no. they said, headlines "maybe she came in illegally, maybe" let me tell you one thing, she has got it so documented she's going to have a little news conference. let's have a little news conference. >> next couple of weeks, that was three weeks ago. so i guess maybe press meet the new trump, same as the old trump. let's play "hardball." good evening. i'm ari melber. after talk of potentially softening on immigration, donald trump last night as well as today doubling down on the hard line approach that helped him

win the republican primaries, particularly when it comes to his trademark proposal. here's trump at a rally today. >> don't worry. we are going to build that wall. that wall will go up. it's going to go up. we are going to build the wall. mexico's going to pay for the wall. we are going to stop drugs from coming in. >> late today, the trump campaign also announcing the launch of what they call a new online store with new merchandise reading of course, build the wall. but after that conciliatory joint appearance yesterday, mexican president pena nieto pushing back against trump, publishing a new op-ed saying quote, i was also very clear in my conversation with trump on the border, mexico will not pay for any wall, end quote. he later addressed trump

directly on twitter, saying i repeat what i told you personally, mr. trump. mexico will never pay for a wall. here's what trump had to say when asked about the diplomatic dispute this afternoon. >> it will happen at the right time. it will happen. this is just the beginning of a negotiation. if i win, if i become president, mexico will pay for the wall. he rightfully said i know that position for a long time, they say they don't want to pay for the wall, they're not going to pay for the wall. every negotiation starts that way. but mexico will pay for the wall. >> that's the explanation. i'm joined by gene cummings from "wall street journal," paris denard, former adviser to former president george bush and eugene robinson. good evening, everybody. plenty to get into. we are in the thick of the real campaign. the general election, obviously the international trips. gene, let me start from you, your perspective here. did donald trump win or lose out of these two appearances

together? >> i don't think it went well for him at all. i think he lost ground in a very serious way. the campaign right now should be about adding supporters. he has people, high profile conservative hispanics who are leaving his campaign and making those kinds of headlines. that was the opposite of what he was trying to accomplish yesterday. >> yeah. some of those advisors resigning officially today. that made a lot of news. we will have one on "hardball." paris, listen to the two donald trumps we got in one day. this was head-spinning even for some diplomats to watch. this was again the trump campaign's choice. they didn't have to double-book that hard line arizona speech with the trip but they did. take a listen. >> we recognize and respect the right of either country to build a physical barrier or wall on any of its borders. cooperation toward achieving this shared objective and it will be shared of safety for all citizens is paramount.

we did discuss the wall. we didn't discuss payment of the wall. that will be for a later date. >> are you ready? we will build a great wall along the southern border. and mexico will pay for the wall. believe me. they don't know it yet but they're going to pay for the wall. >> paris, as a campaign professional, why have those two messages run right into each other on the same day? >> it's the same message. the message is the same on both occasions. when you are president of the united states, you have got to be able to go in different circumstances, one be diplomatic

and have a q & a or press conference with a fellow head of state and then be able to go to a rally, then be able to deliver a speech to your base, your supporters, all in the same day. >> you see the problem with that, is the speech's supporters is not the exact same message. to them he says i'm going to be tough, i will tell them how it's going to be, they will pay for it. that's one message. then the same day he goes down there and doesn't say anything according to the mexican president about them paying at all which seems like for something he has been mroeting for a year, would have been time to bring it up. >> we are getting down into the weeds about one particular part

of this illegal immigration issue, paying for the wall. the greater point is he put out a ten point plan to curb this issue about illegal immigration. in addition to that, what we did not see on the diplomatic stage, what we did not see was secretary clinton go down there and make herself to be seen as presidential. one would think a former secretary of state would jump at the chance to go down and present her message to the mexican people, mexican government with the mexican president. she did not. mr. trump showed great leadership, diplomacy and judgment in going and doing that speech and then going to the american people directly in arizona, my home state, and speaking to them about his ten-point plan to fix this issue of illegal immigration.

