wage, college affordability, she's the best candidate that has the best case to make to them. >> we should also be clear, of course, that millennials are not the ones that are supporting donald trump. in fact, they reject him overwhelmingly. thanks to you both. that is "all in" for this evening. the rachel maddow show starts right now. >> thanks, my friend. >> you bet. >> thanks for joining us at home this hour. happy thursday thursd. texas used to be a swing state. it was. i swear i'm not kidding. for a long time texas was a swing state. eisenhower, of course, was a republican, eisenhower won texas narrowly the first time, then he won it comfortably the second time. then starting in 1960, the kennedy johnson years and texas swung to the democrats. eight years later 1968 texas was an absolute toss-up. the state split three ways between the democrat and the republican and segregationist

george wallace. texas that year did go democrat but just by a hair. four years later 1972, texas went republican. so heading into the 1976 election texas was seen as a true swing state. unpredictable swing state. that was truly up for grabs. not just because of its history of swinging back and forth between the two parties but also because of the candidates in 1976. here was jimmy carter, an outsider, a newcomer, a southerner running for the democratic party. and then there was the republican candidate, technically an incumbent president but more literally he was sort of the inheritor of the nixon presidency. as a michigander he had no innate appeal to texas voters. as election day was getting closer and closer, the polls were really tight that year. the swing states were very hard to call, including big ones like texas with all those electoral votes. and then less than one month before election day on october 6th, 1976, president ford

stepped on a rake. it happened at the debate that night, october 6, 1976, and you can tell that something went wrong here just by watching the reaction from the moderator. >> there is no soviet domination of eastern europe and there never will be under a ford administration. >> i'm sorry. could i just follow -- did i understand you to say, sir, that the russians are not using eastern europe as their own sphere of influence and occupying most of the countries there and making sure with their troops that it's a communist zone? >> that's max frankel from "the new york times." you heard in the distance there sort of the background one of the other moderators actually tries at that moment, after ford stops talking, tries to hand that over the jimmy carter to respond, but max frankel can't hold himself back. he has to jump in with, i'm

sorry, what now? i'm sorry, what did you say, sir? i mean, americans at the time could read you chapter and verse about the soviet domination of eastern europe about soviet tanks rolling through the streets of eastern europe and crushing the resistance, right? it was a very central part of the way that americans knew the world worked. saying there was no soviet domination of eastern europe, that would be thequivalent now to a president getting up on stage and saying, oh, yeah, north korea seems nice. right? like an american president getting up and saying you know what we need to worry about, the greatest geopolitical threat that we face and the greatest danger to the world? it's the canadians. those canadians, they're vicious. they're a threat to the world. it was just bizarre. and it came at a really bad time for gerald ford. less than a month before the election. it was on a really bad subject for him to have a big flub like that. i mean, there had been no

expectation that there would be televised debates that year. there hadn't been any televised presidential debates since 1960, 16 years at that point. part of the reason ford wanted to debate carter, he wanted this second debate based on foreign policy was so he could show off on foreign policy, showcase his international experience. he negotiated with foreign leaders as an incumbent president and he's running against this never heard of him one-time georgia governor who people are not supposed to take seriously particularly on that issue. but then ford volunteers that bizarre statement. there's no soviet domination of eastern europe. and he never really recovered. i mean, in a general sense, honestly, i don't mean this in a mean way, but it made him look dumb. gerald ford was definitely not du, but that became a caricature that he never really escaped. specifically, though, beyond that general problem that created for him in the swing states that year and among some

very specific constituents in the swing states, it didn't just make them think less of president ford's intellect, it made them angry at president ford. >> last night the president made a statement so startling to his listeners that some even thought it must be a slip of the tongue. he said, quote, there is no soviet domination of eastern europe and never will be in a ford administration. the reaction has been egenerall critical particularly in parts of this country having east european descent. >> cleveland has the largest hungarian community in the country, 80,000 people. many said they were shocked by what the president said. >> in effect, he denied that there is any soviet domination in eastern countries. i don't know how would he explain then why 200,000 people fled hungary in '56 and in '68

