meter races. don't miss msnbc live bringing you the latest news and political updates of the day. thanks for watching. we'll see you tomorrow. >> we are back to talk news and politics and get you up to speed on everything that's going on. we are now 82 days away from election day. topping our agenda, brazilian police holding a press conference just moments ago. they say that ryan lochte fabricated his story that he was robbed in rio earlier this week. police warning they are still

evaluating and officials warning they're still evaluating whether to charge lochte and his teammates. the very latest on that very evolving situation in just a second. also on the agenda, donald trump, he raised some money in the last few months. now apparently he is ready to start spending it. new ads in critical battleground states as his new campaign leadership tries to turn things around. >> there are two people you need to take on hillary clinton most of the time once in awhile barrack obama. if you want to throw the mainstream media in there once in awhile go ahead. >> more encouraging numbers for the prup nominee coming out this afternoon. we will tell you what they are and what you can make of them. the death toll in louisiana rising and more than 80,000 people registered for federal help in the wake of the flooding

there. the local paper calling on president obama to cut short his vacation at martha's vineyard and to visit the flood-ravaged state. we will begin with the top story out of rio. all of the fast-moving developments. gold medal swimmer ryan lochte is standing by his story that he and three teammates were robbed at gunpoint in rio. local police say that isn't true. moments ago a press conference down there officials say that cab driver that night testified too police that there was no robbery. police say the swimmers damaged property the night of the alleged mugging and gas station employee confronted lochte and his teammates and they tried to flee. they say a gun was used bay station security guard because they were nervous over the athletes' size and aggressive behavior. police say the swimmers paid for the damage to the gas station. for more let's turn to ron

covering the latest from rio. ron, some people thought this was a little fishy when this story from lochte first came out. i guess he is still standing by it but officials are saying no way. >> well, officials poked a lot of holes into the account given by ryan lochte of what happened sunday morning after ryan lochte and three teammates spent a night on the town here. one of the key points in this news conference today, steve, is that one of the swimmers, we believe one of the two swimmers who did not sign statements with police, that would be neither ryan lochte nor jimmy feegian gave a statement saying that the story ryan lochte provided to them was not true. so we have to hold that with high probability that one of the swimmers saying that the story given by ryan lochte, that they

were not robbed. they went into a bathroom after convenient store and went into the bathroom and incurred damage in the bathroom. they attempted to leave. once the gas station attendant realized the bathroom was damaged, they went to the swimmers in the parking lot. the armed security guard told the taxi not to leave that they wanted security on the scene. a security official pulled his handgun out main or may not have used it legally or not, but it was a legal handgun and he did not want them to leave, a, and also did not want ryan lochte who police said was acting very aggressively toward the official there, security official, he did not want more escalation of that conflict. so ryan lochte then sat down. can you see them sitting on a curb there if the surveillance video and at some point they negotiated a deal.

so the four swimmers came up with a $20 u.s. bill and $100 rio, that's about $50 u.s. so they handed that over to the taxi and left. and two women in a separate vehicle apparently with them but we don't know much more about their story. they say they were with the four swimmers. that's pretty much all we know. authorities saying that ryan lochte's account, his sworn account, sporn statement to police was not true and one of the u.s. swimmers with ryan lochte that night believing that police -- believing the story police gave today, that that was not a robbery in fact that they encountered here early sunday. >> and ron the question is what happens next. lochte is here in the united states. his teammates i guess still in brazil. some of them talking to authorities here. there is no decision on charging here? what do we know in terms of

possible charges and what would happen to lochte since he is now back in the united states? >> well if there are charges and we again don't know if charges will be brought here. one of the police officials today says is very unlikely, these are not charges that would require them to seek extra digs back to brazil. it is one of these things where the local brazilians have been very unhappy about being portrayed this way in the media since sunday and to the start of the games some lapses in security and things that have not gone well for local organizers. they have been very unhappy about being portrayed as they have around the world and media. so when they story broke sunday it would be taken obviously very seriously and once officials then began to poke holes into ryan lochte's story, they wanted to investigate this fully. one of the questions asked by the media of the police chief there was from the lawyer, apparently, attributing this to the lawyer of ryan lochte, saying they created a circus

