now, i could tell you the 5th and final episode of this docu-series this airs tonight on the paramount network. we wanted to get that in because we think it's important. that does it for us. i'll see back here at 6:00 p.m. eastern. hardball with chris mathews starts now. >> the case against trump. let's play hardball: good evening, i'm chris mathews in washington. donald trump now faces someone his own size. bob woodward who's taken down one president now confronts this one with the truth, a weapon that he, donald trump, cannot even grasp. his new book out tomorrow assaults the man in the white house with a trio of lethal blows. that he cannot be trust today speak truthfully under pressure, he is detached from reality, and finally his top people see their

role as protecting the country and the world from his clutch iz. grappling with the explosive revelations from woodward's book, president trump has now taken on a siege mentality. he's battling the image of himself that he's not just incompetent, but dangerous. on the today show just this morning woodward said that after covering nine administrations, he's never reported on a president so detached from reality, so detached, in fact, that woodward said the president has to be told that it's his job to avoid world war 3. >> were you shocked by what you uncovered in this book? >> well, i've never seen an instance when the president is so detached from the reality of what's going on. in one nsc meeting, a year after trump was in office, the secretary of defense has to tell him -- because the president is complaining about all this money we're spending on u.s. forces

abroad. james mattis says to him, we're doing this to prevent world war iii. here's the problem. this has not been treated seriously enough. and the things, some of the things trump did and does jeopardize the real national security. >> according to bob woodward, not only has the president put national security in jeopardy, he's fundamentally unable to tell the truth. as the book asserts, trump's former lawyer john dowd ultimately concluded the president can never testify before robert mueller because, in dowd's view, he's a liar. and here's woodward. >> what dowd concludes in the end is that president trump can't testify because he can't tell the truth. >> so that's what he mean by clearly disabled? >> yes. >> it's an inability to tell the truth in dowd's view?

>> and he actually has a practice session with the president on january 27th of this year in the white house, and the president goes ballistic. he is not under control. and dowd says, you know, you can't do this. you are not a good witness. and his conclusion, dowd's conclusion in the end is that the president is an f-ing liar. >> well, now, a did you day before the publication of the book comes out tomorrow, president trump is trying to discredit woodward. quote, the woodward book is a joke. this is the president speaking. just another assault against me and a barrage of assaults using now disproven unnamed and anonymous sources, many have already come forward to say the quotes by them, like the book, are fiction. demes can't stand losing. i'll write the real book. on another tweet the president wrote, the woodward book is a scam. i don't talk the way i am quoted. if i did, i would not have been

elected president. these quotes were made up. he also defended his competence saying, the white house is a smooth running machine. however, jonathan swan of axios details the jaw-dropping list of problems now confronting this white house. reporting that trump's fine tuned machine is creaking under this stress. quote, the president now knows that some of his previously trusted white house aides play starring roles in woodward's narrative. trump is privately furious at gary cohn and rob porter and sources with direct thinking, it's possible he attacks porter and kohn this week. joining me is annie lynn ski, chief correspondent for the boston globe. jonathan swan himself, axios reporter, and an author and political reporter. let me start with jonathan. do you expect trump in his usual fashion to strike out against the sources in this book including porter, and attack him personally? >> it's very possible.

this week -- so, trump hasn't read the book. the white house got a pdf version of the book last tuesday night. and aides have been reading through the book and feeding to trump what they're reading. and one of the things that really struck them was that gary cohn and rob porter play starring roles in the book. the book opens with gary cohn taking a piece of paper of the korean trade deal off trump's desk so trump can't sign the termination. rob porter is seemingly on almost every page. so, the white house is furious at them and trump is furious at them privately. >> he'll go after rob porter personally? >> he talked about it privately. >> do you expect him to do it publicly? >> i wouldn't rule it out. >> i want to go to annie. what's the mood in the white house? here's a president accused of not just being competent, but dangerous to the republic. this is new. >> it is new.

