that does it for the beat. there's a lot of news left and "hardball" is up next. the fight for the senate runs through florida and arizona. let's play hard ball. good evening. i'm steve kornacki in for chris matthews. the polls are now closed in most of the state of florida. florida, the sight of one of tonight's major primary elections, the marquis event in that state, races for governor on the democratic and republican sides. a test there as well in that republican contest of president trump's clout. we'll start watching those numbers begin to trickle in from florida any minute now. and as they start to trickle in, we'll also be looking ahead to the state of arizona.

that is where polls will be closed a few hours from now. probably. there's an issue there with extensive polling times. more on that in a second. there's also another breaking story tonight to tell you about. the washington post reporting that president trump has again begun talking about firing his attorney general, jeff sessions. his attorneys have reportedly pushed back against that idea. we will have much more on that story coming up. but first, as we said tonight's big races. later on tonight, about 11:00 eastern, we're expecting to start getting numbers out of arizona, a key senate primary being decided there. the backdrop in that state, of course, the death of john mccain. seat to be filled by appointment in the coming days. tonight, though, it's the race for the state's other senate seat taking center stage. there, the action is on the republican side. martha mcsally, choice of the party establishment, a major recruit for national republicans. she is facing off against one of john mccain's biggest

detractors, kelli ward and joe arpaio. of course, he was pardoned last year by donald trump after being convicted by criminal content of court. mcsally has been leading in the polls in arizona. it is also a test of where the heart of the republican party is right now. is it closer to that mccain brand of republican or is it closer to the trump brand? take a look at the split when you see the three-way coming in. the winner there will get democrat. sinema has been leading slightly in the polls. if democrats will have a chance to win back the senate, this is a race they must win. as we said, should begin rolling in momentarily. spence for republicans is in the governor's race. ron desantis, endorsed by trump, or adam putnam, more of an

establishment figure. he had been the favorite in this race until trump made that endorsement that volted desantis into the lead. gwen graham has led slightly in the polls, philip levine, andrew gillum and jeff groeene all in contention. members for florida are incomplete for the next hour, polls in the panhandle region of florida, central time of the state, are still open. marquis race replacing the governor and picking their candidate for that race. i'm joined by white house correspondent for pbs news hour and david katnis. david, let me start with you. on arizona, the later poll closing time. obviously the immediate backdrop for that race, as we said, john

mccain's passing. and the question there for republicans, it does seem pretty stark on paper. you've got martha mcsally, combat veteran, choice of the party establishment. you have arpaio, pardoned by trump. kelli ward, as antagonistic as anybody, to say the least, toward john mccain. where will the balance of power be there in arizona? >> it's tough. you have a three-way race. if it was yust kelli ward versus martha mcsall lly you would hav that clean pro-trump versus establishment battle but sheriff joe arpaio, who will get double digits in the polls most likely, muddles that. most expect martha mcsally to win and by double digits but we also have to look at how she won. she began this race as sort of a pragmatist, centrist who wanted to do things like daca. she has steadily moved, as the primary heat sort of got to her

out there in arizona, she has moved toward that trump wing. even earlier today, won't even say a nice thing about outgoing senator jeff flake. tomorrow, if she is the likely nominee, as we presume her to be, she has to attempt to move back to that centrist position where kerstin sinema is sitting nicely. that's why she has a polling lead going into the general election. >> interesting story in arizona. we spent a lot of time looking at the senate landscape nationally saying this is democrats playing defense in a lot of places, democrats up in states that trump carried. in arizona, though, the script is flipped. republican seat is an open seat. flake's not running. this is a state that hillary clinton came close n as dave just said, it's a state where sinema is leading in the polling out there. if democrats have a path to a majority in the senate, it goes right through arizona. >> it goes right through arizona. but, really, arizona is a story

about the republican party. the fact that seat is open because jeff flake, very openly criticized the president, looked around, saw his standing and decided not to run for re-election tells you he was already feeling the pressure in the state. as david said it was a two-way race, it would be ease toy say. the fact that you have trump as this person hovering over this race and everyone running toward the direction of trump, two people looking to be much like trump and the third person reading the tea leaves and realizing -- of course, being mcsally -- realizing she has to do something to secure that republican seat. those republicans in arizona, thinking about john mccain, a lot of people did not agree with the way that john mccain handled his seat. even though he's obviously a celebrated war hero there, there are people who did not like the way that he criticized the president and did not like the way that jeff flake criticized the president. >> looking ahead we see the next big thing in the arizona political calendar, dave, after

