that does it for us. we'll be back at 6:00 p.m. tomorrow. first on "hardball" chris matthews has an interview with carmen cruz. that's up next. the circle tightens. let's play "hardball." good evening, i'm chris matthews up in new york, and tonight donald trump finds himself surrounded in a tightening circle. the number of those he can trust, according to a member of his own family, is drastically shrinking. angry and isolated the president is fixated on those around him who might have let the truth slip out about his presidency's incapacity. donald trump jr. told nbc news

that his circle of trust is shrinking. >> i think there are people in there that he can trust, it's a much smaller group than i would like it to be. >> who do you trust? >> i'll keep that to myself. >> and they're not family? >> well, obviously. i'm talking outside of family. i think that one goes without saying. >> today as bob woodward's book goes on sale across the country, it's becoming more difficult for the president to escape the emerging image that he's an incompetent chief executive who poses a danger to national security. those revelations along with that anonymously published op ed by a senior official have already fielded a feeling of suspiciousness. quote, donald trump continues to insist privately that he wants leakers punished. a source familiar with the president's thinking says when it comes to the anonymous op ed trump has continued to focus on identifying and firing the author even as some advisors have urged him to let the matter go. meanwhile, with the publication of his book, america's most

trusted reporter, bob woodward, is warning the american people that they can no longer be dismissive of the president's behavior. as he told npr, i am convinced that people need to wake up and not kind of pretend this is just politics or this is partisan. similarly, woodward said in a "new york times" podcast that his reporting backs up the notion that this administration is teetering on the brink of collapse. >> you basically say that the administration is teetering on a catastrophe or a collapse. >> well, i provide the evidence of it, and it's just supported by fact, i believe. it's not a partisan position. this isn't about democrats or republicans or left, right, it's about the stability of the country and it's not something you can read and feel comforted by. >> i'm joined by jonathan la mere, white house reporter for the associated press.

elise jordan is with times magazine and msnbc as well and progressive programming for sirius fm. thank you. i want to start with your reporting, jonathan. who does he still trust beside blood relatives, the people he'll pardon eventually? >> sure. it's a very shrinking circle as john jr. said. this is a president who all along has been somewhat suspicious of the career state. career bureaucrats who have never supported him and have tried to undermine him. in recent months and particularly in the last couple of weeks in light of the op ed and the woodward book, he is looking at people around him. some of his advisors in the west wing. he gave an interview to a tv station out in montana in which he candidly said he sometimes goes in the meetings and looks around the room too look and see who's there before he starts talking. it's a sense of paranoia -- >> is it paranoia or reasonable

suspicion? after 9/11 a lot of people got on the planes and looked around because they didn't want any hijackers on the plane or anybody that might be one. is the president, you think covering him as you do, is he right to suspect the people around him are ratting him out and saying behind camera with nobody watching, this guy's not competent to run the country? i'd worry about those people because they're probably telling the truth as they see it. >> sure. i think it's a little bit of both. i think there is a degree of paranoia. of course, this is an administration beset by leaks, more than most of his predecessors. we know he is obsessed in finding them. over the last couple of days he's remained really fixated on this. he wants to figure out who the op ed auth thoor is. he wants that person fired. he's suggested going to the department of justice to sort of activate the mechanics of the federal government to try to figure this out. people around him are trying to talk him off that suggesting that, look, there's no crime committed here. certainly this is a personnel issue. you're right to want this person

fired, but there's no suggestion that state secret or classified information was disclosed. >> who does he trust besides blood relatives. does he trust kellyanne? >> i think it varies by the day. i think largely those people, yes, he still does but every day, there are only people in the building or in his orbit who have his full 100% trust are his relatives, are his family and people around him are trying to get him off this, to focus on something else, focus on the mid term, focus on the economy and now focus on the storm. >> elise, how do you run a country when you don't trust anybody to do what you're telling them to do and they're going around your back? >> and the only people you trust are your family members who are incompetent. >> he's running it like a royal family. he only trusts blood relatives and they're the ones he'll end up on his way out the door pardononing. >> look at already the trouble his blood relatives have gotten him into. the worst mistake of the campaign arguably was don jr.

