that's all for tonight. we'll be back monday with more "mtp daily." have a great night. i'm donny deutch. >> i'm mark halperin. "with all due respect" to taking the boy out of queens -- >> go home to mom. go home to mom. and your mother is voting for trump. >> considering you brought my mother into it. happy friday. the end of this week could not have come any sooner for donald trump. it has been one of the worst periods of his presidential campaign, although maybe we're just saying that because we're members of the mainstream media. so don't take our word for it. listen as some analysis from a dispassionate observer, rush limbaugh. >> the drive-bys think this is

over. i mean, trump's finished. trump doesn't have a prayer. i mean, that's the narrative each day. you hear stories, now there's fund-raising problems at the rnc that republicans down the ballot are urging reince priebus to stop spending any money on trump, that it's a waste of money. of course, we had the 50 former national security aides, republicans, all writing or signing a letter claiming that trump's outrageously unqualified and unfit. he's so far down in the polls, there's no way, there's no way he can make any of it back. this seems to be the narrative. >> across the fruited main that is what we call a limbaugh classic, putting words in the mouth of the so-called drive-by media to explain what's going on. you need the take rush's tone with a finely ground grain of salt. our suspicion and our experience suggests that mr. limbaugh is saying this stuff because he recognizes there's more than a

peppercorn of truth in all of it. for example, these are the kinds of news reports you're seeing on tv as this week ends. >> trump today doubling and tripling down on his claims that president obama and hillary clinton are the founders of isis. michael, who is the founder of isis? >> cnn, that may not exactly be the right question to ask. trump responded with this widely read tweet this morning. ratings challenged@cnn reports so seriously that i call president obama and clinton the founder of isis and mvp. they don't get sarcasm? donald trump, the first presidential candidate whose campaign is apparently largely based on sarcasm. which might help explain his new campaign slogan, trump 2016, could i be any lower in the polls? yes, the polls are so bad that trump himself, a man who typically does not lack for confidence, even conceded that in at least one state, he's concerned both bigly and big league. >> i'm having a tremendous

problem in utah. utah's a different place and i don't know if -- is anybody here from utah? i mean, it's -- i didn't think so. we're having a problem. >> quick piece of advice for mr. trump. maybe don't refer to one of these united states as a quote, different place. and by the way, if you're a trump supporter and you think utah's bad for your candidate you won't want to look at these brand new surveys of much more electorally important states that come from nbc news/"wall street journal" and marist. like in florida, where trump is down by five points. north carolina, where he's down by nine. virginia, where he's down 13. and colorado, down 14 points. when these poll numbers broke politics twitter lit up more than a michael phelps after-party. if trump loses all four of these states his chances are doomed. here's the thing. this is not a secret. if our researchers can figure this out, so can trump and also, can leaders in congress. at least one top congressional

republican is now saying behind closed doors that trump is almost certainly going to lose and on the record, the senate majority leader mitch mcconnell of kentucky said that the chances of the republican party keeping control of the senate are quote, very dicey. while we're on the topic of congress, consider conservative heavyweight steve king of iowa, one of the few republicans you could actually see not hiding at the national convention in cleveland. he delivered a speech at the iowa state fair yesterday, and unprompted gave the impression he could work with the next president of the united states because he's worked with her before. >> i sat across the table from hillary clinton eye-to-eye. when you're working outside the staff and outside of the press, she is somebody i can work with. >> all right. so trump loses susan collins, all right. meg whitman, fine. but steve king? steve king, who made comments last month that were described by hillary clinton's campaign as quote, literally white supremacy. yes, that steve king. all this explains why top

republicans are holding a quote, come to jesus meeting today in florida with the trump campaign. oh, to be a zika-free mosquito on the wall at this meeting. our friend, former mississippi governor haley barbour, has a pair of dictums for crisis situations like this. one goes like this. in politics, good gets better and bad gets worse. the other one says that nothing is ever as good or bad as it seems. so our lead question today is which barbourism is true for trump right now? which is to say, is this a full-fledged crisis for the republican nominee or is this just an august trump slump? >> it's obviously a crisis. the numbers don't lie. the battleground states are going away and they are going away dramatically. it's hard to start to imagine a path. i had a thought last night for trump. he needs, i have been called to stop a lot of crises, communication branding guy, and i kind of put that hat on. there is something in the little sarcasm plays, not doing it right. don't go at the media.

