wi with, yes, the single most important election of our lifetimes. that's all for tonight. we'll be back monday with more about the most important election of our lifetime, circa 2016, and of course, tune into sunday for "meet the press." this election will be really important on sunday as well. "with all due respect," an important one, starts right now. i'm john heilemann. >> and i'm mark halperin. with all due respect to president obama and secretary clinton, you weren't the only ones donald trump annoyed today. >> i don't really quite know what to make of that, except that we got played again by the trump campaign, which is what they do. >> the media got pimped and played by donald trump again. >> didn't he shrewdly use the media today -- >> and, and -- >> in a sense, you could say he was leveraging five years of birther controversy to promote his hotel. >> it's hard to imagine this as anything other than a political

r rickroll. ♪ >> no need to be singing. >> we'll never give you up or let you down. program tonight starts with ten words that donald trump uttered earlier today, words that have been true for 55 years, but the republican nominee has been, until now, unwilling to say, queue the videotape. >> president barack obama was born in the united states, period. >> period. that was donald trump holding the first event ever at his brand-new pennsylvania avenue hotel in nation's capital, where he delivered something his advisers and family members have been telegraphing for several days. that trump would repudiate the very birther movement that he rode to national political power. for five years, trump has been the leading voice of the birther conspiracy theorists, who, of course, claim president obama was born in kenya and, thus, was

ineligible to be president. today, trump effectively resigned his leadership position. here's the full statement he made this morning. >> now, not to mention her in the same breath, but hillary clinton and her campaign of 2008 started the birther controversy. i finished it. i finished it. you know what i mean. president barack obama was born in the united states, period. now we all want to get back to making america strong and great again. thank you. thank you very much. >> mr. trump, why did it take so long? >> not taking questions there,

still hasn't been taking questions, reputeuating his long-standing lie about president obama, but lied about some other things in the process. so this is messy and complicated and emotional. where does it leave donald trump after what he did today and his chances of being president? >> i think it leaves him exactly where he was yesterday, which is the primary champion, propagator, disseminator, aof a racist lie about the first african-american president of the country. that will never go away. many people say, this is purely political theater, he's trying to change the subject, and we should not allow him to. the truth is, he did this for years. long after the long form birth certificate was produced, he continued to propagate this theory. i understand the politics of what he's trying to do right now, but i don't think this is a stain that will be -- whatever his future holds, this stain will be on his legacy forever. >> i mean, you didn't answer the question i asked you, which is what it does to his chances of

winning. >> that was the second half. i thought we'd get to that later. >> i believe he has said a lot of outrageous things in the conduct of this campaign. i don't think he's done as anything outrageous as his long-running leadership of the birth birth birther movement. nobody has been as close in popularizing. it has polluted and enflamed our dialogue, it has been disrespectful to the president. and the way he handled it today, by finally acknowledging, with no explanation of why he changed his mind, finally acknowledging it, and yet, accusing hillary clinton of starting it, taking some credit for helping the president by forcing him to release -- >> protest. >> done in an outrageous way. and i think is not going to change any aspect of the election, but i do think it is a testament to his lack of care about how history will view him. win or lose, they handled it the this way. >> i agree with that 100%. we agree about all of that. i'll come back to the audit election in one second. one problem with donald trump,

he's had a problem with the truth. he's lied about a lot of things. not even hillary clinton's team, it is the case based on our reporting that some low-level people in the clinton campaign may have spread the rumor that obama may have been a muslim. a muslim can be the president of the united states. someone born in kenya cannot be. the and the whole point of this was to basically say that this man, this black man, with this name of his, is not a qualified occupant of the oval office. he is not a legitimate president. and that's different from the muslim rumor. hillary clinton, they fired those people when they started that rumor on the clinton campaign. they have some small part in that. but not in this birther thing. that's another outright lie from donald trump. >> this story has been around for about 24 hours since "the washington post" published an interview in which he refused to answer a question on this. i think he'll have to answer the question at some point, why did he change his mind? but i don't think we'll be talking about this on monday in

