to the meeting. you don't do it unless you have a sense of what's going to happen. >> i appreciate you being here. the former ceo officer. thank you for watching. i'm ali velshi. have a great weekend. "hardball" starts right now. the plot thickens. let's play "hardball." good evening. i'm steve corn actikornacki in matthews. doubts about the evolving account of donald trump jr. who attend that had meeting on kremlin sourced dirt on hillary clinton. this morning there was a report that there was a previously undisclosed person also in the room that day. the russian american lobbyist,

rinat akmetshin, the former soviet intelligence officer suspected by some u.s. officials of having ongoing ties to intelligence. he denies any current ties to russian spy agencies. however, senator chuck grassley, the chairman of the senate judiciary committee and a republican noted back in april, quote, that mr. rinat akmetshin has been accused of acting as an unregistered agent for russian interests and apparently has ties to russian intelligence. this brings the total number of participant in that meeting to at least six. according to the "new york times." the sixth person was a translator. he said that he had come clean and there was nothing more to say. >> i'm more than happy to be transparent about and it to cooperate. >> so as far as you know, this is everything. >> this is everything.

>> he said that he knew nothing about the man's back ground at the time of the meeting. and late today, rinat akmetshin said that he attended the meeting at trump tower without any security check. no one asked us for i.d.s. we literally walked in. joining me now, investigative reporter, mike isikoff for yahoo! news, and a former senior adviser at the state department. thank you all for joining us. ken, let me start with you. former soviet counter intelligence official suspected of having ongoing ties to russian intelligence. this guy, what exactly can you tell us about him? and the issue there of being suspected of connections to russian intelligence in the present tense. flesh that out for us if you will. >> i will. it is important to know that we don't know what the evidence is. we know that as you pointed out there, senator grassley's office has made those allegations.

we have no idea what they're based on. i think the most important thing is that he is a classic washington operator. he is russian born. he did spend he some time in the soviet military where he had a counter intelligence role. he became a u.s. citizen and he's been an operator in the shadows for years. lobbying for various causes. some of which have to do with russian americans and russians. and on behalf of the putin government. he's been on the other side of the putin government. and he is an interesting guy who tends to do political intelligence work. generally in the shadows. and now he's exploded into public view. >> and now why he was there, what we know about his role there. so he is a lobbyist right now, a former counter tense to the soviet union back when there was a soviet union. now a lobbyist and he is there at the invitation of this russian lawyer? >> yeah. there's sort of two stories here. there's story that rinat, the lobbyist, and the lawyer are

telling, and the trump team. that this meeting was about these sanctions. that they came to meet with the trump folks to lobby against these sanctions and give them some information about some contributions to the dnc, and the trump folks looked at and i said this has nothing to do with the campaign. this is a nothing burger. that's their story. that doesn't square with the e-mails that came from the agalarov family which had done business with the trump family, had been involved with the miss universe pageant, had a deal to do with trump tower that didn't come to fruition. we saw these e-mails where the russian government was promising derogatory information and help. so there's a huge disconnect between that and what they say happened in the meeting about this sort of that he had antic act that is hard to understand. even if folks who went to the meeting thought it was about these sanctions and the magnetsky act, what it may have

been for russian intelligence was whether they could get access to the trump campaign. and the answer is yes, the trump campaign was willing to take a meeting based on the offer of help. >> among all the other details,. >> he obviously attracted suspicion from chuck grassley and others, he showed up for a meeting that included the campaign chair and he was rushered in without showing an i.d. >> i thought that was astonishing. i caught him by cell phone. he was in the french southwest coast when i did this afternoon. and i wanted to zero in on that question. because how did he get into this meeting? why was he there? his account is, he was dressed in a t-shirt and jeans and happened to be having lunch with natalia the lawyer, who he had worked, with lobbying.

