rock, when you look at kanye west. he still thinks he's booking artists for atlantic city casinos he owns rather than the united states. >> my thanks to the panel. that does it for our hour. i'm nicolle wallace. i'll see you back here monday for deadline white house at 4:00 p.m. republicans call retreat. let's play "hardball." good evening. i'm chris matthews up in boston. fearing a massacre at the polls next month, donald trump's republicans are concentrating their forces, cutting off outposts they see as lost causes. the goal is to save their majority in the house, if only by a single seat. to do so, republican groups are cutting funding to roughly a dozen members of congress incumbents who are deep underwater, in effect, turning off their lights. according to "the new york

times," the embattled incumbents are mainly in suburbs where trump is vastly unpopular, including suburban colorado, northeast iowa, and a district near pittsburgh. it's a far cry from the confidence coming from the party's leader, mr. trump himself, in recent weeks. >> they keep talking about a blue wave. i don't see it. we have the greatest economy we've ever had. what's going on, they have been driven so far left, i don't know why they don't talk about red waves. they're talking about this blue wave. i don't think so. i don't think so. >> just you wait, mr. trump. the nine partisan cook political report rates roughly 70 districts up for grabs, now most of them republican incumbents. and one republican helping to steer the house west told the new york times that they believe intensifying their efforts in a smaller number of districts, they can limit democratic gains

to perhaps 20 seats on november 6th, just short of the 23 democrats they need to take over the house. so they're trying to hold on by inches now. additionally "the new york times" is reporting that private republican polling shows conservative voters growing more enthusiastic over the last few weeks but democrats are still more energized, and moderate democrats are currently leading to the democratic way. for more i'm joined by jonathan allen, national political reporter for nbc news digital, retired republican congressman ryan ca stault of pennsylvania, adrienne elrod, former director of strategic communications for hillary for america. john, you start. it looks to me like the outposts are falling. they're concentrating their forces in hope of at least surviving if only by a seat. >> you're absolutely right, chris. this is called triage in the political business, and basically they're deciding which districts to treat and which ones to let die. you've got a situation here where democrats are absolutely going to pick up seats.

there's no one that can contest that. the questions is the republicans going to be able to marshal their resources to hang on. on the other hand, you've got democrats funding an unprecedented number of races right now. the question is will they overexpand? >> what about this green wave that's coming on top of the blue wave? all this cash coming in from independent sources to help the democrats pull off a sweep. >> you hit the nail on the head, chris. that is the "x" factor. now you've got democratic candidates, they don't even need the party money as much as they used to. you've got candidates, a good example in pennsylvania's 10th district, george scott reported $900,000 in the third quarter. that's a huge amount for a race that's not even on most people's maps. all over the country, you're seeing democrats pulling crazy money. in the senate, you saw beto o'rourke pulling $38 million in the last quarter, which would be

good for most presidential campaigns. >> let me go to the congressman. what do you make of this when you talk to your caucus members about what's going on in places like the burbs. >> look, the green wave is real. i mean fec reports demonstrate that. i will push back a little bit on jonathan in the following respect. if the nrcc isn't up on a week, it might very well be the clf, speaker ryan's super pac. it could be the chamber of commerce. so some of this is just laying down a marker on what needs to be spent from week to week. i think the republican advantage is this. you have very talented, battle-tested incumbents. the democrats' advantage is the green wave. i mean it just an exorbitant amount of money for first-time candidates coming from all across the country and the fact that in suburban districts, trump's unfavorability in suburban districts is anywhere between 55% and 60%. and the closer it gets to 60%,

the more difficult it becomes to get, as a suburban republican, to 51%. but it's not over. this could be eight or ten seats the democrats pick up, or it could be considerably more. we are definitely in the throes of a competitive midterm, and i think the your is still out on what happens on election day. >> i'm betting 30 to 40 congressman, so i'm beyond you. let me go to adrienne. i'm wondering what it's like to be a republican incumbent and hearing they're cutting you off. they're turning out the lights in some of these incumbent districts, republicans. >> yeah, they are. if you are a republican who has given a lot of money to the nrcc over the years, you're probably not too happy about this. republicans are doing exactly what they should be doing. they're in incumbent protection mode. they're shifting their resources where they can win some seats. i think democrats may pick up 30

