my thanks to ron, jonathan, the rev, ashley and nick and to all of you for watching. see you back here monday for "deadline: white house" at 4:00 p.m. ♪ hello, i'm chris matthews. first big event of the 2020 campaign is a month away. nbc news, msnbc, and telemundo presidential debate down in miami. i headed to northeastern pennsylvania to talk to voters in lieu experience county about issues that are important to them because it's one of the u.s. counties that switched from democrat obama in 2012 to

newcomer in 2016. after being a democratic stronghold for decades. what happened in 2016? and what's happened since? msnbc's cal perry starts our kanch looking at the local economy. >> reporter: the small mining community of will, pennsylvania. >> you got operators here that you see them go by with trucks and the guys with the loaders that are pushing the material are very similar jobs to what's happening in the coal industry. if there was a transition from coal into recognizemation, this is it. >> reporter: more than 180,000 acres are left to be reclaimed statewide. 55 acres here at this site. donald trump promised jobs, but we found them on the surface where the land is being reclaimed and converted for future business use.

projects like this one my lessen the blow. >> we need experienced people that do these remadeuation projects rather than displacing somebody, cleaning up what our great grandfathers did. >> because this area swung so wildly from democrat to trump, it's time to look at lessons learned for the local party leadership. >> i think it's just having a presence. there are many theories as to why it turned in the 2016 election. my theory is because hillary clinton really didn't have a strong presence here. donald trump visited the area many times, built up a lot of enthusiasm. i think hillary just took it for granted that this was her home ground and didn't spend a lot of time here. and i think you need to do that. >> reporter: pennsylvania being union country, we had a small forum.

young kids coming up nowadays, they're not going to want to work in mines. i would never tell a kid you want to work in a coal mine, okay? that was something he threw at people. it was a promise, okay? and people bought it. >> some people in the union voted for trump. how big a part is that? >> a lot of people that were union in our plant that voted for trump told at us reason was because of the promises that he made, okay? and they thought because he came off as i'm not a politician, he was going to be truthful and he would fulfill his promises. >> i watched his rally and he stated he was bringing manufacturing back in the state of pennsylvania. he has brought zero manufacturing back in this area. he's only brought low-income aware housing into this area. >> the south is dotted with aware houses build on former

coal minds sites. major companies use this area because nonunion labor is so cheap. >> the problem is they're bringing in temporary workers. >> what's minimum wage in pennsylvania? >> $7.50. they can't get enough because people don't want to go work for $8 an hour. they can't sustain a family on that. >> this thursday night i hosted a lively town hall when the factory floor of the a riff kin company in lieu experience county. i started by listening to a lawyer for the county who, like many others in the community, voted for obama and then switched to trump. >> for me it was a matter of insider versus outsider. i got the same feeling back in '92 with ross perot.

if i actually believed that an independent candidate could pull it off, i probably would have supported ross perot back then. i was tired of the same political message. it certainly wasn't an issue base thing for me. i can tell you that. because i did not agree on so many things that i believe that trump stood for. but again, the insider versus outsider was a big thing. >> what do you like about an outsider who never held government office. no foreign policy experience. nothing like that. you thought he would be the best guy to run the country. >> i really believed that he would put people in positions that could take care of those things. i wanted someone who i believed would take a different approach to government and dealing with government. >> donna, your thoughts? i want you to talk about people like vito.

an eighth of the votes in this county switched. what did you think about that and what do you think generally? >> i truly think the people of northeast pennsylvania thought that the economic development and the jobs and employment and increase in salary would be their main focus in the trump presidency. so i think that's basically why they voted for him. >> what do you think about the unemployment rate dropping to 3.9? >> it has dropped because no one is bringing in any new development into the area. it's sad to say. we have teachers working in our schools that are in the classroom all day and going into a part-time job at night. >> robert, what do you think about this? i read somewhere because you did a preinterview today that you didn't like the democrats. you call them san francisco

democrats. explain. >> i did. i think the whole aurora of hillary clinton and her progressive left movement really left the blue dog and the reagan democrats homeless. donald trump came through on his campaign and provided a refuge for the middle of the road voter and for the working blue-collar person who sits at their family table and decides whether or not they will pay for gas for their vehicle or if they will pay mortgage or taxes on their house. i think the idea of jobs that can provide for the families was a message that resonated and donald trump struck home on it. >> trump was smart in the campaign. he never came out against social security or medicare. he has done a little bit of cutting medicare lately. but what's this san francisco democrat? explain the shot. because it's a shot. >> i think it's the whole idea of the democratic party moving further and further left. i think one thing that will come up in the later part of the conversation is the idea of