he said i have this meeting in trump tower. why don't you come along? i would have thought that to get cleared into trump tower, to go see the campaign manager of the campaign, the son of the candidate, you would have, it would have been a record of who was going up to trump tower. somebody window to have cleared you in. at least according to his account. rinat's account. nothing of the count took place. they just strolled back in. nobody asked they will for any i.d. whatsoever and there he is sitting with the highest levels of the trump campaign. now, what might be, this might be exculpatory for the trump campaign. it would explain how they didn't know he was there. there was no record of him being there. if this account is true. on the other hand, if one has a more sinister view of events, or thinks this was part of an

intelligence operation, it is a way by which people who might have other agendas could gain access to the highest levels of a presidential campaign. >> talk little more about that, if you will. one the of defenses we've seen with this, just in general when it comes the any of the stories like this, with trump folks, from trump world. it seems to fall back to the idea, these political amateurs. they're not used to running sophisticated campaigns. they're not used to running a government so things will happen that we haven't seen before. i haven't heard them offer that specific defense. i wouldn't be surprised if we end up hearing that. what if we hear, i didn't know any better. we took meeting. sure. she showed one somebody else. we rolled with it. what would you say? >> i would use -- i would use an afterism that dear joe biden said, that's mularkey.

and here's why. you had trump with secret service protection from november 2015. so they had access to the building. his personal security protection and the records of who is coming in and out. any meeting with a foreign national, the first thing somebody should think of on a campaign is let me let someone know, why is this meeting happening? you don't think, oh, let me invite the campaign chairman and several other people in charge of the operation and bring them into this potentially compromising situation with foreign intelligence officials. this is idea. if this is an intelligence operation by a foreign adversary, they're going to exploit any of these loopholes of an amateur operation. so it is the responsibility if you are trying to run for the highest office of the land. protect national security. it is your responsibility to take notice and make some effort to keep track of how people are coming in and out of your office space. and in particular, taking advantage of your family members. >> i want to get to another detail, mike isikoff, that you

had with rinat akmetshin. he said there was a fold we are information about an american hedge fund operating in russia that she believed was funning money to the democratic committee. this was the promise on tuesday to turn over additional documents pertaining to that meeting. >> did you hand over any and all documents? >> i will. i've said it publicly. i said it yesterday. more than happy to cooperate with everyone. i just want the truth to get out there. >> so michael isikoff, he said nothing with being handed a folder in this meeting. what can you tell us about the contents there? what might be being done with it right now. >> all we know is what what rinat akmetshin said. that the lawyer natalia did have such a folder. it related to hedge fund contributions to the democratic national committee. that she had been researching this for years. now, we know they were going

after bill browder. the former hedge fund guy who now lives in london on. who basically ginned up or, the magnitsky act. he lobbied very strongly, u.s. congress, to go after human rights abusers in russia who he believed had killed magnitsky. i think we can surmise that what natalia was talking about were hedge fund contributions associated with bill browder's financial business. but rinat said he didn't see the folder. he didn't work on it. he doesn't know the contents of the folder beyond what natalia told him. can i take a step back here? to some extent, i think this is

all sort of fascinating little details about who was at the meeting. but there is one key witness here who investigators you would think would be focused on. that's rob goldstone. the author of the e-mails. he's the one who said the russian government was, wanted to impart this information to help the trump campaign. he is the one who said, the agalarovs were helping do so. he is the one who works the agalarovs. he is the publicist for emin. it seems the me he is the obvious crucial witness one has to determine to make sense of this meeting. what was his basis for what he wrote in those e-mails? what did he really know? and what information did he have? until we get the answers to that, i think we're all in the world of speculation. >> yes. there have been all sorts of, we didn't know there was an e-mail in the first place. when we found out what was in the e-mail, a lot of people were surprised how explicit it was.

bigger picture question in terms of where this might be going now. where investigators might be turning their attention. where the robert mueller might be turning his attention. a week ago you have grudging acknowledgement that there was a meeting but it was only about this issue of adoption. and it has grown three or four times since then. i think now everybody looking at this objectively says we don't know where it is going. it could grow much farther than. this maybe it stops here. maybe it keeps going. but they can't get benefit of the doubt anymore after what we've seen in the last week. big picture, where does it go from here? >> i think this meeting and the revelations about rid a game changer in the investigation. they present the first evidence of actual collusion. remember for months, republicans and trump supporters have been saying where's the beef? here you have an offer from the russian government for help and an acceptance by the trump administration. and the other thing that will get the attention of bob