a dominant way. >> and even before donald trump pulled his media stunt today, hillary clinton was on offense, prebutting his birther announcement during a speech he gave to the black woman's agenda symposium in washington, d.c.. >> now, donald's advisers have the temerity to say that he's doing the country a service by pushing these lies. no. he isn't. barack obama was born in america, plain and simple, and donald trump owes him and the american people an apology. think of how dangerous that is. imagine a person in the oval office who traffics in conspiracy theories and refuses to let them go, no matter what the facts are. imagine someone who distorts the truth to fit a very narrow view of the world. imagine a president who sees

someone who doesn't look like him and doesn't agree with him and thinks, that person mustn nt be a real american. donald trump is unfit to be president of the united states. >> so that was last night. today, after trump spoke, hillary clinton's campaign manager, robby mook, put out the following statement. quote, trump's actions today were disgraceful. after five years of pushing a racist theory into the mainstream, it was appalling to see him be the judge of whether prp prm is american. and hillary clinton fired off a round of fiery tweets, including one that read, leading the bi h birther movement is deplorable. attempting to say it did a great service the to the person trump attacked is asinine. and this afternoon, as michelle obama stumped for clinton in

fairfax, virginia, it was her time to take a swipe at donald trump. >> there are those who question and continue to question for the past eight years up through this very day, whether my husband was even born in this country. well, during his time in office, i think barack has answered those questions by the example he set by going high when they go low. >> so i said a little earlier that the sound we played of hillary clinton was from last night. it was, in fact, from this morning. my mistake there. mark, let may ask you the question at hand. the clinton campaign clearly wants to trump not get away with what he did today. how do you think that effort has gone? >> i think they've been focused and coordinated. they've had a lot of their allies out saying the same kind of things. i think the tweets they sent on her behalf was very strong. i don't think the difference between what is and what ought

to be. donald trump should pay a price for what he did today. i don't think they're effectively making him pay a price, simply because at the end, trump admitted he was wrong and that is the dominant thing. the other aspects of it, unfortunately, are too complicated for most of our political dialogue. >> i don't think trump admitted he was wrong. i think what trump had said today is that he basically -- >> he repudiated his position. >> he said he settled it, that by forcing obama to release his birth certificate, that he somehow took credit for it. >> he didn't admit he was wrong. he just changed his position. >> that's true. two things are true, one in the short-term, in what was not a very good week for hillary clinton and what has not been a very good stretch, this has put her back on offense. >> or at least taken her off defense. >> i would say put her on offense. this goes to the earlier question you asked. she right now as a problem. part of what we're going to talk about polls in a minute. one of the problem she has is enthusiasm among members of the obama coalition. she's getting a very high percentage of african-american votes, but there's a lot of african-american enthusiasm that's not at the levels it was

for president obama. to the extent this that issue allows her to drive a message that motivates african-american voters in these battleground states, this could play to her advantage in the long run. it just -- that's going to matter in the long run, how many of the african-americans turn out. >> as the weekends, hillary clinton and her campaign face a corn cornucopia of choices about what parts of donald trump's records and proposals they want to highlight amid their simultaneous effort to frame him as unfit to be president and to sell her. so john, broadly speaking, how well has secretary clinton executed her donald disqualification plan over this course of this week? >> well, you know, it's been a mixed week, obviously, for her, given where it's been. she's been off the campaign trail, et cetera. the fact that there is now a hook for pushing the issue on trump university and on the -- on the trump charity question, that that's now being litigated by the attorney general in new york is investigating it, they want to try to make transparency a big issue. that gives them a news peg into that, and i think reporters are now more receptive to hearing

that message than they were certainly a few months ago. >> i agree with that. i'll tell you the two things if i were them i would be worried about. one is, trump gives them so much to talk about. they're constantly trying to figure out which ones to talk about. if you talk about seven different ones, if they have some connective tissues, very hard to break through. the other thing is, trump is a street fighter. trump relishes going toe to toe. when this stuff is happening, i don't know that that game plays to her strength. the other thing i would be worried about if i were them, she's been doing this. she gave the all right speech. she does this almost every day, and in the time they've been doing it, trump has caught up. >> i do think the reality here is that there is a lot of smoke right now, because of the reporting david fahrenthold and others, around the foundation and around the university. >> i think that stuff's going to knock him out and they've got to knock him out for a win. >> i think it's still good for them to go after him. >> when we come back, the never trumpers that are suddenly kind of bullish on trump's chances after these words from our sponsors.