meeting with a kremlin lawyer and then you look at the decision to make mike flynn to make him national security advisor was pushed by jared kushner and ivanka trump and then jared kushner pushed donald trump to fire jim comey and said it would be politically palletable to democrats. these are the most destructive political decisions and they were pushed by the family. >> okay, zerlena. he only trusts people he shouldn't trust. he puts jared as his vice roy for the middle east. what is his knowledge? >> nothing. >> he puts his daughter, everybody who people sort of like, in charge of the sun. it's insane. she's going to protect us in the beginning against climate change, against global warming. these are insane decisions. >> essentially what it demonstrates is that he doesn't really care about the underlying policy. he doesn't know anything about the policy and he doesn't care about the outcomes and how that impacts people because if you put ivanka trump in charge of

climate change, you're basically saying i don't take climate change seriously. he's setting it up. those are the folks he's going to pardon. the reason why the circle of people he's going to trust is so small is because the loyalty goes in one direction. you aren't going to have a lot of friends -- >> two former trump officials who figure prominently in woodward's book spoke out today trying to protect their connection with him. in his statement former staff secretary rob porter said i am struck by the selective and often misleading portrait it paints of the president and his administration. he continues, the suggestion that materials were stolen from the president's desk to prevent his signature miss understands how the white house document review process works. well, that was wormy. former economic advisor gary cohn says this does not accurately portray my experience at the white house but he declined to cite any specific

inaccuracies. axios said the president was privately furious about both officials, however, here's what he had to say when asked about them today. >> rob per thor and gary cohn today -- >> well, you shouldn't be talking about that right now because it doesn't matter, but i really appreciate their statement. their statement was excellent and they both said i'm beautiful which shows the book was a piece of fiction, thank you very much. >> i want to talk about the more interesting -- there's a whole thing. i think the story here is not betrayal, john, i think the story is revelation. and months from now we'll be talking about not who fights with who, who's denying the wording although nobody ever challenge the structure of the truth that bob woodward presents. it's always it's not quite the way i saw it. they never challenge the events described, the incidents and what happened at those meetings. isn't that interesting? >> yes. >> they never challenge the reality of what bob's bringing forward. is this an administration

teetering on collapse? because that's bob woodward's assessment. >> to answer your two questions, first. i was in the oval office for the exchange coming at the end of the hurricane briefing. it is striking the president, you know, was able to give some degree of support to what porter and cohn said although as you note, they didn't actually deny any specific examples. it was broad statements without any suggestion of no, x, y, or z didn't happen. it comes on the heels of statements from kelly, mattis, even the vice president saying they weren't the author of the op ed but of course deep throat didn't admit that it was him for a long time either. we need to take this with a little bit of a grain of salt. teetering on the edge perhaps a bit strong but this is a white house under siege. this is a white house staring at the mid term elections 60 days away. they know privately, the president won't admit it publicly, they know how bad the polling looks. they know if the democrats get the house perhaps it's impeachment, perhaps not. what is going to happen is a never ending parade of

investigations on capitol hill where anyone who even said the name donald j. trump who worked in this white house is going to be hauled up there, sworn in, asked questions not just about russia but about corruption, amalments, stuff like that. this is a white house that will be bogged down in investigation after investigation and that will define the next two years of his concern. yes, there's real concern in their building. >> elise, that's not paranoia, that's a fact. when richard faced re-election in 1972, he said in the middle of the night, we have lost the power of subpoena again. he understood that he was going to be investigated, investigated, investigated and he was probably going down. and so maybe he didn't know the whole truth but he knew the horror of it. john just pointed out, if the democrats -- you know, if the senate and the house both go democrat and they both have the power of the senate, they'll be competing with each other to get the guy. >> it's all in plain sight. we already know. we see what's happening with the trump hotel and with various

foreign governments entertaining there. we see what's happening with donald trump weighing in on -- >> you think the emoluments clause will be brought up? >> of course. the renovation of the fbi bill. it's absolutely ridiculous and completely unacceptable. it should be bipartisan that we stamp out this corruption. >> so don't you understand the division of labor, selena. let's get it straight. jared's in charge of the middle east. >> right. >> let's see, ivanka's in charge of the sun, of climate change. >> right. >> donald jr. and the other guy are in charge of the hotel down the street. >> right. >> where the till is. >> and donald trump jr. is going to get all of the republicans elected because he's the new campaign trail superstar, but i think like to elise's point, the investigations are in plain sight but there's one that we have the day, we talked about it for 24 hours, then we forgot. the president's personal attorney went into a courtroom and said, i committed a federal crime, two of them, at the

