the other guy that somehow, oh, this is hard to choose, it shouldn't be. >> the president in ohio. that does it for this edition of "the 11th hour." we hope to see you tomorrow evening. "hardball with chris matthews" is next. mutual destruction? let's play hardball. good evening, i'm chris matthews in washington. good morning, america. a week to go and national polls tightening, hillary clinton and donald trump are unloading on each other. the latest "washington post" abc news poll released today shows trump at 46%, hillary clinton at 45%. trump has gained two points

since last week in this poll while clinton has lost three points. several other recent polls show clinton ahead. both candidates have problems with enthusiasm right now. 53% of trump voters are very enthusiastic about voting for him. just 43% of clinton voters say the same about her. four years ago, president obama and mitt romney were both at 60% in voter enthusiasm. in the final stretch of the campaign, both clinton and trump are trying to drive up each other's negatives. in other words, this is what scorched earth looks like. today trump tweeted, look at the way crooked hillary is handling the e-mail case and the total mess she's in. she's unfit to be president. bad judgment. over the past few days, trump has knocked her as a liar, a threat to our democracy, even a threat to world peace. let's watch him. >> she is a terrible example for my son and for the children in this country. hillary clinton is a dishonest person. i will continue to address and

expose the criminal corruption of hillary clinton and its threat to the survival of our democracy. this is the biggest scandal since watergate. the investigation will last for years, the trial will probably start, nothing will get done. her election would mire our government and our country in a constitutional crisis that we cannot afford. putin can't stand her, doesn't respect her. it's a nuclear country. we'll end up in world war iii with syria over her. believe me. >> clinton also went after trump saying she's world war ii. today she called him a bully who doesn't see anyone as a full human being. >> he certainly has spent a lot of time demeaning, degrading,

insulting and assaulting women. he calls women ugly, disgusting, nasty all the time. he calls women pigs, great bodies on a scale from 1 to 10. grabbing women, mistreating women, and i have to tell you, since that tape came out, 12 women have come forward to say what he said on that tape is what he did to me. i guess the bottom line is he thinks belittling women makes him a bigger man. and i don't think there is a woman anywhere who doesn't know what that feels like. he doesn't see us as full human beings. >> joining me right now, drew marcus, hugh hewitt is host "the h hugh hewitt show." i have to start with ruth. why has hillary backed down to that again?

it's a little old. is this the nature of the last week, it's going to be scorched earth? i'm going to throw the dirtiest stuff i've got against you, and you're going to throw the dirtiest stuff you've got against me, and they're both claiming it's going to be world war iii. >> of course, women make up 53% of the electorate in the last election. the gender gap is huge. president obama gave her this amazing opening. all the things he said in the past in this tape, in the way he has responded to it. of course she's going to prosecute that tape against him, and especially as things get tighter. as trump might say about african-americans, what's she got to lose at this point? >> even though she says, when they go low, we go high. >> when one goes low, the other campaign goes wherever it thinks it needs to go to win.

>> they're choking each other. they're saying the other side is incapable of being a decent president. it's world war iii. >> the boston dig? do you remember that? this is a tunnel we're in right now. lower and lower and lower. what the fbi does and does not do, if they find a smoking gun, they ought to bring it on out. >> what if they don't? >> i don't think it's possible. >> do they say thursday and friday night, i found nothing criminal. why can't they do that? >> because they had something from h.w. saying, look, what he did was what he was supposed to do, but you can't counteract with classified material. but if they found a june 23rd smoking gun, if they find that, i think they have to bring it up. i don't know if you folks agree

with me, but i think they have to. >> you don't think they can clear her? i think they can contain the suppositions, the guesswork. all this guesswork that was provoked on friday has to be restrained at some point to what they actually know. i'll make the argument to you, trump is out there saying she's performing an egregious crime worse than watergate. >> the fbi is saying we do some kind of investigation to look into it. i think comey can say something conclusive and he will do so. i don't know what he can say. >> there are 500 e-mails saying, would you pick up bread on your way home? i'd like to say that's all it is. >> there's not any new messages here. i do think interestingly, today, hillary seems like the fbi story. she's not talking about it anymore. it looks like the comey