the czechoslovak episode. >> it's shocking to us that the president of the united states makes a statement that eastern european nations are not under russian hand. russian soldiers are have a presence in eastern europe. >> president ford's comments may lose him votes among their people. >> chicago has as many poles as warsaw. more than a million. after last night's debate, the president of the illinois polish american congress got a call from one of mr. ford's assistants. >> i told the special assistant that this will hurt ford in the polish american community as well as in other slavic and european community. >> the people who live in the community were upset. >> i'm a republican. i like mr. ford, but he was very, very wrong. >> the ethnic groups of rosenberg, texas, run all the way back to the plains of

boeheim ma. czech immigrants settle this community in the late 1800s. their descendants are still here. the morning disk jockey broadcast news of the debate in moravi moravian, a czech dialect. and at the chamber of commerce luncheon today many disagreed with the president's remarks. voters here tend to be anti-communist conservative democrats who believe that eastern european countries are still captive nations. >> it's not what's going on over there. there is dominance in eastern europe. and unless he does admit his mistake, it is going to cost him some votes. >> i would have a tendency to believe that he made a mistake and he's going to have to face up to the american people and just say, that's not what i really meant to say. >> wt if it was what he meant to say? >> i think he's going to have his penalty to pay on november 2nd. >> most of the people here felt the president's remarks were a mistake, a slip of the tongue.

but they're upset about it. so unless the president issues a retraction or some clarification, they're likely to remain upset all the way to the ballot box. arthur lord, nbc news, rosenberg, texas. >> rosenberg, texas. and in fact on november 2nd that year on election day in texas gerald ford did pay some kind of penalty. on november 2nd that year, gerald ford lost texas. lost texas to yjimmy carter. he also lost ohio to jimmy carter. he did pull off a squeak aer in illinois even if nbc had trouble finding angry polish americans who were angry at ford forever for what he said in the debate. he did narrowly win illinois that year. but he lost overall. all those swing state races were close. eastern europeans, hungarians, poles, czechs, and all the rest, they were sub groups that a

candidate couldn't afford to lose in that hard-fought election year. that flub in that debate, yeah, he'd probably be remembered for that anyway, that's a pretty bad one. but the way it affected him etech tore elector electorally, a lot of sleepless nights in the ford campaign and for good reason. hard to know how individual flubs, bad debate moments, how they shift a candidate's overall electoral prospects. it's easier to gain those out when a candidate's offense doesn't hit everyone equally. it offends and upsets an important interest group from whom that candidate needs votes in a specific particularly important swing state. and so behold, florida. hillary clinton used to have a big lead in florida after the conventions this summer, but it has tightened up there significantly. some polls now show her ahead, some show trump ahead. the safest way to look at it show that florida's a tie.

the most populous county in florida is miami-dade. it has the largest number of republicans in any county in the state of florida. there are more than 350,000 registered republicans in miami-dade county. and what is unique about that population and, therefore, what is unique about what it means to campaign for the republican vote in the swing state of florida is that in miami-dade county, of those 350 plus thousand republican votes, 72% of those voters are hispanic. and the vast majority of those hispanic republicans are cuban american. now, this year the latest poll of the cuban american vote in miami shows that donald trump is leading with those voters but not by a lot. his lead there as of last month with those voters was about four points. he's going to need to get that number up significantly if he has any hope of winning florida. republicans have to run the table with cuban americans in florida in order to win that

state. and you know, the trump campaign, for all its willingness to throw tradition out of the window, for all their proud indifference to political norms, the trump campaign appears to absolutely realize that they've got to do what you usually need to do with cuban americans in florida. they appear to recognize that there's no way for their candidate to win in florida without that critical cuban american republican vote. and so, like every other republican candidate known in modern history, like mike huckabee and like john mccain and like newt gingrich and like michele bachmann, even herman cain, remember him, there was donald trump this week at the exact same coffee shop they all go to in little havana in miami, a cafe called cafe versailles. he has famously bragged that in addition to not smoking and not drinking, he's never had a sip of coffee in his life. if that's true, i don't know