direction of the president in order to impact an election. i would argue, that should be investigated by our congress. it's already being investigated obviously in terms of the mueller probe and the southern district but, again, it's something that congress might want to look into. >> january 3rd. despite the president's dubious attacks on bob woodward's credibility this week, woodward is standing by his reporting of course warning the president that he can't hide from the truth. >> how do you feel when the president says, you're lying? >> i'm not and i'm willing to put myself out here. i've done the work. this is the best reporting you can do or that i can do, and for him to gets up and -- you know, look, he has his first amendment rights. he can say anything, but the great editor at the washington post, ben bradlee during

watergate, used to always say when there was a contest back and forth, he said, the truth emerges, and the truth will emerge on this, too. >> john la mere, last question to you. i sense you agree? >> yes. i mean, first of all, we know this is a president with a shaky relationship with the truth, but this is -- there is a sense here that very few -- the president himself of course is going to go on the attack on the woodward book privately. the aids say that the themes in that book, which are the same themes in the op ed which to a lesser degree are the same themes in the om moarosa book. it's the president versus the presidency. as much as trump can be on one track and ask for certain things, those around him try to slow that down. they try to distract him. they try to move onto the next thing. frankly, the investigation into the leaks may be the newest example of that where he is

calling for this full-court press, calling for either the department of justice to be involved and those around him are trying to steer him away from that. >> well, you know, at the risk of blasphemy, all these authors do have sort of a rhyming aspect to them like the synoptic gospels of matthew, mark and luke. they do tell the same story. it's ironic that omarosa from her different background, from bob woodward, from michael wolf and from this person we don't know inside the administration, they all sing the same song. and if i were the president, i'd worry about the one that's out of tune. thank you, jonathan la mere, elise and zolina. former secretary of state john kerry is going to join us about the dangers of a president described as detached from reality. as hurricane florence heads towards the coast and president trump says it was an incredible unsung success. a storm that led to the deaths

of nearly 3,000 people while mayor carmen jolene cruz of san juan is going to join us to criticize that assessment. the senate race out in nevada is a must win if they want to grab the senate. by the way, they're ahead slightly. finally, let's finish with trump watch. what do we expect the family in power. these are the romanovs and this is "hardball" where the action is. jen: but that all changed when we bought a house. matt: voilà! jen: matt started turning into his dad. matt: mm. that's some good mulch. ♪ i'm awake. but it was pretty nifty when jen showed me how easy it was to protect our home and auto with progressive. [ wrapper crinkling ] get this butterscotch out of here. progressive can't protect you from becoming your parents. there's quite a bit of work, 'cause this was all -- this was all stapled. but we can protect your home and auto when you bundle with us.

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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. here's the problem, this has not been treated seriously enough and the things -- some of the things trump did and does jeopardized the real national security. >> wow, welcome back to "hardball." that was an alarming assessment by bob woodward. he paints a picture of a commander in chief ill prepared and uninformed.

during a national security briefing of afghanistan, quote, trump looked bored and seemed unengaged. he was called a moron. james mattis told associates the president acted like and had the understanding of a fifth or sixth grader. trump's chief of staff said simply, he's an idiot. i'm joined right now by former secretary of state john kerry about his own life in public service "every day is extra." this is a powerful book. the great thing about your book, senator, secretary, you're all those things, is all the history of your political career and the power of it and the substance of it. just what's your reaction? i want to get to the book in a minute, but what's your reaction to this mishigas going off, this craziness where the president of the united states is accused by the top reporter in the country of being out to lunch? >> i think as you said earlier and everybody in washington knows, this has been circulating

in washington for a year and a half. this is not new. what bob has done is confirmed in a remarkably well put together conglomeration of all of these events that we've touched on one time or another a reality to it that does make this of enormous concern well beyond the attention that it is getting in positions and responsibility in washington. i think bob makes the point. i mean, look, he's a careful reporter. everybody knows this. the fact is that he does extraordinary number of interviews. they're all taped. >> yeah. >> you know, they're all taped. i mean, trump should be careful what he wishes for because those tapes tell the full story. now obviously there are agreements with certain people that that's not going to happen unless there is cause to call into question the voracity of the book in a whole. i just -- i mean, look, today's the anniversary of 9/11.

