they can call election officials, and they can make sure that people get paper ballots if that's what's necessary. >> we'll make sure we get that message out again tomorrow night. lawrence norden thank you for joining us. appreciate it. important work. special edition of "hard ball" with chris matthews is next. fbi to hillary clinton, you are innocent. let's play hardball. good evening, i'm chris matthews in new york. with just hour to go until election day breaking news from federal bureau of investigation. director james comey late today told every member of congress that fbi has found no evidence of any wrongdoing by presidential nominee hillary clinton. she is clean of any possible charge, innocent after fbi has

looked at all the e-mails on anthony weiner laptop. that's the blockbuster after combing through all the e-mails. the fbi realized those e-mails sent or received by hillary clinton during the time she was secretary of state are either duplicates are ones discovered earlier or have nothing to do with state department business. nine days ago fbi director james comey rocked the election and announced to congress that the bureau was reopening the investigation of hillary clinton's use of personal e-mails. e-mails found on aide huma abedin's husband anthony weiner. the political equivalent of a nuclear bomb at that point. the fbi director rocked the race again giving clinton a clean bill of health. in his letter to congress comey said based on our review we have not changed our conclusions we expressed in july with respect to secretary clinton. in other words, cleared her. all duplicates previously seen

by agents or otherwise unrelated to government business as i said. neither clinton nor donald trump reacted to the news yet. clinton's communications director palmieri had this to say to reporters earlier today. >> we have seen director comey's latest letter to the hill. we are glad to see that as we were -- that he has found, as we are confident he would, that he's confirmed the conclusions that he reached in july. we're glad this matter is resolved. >> joining me right now "washington post" hallie jackson, chuck todd and andrea mitchell. she's up in manchester, new hampshire, where hillary clinton is holding a rally. i want to go to you, andrea. is hillary clinton going low key not wanting exoneration in the last 48 hours be the main story? >> they're trying to stay as far

away from the e-mail controversy that cast a shadow over their camp for the past nine days. she did not mention it in cleveland. we're told she will not mention it when she comes here. she's trying to get back to -- trying to end on a positive note. they are planning to have khizr khan, the gold star father, introduce her here. in cleveland it was lebron james. they want to get back to their message. it's undeniable this has damaged their campaign. they had to pivot from a positive message to go on the attack to try to defend herself for the past nine days. it has certainly given more momentum to republicans in states like new hampshire. >> wait a minute. she's been completely exonerated today. why doesn't she get up to date. she's clean as of now. why doesn't she brag, spike the football and say i'm clean as whistle. i won this argument. why doesn't she do that? >> because they think that anytime she is talking about e-mails is a negative. let her talk about bringing the country together.

she's got a two-minute paid ad on nbc and cbs tomorrow night. i think you can understand the strategy. they have been playing defense for nine days and going on the attack against donald trump. all that negativity has caused her support, they believe, of many republican women, suburban women, other independents in swing states like new hampshire which decides late. the less she talks about all of that and the personal server and everything else the trump people, mike pence are still talking about tonight even after the exoneration, the worse off she is. for them they want to get back on message with lebron james and khizr khan and a closing paid video. >> hold on andrea. i want to go to chuck. >> chuck, seems she would want to drive that news out and make sure everyone hears she's been cleared. why doesn't she push it? >> because you're talking about fbi and e-mails. you're still reminding people, you know what -- to me, the

thing that always was the bigger negative for her on the comey announcement was it was the reminder that with the clintons come drama. because that was the reaction i heard from some voters. i remember people who are going to still vote for clinton, oh, it's always so exhausting with the clintons. even folks would say that, yes, it may be the republicans fault but they're the magnet for this stuff. why are they the magnets for this stuff. somehow the obamas are not the same level of magnet for all of these investigations and things like that. so you know, i think that to talk about it more? i mean, it's done damage. it's probably cost democrats one, maybe two senate seats these past nine days. they still may get control, but it's hurt them. >> that's the real story. why is she not talking about it? because her supporters never believed she actually had an issue with it. the people at the rallies. the media will talk about it. she doesn't need to.

