thank you for watching. >> the tweet where you live. let's play "hardball." >> good evening, i'm chris matthews. why did donald trump busy as he is running for president, allow a former beauty contestant to live rent-free in his brain the last five days? why doesn't he evict her from his mind and get back to the issues? uncontrolled immigration, bad job killing trade deals and stupid wars. those are issues he could win the white house with, instead of tweeting about her at 3:00 in the morning. how could he puform as president

when he can't focus his mind on matters of state. better question still, am i taking trump more seriously than he's taking himself? it began at 3:20 a.m. when he tweeted reporters quoting anonymous sources were pushing, quote, made-up lies. starting just after 5:00 a.m., again this morning, trump's focus turned to his feud with beauty pag nlt winner alicia machado. here's trump before dawn this morning talking to the world. wow, crooked hillary was duped. and used by my worst miss universe. hillary floated her as an angel without checking her past, which is terrible. close quote. five minutes later, trump went on. quote, using alicia m. in the debate as a paragon of virtue just showed that crooked hillary suffers from bad judgment. hillary was set up by a con. at 5:30 a.m., trump told his twitter followers to check out what he described as a sex tape, and he said did crooked hillary

help disgusting alicia m. become a u.s. citizen so she could use her in the debate? no evidence that clinton helped machado get her citizenship. she became an american in august. what trump referred to as a sex tape seemed to be a conspiracy theory as well. the closest thing could be a scene in a spanish reality show. later in the day, with the sun not up, trump tweeted for those few people knocking me for tweeting at 3:00 in the morning, at least you know i'll be there awake to answer the call. so what is trump up to, if anything, and why does he stick to this line of attack? david, washington bureau chief for mother jones, and ruth marcus is a great columnist for the "washington post," and matt schlapp is a member of trump's advisory group. i have to start with you on that

point. this is about -- yeah, i'm just wondering where the decenty stands on this so-called sex tape. look, i'm not in the business of hatcheting donald trump. i think the voters ought to know what he stands for and who he is, but he had a set of issues to run on. we really do have a debate in the country about our trade issue. a real issue about controlling immigration. and we have a debate over the wars we have been fighting. he could have a perfect storm of issues yet he's chasing down this rabbit hole to a person he doesn't -- well, unfortunately, didn't treat like a human being in the first instance when he dealt with her and now he's treating it like the most important issue of the campaign. >> it was 15 hours ago, and i agree with you completely. >> this morning. >> exactly. >> is the news dead by dawn? >> in all seriousness, i want to agree with what you said in your opening, which is if he talks about jobs and the economy like

the first 20, 30 minutes of the debate, if he talks about trade, regulations, i think he owned that part of the debate. when he got on the defense with the first question from lester holt. >> he asked him a simple question. did you really inherit $14 million to start with, which got to his ego. he thought, this is the problem with trump. this campaign shouldn't be about him. it should be about the issues he's raised. >> but everything in the world is about him. >> because the only reason he's in this campaign are the issue. >> he is in the thick of it. >> because of the issues. >> even the two polls that have come out in the past couple days, this is a tight race, and if he continues to talk about issues that matter to voters, he could win this. >> haven't we learned that's not going to happen. that he's going to have his good 15 or 20 minutes and then something is going to inevitably happen because it's not that hard. >> something is going to happen to her, too. >> no, it's not, because she is a disciplined candidate. this is not a partisan thing.

she is for the most part hugely disciplined and he's hugely undisciplined. >>. >> david's turn. >> a guy waking up or not going to bed at 3:00 a.m. and tweeting out these tweets is someone who is not stable. it's true. no, come on. no other politician -- >> you have never tweeted at 3:00 a.m. >> not about sex tapes that don't exist. >> 3:00 in the morning? >> yes, i got them. >> the point is, he's in the thick of it. >> i'm just teasing. >> in order to gain control of our nuclear triad, which he didn't understand what it was, and he thinks it's important to go after miss universe, because everything in the world, everything in this campaign is about him and his emotions. and what he feels and what he vents about. >> i don't think that's right. >> this shows he is not oo be trusted. >> can i make an offering? i'm sure two of you are going to disagree with me. there are legitimate voters out there concerned with the

economic direction of the country, the social direction. they don't like the wars, their kids have been fighting them, not the elite. getting maimed, getting traumatization. there's something like 600,000 guys, mostly, who have mental or emotional problems coming out of these wars. the elite doesn't care. number two, it is a legitimate issue whether we're trading ourselves into olivian, and we don't have for both party's reasons, political reasons, a real immigration policy. it's really whoever can get in. fiep, i would try to get in, too. i'm not knocking people trying to get in. it's where the jobs are, but nobody has a system. there's a legitimate concern on all three of those. he said he would be the champion of thosishuse. he's performing as an act. right now, an act. talking about his misbehavior or whatever you want to call it. >> we can keep talking about the tweets or what the race is about. >> he talks about them. he's talking about them.