brushback has worked. >> as i was discussing with ruth at the beginning, i think hillary has decided this past week for women voters. donald trump, let's start with him, he wondered if electing hillary clinton would lead to world war iii. clinton said that about his temperament. let's watch. >> we've seen in this campaign that donald trump loses his cool at the slightest provocation. imagine him in the oval office facing a real crisis. imagine his advisers afraid to tell him what he doesn't want to hear. racing against his ledgendarial attention span to concept to be

reduced to a sweet. michael morrell, who ran the cia, and grew up just a few miles from here, has said that putin is manipulating donald. he knows he can use flattery to get into donald's head, to make donald the kremlin's puppet. and it seems to be working. >> well, it's hard to keep track of innuendo here. one he's a puppet and the other he's going to war with putin. he's going to start a nuclear war with a guy he's in love with. which is it, love or hatred? who would we fight a nuclear war with except the russians? >> you could imagine all sorts of people. i think one thing that's really important to say tonight is the kind of allegations that donald trump -- >> he didn't start a war with anybody. >> and the kind of allegations he's making against secretary clinton. she's the most corrupt, this is like watergate, that it's absolutely certain that she'll

be sent her presidency on trial. it's not at all surprising. the evidence. >> in the wall street journal, it reports this blowback of the department official trying to shut down the investigation. i said -- i do believe this is a death trap. 145% increase in phoenix. >> i have a sense that although it's hard for us to believe, there are people who have not made up their mind. >> i think that's true. some them. >> something that affects a

person who doesn't watch programs like this, he doesn't watch "meet the press," but they have a job, they have kids, they have bills to pay. so hit them on health care which is something that affect you when you got older. that's one way to talk to them. two jobs, kid at home, she doesn't have time to go treat the women. i think those are the other, making very good arg. >> he's saying hillary is a liar and a cheater. they're also making sure -- the data shows right now african-american turnout not strong in florida. but the venture, hillary,

particularl particularly. >> thank you, ruth mark is, hugh hewitt and perry bacon. with one week to go, fists are tightened and nerves are swaying. this is harvick. captain. >> it happened. december 14, 2015. and we covered it. we probably know these farmers who they never have the size, color or style they want.

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the two polls to close first will be new hampshire and ohio. in north carolina where i went to grad school, hillary clinton had a chance to expand on barack obama's losing performance in places like the research triangle, the suburbs of raleigh where where there are lots of college voters. robert is with the "washington post." a republican strategist and a democratic strategist. robe robert, what can you tell from trump's battle conditions next week, where he's headed, where he thinks he need to win to get to 270. >> reporter: chris, i'm here in milwaukee tonight. trump is in the northwest corner of wisconsin. because he's playing to states like michigan, wisconsin, new mexico. because the path to 270 may be more difficult in states like

ohio, north carolina, pen m pennsylvan pennsylvania, the traditional states. >> ohio, you would have to go to ohio, iowa, and then he begins to build by 270. >> it's a tricky equation, and if you had talked to the trump campaign last week, a it could state differently. clinton has been scoring in areas that trump fought. if he could put together a coalition. it's a stretch but that's how they see it. >> wisconsin or michigan in exchange for not winning pennsylvania. is that the thinking? >> but they have a lot of other

vulnerabilities on this map. they could use utah to edward mcmullen so they'll have to pick up a wisconsin or new mexico. forget about pennsylvania. that will be very tough on its own because of philadelphia. >> they lose utah, who knows what's going on, anyway. that's too strange. thank you. when you look at this map, there are interesting places to focus on early in the evening next tuesday night. one is the research triangle of chapel hill and durham. durham and raleigh. that part might location, and they're trying to get very specific in regard to location and turnout. . as soon as you get into states that have poern 50%, like colorado, new mexico, virginia to some extent, then that's a