here by dragging two american swimmers off their airplane last night and bringing them in for questioning and this official took a lot of exception to that saying this is not a circus. and that he appeared stone-faced and said this is the response i want to make to this lawyer back in the united states. we are taking this very seriously because someone has alleged a crime here. so there is a lot of tension from that standpoint from a public relations standpoint. but when all is said and done, it is very unlikely that ryan lochte will be charged with a serious enough crime to warrant extra digs to brazil. the three swimmers still in country at this hour, we believe, at some point along the way here imminently are probably going to be allowed to head on back. but e investigation is still under way tonight. they still want to interview a few more people before considering this done. steve? >> all right. ron mott in rio. by the way, there may be a precedent in terms of the legal battle potential legal battle at

least ron was just talking about. you got to go back to the year 1979 to the pan american games and to that, you may recognize him, bob knight, famous indian basketball coach and coached the u.s. team there in puerto rico for the pan-am games. he got into an altercation with a puerto rican police officer. a warrant was issued for his arrest at pan-american games. he left puerto rico. he was tried, convicted but the governor of indian refused to extradite him. so bob knight remained a wanted man and i think to this day may remain a wanted man in puerto rico but the governor refused to extradite him. of course puerto rico is an american common wealth and a slightly different situation but a lot of people, including me, thinking back to that interesting moment in the history of international athletic competition with this ryan lochte story. we will keep you posted. meanwhile, to the race for the white house. a brand new poll out from pew

research center. we have seen an avalanche of polls good for hillary clinton the last few weeks. es this numbers more encouraging for donald trump. we will put them up for you. hillary clinton leading the four-way horse race. independents there, libertarian green party, trump down 4 points. why is this tighter than we have seen in other polls? couple things we can show you. one we talk about the divide among white voters. college, noncollege divide. trump with 25-point advantage over hillary clinton. also, a bit of a surprising finding among latino voters. obviously donald trump struggled but that number there, that would be, if he was getting 26% and losing only 24 points shy of hillary clinton that would be pretty good relative to expectations for donald trump. the catch is that's a very sample size there. a lot of margin for error. if that is the actual number that's an encouraging sign for

donald trump. then there is this young voters, those under 30 years old. this is a group that barack obama won by 23 points over mitt romney in 2012. look at this, hillary clinton only ahead by 11 and the reason there you can see johnson and stein two other candidates gobbling up nearly 30% of the young vote that seems to be hurting hillary clinton there, that might be keeping donald trump. so again one poll we have seen a bunch of them. take you through the numbers. make of it what you will. plenty of other polls coming out in the next few days, next few weeks. katy tur joins us on the phone. we are now fully into this new era of trump campaign. a new campaign leadership. steven bannon, campaign ceo, very controversial official to some people on the right. kelly ann con roy, veteran of republican campaign politics. from your standpoint, someone covering this campaign from the very beginning, are you seeing something different now? are you seeing anything different now that you weren't seeing a week ago? >> you know, i think it is hard

to say, steve, because it has only been a few days. i can say on monday, he gave a national terrorist speech. for tuesday on prompter as well but on rally. very unusual for donald trump. senior adviser told me last night that he will be on prompter again tonight at his rally in north carolina. this speech he will be giving, i'm told, is a mix of monday and tuesday speech and if you wonder why tuesday's speech sounded different, it is because donald trump's normal speechwriter didn't do it. it was rudy giuliani. he is also making an ad buy, $4 million going across battle ground states. florida, ohio, pennsylvania and north carolina. this is a new step, new phase. thing is, four days into this and there is a lot of time for donald trump to not like this new aspect of his campaign.