where a moderate candidate might be able to give trump a solid run for his money. and i think -- >> somebody closer to the center? >> i think so. i think both parties are moving further and further away from their centralist ideas. around here it's the concept behind the hardworking and the construction workers and the electrician and the truck drivers. those are the fiscally conservative people that make up the majority in what swung donald trump's election. >> does he ever make you wince? >> all the time. [ applause ] i sit at home watching and say why did you -- why did you say that? at the same time he has no filter. he completely left political correctness out into the wind and i think that's why our nitty-gritty, tough-working coal mining heritage, that's why people resonated with him. >> lynette, what do you think? we talk about what happened

here. why did this state when i was telling everybody. i was in ireland and everybody. don't worry about, the blue wall, trump can't win because of tv. it's not going to happen here, and it did. why? >> because donald trump was somebody who came in and he was a businessman. he was somebody who one point a politician and he listened. people felt like he was listening. his economic message which is coming true more and more every day, that was one of the biggest things. we carried this county by 29,000 votes. it wasn't republican-democrat. it was people coming to support somebody. >> does this make you proud to be american? >> absolutely. absolutely. [ boos ] more and more every day. >> more and more every day? >> yes. >> mike? where's mike? sir? you have a thought on this subject? can we get a mic to this guy?

go ahead. what do you think about this trump. trump carried this 57%, 58%. that's a strong majority. a town that had not voted republican since george bush senior in the '80s and before that it was almost always democrat. what happened? >> to me, washington and both sides of the aisle are corrupt. i don't trust them at all. we wasted so many decades and look what's happening now, for example. okay? you elected trump and the last 2 1/2 years, you know, the democrats got the house back. okay. what do they do? they go back and forth, blocking each other back and forth. they haven't done nothing for the american people in the last 2 1/2 years. if they want to block them for four years until the next election -- >> do you think trump played ball with the russians in 2016? >> let me tell you something. >> do you think he played ball? >> i'm not going to insult your iqs, but --

>> you're not going to what? what's that verb? >> you have to listen to this, right? just because of commercials and ads and you guys want to talk about the russians did this and the russians did that. if the russians went in computer-wise and changed everybody's votes, okay. we have done it in the history of the united states all the time, okay. >> what? okay. >> then i would say yeah, we got a problem. >> where are you on the other conspiracy theories? did you line up with all of them? do you believe the attack on 9/11 was done by the terrorists? >> that's here -- i don't know. that's kind of crazy. >> wait a minute. you're not a truther, are you? >> come on. >> do you keep obama was born in kenya? do you buy this stuff? >> i'm just saying. come on. >> that's great. >> unless you are in with the saudis, who knows what went on. all i know is a tragedy. >> i'm with you. i'm with your freedom to speak.

are you with this guy or what? [ boos ] i'm just kidding. i'm just kidding. he ran for the senate and a prominent congressman for life if he stayed there. you are mayor hazleton. the issue -- we will get there later, but the issue of illegal immigration, was that a big part of the fact of trump winning? >> it was huge. it was huge, especially here in north eastern pennsylvania in an area where you have hardworking coal miners. >> what's coal mining got to do with not lying illegal dprings? >> the point i'm making is folks here have a strong immigrant -- >> [inaudible]. >> yeah, we actually do. [ inaudible ] >> we actually do mine. >> sir --

>> have you been here? >> yes, i have been in this area my whole life. my grandfather was. >> we are getting off on a different subject. >> congressman first, then you, sir. why is immigration a big issue. >> this is an area with a strong immigrant background. i remember how their grandparents came. they welcomed immigrants. we still -- hazleton has its own section of town where the irish live, where the italians live, all around the church, the slovaks. they recognize that this is a country of immigrants. what they don't understand is illegal immigration. they don't understand it. they understand it oppresses the wages of the working people. >> who do you trust to deal with this? sir, you're next. who do you trust with illegal immigration to slow it down if not stop it? who do you believe would do that? >> i was upset with both republicans and democrats. >> what do you trust? >> i trust president trump. [ boos ] >> do you trust the democrats to stop it? >> absolutely not.

