this is going to be a key and pivotal debate tomorrow night. >> after the first debate was billed as the biggest ever, we do hyperbole in this business, but this might actually be bigger. i'm ari melber. straight ahead "citizen trump" with chris matthews. i'm truly honored by your support. >> trump is right and americans know he's right. >> tonight we close one chapter in history and we start another. >> you may not like his policies but you got to like his guts. >> we're at this point in the race and nobody has any idea what his actual policies would be. >> you've given me the honor to lead the republican party to victory this fall. >> the notion that the

republican party wasn't ripe for a populist takeover, he just misunderstands the mood of the republican party. >> he has tapped into a part of the electorate that is i think deeply angry about the state of the economy. >> better hope i'm president. >> don't have to talk about his ego. it sticks out of every pore in his body. >> you're getting donald trump full throttle, ready to destroy anyone who gets in his way. >> ladies and gentlemen, we will make america great again. remember. thank you.

>> good evening. i'm chris matthews. i think this country's establishment, politician, the media, were slow to get him. they certainly underestimated him. not anymore. so what about the man himself? who is this guy, a defiant number of people have told pollsters they want as our next president? what's he done to get where he is? what allows him to say things that would destroy anyone else in public life? as the next story we'll look at the donald trump story as a whole. you'll see him as a young man, business tycoon, as an entertainer. you'll see the experts have been counting him out rightly or wrongly for decade. in "citizen cane," orson plays the newspaper reporter. >> it's mile-per-hoy pleasure t people of this community right-hand robbed blind.

>> donald trump echoed that. >> donald trump is calling for a complete shutdown of muslims in the united states until our country's representatives can figure out what the hell is going on. >> it played well with some of his supporters. >> okay, we are civilized people. these people with their beliefs are not civilized. and that we can't change them. they're not willing to change. >> but many in his own party criticized him. the white house spokesman said it disqualified him from the presidency. and experts questions its feasibility and whether it's the right way to fight terrorism. >> he's hurting the best tool that law enforcement and people in both parties believe we have to fight terrorism, which is the help of the american-muslim community. this hurts as you abroad, too.

>> it once again displayed trump's readiness to conquer by dividing. >> when mexico sends its people, they're not sending their best. they're sending people that have lots of problems and they're bringing those problems with us. they're bringing drugs, they're bringing crime, they're rapists and some i assume are good people. >> no one was really focusing on immigration policy and then suddenly it is the issue that america's obsessed with. >> trump is acting in a very old and shameful american tradition. it goes back to the 1850s when there was a party that had the name know nothing, it was an act anti-catholic, anti-immigrant party. >> he has tapped into a part of the electorate that is i think deeply angry about the state of

the economy. it's a group of people who are still suffering from the downturn in 2007 and 2008. >> as trump's numbers rose in a crowded field, the hispanic population reacted with anger. on june 26, 2015, univision cancelled its broadcast of trump's miss universe pageant. nbc said it would not air the miss usa or miss universe pageants but trump stayed resolute in his message. >> we are taking mexico's problems. mexico is beating us on trade and they're beating us at the border. but mexico doesn't want to take these people but what do they do? they send them to our stupid politicians and we have

sanctuary cities. >> he passed the great establishment hope jeb bush in the polls. he finding his audience. >> hey, i like this guy. he's saying what we're saying in the pool hall or around the coffee table in the morning. so he's tapped into something. >> i think it's both a bit of populism, a bit of racism. it is also real. >> on july 11th, 5,000 people showed up for a trump rally in arizona, a state at the epicenter of the nation's battle over immigration reform. >> these are people that shouldn't have been in this country. they flow -- they flow in like water. >> he's playing on our aspirations to be rich, which most americans have, and he's playing on our disgust with politics as usual and that's a pretty potent combination for him in certain parts of the republican party. >> trump led in the polls about