>> gene, how about that. does hillary not have enough frequent flyer miles here? >> i think hillary clinton has met a whole lot of world leaders and you know, she's done a whole lot of summits. i don't think we need to worry about that. i don't think she has to convince anyone that she can perform in that setting. she obviously can. but back to your original point, no, those were two totally different messages. the tone was completely different and the content was different as well. there was this sort of hands across the rio grande aspect when he spoke with president pena nieto. he spoke not really in terms of america first but the hemisphere first. he talked about hemispheric trade and keeping manufacturing in this hemisphere. none of that in the phoenix speech. that's for sure. it was the mexicans were bad again and they are going to have to pay for the wall, they are too dumb to know it yet. by the way, mexican immigrants are committing crimes at a historic pace and have to be kicked out. it was a hard line speech. so that's, those are his cards. that's the way he's decided to play this hand. >> one of the funny parts about that is there is sort of this macro, meta conversation about what he's doing. in the absence of policy details which donald trump has said aren't the most important thing to him, there's a lot of talk about whether this is hard or soft, tough or week and all the rest. here he was in an exchange with laura ingraham about whether this hard speech according to him last night will have more softening later. take a listen. >> the line last week, you were softening on immigration, then come out with a very specific, very pro-enforcement plan last night. where's the softening?

>> oh, there's softening. look, we do it in a very humane way and we are going to see with the people that are in the country, obviously i want to get the gang members out, the drug peddlers out, i want to get the drug dealers out, we get a lot of people in this country that you can't have. those people will get out. then we are going to make a decision at a later date once everything is stabilized. i think you are going to see there's really quite a bit of softening. >> jean cummings, i cover this stuff. i know a little about immigration law. i have no idea what he's saying there. i don't mean that rudely. a politician seems is deliberately vague for various reasons. diplomacy as well can be vague. what is he talking about and do you see a softening after what was such a hard line speech?

>> well, i also am confused about precisely what is his policy now, because he said so many different things over the last few days. one thing i think is clear and that's the overall message that the hispanic community heard based on our interviews with many people today, and that is he may call it soft, he may call it hard, he can describe his speech and his rally any way that he may wish to. but to them, the message is every one of you that's here illegally could now be deported. and we may not get to you first. we may not get to you until the end. but we are coming. that's the message that the hispanic community got. how you characterize it, that's up to them. but i think that that was -- that's a message that has driven hispanic advisers away from his

campaign and it could narrow his path to victory, making florida much harder than it might have been. this is a significant moment for his campaign and how they manage it going forward. >> yeah. to your point, the policy balance you strike has got to happen in real time. you can't say oh, we're going to do massive deportations on a scale this country has not seen in decades, that's the current proposal on the table, then later i promise there will be something humane after that. that just doesn't necessarily make internal consistent sense. paris, i want to give you the chance to respond and also take a listen to cory lewandowski and his view of who this speech was really targeting. take a listen. >> look, i think donald trump's message tonight was the message that he started with back on june of 2015, which was america first. that's what he believes and what he is playing to, if you look at the polling data he's had about an 18 point lead in the demographic of white males who are voting in this election. they have a high propensity of voting. he has about an 18 point lead on hillary clinton in that particular demographic. this speech is clearly geared at those individuals right now to make sure they are there. he's locked them in for the election. >> lewandowski saying the key is locking in white males, another demographic would be white

female conservative pundits. i can show you ann coulter, very happy with this speech saying i think i will watch this speech every night before going to bed so that i will sleep like a baby. paris, does this do enough, if those are the only groups it's speaking to? >> i just disagree. i believe mr. trump was speaking to the american people. he was speaking -- listen, cory was the campaign manager, he did a good job getting mr. trump to and through the primary. manafort came on, kellyanne is now there. since they have been on, there's been a deliberate effort to have specific engagement with the african-american community and especially the hispanic community. i will say it was continued engagement with both those communities. this speech is no different. his policies are no different than what he campaigned on, what he said down in mexico and what he said in arizona. the american people understand his position. the mexican government understands, the mexican president understood his

position long before he invited him down there to go there. this was a good day for mr. trump. liberals and you are upset that he had a good day. >> i'm not upset. do i seem upset? i'm not upset at all. >> he looked presidential. he was presidential. he showed extreme leadership. the people of this country, especially those who live across, along the mexican border, hispanics, mexicans included, understand the problems that are lying on that border. they appreciate someone like mr. trump speaking to it and having the leadership and the courage to go straight to mexico, speak to the people and to the government and say i'm going to work with you. he's a negotiator. this is the first step. it's a positive step. he's going to win. >> paris, if you were here at the glass table with me in new york, i think you would see i'm feeling good. i'm not upset about it. i'm enjoying it. i want to give eugene a chance to get back in. the other piece of this is whether there's sort of a fantasy football style aspect to the way donald trump envisions his presidency and "saturday night live" famously made fun of that with the idea you would snap your fingers and everything would just happen. yet in the political math, there is some appeal to that, right? to the extent he boils things down very simply or says a lot of problems are other people's