but say you know what? give a checker speech. you know what, i got to tell you guys the way i communicate and helped me build my business. i say outrageous things to open up the discussion. of course hillary clinton and barack obama are not the founders of isis but they enabled it and i got that discussion going. of course i don't want anybody taking out a gun at hillary clinton but we need to focus on second amendment. guess what? i'm not going to do that anymore. because it takes our eye off the ball. that's my style but it's not working here. for the next two or three months we're not going to do that. while i'm at it, i want to apologize to the khans because i think that is the one thing that really stays in people's minds. because it showed his core. and say i haven't been sleeping at night and i was wrong and there's nothing like that. take it all off the table because otherwise, those bullets continue to fly. i really believe he can reboot it. it's got to be done in the right way. it cannot be done attacking the media. it's explaining why he's done things. of course i don't believe -- >> the stakes are so high for a lot of voters. what i'm hearing from republicans now is he's not

giving people a sense that he understands that it's important to stop hillary clinton from being president, from their point of view, and that he gets that he needs to fight back. there's too much business as usual for a lot of republicans who say if this is what he's going to keep doing, making mistakes, being sarcastic, fighting with the media, not focused day to day on the news cycle on what they think can win this election, he is going to lose and the numbers are hurting not just trump but they are now terrified trump is going to infect any candidate who could be hurt by trump, will be hurt by trump if he doesn't turn things around. he needs to do something dramatic. he cannot wait until the debate. >> he wican no longer say i'm n doing this anymore. he needs to take a step back. those droppings are on the floor and are not going away. they will come up during the debate and in every interview he gives. you can't just leave them on the table and move on and not do it again, okay, i'll behave. got to take them off the table. if it's the right tone. it's a tone we haven't seen because --

>> it's a tone he has inside of him. >> he does. the media wants a race. so they will go whoa! here we go. >> speaking of the media. >> they might end up on his side. probably not. donald trump finds himself in an unprecedented spot. it's not that he's getting a huge number of fact-checkers. it's a reporting style we typically see in elections and today's case studied his most recent comments about obama, clinton and the founding of isis. >> donald trump tried to dismiss his first claim that president obama founded isis as sarcasm. >> when he repeated that false claim -- >> repeating a false claim -- >> why does he keep repeating it if it's obviously not true? >> the fact checkers are having a field day with this one. >> president obama did not found isis. >> for clarity, they're not the founders. >> i looked up the actual definition of founder. it is a person who establishes an institution or settlement.

so founder would be like if i founded the wolf blitzer fan club which i would do because i believe in that cause. this is suggesting that president obama and hillary clinton believe in the cause of isis. which is just not true. >> little known fact, i'm the founder of the mark halperin fan club. the other day, cnn used its lower third to both quote and correct trump at the same time. it's also happening in print and online. recent news story by "new york times" and a.p. called trump's claim that president obama founded the islamic state as quote patently false and exaggerated. okay. we're not saying any of this is necessarily wrong. in fact, on "morning joe" this morning, "washington post" columnist eugene robinson and david ignatius made a convincing argument for why it's necessary. >> everybody in the media is going to have to decide and continue to decide how do you deal with this. >> when you've got a guy who goes out and makes a flat-out false statement every day repeatedly, president obama founded isis, how did you cover

that? >> you have to write a news story saying trump said blah, blah, blah, close quote, which is not true. >> pin him down on the lies in the news stories. >> you just have to call it what it is at some point. >> on top of all this, unlike any election we can remember, columnists are ganging up on trump and advocating for his total defeat. people like tom friedman who wrote this week, the republican nominee is quote, a disgusting human being. his children should be ashamed of him. i only pray that he's simply not defeated but that he loses all 50 states. the media covered hillary clinton's untruthful claims about her e-mails and the four pinocchios she got from "washington post" fact checkers last week but it certainly pales in comparison to the intensity of the type of scrutiny trump's speeches are getting. here's the question. how much of this being framed by the media is dooming trump or can he make a move? >> it is death. there's so much of what people

learn about this race come from the media. i think it's great, i have in my career always advocated not this he said/she said thing. if somebody's not calling the truth call them out for it regardless of what party they're in. not in a biased way but a factual way holding them accountable to the public interest. it's great people are doing it for trump. people should do it for clinton too. right now it's totally unequal. i see why some republicans in the trump campaign are frustrated by this but they are bringing it upon themselves when their candidate goes out every day and does something new. we should be doing it for bh candidates but i never in my career have seen straight news reporters so basically openly calling one of the people a liar in news accounts. >> the reason is because reporters, contrasting what trump says, are actually people. trump inspires such passion on both sides, even reporters because they are human beings. some of the things he's said have been so offensive. you see tom friedman, one of the smartest guys around. i think they are feeling a responsibility on some level that they usually stay out of