we're not making this the news. he's making this the news. he's the candidate you have. >> let's talk about hillary clinton and i would say her success on focusing on the campaign where he can't win. hillary clinton first mentioned alicia machado at monday's debate. for the past four days, donald trump has continued to battle against the former miss universe. she threw this puck out, and he can't get his stick off it. let's watch. >>. >> and one of the worst things he said was about a woman in a beauty contest, he loves beauty contests, supporting them and hanging around them. and he called them woman miss piggy. then he called her miss hou housekeeping because she was latina. >> he was the winnerer, and she gained a massive amount of weight, and it was a real problem. not only that, her attitude. >> i saved her job because they wanted to fire her for putting on so much weight, and it is a

beauty contest. i mean, say what you want, but they know what they're getting into. it's a beauty contest. i said, don't do that. let her try to lose the weight. can you imagine i end up in a position like this? >> a few times unmy life, i have gotten up in the morning and said the mouse is in the trap. and you wonder, did he really like the cheese that much that he put his head in there and take the chance? why did he put his head in that mouse trap? why is he doing that now? >> because he's never seen cheese that he can't go after. no matter how many times the trap comes and hits him on the nose or whatever it happens. i mean, look. >> at least they get you in the neck. >> in politics, while i was trying to get him out of the trap to go back in. in politics sometimes it's really important to not let an attack go unanswered, but it's also important to know when attacks to leave unanswered. >> is this the opposite of dukakis? you always said dukakis and john kerry let charges go unanswered,

whether it's swiftboating or something to do with dukakis. if he had answered the charge, you would have won. now we're saying don't answer the charge. >> if we -- if he had not kept going on this, the chances that we would be talking about alicia machado today, not great. and the clinton campaign had been able to script this, they couldn't have scripted it better. >> hillary's people and hillary who deserve political credit for taking this guy down a rabbit hole. >> this did not happen in a vacuum. this happens in a context of years and years, including on this campaign, of donald trump making misogynistic remarks. it started out with what about her looks? what about her looks? what's wrong with hillary clinton's looks? he did it with carly fiorina. >> i mis -- you were misquoting. he didn't say looks. he said look. >> you know this is the big

issue. he should know -- >> no, it's not. >> it is a big issue. >> you have a couple minutes to respond to this. >> we can keep talking about this. the fact is this, we're talking about these mistakes, these mistakes. hillary clinton has been doing th this for fo25 years. she looks like a perfectly horrible candidate. >> this week? >> she had a good week. she's unlikable. she's not striking a cord with the voters. >> let's take a look at the polls and see how this week is doing. >> a series of state polls which is how we pick presidents, by state, released today, shows good news for hillary clinton since monday's debate. clinton leads trump by four points in florida. she was behind. in august, her lead was two points. in nevada, clinton beats trump by six points, according to suffolk university. what are they doing in nevada? that's compared to a two-point

lead in august. in michigan, clinton is ahead by seven. and in new hampshire, clinton also leads by seven. that's a very powerful fact. new hampshire should be even steven according to a new wpur poll. meanwhile, fox news -- they have new polls, released a new national poll. clinton leads trump by 43 to 40 in a four-way race. still close. my point, there's a lot of issues that divide the country 50/50. clinton is up two points while trump has remained steady. can we stop for a second? there's a national debate over a lot of economic issues and social issues and war issues that are really worthy of debate. is it good for the country for people to say, we just love the way things are going and elect hillary? if that's the message, i think it's disastrous. there's a real debate over issues. trump is a terrible vessel to make those charges, but it is a charge made by a lot of americans. >> but republicanswork the mitt