fault or a lot of things will be handled by other people, look, if you could prove that mexico would pay for anything it would be great. if they wanted to pay for our school system, that would be great as a budgetary matter. i'm just not sure it's going to happen. speak to the political path he's on here trying to appeal to people. >> well, generally speaking, simple and understandable is good in politics unless it's completely crazy. so you know, paris spoke of trump's outreach to african-americans which consists of screaming what do you have to lose, your lives are a living hell, what do you have to lose? that's not a good approach. that's never going to work. and similarly, i'm going to kick your aunt belinda out of the country is not a great approach to latino voters. it's just not. it's simple and understandable but it's not going to work. >> we are out of time. paris, quickly, though? >> it's going to work and it's working. because the american people appreciate the fact that he's speaking directly to them in language they can understand instead of lying and trying to hide behind things like secretary clinton is doing. it's going to work.

he has 8% of the black vote right now ahead of what romney got and what senator mccain got. give him time. this is the first step. it was a good day for mr. trump. >> thank you all for joining us on "hardball" tonight. coming up, we will talk to that former trump surrogate and supporter who was on the latino advisory council, resigning after last night's speech. he says based on what he heard it's clear that trump doesn't even want to win this election. that's ahead. also, hillary clinton seems pretty happy to lie low lately and let the campaign be some kind of referendum on trump. is that a smart strategy? will it last or does it prevent her from actually getting where she needs to go in an affirmative case? later, we don't yet know the political consequences of trump's hard line speech but if you look at what's happening right now in the state of arizona, republicans, they may have reason to worry. finally, the "hardball" roundtable will be here to tell me something about this

presidential race that i don't know.

we have new polling from key battleground states. we will check the "hardball" scoreboard. according to new public policy polling, hillary clinton with a seven point lead over trump in wisconsin. good news for the clinton camp. she also has a lead in new hampshire, 46% to 40% for trump. over in missouri, tighter, trump leading there 47% to 41%. in north carolina, a virtual dead heat. 45% to 44%. hillary clinton with the narrow edge within the margin of error. we'll be right back.

i call it extreme vetting. right? extreme vetting. i want extreme. it's going to be so tough, we are going to triple the number of i.c.e. deportation offices. two million people, criminal

aliens. we will begin moving them out day one, as soon as i take office, day one. you can call it deported if you want. the press doesn't like that term. you can call it whatever the hell you want. they're gone. >> welcome back to "hardball." there, donald trump last night once again taking that hard line stance on undocumented immigrants. today, several hispanic trump surrogates said they are now in response reconsidering their support for him. a former supporter telling nbc news i'm going to flip but not flop. i am no longer supporting trump. grace flores hughes, member of trump's advisories council saying today she's withdrawing her support. another member of the council telling politico i don't have the time or energy for a scam. meanwhile, alphonso aguilar saying he's inclined to pull his support and quote, it's so disappointing because we feel we took a chance, a very risky chance. we are disappointed.

we feel misled. then today, there was jacob monty, an attorney who made headlines resigning from trump's national hispanic advisory council directly in response to that speech. he joins me now. good evening to you. why did you resign from advising donald trump? >> well, i had a lot of hope. i was defending him six hours before i resigned. so this speech was really built up as his definitive statement on immigration. i thought he was going to articulate a republican compassionate, realistic idea on immigration and some of the proposals i was totally on board with, more security, better vetting, build a fence, all of that. that's great. but when we sat down with donald trump, we talked to him about

the 11 million that aren't criminals and he assured us there was going to be a way to give them some benefits to be able to work. that's what they want. they are not seeking welfare. they want to work. when we met with him -- >> do you think he misled you in that meeting? >> i don't know. i think he was genuine in the meeting. i think he took notes, he asked all the right questions. >> so if you think he was genuine in the meeting, i just want to get this exactly right, you think he was genuine in that meeting, so at that point in time, he wanted some path to work possibilities to labor options for the undocumented and since that time, he's now genuinely changed his mind and is going back to mass deportation he outlined last night? >> yes. something happened on the way to phoenix. either he listens to the last