it, but this is the most passionate people, we can put reporters under that guise, have ever been about any candidate. >> this meme that trump is a liar hurts him in a thousand ways. one of his main arguments against hillary clinton that he's trying to make it she's a liar. and if the press day to day is explicitly calling trump a liar and then regarding hillary clinton and the e-mails or hillary clinton and the foundation, is saying well, she says this and other people say this and she says this, that is a losing position for trump. no matter what else he does, that's a losing position. >> needs to take an eraser to the board and start over with the media and everybody else. up next, the great 2016 tax war. we will show you how much money the clintons made last year and what it means for your traffic and weather this weekend.

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i we worked with pg&eof to save energy because wenie. wanted to help the school. they would put these signs on the door to let the teacher know you didn't cut off the light. the teachers, they would call us the energy patrol. so they would be like, here they come, turn off your lights! those three young ladies were teaching the whole school about energy efficiency. we actually saved $50,000. and that's just one school, two semesters, three girls. together, we're building a better california. one day after economic speech in michigan, hillary clinton is trying to put new

pressure on donald trump and his campaign by releasing her 2015 tax return. she did that this afternoon and is once again calling on the republican nominee to do the same. clinton's returns show that she and president clinton earned $10.6 million last year, little more than donny. paid a 34.2% federal income tax rate and donated 9.8% of their gross annual income to charity. the clintons have previously released decades of their past returns and clinton's running mate today released ten years of his own tax history. trump as you all know has so far refused to release his returns citing the fact that he says he's under routine audit by the irs. here to chat this through with us, nbc news correspondent who covers the trump campaign, katy tur. katy, is this going to be effective? you think this will cause trump to relent? >> no. he's not releasing his taxes. he's under audit, he says, even though we contacted the irs to find out if that's true and they didn't respond. it's not going to happen. >> zero chance. first of all, an audit has --

even if he is under audit, warren buffett was under audit. has nothing to do with releasing your returns. i feel incredibly strong about this. we all have one job in this country, pay your taxes and not break the law. taxes are a peek into the soul of how you live your life, how you conduct business. what you will find in those returns, why he wouldn't release them, possibly zero tax because if we wanted to bore the audience, we would get a real estate tax attorney in here and explain in the real estate business there's a lot of funny business. the other thing you will find, there's always been rumors all over the city he's about the least charitable rich guy around. >> i got an e-mail as you did a few moments ago from the trump campaign that said about hillary clinton's taxes. i thought maybe this is it. >> you didn't actually think that. >> piece of me did. all right, i didn't really. instead, they are going on the attack saying she's dishonest about her e-mails. >> saying the one thing she released is the one thing nobody cares about. they want to see the 33,000 what they call missing e-mails, deleted e-mails, that nobody is going to really care one way or the other if she releases her

taxes. despite that, i think they will have some fun with it. they will say look how much money she made in speeches, how much money they made in book deals and -- >> she paid 35% in taxes. >> following the buffett rule. the trump campaign doesn't necessarily use -- >> logic. >> yeah. >> you can bet as she was approaching this year they thought how much you going to pay, let's take the right deductions. >> for the last 25 years. >> it is surprising considering these are two people that basically run for office for a living, that they are making as much money as they are. >> the american public needs, i know your partner talks about this, needs to demand. you are running for president, you show your taxes. >> donald trump's supporters don't care. >> you are the last to not show the taxes? >> if he doesn't do it by the first debate i bet it becomes a big issue. >> he's not releasing it. zero shot. there was a report that several months ago the fbi was considering opening a corruption case against the clinton foundation but nothing materialized after the agency

got push-back from department of justice officials. republicans are jumping all over this. guys, if any of this is true, pretty big deal. >> well, the doj is not commenting on it. the fbi is not commenting on it. the clinton foundation is not commenting on it. but this feeds into the narrative that donald trump wants to paint which is that there was something shady going on, she was using the foundation and her role in the state department to serve herself and so the fact that nobody's commenting on it, there's no official denial that it was happening, does lend the trump campaign the ability to go out and attack her on this issue. >> this is not a case for the press is trying to not cover it. the reporters are really interested in this story. you think about pre-the comey announcement on the e-mails, it was a big deal when comey said contrary to some people's suspicions the fbi does not want an investigation. we are recommending no investigation. in this case, if the reports are right, they did want an investigation. doesn't mean they sought an indictment. but an investigation. until other news agencies confirm it, until there are specifics, it's hard for the trump campaign to --