the story chuck is talking is the real one. how does this affect down ballot races? you're starting to see talk now. what does this do now? does it put them more at risk? probably not. there was a lot of discussion when this first happened of what it could do and frankly boost some of the republicans. >> there's two extraordinarily close that any tiny movement -- >> missouri. north carolina? >> more north carolina and new hampshire. i think that's where it would be the most. >> which way is missouri now? >> i think missouri is -- i think blount is bailed out by a trump surge in rural america. >> part of that surge i saw when i drove across pennsylvania the last few days, seemed like moderate republicans, republicans on the fence, they are tilted toward trump because of what the fbi did last week. now with the fbi coming out and saying a different story, you wonder do the moderate republicans who a few days ago were saying, i'm going for trump

now, i can't have clinton in there. do they stick home, go for her? what do they do? does trump's turnout change? >> i think they already voted. a lot of them early voted. the only ones left -- that's why the only ones left may be new hampshire. >> andrea, i'm looking at this race as it was moving towards hillary, momentum was with her, until friday a week ago. two fridays ago. all of a sudden it was like the world series somebody hits a home run. the whole thing is even money again. hillary overran that. by wednesday she was getting back her pace, getting a point or two a day. she had outrun the thing. today they feel they had already outran the thing so didn't have to jump and make a decision about comey to exonerate her tonight. >> they frankly because of a those leaks, rudy giuliani and the rest, they didn't think this would be settled before the election. so they had come up with an alternative strategy.

go on the it beiattack and try e the closing days and get all -- flood the zone with president obama, michelle obama, all the surrogates out there. now they want to just stick on anything that does not remind people, as chuck said, that she had a private server. that's what some would call the original sin that she can't really properly explain. she's apologized now for it. >> can't blame the fbi. they are to investigate it. >> the clinton plan, just to stay on her for a minute, changed three or four times. original goal we're hold is a big high-road ending. they go low, we go high. then the thing in the old days with monica, we just have to win. remember that line from mr. clinton, we just have to win. then the strategy flood the zone, political stuff to overcome it. now we're again tonight back to high road. right? >> i don't know about high road. i think it's ignore the bad and grind out last 48 hours, let the machine do the work. >> it's a hybrid between high

road -- grinding it out is on the road. >> run against republican party right now, democrats and secretary clinton because you can look ahead and say republicans want to investigate. is this what you really want? the fbi has cleared me. we're safe here. we're looking at a culture in washington all about investigations. let's move beyond that, elect democrats and elect clinton. >> by the way, that's something we haven't talked about. it takes some air off ut trump's closing argument. comey gave trump a cohesive closing argument of essentially, you don't want this clinton mess, she's going to be investigated the whole time she is there. it does take a little bit of air out of that balloon for trump. >> you just anticipated my closing argument tonight. i've already written it. i basically said this was his closing argument and it was founded on this fbi report they are looking at e-mails. he was able to say that's evidence in it's self, egregious crime, worse than watergate the fact that they are looking at the e-mails. look at the tv ad with wiener,

the per vert thing. >> that's strong. >> a strong ad, certainly stuck out. >> look, here is comey's first announcement nine days ago. trump made it a centerpiece of his closing argument. let's watch that. that's what we're talking about. >> the fbi would never have reopened this case at this time unless it were a most egregious criminal offense. this is the biggest scandal since watergate. she's likely to be under investigation for many, many years. also likely to conclude in a criminal trial. this is not what we need in this country, folks. the work of government would grind to a halt if she were ever elected. she'll be in court for her entire tenure. she'll be convicted. >> >> this whole line of argument -- >> nothing. still talking about it. still talking about what he calls a potential indictment against hillary clinton even

though there's no evidence to support. >> based on? >> the issue came out on a different network that was then walked back. he's going to keep talking about it. >> fbi leaks. >> he's going to keep talking about it. what i think this did for him was teach him more than any other moment in the campaign, if he really does what all his advisers want him to do, stay on message, he would see polls tighten. he gave himself the pep talk about it. his supporters picked it up. >> is he on message? >> the race is tight. he's going after her constantly, going after affordable care act constantly. >> the thing we're also hearing in trump's closing message. it's anti-clinton but also a brew of populism and nationalism steve bannon is whispering in his ear. that's part of this two-minute closing for trump. he's going to minnesota, blue states. he thinks if there is a record turnout of white, working class people he could somehow have a narrow path to victory. that's the way they are thinking about it. >> chuck, people in clinton campaign apparently believe they have been able to thwart him, prevent him from talking his message. he's been

