you say reckoning. there needs to be a reckoning, anand. i suggest there needs to be a reconciliation. if abraham lincoln after the civil war can say with malice toward none, we can say it after this petty, petulant election. >> hear hear. >> that's a really good point. on that note, that does it for us this morning. and stephanie ruhle picks up the coverage right now. >> thanks so much. hey, there. i'm stephanie ruhle. this morning, doubling down. donald trump not backing off. blasting the election as rigged. >> more than 1.8 million deceased individuals right now are listed as voters. oh, that's wonderful. >> as he rips into hillary clinton for what he calls a quid pro quo. >> this is worse than watergate. >> so was there a deal? newly released fbi documents allude to the quit pro quo.

was the state department protecting hillary clinton in negotiations with the fbi over her e-mails, while the clinton campaign is firing back hard this morning. >> and egged on. melania trump speaking out, defending her man, saying he was coaxed into making those remarks. >> he was lead on, like egg on from the host to say dirty and bad stuff. >> comparing his lewd talk to teenage boy-like behavior. >> it's kind of two teenage boys actually they should behave better, right? >> he was 59. >> did mei llania win. did she stop the flood of bad headlines for her husband? we have to start with mr. trump who continues to hammer away at the idea the election is rigged and keeping the pressure on fellow republicans, especially paul ryan. here's what he said on abc. >> i don't want to be knocking paul ryan. i think he could be more

supportive to the republican nominee. we're doing well. i think we're going to win the election. >> do you think he wants you to win? >> maybe not because maybe he wants to run in four years or maybe he doesn't know how to win. maybe he just doesn't know how to win. >> he doesn't want to be knocking ryan but that's exactly what he's doing. we're going to dig deeper. let's start with hallie jackson. she's already in vegas taking time away from the slot machine to talk to us about tomorrow's debate. hallie, donald trump continues to talk about rigged elections, rigged elections. it seems like he's blocking everything else out. why? >> well, he believes that this is something that is resonating with his base. remember, that is at the core of his strategy now, as we move just three weeks away. three tuesdays now from election day. for him, the thinking seems to be based on his behavior over the last four days why not talk about a rigged election. already this morning, he's up tweeting about this, showing a poll that shows some 40% of

voters agree with him. that's right about sort of the number the support he gets generally nationally, but again, he's presenting this information without evidence. he's talking about voter fraud, which studies and experts have shown is practically nonexistent currently. there are question marks about this strategy, but i don't think we'll see him let up. when it comes to attacks on fellow republicans, to me, that's where the real story is as we move into not just the next three weeks but the next three months after election day. what kind of impact trump's rhetoric against his own party could have when it comes to not the republicanst establishment inside the beltway, but by voter who support trump and are represented by the very republicans trump is going after. >> he's not dedicating all of his atalks on fellow republicans. he, is of course, going after h hillary clinton on the so called quid pro quo. i want to share what he had to say. >> it is time to drain the swamp in washington, d.c.

this is why i'm proposing a package of ethics reforms to make our government honest once again. >> d.c. does get a little swampy in june, july, august. but let's talk issues. this is a winning issue for him? >> y know, it potentially could be. he's using this, look why he's doing this politically. he's putting forward this ethics reform plan which he unveiled last night for a reason, that is to tie in to what you just referenced, the quid pro quo attack. here's his five-point plan on ethics reform that he described to his rally overnight. we expect him to continue to talk about this. in the context of hillary clinton given that one of her biggest vulnerabilities is the idea that she's not trustworthy. this is trump's campaign seizing on this. there is some sort of a sense within some republicans who think, hey, this is a great idea. go after hillary clinton. talk about ethics. talk about trustworthiness. stop talking about republicans and stop talking about the

rigged election. there are some who feel this particular strategy is the better one for him. >> somebody else went after the ethics of the left last night. it was donald trump's wife melania. she specifically talked about her husband, his character, and that 2005 tape that was leaked. here's what she told cnn. >> i said to my husband that the language is inappropriate, it's not acceptable. and i was surprised because that is not the man that i know. and as you can see from the tape, the cameras were not on. it was only a mike. and i wonder if they even knew that the mike was on. because they were kind of boy talk. >> i think the point was that they didn't know that the tape was rolling. does this interview help donald trump? >> listen, melania trump is not a surrogate that is often deployed by the campaign.