>> the reality is the press covered hillary clinton's e-mails nonstop before donald trump got on the scene and started saying the various things that he says. he's sucking the oxygen out of the room, sucking the coverage away from clinton, and i have spoken with gop operatives and party members who say in some ways it might be better if he went dark for the entire month. >> in some ways? every way. >> so the focus could be entirely on hillary clinton instead of what donald trump said. >> that's going to be the strat jich strategy. how could he spend his time more profitably? >> if i'm hillary clinton, i go away. we talked about her speech yesterday which was a non-event. >> katy will stay with us. when we come back we will talk more about donald trump and life on the trail and birds. at safelite, we know how busy life can be. these kids were headed to their first dance recital... ...when their windshield got cracked... ...but they couldn't miss the show. so dad went to the new safelite-dot-com.

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against our western european allies. max boot: this is not somebody who should be handed the nuclear codes. charles krauthammer: you have to ask yourself, do i want a person of that temperament controlling the nuclear codes? and as of now, i'd have to say no. [bill o'reilly sighs] and as of now, i'd have to say no. get between you and life's dobeautiful moments.llergens by choosing flonase, you're choosing more complete allergy relief and all the enjoyment that comes along with it. when we breathe in allergens,

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the top 50 modern swans, one of the most stylish and emulated young women. here's what the magazine chose to illustrate her swanness. does that make me an honorary swan? >> wow. first of all, congratulations. >> thank you. >> i'm known as the world's great feminists. shouldn't it be world's most influential women? >> you're right. >> keep it up. you are one of the most brilliant reporters out there. >> thank you. >> to kind of turn it into a beauty pageant like that? i'm offended. >> i'm honored that they included me in their list. i like that they called me a swan because nobody in my life ever accused me of being graceful. i'll take it. >> your article about covering trump, this, my first presidential candidate i covered was bill clinton. i thought wow, presidential candidates are really interesting and great speakers and work 20 hours a day. your first presidential candidate equally unusual. >> yes.

>> trump. so what's, give us the sense of what it's like to cover him day to day. >> it's a wild roller coaster ride or as i said in the article, a hurricane making landfall on a daily basis. you never know what's going to happen with trump. you could be doing one story up until 5:30 that day and 6:30 is when nightly news comes around and he will tweet something or say something that upends the entire process. i don't think i ever thought in my life that i would hear somebody running for president say that somebody else was schlonged but they d. >> why do they call you little katy? >> because i'm 5'2". i don't know. >> you are in all of the rooms. you see the sound bites with angry people screaming. the "new york times" did this three-minute thing where you go it's a lynch rally. when you walk in, when i go to a ball game you can feel. is that what the room feels like? >> there are some rooms that are much more tense than others.

last night i wasn't in kissimmee but you could feel it from the video. we had this in new orleans as well. i think columbus, ohio, for another one. maybe one in michigan as well, where just the room was angry and it feels like they're spoiling for a fight, they are out to tar and feather somebody. they feel like they have been underrepresented, their voice is not being heard. you feel it, absolutely. they come to the press pen and glare at you. i had a grandmother one time look at me as i was writing on my notepad. she pointed at me and said you better be telling the truth. i looked at her and said what are you talking about? you're a liar. i said what do you do for a living? i was a secretary. did i come to your job and tell you were a terrible secretary? what's wrong with you? >> my favorites are the ones who say all that and say can i have a selfie. we were preparing to talk about week in review and our folks put together a list of all the stuff that happened this week. there's like 15 things on this

list that for a normal campaign would be the story of the week. of all the stuff that happened this week, which one or two do you think will endure as factors going forward in the campaign? >> what did he do this week. give me a run-down. >> the cover of "time" magazine. >> the founders of isis is not going away. >> the national security experts. susan collins. rnc tensions. >> founder of isis. >> why? >> because he says it four, five, six, seven times yesterday. has an out from hugh hewitt saying you mean there's a vacuum. no, president obama was the founder of isis. today, i was being sarcastic. just a moment ago he said i was being sarcastic but not so sarcastic. >> he said to hugh if i said it your way i wouldn't get enough attention. if i say it my way, people talk about it. >> this is the difficult thing about donald trump for the party is that they need to find a way as you know to bolster him because this is what i keep hearing. you can't cut the head off and

