past and said some wonderful things and i have disagreed with him on others but he's dead wrong on this particular point. it's not as if he said well, we got to hang on to the senate and make sure that doesn't happen or we're going to have a good senate debate about confirmation. he didn't say those things. and he didn't blow a whistle. he said well, maybe there's some people out there who are really committed to the second amendment who will take matters into his own hands. that's what he was saying and it

has to be repudiated. >> that's the way it's been heard. we got a reporter here. how is this going to play? i'm looking at the wires. it's playing as something he shouldn't have said. >> it is, but it is item number 157 of things he shouldn't have said or where someone has come out and said that was what he meant to say or that wasn't what he meant when he said that. look how un -- >> some people want to hear him say that? >> look how uncomfortable rudy giuliani was in even describing what it was that other people heard. he didn't want to go there to describe how other people were interpreting the remarks. >> i think susan made the most important point and that is that these words that come out of your mouth matter when you're the presidential nominee, you are one election away from assuming that office. what you say, people do interpret. >> let's talk about how it takes two to tango. there's an element here. i think he's totally responsible for what he did but he's getting a little captain queagy here. the democrats know how to play this very well. enjoy this one aspect of this

terrible thing that was said. this is of course elizabeth warren who is wicked in her sarcasm. she is something else. donald trump makes death threats because he's a pathetic coward who can't handle the fact that he's losing to a girl. now, the only feminist in 100 years to use that word for a grown-up person like hillary clinton. she knows what she's saying. so part of it is getting the other guy, twisting him, making him go a little looney like this. >> yeah, no. the thing about it is that he will likely respond to that in some way and it really is to sort of paint the picture of the bully going after a girl. >> or as peggy noonan says, the bull that has been tormented so much that it goes right into the sore. last word, governor. maybe these metaphors are dangerous. i do find them apt. >> i think the senator cut him to the quick. the reality is this is a bully, he says it from up on the stage,

gives them an opportunity to think about what he may have made mistakes about and get the apologists all lined up and it's not really what he meant. i'm telling you that this is a dangerous human being who must be repudiated lest we repeat what we have seen happen in our own country and other countries. let's be clear. he does not have the temperament to be president of the united states. this is not someone we turn the nuclear codes over to. >> i wish you were running, governor. susan page, a center of intelligence and common sense and journalistic integrity. then there's you and me. michael steele, thank you. tonight at 11:00, join me for a special, i guess these are catching on. a live edition of "hardball" tonight. the latest on the presidential race, all the news that's breaking tonight. also the hot news coming in from wisconsin, where house speaker paul ryan is fighting it out in his primary. that's coming up in our late night edition.

coming up right now, donald trump's hitting back against 50 republican national security experts who say he would be a dangerous president. that's pretty strong stuff. we will hear from one of those experts along with retired four star general barry mccaffrey, who also says trump's unfit to be the president. plus, is trump trying to blow up the presidential debates? he says he wants the debate but he wants to renegotiate the debate terms. will he join hillary clinton on the debate stage? the roundtable is coming to tell me something about this presidential race that i don't know. finally tonight, the coo who oversaw the growth of nbc including this network and the coverage of the olympics speaks out on trump, personal responsibility and the challenge of autism. ♪ ♪

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welcome back to "hardball." on monday in a rare move, 50 of the country's most respected republican national security officials joined forces to sign a letter saying that donald trump is unqualified to be president. this is rare stuff. they went on to say he would be a dangerous president and would put at risk our country's national security and well-being. well, this morning, trump struck back saying that this was nothing more than failed washington elite people lashing out. here he is. >> these were the people that have been there a long time, washington establishment people, they have been there for a long time. look at the terrible job they've

done. i hadn't planned on using any of these people i guess for the most part i haven't even spoken to any of these people because i like to speak to a new group. the old group was not doing it. >> among those are some of the prominent signatories were michael hayden, former homeland security secretary tom ridge and michael chertoff. all of them. the letter comes at a time when trump is struggling to regain footing after a particularly bad couple of weeks. i'm joined by one of the co-signers of the letter, u.s. ambassador james jeffrey, visiting fellow of the washington institute and retired military analyst barry mccaffrey who last week in an opinion piece for the "seattle times" wrote trump was unfit to lead. general, i want to hear from you first. you are not in the business of offering up foreign policy or certainly not political opinion. why now? >> well, i think you're right. i tended to talk about policies critically or supportive, i tried to be analytical but stayed away from the candidates.