she's not a high-profile spouse out on the campaign trail, and there are question marks about the tiling here so long after that audiotape surfaced, i think two fridays ago now. while the campaign is hoping that that will help shore up some of donald trump's support with women, it may frankly be too little too late when you talk to gop strategists. i have to leave it there. i have $40 riding on black 13. >> we know you lost on the eagles this weekend, so i hope you win somewhere, girl. >> i can't hear you. so weird. so strange. >> thank you, hallie. i'll see you in vegas. >> donald trump pouncing on newly released fbi documents saying they show government officials participated in a criminal conspiracy to cover up hillary clinton's e-mail controversy. here's a question, what do these documents show? the documents focus on interagency discussions that took place regarding which clinton e-mails should be marked as classified when they were being released to the public. in one specific e-mail, an fbi

agent claims that top state department official patrick kennedy who served under clinton wanted one e-mail in particular to remain unclassified. according to fbi notes, the agent said kennedy offered a, quote, quid pro quo, to resolve the issue. what does that mean? a deal. the fbi notes say, quote, in exchange for marking the e-mail unclassified, state would reciprocate by allowing the fbi to place more agents in countries where they are presently forbidden, specifically in iraq. but both the fbi and the state department say it's not true. >> any really assertion that this was somehow tit for tat or quid pro quo exchange in that manner really frankly is insulting. >> officials say it was all a big misunderstanding, but what the fbi agent described as a quid pro quo was actually two separate conversations about two separate issues. the e-mail and the agents

overseas. in fact, the fbi agent is the one that brought up the idea of adding agents. it wasn't patrick kennedy at all. for the record, the fbi essentially denied state's request and the e-mail was ultimately marked classified, so nobody got what they wanted. for more on this, i want to bring in nbc's kelly o'donnell. for the clinton campaign, this is exactly an issue that america doesn't like. feeling like washington insiders hooking one another up, not putting the country first. how do they defend themselves against this? >> they will rely on that defense from the state department that no transaction actually happened. but the problem is an fbi agent put forward, you know, i'm glad my latin comes in handy now, quid pro quo, and there was some conversation that classification could be optional, could be the result of some sort of negotiation. when you go back to the whole issue of releasing hillary clinton's e-mails which has been happening in batches over time,

and we saw what the fbi director said, that there were quite a number, more than 100, that had some sort of classification level, and she had long said there were no e-mails of a classified nature that crossed her server. she obviously has not been charged. there will not be any charges in this case. however, every time you peel back a layer of the onion, it again giv people some window into what government officials were talking about, whether it resulted in a deal or not. and none of that is easy for hillary clinton. at the same time, this is more of the same, and they can rely on the fact that no charges were filed and that it was in comey's case a clear-cut not to be prosecuted decision, and he feels, stands up against the evidence. this is the kind of thing that takes people behind the curtain in a way that is just not easy for the clinton campaign. >> somebody behind the curtain on the republican side, a big donald trump surrogate from my home state of new jersey, chris christie. i know you had a chance to talk to him. there's a lot to cover. what did you learn? >> we speak about a number of

things. part was his role in the campaign. he said he's still involved although he has not been as publicly involved. has participated in some of the debate prep. we have one more debate to go. he tells me he will not be at the las vegas debate tomorrow. i asked him about all of these claims about a rigged system. and here's how he responded. >> as far as the election is concerned, i'm convinced that the election will be a fair one. and that the process will be one that will be assessmented by the american people. i think he does, too. >> he would accept it as well? >> he's got to speak for himself. i don't speak for him, but my view is absent some evidence of real fraud, i think you would accept it. >> that will be interesting going forward if trump does try to make any assertion that the election is not running properly. christie talked about the fact that the rigged idea is really in their view more about an uneven playing field going into the election where they don't believe that some of the issues related to the clinton side have been given the same level of attention in the media,