awide margin heading into the first republican debate hosted by fox news on 6th. >> you've called women you don't like fat pigs, dogs, slobs and disgusting animals. your twitter account -- >> only rosie o'donnell. >> when he gave the line about rosie o'donnell and megyn i think was very surprised that the audience didn't boo but instead they cheered. they laughed, they rallied, they were supportive. that changed everything. >> you once told a contestant on celebrity apprentice it would be a pretty picture to see her on her knees. does that sound to you like the temperament of a man we should elect president? >> i think a big problem this country has is it's politically correct. honestly, megyn, if you don't like it, i'm sorry. >> donald trump is obviously the

opposite of politically correct. and that resonates with people and that's also what makes him a wild card, too. you don't know where he's going to come from on any given day. >> you know, you could see there was blood coming out of her eyes, blood coming out of her wherever. >> comments during a phone interview with cnn's don lemon got trump uninvited from a republican red state event. critics roared but his poll numbers held strong. later in august trump held a campaign rally in alabama, 30,000 people showed up. >> we're going to build a wall. >> and at a press conference in debuque, iowa, jorge stood up to ask a question -- >> who is next? >> excuse me, sit down, you weren't called. >> again, exactly what we've been waiting for. people did not fly all the way

to dubuque to listen to you read from your little speech and that's what jorge ramos was doing, reading from a speech. trump had him thrown out. it was great. and then trump invited him back in and took his question. >> yes, good. absolutely. good to you have back. >> there is an illusion within the american press that we cherish what we do. if they find someone who will give them a punch in the eye, they'll turn it on. trump knew what he was doing. >> the confrontation worked well with his base. that's why trump won the nomination but impossible to win the election. any republican candidate needs to get at least 40% of the latino vote to have a chance electorally. >> the more controversy, the higher his numbers went.

the more people criticized him, the higher the numbers went. the more provocative he was, the higher his numbers went. donald trump knew exactly what he was doing. he was strategic, he was brilliant and it was the summer of trump. >> i would vote for donald trump. definitely. this is very new. this is the equivalent to obama new. first black president, first interesting trpresident. >> coming up -- >> i joke and say there's only one rogue in every family. donald's a pretty good rogue. and that bacteria multiplies very rapidly. that's why dentists recommend cleaning with polident everyday. polident's unique micro clean formula works in jt 3 minutes, killing 99.99% of odor causing bacteria. for a cleaner, fresher, brighter denture every day.

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donald group up with four brothers and sisters in this house his father built.

>> my father he was a task master. he was a strong man in business but successful. >> my father would take me, he used to call it the rounds, he'd take me on the rounds. he'd go around to construction sites, every penny counted, every penny in construction and every penny in rent. >> that was how they bonded as father and son. donald learned the business by following and shadowing his father from a very young age. >> fred trump built housing in queens from briooklyn for returning veterans and he soon owned 39 apartment complexes in new york city and was a millionaire. >> the thing is that fred trump gives the lie to the idea that donald trump is somehow a self-made man. >> friends and family say trump was a tough to handle teen-ager. >> i knew donald when he was very young. he was wild.

he was incokoco incore ijable. >> he was a brad. >> after enough of this kind of misbehaving and not following the rules, his dad packed him up and sent him away to military school. and he actually says it's the best thing that happened to him. he really did meet the discipline. >> i loved it. it was terrific training. it was tough but it was good. >> and so he was tough to handle, had to be sent to the new york military academy. excellent, he's an alpha male. >> he's given a uniform and a belt with a brass buckle that he's told to keep shiny and subjected to very intense discipline. >> those were days where it wasn't like today. i mean, they hit and they did whatever the hell they had to do. they were a tough lot.

>> trump thrived at new york military academy. he was a star on the baseball team, was elected captain and led the honor guard in new york city's columbus day parade. during the summer trump began working for his father. >> we had contests and he respected i always won. at the time it was like the greatest achievement of my life. >> trump graduated in 1964 and went to fordham university for two years before transferring to the wharton school of the university of pennsylvania. he graduated in 1968 and a medical deferment makes him ineligible for the vietnam draft. trump went to work for his successful father, fred, but the burroughs of brooklyn and queens were not enough for him.