to 40 seats. but we need 23 seats to take back control of the house of representatives. that is what we're looking at. the dccc have expanded the map dramatically. i'm here in michigan 11 right now campaigning for my friend hailey stephens, who is a leaned "d" district. she'll flip that seat hopefully from red to blue. but democrats have expanded the map, and the nrcc is doing exactly what they should be doing, which is marshaling their resources to where they can try to hold on to some of these really, really competitive tough seat. >> and if they win the house, whoever -- if pelosi stays the whole next two years, fine. if she decides to retire sometime in the next two years from the speakership, i think the question is will it be a woman who will replace her. it better well be a democratic woman replacing pelosi if anybody does. >> amen. >> according to a republican

memo acquired by the new york times, a republican super pac told donors that the supreme court fight had boosted republican enthusiasm and a few vulnerable incumbents were looking stronger in polling. however, according to a new "washington post"/abc poll just out, most americans disapprove of kavanaugh. and certainly of his confirmation. in fact, when asked how the kavanaugh debate would impact their midterm vote, slightly more said they would be inclined to support democrats over republicans because of this confirmation. but women say that it draws them toward democrats over republicans by a 16-point margin. i've got to go back to you on this adrienne. this kavanaugh thing has not been good for republicans when it comes to women. >> no and i think we knew this all along, chris. again, i'm not quite sure why the republicans on the senate judiciary committee in particular thought that having an all-white male panel of republicans essentially not believing dr. blasey ford would

help them going into the midterms. enthusiasm is definitely on the democratic side there. to your point, women in particular, independent women, and interests overall, men and women, are flocking to the democratic party right now because they don't like brett kavanaugh. they don't think he should be on the supreme court, and they're really disappointed at how he was essentially rammed through so quickly by the republican. >> in his most recent campaign rally on wednesday night this week, trump stressed the importance of voting to reject the democrats. let's watch the prez. >> on november 6th, you can vote to reject the democrats' shameful conduct by electing republican house, and, really, we need it badly. we need these votes. a republican senate. if you want security for your family, for yourself, if you want to continue our great economic boom like we've never seen before, but it's all very

fragile. it can end. they want to end it. then you must go out and vote republican. we need those votes in d.c. >> congressman, i think that's as much as he's good at the p.t. barnum, that sounded like a statement of desperation, like we got to do it to save the house. the house is in jeopardy. that's what he seemed to be saying there, the president. >> look, the president says a lot of things. i thought you were going to ask me about the manufacturing summit yesterday with kanye west. my take is this. i mean senate-wise, if you look at what happened in terms of the aftermath of the kavanaugh hearings, tennessee and arizona are really inching away from democrats. >> i agree. we're going to get to that in a minute. there's a geographic split. the suburbs around the big cities, i mean across the country, denver, l.a., everywhere, it's helping women

especially. but you get into those deep red states, i agree. new signs that it's a very different story when it comes to show senate fights out in the red states. they're struggling, the democrats in trump states like texas and tennessee, but also in nevada which hillary carried, a slew of new polls show democrats struggling in some key states they were hoping to pick up in november. congressman beto o'rourke is trailing ted cruz by eight points in texas. in tennessee, which is every bit as red as texas, former governor phil bredesen is down 14 points to u.s. congresswoman marsha blackburn. in nevada, congresswoman jacky rosen is down. talk about the geography. i really do think you get anywhere a big city and the democrats are in great shape. you get out into the wilderness, the plain states. you get out to even missouri.

you get to north dakota. you get to nevada even, which is hillary country, it's a much different story. >> yeah, and for suburban republicans in competitive districts, the challenge is how do you channel interedependentsw do you brand yourself separate from the cultural identities that the republican party has inned midwest and more rural areas? that becomes a challenge. listen, when the president goes out and does those rallies, you know as well as i do they love him there. but you can't do that in montgomery county, pennsylvania, or chester county, pennsylvania, and get the same type of response or at least the same type of political victories that would ensue from that. it's just a fact of the matter. we could go back to president obama's second term, and even there you saw the suburban districts trending away from democrats. if this is a wave year, it would be a scenario where democrats sweep the suburbs.