mueller, the concealment, the changing stories, the failure to come clean, the failure to disclose all the participant. that's the kind of thing piques the interest of investigators. i know it has the interest of senate investigators. >> we're going to have to leave it there. thank you all for joining us. coming up, it has been seven days since that news broke of donald trump jr.'s meeting with that kremlin linked attorney. and every day, as we were talking about, has brought a new revelation and a new excuse, a new explanation. whatever you prefer from the trump camp. we'll look at the evolution of that defense next. plus for the first hard evidence showing a willingness on the part of trump campaign to work with the russians. how long trump voters stick by and how long will republicans in congress stick by? what would it take for that support to start to erode? we've got new polling numbers to address. also, a message to trump from the expresident's club. when asked what's the most important quality a president needs to have, george w. bush

and bill clinton both. humility. any idea who they might have been talking about there? and finally we'll thenld busy week the "hardball" roundtable and three things about trump and the investigation that you might not know. david. what's going on? oh hey! ♪ that's it? yeah. ♪ everybody two seconds! ♪ "dear sebastian, after careful consideration of your application, it is with great pleasure that we offer our congratulations on your acceptance..." through the tuition assistance program, every day mcdonald's helps more people go to college. it's part of our commitment to being america's best first job. ♪ when this guy got a flat tire

in the middle of the night, so he got home safe. yeah, my dad says our insurance doesn't have that. what?! you can leave worry behind when liberty stands with you™. liberty mutual insurance. a few weeks ago the "wall street journal" reported that in the lead-up to the election a mysterious operative, peter smith was his name, tried on obtain clinton e-mails from russian hackers. he implied he was working with retired general michael flynn. that operative died just days after being interviewed about his efforts. the "chicago tribune" is reporting that he committed suicide, leaving behind a cryptic note said no foul play whatsoever was involved in his death. i'm joined by one of the reporters who broke that story.

this is one of those things that is attracting some attention. let's just lay out the facts here as you know them. we know that peter smith, this role he was trying to play covertly to dig up the clinton e-mails, that was revealed in the "wall street journal." they talked to him a couple days later he died. we now found out it's a suicide. what can you tell us? >> he died ten days later after speaking to the "wall street journal." the "wall street journal" apparently did their due diligence that waited until the end of june to start publishing the stories. when they came out, here's man from lake forest, illinois, from the north shore, and he's dead. he's reportedly looking for the overseas hackers to find hillary clinton's missing e-mails and there were two gaping holes, where did he die and how did he die? i work here in washington but this is my backyard. the "chicago tribune's" rearedship is there. i made it a point to try to answer those two questions.

where did he die and how did he die? within about say, three or four days of reporting, i ascertain that had he took his life outside the mayo clinic complex in a private hotel and committed suicide by suffocation. >> in terms of authorities and what they're saying about this, are they satisfied that this was the note he left? no foul play. you said it was at a hotel near the mayo clinic. i think i think used people with grim conditions that would be going there? is that the story here? >> well, i think it is highly, highly likely that this gentleman took his own life. he was 81 years old. we know he was suffering from a severe heart condition. he had experienced shortness of breath. i will say this. in additional reporting today, in the "chicago tribune" which we'll publish late tonight and tomorrow, we are learning of other stressors in his life unrelated to the side line that made him famous. he was on the one hand a very successful businessman and

financier. forle years, very successful. on the other hand, he bank rolled opposition research for many years on behalf of the republicans, hope to hurt democrats. some of this he was very proud of. so one might interim rhett this may 4 call to the "wall street journal" of his publicizing his own effort, apparently not successful, to find the so-called missing hillary clinton e-mails. >> all right. you broke this story last night. thank you for the reporting last night. a quick break. up next, it has been a week since that bombshell report came out. first revealing donald trump jr.'s meeting with the russian lawyer. many more shoes have dropped since then. the story has been spun every which way. today is no different. you're watching "hardball." noo introducing the easiest way to get gillette blades