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. when i graduated from college, i went to work with my father and he built housing in brooklyn and queens. and it was dangerous stuff. you'd say what are those holes? and they said they're bullet holes from knocking on doors and collecting rent. i said i'd rather sell homes to johnny carson. >> in 1971 trump moved to his first amoupartment in manhattan studio on the upper east side. family and friends say he was enjoying himself. >> he always went to what he called the swingle bars and checked out the women. >> donald was a high flyer when it comes to that. >> he joined some private clubs and that's where he rubbed

shoulders with george steinbrenner and roy cohen, the infamous lawyer and former mccarthy aide. >> whenever i hear that people have been failing to act on fbi information about communists -- >> he said, listen, i followed your career and you seem you're a little bit crazy like i am and you stand up to the establishment, can i come see you? i said sure. >> cohen was one of trump's first influential connection ps. >> he had no scruples whatsoever. just get the deal done and whatever it takes to get the deal done. so trump used him to cut deals. >> i think donald likes associating himself with people who are brass knuckles, tough characters, uncompromising characters. >> well, my first big deal in manhattan was probably the convention center. >> in 1973 trump saw in the newspaper that the penn central rail yards were filing for bankruptcy. >> i got an option to the penn

central land and was able to convince then governor kerry that this is the place to dibasa convention center. in april of 1977 trump married czech model ivana. >> the thing that first attracted me was her beauty. she was very beautiful. i liked her because she was also very solid, everything boom, boom, boom, very orderly. >> on new year's eve, 1997, they had the first of their first children. trump set his sites on the commodore hotel. he had to convince the bank overseers he could make a deal with banks reluctant to invest

in real estate. >> trump told the penn folks they should meet him at the state hall. >> it's about tax deals and zoning and about getting the public officials on your side. >> the penn central exit was arrived at city hall. mayor beam invited them in. there was donald and the mayor said what the trumps want the trumps get in this town. >> they really didn't know what the future of new york city was, and that was both good and bad. it was good in that i was able to get tremendous tax advantages and abatements. it was bad in that it wasn't easy to get financing. >> reporter: after receiving multiple tax abatements -- >> people ask me how is it that you got 40 years of tax abatement and i always say it

was because i didn't ask for 50. >> i interviewed him when he was on the "today" show. you bought some prime properties. >> primarily our purchases have been in new york. about five years ago new york was not considered very hot and cities in general weren't considered as too hot. i see the inner cities as being a wave of the future. >> trump was on the "today" show to talk about the his next big project, the trump tower. >> they had beautiful bars, couldn't you have saved those sculptures? >> it would have been very dangerous to save them. they weighed two ton, they were 15 feet high, they were about two and a half feet thick. if they would have fallen, people could have been very badly hurt or killed. to me it wasn't worth. >> we just ripped those out without any thought to their

historic value. and the people who had them rip them out were immigrants. >> you're 33 years old, you say you didn't say you want to be worth a billion now. >> no, i really am not looking to make tremendous amounts of money. i'm looking to enjoy my life. if that happens to go with it, that's fabulous. >> in 1981 it was heartbreak. his older brother, fred, an alcoholic, died. >> his brother was so young when he died, 42 years old. and his brother told him donald, don't ever drink, don't ever get involved with alcohol. that's why donald to this day has never had alcohol, never smoked, doesn't touch the stuff. >> a few weeks after the loss of his brother, a happy moment for the family. donald and ivana welcomed daughter ivanka. trump road high, buying

mar-a-lago. >> trump has always had an appeal. a lot of people think if i was rich, that is totally what i would do. i would have gold plated faucets, i would brag from morning till night. >> coming up, winning and losing with donald trump. >> a major business magazine came out with a story everything he touches turns to gold and i started to believe that myself. the highly advanced audi a4, with class-leading horsepower.