person who talks to him or as i suggested earlier, he doesn't want to win and he wants to sell baseball caps and tee shirts. >> you don't think donald trump, who you were until today advising to become president, you don't think anymore that he actually wants to be president? >> he's coming off the two best weeks of his whole campaign, going up in the polls, looks presidential, people are coming around. i had been recruiting people on to the hispanic council. he goes to mexico which was bold, he looks like a leader, and then he comes to phoenix, he warns us that it's not going to be a rally speech so i'm thinking great, here's the final explanation on how he feels on immigration and he gives us populist propaganda that wasn't even written by him. fair and numbers usa, the think tanks that masquerade as conservative groups, those are the talking points he read from. >> just to be clear, you spent time with him, you were a former supporter, you may be saying things critics have said but you are coming from being an adviser to donald trump. you think he's trying to take a dive right now in this election

and lose? >> either that or he listens to the last person who spoke to him and he must have been listening to the special interests that somehow convinced him that this is a winning strategy. >> you talked about this being a turning point for you and it's clearly been a turning point for a lot of people. yet i got to push you on that because donald trump's views on these issues and even on what he thinks of basically mexican immigrants as a category or class have been well known. here are some examples. i want to play some sound of him speaking about this. >> when mexico sends its people, they're not sending their best. they are bringing drugs. they are bringing crime. they are rapists. and some i assume are good people. >> we have to have assimilation. to have a country, we have to have assimilation. this is a country where we speak english, not spanish. >> the original tweet said jeb bush has to like mexican illegals because of his wife.

somebody else said that, you retweeted it. >> do i regret? no, i don't regret it. i would say that he would, if my wife were from mexico, i think i would have a soft spot for people from mexico. >> he said you know the name anchor baby is very insulting. i said what would you call them? he gave me like nine words, a baby of illegal immigrant who was brought to the country. i said how can i say that? it's too long. it's anchor baby. >> jacob, you are telling us you left the trump campaign because of what he said yesterday on these issues. another question for you would be what took you so long? >> well, this speech was heralded by the campaign as the seminal speech on immigration. comments about criminal aliens, there are criminal aliens and they got to go back.

do we need more security, yes. but this speech was heralded as the definitive rest of the story on what he planned to do with all facets of immigration and what did he give us? just more populist propaganda that wasn't even written by his campaign but was copied from fair and numbers usa. so yeah, i was disappointed because i had i guess the naivete to believe that this guy was a businessman, that this guy was a republican and we didn't hear a republican last night. we heard a populist propaganda con artist. i'm done with it. >> do you feel in some sense he was conning you and other supporters who were told it was going to be a different kind of general election set of policies? >> i don't know. he appeared very genuine in the meeting. something happened after august 20th and we saw the fiasco that happened last night. when the obituary on this campaign is written, august 31, 2013 will go down in history. we need to give appropriate credit to fair and numbers usa

for taking down yet another presidential candidate with lies masquerading as conservative principles. >> we cover these campaigns, a lot of times we don't hear about what's going on inside them or these fights over principle until well after the election. jacob monty, for standing up and sharing some of your perspective, we appreciate it. >> thank you. up next, is hillary clinton taking too big a risk by keeping such a low profile lately and letting, as you may have noticed, donald trump dominate so much of the air waves and discussion?

welcome back to "hardball." ari melber here for chris matthews. with 67 days before the election we have seen more of donald

trump than we have of hillary clinton. yesterday she made her first public appearance, get this, in six days. she is running for president but spent the past few weeks focusing on fund-raising and private events. she raised $143 million combined. today one of her chief surrogates, vice president joe biden, defending her absence on the campaign trail to kasie hunt. >> reporter: hillary clinton is not on the campaign trail. you are here in ohio. think she needs to be out front with the american people more? >> she is out front with the american people. >> reporter: she has been fund-raising for a couple weeks. >> she has to but she has also been doing an awful lot of events. i told her, i campaigned with her in scranton. we got a whole bunch of places we are campaigning together and some places where maybe i can help and not have her have to be with me. >> of course, in the past three weeks, donald trump launched that major campaign reshuffle, has been dominating the air waves. last week politico reporting the clinton camp was basically

content at this point quote, running out the clock. in that time her national lead over donald trump is narrowing from nine to six points and heading into labor day weekend, the unofficial start of the formal general election in the debate. will it be smart politics if clinton keeps such a low profile? i'm joined by stephanie schreock and former republican strategist rick tyler. stephanie, is hillary clinton in some sort of candidate witness protection program, is she the first candidate to ever have to balance fund-raising with public appearances, because just to be real, you know we do real talk here, when you are going to fund-raisers that doesn't mean you can't hold any public events for six days. i say this to you upbeat, it's not the biggest story in the world, but what's going on here? >> well, let's start with it's really easy to get headlines like donald trump when you are