to decide he doesn't want to be on prompter. from what i'm told behind the scenes, he is understanding that it is now or never. he has to learn how to turn things around in his campaign he has to do it at this moment. and believe it or not, one of his advisors told me with straight face that donald trump did enjoy being on teleprompter. >> that is an interesting revelation if that's true. katy tur are the trump campaign. the trump campaign shake-up coming along, around the controversy around steve bannon. widely seen as being supportive of trump in this campaign. something our next guest says falls largely under the shoulders of bannon's superiors. from breitbart news and now a critic of the site, thanks for tanging a few minutes. steven bannon, we hear people on the right who say there are some people on the right who say this

is a bad sign that he's got trump's ear and this role in the campaign. tell me about the steven bannon that you know and what it means as a campaign. >> steve is a bully and loud mouth and yells at people. he considered himself at knife-fighter and is constantly in the battle. he considers himself as a honey badger, who doesn't back down from a fight or give a crap about anyone. that's fine. that's how he styles himself and maybe what trump thinks he will need. i think what he will give to trump is a mirror. he has ridden political celebrity after political celebrity. turned breitbart news from a mainstream edgy site into a site that's been friendly to the right, gaining tremendous traffic. has been extraordinarily pro trump in his approach. and i that i basically trump wanted somebody who likes him, who backs him. who makes him feel good about

himself for the final home stretch. i thought charlie sieks had the best line. saying this may be the sign after campaign on hospice care, to be surrounded by family and friends. >> maybe explain this more. you say the right that breitbart has gone to the right and i think people, remember andrew breitbart, founder of the site, he passed away a number of years ago. tell us about the evolution you saw from his passing to today. and when you use the term aught right. >> right, fought what he called bullies in the kbleed. the association from between democrats in the media who refused to say they were democrats. and this site was supposed to give counter narrative to the mainstream media. and it has become very political. a lot of washington, d.c. reporting that is directed on particular policy prescriptions.

in the past few months, moving toward a right nationalist base. and milo talked about this. and they aren't limited government conservatives. mostly concerned like european far right with immigration, free trade and who believe that immigration is a tremendous, not just illegal immigration but immigration itself is a tre mendo tremendous threat to the united states. tribalism to white folks instead of on the left and minority groups. >> how big of a piece, you talk about the political right, how big a piece of it, what you just described do you think the conservative movement is? >> i don't think a huge swap by any stretch of the imagination.

maybe 10%. like weighing in of the republican party. and trump has a similar if philosophy. reince priebus is licking trump's boots. and what was done at breitbart news is pushing the trump campaign as well. it is troubling to me. i see the future of the country being hollowed out from the inside by trump and bannon and people that don't believe in basic conservative principles. >> i've heard, maybe many of the same conservatives, concerned, have a different view particularly of kelly ann conway. do you see that too? >> yes. i don't think that kelly ann conway is in any way the same sort of person. i don't know kelly ann personally but i know a lot of people who do know kelly ann and kelly ann seems to be down the line basically conservative person. i understand she is somewhat to the left on immigration. she has worked on behalf of

amnesty in immigration. kelly ann is not inside the trump breitbart bubble. there is this bubble where trump is always winning and never losing. kelly says, yes, poles are a thing and matter. >> all right. ben shapiro, thank you for the time. appreciate it. >> thank you. >> tonight on "hard ball", new manager kelly ann conway, she will join chris matthewes. that is tonight at 7:00 eastern on "hard ball." still in key swing states, a few steps that donald trump has it take if he want to get himself back into this race. we will take you through what the three most important things donald trump has to do are ahead. plus, some of the worst conditions firefighters could possibly imagine. 100 degree heat. wind. extreme low humidity and long-term drought. well head out to california, san bernardino county, where a raging wildfire is only 4% contained.