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result of hurricane matthew. >> the 80s were very good years for trump. in 1982 he bought a prize piece of real estate along the atlantic city boardwalk. he invited their executives to the site and make it look like construction was well under way. >> i had every truck available in the area moving on that site. we had trucks going back and forth and working all over the place. they saw that action, they were immediately impressed and we made a deal like right then on the spot. >> in 1984 the asame year that harr ra's opened -- >> they were cash cows. it was the first casino that anybody driving into atlantic

city saw there. >> the skating rink in central park had been closed for years. it's 1986. >> they had spent over $20 million over a seven-year period. and then finally i said this is ridiculous. this thing shouldn't take years to build. and i was able to convince everybody to let me build it. >> donald is the gifted self-promoter, went out there and pitched this as i got the project done that the new york city government couldn't get done. >> i think you see the same instincts coming out now that you did with trump being frustrated with how inept and useless government is and jumping in and saying i'm going to fix this. >> across the street from the rink, trump bought a crown jewel of new york in 1988, the plaza hotel, for $400 million. ivana was put in charge and spent millions more to renovate.

>> is there anything you wouldn't support your man in? >> oh, sure. i wouldn't -- if donald was running around and fooling around, that i couldn't live with. >> in 1990 the tabloids were reporting that donald was doing just that with a young actress named marla maples. >> one headline everyone remembers was "marla maples, the best sex i ever had." >> that was telling. >> divorce is a terrible and challenging thing for anyone. we'd see our parents on the cover of the "post" every morning walking to school. and they really -- i have to give them both credit.

they did everything in their power to help us through it. >> while the divorce proceedings played out at the tabloids at the office it was business as usual. michael jackson performed at the opening of taj mahal in 1990. >> there's never been anything like this in this country. that's why you'll see the huge crowds for years to come. >> it was the most expensive casino ever built, costing more than $100 million, most of it borrowed money. >> this was a time when borrowing money was easy. junk bonds were created and refined during the 1980s. >> every marquis purchase from the plaza hotel to the trump shuttle and later to the trump taj mahal, the trucks of that and the purchase of that, was all built on debt. >> i was taking things a little bit too for granted. a major business magazine came out everything he touches turns

to gold and i started to believe that myself. >> if you owe the bank a lot, it owes you. if you owe the bank a little, you own the bank. >> convincing the banks to give me more money so i could ultimately pay them back was the best deal i ever made. >> his currency is not really real estate. it's the name trump. rive.. rive.. or solve the world's problems... be a dad... "or something" and we don't just make sandwiches "or something" we hand-slice avocado, pull smokechicken, bake fresh foccaci and craft every sawich clean from top to bottom... thers nothing "or something" about it. panera. food as it should be. eco-friendly product in your new tide pucupboards the first that won't wait to be discovered. some may claimomlabelse green but only one has the powerful tide clean

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from now on almost everything he does and every penny he spends needs their approval. >> as real estate nationally and globally goes down, trump goes down with it and he loses the plaza hotel and he winds up being $900 million in hock to the banks. >> what that allowed him to do was cut a deal where they could pay where he could pay the fees he needed to pay as part of his divorce settlement, the money he needed to retain his condo in trump tower, which was really an enormously symbolic security blanket. so he escaped personal bankruptcy, but he essentially became a shadow of guy he was in the 1980s. >> trump's downturn extended to his personal life. his divorce ivana became

official. he was single again. >> this weekend you had a party at miami beach. you invited a few of your friends, a basketball team and the cheer leaders. >> for an older person, he's very attractive. >> he was seen in public with marla maples but he was not ready to tie the knot. >> so when is the big day? >> it's truthfully one of those things we've planned probably a dozen times. we're very much committed to each other. there's just a little fear. i think it's more on donald's part now. >> in october of 1993 they had a baby girl, tiffany trump and two months later marla maples became mrs. donald trump. the real estate market rebounded and donald trump was back on top of the forbes wealthiest americans list.