we wake up today, you and i are in new york right now. some of it unfolded in washington. i remember watching that plume of smoke around the pentagon and two of the planes came from boston. we all think about this. today donald trump woke up this morning, president of the united states, on 9/11 and his tweets were attacking the attorney general of the united states, his attorney general. it's so outside the norms that it is unbalanced. it is deeply troubling. >> let's get back to your book and let's talk about it because there's some positive aspects of american life in politics we've forgotten, some recently. i mean, not too many years ago you actually wanted to put together a bipartisan ticket. it was going to be you and john mccain. the two guys who came out of vietnam with different perspectives. it was like a national healing process you were proposing. talk about that a bit, the fact that you were going to stick your neck out and do that. >> well, i wanted to have the conversation with john and he wanted to have the conversation with me. in fact, some of his people had

reached out to us about it. i was intrigued by the idea. i mean, i thought exactly what you just said, the idea of showing people we could do something in the non-partisan way, bring people together and try to unite the country around the major items of the agenda of our nation because we're falling behind, chris. you know, we're a great country, don't get me wrong, i believe in america, but i believe in the america that i describe in the book where we work together. we worked across party lines. john mccain and i spent ten years together coming out of being a p.o.w. and a protester and we found this common ground to try to find answers for american families about what happened to their loved ones. i just think that it's not that the senate rules have changed, it's that the people have changed, the attitude has changed and the absence of leadership that wants to look beyond the next election and start thinking about the next generation and the next decade

for our country, that's the key. it's got to begin to happen because china, russia, other countries are moving in lightning speed to make some of those decisions. and president trump pulling out of the paris agreement, that is going to cost lives. that's not a simple political boot. people are going to die because of the decision he made and billions of dollars of property may wind up being destroyed and damaged because we're not doing enough to deal with the problem of climate. so, you know, this is a very perilous moment for our country. >> should these people quit around the president? should they stick -- mike pompeo, he's a sound person. should he stick around? should mattis stick around in defense? >> i think there was a rationale in the last weeks leading up to this moment where you could say to yourself, it's important to be here to stop things from happening. >> yeah. >> i think now the issue has suddenly been forced in a way by

virtue of the anonymous memo and bob's book and everybody's awareness of what's happening. and i think that -- i think that adults in washington need to deal with this in a very swift way. >> you know what i loved about the book, your book, because i think your book's going to have a longer impact than bob's book because i think it's about america and warfare. you are really in if. this has so much in it. having to be under fire and american service people towards the vietnam allies. and then he talked about what's it like to watch people die in front of you, soldiers, just watch the blood come out of them. don't you think presidents ought to have that experience if they're going to be commander in chief? isn't it valuable to have been there and seen what war is? >> well, we've learned that it's not a prerequisite.

we've had good presidents who haven't had that experience. is it helpful? sure. i learned an enormous amount in the service. by the way, as i write in the book, you know, it was an alternative southern graduate school going into the military, learning leadership, having people, you know, working together as a team like that. you learn an enormous amount about it. to me, i've said to young people whenever i have a chance to talk to them, you know, go into the military, or if you don't like the military, go do something. >> yeah. >> in non-government or governmental organization or extra governmental and make a difference in people's lives and forever you will value that. that's one of the reasons why i've always been in favor of some kind of service. >> gene mccarthy one of my heroes said it's easier to run for president than stop. how about john kerry? how about john kerry?

have you stopped wanting to run for president? >> yes, i've stopped running for president. >> really? i keep hearing that you might be in the race. >> i've heard that a lot, obviously, since i've been out on the trail, et cetera, but what i have said again and again and again, everybody needs to focus on the greatest remedy we have in our hands right now, which is the mid-term elections. >> yeah. >> and we have a chance for an enormous course correction in the next two months, chris. and then after that things will take care of themselves. >> just one more tough question. better you than trump? better you than mike pence? better you running the country? >> you're really pushing this president thing. >> i just wondered how you can handle yourself and say better you than trump. >> there are going to be a lot of people running. >> no, there will be 30 or 40 of them running. you'd certainly be qualified. i still call him senator john kerry. secretary of state john kerry.