what's in his little cup there, but maybe they made him a teeny, tiny tea? but even if you're donald trump, all republicans agree they must go through the motions and try to goose their numbers with cuban american republicans in florida and that's the only known path to victory for republicans in florida. and today into that tiny delicious capacito cup at cafe versailles plopped this from "newsweek" magazine. we were first to release advance excerpts from this story last night from investigative reporter kirk eichenwald. it is now out. the castro connection how donald trump's company violated the u.s. embargo against cuba. kirk eichenwald's allegation in this piece is that donald trump's company in 1998 violated the u.s. embargo on american individuals or companies spending money in cuba. for political effect, donald trump has repeatedly praised

that embargo and said he would never violate it, never spend money in cuba, that would be a terrible thing. but kirk eichenwald in "newsweek" magazine said that donald trump's company did exactly that. and now donald trump is denying all of it. here was mr. trump tonight in new hampshire being questioned about it by a reporter from wmur. >> how do you respond to a report that's out today that says in the late '90s you violated the embargo by doing business in cuba. >> i never went to cuba, i never did business with cuba. well, there's nothing else to say. i never did business in cuba. i would tell you very openly if i did. i was never involved in doing business in cuba. >> after donald trump made those comments to wmur in new hampshire tonight, kirk eichenwald responded on twitter by saying, and i quote, proof time. he here's the full tweet. trump just denied his company paid for cuba trip during embargo. proof time.

then he says, names not in story removed, which is explaining what's the redactions in this thing that he posted. to that tweet, kirk eichenwald appended an image from a consultant company called seven arrows investment and development corporation. it's addressed to an executive at trump's company at the time. dear mr. burke closed please find expenses that were incurd on behalf of trump hotels and casino resorts during calendar 1998. number two is expenses incurred prior to and including a trip to cuba on behalf of trump hotels and casino resorts. $68,551.88. there's then a follow-up note underneath that list of expenses explaining helpfully right there on the invoice that a trip to cuba like that would have to be sanctioned by the u.s.

government and even if it were sanctioned, it would also have to be technically on behalf of a charity. but it says right there in black and white that the trip was on behalf of trump hotels and casino resorts. this was an invoice billing trump's company for these expenses. the expenses of this cuba trip on behalf of trump's company. the financial executive to whom this invoice was addressed reportedly testified in a lawsuit that this bill was in fact paid in full by donald trump's company. if that is true, that means that donald trump's company appears to have violated the cuba embargo. trump's campaign manager said today on twitter that donald trump did no business in cuba and respected the embargo. that said, on the daytime tv show "the view" today, that same campaign manager also said -- her words i think exactly are they paid money, as i understand it, in 1998. >> read the entire story. it starts out with the screaming headlines, as it usually does,

that he did business in cuba. it turns out that he decided not to invest there. >> are you denying that his company spent any money in cuba? >> i think they paid money as i understand from the story in 1998. we're not supposed to talk about years ago when it comes to the clintons -- >> whether or not we're supposed to talk about things that happened in the '90s, that's donald trump's campaign manager kellyanne conway on "the view" of all places trying to say that trump didn't violate the embargo because he chose not to invest in the country but he did spend money there in 1998. if he did spend money there in 1998, that's a violation of the embargo. continue concede that. so they appear to be kind of up a creek with only a really, really terrible paddle on this. since this reporting went live today at "newsweek," also mark caputo, veteran florida political reporter that works at

politico.com, he's also bowl bolstered these reports of trump doing business in cuba at the time. he spoke with the president of the u.s. cuba trade today. we were approached by a trump organization senior executive who visited my office, and we have the correspondence in our file where the organization, meaning the trump organization, was interested in exploring potential opportunities in cuba. so not everybody in the country is going to care whether donald trump did business in cuba, but cuban american republican voters in florida and they'll probably care not just about the question of whether donald trump did it but whether he directly lie to their faces about it when he went to south florida in 1999, the first time he was thinking of running for president and when he went there this week,

both times to talk about how hard line he is on cuba and how he always respected that embargo above and beyond his own bottom line because the cause of the cuban embargo is so close to his -- this new scandal for the trump campaign will not matter everywhere in the country, but it might matter a lot somewhere where it really, really counts and could make the difference as to whether or not he gets elected president. stay with us on this. ♪ using 60,000 points from my chase ink card i bought all the framework... wire... and plants needed to give my shop... a face... no one will forget. see what the power of points can do for your business. learn more at chase.com/ink