so busy talking this stuff he hasn't been able to talk about the reason he was up 40%, the reason he beat 16 guys in the primaries. he hasn't been able to talk about trade, illegal immigration and wars. >> no. he did make the mistake -- frankly, this is a similar mistake that mitt romney made in the last month of the campaign in 2012, which is follow the news cycle. news cycle candidates -- there's some of our colleagues in punditry that talk about who wins the news cycle, those things matter. no, it doesn't. you get caught following the news cycle, it can feel good in the moment. it's like taking a b-12 shot but it doesn't last. fundamentals matter more in the long run. there were larger fundamental issues in the country that trump was tapping into correctly and he got off the message a little bit long-term. they almost got around to it a little bit. bannon's problem is he's got one

part of it right, the populism. the conspiratorial and illusions to anti-semitism, that is stuff that is just going to cost him the ability to go mainstream. >> that's not a 51% strategy. andrea mitchell, has trump been able to stick to his message, or has he gotten caught in investigative politics, which is fun but gets you off your positive message for being president of the united states? >> i think probably so especially because of the way this has turned out. just one point. in cleveland tonight with lebron james of all people, hillary clinton said, look, i know there's anger out there and i know a lot of it is directed at me. but anger is not a plan. we have to get past that. that's the closest she's coming to acknowledging the problem and the change message that she's not been able to have, of course, because donald trump has changed. she hasn't changed. she's trying to talk more positively. finally she's got all these surrogates, celebrities, beyonce, katy perry, now they

announced tomorrow night not only bill clinton and of course michelle and barack obama but bruce springsteen in philadelphia. the closing rally. >> that's going to be a fascinating event tomorrow. we'll be covering it live. i think you'll be with us at independence mall on the reality of the greatest place in american history, independence hall. we'll be there and we're going to have bon jovi and the e-street band and a couple philly people here. they're from the burbs. you're from the 'burbs. hallie jackson, robert costa. coming up -- you also count, chuck. you're moderator of "meet the press." coming up reaction of fbi director's clean bill of health. what a story the sunday before the election. she's clean as a whistle. clean as a houndstooth. as general eisenhower used to say. trump's campaign manager kellyanne conway will come with us in a moment plus elijah cummings. they may disagree. this is hardball, place for politics. h my niece.

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welcome back to hardball. last week donald trump praised fbi director james comey in his decision to continue to investigate hillary clinton's e-mails. >> i have to give the fbi credit, that was so bad what happened originally, and it took guts for director comey to make the move he made in light of the opposition he had where they are trying to protect her from criminal prosecution. what he did, he brought back his reputation. he brought it back. he's got to hang tough, because there's a lot of people want him to do the wrong thing. >> now that director comey announced today that the fbi concluded the review of clinton's e-mails and has not changed its recommends that she should not face criminal charges

does trump still feel the same way about comey that he did last week? let's ask trump's campaign manager kellyanne conway who joins us now. this topsy-turvy situation with the fbi director, when he made announcements in july, conservatives and others didn't like it at all. announced two fridays ago democrats didn't like it. now democrats are elated, i don't know. popping the champagne bottles. or whatever on the plane. they are thrilled with this exoneration of their candidate. what's your reaction? >> then why in the world did they go so viciously personally and professionally after jim comey and his reputation and his job performance when this was all announced? they basically spent all last week for nine straight days impugning the integrity of jim comey because they didn't like his latest move. that's unfortunate. even the president of the united states got into the act saying we don't deal with innuendo, we don't deal with speculation. you shouldn't be interfering with an election.

do they think this announcement two days before the polls close is, quote, interfering with an election? i think they were way out of bounds in the vicious attack on jim comey because they didn't like the result. we think the fbi investigation was mishandled from the beginning. that's pretty obvious. because we just learned overnight that she asked her maid to print out information that was classified. this woman does not have a security clearance. it's not her fault. the woman was put in a bad position. hillary clinton should know better. we know she left materials out in a hotel in china. we know there were materials in huma's front seat of her car. the list goes on and on. i don't think it changes what most people think about hillary clinton. those who were defending her agreed with her they had made up their mind about the e-mails but it also doesn't change the mind of swing voters and independents who just aren't there, who just won't put her at 50% in blue states where we have them on the run.