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all right. donald trump standing in the presidential race is looking like it's going from bad to worse. down by double digits in some national polls. there was that closer one today we just told but. also down significantly in many of the key battle ground states. but as his campaign pinted out, time and again, we are still in august. there are still more than 80 days to go in this campaign.

so he does at least have time to get back on track. if he has the time what does he need to do with that time to get back in the race? we've identified a couple of keys for donald trump. let's start with this one. take a look right now. this is if we are current road to 270 map, giving hillary clinton, turning blue states where she has opened up significant leads in the polls. you see now two problems here for donald trump. one is hillary clinton's over 270. pennsylvania right now double digits. that's helping put her over 270. he has it fix that but he has to fix something else in particular. probably the first step he has to stop the leading in red states. look at this, arizona should be a red state. hasn't gone for democrat in 20 years. this shouldn't be a toss-up if you're donald trump. ditto for georgia. last time went for democrat 19 the 2. a toss-up now. how about north carolina? a red state in 2012 now hillary clinton is so far ahead in the polls there we have it in the

blue category. also we have it red here but utah may not be locked up for donald trump. first thing to do is he's got to shore up that base in those red states. then he's got to build from there. another challenge for trump, that divide for white voters between college grads and blue collar whites. look at this. in 2012, among college grads, white college grads, mitt romney won by 14 point. that's about what you expect from republicans. that's been history of it. good solid win among those voters look at this right now. 21-point reversal. first time a democrat ever won that group of voters. donald trump has to address that. he has to address something else as well. it is the question of temperament. it may be why they moved so much against donald trump, temperament, and 61% of voters say hillary clinton has the

temperament to serve as commander-in-chief. only 20% say that about donald trump. that may very well be a threshold issue for voters. in the suburban areas. basic competence. basic bearing to serve as president. a lot of negative scores hillary clinton has on honesty, trust worthiness, likability. but when you see the gap on temperament, that is a huge gap for donald trump. trump's new campaign manager, kellyanne conway, former polster, says now more than ever the answer is to let trump be trump. >> i think we will sharpen the message and make sure donald trump is comfortable about being in his own skin. voters know if you're comfortable in your own skin. and let him be him in this sense. he want to deliver a speech, if he want to go to a rally, to

connect with the crowd in the way that's very spontaneous, that's wonderful. and that's how he got here. >> michael steele joins us now. michael, what is your verdict on the shake-up? listening to kellyanne conway, do you think it will be different. >> i think it will be different. firstity racing is let trump be trump. that then we have, we're not doing trump. now the more formal process campaign. that doesn't get anywhere. what they've done effectively is combine the two. let trump be trump side of the brain. and kellyanne conway is just awesome. she will be the numbers gal. the one, boots on the ground. the messenger. she will develop the strategy that effectively takes, as she just said, takes the idea of trump being trump and really mold it much more than has been

molded right now mp that comes by being on the campaign trail with him. being in the room. being in his ear. and reminding him every step of the way, you want to win this, don't you? >> when he looked at lewandowski, what i heard, lewandowski let him do whatever he wanted. >> and was removed. he said you can be you but you can't be you this way. >> so you think she has the standing with him, with donald trump, to say don't hit send on the tweet? >> yes. she was promoted from within the campaign. it is not like she came from the outside into the structure. she is much more familiar with the internal workings, personalities and all that inside the campaign. and can work within that structure also knowing donald trump the way she does. it is smart move for trum top recognize he has certain strengths at his table and to put them in play. >> when you see numbers, on temperament and one of the first

races in politics that i followed, if there are doubts that severe, they just aren't going to vote for you when they are in that voting booth on election day. after 15 months, what can he do to change minds? >> part of that has been given to us. when you look what the he did and said in early days that got him through the process. temperament has always been a question. when he was at 1% and was asked about temperament. he has shown more often than not there are reasons for those questions. and not too much too much pressure on her in that regard but she can be the stabilizing force, look at this number. this means something. tran late for you. 2. % of people think you don't have the temperament. . she will connect dots for him

that had not been connected before. lewandowski was hand-off. let trump be trump. manafort probably tried to manage too much. trying to fit him into a box he wasn't comfortable with. between bannon and her, they will move things further down the road. >> by are 80-something days out. what does donald trump need to do? >> don't step on your own stuff. hillary clinton is sitting back going, oh, this is so easy. but they know it's not. they know ultimately atnd dime. if donald trump focuses more on his own feet and less on her. she is quite frankly not had to respond to. her last press conference was last year. putting that in front of people and asking those questions that i think begin to turn the

narrative around for him, i think that's a better thing. get out of his own way. stop focussing on stuff that doesn't matter to voters. focus on what does. that will get him here. >> all right, michael steele, thank you for the time. straight head, hillary clinton meeting with some of the largest police departments today and calling for mutual respect between police and the communities they serve. >> everyone is safer when there is respect for the law and when everyone is respected by the law. >> plus more than 80,000 victims from the flooding in louisiana are looking for fema assistance after what the red cross is calling the worst natural disaster to strike the u.s. since superstorm sandy. >> one first responder said to me a few hours ago that his home