i'm just not convinced that we're there yet, and i don't know that we get there because you have to look in a very -- in these tight districts, you have to look at candidate quality, and it's good for two or four points. and i would say to some of my colleagues who are in these districts, they are strong. they had sharp, and that may make the difference between holding the house or not. >> okay, john. here's my theory of politics. it's binary. you can either say, yes, i love the way things are going. keep it up. keep it up. this is great. i love it, i love it. or you say, no, i don't like the way things are going in this country. i don't like this trump era. i don't like the smell of it. i don't like the language of it. i don't like this guy. i don't like trump. you have only got one vote. it seems to me you're going to exercise that vote against what's going on if you're like most voters. that's my feeling of why democrats are going to win across the country, except for the red states. they're going to win these house races. >> the gas or the brake, chris. the evidence of what you're talking about is where president trump is campaigning.

i've been to about a dozen rallies in the last few months across the country. he's had a couple of dozen this year. he is campaigning in those deep red states. he's campaigning for senate candidates. he almost never goes to a county that is competitive or that he lost with the exception of clark county, nevada, where he's going out to help dean heller. that's las vegas. you basically see him in places that are heavily trump country. >> i know. wherever they've got a big city newspaper. go ahead, congressman. >> one other point. the one thing that none of us know is who has the better data. i mean in a 2018 congressional campaign between the rnc and nobody thought trump was going to win, and somehow the polls were off by about six points. so those data troves -- and it's not just rnc and dnc. it's also what candidates do on social media and how they call that data and who they're delivering. that could be the difference between who wins and loses on election day in upwards of 20, 30, 40 districts. >> i think 30 to 40 for the democrats in the house. the senate stays republican.

thank you, jonathan, allen, thank you, congressman, adrienne, thank you. coming up, damning new evidence about saudi arabia's involvement in the disappearance of a "washington post" contributor and saudi dissident. plus presidential historian michael beschloss comes tonight to sound the alarm about presidential war powers in the age of trump. what could trump do if he wants to? and the notoriously private first lady, melania trump, tells a reporter that her husband's alleged infidelities are not a concern to her. we'll show you that. finally let me finish tonight with a time when a sunday school teacher swept past the democratic establishment and defeated a republican president. this is "hardball," where the action is. psst! craig and sheila broke up. what, really? craig and shelia broke up!? no, craig!? what happened? i don't know. is she okay? ♪ craig and sheila broke up! craig and sheila!? ♪

as long as office gossip travels fast, you can count on geico saving folks money. craig and sheila broke up! what!? fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance. texas democratic senate candidate beto o'rourke announced today that his campaign has raised an unprecedented $38 million in just the last quarter, a sum

that shatters records for senate races but also rivals the amount of money for past presidential campaigns. an austin's npr stations reporting today that travis county, which encompasses austin and its nearby suburbs is on track to register, catch this, 93% of eligible voters, which would be a modern record. 93%. but it's unclear if fundraising and voter registration even at that level in this texas race, one of our "hardball" ten senate races to watch, will translate to votes on election day. as we mentioned before. in a "new york times" poll completed just yesterday, republican senator ted cruz leads o'rourke by eight, 51% to 43%. we'll be right back. (burke) that's what we call a huge drag. seriously, that's what we call it. officially. and we covered it.