they are following our lead because of what comey said. they are in michigan because we're in michigan. >> here is donald trump. the fbi would never have reopened the case at this time unless it was an egregious criminal offense, the biggest scandal since watergate. does that still hold, what he said? those words? biggest scandal since watergate. biggest scandal since watergate, egregious offense. they just decided to look at the e-mails, wasn't an egregious offense, just looked at the e-mails. your candidate said egregious offense worse than watergate based on the fact fbi decided to look at these e-mails. is he still saying that? >> he hasn't said that in a while. more to the point on the egregious criminal offense piece. >> in a while? >> many people said that, chris. >> he said it. >> left, right, and center said there must be something big there for him to reopen it or continue it, however the verbiage is, this close to election. now, i want to commend the fbi's efficiency. >> what about now that they have

said they exonerated hillary clinton saying there's nothing in e-mails to justify any kind of prosecution, where is your candidate without his basis? he had a basis, he said, for charging her with the worst crime since watergate. what's his basis for now saying that. >> he didn't say that tonight. >> he said, this is the biggest scandal since watergate. donald trump said that. >> he didn't at the time. >> that doesn't hold? >> chris, if you want me to answer, let me know. this doesn't change anything. here is the answer. >> does he still believe she's committed a crime worse than watergate? >> he said that one time. the fact remains that what she did -- what james comey said she did on july 12th under oath to the commission under chairman gowdy has not changed i totally agree with jim comey nothing changes from the original conclusion. let's review. she lied about the private

server to within begin with. she lied about what's on the server. she lied about classified information on e-mails. it was. she also testified about using one device, she had used multiple devices. we believe everything he said under oath july 7th, which was a pretty remarkable spectacle in and of it's self is still the true. that's why the majority of americans including your msnbc polling don't trust her. they don't think she's honest and trustworthy. that's not going to change. it didn't change last week and won't clang tonight. >> if mr. trump wins the election does he want to have the fbi continue its investigation of these e-mails? >> i don't know. we'll have to see what happens. the fact is for a campaign and for conservatives who generally are critical of inefficiency of government and how slowly it moves, i have to really commend the efficiency of the fbi in this case because they read 650,000 e-mails in a short period of time. that's pretty remarkable. >> he said investigations continue ad infinitum and end up

in prosecutions and convictions. and screw up any hillary administration. it suggests that, if you're a hillary person, why bother electing her, nothing but chaos and investigations the whole term. does he still believe that would be the case if she wins? >> what should he have said? he's not the fbi, not director comey. director comey made that decision and mr. trump gave his opinion of it. i think it's a very logical opinion to have, conclusion to make. it does hurt her. she's hillary clinton. chris, the idea people started to question hillary clinton's ethical standards or cloud of corruption that follows her aurnd, the idea that had happened for the first time last friday is a fiction. people don't trust her. >> i'm sorry to interrupt you. i try to hear all your thoughts. we're going to your candidate on stage at a rally in sterling heights, michigan. let's go to the trump campaign. >> the worst trade deal ever signed by any country ever,

china's entry into the world trade organization, the job killing deal with south korea, another beauty that was a disaster. and hillary now wants trans-pacific partnership. she calls it the gold standard. hillary clinton's policies have devastated your automobile industry all to the benefit of special interests. we will put a stop to all of that or november 8th. get out and vote, michigan. you know, i don't know if you've been seeing what's happening over the last week or so, but they are going well, the very dishonest media, the world's most dishonest people. today i was watching. they are bad people. they are bad people and they are dishonest people.

they don't tell the truth. they don't write the truth. i will say this, i was watching the polls. we're leading in ohio. we're leading in iowa. we're leading in new hampshire. just out. >> trump talking about michigan. we'll listen to what he says if he talks about fbi's decision we'll bring it to you live. joining us elijah cummings, democratic from maryland, ranking member of the house committee on oversight and reform. mr. cummings called for justice department inspector general to investigate whether the fbi is leaking information that could benefit donald trump. mr. cummings thanks for being here, sir. where are we now fbi has come out and basically exonerated hillary clinton saying there's nothing in any of these e-mails, 650,000 of them that relates to anything more than a duplication of the other e-mails, nothing to

do with the government. >> i'm glad the fbi cleared that up. i must say it's very alarming that director comey even put out that letter nine days ago. i think that it was very vague. keep in mind a lot of people have already voted since that letter came out. so we don't know exactly how it may have affected them but it does concern me. i still think that the inspector general should take a clear look at the fbi and try to figure out where are all these leaks coming from. because, in my 20 years of practicing law and my 20 years of being on this committee, i can tell you i have never seen a situation where we had so many leaks coming out of the fbi. i think that we've got to take a look at that. >> let's talk about the law. suppose there's a fellowship, i imagine there is, among former and current fbi agents, so you