the mood of frantic passing around of this pdf, this book, it's gotten to the point where you even have sources sending it around -- you know, i've gotten a copy from white house sources saying, oh, my gosh, have you looked at this portion, have you looked at this portion? and i think this is one of the sort of most e-mailed pieces of information in the white house now. >> they're all doing -- they're all doing the search of their name and compiling it. >> what's rattling around here? that's strange. anyway, let me get back to ron reagan on this thing. ron, i've never seen a presidency challenged and told the people around him are protecting the country from him, that he is not able to tell the truth. he doesn't know reality enough to do it under oath. this is bizarre stuff and it's all in the book. >> yes. and one of the stunning things about this is that, of course, this is backed up by the op-ed piece that was written. and also by everybody like the wonderful reporters like jonathan and all who for the

last, what is it, 20 months now, have been hearing from people in the white house just this sort of thing. from the moment donald trump entered the oval office, this nation was in crisis. we went into crisis. the take away from all of this is not who wrote the op-ed or, you know, this thing or that thing about woodward's book. it's that this president is unfit for office and this presents us with a national crisis on our hands. bob woodward is correct. we're not taking this seriously enough. this could not be more serious. >> i think the most striking thing in the book, of course, is the president's inability to understand our role in the world, as every third or fourth grader came to understand it when i was growing up, we had to protect the world from another world war. the way to do that was with good alliance, good intelligence and common sense. here's what press secretary sarah sanders said when asked if the president can go toe to toe with bob woodward over the issue of credibility.

>> does the president think he could win a credibility battle with bob woodward? how could he win that credibility battle? >> once again, i would [ audience reacts ] er take the on record account from people who are here who have been working in this building who have interacted with the president day in and day out like general mattis, like general kelly, like myself. not disgruntled former employees who refuse to put them names on things when they come out to attack the president. >> however, woodward has stood by his reporting despite the recent statements from the white house officials who have disputed accounts from his book. here he is. >> these people -- these are political statements to protect their jobs, totally understandable. but this is as carefully done as you can do an excavation of the reality of what goes on. look, my job here is not to psychoanalyze. it's to describe what happened

on specific dates and specific moments. and the people that are -- look, look, the people who are willing to talk are people of conscience, people of courage, people who said look, the world needs to know this. if you don't think it's risky for somebody to answer the questions and rm give the real details, it is -- and they're willing to take that risk because, as gary cohn said, got to protect the country. >> ron, i wonder about this president's grasp of reality to this point. does he know that the public will trust bob woodward a lot more than they'll trust snim woodward has a good track record. he brought down nixon on truth. he had no other weapon to bring nixon down with. it was by truth. all he had was truth. and this guy says i can

outmaneuver this guy on truth telling. it's not his weapon of choice. trump isn't reliable at truth. he's good at b.s., salesmanship, but truth is bob woodward's game. >> bob woodward has a long record of meticulous reporting. none of us sitting here having this conversation, nobody in washington is going to take donald trump's word over bob woodward's. but donald trump is not necessarily playing to that crowd and his base will assume that bob woodward is just part of the deep state and the elitist -- >> really? >> yes, to trump's base, absolutely, yes. everybody else will believe woodward. >> ryan, i've known bob woodward 40 years. i don't even know what party he's in. never heard a liberal sentiment once come out of his mouth, annie. >> he comes across as a sober mind the counter point to trump. the recording that was released to the washington post of donald trump talking to bob woodward

was such a sober minded individual talking to him very calmly, which is -- to your point, the exact opposite of trump's demeanor, which is to kind of go nuts on someone. >> you have bob woodward, amoroso's book and this article running in "the new york times" a couple days ago. the president is consumed by who wrote that op-ed, describing a resistance inside the executive branch. a new quinnipiac poll is out. they asked reuters whether the allegations in the op-ed in "the new york times" that trump advisors worked behind him back to stop him from making bad decisions, here are the numbers. mr. president, bad news for you. 55% say they believe the allegations are true, while only 28% say they believe the allegations are false. jonathan 28 is even lower than our lowest estimate of the trump crowd. >> that's worse than the approval rating. >> he doesn't have too many

people backing him on the issue of truth. that specific question, it is an objective fact. we hear it every day from people in the administration at a pretty senior level that they are trying to in different ways protect the country from this president. it is not a uniform view. it's not something everyone shares around the white house. but certainly there are and have been people who believe it is their role to protect america -- >> first to you, then john. people say they're loyalist. s. they must have brains. they must know he isn't good at the truth. they must know the global mission during the nuclear age. third, they must know their job is to protect us from him. i can see them being towedies. inside don't they recognize the problem here?