>> tom perez is chairman of the democratic national committee. [ cheers and applause ] >> we'll get to you, sir. why should people who do care about illegal immigration, those who do care want to stop and why should they trust the democrats rather than trump to deal with that situation if they want to deal with it? >> listen, chris. what we have known for decades is if you want to solve immigration challenges, you have to do so in a bipartisan way. ronald reagan did it. bill clinton did it and barack obama and the republicans in the united states senate did it together. the challenge is we have a president who doesn't want to solve the problem. it is a wedge issue for him and he is using it to divide. in so doing, chris, he is making us less safe. when you divert tsa from airports to the border, the 9/11 folks came in through the airports!

we shouldn't be doing that. we should be working with our allies. when you insult your allies, it makes it harder to solve the problem. >> thank you so much. mr. chairman. sir, we want to go back to your question about the job situation here and job security which is what i hear about. talk about it. >> i'm a union member, i'm a member of the international brotherhood my whole life. [ cheers and applause ] i heard this gentleman talk about san francisco democrats. i heard this gentleman talk about getting involved in mueller. it's just give me -- gimmicks. this is what happened in 2016. gimmicks. [ applause ] he came in, the democrats, i'm a democrat, a lifelong democrat. my grandfather was a democrat. they came in and sold us

something in the republican party thinking they were for us. democrats, mr. perez, the candidate has to come here. they have to talk about worker's rights. right to work is a huge issue in pennsylvania. [ cheers and applause ] we can't have candidates that are only concerned with social issues. a social issue for me is the ability to go out and provide for my family. with justices now on the supreme court because of the gimmicks used to get conservative nominees, janice went through. i as a union member don't have as many rights now. i can have someone come in, and no offense, mr. matthews, if right to work goes through federally, you can be an electrician. i don't want to be a tv host. i don't think you would want me running your show. >> you can learn it faster than being an electrician. i will have them respond to you. we're going to commercial and we'll be right back. >> the way that i have seen this

is that will you -- luzerne county specifically, a space with a 2-1 registered democrat to republican and how that situation could result in such a situation where the republican wins. this area in north eastern pennsylvania, luzerne county, i agree with hard-working, honest people who have been beat down by the coal years and years ago who had the gas industry in recently and who have seen public opinion with the same thing, and we also had a situation with a corruption probe. 2016 was really the perfect storm for this to happen. >> i'm hearing two things and i'm listening. i do listen. i talk with my -- i listen with my tongue sometimes, but i listen. i'm hearing a couple things. people want job security especially for their kids and jobs they don't have to go 300 miles away to get a job and they want to focus on the

economy, not the social issues. you made that point. thank you so much. thank you donna and robert. are the voters going in the right direction. more from luzerne county. stick with us. i get ingrowing hairs.e skin, ad so it's a daunting task. oh i love it. it's a great razor. it has that 'fence' in the middle. it gives a nice smooth shave. just stopping that irritation... that burn that i get is really life changing. what sore muscles? what with advpounding head? .. advil is... relief that's fast. strength that lasts. you'll ask... what pain?

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>> the economy is unbelievable. >> new economic numbers that show the economy is in great shape. >> america's economy is not working for working people. >> by many measures the american economy continues to grow when you look at the data. our average americans actually feeling it? >> you go out there and you talk to real people, and they tell you they're not sharing in this prosperity. >> our country is doing well, never probably has done as well as it's doing right now economically. welcome back to "hardball." live with the deciders. the deciders we are calling them that in pennsylvania. this county went for donald

trump in 2016 after decades of voting for democrats, including twice for obama. that was president trump in some of his democratic challengers talking about the economy. let's face it. under normal circumstances, this strong economy with lower than 4% unemployment would make an incumbent president like trump a big favorite for re-election. but we'll see. thank you all for joining us. i want to talk about the economy. the economy doesn't rise everywhere at the same rate. you have a particular case. it's scary. how much do you own in student loans? >> i owe about $160,000 in student loans. i pay $2,100 a month in student loans. i'm very lucky. i have great parents. >> where did you go? >> the fashion institute of technology in new york city. expensive. one of the top fashion schools in the world. >> it's a great school. but i'm very lucky.

