said he doesn't condone it. we'll hear more right alongside this presidential campaign. that is our broadcast tonight. we'll see you back here on monday, "hardball" with chris matthewstarts right now. two months left, let's play hardball. good evening, i'm chris matthews, back in philadelphia. it's the day after hillary clinton and donald trump both appeared before veterans and answered questions about protecting our country. donald trump made the most news and stirred up the most heat. he ridiculed american military leaders saying the generals had been reduced to rubble. and he suggested he fire them. praising vladimir putin, calling him someone, quote, who has very

strong control over his country. he could tell based on their body language that national security officials giving him his intelligence briefing were not happy with president obama today. and today, hillary clinton reacted. >> he trash-talked american generals saying they have been quote, reduced to rubble. meanwhile, bizarrely, once again, he praised russia's strongman, vladimir putin. even taking the astonishing step of suggesting that he prefers the russian president to our american president. what would ronald reagan say about a republican nominee who attacks america's generals and heap praise on russia's president. every republican holding or seeking office in this country should be asked if they agree with donald trump about these statements. >> well, traveling overseas, president obama was also asked

about trump's performance last night. >> i don't think the guy is qualified to be president of the united states. and every time he speaks that -- that opinion is confirmed. and i think the most important thing for the public and the press is to just listen to what he says and follow up and ask questions about what appear to be either contradictory or uninformed or outright lackey ideas. >> for his part, donald trump slammed hillary clinton for her performance. let's watch. >> the whole country saw how unfit she was at the town hall last night where she refused to take accountability for her failed policies in the middle east. her policies unleashed isis. spread terrorism and put iran on a path to nuclear weapons.

>> joining me right now is one of donald trump's top advisers, former new york mayor rudy giuliani. by the way, you said the following about hillary clinton's health. let's watch that. >> she has an entire media empire that constantly denimizes donald trump, fails to point out several signs of illnesses. >> her campaign and other people defending her saying there is nothing factual about her health. >> go ahead and take a look at the video, it's for yourself. >> when i saw hillary clinton at the the press conference sitting down with the police, with the democrat appointed police chiefs, pretending she is pro-police, it is one of the most pathetic press conferences. >> what do you mean? >> first of all she looks sick. >> you got a good look at hillary clinton last night, i

guess you saw her performance. >> i did. >> do you think there were any signs of illness by the secretary of state? >> no, but i thought there were before, the day before when she coughed, and coughed on the airplane, and she spit something up. i don't know what is wrong with her, they kind of hide her. >> let's go to the comments. donald trump says he welcomed praise from russian president vladimir putin. let's watch this point he made. >> when referring to a comment made, i think he called you a brilliant leader, you say it's a great honor to be complimented by a man so highly respected in his country and beyond. >> he does have an 82% approval rating according to the different pollsters, by the way -- >> you would want to be complimented by that former kgb? >> well, when he compliments he, i'll take that compliment. he has very strong control over his country, i don't happen to

like the system. certainly in that system he has been a leader. >> in terms of our adversarial terms, shouldn't we be tougher on him in our public statements than your candidate is being? >> chris, you left out, he said all that praise would not be meaningful to him in negotiating. ronald reagan is going to be negotiating from a position of strength. hillary clinton and barack obama gave up the game on day one when they reset the situation with russia and gave up the nuclear defense of poland and the czech republic. putin said, i can push these people around the world. these are children. >> like that is a decent

argument. you said ronald reagan -- >> i did. >> because -- >> let me ask you about trump. >> because i see a comparison between the two. peace through strength. what you don't grasp is, that day he gave a speech in which he said he is going to build the u.s. military up to ronald reagan levels. if we build our military up to ronald reagan levels putin is not going to push us anywhere because he can't match us. >> i want to ask you a question, you may not like, you are a strong defender for the president, of donald trump. a couple of people, including his vice presidential runningmate, mike pence, and ben carson said they believe that president obama is a legitimately elected president of the united states. in other words, he was born in the united states. do you confirm that?