>> donald is one of the few people and the researchers at forbes have always said this who personally lobbies them to not onlying included on the list but to push himself up in the ranks. >> what people think of donald trump is important to him. he may not admit it but all of this, poll numbers, forbes list, you name it, his position matters to him. >> in 1997 he filed for divorce from marla maples and he fell in love with a super model. >> i met her at a party. as soon as i saw her, i said that's a very special person. >> he was very charming. it was really the energy between us when we start to talk. and that's important, that we both felt the same way. >> 1999 was a presidential campaign year and trump discussed running. >> give me a scenario, as we say

in the movies, of a perfect donald trump run for president. all the way to november next year. >> i think a perfect run would be i do no campaigning, i run only on election day, i get at least 51% in a three-way race. >> trump ultimately decided not to run. >> he officially became someone who licensed his name on a clothing, an online university and basically anything anywhere that you could glue his name on he did and he took the fee. >> in 2004 trump got the brass ring of publicity, a network primetime television show about what else, donald trump. the apprentice premiered on nbc. >> you're fired. >> "the apprentice" is donald trump's baby. he's heavily involved. he's there.

>> the show was a hit for mbta. >> in january 2005, donald trump married melania. >> did you guys sign a pre-nup? >> absolutely. i won't need it but i did sign one. >> i can't believe i just asked you that. >> a year later trump gave birth to trump's fifth child, a son named baron. >> there's nothing more important to me than fatherhood, than family. have i great kids. they're really hard working. >> with a hit tv show, a new family and his name everywhere, things seemed to be going well. but in this decade there were two more bankruptcies. trump hotels and casinos acued an estimated $1.8 billion in debt and went bankrupt in 2004. trump entertainment resorts hit hard bit recession went bankrupt in 2009.

ti timm. >> when i went back and started doing the math around various statements he gave me about how much he said he was worth, the numbers weren't adding up. >> the book came out in 2005 and in 2006 trump sued o'brien for $5 billion. he claimed he was defamed. to win had a would. >> we deposed donald for two days. that deposition is one of the great row seta stones of understanding the real drpt because during the course of that deposition, he really couldn't give a practical and reliable assessment about how he determines his net worth. >> in 2011, donald trump also began throwing around the accusation that president obama was not a u.s. citizen, that no one even knew him growing up. >> you are not allowed to be a

president if you're not born in this country. he may not have been born in this country. >> i just thought, come on. by now we've all seen the birth certificate. when everybody else had given up, he was still hanging on it. >> at the white house correspondent dinner, president obama struck back with humor. >> donald trump is here tonight. no one is happier, no one is prouder to put this birth certificate matter to rest than the donald. and that's because he can finally get back to focusing on the issues that matter, like did we fake the moon landing? what really happened? rozwell? and where are biggie and tupac? >> when "citizen trump" returns, donald trump is back on the

campaign trail. here you go, the spare! the spare, no, i don't want to put anybody out. nonsense! we lend it to everybody. the some people weon't want thardly know.y out.

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if some of the experts thought donald trump would not have the political staying power to endure in a crowded field of republican candidates, they were mistaken. trump knows how to turn almost every shot into an attack on his rivals. >> jeb bush is a low-energy person. for him to get things done is hard. >> when ben carson was a threat, trump went, well, ballistic. >> how stupid are the people of iowa? how stupid are the people of the country to believe this crap? >> an unacknowledged part of the trump mystique is that he's kind of funny. he's enjoying himself. that's a big issue. you look at all of these other mooks and they seem to be suffering. trump is having fun.

you know, when somebody is having fun, you start to have fun. >> but not everybody was laughing as trump impugned the patriotism of american muslims. >> i want surveillance of certain mosques, okay? i watched when the world trade center came tumbling down. and i watched in jersey city, new jersey, where thousands and thousands of people were cheering as that building was coming down. >> and after cnn aired footage of a black lives matter protester being beaten up by trump supporters at a rally, trump retweeted extreme right propaganda exaggerating racial crime statistics. despite inaccurate claims, trump continued to sit atop the gop poll ps. >> you're running for president of the united states. your words matter. truthfulness matters. fact-based stuff matters.