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breaking news out of rio. police there just finishing up a press conference on that claim by american swimmer ryan lochte that he and three teammates were robbed at gunpoint early sunday morning. officials saying the cab driver testified to the police that there was no robbery. police say the swimmers vandalized property at a gas station on the night of the alleged incident and the gas station employees confronted athletes who then tried to flee. they said a gun was brandished bay gas station security officer because they were nervous over the athletes size and their aggressive behavior. police saying the swimmers paid for the damage before they left the scene. nbc's goddy schwartz is at the

gas station where all this happened. he has a full report. gadi? >> reporter: this gas station is at the center of a very odd investigation. there are surveillance camer all over. here is what they show. here are images we have seen. they show the four swimmers come down the corridor. local media reports they were drunk and doing damage. see this billboard here. there is a billboard here that may have been torn down according to reports and there are reports, allegations of public urination and then there was some damage to one of these bathrooms. and then after that, the cameras show that the swimmers trying to get back to their taxi. at that point, they are confronted by security at the gas station. they wanted to leave. the taxi driver decides to stay because there are security cameras are around and he doesn't want to be an accessory to a crime according to brazilian reports.

two swimmers take off this way and two swimmers stay in the taxi. there are cameras here that pick up the scene where security guard or possibly a patron with a gun confronts the swimmers that are trying to get away. at that type they put their hands up. there is tense negotiation and translator came in, and work owned some sort of negotiation because police were not responding to the call made by the gas station. there was money exchanged and then the swimmers were allowed to go. very different picture than the one that was painted earlier this week by ryan lochte. >> all right, nbc's gadi schwartz. thanks for that. other headlines, hillary clinton meeting with the country's top law enforcement leaders in new york city today. discussing challenges and opportunities facing police departments in cities across the country. attendees including new york city's police commissioner

outgoing police commissioner bratton and chief beck, chicago police department meanwhile is calling for firing of seven officers for giving false information related to the 2014 police shooting of 17-year-old mcdonald. three days after chicago's inspector general issued a report that ten officers be disciplined for the mcdonald case. the justice department saying it'll phase out the use of prief ought contractors to run federal prisones. deputy general sally yates say private doesn't run the same level of security. secretary jeh johnson is touring the area affected by the devastating floods this week. right now at least 13,000 -- excuse me, at least 13 people are dead, 8400 people in shelters. 30,000 homes damaged and 30,000 people have been rescued. american red sox is calling this

the worst natural disaster since superstorm sandy in 2012. out west, fires are raging. this is blue cut fire 60 miles east of los angeles, covering more than 30,000 acres and only 4% of it is contained. fire has led to mandatory evacuation orders that cover 82,000 people and counting. nor let's turn to steve paterson. he is covering developments from oak hills, california. about an hour outside l.a. steve? >> reporter: steve, you mentioned it. when we talk about firefighters battling against this, it is hard to get your head around. you mentioned more than 30,000 acres, 82,000 mandatory evacuations. those acres equate to 49 square miles. that's bigger than the city of network of communities. firefighters dealing with 30

mile-an-hour winds, triple digit temperatures and this five-year drought, all of which has fueled this fire into what it is now. meanwhile, residents are seeing the fruit of what happened. we are walking into it right now. this is a door way. we are still walking in the door way. just a little bit different. it's on the ground, obviously. this appears to be a living room. it is hard it tell at this point. this is a the home of a person who lives next door. she was a manager at the summit inn tp next door. literally touching her business. she not only managed that since she was 19. that business started in 1952. famous inn served people like clint eastwood. but she managed that since she was a teenager. her home burned down and next door her business burned down. this is one of the tragedies that people are facing.