>> i confirm that. donald trump confirms that. >> when did he do that? >> he did -- >> two years ago. >> when did he -- he has now accepted the birtherism was nonsense? >> hillary clinton's campaign was the first to bring up the fact that there was a question -- >> where did they do that? >> donald trump has said that. >> give me an example. has hillary clinton ever accused the president of being foreign-born ever? >> her campaign did during the primary. >> the hillary clinton presidential campaign did this? no, they didn't. i want to know whether you believe your candidate for president believes he would succeed -- would succeed a legitimate president? >> donald trump believes now that he was born in the united states. but that issue was raised --

>> when did he say it? >> that issue was raised originally by hillary clinton. >> when is he going to say the president is legitimate, this is a fundamental question, is the president of the united states legitimate or not? >> i believe it, we believe it. it took a long time to get it out. >> are you speaking for donald trump tonight on live television? are you saying for him i'm saying he is about to buckle and say finally, that barack obama is a legitimate president of the united states? >> he is the one w got him to finally produce the birth certificate. hillary clinton's campaign first raised the issue. he picked this up from hillary clinton when she was -- physically -- >> the final word. >> okay. >> can you commit to your candidate saying within the next 24 hours that president obama is a legitimate president? >> you say -- >> he has said it already. and the fact is. >> no he has not. >> that is an issue that was

originally introduced by hillary clinton. >> you are wrong -- >> every once in a while i am. but the fact is he did. >> i think you're wrong. >> but the point is that hillary clinton's campaign is the first one to do it. because all she does is engage in negative campaigning. against barack obama and against donald trump. her only -- >> she has never said that. and your candidate has on numerous occasions, and i'm asking you on the final word, we'll end it back and forth. can you say that donald trump was wrong saying the president was born in another country? can you say that? >> i believe he picked up on what hillary clinton's campaign said. he pushed obama, obama finally produced the birth certificate and it shows he was born in hawaii. >> and therefore? >> therefore he is an american citizen. >> as per donald trump? >> as per donald trump -- as per me and everyone else. >> has he ever told you this

privately, that this president is legitimate? >> he has told me that he is proud of the fact that he finally got obama to produce his birth certificate. >> i think we have it on the record, mr. mayor, i'm glad you came on, i don't think this is funny. when you accuse the president of the united states of sneaking into the country -- >> not when yourpponent in the democratic primary, hillary clinton, who has lied probably a thousand times over e-mails, the clinton foundation. >> let me just tell you there is no record right now, we checked it before you came on because one of our senior producers thought you may say this. there is absolutely no record ever of hillary clinton or anyone in her campaign saying that president obama is not legitimate. >> her campaign raised no -- >> i'm not wrong, i'm right about that. >> look, anybody can say anything they want but she can control her campaign, and she never said so. but now you're speaking for

donald trump, and we're ending this now and we're spending a lot of time on it. i think it's important. you say the president is a legitimately elected president of the united states. >> and instead of talking about the fact that hillary clinton violated probably about 40 different federal laws, we're talking about this, which is ridiculous. >> okay, thank you, it is ridiculous and i'm trying to put the ridiculousness to bed. we're trying to pick the next president not review the birth of the current president. anyway, thank you, mayor rudy giuliani. >> let's talk about the next president who would have been prosecuted if she were not a clinton. i have seen people prosecuted for much less, like martha stewart. you know how many statements she made to the fbi that were wrong? into. >> and the fbi -- >> thank you, rudy giuliani, coming up, about the intelligence briefing, donald trump said the intelligence

officials briefed him on national security, signaling they were not happy with president obama, we'll ask the former director about trump's cia, and if there were any way it would be true. this is "hardball." the place for politics. the east and the west are mine. the north and the south are mine. all seems beautiful to me. is it a professor who never stops being a student? is it a caregiver determined to take care of her own? or is it a lifetime of work that blazes the path to your passions? your personal success takes a financial partner who values it as much as you do. learn more at tiaa.org

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supported by hotels.com. welcome back to "hardball." let's review what donald trump said at the nbc's commander in chief forum last night, particularly when it comes to russia and the classified intelligence briefing he received as the republican nominee. last night donald trump said he could tell the intelligence officials were quote, not happy, close quote, with president obama. here is trump. >> what i did learn is that our leadership, barack obama, did not follow what our experts and our truly, when they call it intelligence, it's there for a reason, what our experts said to do. and i was very, very surprised. in almost every instance, i

could tell, i am pretty did with the body language, i could tell, they were not happy. our leaders did not follow what they were recommending. >> and here is how hillary clinton today reacted to trump's characterization of those briefings. >> i think what he said was totally inappropriate. and undisciplined. i would never comment on any aspect of an intelligence briefing that i received. >> and we saw donald trump heaping more praise last night on russian president vladimir putin, saying that putin's popularity, so-called, in russia, calling him a better leader than president obama. >> well, he does have an 82% approval rating, it's a very different system, and i don't happen to like that system. but certainly within that system he is a far better leader than our president has been. >> well, when it comes to polling in our country, putin is