>> chuck, chuck, take it easy, chuck. just play cool. >> are you worried that sometimes he bends the truth? >> bends the truth? you know what, he may but he's still going to get things done. >> so you don't care. >> i don't care. >> after a presidential address on terrorism following the san bernardino mass shooting, trump read his proposal to ban muslims from entering the country. >> donald j. trump is calling for a total and complete shutdown of muslims entering the united states until our country's representatives can figure out what the hell is going on. >> reaction was swift and loud. >> what was proposed yesterday is not what this party stands for and, more importantly, it's not what this country stands for. >> i do believe that it disqualifies him from serving as

president of the united states. >> trump's statement, even in this season of extremes, is a dangerous proposal that overrides history, the law and the foundation of america itself. >> but trump actually rose in the polls after this. a large part of the republican base seemed to support the idea. >> i'm supporting him, and i'm supporting what i believe and not what he said. i don't believe he's a racist. i think he's talking about, you know, that we need to step back and re-examine the vetting process. >> but many saw this as a game changer. many thought even proposing the idea gave isis a propaganda victory. maybe this time he had gone too far. >> something changed in the media's reaction to him and the reaction of much of the american public. >> it was topic number one during cnn's debate last december. >> governor bush, you called mr. trump unhinged when he proposed banning non-american muslims from the united states. why is that unhinged? >> so donald, you know, is great

at the one-liners, but he's a chaos candidate. and he'd be a chaos president. he would not be the commander in chief we need to keep our country safe. >> mr. trump? >> jeb doesn't really believe i'm unhinged. he said that very simply because he has failed in this campaign. it's been a total disaster. >> in february, 2016, the long awaited iowa caucuses. the vote didn't go in trump's favor. >> we finished checking. i want to tell you something, i'm just honored. >> but then the big comeback in new hampshire. >> new hampshire, i want to thank you. we love you. we're going to be back a lot. we're not going to forget you. you started it, remember, you started it. >> the wins continue to roll in for trump. then in march, the big cash in on super-tuesday.

trump won seven primaries and held the lead in the delegate count. as he faced the contest ahead. >> if i come in worst is second in the two or three that i might not win. i think we're a democracy. i think it's awfully hard to say that's not the person we want to lead the party. >> last night the republican establishment got crushed again. trump won four of the five contests last night. >> we're going to go faur and we're going to win, but more importantly, we're going to win for the country, we're going to win, win, win and we're not stopping. >> trump needs just 55% of the delegation to win the nomination. >> he made a significant statement during a "hardball" town hall. >> what is your stance on women's rights and their rights to choose in their own reproductive health? >> well, look, as you know, i'm pro life. i think you know that. with exceptions. with the three exceptions. but pretty much that's my stance. >> do you believe in punishment for abortion, yes or no, as a principle? >> the answer is that there has

to be some form of punishment. >> for the woman? >> yeah. >> trump later pulled back from his position and went on to lose in wisconsin. his prospects for the nomination were strengthened by a win two weeks later in his home state of new york. in his victory speech, he softened his discourse on his opponents but doubled down on the republican establishment. >> it's a crooked system, it's a system that's rigd, and we're going to go back to the old way. it's called you vote and you win. but we're going to go into the convention i think as the winner, but nobody can take an election away with the way they're doing it in the republican party. >> trump's quest to top the republican party heading into the national convention was realized after winning the indiana primary on may 3rd. his last opponents exited the race. >> what ted did was a very brave thing to do and a great thing to do. because we want to bring unity