this primary tonight, will be the appointment of john mccain's seat, doug doocy is not expected to have any trouble. he would make the appointment. how much will these results tonight -- we have that question, will he lean more to the mccain side, more to the trump side? even if mcsally wins tonight, if he sees results where ward and arpaio are getting more than 50% of the vote combined, maybe considerably more, does that push him from putting somebody from that wing of the party into that senate seat? >> possibly. he will probably be in a contested competitive election as well, as we move on to the general -- probably not as competitive as the senate race but democrats are thinking they can give him a run for his money. this is arguably going to be the most important political decision of doug doocy's career. he has higher ambitions, wants to run for president one day. arizona is losing both of their

senior senators -- both senators. you're going to have two freshmen senators in arizona for the next two years, moving forward. so he does have a decision to make. will he go with a placeholder candidate like a john arpaio, will he pick someone that is very close to him, possibly an ally of his? the chief of staff has been mentioned. will he pick a woman? i heard that floated by some republican operatives that are close to the governor. i think that is a big question. from what i hear, he has had no serious conversations with candidates about it. he doesn't want to overshadow remembering john mccain. i think we will see the appointment within two weeks, though. >> and over in florida, quickly in that governor's race, donald trump has been making endorsement in republican primaries. it looks like he changed the trajectory, going with desantis, sort of the tea party

congressman there, over adam putnam, more of an establishment candidate there. it's a test of trump's clout and trumpification of the state parties this would be a clear signal in florida. >> that's definitely true. the fact that people are wondering can a trump endorsement really move the party? if it can move the party, not only dos that say something to potential candidates, back in washington you have all these republican senators and lawmakers who people want to take a more confrontational tone with donald trump. if he is starting endorsing people and they're winning because of his endorsement, you're going to see lawmakers in d.c. become even more cautious. on the democratic side, people are looking at the governor's race there. it's also an interesting one to watch. andrew gillum is trying to run as a very progressive democrat and i think it will say something if he can become one of the first -- or if he can win that democratic race, he may become the first black governor in florida. that's a race to watch as well. >> those results you can see at

the bottom of your screen, starting to come in. most of the state will be closed 51 minutes from now. yamiche and david, thank you for joining us. in washington, remembrance of the life and service of john mccain continue today. south carolina senator lindsey graham, one of his close friends, paying tribute to john mccain on the senate floor today. >> he taught me that honor and imperfection are always in competition. i do not cry for a perfect man. i cry for a man who had honor and always was willing to admit to his imperfection. don't look to me to replace this man. look to me to remember what he was all about and try to follow in his footsteps. you want to help me, join the march. if you want to help the country,

be more like john mccain. >> we talked about this as well, a minute ago, the task of appointing an immediate successor through the 2020 election. that now falls to the governor of arizona, republican doug doocy, also up for re-election. politico reporting that ducey faces the challenge of trying to please president trump and mccain supporter. if ducey were to pick cindy mccain, it would be suicidal for his re-election chances. charlie, on that succession question in arizona, you've seen names, jon kyl former senator had that clip of cindy mccain saying politically that wouldn't work for the governor. couple former congressmen being mentioned. that basically dilemma more to the mccain wing, more to the

trump wing. how do you see ducey handling that? >> first of all, steve, i have great confidence in the governor to make a good decision, to pick a good senator who will well represent arizona, all of arizona. the governor is not talking about names yet. he certainly is going to wait until after the various services for senator mccain are over. i'll tell you this. there are a lot of good people who would be well qualified united states senators from arizona. i wouldn't get too dramatic about it yet. >> dana, we played that clip of lindsey graham on the floor. and obviously a very touching, personal moment. lindsey graham story of his friendship with john mccain well documented through the years. you look politically, though, at lindsey graham and john mccain, so close and such allies for years in the trump era, they went in some different directions politically here. lindsey graham a lot closer to the president, certainly, last couple of years than john mccain