especially in relation to what we were talking about, the fbi documents, the wikileaks hack. all of those things. not an easy position for the governor because it's not the way he hoped it would turn out. a little awkward at times, but he did talk to us about it. >> i want to bring in fellow new jersey native and msnbc contributor and gop strategist, i bet you didn't know he was from new jersey, steve schmidt is with us. you have run campaigns, been in poticsor decades. is there any valit to the argument donald trump is making about voter fraud and the system being rigged, especially when rudy giuliani and chris christie are saying donald doesn't think that, and it's exactly what he thinks? >> no, no validity to it. there are isolated incidents, but in all of the western democracies there is no system that is more decentralized, more clean than the american system for elections. so while it is true that you can find some isolated incidents, there is no systemic problem.

what we need to understand here is how cancerous this is to our body politic. we have had uninterrupted transitions of power in this country through world war, through civil war, through assassinations, since 1797. it makes us the most outstanding constitutional republic in the history of the world. so donald trump, in my estimation, is going to lose this election rather decisively. i know we can't say that as a news proposition, but i feel comfortable saying it as an analyst of elections. but i think when you look at what he's saying, he's going to be the first candidate defeated who will not lose. he intends to be martyred. he goes and he intends, i think, to go out and to wave a bloody shirt on election day to say to 40% of the country that will not accept the legitimacy of the result, and it's important to understand that in our system, the first person who addresses

barack obama as mr. trump elect that matters. it's not his staff. it's john mccain. it's the loser of the election who validates and legitimizes the result for the winner. and the failure to do that is a fundamental attack on institutions of profound importance to this country, and here is the test for republicans who have been morally equivalent on this candidacy, who have not shown the reckwt political courage that the time demands. >> like who? >> across the board, but youan start with paul ryan, who has tried to tip toe around what he obviously knows to be wrong on many levels. we will reach a moment where republican leaders and national leaders must step forward after the results are in. if he does what i'm suggesting he's going to do and say enough is enough. >> if anybody was going to be a martyr for this, wouldn't it

have been al gore? >> you can look at richard nixon suggested that, but nixon understood the constitutional peril he would be in the room with john mccain when he had to make the phone call. losing these things is not fun, but it's part of the bargain. we buy into in this country the legitimacy of elections. it's how we pick our leaders and it is the best alternative for how we pick leaders ever devised by the mind of man, given all of the other options for how you appoint a leader into a country. >> how about the mind of woman? this election isn't over, and you're basically calling it. yet, when i look at hillary

clinton's most recent, the alleged quid pro quo, isn't that exactly why america wants change? could this quid pro quo issue, these documents, could they affect her? >> it's shady as hell, for sure. but listen. >> direct quote. it's shady as hell. you heard it from steve schmidt. >> on the night of april 14th when the lookout frederick raid rows and said there's a ship to make a turn, two hours and 40 minutes later, it was on the bottom of the sea. the violence of the sinking ocrs in the last 20 to 25 minutes. the inevitability of sinking was set out from the moment of impact. the moment of impact for donald trump was the first debate where he was incoherent on every conceivable issue, where he got into a twitter war with a miss universe at 3:00, 4:00, 5:00 in the morning. demonstrating at a mental level,

at an intellectual level, before the tapes came out and he demonstrated at a moral level, an unfitness to be the american commander in chief and president of the united states. you now look at the poll numbers. they're collapsing in states like utah and alaska and georgia and so red states are turning purple on their way to being blue. this will be an electoral wrap. but if you understand donald trump from a consumer brand prism, whatever trump hotel's market share is, a quarter percent, half percent, whatever the number may be, less than 1%, he's going to get about 40% of the vote. it took mercedes-benz making some of the finest automobiles in the world 100 years to go from zero percent market share to about 7% global market share. donald trump has gone from half a percent to 40% in one year. and that's all you need for