great book. you hear about the military, real life. the best part of the book is also the politics, how this guy fought his way through massachusetts politics, which is not fun. up next, as hurricane florence -- >> fun. >> when you win. -- heads towards the carolinas. president trump called his response to hurricane maria in puerto rico, check this, incredible unsung success. the storm left almost 3,000 people dead and the mayor of san juan is going to join us to talk about what the president's assessment is worth. this is "hardball" where the action is. ything goes. tell me about it. you know, it's made me think, i'm closer to my retirement days than i am my college days. hm. i'm thinking... will i have enough? should i change something? well, you're asking the right questions. i just want to know, am i gonna be okay? i know people who specialize in "am i going to be okay." i like that. you may need glasses though. yeah. schedule a complimentary goal planning session

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welcome back to hardball. hurricane florence is charging towards the east coast in an extremely dangerous category 4 hurricane. ahead of landfall president trump held a briefing to assure america that the government was, quote, totally prepared to handle the storm. the president was then asked what lesson he had learned from last year's hurricane maria which ravaged puerto rico and here's what he said. >> i think puerto rico was incredibly successful. i actually think it was one of the best jobs that's ever been done with respect to what this is all about. i think that puerto rico was an incredible unsung success. >> two weeks ago puerto rico had to raise the official death toll from hurricane maria from 64 people to nearly 3,000 dead.

the figure was 46 times larger than was initially expected. almost 3,000 people dead as opposed to 64. that's a mistake. the mayor of san juan quickly responded by tweeting, success? federal response according to trump in puerto rico a success? if he thinks the death of 3,000 people is a success, god help us all. joining us right now on the phone is the mayor of san juan, carmen cruz. thank you so much, madam mayor. what do you make of the president's assessment of the quality of work done by the federal government? >> well, i think the president's statement is desicable. it just goes to the lack of understanding of reality that he has. if he thinks that the deaths of 3,000 people is success, he really doesn't know what this was all about. this was never about politics. he's talking about unsung pl

praise. nobody is singing his praises. when you have 3,000 people -- >> i think we just lost the call here. susan, you had some experience with it. susan percio. >> yeah. i was down in puerto rico six weeks after the hurricane hit on a humanitarian mission up in the mountains where they had not seen anybody. they had not seen doctors and i was with a group of doctors. they had no commerce. they couldn't even buy medicine. they had no changing of money but more importantly, these people were sick. their water supplies were gone. they were drinking dirty water. i was staying at some kind of lodging with fema workers and military people on site and they were having trouble reaching the people up there. it was devastating, chris. and i'm -- given what i saw, i wouldn't be surprised if those numbers get readjusted again because there were so many people who had no access to dialysis and other medications that it was so tragic.

>> let's go back to carmen cruz. we've reconnected with her. madam mayor, tell us about the situation today. my understanding is this crisis is not over in puerto rico even from last year. >> the crisis isn't over. i'm here with a group. we have flooding. two days. the tar or the roofs. 50%. so i really don't know. i don't know where the president gets the nerve to call this a success story. you know, my heart goes out to the people of south carolina.

i sure hope they're safe. apparently he's incapable in puerto rico. >> how would president trump do there? >> answering that question really is faking this about the governments, the united states needs to change. we need to sit down and talk about a process. people believe in independence, but this was never about politics. you know, about carly simon's song that says you're so vein

you probably think this song is about you. president trump is so vein he thinks this humanitarian crisis was about him. it was not about him, it was about saving life and he was not -- >> mayor, we're watching him doing this dofus thing of throwing bounty picker uppers to the crowd of people out there during the -- paper towels. it's the strangest thing to do for people facing a crisis, throwing paper towels at them. and we thank you for joining us in this critical time. san juan mayor carmen cruz. good fortune to you. up next we'll look at some new polling on nevada where the race for senate is tighter than a drum. you're watching "hardball." rgen, i'd be freaking out. we are the tv doctors of america. together with cigna reminding you to go, know, and take control of your health. schedule your annual check-up today.