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since the story about the russia meeting first broke last saturday, we've seen a response

from the white house that can best be described as a moving target. on saturday, in a statement we now know was crafted by the white house, donald trump jr. gave this explanation which proved to be misleading. he said we primarily discussed a program about the adoption of russian children. that was a line that was echoed by reince priebus. >> that was a very short meeting. it was a meeting apparently about russian adoption. and after about 20 minutes, the meeting ended. and that was the end of it. >> that was last saturday. a few hours later, the "new york times" reported that trump was in fact promised damaging information on hillary clinton before that meeting. in response, he put out a new statement. a revised statement saying he didn't even know the name of the person he was meeting. but that shaded the truth as well. in an e-mail to him she was described as the russian government attorney. and on tuesday, the president praised his son's transparency. >> i have a quick statement that

i will read from the president. my son is a high quality person and i applaud his transparency. >> "the new york times" reported trump it's only released his e-mails after being told the times was about to publish the content of them. next came this pitch. we did nothing wrong because the meeting produced no useful information. >> do you tell your father anything about this? >> it was such a nothing. there was nothing to tell. it was literally a wasted 20 minutes which was a shale. >> it was a meeting that took place. no exchange of information. the meeting ended up producing nothing. and now there is a media frenzy around this because russia is in vogue to attack as kind of the great involvement in the campaign. the fact is, zero happened here.

>> i think from a standpoint, many people would have taken that meeting. i've had many people call up and say we have information on this person or this factor, frankly, hillary. that's the standard in politics of politics is not the nicest business in the world but it is very standard. where they have information and you take the information. >> a week of revelations, a week of spin. what does it all add up to? jonathan swan is the national reporter for axios. jonathan, let me start with you. our guest michael isikoff had some reporting that the lawyers are in the white house, knew about this e-mail. knew about this e-mail that was sent to donald trump from goldstone. they knew about it several weeks ago. so everything that has caused them all this political trauma this week. potentially legal trauma. they knew weeks ago. you know the winner workings of this white house well. is there a way to square the fact they knew this was out there and they knew it could out there with all the evolving spin

that they produced it with? >> well, i can confirm that they did know about it. jared kushner's lawyers and the joits counsel team for at least two weeks which makes this statement, the first statement they released, truly stunning. that they were in possession of this e-mail. that they put out a statement saying this was all about russian adoption and left out the most salient details, which were sure to come out at some point. they are in the hands -- this all came out because jared kushner had to update his disclosure form. this was all going to come out. it literally makes no sense for the communications standpoint. >> has anyone offered an explanation, this is what we thought would happen? we thought we could get away with it? did anybody offer anything? >> no. the problem is frankly internally no, one wants to talk about this issue. what is happening at the moment, the most, for them, troubling

die natural sig there are real tensions between donald trump's outside legal team and certain people inside, including the kushner camp. and so this is not some well oiled operation that is working smoothly together. you have an outside legal team that wants to put up a wall between the president and his son-in-law. they're frustrated that jared kushner has been discussing the investigation with the president. then you've got other outside advisers to the president who believe that donald trump's legal team is second rate. that he really, jared has much better lawyers and donald trump has gone for a loyalist. and this one person said you don't need a loyalist. you need someone who is loyal who has done this before in washington. not a new york lawyer who helped you fight sexual harassment cases. >> well, kellyanne conway set a fairly high bar for what she said will constitute misdeeds by the trump campaign. >> even the gold posts have been moved. we were promised systemic hard

evidence of systemic, sustained furtive collusion that not only interfered with our election process but indeed, dictated the electoral outcome. and winter of only people who says that seriously these days is still hillary clinton and nobody believes it. >> last night, conservative columnist charles across hammer had a very different take. >> this was a bungled collusion. alturish collusion. this was keystone cops collusion. it undoes the white house story completely. >> well, ruth marcus, correct me if i'm wrong but i sense kellyanne conway there trying to move the goalpost. she adds there, not just the idea of we were promised, i think she's saying the media, the citizenics, we were promised evidence of collusion. she added collusion that clearly impacted the outcome of the election. if that's the standard you end up setting on all this, with all