investing money in cuba right now doesn't go to the people of cuba. it goes into the pockets of fidel castro. he's a murderer, he's a killer, he's a bad guy in every respect, and frankly, the embargo against cuba must stand if for no other reason than if it does stand, he

will come down. >> donald trump in 1999 when he was starting his own short-lived campaign for the reform party nomination for president that year. new reporting out today alleges that even then as he was bragging to a cuban american audience in south florida that he would never break the cuba embargo because he would not want to prop up castro's cuba, new reporting out today suggests that his company at that time was illegally spending money in cuba and violating the embargo. the trump campaign is denying it today, but kurt eichenwald of "newsweek" tonight has published an invoice that he says proves the trump campaign did violate the embargo. if that's true, they not only violated the embargo but they lie to cuban americans while running for president the first time. how that will affect his campaign in florida where the cuban american vote is still

absolutely key. joining me now is marc caputo, our authority on all thin thin, dark and political in florida. you spoke with president of the u.s. cuba trade and economic council who told you that he was also approached by the trump organization in the '90s about possibly doing business in cuba? >> right. john kovoilich. he had an emissary from the trump organization say we want to explore business opportunities on the island. exactly when that was, he wasn't sure, but he's sure that it happened. on a parallel track around the time that richard fields, who is the character at the center of kirk eichenwald's "newsweek" piece, had traveled down the cuba on trump's behalf. we know from a bloomberg report

that around 2012, 2013, or maybe 2011-2012, there were others from the trump organization looking to develop golf courses in florida. there were cases over the dec e decades that trump has explored business opportunities in cuba. one thing i'd like to point out, there's a possibility that donald trump is telling the truth about him not doing business in cuba. understand that he reimbursed a consultant that went down there. however, trump, if all the facts that we know right now are true, might have still been complicit in violating the u.s. cuba embargo because this consultant, richard fields, appeared to fly under false colors down there and use a charity as a phony excuse for going down. because under the embargo, you can go down to cuba and not need a license as long as you are fully hosted is what they call it by a non-u.s. entity, sometimes a charity. so it looked like from the documents that kirk eichenwald found that fields had gone down

there, used this charity as kind of a fig leaf for going down there, then explored business opportunities. the ridiculous or weird thing is they actually put this in writing saying we're going to lie about this. >> looking at the invoice that says travel on behalf of the trump casino and hotel organization. you mentioned that bloomberg report, bloomberg reported, as you said in 2012, 2013 other representatives of trump's business organization were in cuba apparently in their descriptions scouting for golf course opportunities for trump's organization. that was reported by bloomberg earlier this summer. was there any particular reaction to that among cuban american republicans in florida at the time? >> you know, i heard a little, and then with this report, you know, this just happened this morning. it's kind of moving through the community. i don't think it's going to affect republicans who planned to vote for trump no matter what and who love him. but i have spoken to a number of

people -- in fact, i was on a radio show this morning where a caller called in and we were talking about how family and friendships have been split apart by this political season, who said he's cuban american and his brother who is a trump voter has not spoken to him in like a year. he finally called him this morning having seen the "newsweek" report and told him that this is the last straw. he couldn't support trump. i know that's one anecdote but it is instructive. one of the fellows that drove me over here is a cuban american that came over nine years ago and he expressed serious misgivings about this and he said his fellow cuban americans also have. this could cost him a good measure of support. you see the republicans who are cuban american and who vote regularly in elections in miami are general the only or really if you look at the polling are the only demographic that supports the hardline on the cuba embargo which is basically embraced by nobody else. looks like you're actively playing both sides or playing on one side, supporting it on the other side trying to violate it and get around the embargo.

this won't play well. this is up to the clinton campaign to make a big deal out of it. we'll see how it shakes out. hillary clinton this morning or this evening took the opportunity to really take a shot at donald trump over this. i don't think this is the last we've heard from her over this. >> marc caputo, senior writer for politico, longtime florida political authority. good to have you here on this. >> thanks for having me. >> one of these key issues that this is a narrowly focused issue but there's a subgroup of the population that's very, very important for specific swing state reasons every four years in these elections and it's more important to them than almost anything else. presidential politics are always intense. this is an acutely intense issue for an acutely important interest group. i don't know where this one's going to go. we'll be right back.