expect the body to survive. they want to maintain their majority in the senate but it's an internal struggle with themselves. how do you support somebody you disagree with on so many issues, who maybe some actually feel like could be dangerous for the country. how do you support him going forward. you can't just back off and say i'm not going to have this any longer because you lose all the other folks you do support, that you do believe in, that you do think are good for the country. look at the senate race in new hampshire, kelly ayotte. there is some real tight races that they will lose if they just get rid of trump. >> katy tur, part hard working journalist, part swan. we'll be right back to talk about the latest polls. ♪

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we are joined by jeffrey pollock, a pollster and super pac supporting hillary clinton. also back, kellyanne conway, senior advisor to trump's campaign.

i want to start with you. another day, another magical tour from donald trump. his latest is he was being sarcastic about being sarcastic. i'm not going to go into it again. i started the show talking about he needs to completely reboot at this point and somehow back off of some of those things and say i speak this way for a reason. i certainly don't believe them. any chance of that ever happening? >> here's what i saw today. i saw the chairman of the republican national committee get on the plane with donald trump and go to erie, pennsylvania and introduce him as a sign of unity, batting back all the ridiculous -- excuse me, that's what i saw today. you want to talk about what happened today. that's what happened today on the trail. >> that's -- >> that's not relevant at all. >> the head of the rnc and the president were on the same plane? >> because the media were running stories yesterday that people were trying to dump trump and donors were calling freaking out about down ballot races. i took a look at the down ballot races, where these united states senators who are running for re-election as republicans were a year ago. they were pretty much where they are now. they were losing to their democratic opponents in many blue states for the re-election.

so if we want to talk about what happened on the campaign trail let's talk about the facts of the campaign trail. they had a terrific rally today. the usual thousands of people and the chairman of the party, you guys have a new chairman of your party, the dnc, because the old one got booted out unceremoniously by the president of the united states. >> nice parry. nice parry. >> because they were trying to -- >> i don't know kellyanne, pennsylvania, pat toomey was winning a year ago. kelly ayotte was winning a year ago. seemingly the down ballot stuff is absolutely happening. there's a problem with donald trump and they can try, yes, the notion that it's a win that the head of the rnc and the presidential nominee are on the same plane, that's ridiculous. of course that should happen. the fact is people are running away from this guy but they wouldn't be able to run away. >> new battleground state polls. i want your take on it. triseconds, analyze the polls that just came out. >> they are all obviously showing hillary with a tremendous bounce. she got a con investigation boun -- convention bounce and he got

one. it's more like a pole vault in terms of where hillary is. >> talk about the battleground states. >> hillary has a dominant, double digit lead in places like virginia and colorado, states that should be on the map in terms of real, real tight races. right now, all the data, not only the battleground polls you are talking about but private, we are all seeing the same thing. >> i'm glad it's august and not october. i know for some people we are listening to the same thing we heard a year ago which is donald trump can never win. excuse us if we would rather sally forth with a professional campaign even though lots of people like to dismiss that because they don't know what's going on inside. look, this is what's happening in the battleground states. donald trump is still doing fairly well among independents. hillary clinton has an awful gender gap among men. they don't like her, they distrust her, they don't want her to be commander in chief or president of the united states. we don't hear about her gender gap with men. the fact is, hillary clinton benefits from scarcity. i can't understand how somebody who is being shrouded and protected and propped up by most

of america's mainstream media is not at 55%. why is she not at 60% among women? what is holding back so many women to not come forth and say you know what, i do want to see the first female president? could it be it's not a female, it's that female? >> this is a baseline here. do you have data that contradicts the notion that trump is down currently in august outside the margin of error in north carolina, virginia and colorado? >> yes. >> yes. those states are closer from your point of view? >> those states -- we don't see colorado and virginia as double digit races. >> where do you have them? >> i will never tell. i just answered your question. >> but closer? >> i answered your question. the polls before the two conventions showed donald trump winning in some of the swing states. we know we are a news cycle or two away from the polls going in a different direction. also, some of the attrition for donald trump over the last two weeks in the polling has been among republican voters. that doesn't mean they are going to go to hillary clinton. that means they are saying i prefer when you are talking about security, prosperity, ethics, the united states supreme court nom nieinees and