using divisive and angry rhetoric every day, so that is part of this. but i do want to say yes, you have got to balance all the aspects of the campaign but i want to talk about this week. earlier this week hillary clinton and her campaign rolled out a mental health proposal that was really extraordinary, one in five americans are dealing with mental health issues and this is an issue talked about on both sides of the aisle. this is what we are talking about on the ground. she also, keep in mind, is not in this alone like you get the sense donald trump is. she's got vice president biden out there. goodness, i was in new hampshire yesterday and you know what we were talking about? equal pay, paid leave, child care with great women voters in new hampshire who are going to decide this election. >> i want to be clear. you are making basically the argument that the national press is focused on a

candidate-centered view of the campaign and if the candidate isn't out there or isn't out there in an outrageous or newsworthy manner, we tend to view it as oh, nothing's happening. you are saying there's a ground game, a policy game, there's stuff in the field and that that is a broader clinton campaign in contradistinction to a candidate obsessed lens at the trump side, is that right? >> well, i think you are looking at a hillary clinton campaign that is incredibly strong on the ground. i mean, she has hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of organizers every day getting volunteers by the thousands, having phone calls, door knocks. it is extraordinary. every time i go out, i was in iowa last weekend, i'm going to north carolina on saturday, i hope. there's that little tropical storm thing i just realized as you are talking about. but it is really an incredible organization on the ground and again, we are talking about how hillary clinton has the vision to ensure that the economy is going to work for everybody and not just the top few and that's the conversation happening voter by voter across this country. >> rick tyler?

>> yeah. >> what do you think? >> what do i think. well, look, hillary clinton has been running sort of a conventional traditional campaign, sort of taking the summer to raise money so she will have plenty in the fall. that's a rational strategy. her problem is, the polls show that so many people distrust her, and there's this drip, drip, drip of scandal when, with the e-mail, the server, now the clinton foundation, now the clinton foundation taking gsa money to pay staff, that her strategy of sort of staying out of the limelight is probably starting to be counterproductive.

when trump was getting earned media that was actually negative for him, it was probably working. i think after labor day, and her not holding press conferences, this just leads into trump's central argument. >> let me see if i understand. you are saying her strategy will always be dependent on how trump is doing so if she's laying in the cut and laying back and he's getting terrible press like he was getting right after the convention, attacking the gold star family, just in sort of a free-form meltdown of personal grievances, her strategy does work in your perspective but it doesn't if he steps up his game?

>> yeah. that's right. but i don't think -- i don't think that was a deliberate strategy. i think their strategy was to take the summer and raise money so they would have it closer to the election and after labor day. when trump was getting earned media except the earned media in the primaries, getting so much positive media, now he's getting negative media although he's had a couple of good weeks here, and it's the next revelation or the next shoe to drop on the e-mail scandal so now we just learned we have 15,000 new e-mails and 30 of them actually deal with benghazi, e-mails she was supposed to turn over to the state department and didn't. what does she have to hide? she doesn't take press conferences so what does she have to hide. after labor day she has to really get out there and change up her game a little bit or donald trump's central argument is she can't be trusted to be president. of course, her central argument is he's not competent to be president and it's the winner of that argument that will win this race. >> when you put it like that, it's mildly depressing. we are almost out of time. rick makes the point it is bonkers she won't hold press conferences. she knows when she becomes president you are supposed to hold regular press conferences, right? >> she's talking to the press all the time. >> we have heard that. >> that is so, so beside the point. >> she is doing interviews with the press and doing that. >> can i just, stephanie, as a talking point, stephanie, we hear that talking point so much. it's like, i hear this so much, i don't even know why the campaign thinks it works. if there are parent/teacher conferences and you keep skipping them and you run into the teacher at the mini mart, you say i talk to the teacher all the time, that's fine. the question is are you going to the parent/teacher conference. candidates have held them for a reason. i don't say this as oh, i'm in the press. it's a larger thing. when you say she interacts with the press, you do know that's just crazy, right? >> no. i think that's an -- a part of the campaign function.

i think we have 67 days here where you will see a lot of campaigning going on and a lot of conversation. i also want to know as you were just talking about, i want to note there's been a couple of headlines, a.p. and politico today that politico headline about the charity today was just flat wrong. they had to change it. so we are continuing to get these questions that are like made-up scandal which just aren't true. the facts are wrong. that's a whole other piece of this conversation, too. >> we are out of time. that's not a reason not to hold press conferences. that's a reason to hold press conferences. take a question, say i see what you said about the funding, here's our response. we can handle a dialogue. that's what presidents do. we are out of time. thank you both for joining. up next, a lot of vitriol on

donald trump's immigration speech. but there weren't as many facts. we take anybody, come on in, anybody. just come on in. name the third president?