>> certainly there is push back in the inner circle. there are -- >> publicly. >> and privately. i think many of them -- >> privately they say the guy is really a truth teller? >> no, they will privately present their views. they're not sycophants to his phase in all cases. the key is people are not pushing back on the central themes of "the new york times" op-ed or the woodward book, even pieces of omarosa's book. this is why people in the country believe -- that's important. in other words, the bones of this article they except, the bone structure. who did it, who are the leakers. >> that's what people always do in politics, it's called flackery. the article is inaccurate. meaning it missed a little thing here. coffer the conversations ha-- t have been can you believe this?

not some big thematic conversation. >> ron, where is this going? this week looks like it might be a blowout. i do think he's going to attack everybody in the book who he thinks is a source. i think he's still in this captain kweeg, search for who got the frozen strawberries. he's still doing that. where does this take us? >> it was during world war ii, i can't remember who said after d-day that it's not the beginning of the end, but it is the end of the beginning. >> church hill. >> churchill said it. i've got that feeling now, this isn't the final push here, but the beginning has ended with the woodward book, the op-ed and everything else. nobody now in their right mind thinks that we've got a competent president or a president that can remain in office for any real length of time without doing serious damage. and the question we all have to ask ourselves now is what are we going to do about it. and the person that wrote that op-ed, and i assume that there are others in the administration

highly placed, i think it's time for them to step up and publicly identify themselves and if they have these concerns, which they obviously do -- they were thinking of invoking the 25th amendment -- well, say so. come and testify before congress and explain yourselves. this is too serious to be hiding behind an anonymous. >> yeah, kennedy didn't write profiles in courage about people that stayed anonymous. thank you so much, annie lynn ski, john. ron, it's great to have you on. ron reagan. coming up, republicans contend with the unthinkable. ted cruz, ted cruz, you know that joe mccarthy look alike, could actually lose in texas this november. as one of the trump's own aides put it, he's not likeable. plus the pence defense. vice-president mike pence pushed back against the trump presidency in bob woodard's new book. he said he'd take a lie detector test to prove he wasn't the unnamed official who pend the op-ed. isn't that a little desperate to say i'll take a lie detector test so you'll take my word for

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welcome back to hardball. with just 57 days till november's midterm election tz we're focusing on the hardball ten. those are the ten key senate races that will determine the balance of power in the senate. democrats are trying to flip four of those seats currently held by republicans. among the four, the toughest reach we all agree is texas. democratic congressman beto o'rourke who stirred up democrats with his inspiring speeches so far, large social media following and impressive fund-raising is looking to defeat incumbent senator, there he is, ted cruz. and it's that surprisingly close battle that seems to have republicans worried right now. "the new york times" reports that president trump's omb director mick mulvaney told party donors, there is a chance we will lose the race for senate in florida and lose a race in texas for senate. okay? how likeable is a candidate?

that still counts. that's mick mulvaney, the omb director talking to party people. politico reports that a collective conservative groups are launching a rescue effort right now for senator cruz. report notes the other republican senator from texas john cornyn said he had a simple directive to gop contributors. quote, we're not bluffing, this is real. it's a serious threat. i'm joined now by rick tyler, republican strategist and former spokesman for ted cruz's presidential campaign and victory dee francesco, professor at the l.b.j. public affairs at the university of texas in austin. thank you all. let me go to rick about this thing. ted cruz was never likeable. that was never his selling point. he was an intellectual, proud of it, a hard conservative. how close is this going to get because of his lack of likability? according to mick mulvaney. >> he wasn't liked in washington. he's getting the benefit of that. you have mitch mcconnell and cornyn who people see as part of the establishment.