the evidence we've seen and maybe more to come, that's an unprovable thing. whatever you could establish between the trump campaign did x, the russian government promised y. if you could even establish that. we'll never be able to say 28,000 votes were changed here, 100,000 were changed there. that's an unprovable statement. >> and it is ridiculous and it is not a standard that anybody has set out for why we need various investigations. why mueller needs to be able to do his job. she might as well have been carrying the goalposts herself over her shoulder. moving them when she said that. but the bigger point here is that when they teach crisis communications in future years, they're going to look at this sxeps this last week as just the classic example of what not to do. time after time. i mean, the notion that you can send out, given what the lawyers knew, the white house chief of

staff could be ignorant and negligent enough to go out there and say this is a meeting about adoption and it is a big nothing burger when there's evidence that is going to contradict him. and even if he didn't know that, he should have known it. anybody who saw that big flashing adverb primarily knew there was something more to the story on the first go-around. i've watched a lot of white houses mess up over the years but this is a doozy. >> a fairly constant refrain if there was one from the white house, when it came to trying to explain it, the idea that there's nothing to see. >> i don't know much about it other than it seems to be on the end of the trump individuals, a big nothing burger. >> there was no other connection. no phone calls no, further meetings. this is a massive nothing burger. >> the drip, drip, drip is undermining the credibility of this administration. >> i think it is undermining the

credibility of the media. they drip, drip, drip a lot of things that don't seem to have much adore about nothing. >> in case you run out of time, this is to help all the people at home. what's the con conclusion? collusion? no. we don't have that yet. i see illusion and delusion. just so we're clear. four words. collusion? no. >> had the i have to say, if you went back in time a couple weeks ago, this was the case the white house was making. this was the case republicans were making. for all the talk, all the smoke that may be out there, nothing has been revealed. i even remember chris murphy, the democratic senator, saying maybe democrats are spending too much time on this russia thing. but it feels like things changed materially when you have an e-mail saying there was a meeting set up with somebody who has connections to some very powerful people in russia saying on behalf of the russian

government. this is part of the russian government effort to help the trump campaign. that meeting takes place. the list of people that grow. real the i havicly, how much longer can they cling to it? or is this it? is this what we'll hear from here on? >> they might be saying it's a nothing burger on tv but i can tell you this week privately, nobody was arguing that. when that e-mail came out, they all knew it was bad. then it switched to, well, no crimes were committed. and the second point of spin that came sort of immediately was working out, how can we did i have thert back to hillary clinton? how can we shift the focus back to obama and wiretapping, illegal surveillance and things of that nature. it was straight away an acknowledgement this was terrible. and the first thoughts were how do we deflect this. i think the story about it being crazy inside the white house are not quite accurate.

the fact is that they've outsourced their responses. you have a white house that's sitting there and not doing anything about it. they're not dealing with the problem. they're not in crisis communications mode because they're not doing anything. >> all right. thank you for joining us. still ahead, is the latest reporting in the russia scandal a red line for voters? we'll look at some striking new polling that is just out. this is "hardball" where the sacks. she's nationally recognized for her compassion and care. he spent decades fighting to give families a second chance.

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more and more pieces of the russian investigation shows a majority of americans, 53% say it was inappropriate for president trump's son to meet with a russian lawyer. when we break down the numbers more, you see that 60% of trump supporters, people who voted for him, found it totally appropriate. only 17% say it was inappropriate. and usa spoke to trump supporters in indiana. they found russia investigation just doesn't resonate with them. one voter saying it would take a lot for her to abandon president trump. that he would quote, maybe kill someone, just in cold blood. that's what it would take to lose her support. i'll joined by john hick hickenlooper. thanks for taking a few minutes. let me ask you, let's take the

hard core trump supporters out of it. to try to get to the middle of the electorate. i think what has been clear, as this whole russia thing has played out. there was a large chunk of voters out there. i don't know what you want to call them. they never liked trump. they really liked hillary. they've been key in the since the beginning. when you get beyond that world, the people anti-trump. voters more in the middle. the mushy middle. do you sense this issue is penetrating to that level? or when you ask those voters about russia, do they shrug? >> i haven't seen a poll but in conversation it seems like they're beginning to, i think what they worry about is the lack of transparency. if this is draining the swamp, that implies you'll tell the truth and get the facts out there where everybody can see them. and we keep hearing this story. the one thing about rinat