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we like to say around here, because it's true, that polls are just a snapshot in time and this week we have an album full of unpretty polaroids for the clinton campaign. trump is slightly ahead or virtual lie tied with hillary clinton. and it's not just the toss-up states like florida, ohio, nevada, and iowa, trump is also closing the gap in states previously seen as safe clinton territory. a new poll shows trump up 4% in colorado. the university of mary washington survey has clinton up by just three points in virginia. and she now has a meager three-point lead also in michigan, according to a "detroit free press" poll. all three of those surveys were, of course, within the margins of error. trump's rising fortunes in these polls have provoked a huge amount of democratic hand wringing, and some trump haters are even starting to tout the prospect of him, just possibly, winning. most notably, two brand name

conservative columnist, charles krauthammer and rich lowry who both have twin pieces out this morning, noting hillary clinton's effort to paint trump as an apocalyptic commander in chief, krauthammer wrote, trump's new team has worked single mindedly to blunt that line of attack on the theory that if he can cross the threshold of acceptability, he wins. and rich lowry used his column in the "new york post" to echo a similar sentiment, writing, quote, all it took for trump to wipe away most of clinton's lead was acting like a somewhat normal presidential candidate. none of this requires genius, only a decision to not throw away the election with repeated episodes of self-indulgent stupidity, end quote. so what is the significance of those columnists weighing in. and are these guys maybe overreacting a little bit about the latest polling? >> i think people are overreacting in general, not just these two guys. although, again, they don't say trump's a lock, but they say he has a good chance now, and he

does. there are significant voices. there are smart guy who is follow it closely, who have no love for trump. but see that the fact that while trump has done better in some ways, trump is still making the kind of mistakes he makes, and yet he's caught up. and states like colorado and virginia, that people were just giving to hillary clinton now these polls suggest are much closer. last thing i'll say is that democrats are really concerned. and if hillary clinton loses the first debate and the expectations are against her in that, and there's another disclosure about her e-mails, trump will have a much better chance to win, and neither of those two things are outside the realm of possibility, obviously. >> here's the other thing that's not outside the realm of the possibility. i agree. democrats are freaking out. they should be freaking out. these guys are reading polls like we are and they are not in the pro-trump camp. however, it appears that these are two candidates at 41, 42 are basically with their rock-bottom bases right now.

she has lost altitude and if you look at the realm of available voters, they are more likely to be, generally, clinton kind of voters than trump kind of voters. if she puts it back together, starts campaigning well, gets a positive agenda going, gets her footing back, the opportunity for her to reclaim those votes. and again, given the demography of the country, she can pull out ahead. not with easy, but it's within her power to fix this problem. what's happening right now is not that trump is rising, but that clinton is falling. >> a lot going on in the states right now, that clinton can't control herself. >> that's true. >> all right, coming up, we'll ask the reverend jesse jackson about donald trump's birther comments today when we come back. [ gears stopping ] when your pain reliever stops working, your whole day stops. try this. but just one aleve has the strength to stop pain for 12 hours. tylenol and advil can quit after 6.

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no one will forget. see what the power of points can do for your business. learn more at chase.com/ink donald trump's presidential campaign has been based on the birther movement, which he founded. make no mistake, he founded the birther movement. >> and i join the pack by saying on behalf of african-americans across america, we've had enough and we're not going to take it anymore. we will not elect a chief bigot of the united states of america. >> members of the congressional black caucus today in washington, d.c. reacting to donald trump's statement regarding his resignation, in effect, from the birther movement. we're joined now by the civil rights leader, the president and founder of the rainbow push coalition, who we like as much as he claims to like this

program, the reverend jesse lewis jackson. thank you for joining us, reverend jackson. you put out a strong statement today in reaction to what donald trump said, and one of the main points is you think he needs to apologize. given what you think of his views on this, what does it matter if he apologizes? >> well, it matters, to show remorse. he saw a lie as a victory, therefore he was speak together authors that he mobilized around fear and ignorance in the first place. if he were sincere, he would apologize to president barack obama for disparaging his name, his family name, to hillary clinton, as the case may be, or to america. measure just a declaration of victory that somehow he validated barack obama's americanness. his mother and father did that, trump did not do that. >> reverend jackson, just following up on that question, if donald trump were to issue such an apologize, would you believe it? >> it would be very difficult in