ted cruz ran in the tea party against the establishment. they are saying nice things about him. that's not good. >> it hurts him at home? >> i think so. i think ted is likeable enough in texas, but remember, he said some pretty dramatic things about president trump and texas is still a trump state. he won by nine points. but texas demographics are changing. it remains to be seen the big unknown who is going to show up in november. is his race emblematic of what's going on across the country? if it is republican are in real trouble. or is it beto o'rourke ran a good campaign? >> it's so ironic you have one guy named raphael whose name is ted, the other guy's name is robert and he called himself beto since he was a kid. one going to a spanish name, one going away from a spanish name. it's not an open and shut case who the spanish and latino votes are going to go to.

how are they going to share that part of the electorate? >> what we see is beto not assuming latino democrats are going to turnout and vote for him. so, in the primary, he won the latino vote by the skin of his teague, by 51%. so i think this is a blessing in disguise for beto o'rourke because he has been spending the last couple of weeks in the valley. he is not letting any latino vote go untouched. i think this is very good. he's not getting the latino voter making inroads just because he's a democrat or just because he goes by beto, but because he is doing the work. and on top of that, chris, he is so likeable. he's charismatic. i would say he is the male ann richards. don't compare him -- >> richards lost. she lost. richards lost. she lost. ann richard lost to w. >> before she lost to w., she was our governor and she had that texas bravado that was what got her into office in the first

place. >> do you think the that beto -- i can't pronounce the spanish way, but beto, do you think the fact he's a 23509 taller th -- foot taller that ted cruz is going to help him? he's one of the tallest guys na ran for the senate. >> he probably would. there is a height advantage if you look at the data on that. but i would say in addition to the height, it's the bigness of his personality. ted cruz is more of an intellectual. he's likeable enough as rick tyler said, but beto has the height, the boyish good looks and you add on top of that, that pounding charisma. he's got a winning combination. >> politico reports texas govern dan patrick showed up in washington july 125th 25th with urgent plea to send donald trump down there. donald trump tweeted i will be doing a major rally for senator ted cruz in october. i'm picking the biggest stadium

we can find. isn't that going to be a love match between the two of them? he accused cruz's father of helping to kid kennedy. are you kidding me? >> that's true. don't say that. >> people are going to believe that. >> i'm kidding. >> he wasn't. >> look, the thing -- ted cruz has a lot more to worry about. it's not just an hispanic vote. what's interesting about the hispanic vote in texas is one in three hispanics in texas are actually too young to vote. the future is hispanic in texas and if the republican party is losing hispanics the way donald trump is driving them away, that's the future -- >> w. used to get a good latino vote. >> he did because he understood the latino demographics, it's a growing community. same with african americans in texas. one in four is too young to vote. our party has to appeal to latinos and asians or we'll be a minority party forever. >> everybody knows midterms are a challenge for turnout.

the question i put to you is how does beto get the hispanic vote? the last presidential election it was 24%, a quarter of the vote in texas. that's a powerful block of votes. but it has to be a larger percentage of a block of votes for beto to win. your thoughts? >> i think it's a combination of turning out the hispanic votes. they're the left likely to turnout and young people are the least likely to vote. that's a double whammy. and that's why we see beto making so much use of social media and retail politics. i think the other part of this is persuading independents, chamber of commerce republicans to just not cast a vote for ted cruz. maybe not vote for beto, but just don't pull the lever for ted cruz. you can vote for any other republican you want. just don't vote for him. >> i think i know where you stand. thank you, victoria dee francesco how to pronounce the

democratic name. up next, vice-president pence playing defense sunday, that's yesterday, professing his unwavering loyalty. it's a religious loyalty to president trump in the wake of the blistering quiet resistance op-ed, the naughty article in "the new york times" he didn't like. this is hardball. e. it's time to get out of line with upmc. at upmc, living-donor transplants put you first. so you don't die waiting. upmc does more living-donor liver transplants than any other center in the nation. find out more and get out of line today. at first slice pizza lovers everywhere meet o, that's good! frozen pizza one third of our classic crust is made with cauliflower but that's not stopping anyone

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vice-president mike pence is again playing the role of president trump's chief defender and translator even, trying to make sense of what often seems nonsensical. >> the president is saying, play politics. protect members of congress even if they have committed acts of corruption before the election. >> i don't think that's what the president was saying at all, chris. i think the president was referring to the long-standing tradition in the justice department to avoid unnecessarily impacting election outcomes. i think president donald trump is the most accomplished president of my lifetime, and i think already one of the most successful presidents in american history. >> well, yesterday amid the fallout from the unnamed opinion piece in "the new york times," vice-president pence pledged fidelity to the president and vowed to prove he's not the author of that article. let's take a listen to that. do you think you know who anonymous is?