trump tv, a multi-billion dollar media business. a national front style nationalist third party. so the notion that donald trump will fade away in defeat from this election is fantastical. he will not. he will be an incredible presence in american politics in defeat going forward with this resentme resentment, with this victimization, with this injection questioning the legitimacy of fundamental institutions for the governing of the country. and lastly, not missing the forest for the trees on this wikileaks piece. this is the first battle of a cyber war against the united states. you have a foreign adversary seeking to influence the outcome of a presidential election, unprecedented. this is an attack on the

sovereignty of the united states, and republicans are cheering it on. they should think about how ronald reagan would react because it's not like how they're reacting. >> steve schmidt, off the charts. if i knew we were talking titanic, we could have had you and i on the front of a ship with an iceberg dead ahead and my hair going in the wind, celine di celine dion singing. >> up next, the clinton campaign under fire this morning for just what we're covering, allegations of quid pro quo. smells stinky, steve schmidt says shady as hell, actually. one of her main surrogates joins us next, congressman joaquin castro. red 97! set! red 97! did you say 97? yes. you know, that reminds me of geico's 97% customer satisfaction rating. 97%? helped by geico's fast and friendly claims service. huh... oh yeah, baby.

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male teacher: excellent. welcome to a brighter future. comcast. the undersecretary of state, patrick kennedy, illegally pressured the fbi to unclassify

e-mails from hillary's illegal server. that's a lot of illegality in that one statement, isn't it? >> that was donald trump hammering allegations that a state department official offered the fbi a deal to alter the classification of one of clinton's e-mails, allegations the fbi and the state department deny. right now, i'm joined by texas democratic congressman joaquin castro, a clinton surrogate. steve schmidt just joined me and regarding the quid pro quo deal making, he said it's shady as hell. >> well, first, i want to stipulate i was traveling most of yesterday and i haven't seen the complete story, but from what i have seen, first of all, it seems like it's a routine thing where a classification system is being negotiated. in fact, both departments seem to indicate that today. there's also no indication that

hillary clinton was personally involved unless i just haven't seen news coverage of that. so i'm a little bit confused as to why he would think she personally is responsible for this. >> well, whether it's hillary or hillary's team, one of the reasons we have seen candidates like bernie sanders and donald trump rise in this country is because americans feel that washington insiders are protecting one another, not the benefit of the american people. what do you say to those people when they look at this quid pro quo, those words in a document? >> i would say that if you have been following this debate over the classification system for a while, everybody has acknowledged, including secretary clinton, colin powell, republicans and democrats, that the classification of e-mails and other documents is essentially messed up. that we need to reform that. so i'm not surprised that there is this argument going back and forth between the state department and the fbi about how to classify a document or the conditions for classification.

everybody agrees that that system needs to be reformed. >> should patrick kennedy lose his job? >> that's a decision for the state department to make. again, i just had a chance to look at it this morning, but i'm sure all options will be reviewed. >> melania trump was on tv last night blaming not just the left-wing media but specifically the clinton campaign for smearing her husband, saying there's a conspiracy trying to ruin his reputation. >> yeah, that was a very strange claim. especially when donald trump has made this case that the election is rigged. he's becoming a bigger and bigger danger to our democracy and getting very reckless. and i'm surprised, quite fra frankly, that more republicans at the highest level, including speaker ryan and mitch mcconnell have not firmly spoken out, not through spokespeople, but gotten up in front of a podium and spoken out to denuns donald trump and what he's doing to the state of our democracy. >> because he's getting, as you