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provide evidence that jamal khashoggi was killed inside. nbc has not heard or seen the tapes yet, but this comes after "the washington post" reported that the turkish government says it has audio and video recordings. and that's according to u.s. and turkish officials who say that the recordings show that a saudi security team detailed khashoggi in the consulate, then killed him and dismembered his body. the news now threatens to upend the administration's goal of strategic alliance with saudi arabia. excuse me. the trump administration's relationship with crown prince mom b mohammed bin salman. jared kushner in particular has courted the 33-year-old crown prince. according to "the new york times," cushier once even hoped that the saudi king would put his stamp of approval on the peace plan.

the president tonight said he'll talk to the king soon and that nobody yet knows what happened. >> well, we're going to find out what happened with respect to the terrible situation in turkey having to do with saudi arabia and the reporter, and nobody knows quite yet. nobody's been able to put it all together. people are starting to form ideas, and as they're formed, we'll let you know. but it certainly is a terrible thing. >> was it a mistake for jared to develop such a close relationship with the crown prince? >> i don't know if it's any closer than other relationships people have. >> joining me from istanbul is richard engel and ruth marcus. richard, how is the world looking at this disconnect between the evidence coming from the turkish government, which is gruesome, apparently an audiotape of this killing, and

our president's refusal to accept it, the fact? >> well, i think a lot of the world reaction has been similar to the way the world looks at president trump from the beginning, that he is someone who values strongmen. he is someone who values money, values trade relations, and tries not to cast any moral judgments and does not want morals to get in front of business interests. i think that is the way people look at it. some are scratching their heads. some think it's pragmatic, but they are not looking at it as they have traditionally seen the united states which tries to present itself as a champion of human rights, not always very successfully. but we're learning tonight and "the washington post" guest can elaborate more on this, is really a new take on what happened inside the saudi consulate behind me. we know that jamal khashoggi was nervous about going inside this building. that's why he'd been living in

exile. he knew he'd made enemies of the powerful saudi crown prince, mohammed bin salman, often referred to by his initials, mbs. he was so nervous about going inside that he told his fiancee to stay outside with his phones and to call authorities should he not come out. and he didn't come out. but apparently that was not the only precaution that he took. a turkish newspaper tonight, a pro-government newspaper, is reporting that he was wearing an apple watch and that he had set the apple watch, syncing it with one of his phones to record, and that while he was inside, the phone was recording, uploading data to a server, and that he may have, through his cunning, recorded the interrogation, the beating, the torture, and ultimately his own murder, leaving behind the clues that turkish investigators are now putting together. >> is that the source of the

recording that the turkish government has? >> according to this one pro-government newspaper, which i must say has been pretty reliable, this pro-government newspaper has throughout the past week and a half been drip, drip, drip releasing information, tips about the time line, about how two chartered jets arrived at istanbul airport, how a convoy of vehicles came here to the consulate building. they were very early on in quoting security forces saying khashoggi had been murdered inside. so there information has been consistent and proven out to be true and supported by other turkish officials. it's possible that is not where these recordings come from, but that's what they say they came from. >> let me go to ruth marcus. what's impressed me is the way i think thanks to your newspaper and other journalististic

organizations, the american people have taken up this cause. jamal khashoggi has felt at this point like he's one of ours, somebody who chose to live in our country, sought refuge in our country, worked for our country, reported for our country, and we feel a kinship with him after his death apparently. and i wonder if anybody thought like this in that part of the world, if they knew how much of an affront we were going to take here. >> well, we certainly think of jamal khashoggi at "the washington post" editorial page, at the opinion section as one of ours, and i have to say the response of the american people, the response of our colleagues at nbc, msnbc, and across the american media to this outrageous disappearance and perhaps worse than disappearance has been a really heartening aspect of a really terrible and tragic story.

and i think that we know -- the american people know instinctively that people who criticize their government, whether here or abroad, are not enemies of the people to use a phrase that people may recognize. they are acting out of love for their country. read jamal khashoggi's op-eds for "the washington post." you understand that this is a man who truly loved his country, wanted to get it on the right track, praised mohammed bin salman and the saudi leadership when he thought they deserved praise doing things like allowing women to drive or opening movie theaters, and also was fearless in criticizing them, a fearlessness that might have led to his murder. >> well, president trump has long been a vocal advocate for better relations with saudi arabia. in fact, trump chose saudi arabia as the first stop on his first foreign trip after becoming president. he's consistently praised that country and its leadership since