was. what do you make of that divergence? >> steve, first i bumped into lindsey graham when he was on the straight talk express, campaigning for john mccain during the 2000 campaign. lindsey graham and john mccain have a lot in common in terms of their style. but john mccain was one of a kind in terms of his bravery and what he was willing to do. he really was a throwback to another era. he was fighting against elements of his party in a 2000 campaign, certainly in 2008. and he was more and more at odds with his party over time. and i think he survived because of the legend that is john mccain rather than a pure political consideration. lindsey graham and the other republicans who might like to be the maverick don't really have that luxury. they are absolutely the slaves

of this trump powered base within the republican party. it's not like there's a trump wing and a mccain wing. there is only a trump wing right now. and the others just don't seem to have the bravery, because it would be political suicide to stand against trump. >> and, charlie, the term john mccain republican, i'm wondering when you think ten years from now, 20 years, 50 years from now, i'm curious what you think that would mean. when you look at his career in 2000, the party establishment wanted nothing to do with him. he was the nominee in 2008. obviously he has had his differences with president trump. there have been a lot of different moments there. what do you think the legacy of that term, ym republicajohn mcc republican, is going to be. >> i'm not sure that ten years from now people will identify using john's name. people in office and out of office that he has inspired to be like him, country first. honor. tell it like it is.

do not be afraid of going against political opponents on principle and do not be afraid of criticism. you know, lindsey graham is not exactly like john mccain but lindsey is another person who is very courageous. last time he ran he was viewed as the most moderate person in his republican primary but he won and came back to washington. lindsey has political courage. that's what other people should do. john mccain would never have wanted people to adhere exactly to his policies or principles. he would want them to do the right thing in their view and be people of integrity. >> thank you both for joining us. >> thank you. >> senator lindsey graham calling the relationship between president trump and his attorney general jeff sessions beyond repair. saying that the real jury is the public. primary night as we've been telling you, countdown is on your screen. we'll head over to the big board

and break down the early numbers we're getting out of florida and trump accusing google of rigging his search results, saying it is a serious situation and, quote, will be addressed. >> finally, robert mueller's investigation has me thinking about ken starr in 1990. this is hardball where the action is. s hardball where the action is. and at expedia, we don't think you should be rushed into booking one. that's why we created expedia's add-on advantage. now after booking your flight, you unlock discounts on select hotels right until the day you leave. ♪ add-on advantage. discounted hotel rates when you add on to your trip. only when you book with expedia.

jimmy carter adding his voice critical of trump on john mccain. >> i think it was a very serious mistake that president trump made. and his friends and his opponents corrected him, i think, quite adequately. now that this most recent statement he has made, i would say, is okay. it's still not enthusiastic as it should be. >> we'll be right back. >> we'll be right back put irrit.

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the washington post, quote, president trump has privately revived the idea of firing attorney general jeff sessions. however, quote, his attorneys concluded that they have persuaded him, for now, not to make such a move while the special counsel investigation is ongoing. as the president has made clear through his recent tweets he believes sessions should have protected him from the russian investigation and now two sources have confirmed to the post that the president wants to fire sessions because of the russia investigation. quote, at least twice this month, trump vented to white house advisers and his lawyers about the endless investigation of his campaign and says he needs to fire satisfaction segss for s -- sessions for saddling him with the controversy. former federal prosecutor and

robert costa at the national post. robert, let me start with you on just exactly what we know here. the president is saying the basis for his desire to have sessions out is that he blames sessions for there being an investigation in the first place? >> it's been a hot august inside this white house as the president has spoken to his attorneys. he has considered pardoning paul manafort on federal trial, about to start in washington, d.c. he's also banterring around the idea of getting rid of his attorney general, someone he has been frustrated with for a long period. for now his attorneys are keeping him away from the edge. they can only do that so long. explaining to him you may want to get rid of this probe but it could be considered obstruction of justice if you take this action. >> if you could elaborate on that, the reporting says for now they talked him away from it. how confident are they that they tamped it down for the near

future? >> lindsey graham, senator from south carolina, is one of them. rudy giuliani, with the president on the phone. based on my reporting they're all telling the president if you wait until mueller issues his report, he finishes report on the president's conduct, even if the president doesn't do an interview, that's the time can you get rid of the attorney general and make a change but not before then. >> glenn, what about that? robert mentioned the possibility there, saying that the president being counseled to move on sessions now for these reasons. there might be an exposure there on this question of obstruction of justice and also, apparently, the president being told wait until after the mueller report. then the issue goes away. what do you make of that reasoning from trump's lawyers? >> well, steve, when i looked at this evening's reporting from the washington post, there were two things that struck me. one was the president's take on this, which was that jeff sessions is saddling his presidency with controversy. i think that's a strange way to look at it. it's the president, associates and his family members' conduct that have saddled his presidency