say, more dangerous, more of a risk to the country, is that why the clinton campaign is now shifting, spending money on advertisements in your home state of texas, which has not voted for a democrat in 40 years? why is she doing this? >> i was happy to see that. i did catch that yesterday. she's doing it because the american people are tired of what they're seeing from donald trump. they see him as somebody who now poses a danger to democracy. this is not simply now about republicans and democrats or even liberals and conservatives. this is about somebody who is dangerous to democracy in donald trump and secretary clinton who is a responsible public servant who will guide the country in a positive direction and will do everything that she can to bring americans together in january. >> all right, congressman castro, thanks for joining me this morning. >> thank you. all right, coming up, donald trump's wife melania comes to his defense in two high-profile interviews. one of the few reporters to get

an extensive interview with her joins me next. but first, president obama has less than 100 days left in his term. so this man's got a plan ahead. he's actually started thinking about life after the white house. he actually did a practice job interview with the one and only stephen colbert. >> doesn't say here, where were you born? >> really? >> is this the longest form of this resume available? >> why don't we move on? >> you have any awards or commendations? >> i have almost 30 honorary degrees and i did get the nobel peace prize. >> what was that for? >> to me honest, i still don't know. but it's a manufacturing job. yeah, well ge is doing a lot of cool things digitally to help machines communicate, might want to at least mention that. i'm building world-changing machines. with my two hands. does that threaten you? no! don't be silly. i'm just, uh, going to go to chop some wood.

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on a trademarked trade platform that has all the... get off the computer traitor! i won't. (cannon sound) welcome back. it is time now for your morning primer, everything you need to know to start your day. got to begin with iraq. armed forces have close said in on the city of mosul. iraqi-led forces say they have reclaimed about 20 villages from the isis-held city.

>> i want you to look at this dramatic footage out of aleppo, syria. appearing to show the dramating rescue of a dust covered boy from a bombed out building. at least 49 people are said to have been killed in syrian and russian air strikes that took place on sunday. >> these are live pictures as president obama welcomes the italian prime minister to the white house for an official state meeting. tonight will be the final state dinner for president obama. >> here's some winners. the arizona cardinals made their rebound last night, leaving our beloved new york jets in the dust. 28-3. sorry, guys in green. it's the jets' fourth consecutive loss. >> i love this one. nobel academy says it has yet to hear from bob dylan after it announced him as the winner of the nobel prize in literature. where are you, bob? >> now we have to move on to another big name. melania trump. she has broken her silence to defend her husband amid allegations from nine women of sexual misconduct.

this follows the release of an "access hollywood" tape from 2005 where donald trump makes lewd comments about women. melania trump's defense of her husband is eerily similar to hillary clinton's defense of her husband way back in the '90s. take a look. >> they want to damage the campaign. >> this is part of the continuing political campaign against my husband. >> the media, it was nbc. it was "access hollywood." it was left wing. and left-wing media. >> is this vast right-wing conspiracy that has been conspiring against my husband since the day he announced for president. >> he's kind. he's a gentleman. >> he is kind. he is friendly. >> i believe my husband. i believe my husband. >> i love a believe my husband. >> it's a lot of backlash on the media the way they treated him. >> this is deliberately designed to sensationalize charges against my husband because everything else they have tried

has failed. >> you know, i'm probably too enthusiastic because i can't believe it when i watch the videos side by side, i'm going, wow. they are similar. i want to bring in yulia, a contributor writer at politico. she also wrote a big gq profile on melania earlier this year. you heard melania and hillary clinton there. for me, i'm amazed. but hillary clinton, she really helped her husband's candidacy in 1992. some people said she saved it. how do you think melania did? >> well, i don't know. melania is not really -- you know, unlike hillary clinton who was trained as an attorney and had, you know, she was famously the commencement day speaker at her college, melania isn't a public speaker. she's a model. she's out there usually modeling her body, her clothes, makeup, whatever. she's not a public speaker. and she often, she in some ways sounds like donald trump. from everything i have heard of