i have good parents who let me live with them. >> you have to pay $2,100 a month after taxes. how do you manage that? >> i work three jobs. >> i work a full-time job just doing billing work and then i waitress on the side and i also assistant coach swimming. >> and you live at home. >> yep. >> that's the big decision. wow. what's that say about what's going on? i went to holy cross. it was a great college. it cost me $2,000 a year. my parents paid half and it was a breeze to pay it off. >> i have two children that went to kings. they did get a lot of scholarships. one started off at $90,000 a year and one at $50,000. we have been very lucky. it depends on what course you take. one is computers and athletic training. >> how did you vote for trump? >> i was a lifelong democrat and

liked that he was a businessman. i wanted to see job growth and economic growth. we have to take care of our own country before we take care of others. >> how is it going? >> it's going good. >> you like your bet? >> we're doing very well. there's buildings going up in the industry park here. there is help wanted signs everywhere you look. >> how's the economy doing? does anyone think it's getting a little better? show of hands, it's getting a little better. show of hands it's not. the unemployment rate, i just checked old rates. nationally it's about 3.6%. a lot of the jobs don't pay much. what did you think? did anybody benefit from the tax cut? >> no! how many benefitted from the tax cut? that's not much. who did. you did?

tell me about the tax cut? why did you like the trump tax cut? >> i had seen the results of the tax cut in the employer where i work. they've been able to invest more in the building. we got the most substantial raise in our last contract that we ever got. >> you are a teamster? >> yes. >> james hoffa delivered for you, right? >> no, i was a chief negotiator myself. >> really? >> yes. >> and you're a union guy. how can you be a union guy and a republican? i'm curious. >> the republican party is more aligned with my personal moral values, being pro-life, wanting to have personal freedoms for many things. legal immigration because i see the impact when the labor market is inundated with workers working under the table. it lowers the wages for the union workers and for the other people. there is a ready underground labor market in many building trades.

i had many fellow union members come up to me and say it's hurting us very bad. >> how do you like this gig economy of uber and lyft? >> around here there is not a lot of taxi travel, but i know that people use them a lot when they are at the bars or something like that. >> it's huge with kids. huge with kids. >> it's going to hurt cities. >> what are about the guys who own the medallion. go ahead. >> you spoke about freedom, sir. i'll tell you, i served in the united states army for 30 years. [ cheers and applause ] it was all about freedom. i came home and realized my community was not free. we have more people in my community. i lived in monroe county in the poconos. we had more people going out of monroe county into new york for jobs because of cost of living here not because of cost of living, but because of the minimum wage.

not sustainable living wages here in monroe county or in pennsylvania. [ applause ] $7.25 an hour is not sustainable living wages. people work hard to build their homes and they cannot enjoy it because they have to go outside of monroe county or outside of my area. >> why do they live in monroe county and not in new york city? because they can't afford to live there. >> because they can't afford it. >> the high wages they are paying in new york city contributed to the expensive lifestyle, expensive cost of living in the cities. that's why people move out of the cities. >> we talk about economic development. >> there is jobs in my area, but it's minimum wage jobs. we are becoming the water park city. >> people need to get away from minimum wage jobs. they need to find other skills. they need to take -- >> i want to get this, sir. >> we can't guarantee people their wages.

you have to earn it. >> what did you say about the minimum wage? >> the last time they raised the minimum wage was 20 years ago. in pennsylvania. 42%. >> i won't argue that. i'm a union member, that's why i took a job in a factory as a union member. >> don't be a hypocrite! >> that's right. >> come on! >> you need to earn more money by earning more skills. >> stand up. we'll let this gentleman speak, please. >> first and foremost, i'm not red or blue, i'm red, white, and blue. i don't care. [ applause ] if that's what i boils down to, i'm a veteran, i'm a combat veteran, i'm a disabled veteran, i'm a union member, i'm a union steward. [ cheers and applause ] and i will tell you the truth. i did not vote in the last election because neither party

had the best interest for me, the american citizen. we still want to do all this coal and we want to talk about immigration. let's talk about the roads and the schools and our economy and the va. the va that is supposed to take care of us. now you're trying to outsource. >> there was a $2 trillion infrastructure bill talked about two weeks ago. it was real. pelosi wants to get trump out there, basically. let's be honest about it. she sat down with him and they said how about $2 trillion. the republicans met and decided to do nothing. squat. tom perez, will you stand up. mr. chairman, what are the democrats going to do if they get back in there? most people believe in work and security and i drove here last night from new york. there is a few bumps. it's real. your thoughts? >> listen, chris. i have been listening and i want to thank all of you for your honesty.

i came here and unfortunately the rnc chair didn't even though she was invited because it's important to listen and learn. what we need and what i'm hearing right now, this is a conversation about economic security and the dignity of work. for democrats, the dignity of work means you only work one job, not three jobs! the dignity of work, chris, it means that you have health care. in the last week, if you want to know, the democrats have your back. in the last week, including today, there have been a total of eight bills that have been passed or will be passed in the united states house of representatives to make sure that if you have a pre-existing condition, you can keep your health care and lower the cost -- >> mr. chairman, thank you. [ cheers and applause ] >> we got to stop here, i'm sorry. please come back for more.