entering politics. >> it's a great honor to have the crown prince with us. saudi arabia's been a very great friend and a big purchaser. the king of saudi arabia, who is a great guy, king salman. think of it. i have great friendships in saudi arabia. i have many friends that are saudis. i see them all the time. i'm all for saudi arabia. i like the saudis. they very nice. i make a lot of money with them. they buy all sorts of my stuff, all kinds of toys from trufmp. they pay me millions and hundreds of millions. i love saudi arabia. the people are very nice to me. they buy my apartments. you wouldn't believe it. it's true. they'll pay me anything. they have nothing but money. >> richard, do the saudis think they own trump? >> well, they may have thought that, but i think what happened over the last couple of days here and the international

reaction may prove that the saudis, if in fact they were behind the murder or disappearance of jamal khashoggi, that they misread the situation. there has been a ferocious backlash. turkey has been relentless in its leaks, telling reporters what happened, telling the media about what it says was a hit squad of 15 saudis who arrived in this country, who came to the consulate and were waiting inside so that they could kill and then dismember jamal khashoggi. so if they thought they had trump bought and paid for and they thought that no one was going to react to this, then i think they were mistaken. >> richard engel, you're the gre greatest. thank you for that report from istanbul. ruth marcus, as always from "the washington post." up next, nbc news presidential historian michael beschloss joins us to talk about his new book that sounds the alarm about american presidents,

including this one, who might use their destructive war powers without any check with congress. we'll be right back with michael beschloss. this is "hardball," where the action is. okay. [ buttons clicking ] [ camera shutter clicks ] so, now that you have a house, you can use homequote explorer. quiet. i'm blasting my quads. janice, look. i'm in a meeting. -janice, look. -[ chuckles ] -look, look. -i'm looking. it's easy. you just answer some simple questions online, and you get coverage options to choose from. you're ruining my workout. cycling is my passion.

when you have the strongest military ever in the history of this world, nobody's going to mess with you. these big guys know it over here. these people know it. i don't want to use our

military. but this is a very dangerous world. this is a sick world in many ways, okay? it's a very, very -- i mean i see things as president that you don't want to know about. >> welcome back to "hardball." that was president trump in iowa earlier this week. as commander in chief, this president has power to wage war that has in many ways become virtually unchecked. in his new book, "presidents of war," presidential historian michael beschloss examines the evolution of that power by looking at how previous presidents led the united states into war. he writes, were the founders to come back, they would probably be astonished and chagrined to discover that in spite of their ardent strivings, the life or death of much of the human race has now come to depend on the character of a single person who happens to be president of the united states. i'm joined right now by the man who gave us that warning in his big new book. michael beschloss, he's nbc's

presidential historian. it's a beautiful book. i'm into it now, michael, as i have been with your other books. it's a great, big epic, and here it comes at a time we have a president who for most people watching right now is dodgy, shaky. you come up with the words. the one thing i heard from trump that i liked in the campaign was, he was going to stop stupid wars. he thought w. was the stupidest president in history because he took us into iraq. and now the way he pushes iran, he kills the deal. well, what's the alternative? he gets tough in his talk around the world. you know, rocket man, things like that. he says he's against war, but my question is could he take us into one? >> yeah, i think he could, chris. and i agree exactly with what you just said. he could do it in two ways. one is he may not have the ability to keep us out. one of the stories i tell in this book that made news is that lbj stopped his commanders in 1968 from bringing nuclear

weapons into vietnam, and he said, you know, lock up the documents. stop this. i don't want this to become a nuclear war. i hope president trump would have that kind of talent. the other thing i worry about is that he would get us involved not in a war by accident but for politics. in 2011, trump tweeted over and over again, watch out, americans. president obama is going to take us into a war in order to get re-elected. very dangerous thing for a president to connect those two ideas. >> do you think that indicates he might do it himself? >> i think it's in his -- you know, he realizes there is a political advantage for a president who wants to elevate his poll ratings or who wants to run for re-election if he does, to get involved in a war in which he looks commanding. and just imagine, you know, we're totally saying this hypothetically. i hope it will never come to pass, but he could be tempted if he's in a situation, let's say, with mueller or he is in