>> i don't. i don't know. but i do know they should resign and leave this administration. >> should all top officials take a lie detector test and would you agree to take one? >> i would agree to take one in a heartbeat and would submit to any review the administration wanted to do. >> well, back in may columnist george f. will wrote, the oleaginous mike pence -- thank you for the help -- could become america's most repulse i haive figure. he's the lick spittle. i can't outdo you, george. thank you. when i watch this guy he is very much in the model robert caro placed -- his only way to the presidency is through the vice-presidency. and he'll do whatever it takes. >> linden johnson did not

realize the kennedy people were going to treat him so badly. mr. trump got his man and his man knew what he was signing up for. in the history of great loves, romeo and juliette, abilard and eloise, pence and trump, the difference is it's not reciprocated because there is no love coming back toward mr. pence, mr. trump is monogamous, he only loves himself. >> how in any transition plan, he's sitting there like the da vinci code in a pious way, looking 45 degrees at trump's neck, is that supposed to impress -- not in that picture. is that supposed to impress the trump-ite? >> it's like eating corn on the cob. it's hard to do it with dignity. al gore did, cheney, they had good relationships with their

president. you don't have that kind of relationship with this president. >> someone said he had the soul of a vice-president. >> who said that? >> someone talking about walter mondale. the vice-president has frequently played the role of the president's biggest cheerleader. don't you think? let's watch. >> thanks to the leadership of president donald trump. welcome to the beginning of the end of obamacare. thank you for your boundless faith in the american people. president trump has been making history since the first day of this administration. >> i know i speak on behalf of the entire cabinet and of millions of americans when i say congratulations and thank you. you have restored american credibility on the world stage. you signed more bills, rolling back more red tape than any president in american history. you spurred an optimism. i'm deeply humbled to be here.

>> it is the greatest privilege of my life to serve as vice-president to president trump. he's a man of his word. he's a man of action. >> i think of the culture of these two gentlemen. one is totally sick lar in his life, his life-style is not pious and religious in any form. one seems very pious, very evangelical, moral by his terms. wloo do they have in common these two guys? >> nothing. nothing whatever. if you believe as mr. pence might and some people say he does believe, that, a, he's in constant communication with god ask that god wants him to be president, therefore anything mr. pence does it advances his presidential prospect pleases god. if you have that line of reasoning, then you could see why nothing he does is really degrading, it's god's will. >> well, his career has been lick etty split. he went from u.s. congress, it's

almost nixonian in his speed. >> he might have known getting on the ticket with mr. trump was a way to get in the race in 2016. he might have lost. >> what do you think the preside vice-president is going to do, stick around for as many terms as he can get? >> of course. >> there we are. george f. will thank you for the abyss maloutlook on the future of mike pence. up next, omarosa has released two more secret recordings from inside her time at trump's white house. ahead we're going to find out what made trump say this about the mueller investigation. >> the whole russia thing i think seems to have turned around. what do you think, sarah? >> absolutely. >> you're watching "hardball."