that after he's burned the house down, then you apologize amidst the ember and the smoke. he has used these last days to mobilize the anti-martin luther king, anti-civil rights, anti-barack's victory forces into a solid force of fear and anger based upon that line. it was an attempt to take away president barack obama's legitimacy, to make him illegitimate. in some sense, as he's done to try to make mexican judges illegitimate or to make mexican immigrants illegitimate, to make muslims illegitimate. this idea of taking away people's legitimacy is taking away their humanity is not right, it's not fair. and it's not for blacks, all people of goodwill should say no to this kind of discrediting scheme. >> after this extraordinary week, where so much happened, how would you rate donald trump's chances of being the next president of the united states? >> well, there are two people run welcome but i would expect

that if hillary clinton stays on the high road of vision, not goes down to his level, she'll keep mobilizing the people who want america to go in another way. the issue is not these one-liners, day to day, he shoots one line, she responds to one line. these issues are about the protected right to vote. the schemes to 2010. it's about livable wages. it's about working poor people. it's about temporary workers. it's about student loan deficits. it's about bank lending. issues that matter bottom up are not being addressed in that tit for tat day. when an eagle flows lie on the ground, it doesn't matter. she could keep flying high. >> so one of the things we've seen the donald trump spending a fair amount of time ostensibly doing outreach to african-american communities, saying the that he wanted african-american votes, saying he wanted hispanic votes, making

a trip to detroit, making a trip to flint. do you think from the perspective of the african-american community, do you think those efforts are at all useful or does this birther matter overshadow all of that for african-american voters? >> it's not just the birther. we need a policy, you go to flint, flint needs pipes, not water bottles. they need investment, not pity. so 34,000 pipes require plumbers and investment and infrastructure. that's the substance of the matter. he decries poverty in the inner cities, yet he stands against a living wage being raised and against affordable health care. he decries a balance in the cities, and yet will not ban assault weapons or support a background check on guns. so in some sense, it's a contradiction on its face. >> would you have a better,

worse, or equal chance of bei beating donald trump if you were the nominee than hillary clinton does? >> that's too prospective. i think he has a good chance and i support her big-time. i think she has the strength of character, in fact, and the track record. she is on the playing field. if you're on the playing field 35 years, there are some bloodstains, there are some green grass stains. only those who are not on the field have clean uniforms. she is a tirele lesless warrior she has regained her strength from her bout with pneumonia and i expect her to win november 8th. >> reverend jackson, there was a story in "the new york times" the other day that talked about some research that an african-american pollster named cornell belcher has done, some polling research and he had some focus groups that looked at support for hillary clinton among african-american voters. and his reports suggested that she has a little bit of a problem with enthusiasm, particularly among millennial african-american voters. from your travels around the country, does that ring true to you? and if so, why do you think it is? >> it rings true, but as long as the campaign is up to the level

of her and donald trump exchanging, attacking, counterattack, it's not real. but the cities, for example, if there's a plan for urban reconstruction where, number one, there is a -- you remove lead paint jobs, or you cut down the weeds, landscapers' jobs. you demolish homes that can no longer stand jobs. you begin to remove boards and put in window papanes, that is plan. she can plan a program for us that will inspire everybody. but i would hope that she will not continue spending her time attacking and counterattacking him on one liners. the stakes are much too high, given what this foreign policy of the supreme court, the stakes are too high to be engaged in that every day. >> what's the one thing that hillary clinton is not doing currently that you wish she was doing more on? >> focusing more on voter protection for all americans and

you are babb urban reconstructi what's that where the base of our support is. she has all the right stuff, all the right credentials, and i hope that she will, in fact, close that gap with these last 50 plus days. >> we'll be watching, as you will, reverend jackson, thank you so much. talk to you again soon. up next, we'll check in on the trump beat with two reporters who cover him daily, right after this. gonna fall. (engine revs) the things it does to your parade. we've got a saying about rain, too: when it rains... it roars. the all-wheel-drive charger. domestic. not domesticated. around hgets the waffle.rd but for all the other birds who could use a few more minutes of sleep,