akmetshin, it is like a screenplay. he says there was a document that natalia veselnitskaya left with donald trump jr. is this all going to come out in little bits? there must be some reason for it to come out so slowly, right? >> i'm trying to get to what the conversation is like among voters and among your constituen constituents. places that it is competitive. maybe where democrats won and donald trump will some thought of saying. today you were at that national governors association. he had mike pence come in there. he was there in part to try to sill, i imagine with you he didn't make much head way. to sell you on the idea of overhauling obamacare with this republican plan. if you're going to a swing voter in colorado, as a democrat, trying to do this, what will you

lead with? is it russia or health care? >> i think we're spending way too much time worrying about russia and i think we should stay on the policy issues. my big concern with health care is why are we rushing this through? i'll the first person, many democratic governors would agree, we need improve and change parts of the affordable care act. to roll back coverage so many people. to do the, put so many people at risk. specially penalties that will be placed on people 50 to 65 years old. those kinds of things aren't well known to people. maybe the russian thing is trying to distract voters so they won't be so agitated and pressure the senators trying to make up their mind about whether to support this new health care plan. >> all right. thank you for taking a few minutes. we appreciate it. >> of course. up next, president trump calls the russian investigation

a witch hunt. will that argument hold with his supporters? plus, george w. bush and bill clinton. they got together when they took some not so veiled jabs at the current occupant. ♪ ♪ more kinds of crab than ever, new dishes, and all your favorites. only while crabfest lasts. red lobster. now this is seafood.

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welcome back to "hardball." let's return to the russia investigation. and as we heard in the last block, president trump's core supporters seem to think the russia issue is much ado about nothing. the latest poll put his overall job approval at 38%. among republicans that number is at 85%. let's bring in the roundtable. and a senior reporter for politico new york. thank you for being with us. let me start with you. i think the interesting thing, we look at this republican opinion on trump and on russia.

i'm looking for the folks who are influential with republican voters, with republican audiences, signs they may be reaching the breaking point. i saw a few who i haven't seen expressing criticism and more about trump. and i do think given now the potential for this thing to expands more, maybe a lot more than it did this week. i am start to see, in my mind, i'll seeing the path of how it could happen. >> i'm sure there's a path but i'm not seeing it right now. the public voters are not either being exposed to a lot of this news because they're consuming news media that doesn't cover it. at the very least, covers it through the filter of a trump surrogate or someone who may as well be a trump surrogate. so they're getting it with the sweetest gloss that you can

imagine. right? i mean, very, very sympathetic to trump himself. so it seems unlikely to me that trump voters are going to change their minds. and until you see those pundits on tv telling them otherwise, even telling them this news exists, it won't happen. if there's going to be a break, republican leaders there, it has to come more from that grassroots level. whatever the influential voicesful are i'm trying to think of the psychology of a republican member of congress who last year, watched donald trump go through how many fatal scandals. if you're a republican member of congress, you're looking at this and saying, i don't think this will turn my voters against him. so i'd better not be against him. >> i don't know what to think.

even watching the health care bill, i'm so puzzled. it seemed like their own constituents are not for that bill. yet they're still fighting for a bill that isn't popular with they will. i feel like maybe that's why some of those could not is it the wrenlts distracted enough to not be paying attention to what's going on. nasaive lies and obfuscations going on with russia. but it is very puzzling dynamic. i'm tell you. they're trying to prepare for tonight. i kept looking at different dynamics saying i don't get it. i don't know more republicans aren't standing up saying, hey, this is wrong. i don't even have security clearance. how can jared kushner still have it? i'm confused. >> it is an argument, a discussion, a conversation we have been having i think literally from the very start of the donald trump campaign. you think of that speech he made when he entered the race at trump tower in june 2015. and he made those comments about

mexicans and you heard voices saying, it is not right, it is not normal, not proper, not acceptable for a president of the united states, you leader even some republicans say, to say those things. you heard the comments about the muslim ban. you heard it when he made dumb about it. he won the nomination biflt a narrow margin, he did get elected president. and i'm hearing the conversation. is it possible? it has been the sail conversation. he's taken every piece of controversy. everything that has been an obstacle, he has held something as proof. he came in not really as a republican but like crusader within the republican party, running against the establishment. if you think about michael bloomberg, he wanted to run for president. couldn't do it in the democratic party or the republican party.