i'm not here to endorse anyone's campaign. but it seemed to me listening to mr. trump and i object to the notion that his problem is he's going off script. we are actually hearing trump and his actual views and his views were praising saddam hussein, a mass murderer, praising putin being apparently unaware that he's actually invaded another country and seized ground, threatening nato, loose talk about nuclear proliferation and then finally, the final straw was his insulting behavior to this grieving mother of one of our young troops killed in action. one of 60,000 killed and wounded fighting in iraq and afghanistan. this guy it seems to me has the wrong character to be president of the united states. >> does he strike you as sort of a character out of seven days in may? how do you see him politically, as somebody that will grab power like the man on horseback in

historic terms, the mythical notion of a guy who comes in and does what he wants to do? >> i think that will be part of the danger. we have to have an acceptance of the constitution, of the notion of three co-equal branches of government. i don't think mr. trump will think any of that applies to him. you know, so i think the problem will be that most of life is off message and we are hearing the kind of impulsive, violent, provocative and badly uneducated opinions that he comes out with, primarily on national security. that's what i'm talking about, homeland security. by the way, governor tom ridge, judge chertoff, general hayden, these are some of the most respected people in the country. they are american patriots. they think he's reckless and shouldn't be elected. >> ridge is near the top of my list. i agree with you. let me go to ambassador jeffrey. first of all, let me ask if

there's a policy difference, because trump has been very tough on the neo-cons, on regime change as a practice, going in and knocking off saddam hussein, going in libya, knocking off gadhafi or being obsessed with getting rid of assad, bashar al assad. is that your policy or do you have a difference with him on his fitness or ideology? >> chris, i'm a career diplomat retired. i didn't support a regime change. i'm one of the people sent in to spend three years in iraq on the ground trying to clean it up. i know what foreign policy messes are. we have got some explaining to do to the american people in the past but this isn't the way to do it, not with his agenda. >> what do you think his appeal is on foreign policy? why is he -- he's falling right now, it's a bad time for him but he got up to the low 40s. he was competitive with hillary clinton as recently as two weeks ago. very competitive. what's that about? what's his appeal? >> well, i think there's a general appeal, i'm a tough guy because i say i'm tough and i think that appeals to a lot of

people because strength and foreign policy is important. the problem is, unlike in domestic affairs, there's no checks and balances for foreign policy. the president as commander in chief and as the man or woman in charge of our diplomacy basically decides without any constraints. that's what worries me. >> the president of the united states as commander in chief, general, doesn't have a cap pistol. he has the united states military forces ready to take orders. do you have a sense there's somewhere in the chain of command that would stop a guy like him if he managed to be president? would there be a defense chief or joint chiefs? would there be any effective brake on a guy who's president who doesn't act like he's a grown-up, even? >> well, of course, that's one of the concerns. 2.2 million men and women in the armed forces globally deployed, the most professional force we have ever had in uniform, and yet he's, mr. trump has proposed things that are patently a violation of u.s. law. torturing american detainees,

targeting their jihadists' families, just astonishing rhetoric. at some point there would be a confrontation where the chain of command won't follow illegal orders and so i think one of the problems will be a real constitutional crisis. not just for the armed forces but with the notion of government, respect for the supreme court, deference to congress with the money power and the confirmation authority of the senate. i don't think we know -- this guy is impulsive and i don't believe he will think the constitution applies to him. that's my own personal judgment. >> this weekend, a media writer for the "new york times" says donald trump's campaign is testing the norms of objectivity in journalism. his extraordinary and precedent-shattering and to pretend otherwise is to be disingenuous with readers.