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we are joined now by bloomberg politics senior national reporter, jennifer jacobs, who's in washington, d.c., and was at the donald trump's campaign event today. also with us, the great nbc correspondent, katy tur, who is at trump's new d.c. hotel on pennsylvania avenue. jennifer, we'll start with you, from your reporting, fill us in on how the decision was made about today's event and how

trump would handle things? >> i talked to his campaign insiders, both before and after today's event, and they had been talking about what to do for a couple of days now. so the strategy was to get this last obstacle out of the way. they see it as arguably one of the final things that hillary clinton could use to attack him, one of the final obstacles for getting voters onboard, including independents and those college-educated whites. so they wanted to dispatch with this very quickly. so -- but they were still debating what to do, as of this morning. there was an hour delay before trump took the stage this morning. that was partly because he was huddled with his advisers in a holding room at the hotel, still debating how exactly he should handle this. and so, what he did is he collectively asked his advisers, including his campaign ceo, steve bannon, how should i do this. what should i say. then he asked each person in the room, one by one. and their conclusion was, keep it short. keep it simple. and that's exactly what he did. so he had talked about, even

tweeting on this from his twitter account last night. and he chose not to, because he wanted to, quote/unquote, hold on to some of the expense. the way he orchestrated this today, it was exactly how he wanted it to go. >> katy, what questions are begged by what trump said today and didn't say today? >> reporter: well, two major questions. number one, he said that hillary clinton started birtherism. she did not. and that he finished it. and he did not. president obama released his long form birth certificate in 2011. donald trump went on to continue questioning where he was born for five years after that. it wasn't until today that he admits what everyone else has known all long, that the president of the united states was born in the united states. so that question of why now is still lingering. we're 53 days out until the election. is this just a politically expedient thing to do, or has donald trump learned that birtherism was greatly offensive

to many millions of americans, not just african-american voters, which he's trying to court at the moment, but also, as jennifer jacobs was alluding to, moderate republicans, soft republicans, college-educated republicans and women, who might have found these comments to be a little bit too much to bear for their republican nominee. also, does he think that president obama is a christian? does he think he earned his harvard degree legitimately, or did he try to trick his way into harvard, as he suggested once? does he still believe that president obama has some sympathies to -- with terrorists, which is what he alluded to back after the orlando massacre. there are a number of questions that are left unanswered, because this event was originally billed to reporters as a press conference. after he made his 32-second remarks about president obama, the reporters got up on their chairs and started trying to

yell questions at the republican nominee to get him to answer, just some of the ones i'm talking about, he ignored us and walked out. >> i'm putting katy tur in the more questions than answers question. >> definitely. i'm curious from jennifer jacobs, a lot of conservative media is cheering at how trump punked the media today. is his staff kind of reveling in that? was that part of what they were trying to do here, is make a fool out of all of us? >> right. and actually, katy tur was one of those people standing on the chair today, yelling questions to him, trying to get some answers out of him, so give her credit for that. but, yes. part of the strategy was, because they are taking away an issue that energizes the their base so much, you know, this question about where obama was born, they wanted to give them something else to energyize them. they wanted to turn around and try to tar clinton. what they were trying to say is that clinton's chief strategist from her 2008 campaign wrote a memo in which he said, he

proposed that they attack barack obama on his quote/unquote, lack of american roots. so that seed of an idea of attacking him for possibly being less than american came from clinton's campaign, and so that's what they were trying to -- they were trying to shift the conversation over to her. that was their strategy. but the real reason why they were getting into this, i happen to know, they told us that they were thinking about next week, having donald trump apologize to a group of black ministers, but when this started coming, you know, rising to a boil thursday night, they decided they needed to do something about this. but the debate, the debate is in ten days. that was why they felt like today was the day they needed to get something done on this. if we're going to do something next week with the apology, but with that debate just ten days away, they really felt like they needed to get this taken care of and something come out of his own mouth, say definitively, he was born in the united states, period, and that way they can move on in this, and they think that this is no longer an issue. >> katy, i didn't mean to minimize the questions you raised, they're all good

questions, i was just impressed by the length of the things you raised, because you're right. it does beg a lot of questions that he didn't address on all these topics that are obviously related. one of the things that also happened this week, that hasn't gotten that much attention is two of donald trump's children acting as surrogates had pretty rough times in interacting with the media. i'm wondering what you think of that and if you think that might inhibit them from being out more on their father's behalf the rest of the way? >> you know, we've only see ivanka trump come out and speak to reporters about this campaign a handful of times, period. and they're usually to, i guess you could call them, friendlier organizations, either fox news or the morning shows or glossy magazines. and this wasn't an interaction ivanka had with a glossy magazine where she felt like the questions that a "cosmopolitan" reporter was asking her were not fair. she was asking her, basically, words about -- words that her father had said about maternity leave and women in the past and ivanka didn't find those