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endorsed anyone other than the republican nominee for president. but now for the first time ever they're not endorsing the republican nominee for president. the detroit news says they still can't bring themselves to endorse a democrat, so they instead this year are endorsing the off beat beyond shot libertarian candidate named gary johnson. but oh, wait, there's more. the editorial board at "usa today," they've never, ever in their whole history as a paper taken sides in a presidential race. but this year, "usa today" is taking a side. sort of like the detroit news. they say they cannot reach a consensus among their editorial board that they should tell their readers to vote for hillary clinton, but nor can they come up with a consensus that they should tell their readers to vote for anyone else either. what they have reached consensus on is that their readers should not vote for donald trump. for the first time in their history as a paper, "usa today" is taking sides in a presidential election and the

side they're taking is not trump. they list eight different reasons they think donald trump is unfit for the presidency. they sum it up with this, by all means vote, just not for donald trump. anything, anyone, but not trump. they're effectively saying go out and vote, america, vote against donald trump. for the record, donald trump remains tonight the only major party presidential nominee in modern history to have racked up precisely zero endorsements in the general election from major newspapers. he's got zero, none. strange times. memorable time, i hope, but strange. what are we gonna do? how about we pump more into promotions? ♪ nah. what else? what if we hire more sales reps? ♪ nah. what else? what if we digitize the whole supply chain? so people can customize their bike before they buy it. that worked better than expected.

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there are 47% of the people who will vote for the president no matter what. all right. there are 47% who are with him who are dependent upon government who believe that they are vips, who believe that government has a responsibility to care for them, who believe that they're entitled to health care, to food, to housing, you name it. >> 47% take was disaster for mitt romney. he's a multimillionaire explaining to his donors who half of the country are useless parasites who won't vote for him because they're so entitled. that's what we remember from that tape. but on that same tape on that same night romney had other warnings for his donors including a curious one about the riskiness of daytime tv.

>> the view is high risk because of the five women on it only one is conservative, four are sharp tongued and not conservative. whoopi goldberg in mar. mitt romney in 2012 telling his donors to watch out for whoopi. after that leaked he canceled his next scheduled appearance on "the view." campaign said at the time it was a scheduling issue. sure, sure, sure, tough guy. probably a wise decision in the end, at least that's how it looked today. that's next.

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bra. the transparency is insane. where is his -- >> i don't want to know that about her. i want to know what she was hiding in 33 e-mails she deleted. >> what is donald trump hiding by not releasing -- >> so there's a 104-page financial disclosure. >> has never been hacked. she's never been hacked. i want to know since every other president has had to do it, where are the tax returns? that's what i want to know. >> it's under audit by an -- >> it's bull. that's bull. first of all. >> america wants to know what it will look like under president trump and president hillary clinton -- he's not hiding anything. >> i think he is. >> it is hard to argue with whoopi goldberg. i mean, just technically, it is hard to argue with whoopi goldberg. kellyanne conway found that out the hard way today. you would think they'd have an

answer for this question now. there's no escaping it. he's the first major presidential party nominee since nixon to not release his taxes. a total break from what we expect from presidential candidates who even haven't made a career in business. it's a total break from what trump himself said he would do if he ever were to run for president. this is something that's going to dog their campaign. they have to come up with an answer for it. at the debate they had to have known that trump was going to get hit on it at the debate, but when hillary clinton unloaded on him on it in a way that was uninterrupted and comprehensive and brutal during the debate, it was really weird. trump had no response. he had one interrupting rejoineder to it but that was one that only made it worse. >> or maybe he doesn't want the american people, all of you watching tonight, to know that he's paid nothing in federal tacks because the only years that anybody's ever seen were a couple of years where he had to turn them over to state