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we've saved a lot of lives. if you look at the -- every death is a horror but if you look at a real catastrophe like

katrina and you look at the tremendous hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of people that died and you look at what happened here with really a storm that was just totally over bearing, nobody's ever seen anything like this, 16 people versus in the thousands. you can be very proud of all of your people working together. >> that was president trump. today he called it an unsung success. ka treechb na was a political disaster. i'm joined by hardball roundtable. republican strategists. the washington post.

let me talk to you about this. why would the president brag about something that makes him look like a fool. >> he lax empathy. he can only see suffering through his eyes and self interest. he can't see the bodies at his feet because he's constantly looking up. to the extent that -- >> sharm min out here, picker upper. throwing paper towels at people who are suffering from death. >> because he views his role as a charitable one, as a philanthropic one. he doesn't see himself as a commander in chief. to that, because he lacks empathy, he lax fo for self-reflection. in the midst of failing with regards to puerto rico, now you know that close to 3,000 people died. you know you failed logistically. you can't self-correct because you're too much -- >> let's get back to reality. you're talking about bob woodward's book. he can't identify the truth, his

lawyers don't trust him to speak the truth and he can't get attached to reality. here he is on display acting like he's not attached to reality. >> the anecdote is when we hear donald trump advising someone else who's under assault for i believe sexual assault allegations, you have to keep pushing back. the government accountability office came out with a report last week that essentially said the government fell down on this. they said the staff was not prepared. they said the staff wasn't physically fit enough for puerto rico. it was not a complementary report for how the government did but trump sets all of that aside to the extent that he's even aware of it and instead doubles down saying this is the best job anyone's ever done. >> we'll see in the carolinas. unfortunately we have a test coming. we're 56 days away from the elections. we continue to focus on the "hardball" ten. it controls supreme court nominations and everything else. one of them is nevada, a state where hillary clinton beat, this is the only one of our ten where

hillary won, beat trump by two points. if republicans want to control the senate currently hold by dean nauer. democrat jackie rosen has less than a 1 point lead over the incumbent. it's 41.6 to 41.2. that is so tight the only thing i'll say as a student of this, if the incumbent doesn't have 50 or anywhere near it, you've got to give the edge to her. >> absolutely. his unfavorable/favorable numbers are upside down. his favorable numbers are higher. >> why is he weak? he seems weak. >> he's weak, but donald trump is really having an effect on this state, and we see it in the economic numbers. almost 60% -- 62% of the people think the economic direction of nevada is going the right

direction. when asked if you are coming out to vote for u.s. senate because you want to support donald trump's policies -- >> right. >> -- 36%. when you say are you coming out to go against donald trump's policies, 46%. so this is all donald trump taking a large toll. so -- and plus immigration's the fourth issue on the ballot for them when you -- >> they're not on immigration. >> one thing, professor about it, i like about nevada, you can see union workers. >> right. >> you walk into a hotel, they're all around you. the group pas, everybody, the bell hop, everybody you need, the guys driving the car, everybody's in a union it seems. >> so, i mean -- >> that's unique in america. >> i think it is. we have to think about this is a local race. we are to think about the ground game and the ground game to get at those undecideds, those independent voters and those unlikely voters. what's been really interesting to me this season, you're tracking it with your "hardball"

ten are those folks who are unlikely voters, those folks who are -- >> who only vote in presidential elections. >> only vote in presidential elections. they are going to tip the tide. >> phil, they've got all the energy from everybody we know and everybody we talk to. the ones that went out and voted want to vote against trump. >> that's exactly right. we're talking also about the institutional benefit that the republican party has with a voting base that goes out and votes often. if you look at the poll, the people that say they're absolutely certain to vote, heller's got a lead. republicans go out and vote more often. you're right about the unions. >> he's a mormon. >> yeah, i think it does to a large extent. i think that's one of the reasons that he has some popularity there. he's in bad shape. let's not sugar coat this. it is the case that republicans both there and nationally have this built to an advantage. the democrats have to make up for that. to your point, the union has to do that. >> today marks the 17th anniversary of the terrorist

attacks of 9/11 when 3,000 people were killed in the world trade center, the pentagon and shanksville, pennsylvania. the president started his day by tweeting about russia and hillary clinton. moments before a speech commemorating people who died greeted people at a moment that was caught by a photographer, quickly went viral. it looks, susan, like a campaign event. >> it looks everything like that. >> what's the rah, rah about that. there was courage on that plane. >> of course. >> it's one of the thrilling moments of a terrible history and world history and people on the plane knew it was going to happen said no. >> and what's interesting is donald trump knew the speech he was going to give. he actually delivered in that window the speech quite well for donald trump, but he woke up and tweeted about hillary clinton