retire at 65, whatever, whatever the official age is. you retire and keep in touch with men and women you work with. call them up at a party and say what's happened back there. they say we're not happy about this investigation of hillary clinton, blah, blah, blah. just in general terms say they are steamed up. is that a criminal violation or just shop talk? >> i don't think that's a criminal violation, but it is not the way they are supposed to proceed. let's look at what mayor giuliani did. what he did was he took information from agents and then -- >> he says former agents. >> yeah. i said he took information from former agents that he said they had been taken from current agents. well, then he puts that information out. i know he's denied things, he's walked it back. but the thing is, what he did was basically launder the information from the current agents. that's just not the procedure.

i've talked to five or six people in the justice department type, fbi type over the last day or so, and they told me that just doesn't work that way and he shouldn't have done that. >> how would you track that? tracking a leak is difficult. there's leaks on capitol hill all the time from staff people or members. how do you track a leak that's so amore -- so amorphic, somebody talked to ruddy giuliani or a friend of ruddy giuliani. >> i have to tell you i'm not sure. i use giuliani as one. chris, keep in mind, come on now, we've had leaks coming out of fbi almost every day, sometimes two and three times a day coming out. at some point that needs to be dealt with, because we have a situation here in this country, it's not so much what the fbi eventually finds. just a person being under investigation can be extremely damaging. now, going to this case, we've got

all of this information being leaked out about these cases. but again, that's not fair. it was not fair to hillary clinton. she couldn't defend herself against it. i've got to tell you, i think the one thing i demanded of our committee and of the agencies that come under us, i want them to be fair. i want them to be honest. i want them to treat the american people appropriately. >> to make your point, we had a big politician in philadelphia about 34 years ago won a huge laborel case for a leak coming out given to local broadcasting affiliate. they put out the fact he was going to be indicted. he won a big killing on that. you can't do that. can't throw out there's an indictment, something is coming when it's not clear. elijah cummings, thank you, sir. >> up next we continue to follow our top story. this sunday, november surprise from the fbi the clinton probe is over, kaput, good-bye, clean bill of health for hillary

clinton from the fbi director himself, james comey. what a showstopper two nights before the election. reports of surging. we thought this would be the biggest story. latino vote. we battleground states like nevada, hispanic people, latino people, are voting big time. you can assume which way they are voting based on who wants to be called rapists and murderers. that's ahead. this is hardball, place for politics. [burke] at farmers, we've seen almost everything, so we know how to cover almost anything. even a rodent ride-along. [dad] alright, buddy, don't forget anything! [kid] i won't, dad... [captain rod] happy tuesday morning! captain rod here. it's pretty hairy out on the interstate.traffic is literally crawling, but there is some movement on the eastside overpass. getting word of another collision. [burke] it happened. december 14th, 2015. and we covered it. talk to farmers. we know a thing or two because we've seen a thing or two. ♪ we are farmers. bum-pa-dum, bum-bum-bum-bum ♪

welcome back to hardball. if hillary clinton needs to win tuesday night she'll need a strong showing from coalition of hispanics, african-americans and women. this week multiple outlets are reporting a surge of hispanic voters already voting. according to "politico" in florida hispanics have so far cast 14% of the 5.7 early and absentee ballots cast. that puts hispanics far ahead of where they were in 2012. when it comes to nevada john ralston writes, donald trump may have been here this weekend believing polls are competitive here. like bruce willis in the sixth sense he does not realize he's dead. that surge in the hispanic vote, 10:00 friday night to accommodate long lines. look at the lines there. last night the chairman of nevada's republican party

complained the move keeping the lines open favored what he called a certain group of people. donald trump said that's further evidence the system is rigged. gop chair michael mcdonald followed by trump. >> they kept a poll open until 10:00 at night so a certain group could vote. polls are supposed to close at 7:00. this was kept open until 10:00. you feel free right now? >> it's being reported that certain key democratic polling locations in clark county were kept open for hours and hours beyond closing time to bus and bring democratic voters in. folks, it's a rigged system. >> joined by maria teresa kumar. >> let's get to the facts here. the polling place is supposed to close at 8:00. they stayed open at 10:00