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i don't have any desire to beat the president up, but it's pretty clear that this white house is a reality show, soap opera presidency. i mean, the drama is -- the drama of omarosa and the drama of cohen and the drama of manafort and the drama of woodward quotes, the drama of the op ed's, what you want is the president to not worry about the short term of staffing, but the vision for america. help us deliberate where we want to go and build a tame of greet cause low ego people around you. that was a switch web. the president tweeted this morning the white house is a smooth-running machine. let's bring in tonight's hardball round table to round out that one. phil rucker, white house bureau

chief for the washington post. vivian is a white house reporter for the "wall street journal." eugene is columnist with the washington post. i want to go to phil with the smooth running machine. as you operate how smooth is it running? >> not very smoothly, chris. that is according to any reporters covering it. just look at the president's twitter feed and the statements coming out of the white house publicly. it doesn't look very smooth. it's less smooth internally. >> why does he say stuff like that when it's so obviously not true? he's running around like captain queen trying to figure out who did what to him, wrote wrote the article, it's manic. it's not smooth running obviously. >> the president is trying to deflect, the white house is trying to deflect. we saw it last week when the op-ed came out in "the new york times". the president was in the east room reading economic statistics trying to show everything was on track and his presidency was ultimately bringing results to the american people.

behind closed doors it's one scandal after the next. it's overwhelming to a lot of them where every day it's something new. last week the woodward book, after the op-ed, it was one thing after another. jean, the quick pea acpoll, they're coming back with a strong majority of the people believe the staff is protecting us from trump. >> well, you know, i believe it, too actually. and it's not really a surprise. the president, in terms of his credibility, with most americans, most americans know he says stuff that isn't true all the time. it just simply isn't true and you can look it up. you can check. you can google it. it is an just not true. so, i don't know the wisdom of getting into the sort of credit battle especially with. >> meanwhile, omarosa manigault newman released two more tapes

today from the white house communications meeting in 2017. one of the tapes here exclusively at nbc, trump switches from economy to military action in niger over in africa >> on niger, so what happens is we're decimated -- you know, it's a rough business. they're rough, too, they want to kill us. we've let the military do what they have to do. and whether you call it rules of engagement or anyway you want to say it, we let them do what they want to do. in the middle east there's very few left. we really -- we've done a very good job. we've done more in seven months, seven months we've started. we've done more in seven months than they've done in eight years, okay. >> on a separate tape from that meeting, same meeting, however, president trump's obsession with hillary clinton was on full display. let's list tone that part about hillary.

>> i think hillary is getting killed now with russia. the real russia story is hillary and collusion. somebody told me, a million dollars -- >> yeah, someone just said she's far for the country then -- >> you see, nobody knows who spent t. >> woody allen once said, what did reality ever do for me? what world is he in here? >> but it's interesting. one thing consistent about donald trump is he believes he can create his own weather. he can create his own reality. and he's had some success doing it, right? i mean, he says the stuff over and over and over again. it's like he's trying out his lines -- right, on the inside. his sort of focus grouping what he's going to sell to the base

and and he repeats it, and he repeats it, 28, 30, 35% believe him. >> it's like pop eye. over and over again that character, waw-waw-waw-waw. >> i remember reporting last year another meet building immigration where the president was obsessively trying to interrogate his staff over why we were allowing immigrants come in from afghanistan and from haiti and other countries where they were just standard admit es in the country. it wasn't anything illegal. but the president was so angry at his staff because he felt this was going to make him look bad to his base. this was something he pressed hard against. the president, obviously when he believes something, he pushes it. >> former president barack obama is back on the campaign trail. he's taking swipes at president trump, of course. here's what he said about the economy on friday.

>> when you hear how great the economy is doing right now, let's just remember when this recovery started. [ cheers and applause ] i'm glad it's continued, but when you hear about this economic miracle that's been going on, when the job numbers come out, monthly job numbers, suddenly republicans are saying it's a miracle. i have to kind of remind them, actually those job numbers are the same as 2015. >> here's how president trump responded to that. >> if the democrats got in with their agenda in november of almost two years ago, instead of having 4.2 up, i believe honestly, you'd have 4.2 down. you'd be negative, you'd be in

negative numbers. >> what make of that, phil rucker? >> as james said, he creates his own weather. he creates his own economic analysis. the economy was recovering under president obama. >> why was there no cheering from the democrats? is that just a democrat problem, they don't like to cheer about the economy? trump knows how to cheer. >> he does know how to cheer. it's a strong economy, too. the problem with trump is he's making these arguments the last couple days, he's not precise in the facts, and the numbers and data. today his economic advisor had to correct him at the white house press briefing. >> this bragging, i'll telling you, it's american to brag and he knows how to do it. the democrats -- i've had this problem with our democratic party so long. al gore made a mistake. he didn't bring.