and in going against jeff sessions, he completely turned the tone of that event and that's what he woke up doing, wanting a fight, and that's what you see with the fist pumps and everything else. and he really just turned a date two times today, once with that and once again when we were talking about puerto rico. the man just cannot get out of his own way and stop thinking about himself. >> he's not a decent human being, chris. he's simply not a decent human being. here everything he says about 9/1 1 is over shadowed by sayin he saw miss limbs cheering in new jersey. >> he doesn't have any discipline. >> and to come into a space and not really recognize what it is reflects the thing he said about puerto rico, the guy lacks the capacity for empathy which means he's not a decent human being and the sad thing about it is he's the president of the united states. >> you sound as if he's schizoid, that he doesn't connect with human experience,

that he doesn't know people died, doesn't feel that. >> i think he's so preoccupied with himself that it's a clinical narcissism. i'm not a clinician. he's so preoccupied he can -- >> he has no core values, chris. >> not going to be a good report for him to be talking about himself and hillary clinton? >> right. yeah. if you look at what he was doing this morning, he got up this morning, he was watching reruns, tape delayed broadcasting fox business complaining about hillary clinton on twitter. the only times he tweeted about september 11th was to retweet his own social media director and they stepped in to retweet something to get 9/11 focused in there. odd tweet and then he graced rudy giuliani and then an odd tweet about 17 years since 9/11. within the context of donald trump, it's another day in trump world. >> rudy giuliani has to get back to america's mayor and stop

being trump's lawyer. they'll tell me something i don't know. you're watching "hardball." i hope so. so i talked to my doctor about humira. i learned humira is for people who still have symptoms of crohn's disease after trying other medications. and the majority of people on humira saw significant symptom relief and many achieved remission in as little as 4 weeks. humira can lower your ability to fight infections, including tuberculosis. serious, sometimes fatal infections and cancers, including lymphoma, have happened; as have blood, liver, and nervous system problems, serious allergic reactions, and new or worsening heart failure. before treatment, get tested for tb. tell your doctor if you've been to areas where certain fungal infections are common, and if you've had tb, hepatitis b, are prone to infections, or have flu-like symptoms or sores. don't start humira if you have an infection. be there for you, and them. ask your gastroenterologist about humira. with humira, remission is possible. i have no idea how we're going to get through this. follow me.

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tell me something i don't know. >> andrew cuomo, a nail biter on friday night. his opponent in 2014 is looking like she will be the ag nominee who recently promised to investigate him in a corruption case in his office. >> there's party unity for you. go ahead, eddie. >> in 1962, a wall was built to keep the black folk away from the white folk. i have a new piece in "time" magazine saying if we only focus on the loud big gots -- we've got to focus on the soft bigots. the economy is not going to save republicans this year. if you look at new polling from posts in abc news, we see that by ten points, those who say the economy is good, who think the economy is in good shape by ten points prefer democratic candidates. >> that's the worst republican

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trump watch, tuesday, september 11th, 2018. didn't anybody notice this, didn't people think there was something un-american and weird about the way this trump family arrived in washington?

you have the president, of course, but bringing with him his daughter, a pair of sons who seem to be very much in the financial picture, and a son-in-law to boot? then we began hearing about how the son-in-law was a kind of viceroy, the way the daughter was in charge of climate, or at least the one we were supposed to trust in the plant's rising temperature. it was crazy to begin with. and it seems to be about to end this way, a president accompanied in power alone with his relatives. the circle of those who his father now trusts has tightened to a fault. didn't the country find this strange to begin with? this isn't the brain trust fdr brought in to fight the great depression. or jimmy carter's georgia maffia. it's the -- protection of presidential pardon once it comes to it. donald trump jr. said today he's

not worried about going to jail. that's understandable given his father's constitutional power. the question is how much the country has to worry about given the kind of power that donald trump has given to relatives who act less like a royal family of a constitutional monarchy and more like the royal families of old, like the romanovs. this is "hardball" for now. thanks for being with us. "all in" with chris hayes starts right now. all right, good evening. live from flint, michigan. i'm chris hayes. we are just 56 days from november 6th, and we are here tonight at churchill's in the crucial swing state of michigan, a state that went to trump in 2016. we're going to talk about what it looks like two years later and what to expect in two month. we've got lots of people here in flint tomorrow, your congressman flint, dan kildee is