taking the case to two people -- >> not the case in those polls. in those polls, in fact, donald trump's republican number has remained relatively stable, little bit down but relatively stable. it is in fact the independent voters in those places that have moved away from him. not only that, but hillary clinton, there was this whole discussion about mitt romney got a greater percentage of the white vote, yet still lost. guess what? hillary clinton nationally and in these swing states is doing better with white voters and that's very hard. so we always talk about young people, minorities -- >> better than who? >> better than four years ago in terms of -- >> but we're not basing just so we are clear, we are not basing our campaign on mitt romney's campaign just so we're clear. we're not -- >> but if you can't beat his numbers there's no way to win. >> it's august, right? where were you in july when she was losing? >> i agree that there's no -- >> can you answer the very important question why hillary clinton can't crack 60% among women anywhere? >> why would any presidential nominee necessarily get 60% -- >> it was the protection of the

entire mainstream media. >> i didn't realize you guys were that friendly to hillary all that time. >> do you not have a tv? >> i do. i have a tv. i watch the woman who has been under attack by the media for a long period of time and certainly the right wing media that continues. i don't know where -- >> did you watch her economic speech? >> i did. >> what would you say was the di distillation. >> i'm not the policy guy, as you know. on her bumper sticker it's security solid, it's leadership, it's somebody who you can trust. >> why does america reject that? >> honestly, i don't know the bumper sticker from the speech. the speech to me was more about pointing out how donald trump has policies that favor the rich and she's got policies that favor main street. it also says i'm not here to take a whack at michigan which is what donald trump did when he came and -- >> first time you have been on our show so i want to ask the question i ask all democrats. are you troubled -- >> want to talk about the

e-mails again? it's still boring. you can keep doing it. >> are you troubled by -- >> hillary clinton made a mistake. i will say the same thuing. >> i'm asking you, are you troubled by her failure to live up to her responsibilities under the freedom of information act? >> she said she should have done something differently -- >> are you troubled -- >> you are going to get the same answer from everybody. you know this. hillary clinton said she would have done things differently. she should have done things differently. that's what she said. >> would you feeling differently -- >> the american public isn't talking about this. >> yes, they are. >> they're not. i have been out there. >> would you feel differently about what she did if it turned out her e-mails were obtained by foreign agents? >> i don't know the answer to that. i'm not addressing a hypothetical as you fully well know. >> you are calling jim comey a liar. >> i didn't call him a liar. >> why does 64% of americans say she's not honest or trustworthy? >> talk about donald trump's electoral college path. what are the states that romney lost that you see him in a good position to win?

>> iowa, ohio, pennsylvania, florida. it will be competitive. let's look at the august polls. >> we are in august now. do you accept the premise that donny and i talked about earlier that he needs to do something different, or you think he's on a trajectory to win now? >> i think something that he will do differently that would be very unique for a republican nominee is really taking the case in these presidential debates to the democratic nominee. governor romney was criticized roundly for having a great first debate so he clearly won one debate, october 3rd, 2012 but never won the argument. you can't win a debate. you have to win the argument with the voters every day. i still think the x factor, the unpredictability of donald trump against the very scripted, very boring hillary clinton who reverts back to the sound bites and isn't very nimble on the stump is a risk for her. it's truly a risk for her. you know how that goes. that can change lots of people's opinions as they start to pay more attention after labor day and as we get into the debates. also, we never know what the

next chapter in the never-ending hillary scandal-abra will be. some people want to dismiss the e-mails. >> i want to make sure i get this question in there. why would donald trump not release his tax returns? he's obviously hiding something. otherwise he would do it. >> why does he have to? >> he's running for the highest office. >> tell you what. maybe you want to see what a billionaire's tax return is like. >> i have seen them. the only reason he wouldn't is one of three things. he's paying almost zero tax. he don't give any money to charity. and he's nowhere nearly as rich as he says. otherwise he would release them. >> all three of those things. >> what is the logic? give me -- answer my question. what is the argument to not release them if you have nothing to hide? >> what is the argument to release them? he says he's under audit. >> every president since nixon. >> what other presidential candidate have you ever seen like him? >> i want to get another question in. >> it's an important question.