questions fair. and then don jr. getting into a bit of a heat over a couple things. one for that "gas chambers" remark, saying that hillary clinton -- if the republican nominee was doing what hillary clinton was doing, that he would be, you know, sent to a gas chamber. he said that had nothing to do with the holocaust and that was essentially a poor choice of words in that moment. and he was also getting some heat for talking about his father's taxes, saying -- basically saying it was less to do with the irs and more to do with the american public, when every individual in this country would suddenly become their own auditor and distract from donald trump's message. so are we going to see less of the children? i think we're probably going to still see the sons here and there, but i think we've already been seeing less of them on national outlets than we've seen in the past. of course, they want to protect their reputations in this. and it was definitely a stumbling block. but donald trump himself mentioned at his economics speech that, you know, being politically correct, if you're politically incorrect one day, don't worry about it, it will blow over in a week and that's

generally how it's gone. >> all right, guys, jennifer jacobs, katy tur, always fantastic to have both of you and each of you on this program. up next john pod hurts and mark mckinnon will arm wrestle. >> and you can also listen to us on the radio. we'll be right back. i thought i had it covered. then i realized managing was all i was doing. when i finally told my doctor, he said humira was for people like me who have tried other medications,... but still experience the symptoms of moderate to severe crohn's disease. in clinical studies, the majority of patients on humira saw significant symptom relief... ...and many achieved remission. humira can lower your ability to fight infections... ...including tuberculosis. serious, sometimes fatal infections and cancers,... including lymphoma, have happened; as have blood, liver, and nervous system problems, serious allergic reactions,... ...and new or worsening heart failure. before treatment, get tested for tb.

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with us now, here are the john podhoretz, "new york post" columnist, the world's most prolific tweeter. and in the other chair, republican political strategist, mark mckinnon, our fellow co-host and co-executive producer of "the circus," our showtime weekley documentary series done in conjunction with bloomberg politics. gentleman, thank you to you both. john, do you agree with your fellow travelers, charles krauthammer, and rich lowry, that right now it looks like donald trump has a pretty good chance of winning this election? >> i think he's always had a chance of winning the election. i'm not so sure it's so much to do with him. their column seemed to suggest that all he need to do was moderate and calm himself down, in order to get on track. it's not how i read the last three weeks. obviously, he hasn't really gotten in his own way. it's just that the news has been catastrophic. >> so less about his doing much better and more about her doing worse. >> if you look at the poll averages, what is he up? one or two? she, there appears to be a

withdrawal of affect from her, from democrats and independents. and for good, for good reason, i mean. i didn't know that it was possible for someone to have a worse couple of weeks than trump did after khizr khan and the gold star parents and everything like that. but this trifecta of bad stuff tonight smaie-mails, the deplors remark, and the pneumonia, in five or six days' time, that's a rough series of hits. >> so, today, you know, we've had -- over the last how many, 18 hours, we've been consumed with birtherism, right? so is this now -- in a race that's constantly doing switchbacks, mark, is this a thing where things are going to flip around and trump's on a slide and clinton's on the rise? >> you know, i'm dizzy. i'm dizzy this week. it started off with pneumonia and the deplorables and just when we thought that would be the whole focus of this week, at the end of the week we're

talking about birthers again, which is -- i mean, if you step back and think about that, the fact that we're talking about birthers, in the eighth year of the guy who's president of the united states, and somebody who's admitting today that he's actually born in the united states, is a testament to just what a circus this election is. but i think that it is -- this race is never going to be stable. i think there's a conventional wisdom that post-labor day, this thing stabilizes until the debates. that hasn't been true. it's changed drou ed dramaticale last week. i don't know so much that trump has grown, but she has collapsed, and get out the rubber sheets, because it's bedwetting time in economdemocr circles. >> thanks for that. >> i'm not sure i understand -- what i read to be the democratic and liberal enthusiasm for the fact that the birther issue has come up again. because this is hillary talking about how trump has insulted obama, right? and obama is not on the ticket.