it would be an abdication of political journalism's most solemn duty, to ferret out what the candidates would be like in the most powerful office in the world. the reason i was grabbed by that, you folks that normally don't take partisan positions are doing what a lot of people in journalism, straight journalism, not opinion journalism, are being confronted with. how do you play or cover a campaign in the normal way when you have a candidate who clearly isn't normal? this guy is saying stuff you would normally say oh, you can't say that, you can't say nato is finished. we need allies in the world. every time we chase a fugitive in the world we need somebody to help us. we need help when we have to go to war. we need allies. we can't just tick off or forget them. yet it's new for many people to say one guy's objectively wrong for the country. he just is wrong. that's a hell of a statement. >> exactly. but one thing we do bring to this fight, chris, is that we have had a lot of experience overseas or working with people overseas. we have seen two things. first of all, first-hand as general mccaffrey has more than

me, what happens when things go badly wrong to our young men and women. that bears heavily on us. secondly, we have seen other governments, countries as well off as the united states in many respects, melt down because of bad leadership. it hasn't happened here but it's happened in other decent countries and it's something that also bears heavily on us because we know we are not immune to this. >> this weekend i was fortunate or unfortunate, i guess fortunate to meet with some men who have served in places like iraq which you are very familiar with, gentlemen. they have been disfigured, have lost limbs, had their life changed around psychologically, it's just amazing the world they face now because of war. i think that doesn't mean we can't have wars or shouldn't have them but it does mean the person at the top, who makes that decision, has to be almost perfect in deciding who gets -- >> cautious. the president needs to be cautious. >> you said it well. thank you, guys, for coming on. coming up, debating the

debates. trump lays ground work for renegotiating the biggest nights this fall. he wants to fight over the debates. what does he want? join me for a special edition of "hardball" tonight at 11:00 p.m. we will do it again. whole new show. it's great. there's something cozy about as we get to that hour. well she loves to say, "well, fantastic!" a lot. i do say that, you see... i study psychobiology. i'm a fine arts major. nobody really believes that i take notes this way, but they actually make sense to me. i try to balance my studying with the typical college experience. this windows pc is a life saver! being able to pull up different articles to different parts of the screen is so convenient. i used to be a mac user but this is way better.

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recover from a power outage on monday. about 1,000 flights were canceled yesterday. texas is reporting its first zika linked fatality. officials say a baby girl born died shortly after birth. 97 cases have been reported there but none were contracted locally. three children remain hospitalized after falling three stories from a ferris wheel at a county fair in tennessee. authorities say mechanical issue is to blame. back to "hardball." welcome back to "hardball." the clinton campaign last night agreed to three debates, all three proposed by the commission on presidential debates and goaded donald trump to do the same. whoever agrees first says come on, get out there. as chairman john podesta said in a statement, it is concerning that the trump campaign is already engaged in shenanigans around these debates. we will accept the commission's invitation and expect donald trump to do the same. so the dare is out there. but in an interview with "time"

magazine today, trump said i want the debate very badly but i have to see the conditions. i renegotiated the debates in the primaries, remember? i'm sure they will be open to any suggestions i have because i think they will be very fair suggestions. he also added that he wants -- he says certain moderators would be unacceptable, absolutely. i will demand fair moderators. is trump trying to blow up the debates? that's a question there's a buzz about. he's really saying i don't want to debate. the roundtable tonight, jonathan capehart, laura basset, and zeke miller, one of the great american names ever, political reporter for "time" who broke this story. i got to go to you. is he trying to get out of this or trying to get -- obviously wants the right moderator. what else does he want besides a moderator who will not undercut or humiliate him or look down on him? >> there's always that little bit of negotiation that goes on with any debates. the height of the podiums, will somebody be taller than somebody

else onstage. >> don't you love that trick? michael dukakis, they gave him a riser but had the camera angle from the side. all these games. >> he likes to think of himself as the great negotiator, he talks about -- >> what does he want? >> what he wants is the ability to show he's strong, to show he got a win more so than anything else. >> he's much taller than secretary clinton. so will there be a fight over the risers now? >> absolutely. i think for trump, the more critical factor will be the fight over the format which has already been announced. each has a different format as well as the moderators, who will be the people who are going to ask the questions and will they interject or not. >> jonathan, you were jumping there. one thing trump wants is an audience, he wants a peanut gallery. he only works, those jokes don't work unless you hear the cackle of excitement. >> right. he has to hear the applause and the laughter and he has to hear