political danger. people worried about that with richard nixon. that's why as you said, it's such a dangerous thing. over 200 years through all these presidents, we've got into a situation where a president can take us into war almost overnight, almost single-hand single-handedly. >> that's why the dog. we always worry about a president taking us into war to help save himself politically. what about ideology? sort of the belligerent attitude of the w. administration in the first term was john bolton. now john bolton is head of security for this guy. how is the guy that ran against basically the stupid war syndrome find himself picking bolton, and how much clout does bolton has. >> if you choose john bolton, if you're president, you're not so much against war after all. the other thing i find through history is presidents sometimes take us into war based on fake

incidents, like the gulf of ton kin incident. that never happened yet johnson and nixon waged the vietnam war based on that terrible resolution from congress based on this incident that never happened. >> let's go back to this nuclear war because i did know back in the '50s nixon wanted operation vulture in '54, he wanted to put nuclear weapons in, and ike said no. westmoreland wanted to bring them in. was that because he were losing after tet? >> that's exactly -- >> what would you do with a nuclear war by the way? you're fighting in the jungle. what do you do with a nuclear warhead? where do you send it? >> well, that's why it was so crazy, chris. and that's why it's so imperative that you've got a president with the leadership skill to stop it. you know, lyndon johnson made terrible mistakes in vietnam,

but thank god he said to westmoreland, his commander, exactly what you've just said. i don't want nuclear weapons to reverse a possible defeat at kay saun. all it's going to do is provoke the russians and the chinese. can you imagine, chris, if that escalated into a nuclear war that kills tens of millions of people basically as a result of what we now know was a civil war in the agricultural country of vietnam? it would be absolutely crazy, and that's why i pray if it ever comes to that, that our current president has that kind of leadership skill. i'm not so sure. >> you spent years on this book, michael, and for the good of our country. >> ten. >> i've got to tell you, "presidents of war" is a book we all have to have on our shelves and in our heads. thank you, michael beschloss. buy this book on amazon or wherever else you can get it because you need this book to protect your children and everybody to come in our country against presidents who have no right to this kind of power. coming up, ontrump supporte

are out there calling for a democrat to be locked up. by the way, they always seem to be a woman. it's lock her up all the time. it was lock up hillary clinton. of course it was dianne feinstein. wait till you hear tonight. tonight he wants nancy pelosi locked up. what crimes? just being a woman? you're watching "hardball." with a cord-free vacuum, you need a shark. because only shark's cord-free lineup has duo-clean technology so you can deep clean carpets and give hard floors a polished look. and with two swappable batteries at maximum suction, our shark ion f80 gives you more run time than the dyson v10 absolute. and now shark takes cord-free beyond stick vacuums by introducing a full upright model. shark ion cord-free vacuums available in stick and upright.

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in fact, i've been going around lately saying the democrats are the party of crime, and nobody even challenges me, not even the fake news media. they don't even challenge me. >> welcome back to "hardball." that's hilarious. president trump's campaigning now in ohio tonight. his seventh rally this month. moments ago, the president continued his attacks on the democrats, and some in the crowd began chanting "lock her up" --

catch this -- as trump mentioned house minority leader nancy pelosi. let's watch. >> if nancy pelosi and the democrats -- [ audience booing ] >> lock her up, lock her up. >> -- take control, they will try to raise your taxes, impose socialism on this country, take away your health care, and take away your jobs. >> let's bring in tonight's roundtable on that note. annie karni, white house reporter for politico. anita kumar and eli stokols. annie, you first, and get into this. lock her up seems to be gender-specific now with these crowds, these trump crowds. >> yeah. i mean it's sort of a chant. it seems to have lost its original meaning, which had to do with hillary clinton. now it's just something to chant when women come up. but it's interesting that trump

is trying to use nancy pelosi as an attack on the democrats in the midterms because i've talked to people in nancy pelosi's office who actually have seen those attacks kind of getting -- it's not working as much. her numbers aren't bringing down other democrats as much. so she's not this cudgel that she used to be to harm other democrats running in house seats. so it was interesting to see him bring her up again like that. but lock her up now, it's just something that you say at a trump rally. >> eli, you think the women in the audience like the gender aspect, always her? they never say "lock him up." >> i don't know if they recognize the difference or the fact that it's always a woman whose name -- unless it's those chants. i was at the rally in council bluffs, and it was dianne feinstein. the president was up there basically complaining that feinstein may have leaked dr. blasey ford's testimony, and the same chant broke out. i mean these morality plays that