to the republican matter. we have to bring unity. it's so much easier if we have it. >> trump defied so many expectations after that indiana victory that rnc chair prins priebus declared donald trump, the republican party's presumptive nominee. trump went to capitol hill to meet republican leaders, but his new status did not seem to change his attitude. >> after years of disappointment, there's one thing we all have learned. we can't fix the rigged system by relying on very -- and i mean this so, so strongly -- on the very people who rigged it. and they rigged it. and do not ever think anything differently. we can't solve our problems by counting on the politicians who created our problems. >> while trump has loyal supporters wherever he goes, some ranking members of his own party had trouble getting behind him. house speaker paul ryan took weeks after they met to endorse

his party's candidate. his say anything style was difficult for some of them to embrace especially when he did things like attack the judge presiding over a lawsuit against trump university. >> but i have a judge who is a hater of donald trump. he's a hater. his name is gonzalo curiel. the judge, who happens to be, we believe, mexican, which is great, i think that's fine. they ought to look into judge curiel because what judge curiel is doing is a total disgrace. >> to suggest that a judge can't fairly decide a case because of where his parents were born is a new low in a campaign with plenty lows. >> claiming a person can't do the job because of their race is sort of like the textbook definition of a racist comment. i think that should be absolutely disavowed. >> on june 7th, trump used

scripted remarks to strike a more political tone. >> i understand the responsibility of carrying the mantle. and i will never, ever let you down. >> but the dissonance continued after the mass shooting in orlando. >> when i'm elected, i will suspend immigration from areas of the world where there is a proven history of terrorism against the united states, europe or our allies, until we fully understand how to end these threats. >> in an interview later that month on nbc "nightly news," lester holt pushed trump on some of his assertions about hillary clinton. >> let's talk about your claim that she was asleep during the benghazi attack. >> he was left helpless to die as hillary clinton soundly slept in her bed. >> ambassador stevens -- >> were you there? were you with her? >> she has testified before the committee that she wasn't asleep. it happened during the daytime. there's no evidence that she was asleep. >> it happened during the day and it was going on for a long period of time. >> i guess what i'm asking is

what do you base it on? >> it was going on for a long period of time. and she was asleep at the wheel, whether she was sleeping or not. who knows if she was sleeping. >> you said she was sleeping. >> she might have been sleeping. >> on july 21st in cleveland, trump accepted his party's nomination. >> i humbly and gratefully accept your nomination for the presidency of the united states. >> two months later trump faced hillary clinton in the first presidential debate. it was a 90-minute battle of wills. >> he's paid nothing in federal taxes 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. so -- >> that makes me smart. >> he's paid zero. >> you may not like his policies, but you got to like his guts because, i'll tell you what, i've never met a

politician that would withstand this kind of an onslaught. and every single politician i have ever worked for -- and i've worked for dozens -- would have given up a long time ago. >> becoming the nominee of a political party is an enormous accomplishment. it puts the nominee one step away from the presidency. it's a remarkable achievement for somebody who has never spent an hour in public service, an hour in military service, and heretofore hasn't been involved in politics. >> thank you. >> poll after poll shows the core of donald trump's appeal lies with the american voter who didn't go to college, who hasn't gotten the money, hasn't had the breaks. they are the ones rallying to the billionaire from new york who feels their anger, rages against being politically correct against illegal immigration, against bad trade deals that cost jobs. trump seems to be tapping into an injured sense of nationalism. for a number of reasons, good,

bad and many would say ugly, donald trump has connected. and he has captured a moment in history. i'm chris matthews. thanks for watching. she was born in illinois. >> middle class family. >> her mother taught her to fight back. >> you go right back out there and give her what for. >> her father was a tough-minded republican. >> old school, task master, very conservative. >> do you recognize this girl and the woman she will become? >> we came of age in the civil rights movement, the vietnam war, the women's movement. >> why offgone down to that god forsaken place? i love him and i want to try it. >> i could have stayed home and baked cookies and had teas. >> she was cng