with controversy. the second thing that struck me was when even his lawyers are reported to be telling him that, look, if you fire jeff sessions, mr. mueller may very well view that as obstruction. you know, it's interesting but usually when we're handling obstruction cases, we can prove up the conduct but there's actually a jury instruction that a judge gives in every case that says you have no way of looking into the human mind to determine what somebody's intent and motive is. so you usually have to infer it from their conduct. here, it's sort of backwards because the president has been announcing his conduct, his intent over and over again, which arguably is to obstruct justice by firing or pardoning various people. and, you know, i think if he actually takes this action and fires attorney general sessions, that is an obstruction charge that will right itself. >> senator lindsey graham, as we mentioned a minute ago, he said

today that the relationship between trump and sessions is beyond repair. >> we need an attorney general that can work with the president, lead the department of justice. this relationship is beyond repair, i think. >> senator graham, i mean, the only beef the president seems to have against him is that he's not going to get rid of the investigation into president trump. >> let me finish the second part. it's much deeper than that. >> what are we missing? >> well, we won't say on this show but it's a pretty deep breach. >> later in the day when asked about his ominous reference to a deep breach between the president and his attorney general, graham said he wasn't referring to anything in particular. >> can you tell me what you were alluding to this morning, this breach between the president and attorney general? >> it's not one thing. it's a series of things. i mean, i was telling these other folks that the immigration issue is sort of a debacle. i see a relationship that seems to be deteriorating by the minute. and we need an attorney general that has the confidence of the

president. but you're not going to get a new attorney general unless they're highly qualified and we'll let mueller do his job. that's sort of the deal. >> mitch mcconnell said today that sessions should, quote, stay exactly where he is. furthermore, "the wall street journal" is reporting, quote, top republican lawmakers are urging sessions to resist any pressure to quit and stay in the job at least through the mid term elections and that his firing, quote, could touch off a wave of resignations in the west wing. let me ask you, republicans, mitch mcconnell speaking for most if not all senate republicans saying don't be doing this right now. the margin for republicans and trump's party sits at 51-49. if he were to move on sessions, among it other things he would need a new attorney general. even two republicans say we're not going along with this, you don't get a new attorney general confirmed. will republicans keep this from happening or would trump ignore

this anyway? >> base ed on the reporting we' seeing, they are the only ones that are keeping trump from firing mueller -- excuse me, firing sessions. they say rur nyou're not going t a second person. rosenstein will be there and that will be that. you can try to fire him but remember there's no number three because no one wants the job. that would be problematic. politically before the midterms it would be a disaster for this president. i think that's probably the argument that his lawyers and some other advisers are making, is that you cannot -- we talk about keeping the house republican. if you do this, it all but signs, seals and delivers a democratic house. >> robert costa, is there any sense -- does the president have a name in mind as someone else that he would like to see as attorney general? >> at this point, no. i mean, the senate is saying back off, mr. president. we've got to get through the mid terms. they're trying to get kavanaugh through. all those messages are being sent to the white house today.

it's not so much about getting a replacement in there. new jersey governor chris christie is a name that's often put up there by trump allies. it's not about putting someone new in there but getting sessions out. because of the russian investigation, the president has been furious for over a year. >> glenn, you took us through your thinking there on that question of obstruction, if the president were to go and fire jeff sessions right now. what about what robert costa was talking about earlier, what his lawyers, republicans, at least some of them may be telling him. wait until there's a mueller report. if he waited until there's a mueller report and then fired sessions, does the issue you're describing go away? >> steve, there's no good time to obstruct justice. i tell you, when i see the president's team, defense team actually announcing, as is reported in the article this evening, that mr. president, if you do this, it could be viewed as obstruction of justice. i don't think i've ever seen defense attorneys sort of overtly talk like that in public about something their client is

intending to do. i mean, the writing couldn't be any clearer on the wall. >> what i'm asking, though, is if he waits until there's a mueller report, a chance to pursue the investigation as long as he wanted to. he got his report. that's now complete. that investigation did take place. can you then fire an attorney general and say there's no obstruction because mueller got to do his job. >> perhaps. but then it could be viewed as retaliation because if the report is sharply critical of the president or if indictments are handed down, then he could see to be retaliating because jeff sessions didn't protect him the way he has been demanding all along. >> we'll have to leave it there for now. thank you for being with us. up next, we'll go right over to the big board. the numbers are coming in fast and furious. see that map filling in there, in florida? we'll break down everything we are seeing right now. this is "hardball." s"hardball."