because there was a line at 8:00. we all know if you're waiting in line anywhere in the country you get to vote. the charge is made apparently the buses started arriving after 8:00. i don't know how much give there is, if somebody is five or ten minutes late do they get grace period or not. he's talking about busloads to come in. >> no media outlet reported busloads of people coming in. i err on john ralston. he was very clear and said he has not seen shenanigans on the ground floor and basically people were already there in line. if you're in line you're eligible to vote. >> yeah >> why -- if you really want extra to vote, bring them tomorrow or the next day. >> if you have a turnout operation you don't worry about what the team is doing. >> right. >> you get your vote to turn out. that's been the problem here. >> let's talk politics. >> that's politics. >> i believe, and i think you would accept, although you're an advocate, a need for a real immigration policy that's rational, progressive and american. we don't have one.

instead of saying that, trump could have said that. he said rapists, murderers, he blamed the immigrants themselves for the lousy system, failed system. he blamed them personally and then criminalized them. that's one way. to get the vote out. we had mayor frank rizzo, walked around with a night stick in his cummerbund. highest increase in black registration in the history of the city. blacks outregistered white people because of him. sounds like trump. >> i'm sure they registered. latinos coming out and voting because they are offended with trump. no. los angeles county you have 25% increase in hate crimes. people in the latino community are feeling under the gun. under the pressure. >> what kind of hate crimes? draw the picture. >> everything -- in the high school -- in the town where i went to high school, up in northern california. last week -- >> watsonville. >> windsor, california, right by santa rosa. in that elementary school they went up and said build the wall higher for a school that's

spanish dominant. that for parents is scary of. all of a sudden people feel under pressure. i have to show i'm american, i'm going to vote. undocumented immigrants live with 1.5 million american voters. this is personal. >> i still hold trump responsible. >> absolutely. no, he said that. yes. >> i think you approached the way you stated it is the smarter way. you come out. you know where the concern is in the country. no secret for some time we've been beating each other back and forth on the issue of immigration. you come back and lay down a forward-looking message, don't demonize. the one thing in politics you learn is you don't attack the very people you're going to need. you had a platform there, the autopsy spoke very clearly about the direction the party wanted to go. i think the mistake made, and i've said this over and over again, was that that critical moment the party didn't go to the trump campaign say here is a personalized copy of the autopsy. read page 47 to 57 and understand exactly where we're going from 2012 --

>> do that to trump? >> don't anger immigrants and don't anger women. >> first thing he did was said president of the united states african-american, first one ever, you keep forgetting is an illegal immigrant. >> yeah. >> that's the first thing he did. >> worse than illegal immigrant. >> republicans are going to have a hard time on their hands. in orlando county alone, they had a 29% increase of first time latino voters. trump has effectively expanded the electorate base for -- >> a lot could be republicans. >> not in orlando. >> not in orlando. >> mostly puerto rican. >> mexican americans i have a hunch have tremendous potential to be american conservative republicans. what do you think? >> a little hunch. >> you want them all to be democrats. >> no, i don't. i think we need a two-party system. depending what generation you're in, third or fourth generation you're more likely to lean democratic versus first time. >> that's what goes wrong. you have to get them when they get here. >> awesome. >> michael steele, maria -- i believe they don't have great experience with latin america,

they don't have to be pro big government. i would think they're pro entrepreneurial, small business, very much republican opportunity and i do believe in an active two-party system in all communities. next steve kornacki with where things stand on battleground map. which states are so close with today's all-clear from the fbi, the exoneration for hillary clinton could tip the balance towards clinton. i have to believe there's four or five states like that where she could win just because of what comey said today, she's clean. here is the place for politics. ♪ see ya next year. this season, start a new tradition. experience the power of infiniti now, with leases starting at $319 a month. infiniti. empower the drive.

welcome back, with two days to go, a look at the latest battleground map. political correspondent steve kornacki at the wall. i love that with the latest, you're at the wall. go ahead >> let's take you, clinton 268 in pretty good position in states adding up to 268. so the bottom line in terms of where this race is, if you're donald trump how you can pull off an upset win here. basically look at it this way. if she's at 268 and you're trump, everything that's gray on here, consider that sort of a toss-up, a battleground right now. you have to sweep it. you've got to win everything that is gray on this map. if you slip up anywhere clinton goes over 270. she's the president elect. the problem for the trump campaign, what they are seeing