crews hitting the street going door to door making assessments to see just how widespread the damage is. it sounds like it is going to be a big number. >> steve paterson for that in california. breaking news to tell you about. state department officials say $400 million cash payment to iran back in january was conditional on the release of american prisoners from iran. officials had previously denied that cash was sent as a ransom payment. no free four americans who were being held at the time. state department spokesman kirby clarifying the u.s. withheld the payment they owed the iranians anyway until iran made good on its promise to release the americans. the state department maintains it was an ransom payment. coming up, rnc said the next republican candidate for president was going to have to do a better job of reaching out

to minority voters. donald trump did that. or at least tried to. we will look at whether he is getting anywhere with that pitch. >> i'm asking for the vote of every african-american citizen struggling in our country today who wants a much different and better future. for lower back pain sufferers,

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that you need to win. in that moment, you'll be happy you partnered with a humana care manager and got your health back on track. because that banana isn't coming home with you until that bell sings. great things are ahead of you when your health is ready for them. at humana, we can help you with a personalized plan for your health for years to come. the democratic party has taken the votes of the african-americans for granted. they just assume they get your support and have done nothing in return for it. they have taken advantage of the african-american citizen. >> that was donald trump the other night out in wisconsin. he was in a predominantly white suburb of milwaukee, delivering that speech in which he made his most direct pitch to african-american voters. black voters are key according to the autopsy report that the republican national committee

put together after the 2012 election. rnc said to compete in the future republican candidate needed to be more appealing to nonwhite voters. so it takes us to our most important number of the day today which looks at donald trump the republicans and black vote and asks, how are they doing right now? most important number of the day is 1 and that's because, look at this, most recent nbc news national poll hillary clinton 91% to donald trump 1% among black voters. you basically can't do any worse than that if you're donald trump or anyone in this race. just 1%. we have seen other polls that have shown his number basically very close to 0. let's put this in some perspective. republicans haven't done well with black voters in the past but better than 1%. dwight eisenhower running for election got nearly 5% of the

vote. a lot of black people in the country couldn't vote but those who could were a competitive group of voters through the 50s, 1960s, nixon got about a third of the black vote but it fell off a cliff in 1964 and no coincidence because barry gold water republican nominee in 1964 that year joined a filibuster by southern segregationists against the civil rights act. can you see he barely drew any support. that's basically been consistent since 1964 no republican candidate has broken 20% of support among black voters. you see bush got 11% in 2004. when barack obama became the nominee for democrats, mccain got 4%. romney 6%. what republicans hoped at a minimum in this election to win the election they thought without barack obama running again with hillary clinton as nominee, they could get that number among black voters at least back up to where george w. bush was 11%. get it into the teens somewhere.

that they thought could help them in some states. instead as we said, donald trump down at just 1%. black voters about 13% of the overall electorate. if you're running at 1% there, that's very, very bad news. donald trump made his pitch. we will see if he can get that number and make it grow. straight ahead, donald trump, we know he has started to raise serious money, now he is ready to spend it. donald trump, an ad buy, we will tell you about that coming up. plus a haunting image out of syria. we will tell you what is behind it.

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a little less than three months out and donald trump is behind in the race right now. we have taken you through the numbers. there is also this. trump campaign shaking things up. not only by changing leadership promoting kellyanne conway to run the campaign but also ready to put some ads on the air in some swing states. that's a big departure for the trump campaign. is any of it going to work? let me bring in our panel. james,ca james, caitlyn, let's put some information up on the screen. where are your ads? here is the first batch. looks like they are toward go in florida, ohio, pennsylvania, north carolina, possibly other states we don't know about yet. that's what we do know about.