the boos because the boos are the cue to him to keep talking until he gets the applause and the laughter. but to me, i think he's trying to blow up the debates because okay, fine, everyone wants to negotiate over the moderators but please, name a news organization or journalist who would be acceptable to him. >> that will hurt somebody. you know once he says this is my kind of person, they're in trouble. but he's already declared i'm not a media critic, he already said cnn, the clinton network. look, he's got the power. but the danger he might face is information questions. >> right. >> if i were donald trump, what i would fear most is exposure of not knowing who the prime minister of canada is or something like that. just not knowing something really basic to being president. >> exactly. i think there's a lot of things debate moderators could do to make trump look really stupid. i think when he said, i thought it was interesting when he said i want debate moderators who are

fair and balanced which happens to be the same line fox news -- >> shepard smith? >> megyn kelly is not fair and balanced enough. he feuded with her. he wants to pick people who will be kind to him. >> what about the format of the third debate? it's a give and take. they sit on stools, it's kind of embarrassing. they got to sit on stools and interact. is that -- would he be against that? >> that kind of debate he would actually like because then he would be able to go after hillary clinton in ways that he wouldn't be able to, i don't think, in any of these -- >> is he going to call her crooked hillary to her face? would you say that to her face, five feet away? you're crooked? >> i bet he would. >> he certainly would. >> he would? >> oh, yeah. >> if you look at the primary debates as instructive, it was never one-on-one but there were two different donald trumps. you would have the donald trump that faded in the background and you would have the donald trump that would engage one-on-one, in sort of the personal attacks. the challenge for the clinton campaign is which donald trump do you prepare for.

you have to do two different debate preps. >> he will not be able to hide in the background -- >> she's great. if she can prepare the substance being talked about, the normal boundaries of what you talk about, she will be great. but he will try to get outside those boundaries, i would think, and try to jump her from somewhere where she's never been thinking because she's smart about all the homework. she gets the homework done. she has people helping her. she knows her stuff. trump may find something that he wants to bring up that she's not, you know, and start arguing -- >> why wouldn't he have already brought it up? he's not a disciplined candidate. >> second amendment remedies or whatever. he's all over the place. >> think that would shake her in a debate? i think she will wipe the floor with him. she knows it. she smells blood in the water already. you can tell from her campaign's response today. >> okay. i like that. but that's not her attitude towards the media. >> blood in the water? >> no, can't wait to have the next press conference. hillary clinton does not, got to

respect her, she's done her homework, deserves to be maybe president of the united states, but she doesn't like mixing it up with the press. why would she like mixing it up with donald trump? >> i think she knows she can win. i think she knows she has way deeper knowledge than he does about any policy issue that could ever possibly come up. >> swing poll states to tell you why trump may be dangerous and wanting to know he has to win this debate. he may go in behind in the swing states. new poll, catch this, in iowa, clinton is leading by four. in ohio, she leads by five. he need ohio. in pennsylvania, the lead is now 11 and he need pennsylvania. these are all states trump needs to win. new nbc tracking poll this week shows clinton opening up a ten point lead nationally. biggest gap yet. this seems to me you can always tell, the person who goes on offense is the person behind. >> right. >> the person who is ahead, cools it. >> right. >> that means if you see the guy, often a guy, who attacks,

they look like it. they don't look good. because then the opponent can just say something like there you go again. people root for that person because they are being attacked. >> i think he's already imploding for that reason. i think as his poll numbers slip, he's starting to make more and more, i don't even want to call them gaffes because it's so far beyond that. suggesting hillary be -- >> is he pressing too hard? >> yes. i think he's panicking a little bit. i think it's starting to show. >> would you have ever voted for trump? >> would i? >> yes. would you have ever thought of voting for trump? >> no. >> never? >> thought of voting for him? >> yeah. when did you decide? >> not to vote for trump? >> yeah. >> when he was on "the apprentice" acting like a clown. >> this hasn't been an open mind situation for you. >> no. >> i don't vote. >> you don't vote? >> no. no, i'm of that school of reporters that don't vote. >> do you opine yourself when you go to bed at night? do you opine ever secretly? >> no. never. >> there are people like glenn