is they are getting alarming indications from early vote, from some of the demographics we're seeing in these states, particularly nevada, also florida, and so the trump campaign is looking at this and saying if we don't sweep all these states we've got to pull a rabbit out of the hat. we've got to start flipping blue states. that's what you see here. donald trump today, where is he campaigning? talking about minnesota, michigan, pennsylvania, even looking in virginia from the trump campaign's perspective. what do they see that would make them look at blue states, some of which haven't gone red in a long time. what you're seeing, i'll say it. these are long shots. minnesota is an ultralong shot. what the campaign is seeing unusual strength in rural areas, unusual strength with sort of white noncollege voters. they look in minnesota. they look at iron range in minnesota. they look at the upper peninsula in michigan. they look at mccomb county outside detroit, rural parts of pennsylvania.

they look at southwest virginia and they say, hey, maybe, maybe we can run up the score there in ways nobody expected, ways we haven't seen before and pull a surprise in one of these blue states. make no mistake about it, it's a real long shot in michigan. it's an ultra, ultralong shot in minnesota. if you're the trump campaign and these gray states start disappearing, you lose them to hillary clinton, the only thing you're left with is pulling off a miracle in some of these rust belt states. >> steve kornacki. thank you. moments ago donald trump at his rally in michigan, donald trump addressed the fbi's all-clear. let's catch that. >> the investigations into her crimes will go on for a long, long time. the rank and file special agents at the fbi won't let her get away with her terrible crimes, including the deletion of 33,000 e-mails after receiving a congressional subpoena. they forget about all of this. right now she's being protected by a rigged system.

it's a totally rigged system. i've been saying it for a long time. you can't review 650,000 new e-mails in eight days. you can't do it, folks. hillary clinton is guilty. she knows it. the fbi knows it. the people know it. and now it's up to the american people to deliver justice at the ballot box on november 8th. >> so let's bring in the "roundtable," msnbc kasie hunt. all over the country with these guys. what a year for you. harold ford, a future ahead of him, tennessee, who knows where next. visiting professor university of michigan school of public policy. co-author of donald trump's art of the deal. you know what strikes me, we were listening to steve. he's the best of any networks. this town versus gown thing. for democrats who believe like

in small d democratic like you do, the person who looks for people, people who didn't have a break. we have democrats wherever we have college graduates we win. wherever they don't go to college the republicans win. what happened to the party of the little people. have we become the the anti-archie bunker party? is that what the democrats are? roosevelt was for the forgotten man. democrats now seem to be for the ivy league man, don't you think? >> i think trump is losing those people. those are typically people who vote republican. trump is losing more of them -- in greater degrees in those groups. >> which groups? >> in your ivy league, married white wealthy people. >> parts of michigan, mccomb, iron works whatever it's called there, minnesota. you go down to west virginia. it's all those places that didn't make it. >> those are the people upset about trade and nafta. those are people able to get a union job. that's what it is, decimation of unions. the ability for those people to

have strong manufacturing jobs. that was the core organizing principle. of the democratic party. >> one issue they say that can break the voter right now, if you finished college. if you finished college, had the break to go to school, your parents helped you, whatever, you're doing to vote for hillary clinton. if you didn't you're probably going to vote for trump. to me it's an amazing change in american politics. >> no doubt. late '80s to early '90s, clinton emerged as the democratic the voice and democratic leadership councils i'm a part of the democrats we can manage government, not run up big deficits. we understood the limits of government. as a part of that the business community became more integrated to the party. over a period of time that continued. under george w. bush it continued. i consider sanders and trump as being candidates who represent this rebellious -- rebellious takes on a negative tone. there are a number of people who feel left behind, left out, frankly looked down upon. >> yeah. >> trump is an interesting

vessel. >> hoylllywood does that. >> he is an interesting vessel. tony can speak to this better than i can. this is a vessel in donald trum construct need in the be a stru be a strukt /* /- to pull this together. if she is elected, which i believe she will be, she will reempower and raise wages -- >> these are her people in 2008. her people. >> they didn't call them deplorables. a david deplorable. >> she called david duke deplorable. i think that's unfair. she should not have said it and she apologized. >> not me reminding her of it. >> i think there are presentee of people who support trump who would not want to lump themselves into that.