her, she uses kind of the same phrases over and over again, and she just gets into these kind of meaningless repetitions. i don't know, you know, she came across as very strong, very placid. you know, there was a difference between the fox interview and the cnn interview. in the cnn interview, her eyes would periodically get very red and watery. i think she felt like she was with a perhaps more hostile interlocuter. >> well, she was. i mean, it's fair. melania, as you said, she's not a politician. she's not used to the public eye besides being a model. so she's been relatively absent from the campaign. when you looked at her last night, as you said, her eyes were red. did she want to be there? >> well, she's been absent from the campaign because every time she tries to be part of the campaign, it's an absolute disaster. think about her debut at the republican national convention. she gave a speech that republicans loved and within a couple hours, it was revealed

that she had actually just -- she or her speechwriter had plagiarized large sections of michelle obama's speech at a previous convention. she then, by the way, went out of her way to bash michelle obama and said michelle obama should look in the mirror, though neither interviewer asked her about the plagiarism thing. i think the -- it was a different style of interview. i think she -- she has in many ways accepted her husband's narrative. and it's not a false narrative. that there is one part of the media that is friendly to her, ie fox, and to him. and there's a part that is not friendly, you know, cnn, which her husband calls the clinton news network. so i think that she was, you know, i think she felt like with anderson cooper, that she was going to be perhaps interrogated. i think she didn't feel as comfortable, as visibly comfortable as she did with the fox interviewer. >> one thing she said, she was talking about donald's behavior.

she compared him to being a little boy. take a look. >> sometimes i said, i have two boys at home y have my young son and i have my husband. >> now, listen. i joke, lots of wives joke and say, yeah, my husband is like another child. but her husband is running for president of the united states. will that defense or that argument hold up to say, it's like having another child? >> well, it's a pretty -- it's a pretty flimsy one, especially when at the time of the video, he was 59, and as some people pointed out last night when the interview aired, when she said it was billy bush's fault for egging on donald trump and to making these comments, people said, well, what kind of leader is he going to be if he's so easily egged on into making horrific comments by an entertainment reporter? an entertainment journalist. so i think on the other hand, this election has shown just how polarized this country is, and

people who want to be convinced by this will be. people who don't want to be convinced won't be. >> all right, julia, thanks so much for joining me this morning. my biggesttakeaway, if elted, melania will go after cyberbullying, which is interesting giving her husband's position on twitter. pretty interesting. julia, thanks so much. coming up, can the clinton campaign expand the battleground map? they're now making some big moves in some traditionally republican states. can they win arizona? how about the great state of texas? we're going to break down the road to 270 with the one, the only steve kornacki. u totaled y. nobody's hurt, but there will still be pain. it comes when your insurance company says they'll only pay three-quarters of what it takes to replace it. what are you supposed to do? drive three-quarters of a car? now if you had liberty mutual new car replacement™, you'd get your whole car back. i guess they don't want you driving around on three wheels. smart.

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correspondent, our own steve kornacki joins me here at the wall. give me an update first, let's look where we are on the electoral map and where she wants to go. >> look, a magic number is 270. the good news for the clinton campaign, right now, they're in good shape in more than states with more than 270 electoral votes. you can see some of the gray here, the gray are the toss-up states. we're starting to talk now about romney states in 2012. this is supposed to be the hard-core base that donald trump builds on top of. the base, some of the states that are part of the base, as you say, they might be coming loose. whether it's utah, arizona, maybe even some that are red on here might be trending toward toss-up right now. >> arizona, though, sending potentially michelle obama, bill, chelsea, these are her big guns. why arizona? >> here's the answer if you look at the poll in the state. look at this. hillary clinton, the most recent survey last week, 44%, 42% in arizona. you say look, 1996, bill clinton against bob dole. democrats were able to flip it then. it's a state they had their eye