downey would never vote. >> i'm an opinion writer. i vote. >> would you ever have thought of voting for trump? >> absolutely not. >> since when? >> since june 16, 2015 when he said mexico is sending over rapists and folks like that. yeah. >> exceptional comment. >> no possible way. that's why i think coming up in the debate -- >> roundtable is sticking with us. up next, these people tell me something i don't know.

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we're back with the "hardball" roundtable. zeke, tell me something i don't know. >> carly fiorina is getting ready to run for rnc chairman. in january, should donald trump lose. and that race is going to be the big fight for the future of the republican party. the first fight in terms of how to define the post-trump gop.

>> is she going to be more like michael steele or reince priebus? >> somewhere between, i would suspect. >> would be the first woman ever in that jop. >> laura? >> trump still has an advisor from new hampshire, al baldossaro who during the rna called for hillary to face a firing squad. considering his comments today suggesting maybe second amendment people should take that into their own hands, he's going to have some explaining to do. >> why? >> why? >> why a firing squad? what capital crime did she commit? >> he was upset about the benghazi situation. he said she should face a firing squad for treason. >> what did she do? i keep wondering what she did in benghazi. >> didn't send enough security forces, i suppose. >> then why didn't they hold a decent hearing? still waiting for congress to hold a decent hearing. secretary clinton, go through minute by minute where you were when you first heard this guy was in trouble. they don't know how to have an organized hearing. everybody asks stupid question

after stupid question and hillary never had to do, which would have been helpful for her, when i first heard it was 6:15. then we did this, then we called, i talked to leon, we saw where the nearest forces were but then i heard he was dead. okay? i never left this issue. i never got off of it. i never went anywhere else. i tried to save my friend's life. but they don't know how to have clear conversations in these hearings. they don't get the clarity. go ahead. >> a week from today, my new podcast at "the washington post" premieres. >> this is about you. >> it is about me. i didn't give the graphic. >> you like that caricature of you? your glasses are regular sized. why do you have huge glasses? >> the old glasses i have. it will be great political conversation. >> what's our take-away on this? >> get it on itunes starting august 16th. >> you are so state of the art.

up next, the coo who oversaw the growth of nbc including the creation of msnbc and the network's coverage of the olympics speaks out on trump, personal responsibility and the human challenge of autism. my moderate to severe chronic plaque psoriasis made a simple trip to the grocery store anything but simple. so i had an important conversation with my dermatologist about humira. he explained that humira works inside my body to target and help block a specific source of inflammation that contributes to my symptoms.

in clinical trials, most adults taking humira were clear or almost clear, and many saw 75% and even 90% clearance in just 4 months. humira can lower your ability to fight infections, including tuberculosis. serious, sometimes fatal infections and cancers, including lymphoma, have happened; as have blood, liver, and nervous system problems, serious allergic reactions, and new or worsening heart failure. before treatment, get tested for tb. tell your doctor if you've been to areas where certain fungal infections are common, and if you've had tb, hepatitis b, are prone to infections, or have flu-like symptoms or sores. don't start humira if you have an infection. ask about humira, the #1 prescribed biologic by dermatologists. clearer skin is possible. join us again tonight at 11:00 p.m. eastern time. we'll have a live late night edition of "hardball" with results of that squeaker election out in wisconsin with paul ryan running for

renomination. lots more news breaking tonight. lots of news breaks late at night.