caitlny, huey burns, is it too late for the trump campaign? >> it is the first we've seen of it and to compare this to over the $60 million that clint has been spending on air and seeing that reflected in the poll possess. what is interesting is florida is kind of close compared to others. what will matter too is where trump starts to campaign. continues to campaign. these are significant and so far as he is spending money now but you know if he needs to continue and he needs to have started this a long time ago. >> we have also been talking about kellyanne conway, new campaign manager for donald trump. let's play a clip of her. she was talking yesterday to reporters outside trump tower about their strategy. let's give you a taste of how she sees this campaign. >> we also should talk about her numberes. hillary clinton is doing poorly with men. she don't like her, don't trust her and don't want her to be president of the united states and commander-in-chief.

that gender gap never gets covered but it is in our sights. >> she makes a point. stephen bannon from breitbart, we talked about him earlier, what do you think that will have in this campaign? >> if one size has more calm donald trump and other size has the more balm bat offic donald trump. we don't talk about it enough and hillary clinton does perform badly among men. the problem is, so does donald trump. underperforming with men. we have seen this decline in august when he was up 14 point among men. that gap has collapsed. in some state like florida underperforming where mitt romney was by 10 point. not like he is uniquely good among men even though he was in the past. >> there is also our first team here raising this point earlier today. and we saw this in the knew pew poll we showed a few minute ago where donald trump is four point

behind hillary clinton. seems like what is happening is the inclusion of gary johnson, jill stein, that they may be tweaking votes who would otherwise maybe reluctantly be going for hillary clinton. is that james do you think one of trump's best bets here. idea to try to win this thing with a plurality of the vote and try to within with like 40%? >> yeah. we will find the situation where hillary clinton or donald trump no matter who wins will win under 50%. and again, real questions about whether they have a mandate. given the fact they won't give over 50%. >> caitlin, donald trump behind whatever the margin is, he is behind. when you see a big event like this you look for what can change things. and what looms potentially is the debate. donald trump getting ready to debate hillary clinton. when you look that potential match-up, what is the debate in

the primary season? >> and he had shelter with all of the candidates on stage and it is now going to be presumably we will see if gary john sop makes the cut for this debate. he and hillary clinton one on one together. he hasn't really been in that kind of situation to this extent before. he will show more personality wise in terms of style and approach in the way he was in primaries and the way he was during the course of the campaign. they want him to focus attack owns hillary clinton and debate is the key time for him to show the progress that he has made, if he made any by then. >> and i'll say too, hillary clinton is no slouch when it comes to debates. i think she beat obama in just about all of them, although lost nomination. thanks for joining us. appreciate that. coming up, that haunting image from inside syria, it has gone viral. have you probably seen it. we will tell you the story behind it. stay with us.

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captivating people around the world. you have probably seen this or an image similar to this. this kindergarten. his home detrostroyed in aleppo. cal perry joins us now and knows the situation very well. cal, tell us the story. >> he is five years old. as you said, he is now displaced. his home was bombed late last night. this is a video of him. i have a befy of statistics here about the war in syria. close to half a million people dead. 1.8 million wounded. look at this video.

this is a child completely stunned. he wipes the blood from his brow. puts it on the back of this ambulance seat and it is this reminder, constant wake-up call, that there are 4 million children displaced in syria without homes who are living in a state as the u.n. says of a living hell. united nations saying this will get worse that cease fires or humanitarian cord corridors won't cut it. this is a wake-up call, i hope. >> this is an image that can provoke people to action sometimes. >> i hope so. we have been doing this now for five years. this is a country in syria where more syrians have been killed or wounded or fled the country than remain in syria. >> it is a -- i think people look at this and are horrified and say thank god the kid is alive. >> for now, yeah. and that's the key, right? we are talking about a city cut off from the world and desperately needs humanitarian aid. >> cal perry, appreciate it.

mtp daily is coming up next. today chrkristin welker sitting for chuck todd and she will takes things over now. >> if it's thursday, old conspiracy theorys gain new team. >> tonight, what's really behind donald trump's sleeper strat yi. >> she goes home and goes to sleep. i think she sleeps. >> and billionaire matchmaker. meet the guy who brought together trump and his campaign chief. as water rises in louisiana, to does the political backlash. this is mtp daily. and it starts right now. i'm kristin welker in washington in for chuck todd. welcome to mtp daily. deranged conspiracy