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we take anybody, come on in, anybody. just come on in. not anymore. you know, folks, it's called a two-way street. it is a two-way street, right? we need a system that serves our needs, not the needs of others. remember, under a trump administration, it's called america first. >> welcome back to "hardball." last night there, donald trump saying the united states will not be letting just anybody into the country anymore. critics saying the speech is aimed at fearmongering rather than solving a complex policy problem. trump said hillary clinton's open borders policy means the border would be flooded with immigrants. >> president obama and hillary clinton in gross dereliction of duty.

you know it better than anybody here in arizona. you know it. president obama and hillary clinton support sanctuary cities. they support catch and release on the border. they support visa overstays. they support the release of dangerous, dangerous, dangerous criminals from detention. and they support unconstitutional executive amnesty. >> each of those claims is false. donald trump does not always have the facts on his side. we will fact-check one item for you. nbc dug into the path's budgeting scenario and notes the amount of money spent on border security has actually increased 14 times.

border patrol agents increased 500%. the among of border wall has grown from 77 miles to about 700 since 2000 over bush and obama. the number of people being apprehended trying to cross the border has decreased by 4/5. joining us, nick confessore and jamil smith correspondent for mtv news which is still a thing. i'm going to start with the "new york times." on the facts, we discussed politics. i had people who support trump on tonight, people who support clinton. let's start with the facts. from your perspective, how factual was this speech and how much does that matter? >> i think it was probably half and half. so he overstates the idea that president obama has not been tough on illegal immigration. obama deported two million people. the border is militarized. we are prioritizing the deportation of people here without papers who are criminals, who are security risks. in that sense, and the current

administration and he are aligned in certain ways. he's taken a problem that's real and exaggerates it in various ways to fan the fears of his followers. >> he also does this thing where he says i have got this great idea. no one's ever heard of this before. guess what i'm going to do. prioritize the deportation of convicted criminals which is the number one enforcement priority of i.c.e. under the current administration. so you either know that and are lying about it or you don't know that which positions you as shall i say an imperfect reformer of these issues. >> right. certainly also top priority for secretary clinton. that's what she says she would do as her number one thing as well. what it speaks to is really i think either -- a combination of donald trump and his team kind of assuming that the average voter won't go back and check the facts and doesn't realize what the law and what the practice is already, and then some kind of willful ignorance or just pretending that they -- that what's going on right now isn't actually what's going on or it isn't happening well enough, thus you have to go and do it.

>> and this idea infused through trump's speech last night that america shouldn't just take in anyone. >> right. hopefully it's not up to him, frankly, but at the same time, when you look back at how much he links immigration and crime, frankly, we didn't hear anything about domestic terrorism. we didn't hear anything about preventing the next orlando, charleston, san bernardino. if this world is so dangerous and only undocumented immigrants are making it so, it just doesn't fit with the facts. >> he also doesn't seem to have a firm handle on how visas work. >> yeah, it's another thing where he's sort of saying people are overstaying their visas and that's something secretary clinton supports and president obama support, and that something that also is kind of something that it's going to continue and has continued and it's not something that she's doing or he's doing, it's a way of life. >> then you go to the politics of this which is i don't know

that visa regulations are a huge general election issue. >> well, the enforcement of the visa regulations is a problem and has been for 20 years, 30 years, the overstayers, finding overstayers. look, i think that in a sense he's being swallowed up by the politics of this issue. the republicans have created. they led their own base to believe the problem is worse than it seems for years and years. they have convinced their own party that obama has been terrible on this issue, so their proposed solutions are always first be tougher on immigration. it's a way to assuage their own base. he's taken that ten steps further. it's a nightmare, anarchy, they are coming all the time. it's just not true. >> the most rhetorically thing he said was we keep hearing about the 11 million, that's a distraction, we don't need to worry about that. that's comforting, the gang of eight, all the stuff that hasn't worked broke down over that issue. selective discrimination is still discrimination. whether or not it's 11 million the first day, it doesn't

matter. it's a policy that can't be implemented or realistically. >> we will take a quick break. up next, how worried should republicans be about their chances of keeping control of the whole senate? a new poll has some democrating dreaming big.