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all right, folks. the numbers are coming in fast and furious in florida. as i said at the top of the show, polls in most of the state of florida, most of the state of florida closed at 7:00 eastern but not all the state of florida. the panhandle part of the state is in the central time zone, 7:00 there, 8:00 eastern time,

the poll also close there. that's very important. we don't want to characterize or say anything about we think this one is going to win, this one is going to win. we don't want to do any of that until 8:00. you might remember there's history with the media and elections in florida. you're seeing these congressional primaries called. bill posey in the eighth district has a checkmark. anything in the eastern time zone those are closed and those can be called. to set the stage right here, marquis race in florida, desantis against putnam, former congressman. this is one of those ultimate sort of party establishment versus trump insurgent match-ups. adam putnam is about 43 years old. he got elected to congress in 2000. he was the youngest state

legislator in florida history. if you said ten years ago he was going to be running for governor of florida in 2018, everyone in florida politics would say of course he is. you could see this one coming a long ways away. ron desantis is sort of crashing the party, riding the trump wave. this was the story. when donald trump endorsed desantis, the polling changed, desantis soared ahead and putnam has been playing catch-up since then. the establishment certainly would prefer that putnam wins. they think putnam gives them a better chance in november. gubernatorial race in florida for the democratic party. no numbers coming in from the central time zone in florida.

graham, a name very familiar to florida democrats, the graham name. she came in leading in the polls in the democratic primary. phil levine, former mayor, had been running second. again her congressional district was around tallahassee in that panhandle area. we'll see at 8:00 when the polls close. there are house primaries, congressional primaries we wanted to show you. probably the most interesting. remember this name, alan grayson, former congressman, trying to make a comeback. darren soto, first term congressman, 9th district around the orlando area. grayson, no votes to show you yet. we're keeping an eye on that and also this race here.

i'm seeing the numbers for the first time. this is a test of sort of that left-wing insurgencies, stephanie murphy, being challenged. you see early numbers there coming in. murphy certainly in that early reporting looking pretty good there in the seventh district of florida. we'll have a better sense of florida when the central time zone comes in later on, arizona, senate race out there. we'll get to that and be watching that all night. up next, who is president trump blaming for negative coverage of him? it is google. and found to be unconstitutional, favoring republicans over democrats. what will that mean for november? hint, it means the election may not be settled in november. you're watching "hardball." you're watching "hardball. n. man: tom's my best friend, but ever since he bought a new house... tom: it's a $10 cover? oh, okay. didn't see that on the website. he's been acting more and more like his dad.

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i think google has really

taken advantage of a lot of people. it's a very serious thing and it's a very serious charge. i think what google and others are doing, if you take a look at what's going on in twitter. if you look at what's going on in facebook. they better be careful. you can't do that to people. you can't do it. we have tremendous -- we have literally thousands and thousands of complaints coming in. and you just can't do that. so, i think that google and twitter and facebook, they're really treading on very, very troubled territory. >> welcome back to "hardball." that was president trump continuing his attack on google and other social media companies for what he says is a bias against conservatives. this follows trump's tweets from this morning writing, quote, google search results for trump news shows only the view of fake news media. in other words, they have it rigged. google fighting back with this

statement. our goal is to make sure they receive the most relevant answers in a matter of seconds. search is not used to set a political agenda and we don't bias our results toward any political ideology. mara gaye, nick contessore. nick, not the first time we've asked this seeing one of the tweets from the president but where did this come from, any idea? >> yes. this is a president who doesn't use computers, e-mail. he is not a tech expert. this is a story from conservative media. there has been a grudge match for a while in the media that's been brewing where conservatives believe these platforms are against them, stacking the deck. there's no evidence for it on a systemic basis but they believe it and they're pushing their case. plus we know that the president knows that google is full of people who supported hillary clinton, including eric schmidt and he doesn't like that. he's aware of it and he hates