didn't enroll in any party and then got blocked out. donald trump's strategy was to go within the party and then campaign. >> that's the dynamic. it is a takio of the republican party. he staged a takeover. they're saying, can i stand up to him? >> i can't think of it. >> i'm sorry. this establishment that he was fighting against. look, i watched cartoons growing up. i remember, and bullwinkle cartoons. boris and natasha. you looked at them a little funny. knew the russians, even then tlavgs whole different dynamic. but anybody with brains, anybody other went to public school who got decent grades on their report card and studied history. you knew you didn't tangle with russia when it came to an election. i don't know how that is anti-establishment. how supporting a foreign entity

that has worked against us is taking it to the man? >> we have to squeeze in one quick break. up next, president trump's taste in music is not exactly clear what it is. today we got a sense of what he doesn't like. you get used to food odors in your car. you think it... ...smells fine, but your passengers smell this bell dinging new febreze car with odorclear technology cleans away odors... ...for up to 30 days smells nice... breathe happy, with new febreze.

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shared what they think is the most important quality in a president. take a look. >> humility. i think it is really important to know what you don't know and listen to people who do know what you don't know. >> if you want to be president, realize it is about the people. not about you. and when it is over, that's what a lot of these people who are real arrogant in office, they forget. time passes. and it passes more quickly than you know. you want to be able to say, people are better off when i quit. kids have a better future. thank you for coming together. you don't want to say, look at all the people i beat. >> back with our roundtable. >> i'm having a hard time figuring out who he is talking about. they were talking about different kinds of humility. one is don't be a sore victor.

don't lord over the people that you have beaten, that you have beaten them. be gracious. i can't imagine who they were talking about. the other kind of humility they were talking about was be humble in accepting what you don't know. with a your limitations are is where you need to get guidance. on both those issues, the current president has not been doing particularly well. >> they don't like to criticize each ooflt it is not becoming. >> i think those very well thought messages will be responded to by crickets. it won't happen. >> i don't know that trump would realize they're talking about him. >> his name is not mentioned. unless there's a parade or music attached to it, a piece of paper that he will hold up and sign -- >> trump has said that he's more humble than everybody realizes.

>> i can't let this pass without mentioning, i hear george w. bush say the most important thing is to be humble. does anybody remember the last time george w. bush talked about the importance of being hull bl? >> and admitting when you make a mistake. >> how about this one? in the debate 2000 election, i asked him what kind of foreign policy he would have. george w. bush, the man who invaded afghanistan, said the most important thing is to be humble and not to go into other countries and tell them how to do things. i hear it. they'll tell me three things i don't know. this is "hardball" where the action is.

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for the fourth year in a row, trump is suing the appraiser's office because he says his golf course is not worth as much as he claims it is. he says it is worth less than $that. >> this isn't exactly something you would know but i want to underscore that he gave a great interview to the associated press and said we should all stop whining about trump and figure out a way to get him out of office. i say, yay dave. >> robert mercer has given his first contribution to a new york city candidate. for the republican running against bill de blasio. >> does that republican have any chance? >> we'll see. >> very diplomatic.

as i put him on the spot there. thank you all for joining us. that will do it for us at "hardball." thank you for being with us. chris matthews will return to this chair monday night. or the version of this chair in washington. and "all in" with chris hayes starts now. >> so this is everything. this is everything. >> it wasn't everything. >> shocking developments about who met with the trump campaign last year. >> today we learned a former counter intelligence agent was also present at the trump meeting. >> tonight, the latest revelations. as the story from trump world keeps changing. >> it is disgusting. it is so phony. >> this conversation never happened. >> zero happened here. >> then who the russian connections are and how they got close to the trump family. >> you're a winner, a champ.