challenge. he's better off sometimes thinking about, like you said, michigan and wisconsin than he is colorado and new mexico. the states with minority populations are harder to reach than numbers. >> i that's a better bet for him at this point in time and that's what he has to. it's so interesting, how do you see this whole thing. tlump is running out of places to compete and win. he is moving in places like north carolina, virginia is off the map. >> we never thought he would get virginia. >> he's going to the midwest where he's looking at wisconsin and michigan. >> look, i'm from michigan and there's no way he's going to win michigan. >> you think he's hopeless. >> michigan is a blue state. >> you think he's hopeless. >> i do.

the avenues are shutting down, and you've got so many early votes. we were talking about north carolina a minute ago. 1.6 million people have already voted in north carolina. he's got a tough road ahead of him. >> let's talk about what he can do, because anything can happen in a week. >> if you've got a million votes already in the bag -- >> things can happen. they keep happening. 8:00 next tuesday when the polls close, we'll have battleground states of florida. the villages, a retirement area where trump is pulling in rather well. chester county which has the highest concentration of voters in the state. clinton says she will outperform his result. let's talk about philly. i know it well. in the last election, barack obama got 50%. in delaware he got 54%. the numbers are huge already. that's obama.

hillary may be challenging. >> rural pennsylvania will be a smaller part of the equation. and frankly, in suburban philadelphia where republicans have always had a shot, that's not the deal for trump. so educate quieter women who just happen to see his choice. he's doing well in iowa, but he's got to pick a up he will states. we used to call mine moderate republican. >> they don't like trump. then you still have indiana, you still have edwin bye who is competitive. >> you think they can win? >> he has to win in indiana. >> can you see things honestly,

or do you ever to give me the point of view. like a 30-point lead to a nothing lead? >> he's won. look at the big red splotches. there is no one who. >> who is glg to be a close r e race. this is not a pickup state. nnks has ever closed r closed. that you. when we return, my election diary tonight. this is the part to go for politics. [eagle screams] ♪ that the whole wide world is watchin'... ♪

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election diary, tuesday, november 1st.

the election demolishing its way through one last week, whole rooms exposed, whole blocks waiting for the next rocket to hit, only for more of its walls to fall, more rubble to fall and choke the street. think of the demolition of this country so far, how so much of what was solid and standing is shaken and broken. trump tower on fifth avenue has become a wartime bunker. hillary clinton's headquarters in brooklyn another one. the clinton foundation is a night and day bombing target, and now the fbi has come before the firing squad. the battle over who will rule this graveyard is far from over. the bombshells are bad news, the land of almost everything of what has become a war of mutual destruction. a pair of candidates united by the height of their public disapproval rating. 59%, both of them, and climbing. so we end this last tuesday before election day with hillary clinton warning us that donald trump is just a temperament to

blow the world sky high, and trump telling us hillary will start world war iii in syria. when they go low, we go high. not exactly. but trump proved early his willingness to fill the air with vile. as the smoke clears, he's the only one standing. two candidates yelling bombs away, knowing we all have to live in a country that looked so much better before this started. that's "hardball" for now. thanks for joining us. join me tomorrow at 7:00 eastern. see you then. [ sighs ] [ rumbling ]

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every year in bladenboro, they host something called the bladenboro beast fest. i don't actually know why it's called the beast fest, but i do know that they have an awesome car show at the beast fest every year. really cool international scout there, the white sort of broncoey looking thing. a beautiful old ford mustang, beautiful new ford mustang there. i think this pickup here, i think this is a ford step side lowered pickup. forgive me if that's a chevy. i think that is a ford. the car show's organized by the southeastern cruisers. they do a really good car show every year at the bladenboro beast fest. and part of the reason it's called is the trophies are huge. they give out 50 trophies. each is the size of a sixth grader.