>> you know those for trump-tr. >> all right, you nailed it tony. >> it looks like trump will lose and it is aronnic -- >> it is funny. you are referring to the white people who didn't get breaks. there is overwhelming support and attention to everybody who trump has dised and who hillary has as, we see -- we see in a fitting potential irony or end game that the latino vote will probably be the firewall or pushes hillary over the top. we're not talking in that community about an enormous percentage of very wealthy people. >>. >> why are democratics able to win support on economic issues but not on the same class initially. >> i think that's unfair. this is the first time we have seen the election where this is the first time these

demographics are being discussed as loudly as ker knacky just stated. >> it started with lindsay in the '60s, working class people, italians, whatever, irish, all ticked off at a liberal mayor. >> and reagan was a part of it too with regan democrats. when you have excess either way these things happen.agan democr. when you have excess either way these things happen. >> they rejected the republican party too. embracing donald trump ---if anything, when you look at landscape stretched out, donald trump and bernie sanders are opposite but there are more reasons why hillary clinton and paul ryan are more alike than paul ryan is like donald trump or bernie sanders is like hillary clinton. >> where are we getting our politics? >> that's really the question. i think paul ryan and his freedom caucus, he will step into if trump loses this thing, a giant mess tearing the republican party apart. he has to decide am i going to cut a deal with hillary clinton and push this further away.

and hillary clinton you already have progressives with warren and bernie sanders threatening her on all kinds of issues. >> if trump loses, he will still get 40-something percent. where does this go after the election? will the democrats make a bid for it? >> you have two people here who are pundits and you don't need one more. what i do think is that at a broader level, it is a true clash of civilization and we are at a point where that 47% represents a group of people for whom either catalism as we know it, free market capitalism and even to some extent the traditional notions of democracy failed. that includes millennials who are yet to have jobs and so i think that you're going to see a realignment, win or lose, that is very, very dramatic. >> how do we get back the roosevelt coalition of the

democratic side? >> you lead and deliver to your point about paul ryan, i think she needs a partner in the house and senate to get something done. i believe she will be elected that night. i believe she will talk about the americans -- >> she did that tonight. >> i think that's the most part her speech and most important pivot that happened in this speech a long time. not only does she stay there, she will have paul ryan and maybe progressives and other conservatives. this happens in cycles. i appreciate some of the dramatic around where we are but politics in america is about layeredship. if can you lead during moment of crisis, people respond. i think the next president will have a set of foreign policy challenges that have alluded the could be ver saconversations fo obvious reasons. we have to make choice about syria and south china seas and parts of the world that haven't been talked about in a serious way in the latter part of this

campaign. secretary clinton is uniquely positioned to do -- >> the morning after the election -- >> tuesday morning, wednesday morning. everyone is being unhelpful. i'm being unfair. get the days wrong. i can't remember. >> i can't remember. >> i think it is what you are suggesting, all about negotiation and rebuilding and people like hillary clinton if she is heard, president or trump even -- >> that's the challenge on both sides. hillary clinton when she was in the senate she proved that she could make republican allies and learn to work with them. >> she made friends. even the people who impeached her husband. >> right. she has to decide, am i willing to anchor my progressive base and paul ryan has to decide, am i going to work with this woman who has become a totally toxic brand with basically everyone across the board. >> he has to decide if he want to be a great speaker or run for president. i'm not sure he can do both. >> i think the second question on wednesday morning, assuming that hillary clinton does win,

is that really what is trump going to do? because you cannot underestimate the amount of rage that is building in this man and that rage -- >> personally. >> personally. >> you think he will concede? >> no, i bet he will not concede. >> one exception is if it goes more than 6% and 300 and something electoral votes and there is not any room do it. but the odds, if it's in any way close, are that he will not. and i think with his rage which he has used in terms of stoking the fire, is the second big question, what is it going to be like starting if he doesn't concede and of that, if he going to try to get those people to whip those people into a frenzy. >> i think you're right about one thing. i don't think he want to walk away from his audience. >> i don't think he wants to walk away from an audience. he must have an audience. >> i don't think he has to by

conceding. but i do think this is potentially the biggest impact of that fbi news of what james comey decided to do. and it is because before he did that, they were talking about exactly what you mentioned. they were saying we're going to win this election. our challenge now is to win this so big that he has to concede. the conversation is totally different now. >> we will move beyond donald trump. >> let's hope there is a clear decision tuesday night and he does behave. kasie hunt, thank you. that's "hardball" join me at 77:00 eastern. see you then. :00 eastern. see you then. yeah, we go left right here. (woman vo) great adventures are still out there. we'll find them in our subaru outback.

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