it. >> so there is an audience he's tapping into here with this? >> yeah, there is. first of all, the president's claims about google itself and how it's search results are, that's bunk. he needs to understand that after he understands trade and other important issues. there is a perception within the conservative community that there's a bias against conservatives within silicon valley. let's take twitter, for example, responding to death threats against liberals and liberal friends of mine, suspending these accounts. when it came to me and other conservatives who were opposed to trump in 2016 getting death threats saying we're going to come and find you, put you in the oven, concentration camp, et cetera, you file the report with twitter and they said there's no violation of terms and service. so sorry. i disagree with dana on several issues, especially on guns but she went out and had somebody tweet at her, i think your kid

should get murder. twitter no, violation of their terms of service. then this my case about dana's ca case, we both went to the press. i wrote an op-ed in the washington post in 2016 saying here are all the things that twitter has done or not done in response to threats and with dana, the daily collar wrote a piece. twitter turned around and said oh, my god, we rereviewed the cases. it's bad pr that motivates them. i would like to invite him to sit down and talk about bridging the gap. there is a gap. can he go a long way and hopefully we can fix this. while they may not have an actual bias, they are certainly feeding the perception they are against us. it's the same with facebook, who met with conservatives in may 2016. they met with jim demint and said we're going to work better but they haven't made us feel equal. >> it's interesting to hear you lay out that case. mara, especially since the 2016

campaign, i've heard each side. folks on the left and folks on the right, looking at social media, facebook, twitter, google, and raising -- i mean certainly right after the 2016 campaign, a lot of folks on the left were saying look at all this potentially russian propaganda that made its way on to facebook. look at these rallies that were organized through facebook. there's been a lot of attention. both sides of the aisle, the idea of what is fair on social media. >> hoang on a second. let's pull back. we have the president of the united states talking about, you know, wanting to intrude on the way google does its searches or people are able to search on google to privilege not -- to privilege information not by its factual substance and not by the kind of -- quality of information you get but actually instead to give a false balance between far right media in this

case and what he would call mainstream media. i just want to be clear. there is no false balance. excuse me. this is an issue of false balance. so as journalists, i'm on the opinion side. but not too long ago i was a news reporter. my job was not to be a st stenographer and say he said this, and she said this. donald trump says this guy is green but this guy says he's blue. sometimes the facts don't necessarily acquit one side in the way they do another. this is a situation where he is upset, the president is upset shall because the facts don't look good for his administration right now. >> we mentioned, too, the other big news here, north carolina, federal court they're ruling for the second time, state's congressional map must be redrawn, saying it unfairly favors republican candidates, jer jer

jerry -- jury-mandering. an election to be held sometime perhaps in january before the new congress is seated. tds expect to be appealed to the u.s. supreme court. they have ten of the 13 congressional seats there. nick, this sets up -- i think there's three or four right now the way it's currently constituted, three or four republican seats that north carolina could come into play this november. we saw this in pennsylvania earlier this year. they blew up the map. the number of targets expanded for democrats, the number of targets they had became riper targets. you saw that as well. there's the potential for north carolina, too, backdrop of democrats needing only 23 nationally. >> late-season bonus for democrats if it actually happens. possible it won't. but if, in fact, they're redrawn and used for the fall campaign, it gives democrats an extra

pickup. we're seeing pushback in north carolina, the site of an extraordinary effort by republicans the last few years to use any possible means they can do legally to encrust their own power in the state. this is the last battleground right here. >> the timing on this, mara, there's the potential here -- we finish up election night and say democrats have gained 20 seats and need 23. by the way, there will be elections in these 13 new north carolina districts six weeks from now and we don't know until christmas. >> it's remarkable. what's remarkable is how this mid term election is playing out locally. i mean, you really see the importance, as well, of judges across the country, of courts across the country. republicans have done a much better job of actually getting their candidates into local office and into the courts. and i think that the democrats are starting to see, you know, how important that is and what that can really do. and if you think back to 2016, donald trump won that election just by the seat of his pants. and you're talking about, you

know, a matter of just 20,000 votes in some states. wisconsin and michigan. and so every single state is going to matter. every vote is going to matter. >> okay. and more so this year, maybe, than in past mid terms if we go past election day. a possibility now all of a sudden. round table staying with us. these three will tell me something i don't know. these three will tell me something i don't know ce." cause let's be honest, nobody likes dealing with insurance, right? which is why esurance hired me, dennis quaid, as their spokesperson because apparently, i'm highly likable. i like dennis quaid. awww. and they want me to let you know that, cue overdramatic music, they're on a mission to make insurance painless. excuse me, you dropped this. they know it's confusing. i literally have no idea what i'm getting, dennis quaid. that's why they're making it simple, man in cafe. and they know it's expensive. yeah. so they're making it affordable. thank you. you're welcome. that's a prop apple. now, you might not believe any of this