the most unpopular that msnbc has ever polled. just 8%, one in 12, say they have a positive view of putin, while 59% say they have a negative view. former secretary of defense, he supports hillary clinton for president. what is the body language, is this trump's way of getting across something of the experts not agreeing with obama, not respecting him, not giving him a briefing. away is body language in the context of briefing by professionals? >> yeah, you know what. i have no idea what he is reading into that presentation. all i know is every intelligence briefing i have ever had is done by professionals. they provide objective intelligence. as a matter of fact, it would be a violation of their responsibility and trade craft if they even suggested anything related to whether policy

decisions were right or wrong. so you know, my view is that trump didn't hear any of that. he was basically listening to the intelligence. and the intelligence is probably you know, pretty rough intelligence about what is going on in the world. and he decided to read into that the failures that he sees in the policies that were applied. but you know, this is a guy who has president is going to get a p db, an intelligence briefing every morning. he has to listen to what is being spoken. he can't spend a lot of time about what the body language is of those making the presentation. >> what did you make of this, i got a comment on this, but i wanted to hear from you because you dealt with this in the world. what do you think of his relationship with putin, he seems to be as if he is judging the best dictator, not looking

at him like a potential adversary, whereas most americans see him as adversary. >> i think this is the real estate developer coming out in trump. he loves to sit down with people even though he may not like them if they're tough and they're good business people. then he loves to sit down and talk with them. and he has -- you know, he is applying that same type of standard when it comes to somebody like putin. putin is an adversary, somebody who has not only invaded the crimea and gone into the ukraine, gone into syria, continues to come at us in a lot of different ways. he is an adversary. and as president of the united states, you know, trump has to be smart enough to keep his feet on the ground and be able to weigh this guy on what he is doing to the united states and

protect the unitestates interests. he can't get enamored by the fact that putin is nice to him and plays to his ego. >> yeah, it's almost like nixon talking about john connelly, you know? i like the cut of his gym -- >> you and i know politics, you know, politicians love to be praised by people. but when you're president of the united states you got to be very careful about being praised by putin or the head of north korea or saddam hussein, because you have to protect the united states interests, first and foremost. >> well, let's talk about this, you're pretty close to the center in terms of national security. and i always wondered how you see hillary clinton because my hunch about her, watching her from a bit away is that she is going to be a notch to the right of obama in terms of readiness

to use force. is that correct? >> chris, you know, i think that -- at least my experience in the national security consul, in dealing with a number of decisions that has to be made. that she is somebody who feels strongly about advancing our interests. and if it requires that we use some of our power in order to be able to do that i think she is willing to do that. you know, does that mean she is not cautious? no, she is cautious, she is thoughtful. she uses good judgment. but when it comes to protecting our interests, i think she is a little more willing to try to engage in the kind of power moves that sometimes you have to do if you want to protect the united states interests. >> well, compare this to president obama, because i know you respect president obama but in your book you said he avoids the battle complaints and misses

opportunities. where would she move where the president has not? generally, i mean, what would she be like compared to him? >> i think she has been pretty clear with that. you know, for example, she has said that she would increase the number of airstrikes in syria. she has talked about establishing a no-fly zone in syria. she has talked about adding additional special forces on the ground. she has talked about trying to increase our intelligence capabilities. so what you're looking at are some of the key obama steps, but she would just be a little more energetic in terms of the effort to try to go after isis. >> that is very helpful. thank you, you know that is sort of how i see it as a hunch, but you are the professional. thank you, leon panetta. former secretary of defense. you're watching "hardball," place for politics.

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thursday, september 8th. well you just heard here today, rudy giuliani, the number one surrogate for republican presidential nominee donald trump, he says donald trump no longer believes president obama was born overseas, that he was in fact important heborn here, news. i put this question to rudy giuliani, because in recent days, donald trump's runningmate, pence, both said president obama was born here and was therefore a legitimate president. as of tonight the only person in the trump campaign who has yet to follow suit is the candidate. and that's "hardball." thank you for joining us. the rachel maddow show starts now. if you're the owner of a 40-year-old company that sells them, the answer may be yes.

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