obama, obviously, the democratic base likes obama and loves obama and she really needs to generate the base. but why it helps her to be having a conversation with trump about how offensive or inoffensive he is to the guy who's leaving office, when she needs the focus to be on her and trying to get her people to vote for her is not clear to me. but you guys are wiser about this. >> i'm not going to talk about wisdom, but let me ask you the appropriati proposition, does this not potentially help her raise the stakes for the election? like donald trump saying, why not try me, it can hardly get nay worse, and this is a way for her to say, it could be a lot worse. >> but i never read that as trump making a play for black voters. that's a play for suburban republicans not feel like they're voting for a racist or to at least have a tamp down so they can feel more comfortable at voting for them, even if they're a little unnerved about where he stands on race. it just seems to me to be a bank

shot that she's going to get the momentum or the base enthusiasm that she needs by talking about the outgoing president. i just don't think that that's going to do it for her. >> the right thing for the press to do is to cover every candidate really aggressively and equally. that doesn't happen. >> in this race right now, the broad posture of the media, more pro-trump or more pro-clinton? >> i don't buy it either way. ti i think they're pro-conflict and jump to the flame closest in front of them. i think it's a -- i don't sense a particular bias one way or another. >> you generally believe the press favors democratic candidates. is the press favoring hillary clinton over donald trump? >> no, but the news is the news. trump hasn't been making news. we've got fbi e-mails, she's caught on camera, you know, nearly collapsing into a car. she makes a comment at a fund-raiser that raises all sorts of issues. what are you supposed to do?

then you're supposed to gin up, go back to stories from two or three months ago and hammer them about trump simply to achieve some kind of a balance? i mean, trump has been running for 16 months. he -- if there is anyone who has gotten worse press in the course of those 16 -- in the course of 16 months, in the history of american politics, i doubt that -- >> well -- >> worse than trump. >> well, i think that there may be a general sort of bias among journalists towards democrats, generally, but not towards hillary clinton. she gets as tough a treatment as anybody ever has in politics. but i think this is a reminder of a moment in 2008 when she had that moment in 2008 in new hampshire, when there was just kind of a -- you know, she was worn down and there was this kind of town hall moment where she just kind of reframed the race in a really human way and talked about her rationale and why she was running and kind of got it back to the public service component. and she just needs to get it off her and about that -- and i thought her line was great this

week, when she says, you know, public service is what i do. >> i thought her speech yesterday, which totally lost because of the birther coverage, i thought her speech yesterday, first event back after being down with pneumonia, i thought it was amongst the best i've ever seen her talking about simultaneously herself and about donald trump. >> if she gets into that whole public service component and her history of serving, it's all about service. if she can get back on to that idea, i think it will help a lot. >> do you think the way -- if your analysis is right, and i generally share it, that she's lost some altitude, and he's pretty much exactly where he was before. is the solution for her, do you think, to be more effective on offense against trump, or is there something she needs to do in terms of an affirmative case, in terms of her as a character. like, what's the solution to that problem? how does she get that back? >> she's 68 years old. she's one of the famous people of everybody in politics. she's been in the public eye for 25 years. she's not going to reintroduce herself to the american people. they know her. they know who she is.

i'm not sure this is message driven. i think she needs not to cough, not to fall down, and not to have e-mail revelations come out about her over the next -- or something else come out over the next six or seven weeks, and then you can have the standard issues, democrats who are withdrawing will come home, she'll end up with a natural structural advantage the democrats seem to have in this race. the democratic get-out-the-vote machine should be able to function effectively for her, assuming no more negative news is made by her or at her. and i'm not sure that a message change is going to help. >> i like the idea of putting you in a room with hillary clinton, when she says, john, i'm really looking for your advice, and you say, don't cough and don't fall down. >> for most people, saying, just don't cough and don't fall down and don't have nasty things -- don't have the fbi say something about you, that's a very low bar to -- >> you both agree she's the favorite to win today, right? >> yeah. >> what? >> she's the favorite to win?