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stay ahead of ibs-d... with viberzi. welcome back to "hardball." during bob wright's career as head of nbc, he launched cnbc and msnbc. in 1988, his team negotiated unprecedented rights to televise the olympics, which you're watching right now. he built up the network's primetime schedule to include hit shows like "seinfeld." seen here with johnny carson. made friends for life. he's the author of the right stuff, from msnbc to autism. welcome to the show. >> thank you very much, chris. >> you're a citizen and you've had great responsibilities running this whole network. what do you think of what we're talking about, of trump, you know him from the apprentice, what do you think about this choice and what we have as a

choice, hillarier o hillary or ? >> i wanted to announce that i'm running for president of the united states, the main stream republican ticket, which is a center right party and i'm running against the progressive party, democratic party, and the moderate democratic party. and my christian -- conservative christian party, which is also a republican party, but somewhat different, i think you've seen what donald is, i've known him a long time. and he's a person with a lot of capacity, and he's got himself in a really tight spot here, there's no question. he appeals to an awful lot of people, but this is what's happened to our politics, both with both parties. he's trying to deal with what i'll call the christian conservatives and the mainstream republicans, and neither one of them are going to be satisfied. then you go over to -- and hillary's trying to do the same thing, trying to manage and

balance the progressives with moderate democrats. and he's just having a lot of trouble now, and he's saying things that go to both parties. it's quite awkward. but there's a lot of time left and if he stays with economics, if he stays with his taxes and he stays with immigration and jobs, you know, that's how he got there. so we'll have to see. let me ask you about your book, it's called the wright stuff, playing off your name. you were ahead of nbc and had an amazing successful career. what have you learned? >> the whole tentative of the book is when i was putting my life together, with the help of my wife who just passed away less than two weeks ago, which is a terrible tragedy, and by the way, about a third of the book is dedicated to her, i mean, in terms of material in

the book. what i always try to do is say, if you want to be ambitious in be in a small business, you must learn to accept and be responsible for what you're doing. you have to accept full responsibility, you can't be blaming other people. you can't constantly say, this is a bad luck thing and all that. you also have to have a lot of passion, and you have to have a lot of passion in what you're doing, and you have to try to control, if you have a lot of good ideas, you have to try to control them as best you can, and gather some very good people around you. and push them on. and that's what i tried to do. and other people have done that very successfully. a lot of them were entrepreneurial, but you can be entrepreneurial in a large corporation like ge. >> take a minute or two and talk about what you and suzanne did for autism, in terms of getting other people involved. >> well, we had the misfortune of having our first grandson diagnosed with autism and he was

quiet severe at the time back in 2004. we traveled around the united states and we looked -- we were trying to learn about it, we couldn't get help from the major medical organizations. they said, autism is not something that we treat, because there's no insurance coverage for it. so you have to get therapies and people have to pay for them themselves. we couldn't believe this travesty. all these parents out there, all working people, and they were broke, you know, doing what you have to do to deal with a child with autism. 30 hours a week at least in the early days. and that's hundreds and hundreds of dollars a week. and people just don't have that kind of money. so that's how we got into this whole thing. >> can you improve the life experience and communications ability of an autistic child? >> yes, you can. you can't improve every one. because no two children are the same. they're all different. but by and large, at least 50%

of children, if they get early access to therapies, occupational, speech, and behavioral therapies, and they can get that with a diagnosis at least by two years old, 2 1/2, all the way up to first grade, they have a 50% shot to matriculate to a public high school system at or near average grade level with a lot of help. and that's a big deal. the other half is going to have a much tougher struggle. >> you're only two years ahead of me at holy cross. you and your wife have been like parents to this network all these years. tell us about suzanne. >> well, suzanne was a very unique person, and she had enormous personality. and she was just so transparent. she was always looking to be in people's lives to, help them out. she helped me immensely in business. she was a great partner, and

homemaker. she cooked thousands of meals at home. she gave up her schooling to marry me and stay in law school. then she had to go back and she spent five years getting back her -- getting a degree at sarah lawrence, and the same time, doing all the things she was doing with other children and with charities and with our own family. and when this came along, she just poured herself into it. she just cried because christian was her first boy and he was perfect. we thought he was going to be a star. an early talker and all that. so she was the champion of this and created so much of the energy and the passion that went into it. she was 24 by 7 and then she created a marvelous organization, around the world. it's a worldwide organization now. >> bob, it's an honor to have you on the show, thank you so much for coming on. take care of yourself. >> don't forget to vote for me. >> you're just kidding.

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