are rallies, they're such familiar experiences for the people that go to him because they've seen them on tv. you could feel in the room that night that people are kind of -- even before they get their cue from trump, they are chomping at the bit to deliver their lines. and the crowd, the big line for the crowd has been "lock her up" for a long time. >> first lady melania trump is speaking up in a rare on camera interview. during a recent trip to africa, she dealt with a reporter's questions about the allegations of her husband's extramarital affairs. >> it is not concern and focus of mine. i'm a mother and a first lady, and i have much more important things to think about and to do. i know people like to speculate and media like to speculate about our marriage, and circulate the gossip. but i understand. the gossip sells newspapers, magazines, getting advertisers. and unfortunately we live in

this kind of world today. >> have you been hurt, though? >> media is speculating, yeah. it's not always pleasant of course. but i know what is right and what is wrong and what is true and not true. >> you mentioned you still have a good marriage. do you love your husband? >> yes. we are fine. yes. it's what media speculate, and it's gossip. it's not always correct stuff. >> anita, what did you think of that question from a reporter just generally? do you think that's in order? >> oh, sure. think about all the things we've seen with president trump this year, in the last year and a half, all of the allegations against him. i think it's perfectly fine. i found it interesting that she sat for the interview. i mean she's a very private person. she hasn't done a lot of interviews. she did this interview and seemed to not like the questions. it was very telling to me that

her spokesperson, the white house press office, the first lady herself really pushing back on the media. they're using -- she's using her husband's, you know, line really that the media is out to get us and sort of using that for her benefit. >> annie, your thinking about this because, you know, whatever it was, she wasn't elected. she's a civilian as we say. his behavior is not under her control. i don't know. it's always tricky to go after a family member with the elected official's problem, i think. but obviously it's an old-time attitude. your thoughts. >> there's long been fascination about the marriages of our presidents, and i think her answer on she's a mother and a first lady, what else is she going to say? but i think there was a lot of anxiety on her team about doing this interview, a lot of anxiety among the president's allies that she did it, a little confusion about why she picked abc, why she picked, like, a

straight news reporter where she was going to get tough questions that she didn't like. and actually more telling than this answer i thought was the clip they released yesterday where they said she's the most bullied person in the world. and i saw a lot of cleanup from the white house kind of explaining what she meant by that statement, that that's why she launched be best, and it's not a good sign when there has to be explaining what she meant to say. it means she didn't explain it well herself. so there's been a lot of anxiety for many reasons about this very rare sit-down interview that she did on her trip. >> again, she's a civilian. she's not a politician. she doesn't have trump's shamelessness. obviously she's disturbed by the whole situation. finally president trump was in pennsylvania wednesday night where he endorsed the republican gubernatorial candidate scott wagner. >> i'll tell you, he's a really good man, and he's a hard worker. and i know it's a tough race, but based on competence, based

on everything, very successful guy. successful businessman, which we like. scott wagner. scott. [ cheers and applause ] >> on a new facebook video published this morning, wagner threatened to stomp on the face of his opponent, incumbent democratic governor tom wolf, on his face. >> between now and november 6, you better put a catcher's mask on your face because i'm going to stomp all over your face with golf spikes because i'm going to win this for the state of pennsylvania, and we're throwing you out of office because you know what? i'm sick and tired of your negative ads. >> this afternoon, wagner, the republican candidate, responded with another video saying that he may have chosen a poor metaphor and shouldn't have said what he said. eli, there's something about a guy saying i'm coming at you in my golf clothes. look out. it doesn't exactly scare somebody. >> i agree with you, that it's kind of a joke, chris.