authorities when he was trying to get a casino license and they showed he didn't pay any federal income tax. >> that makes me smart. >> he paid zero, that means zero for troops, zero for vets, zero for schools or health, and i think probably he's not all that enthusiastic about having the rest of our country see what the real reasons are because it must be something really important, ev terrible, that he's trying to hide. >> donald trump interjecting there, that makes me smart, paying no taxes. that makes me smart. hillary clinton was out campaigning on that the very next day. and the campaign ads have been writing themselves ever since. >> when i confronted him with the reasons why he won't release his tax returns, and i got to that point where i said, well, maybe he's paid zero. he said that makes him smart. now, if not paying taxes makes him smart, what does that make

all the rest of us? he didn't pay any federal income tax. >> that makes me mart. >> that means zero for troops, for vets, for schools or health. >> my whole life i've been really, really, i've grabbed all the money i could get. i'm so greedy. >> this is something the trump campaign knew was coming. but boy, have they handled it badly. donald trump has tried to undo the "that makes me smart" thing. he starteded in the spin room immediately after the ke bait. the clinton debate even turned that into an ad. >> you admitted that you haven't paid federal taxes and that that was smart, is that what you meant to say. >> i didn't say that at all. >> he didn't pay any federal income tax. >> that makes me smart. >> last night on the fox news channel, donald trump made a new attempt to take back his "that makes me smart" line. he said on fox last night that what he actually said in the debate was that if he paid no federal income taxes, that would

make him smart. though it's not really clear how putting the assertion in the sub jungtive makes things better for him. and that's not what he said. >> he didn't pay any federal income tax. >> that makes me smart. >> in their new poll that's out officially today, tpp asked voters nationwide, who do you think pays more in federal income taxes, you or donald trump? this is not like whose tax rate do you think is higher. this is the question. who do you think pays more in federal income taxes you personally or this supposed billionaire running for president? by a ten-point margin people think donald trump pays less this taxes than they do. a plurality of average voters think they personally have a higher tax bill than this billionaire businessman guy. on the question whether trump should release his tax return, 62% say he should, only 27% say

he shouldn't. they knew they would take heat on. they have failed to come up with any response that doesn't just make it worse. now they're getting all this pressure, not just from the clinton campaign but from journalists, from voters, even from "the view." that he's got to release these tax returns. on top of all that there's a very specific, cute salient point of pressure, they haven't responded to it yet at all. and that's next. we're born. we're born. because, healthier doesn't happen all by itself. it needs to be earned every day. using wellness to keep away illness. and believing a single life can be made better by millions of others. as a health services and innovation company optum powers modern healthcare by connecting every part of it. so while the world keeps searching for healthier we're here to make healthier happen. 80% try to eat healthy,

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parties don't particularly like to fight about much anymore. turns out marine peter kiernan has taken thiz interest in this election in another very specific direction. he started a crowd funding project to try to persuade donald trump this he should release his tax returns. honestly peter kiernan is being very persuasive about this. he said at this crowdpac site that people can pledge money that will go to ten different veterans organizations. here's the catch. you don't actually have to make good on your pledge. you don't have to pay out that money unless donald trump releases his tax returns. donald trump doesn't get the money. the vets do. peter kiernan's original goal was to raise $25,000 for veterans charities if trump released his tax, but then the billionaire co-founder of linkedin, reed hoffman, upped the stakes enormously saying he would match everybody's pledges 5-1. he'd pledge $5 for every dollar

pledged by everybody else. he's quintuple it up to $5 million. if peter kiernan can get a million in pledge donations, read hoffman will pledge 5 million all to go to veterans charities. all trump has to do to make that happen is release his taxes and the veterans will get all of that money. about that announcement about the 5-1 match, the project took off, raised 100 grand in 24 hours. donors from 50 states have pledged a total of $400,000, but do the math. with reed hoffman's quintupling pledge, that means if trump released his tax returns, peter kiernan would have nearly $2.5 million to donate to these ten veterans groups. their deadline for the veterans to get their money, for trump to release his taxes the day of the third and final presidential debate, october 19th. there may be a pot of $6 million cash ready to be donated to