romney type of candidates we put up, when we talk to the regular joez, the people who fath the wars, trump does connect to them. i think if you look at the fox poll -- >> this week? >> he had a bad week. i said that. i agree with that. if you look at the fox poll and how close it is. >> it's astounding. >> look what the question was on the debate. she killed him. she got over 60% said they thought she won, yet the race is still tight, which shows you you can have a bad debate performance and win. >> one of the things that is important to understand -- >> i just have to get a sentence out. >> don't complain about the mike here. >> the mike might have been faulty. >> it was. >> it's really remarkable given his flaws as a candidate that the race and problems with his performance that the race is so close. i attribute that both to the kinds of anxiety and unhappiness chris is talking ability and to her candidates flaws as a cand. >> coming up, hillary clinton

has been able to put a name and a face on trump's challenge with women voters. >> plus, my election diary for tonight as september draws to a close. this is "hardball," the place for politics. ♪ 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

seethe great north callsints >>announout for heroes.waits... train your army and lay waste to your rivals! play vikings-war of clans-for free! [ rear alert sounds ]," [ music stops ]on ] ♪ on the road again ♪ just can't wait to get on the road again ♪ [ front assist sounds ] [ music stops ] [ girl laughs ] ♪ on the road again ♪ like a band of gypsies we go down the highway ♪ [ beetle horn honks ] no matter which passat you choose,

you get more standard features, for less than you expected. the volkswagen passat starting at $22,440.

welcome back to "hardball." what's clear, the clinton campaign intends to showcase donald trump's latest attacks on alicia machado, which he posted on twitter, as evidence to advance their case that trump is unfit to be president. very basic charge, unfit to be president. this proves it, they say. the clinton campaign reacted to trump today. writing, quote, this is

unhinged, even for trump. what kind of man stays up all night to smear a woman with lies and conspiracy theories? when something gets under donald's thin skin, he lashes out and can't let go. this is dangerous for a president. we've heard donald's insults for years and his policies reflect his disregard, even contempt, for women. here's what she, hillary clinton, said at a campaign event in florida late today. >> i mean, really. who gets up at 3:00 in the morning to engage in a twitter attack? against a former miss universe. i mean, his latest twitter meltdown is unhinged even for him. it proves yet again that he is temperamentally unfit to be president and commander in chief. >> well, there's also new evidence that donald trump's ongoing attacks on miss machado might help clinton with hispanic

voters. google trends data indicated that the searches for voter registration have surged over the past week and that the highest rates of searches have been isdisproportionately hispanic areas. that's powerful information. joining me is heidi, senior reporter covering the clinton campaign, and ron reagan. ron, a friend of mine after the debate the other night said that the person who dug up the story of alicia machado is headed for paris as our ambassador as a reward from hillary clinton will be so great because whoever came up -- it's what you look for in research. a human sympathetic face for something you have been charging against a guy, that's he's anti-woman, anti-hispanic, anti-beauty queen in this case. and here you have somebody who lives and is willing to make the case, as a citizen, make a case for you. >> it's true, like the khan family or judge curiel. when you say donald trump is

misogynistic, he says nasty things about women, well, okay, true enough, but when you can put a face to that, when you can put a very attractive face to that, a yueng woman here who he said terrible things to, that's just perfect. the fact she's. a woman, the fact she's latina is even better, but this trap wouldn't have worked against donald trump had donald trump not been donald trump. if he had the wit to simply say during the debate when the name came up, oh, yes, i remember her fondly. i'm sorry if there was a misunderstanding. i wish her well. >> that's a good point. >> end it right there, it would have been over. >> that's what hillary clinton said about the e-mail. i made a big mistake. the old laguardia line, when i make a mistake, it's beaut. >> however, this gets to the question how he treats little people. you always want to know about a politician, not how he treats big shots, but is this the guy

who kisses up and kicked down. we meet them in this business, the media, we meet them everywhere. the kind of person who treats other big shots with great gar and anybody below the line is nothing but dirt. and that kind of behavior gets to people. >> like ron said, this is just putting another human face to that. you make a very good point, and she's been doing the same thing, for example, with the little people and the contractors he stiffed over the years. >> like her dad. >> miss machado was on the clinton campaign's radar since may and they had an entire media strategy -- >> how did they find she existed? >> she did an interview with a news organization and they had seen that. she's been on their radar. they had all this kind of set up. they had a web video ready to go. >> before the debate. >> before the debate happened. it was a question about hillary clinton's stamina, the comments donald trump made about her stamina. she definitely turned that around into a commentary about donald trump and the way he