i think trump's rhetoric and this projected male toughness, this bravado, it spawns a million copycats. republicans are now basically aping his behavior, his message, and you can see he's up there every night at the rallies basically accusing democrats of terrible things, saying that they're a mob, saying that they're unhinged, that their wacko, so it's no surprise that some of these down ballot candidates in some places where the president may be popular are going to try to parrot his phrasing. as you saw there, they often don't get it right. there's only one trump out there. trump would never have apologized for such a comment, and yet you see these candidates take it a little bit too far, and then they kind of have to walk it back. >> the fact is i thuink he hear it in the language of trump. governor wolf's going to get re-elected overwhelmingly. anyway, the roundtable is sticking with us. in the next minute or so, we're going to have these three tell us something i don't know. you're watching "hardball."

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oh nice. you would not believe how long i've been rehearsing that. no annual fee on any card. only from discover. we're back with the hardball roundtab roundtable. annie, tell me something i don't know. >> in the post-dina powell landscape for replacing nikki haley as u.n. ambassador, the trump world is looking to find another woman. they're worried about losing a woman at the cabinet level. they're looking at senator -- former senator kelly ayotte and kay bailey hutchison. >> they're both great prospects. anyway, anita? >> sure. with just a few weeks left until midterms, you would think everybody would be spending money and time on house and senate candidates. you would be wrong. there are six super pacs spending over $9 million on president trump's reelection for 2020. >> wow. eli? >> well, the president's busy campaign schedule is going to

continue until election day. white house official told me this week that they are increasingly bullish on senate races after spending a week or two working on house candidates and helping them. the president's going to hit the trail for a lot of senate candidates. they've seen positive movement in a number of states post-kavanaugh. you can expect a swing out west before election day as well. >> yeah, i think they're going to hold the senate, the red states will lose the house by 30 or 40 seats. thank you to my panel. when we return, let me finish tonight with a sunday schoolteacher who became our president. opportunity is everywhere.

like here. and here. see? opportunity. hi! cinturones por favor. gracias. ev-er-y-where. about to be parents. it's doing a lot of kicking down there. meeting the parents. it's gonna be fine. and this driver, logging out to watch his kid hit one out of the... go dani, go! opportunity is everywhere. all you have to do to find it is get out... here. ♪ get stronger... get closer. start listening today to the world's largest selection of audiobooks on audible. and now, get more. for just $14.95 a month, you'll get a credit a month good for any audiobook,

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the most compelling stories. we've hadfor a long time.is in san francisco and half-measures haven't fixed it. homelessness doesn't just hurt homeless people. it hurts all of us. that's why we're all voting "yes" on c. the plan is paid for by corporations that just got a massive tax break. it's time for them to give back by helping all of us to fix our homeless crisis. with more affordable housing... expanded mental-health services... clean restrooms and safe shelters. vote "yes" on c. it helps all of us.

we had a great documentary airing sunday night here on msnbc. it's an intimate look at my old boss president jimmy carter, the former governor of georgia who raced across the democratic establishment and defeated a republican president. >> my name is jimmy carter, and i'm running for president. >> like donald trump he ran against the washington political elite. >> i never was part of a political establishment. >> but carter was no tv celebrity. he rose from nowhere. >> i was going to run for president if i only got my vote and -- >> i don't seem to be better than anyone else. >> can we imagine in what we're experiencing now a sunday schoolteacher seeking and winning the country's highest office on a promise not to lie to us? >> when i'm president i'll never tell a lie. >> i've known him for decades.

even worked for him as a speech writer. and i'm still trying to fully get my head around the man. >> good to have you back in place. >> i haven't been here in a while. >> i know it. >> tune in sunday night at 9:00 p.m. eastern. tonight on "all in". >> we need it badly. we need these votes. >> the plot to steal 2018. >> what we want people to understand is we're fighting this. >> tonight the woman bringing the lawsuit to stop voter suppression in georgia joins me live. then, why the trump reaction to a missing "washington post" columnist is becoming a national security crisis. >> what's his stake with u.s./saudi relations, sir? >> i would say they're excellent. plus, inside the rapidly expanding tent city of migrant children in trump's america. and 25 days until election day, why democrats running as democrats are making the biggest