these veterans troops if only donald trump releases those returns. none of this money out of his pocket, $6 million to vets. i told you it was pretty persuasive. joining us now is peter kiernan. he's now at columbia university where he's a founder of the ivy league veterans council. thank you for your time tonight. really glad to have you here. >> thanks for having me again. >> let me ask first of all if i got that right, if i explained your persuasive scheme accurately. >> no, you hit the nail on the head. ever since reed's joined in, it's been very successful. we've raised an average of $25,000 a day. i would hope that donald would consider releasing his tax returns to help veterans. >> how is being a veteran driving this interest for you? what's the connection between your status as a veteran, your interest in veteran issues and trump's taxes? >> well, i think it has a lot to

do with trump's claim about, you know, paying no taxes is a smart thing to do. you know, when i was in afghanistan, taxes paid for my body body armor. taxes paid for my weapons and ammunition. taxes paid for the emergency life flight that my buddies got flown out on when they lost their legs. taxes paid for gold star families, for the 14 children i know today without fathers. and more than that, they support cops and firefighters. every public service that this nation offers. and where i come from, leaders are meant to lead by example. and you inspire those to follow you. and i think if trump's free riding on the political process and the system, that's a dangerous precedent as a leader. >> has the trump campaign or anybody from the trump campaign responded to you at all? do you expect them to respond to you at all on this? >> nobody's responded to us

directly, but i think the message is pretty clear. i'm not looking for a personal response. this isn't about me. we just want to see trump's tax returns. >> he'll be graduating from columbia university next may. creator of this crowd funding campaign to get trump to release his tax returns. thank you for being here. creative approach. appreciate you being here. >> thank you. up next, we have late-breakingne news from a washington post reporter who's on a hot streak right now. stay with us.

washington post reporter, david fahrenthold is going to be on the last word with lawrence o'donnell tonight, that is particularly important, because he has just broken this new news. trump foundation lacks the certification required for charities that licit money. fahrenthold has been a terrier on this story of donald trump's financial dealings through his foundation. he's uncovered the latest detail on this that nobody else has been able to turn up. he's going to be on with lawrence tonight, right after this. stay with us.

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at the time it was taken, locomotives were run on steam. and edison predicted that electricity could replace steam for power on trains. there was thomas edson actually driving the first electrified train on the delaware, lackawanna railroad. that train's maiden voyage originated in hoboken, new jersey. the station is over a century old, has tiffany glass ceilings. it has suffered a lot. 50,000 commuters rush through it day in and day out. there are a ton of bus lines, light rail, hudson river ferries. that was the train terminal in hoboken new jersey today where we had one of the worse commuter train crashes we've seen in a

long time. a commuter train, a new jersey transit train crashed through concrete and steel barriers and into a wall. it's still too soon to know exactly how this accident happened. they're interviewing the engineer. he's been injured in the crash but released from the hospital. they're also looking into past train crashes, including one five years ago. in may 2011, they say it was the engineer's fault for failing to hit the brakes. but contributing was the lack of a system that would prevent the collision. that lack of a system they're referring to is an actual thing. it's called ptc, positive train control. it monditors speeds and track conditions. the positive train control

system would automatically kick in to slow the train down or stop it in time. congress passed a law years ago to install that system, it was after an engineer missed a signal in l.a. in crashed into a freight train. it was a terrible accident that killed 25 people. after that, railroads across the country were all supposed to have a positive train control system installed and up and running. the deadline says those things have to be running by the end of 2018. so far, barely a fifth of the country's railroads have it in place. in addition to that crash in '08 and one in hoboken, it was cited in the accident in philly. it was also cited in 2013 in the metro north crash that injured 60 350epeople and killed four

people, including one of our colleagues here at msnbc. the ntsb will be looking into all of it. they're hoping the black box will tell them how fast the train was going and whether the engineer did try to hit the brakes. we'll keep you posted. we'll see you again tomorrow. now it's time for the last word with lawrence o'donnell. >> it was a scary way for all of us to start the day. i was on the phone trying to figure out if our producer was okay. everybody was okay. everybody within our msnbc team any way. >> lots of people i work with, lots of people in this building come through that hub every single day. thanks, man. >> david fahrenthold