on because of the rising hispanic population out there for a while now. a lot of people think back in 2008, in fact, that obama would have carried arizona that year if john mccain, from arizona, hadn't been on the ticket. this is one democrats have had their eye on for a while. now they think it's time to make a move. >> indiana and missouri, why, where? >> indna i interesting. remember, 2008, barack obama did carry indiana over john mccain. if mike pence, indiana's governor, weren't on the ticket, this might even be a tougher situation for trump right now. he is in the most recent poll ahead by four points, but if you're the clinton campaign, you're saying four points. we're not that far off right now. if we can get a few things to going our way, that's their thinking, if they can get a few things to go their way, that four points could potentially erase that. it's getting trump on defense, making him worry about states he didn't think he would worry about. >> is that her plan? when i look at the state of georgia, why would she care? >> georgia is another one, the polling is dated here. look at the date in the lower

left. this is before the debate, before all of the controversies recently around trump. he was up six. we haven't gotten reliable polling since then. the thought, though, is look, georgia is another one of these states, when things go south for trump, clinton would have a shot to win it. also, bill clinton carried georgia back in '92. another state democrats think they have a future in. they were thinking that future was maybe a decade or so off, but trump may be accelerating some of the trends. >> before we go, is it solely to get donald on the defense because that's where you want to put him. >> it's both. you like the narrative, you like the idea that you're on offense, that you're in such a great position you can go into red states. but there is a chance in a lot of these red states, there is a chance if things continue to go south for donald trump, that she could win those states, and the other thing if you're hillary clinton you're thinking about is if you're going to be president, you want to get as many democrats down ballot in with you as possible because governing becomes one of your concerns as well. >> setting the tempo winathize

game, and hillary clinton wants donald trump to dance. steve, thank you so much. you can catch steve at 4:00 p.m. today, but stay with me because coming up, two and a half weeks ago, trump economic adviser promised me a list of influential business leaders supporting mr. trump. he's back with that list. we're going to dive into it next. i'm terrible at golf. he is. but i'd like to keep being terrible at golf for as long as i can. new patented ensure enlive has hmb plus 20 grams of protein to help rebuild muscle. for the strength and energy to do what you love. new ensure enlive. always be you.

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donald trump has repeatedly insisted he is the candidate best positions to create jobs and get the economy moving. despite that, she has not had any fortune 100 ceos backing him. peter navarro told me that was going to change. >> we're in the process of prepare agletter. i will come here and hand that to you with a list of 100 names on it in a week, and we'll go over the letter. >> took a little bit longer, but campaign has provided a list with nearly 50 current and former ceos. peter navarro is back with me. he's donald trump's economic

adviser. a critic might say this isn't the platinum list of supporters a mitt romney had. why? >> i want to give you the copper list. i'm going to tell you a couple personal stories about some of the people on there, give you insight as to why business people are supporting trump. copper. brian o'shaughnessy, he's the ceo of revere copper, which was actually founded by paul revere back in the day. and he -- i got to know him. he was interviewed for the film i did "death by china" which is about how china has basically used their illegal export subsidies, currency manipulat n manipulation, other practs to hammer the heartland of this country, steal our jobs, shut our factories down, and o'shaughnessy is one of the most elegant people i know discussing the china threat. so he is a natural fit. another one is bill hickey. >> i want to ask about one that sticks out to me. hold on, you got one. i want to ask about one.

in terms of job creation in the heartland of america, where does john paulson, carl icahn, and wilber ross fit. carl icahn isn't a builder. he's a slasher. >> let's talk about bill burausk. i worked with bill on a daily basis now on this campaign, wilber ross is an american hero, the man who saved the american steel industry in this country. >> wilber ross is a money manager. are you shower you want to say he's an american hero? >> you don't understand his resume. >> hold on. i'm not going to let you say you don't understand. >> his resume, that's what i said. and let me be clear about this. the record is clear. when the steel industry was being hammered, absolutely hammered by illegal chinese dumping, mr. ross went in and bought a number of companies, including bethlehem steel. he set up offices in the state of ohio. he was successful in repelling