>> yeah. what would have to happen for you to change your mind? >> i think she would have to cough or fall down and a bad story. >> what if trump has a great first debate? >> well, obviously, that will alter things. people, for some weird reason, seem to think that she's a bad debater. she's a very good debater, and she's never debated before. >> but that's an expectations game. >> do you think it will be -- >> i think people think that she's a bad debater. >> sighi see what you're saying. >> i think she's a good debater. he's never debated before. >> the expectations game should work for them. >> you haven't tweeted in six minutes. >> i've got to promote you. >> twitter guru. >> when we come back, we'll talking about mark mckinnon's staking out hillary clinton in chappaqua. right after this. i'm richard lui. breaking news, donald trump is holding a rally in miami, florida, just moments ago making a comment about hillary

clinton's stance on guns that is already raising some eyebrows. take a listen. >> i think what we should do is she goes around with armed bodyguards like you have never seen before. i think that her bodyguards should drop all weapons. they should disarm. right? right? i think they should disarm. immediately. what do you think? yes? yes. yeah. take their guns away! she doesn't want guns. take their -- let's see what happens to her. take their guns away. okay? it would be very dangerous. >> those comments just moments ago from donald trump. we'll have more on those comments right here on nbc. but for now, back to "with all due respect," right after this.

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cinch up your bow bolo tie, because we're back with mark mckinnon, co-shows of "the

circus." so you mentioned how the week has changed from what it was earlier in the week. when health was dominant, you made a trip up to chappaqua. what was that like? >> part of what "the circus" is like is showing what it's like to be in a campaign, and there are very exciting days and there are days like this when you go up to chappaqua and watch the paint dry. this is the pool press, and it's their job and responsibility to monitor these situations, just in case something happens. if the doctor comes out or if there's some -- any news at all. so we reflected a little bit on this week's "circus." >> here's a clip from this sunday night's showtime, 8:00 p.m., "the circus." mark mckinnon goes to chappaqua to see what's up when hillary clinton is down with pneumonia. >> we're in chappaqua, new york. this is where the clintons live, right up the street. and hillary clinton is here today, trying to recuperate from pneumonia. what's a day like today like for

you? >> we haven't seen hillary clinton all day, so it's really just this pulling of teeth to try to get the latest scrap of information. >> sure. >> we didn't know, for example, that hillary clinton saw a doctor ton friday. we had no idea. and i think that's part of why it's been such a -- there's been such a focus on what are they saying, what are they doing? turns out she has pneumonia. >> something that most people have some experience with. >> i've had pneumonia. you know, i lived to tell the tale. but in the event that everything goes horribly wrong, there are reporters there who are able to document it and able to tell the american public, hey, this is what's going on. >> so this is the press pool. responsible for reporting any news that occurs here. this is what they've got to do. they've got to sit here all day just in case a doctor comes out with some news. the press used to be able to get up pretty close to the house. now they've got barricades up so the traffic can't even drive up the street. >> we're on the street, not on the property. >> i don't want to go into

semantics with you folks. i'm trying to be civil about it. >> can you guys talk to your bosses. we've got to do our job too, you know. >> i understand. >> that's not the property. >> do you want to sit on the blacktop there next to the trees? >> i'm fine with that. >> yeah, if we have to, sure. >> if that's what you've got to do to keep your bosses happy. >> you're not giving us freedom of speech here. you're not doing your job. that's america. it's america! >> watch yourself. >> just one week ago, hillary clinton was getting points for letting the press in, get closer, and now we're going just back the other direction again. >> we're putting ourselves in danger, just for freedom of speech, you see? >> the press united will never be defeated! the press united will never be defeated! >> so, as the week went on, tell

us where else the circus went to, besides chappaqua. >> well, because of the health-related issues, we'd planned on doing an episode sometime during our run about the vice presidents. and this was a perfect time to do that, because as the candidates get sick, as sometimes happen, as presidents get sick, somebody is a heartbeat away, the vice presidents. we talked to dan quayle, joe lieberman. you guys flew with tip kaine and mike pence. and so we're going to reflect on the seconds in command. >> and the question of who's ready to be president, both the people who are running for the top of the ticket and the people who might be with them in the white house. >> that's right. >> okay. >> it's a circus out there. >> it is. the question is, who's fit to serve. mark mckinnon, you are definitely fit to serve. >> at 8:00 p.m. sunday night on showtime. we'll be right back. calling your name. seriously. like new garlic sriracha-grilled shrimp. it's a little spice... ...a little sizzle... ...and a lot just right. and try new parmesan peppercorn shrimp.

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