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and we are back with the "hardball" roundtable. marla, tell me something i don't know. >> sure. so new york state actually has a big statewide primary coming up on september 13th, which is a thursday, not a tuesday. it's extremely important, not just in new york, but across the country, because the winner of the ag's race may actually end up having to prosecute trump aides, any of them, who are then pardoned by the president. >> and if new york hasn't confused things enough by splitting their primaries, they move one to thursday. couldn't get anymore confusing than that. >> we've been seeing a lot of polls show that millennials are going to be turning out and excited for the midterms and

then people have scoffed at them saying, the young never vote. but now we're actually seeing it happen in action. in pennsylvania, people numbage outnumber people aged 65 and others. two-thirds of people on the voter rolls are millennials. and we're seeing the same surges in arizona, virginia, and other states tlhroughout the nation. >> nick? >> steve, this attack from the president on google is just a skirmish in a broader valley over silicon valley and how to reign it in and impose some rules on it. the industry is actually working with trump to craft some new rules that are pro-industry on privacy, but they're also caused some conservatives to impose some more rules on diversity and platforming. this is really part of a bigger discussion. >> all right. mara gay, evan siegfried, nick confessore, thank you all for joining me. confessore, thank you all for

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and let me finish tonight with presidents and prosecutors. the trump strategy in the face of robert mueller's investigation is plain to see. wage the fight in the court of public opinion, not the court of law. road rage road rage said it himself this week to the "new york times." his jury is, quote, the public. go after the prosecutor, raise doubts about his fairness, his objectivity, suggest you're the victim of a witch hunt. rile up a backlash against the

investigation, itself, so that no matter what robert mueller might ultimately say, enough people will already be primed to dismiss it. that has been the trump strategy. it was also, in many ways, the bill clinton strategy 20 years ago. back when he was being investigated by kenneth starr and back when his goal was to try to keep republicans from impeaching him and kicking him off office. i write all about the clinton impeachment drama in my new book, "the red and the blue," i'm really excited about it, if you can't tell. it's coming out october 2nd and you can preorder it online if you're interested. but clinton back then, he had his staunch defenders and they shredded the independent counsel, ken starr, every chance they got. james carville raged against these thulgs in the so-called independent counsel's office that were put in by a partisan political person. forced by star's investigation to admit his affair with monica lewinsky and to admit that he had lied to the country and possibly committed perjury as well, clinton turned a nationally televised address

into the summer of 1998 into an attack on the starr investigation. it has gone on too long, he said, it has cost too much, it has hurt too many innocent people. clinton's defenders went after ken starr hard. trump's defenders and trump himself are going after robert mueller with abandon. but there is one notable difference between now and then, at least, because back then, in august of 1998 when bill clinton admitted he had lied and the prospects of perjury became real, fox news took a poll and they asked americans, what do you think of the investigation, of the job ken starr is doing as independent counsel? and only 36% said they approved of it. 44% said they disapproved of starr's work, as independent counsel. that was august 1998. now, fast forward 20 years to august 2008, to the president and fox news just took another poll. this time they asked, what do you think of the mueller investigation? and this time, they found broad support, 59% say they approved, 37% say they don't.

the clinton attacks on ken starr resonated, trump's on robert mueller seem to be landing differently. it doesn't mean trump is doomed. we still don't know what, if anything, mueller will end up reporting back, we don't know how the public will process it. but for now, the public at least seems more willing to hear him out than they ever did with ken starr. that is "hardball" for now. thanks for being us. "all in with chris hayes" starts right now ppt. tonight on "all in" -- >> hello, florida. >> -- primary night in america. >> do the people in this room like sheriff joe? >> tonight, why the president is now warning supporters of violence if republicans lose the midterms. and the latest on all the big races in arizona and florida. then, paul manafort's new request as trial number two ramps up. >> that's obviously what the opposition is. plus, a new entry on the list of trump scandals republicans refused to