the chinese cheating. he was able to save those companies, and today, those companies that he went and saved, did he make a few bucks doing it? you bet he did, but that's american business. and people in msnbc land should not regret that. he is an american hero. >> i absolutely don't regret that. i know wilber ross. but as i look at the tax plan that wilber helped put together for donald trump, most economists that you speak to out there, including those who advise ronald reagan, say this tax cut plan doesn't make sense. the amount of deficit that's going to be increased, it simply is want going to be matched with growth. the math doesn't make sense. >> i'm glad you raised that too because the big project wilber and i have worked on is to score the economic plan of which taxes are only a part. and if you, for example, if you take the tax foundation, nonpartisan tax foundation, it calculated that the tax cuts

would reduce revenues over a ten-year period by $2.6 trillion. when wilber and i looked at the positive effects of growth from eliminating our deficit, from reducing our $2 trillion regulatory burden, from unleashing our energy sector, we calculated a 2.4 positive offset. so the problem here, stephanie, you can go to every single one of these organizations that are scoring the plans of clinton v. trump and the problem is, they're asking the wrong question. the right question, how is the total economic plan going to contribute to jobs, the economy, and tax revenues? that's not the question being asked. if anybody is watching this show whether they're a worker or business person, just compare clinton, raised taxes, increase regulation, declare war on the coal industry, continue with bad trade deals. trump, cut taxes, reduce

regulation, unleash energy sector, eliminate the trade deficit. you cannot tell me trump is not going to create growth and clinton is not going to drag this economy in the toilet where we are now. we're at 1% growth after eight years of a $10 trillion stimulus. 8 years after the stimulus. business people support trump because they want to be able to produce here, create jobs here, create prosperity here, and not be hammered by mexico, china, and a global environment which is not having our nation's interest at heart. >> we'll have to leave it there. i want to qualify, some business people, not all, and again, donald trump does not have any fortune 100 ceos backing him at this time. thank you, peter. one of the most reliable republican voting blocs for the last three years was evangelical christians. we'll go to jesus junction in atlanta next.

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there are new indications that clinton is looking to go for expansion states. arizona, utah, and georgia. chris jansing part of the battleground at an evangelical church in atlanta. chris, you are in what's called jesus junction. what are some of the evangelical pastors telling you? >> reporter: i'm standing in front of the ponce deleon church, 2500 member evangelical church and i talk to pastors who say how challenging this is. what do you say to a flock that wants to know why donald trump says the things he says? what do you say when they come to you one on one? they say, i can't agree and so used to voting republican. look at the polls. these numbers are really extraordinary. 45% support for donald trump and you might think a 14% advantage is huge but then think about john mccain who got 89% of the

evangelical vote. so i talked about the struggle. here's one evangelical pastor. >> the more conservative members of my congregation right now are just now really starting to struggle with the idea that donald trump isn't the person who's upholding the kind of christian values. they're really starting to question his integrity. >> reporter: the question a lot of folks are asking is, is this a one election change or it's something that we're going to see long-term? because as you pointed out, this has been one of the most dependable republican voting blocs over the course of many elections but we're seeing a definite change. stephanie? >> thanks, chris. we'll go live to iraq next on the effort to retake mosul from isis. here whose diabetic nerve pain... shoots and burns its way into your day, i hear you. to everyone with this pain that makes ordinary tasks extraordinarily painful, i hear you. make sure your doctor hears you too!

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right now being constructed is a wall of taco trucks. i'm definitely visiting them. i love tacos. i'm going to see you tomorrow from vegas. here's my friend, craig melvin. i love tacos, and dumplings. >> enjoy your tacos. good tuesday to you. first election day polls open in less than 500 hours. republicans trying yet again to pump the brakes on comments coming from the presidential ticket. donald trump continuing his nearly week long rant claiming the election is fixed and already in the back for hillary clinton now, mike pence is joining in. >> remember, we're competing in a rigged election. >> i have no doubt the national media is trying to rig this election with the biassed coverage. >> people who died 10 years ago are voting. illegal immigrants are voting. where