treats all women. then you put a face to it, like ron said. these have been some of the most successful moments. like khan, they gave him a prime speaking spot over the convention like they're elevating ms. machado. she had interviews, a media call with all of us, an instagram of her wrapped in an american flag. it was a very good production, but like ron says, with any good production, there's a credit space here, and there's a lot of credit that goes to trump. >> i'm not totally insensitive to what people talk about. i'm thinking of all the eating disorder issues. young men, young people, people sending their kids to camp, and i think about people who gain weight naturally, and here is donald trump putting a woman on television on some exercise regime on camera, punishing her, which rhymes with what he said on abortion, there has to be some form of punishment.

>> he said it. >> for donald trump to be criticizing somebody about her weight. donald trump is not exactly jack lalanne. you know? this sort of porky, orange guy with weird hair. he's criticizing people's looks, but this goes to something lingering around the periphery of the campaign ever sis donald trump became a real factor. that's, shall we call it, his state of mind. >> thank you heidi and ron. >> when we return, my election diary on where the race stands tonight. this is "hardball," a place for politics. it's feeling up thinking up living up. it's being in motion... in body in spirit in the now. boost. it's not just nutrition, it's intelligent nutrition.

with 26 vitamins and minerals and 10 grams of protein. all in 3 delicious flavors. it's choosing to go in one direction... up. boost. be up for it. get between you and life's dobeautiful moments.llergens flonase gives you more complete allergy relief. most allergy pills only control one inflammatory substance. flonase controls 6. and six is greater than one. flonase changes everything. ♪

...stop clicking around...travel sites to find a better price... the lowest prices on our hotels are always at hilton.com. so pay less and get more only at hilton.com. i've never been #1 in anything until i put these babies on. now we're on a winning streak and i'm never taking them off. do i know where i'm going? absolutely. we're going to the playoffs. allstate guarantees your rates won't go up just because of an accident. starting the day you sign up. so get accident forgiveness from allstate. and be better protected from mayhem, like me. it's good to be in, good hands.

election diary friday, september 30th, 2016. for five days now, donald trump has blown the opportunity to keep his extraordinary challenge to the political establishment

on course. think of it this way. if he were to pull an upset in november, the next morning's read would read something like this, donald trump wins the election by explaining the anger over immigration, trade agreements that cost millions of jobs and middle east wars that failed to protect the country. trump's victory came after weeks of focusing voters' attention on the dissoinjz with the country's political elite. showing discipline in keeping the headlines pointing to this voter unrest. hillary clinton couldn't withstand the electorate' anger nor could she shift it from trump's proven topic of strength. this is what the morning after election hinned could be. thanks to trump's mismanagement of the campaign, look at the turn they have taken. a five-day attack over a miss universe over weight and abuse

by the candidate. instead of a week pushing his winning issueser he rides shotgun on a wild-goose chase in search of a sex tape. and that's "hardball" for now. thanks for being with us. coming up next, your business with j.j. ramberg. and clearer skin. this is my body of proof that i can fight psoriatic arthritis with humira. humira works by targeting and helping to block a specific source of inflammation that contributes to both joint and skin symptoms. it's proven to help relieve pain, stop further joint damage, and clear skin in many adults. humira is the number #1 prescribed biologic for psoriatic arthritis. 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. tell your doctor if you've been to areas where certain fungal infections are common, and if you've had tb, hepatitis b,

are prone to infections, or have flu-like symptoms or sores. don't start humira if you have an infection. want more proof? ask your rheumatologist about humira. humira. what's your body of proof? [baby talk] [child giggling] child: look, ma. no hands. children: "i", "j", "k"... [bicycle bell rings] [indistinct chatter] [telephone rings] man: hello? [boing] [laughter] man: you may kiss the bride. [applause] woman: ahh. [indistinct conversation] announcer: a full life measured in seats starts with the right ones early on.

car crashes are a leading killer of children 1 to 13. learn how to prevent deaths and injuries by using the right car seat for your child's age and size.

good morning. coming up on your business, think your product is hard to market? this guy made the accordion cool. find out how he did it using youtube and social media. >> tv and movie star monica potter starts a small business selling local products to help her ohio town's economy. those stories plus what you need to do to prevent sexual harassment in your work place. that's all coming up next on "your business." >> will your business be ready when growth presents itself.