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♪ (colonial penn jingle) welcome back to "hardball." a new poll out of arizona, donald trump spoke there last night, it shows john mccain now tied with his democratic opponent. the poll showing a tight race for president, trump leading hillary clinton by just three points. think about that. arizona hasn't supported a democrat for the white house in two decades. mccain urging voters there to stick with him, even if they have concerns about donald trump. take a look at this new video out this afternoon. >> my opponent, representative ann kirkpatrick is a good person, but if hillary clinton is elected president, arizona will need a senator who will act as a check, not a rubber stamp.

>> we are back with nick, jennifer, and jameel. that ad, it's not a barn-burner. like it doesn't get you a fire emoji or anything big. >> no, it's a please help ad. >> it's john mccain trying to say, hey, remember me, i'm a nice guy, she's a nice person, this is a nice time, i just need another term, and i'm not sure how that plays in a season where people don't feel that nice. >> look, here's the problem. arizona, i believe, has the highest pro portion of voting age latinos in the country. if they register or turn out because they're angry at trump, it's very bad news for john mccain and he could lose. >> yeah, i think his message in that video and i think this will be a message we hear from him for the next few months and please split the ticket, consider the fact that even if you're voting for hillary clinton, you probably don't love her, so she needs a check on her. so we need to keep the senate majority republican and that's the way to do it. >> what story does that tell, that the republican party and

its standard bearers, if we go from mccain leading the party in 2008, to romney in '12, to trump now potentially being part of, according to nick's theory, why mccain, who was once the party standard bearer, might lose his seat? >> part of this is his fault. he introduced sarah palin into the equation, who is now followed by donald trump and people who are just not that serious within the republican party, and here's what he's got to contend with. i'm more interested to see how clinton uses this. she's got a huge ad buy in arizona. i want to see if she starts to tie him to donald trump. >> you're saying with palin, mccain began the seeds of legitimizing wings of the party that shouldn't have been? >> without a doubt. >> so you're saying he was the sword the good knights use? >> he was also the guy who sponsored immigration bill and

tried to fix this policy. >> so in a way he's tried very hard to fix his party's problem with the people who are now going to be angry at trump and maybe hurt himself in the process, which is just the whole -- >> and at the same time, he's continuing to not really step away from trump all that much and to still -- >> and isn't that amazing, that the guy who was the maverick here at what could be the end of his career would risk his whole seat and career over supporting someone who he doesn't believe is in the party, but out of party loyalty. the end of "hardball," where these three will tell me something i don't know, that's not hard to do. but you're watching "hardball," the place for politics. name the third president?

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welcome to a brighter future. welcome to it all. comcast. we're back with the "hardball" round table. you know what time it is, nick, tell us something we don't know. >> a few weeks ago, trump had a meeting with his latino advisory board, where they asked him to consider a path to citizenship. i'm told the people in that group pay out of their own pockets to survey the results of their proposal and see if it would improve his standing with latinos. apparently there were so few latinos whose minds it would change about trump, that this may give you some reasons as to why he didn't pivot at all. >> jennifer? >> this is something you touched on a little bit, so you might know it. just that i think there is going to be some backlash from democrats in the outer circles of the clinton campaign, saying, what did she do all august? and did she squander the lead that she had after the convention?

they'll say, she raised $140 million, but what else did she do? >> i speculate on it, but i didn't know. it counts. >> i thought i was headed to detroit to see donald trump have an interview in front of a black church audience. seems like he's not going to do that. he's going to do it behind closed doors and apparently it's going to be scripted, according to "the new york times." >> thanks so much. that's "hardball." thanks for watching. "all in with chris hayes" starts now. tonight on "all in" -- >> i think you're going to see there's really quite a bit of softening. >> daytime trump meet night-time trump. >> my first hour in office, those people are gone! >> the target audience for trump's breitbart speech. >> he's got about an 18-point lead in the demographic of white males. this speech is clearly geared at those individuals. plus, telling his supporters today -- >> we're going to build the wall, mexico's going to pay for the wall. >> what we wouldn't tell mexico's president to his face. >> when he sat down and he looked president pena nieto in the eye, he didn't have the