>> did you have the principled position that it didn't matter if a presidential candidate did? >> i actually don't know why they do. so if you could talk about -- >> they should conduct themselves as an ordinary citizen? >> i'm interested to know they will have a medical doctor examine. >> i would like that, too. >> here's the thing also. he says he's under audit. i have no idea about his financial situation. he says he's under audit. the other thing is -- >> that's a false argument. >> i'm telling you i will look him in the eye and ask him to release his tax returns if hillary clinton releases all the transcripts from the wall street speeches and -- >> there's no precedent for that. >> i want the 33,000 e-mails. i want some smart person, smart kid in silicon valley can get them for us. you're on. i'll pay you. >> what's the chance trump will win? >> looking at the august polls it's 20% or less. >> 20% of a major party candidate would win. >> he said what's the percentage when i look at the polls today,

if you took all the swing states, hillary is winning by a dominant thing. >> you are both numbers people. what is trump's floor in the popular vote? >> oh, it's 42%, 43%. >> what's the ceiling? >> with gary johnson and jill stein on the ballot? her ceiling is about 47%. >> then you'll win probably. >> we could win. nobody's talking enough about gary johnson. we see in the state-wide polls he's rising. >> and hurting her? >> hurting both of them. hillary clinton could get 41%, 42% of the vote before she gets out of bed. how does she get to 51% and 52% in the swing states. gary johnson helps and hurts in unusual ways. the thing about him comes down to this. if he continues to get 11%, 12%, gets up to the 15% threshold and gets on the debate stage it could help him. people will say a third alternative or it could hurt him because people say i didn't want trump or clinton but i

romanticized you when i didn't know anything about you. they would have to buy into his libertarian ideology. >> if the trump campaign is relying on third party to win this thing, the hillary people should be very, very happy. >> bill clinton got less than 50% in 1992 and won. >> we will take this outside. thank you both. phil rucker joins us after this quick break. where we explore. protecting biodiversity. everywhere we work. defeating malaria. improving energy efficiency. developing more clean burning natural gas. my job? my job at exxonmobil? turning algae into biofuels. reducing energy poverty in the developing world. making cars go further with less. fueling the global economy. and you thought we just made the gas. ♪ energy lives here. nexium 24hfor their own#1 choice of docfrequent heartburn.s for complete protection all day and night make nexium 24hr your #1 choice.

i love that my shop is part of the morning ritual around here. people rely on that first cup and i wouldn't want to mess with that. but when (my) back pain got bad, i couldn't sleep. i had trouble getting there on time. then i found aleve pm. aleve pm is the only one to combine a sleep aid plus the 12 hour strength of aleve. for pain relief that can last into the morning. ♪ look up at a new day... hey guys! now i'm back. aleve pm for a better am. closing out our wild, wild week in review, sorting it out with us, phil rucker, national

political correspondent for "the washington post." he's covering all the candidates in a way that brings insight into what's happening. you watched the focus group in ohio this week. tell us about that. >> yeah. so these were moms, walmart moms is what they're called, but they are undecided voters, women, working women, and they don't like either of these candidates. it was just so visceral, the distaste a lot of these women had not only for donald trump but also for hillary clinton who they just see as corrupt and sort of not relatable and full of scandals. one woman actually said she's stuffed so many scandals under the rug they can't even lay the carpet down flat anymore. there's a real distaste in the country with voters for both candidates. >> phil, having heard that, at the end of the day we always hear that suburban moms are always going to vote risk-averse.

the end of the day. there's such dislikability on both sides, my theory is those women at the end of the day, nothing to back this up other than my gut, are going to go for the safer choice because trump is -- they will take untrustworthy versus scary. i think that's what's going to push it. do you agree? >> yeah, i think you are absolutely right. that came up in the conversations with these women. as much as they don't like hillary clinton, they don't want to have her in their backyard at a barbecue, they don't trust her, they think she would be safe. would keep their children safe. they think she's qualified for the job. they have really grave doubts about donald trump at a fundamental level about his qualifications and temperament, about what kind of president he would make. >> i'm not trying to turn new howie kurtz but in general terms, what's it like in the "post" newsroom as both candidates complain about the coverage, both think they are being treated unfairly? how is the paper at large handling that? >> well, for starters i'm glad

they are both reading "the washington post." that's good. but look, we have been tough on both candidates. we have been the entire campaign and we are going to continue to do so going forward. we continue to be banned from being krcredentialed at donald trump's events. that hasn't stopped us from covering his campaign fairly, accurately and aggressively. that's what we will keep doing. >> it got buried a lot because to the average person, it wasn't that big of a deal when "the washington post" was banned. that was very scary. i don't think it's being reported enough because it looks like the media writing about the media. we have to step back and think about a presidential candidate didn't like his coverage, this is while he's running for office, saying you can't cover me. arguably the first most influential newspaper in our country. that's scary. am i missing something here? shouldn't that be more made of that? >> well, it's disturbing, certainly. we think it's wrong and we -- >> not wrong. scary.