there are some people that aren't making it. if they brag about how the economy is doing, there are republicans who don't have that problem. >> if you want to take into account people who are still struggling, people who have been left out of the economic expansion, you're more reserved in the praise of the aeon ms., they had no significance, and they'll put it out there. >> it's all truth. >> the context is, though, the recovery clearly started under obama. most of the recovery was under obama. trump's stimulus did boost it. it actually had an effect, and whatever the truth is, the incumbent president is geneva convention -- going to get the blame for the economy. >> how come they walk away from that? he has a great personality. yeah, but look what he gave us

in terms of an economy. >> honestly, chris, to phil and eugene's point, he's going to boast his successes. it's up to voters to take these facts and determine for themselves what is real, the fact versus the fiction. unfortunately the economy is doing well right now, president trump is not solely responsible for that increase. in is something he keep saying, can't we agree to get along on this? >> democrats don't know how to brag. george mcgovern was a war hero you never knew about it, the i'm not knocking that. george was flying those plains over europe and he never mentioned it in the whole campaign. next up these three will tell me something i don't know. you're watching "hardball." 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. shouldn't drive us apart. but when you experience sudden, frequent, uncontrollable episodes of laughing or crying that are exaggerated or simply don't match how you feel, it can often lead to feeling misunderstood. this is called pseudobulbar affect, or pba. a condition that can occur from brain injury or certain neurologic conditions like stroke or dementia. nuedexta can make a difference by significantly reducing pseudobulbar affect episodes. tell you doctor about medicines you take. some can't be taken with nuedexta. nuedexta is not for people with certain heart conditions. serious side effects may occur. don't take with maois or if you are allergic to dextromethorphan or quinidine. tell your doctor if you have bleeding or bruising.

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>> so, bob woodward's book has raised a lot of questions about the president's fitness for office and this week will be a big test of competency. can he manage the crisis, and that will be the hurricane, hurricane florence headed straight toward the carolinas. a lot of pressure on the president to do better, manage it better than he did in hurricane maria in puerto rico. >> you had a great segment about the senate race earlier. i'm going to be talking about the house. 66 gop held seats are on the cusp of a republican or democratic win or a toss-up according to the cook political report. my colleague rita epstein has a great story in the "wall street journal" today. nine of pennsylvania's 18 house sheets could change this year. >> so based on your numbers you have to do is felipe coin races. >> yeah. and then what? gene. >> cory book era corresponding to the guardian has four staffers out in iowa helping local candidates.

why iowa? gee, chris -- do you have any idea iowa, why he would be speaking did he grak party kwa what? >> i think cory is really running. thank you, phil rucker, eugene robinson. let me finish with trump watch. you're watching "hardball." this is an insurance commercial. but let's be honest, nobody likes dealing with insurance. which is why esurance hired me, dennis quaid, as their spokesperson because apparently, i'm highly likable. see, they know it's confusing.

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trump watch, monday, september 10, 2018. bob woodward who made his bones bringing down one president has now brought damning evidence against another. his book makes three hard cases against donald trump. first he cannot handle the truth. he cannot speak factually and when forced to describe his own actions, his lawyer realized he lies. second, trump lacks a basic understanding of the real world. he doesn't recognize the roll this country has played in the luke ear age, to prevent another world war. all the alliance and intelligence gathering is to do just that. third, people around the president protect the country

from him. his detachment from reality. bob woodward's book is going to be the best seller for many weeks. the news is it gives the country maybe enough information to save us from the worst. and that's "hardball" for now. thanks for being with us. all-in with chris hayes starts right now. >> tonight on "all in" live from michigan. >> i love mitchigan. >> one of the three states that put trump over the top prepares itself for november 6 as a white house under siege bats lz the woodward book. >> some of the things trump did and does jeopardize the real national security the insider top ed. >> should all officials take a lie detector test and would you take one there? >> i would take it in a heartbeat. >> not to mention the owe boom a campaign. >> this is not normal. >> when all in america, 57 days