>> marty has been pushing back against it. it is scary. but there's nothing we can do about it except for cover his campaign professionally and fairly and completely which is what we are doing. >> phil, just got a minute left to go here. what are you curious about for the balance of august through labor day? what are the things you are wondering about in terms of the two campaigns? >> i mean, i think all the curiosity is on the trump side right now, whether he can try to stabilize the ship here. the campaign just seems in complete disarray at the moment and i think we want to see whether he can get a message that will resonate with voters, whether the polling problems that he has right now are recoverable. perhaps they might be in that first debate but there are things he can be doing this month to try to shore up support among republicans but also show that he can be competitive in the swing states where right now he's simply not. >> wise, wise phil rucker. thanks for joining us. enjoy the weekend. we'll take a trip to colorado after this.

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comcast. bloomberg reporter and photographer were sent on a 3,000 mile greyhound bus trip from philadelphia to los angeles. they have been harvesting stories from regular americans across the country and their thoughts on the presidential elections. we sent our own videographer to ride along with them through rocky mountain country. >> there's a lot more work for

me. i can't make the money back home i can make down here. >> i'm veteran of the united states army. i care very much about politics. i love my country. i gave it eight years of my life. proud of it. i want to see this country go the right direction. all the production jobs in this country are done, gone south, shut their doors and moved overseas where they can get cheap labor. the only one i would vote for this year would be hillary clinton. >> i'm headed to kansas city, missouri. i'm pretty excited. i realliy enjoy life. life is good. i'm from mexico. that's where i'm from. i will be there in november. i will make a special trip. there's no way hillary's getting my vote. trump, he may have some crazy to him but who doesn't. at least he loves america and he

knows how to run a business. >> i took three months to travel through latin and south america. i went to peru, ecuador, colombia. i found that when i told people i was from the united states, one of the first questions i would get is about the election. so a lot of times when people ask me where i was from, i would lie and say i was from canada because i didn't like the feeling of knowing that my name and me as a person was being immediately associated with donald trump and the things that he says. >> she's been there 32 years, has four kids, four grandkids and she's going to do the ceremony to be a full-on citizen.

she wants to vote for hillary. she says to be able to vote and not for trump. >> i'm sorry, i have been out of the loop. yes, i have been in the wilderness for six months this summer. i turned news on when i get back and it's almost the same thing they were talking about six months ago. we've got hillary clinton, donald trump. it's really almost sad that it comes to that. i really believe that. it's always the lesser of two evils. >> i have been a roofer for the past 24 years. got my truck, got my tools. can't complain. 100% mexican. you know what? i bleed american. this is home. there's a lot of hispanics that are anti-trump because of his racial comments. they're just narrow-minded. they're not looking at the whole picture. i think that he's one of the

smartest guys that can probably keep this nation level. >> i voted for obama the first time. voted for romney last time. i think i'm probably going to vote for trump. if you're not part of some kind of solution, the decision-making, then you have no reason to complain. >> most of the ones that are complaining about the government don't vote. get out there and do something about it. >> it's interesting, this business we look at numbers on a page or polls and there are people. there's nothing like seeing and hearing from them. follow the whole journey on bloombergpolitics.com. we'll be right back. cital... ...when their windshield got cracked... ...but they couldn't miss the show. so dad went to the new safelite-dot-com. and in just a few clicks, he scheduled a replacement... ...before the girls even took the stage.

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we'll be back monday, same bat time, same bat channel. thanks for watching. for everyone here at "with all due respect" we say to you, sayonara. >> coming up, "hardball with chris matthews." uncertain trumpet. let's play "hardball." good evening. i'm chris matthews in washington. donald trump who believes love means never having to say you're sorry is starting to take back his words. he woke up this morning saying all his repeated claims that president obama is the founder of isis wasn't meant to be for real. trump made the about-face in a tweet this morning saying quote, ratings-challenged cnn reports so seriously that i call president obama and clinton the founder of isis and mvp. they don't get