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when mexico sends its people, they are not sending their best. >> we will build a great wall and mexico will pay for the wall. >> human rights abuse at the border. >> we are stronger because of our immigrant roots. >> declaring a national emergency because we are declaring it for virtual invasion purposes. >> we should decriminalize people who are crossing the border. >> protect dreamers. >> comprehensive immigration reform. >> if you want open borders and you want everybody to pour into our country, i have a great suggestion for you. vote democrat. >> if history is any gierkuide, will determine the results of the 2020 presidential election. this was a stronghold for years, but in 2016 they went back. 58% for trump. you just heard president trump talk about immigration. let's hear from some of the voters, donna, chris, and charlie. charlie, where are you on the wall? >> build it.

>> build a wall? >> big and fast. >> how high do you want it? >> as high as necessary. >> the full-length of the border? from the gulf coast -- gulf of mexico to the pacific? >> as long as it's feasible without electronics or barbed wire or anything like that. >> how many people -- >> anywhere it's feasible. >> lou, congressman, talk about your position on illegal immigration, and what you would do to slow it down. nobody thinks you can stop it. what do you think the democrats are doing and we will get other views. >> there is only one way to solve the problem of illegal immigration and that's to secure the border first. if you don't stop the flow of people coming in illegally, you are not going to solve the problem. if you start talking about pathway to citizenship and what you're going to do with the millions of

people who are here illegally, you just invited more people from around the world to come here before they secure the border. i just don't understand democrats not wanting to agree that we must at least secure the border first before we have that discussion. >> how are you going to get the democrats to go along with that? the democrats aren't going to go with secure the border only. they have to represent the people that vote for them. >> they do, they represent the people of the united states of america. their national security, the women who are being molested, the drug dealers that are coming -- [ audience reacts ] that's real. listen, they can moan all they want. they can moan all they want. unless it was your daughter, you can moan all you want. but if it's your daughter, then you have a different feeling. >> donna, what's your thinking? [ audience reacts ]

>> i think we should have a wall. my guarantees came legally. my grandmother came and i still have their passports from italy. >> chris schneider? >> we should focus our attention on the wage disparities and infrastructure and not building walls. [ cheers and applause ] >> it seems to me that one reason why politics can drive you crazy as a voter is you hear one party focusing on one issue and another party focusing on another issue and they don't get to discuss the one issue. the democrats are very good and they talk about all the public options, medicare for all, obamacare. they're really trying to figure it out. i don't hear the democrats have a position on illegal immigration. i hear they are very compassionate about people coming in here and very much against family separation.

but i never hear them say this is how we would stop or slow down illegal immigration. does anyone have confidence that the democrats will stop or slow down illegal immigration? >> no. >> somebody does? who does? go ahead. let's hear. you are thinking about the challenge. many people see it as a challenge. others may not. >> the democrats have done this and i'm an immigration attorney. i've practiced immigration defense in this area for 13 years. what i have seen with the prior administration was they focused on a core group of immigrants. those would be the ones that were actually problems. any criminal issues, there were enforcement priorities. if you were a recent border crosser, you were an enforcement priority. what they did to accomplish the end result under the obama administration, more immigrants

were deported from the united states under any other president's administration in the history of the united states. they did this not because they were soft on illegal immigration, but because they were targeted on it. they focused on getting, if you will, the bad hombres out. >> you have confidence that the democratic party and elected officials will slow or stop illegal immigration? you are confident in that? i'm asking that question. do you have confidence in their ability to stop or slow illegal immigration? that's all i'm asking. >> it's going take a bipartisan effort. they're not going to be able to do it by themselves. >> tip o'neal was part of it. they had an effective bill. they said no more illegal hiring but the people coming in are going to become citizens.

they only enforce the one part. does everybody here think people should be fined for hiring people illegally? [ applause ] people are going to get here if there's a vocabulary here. thank you all. up next, a key issue of democrats and republicans. ending america's opioid epidemic. how is it affecting voters here. more on deciders after this. [farmers bell]

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able to get them and eventually him using heroin. he was killed by fentanyl. you can't assume these people are just people that are homeless and people that come from a certain socioeconomic background. if you can't believe or you don't believe it can happen to you, you better think twice. it's tearing families apart and breaking down the neighborhoods and crime and violence. it's hurting the whole community. [ cheers and applause ] >> welcome back to "hardball." that was george sims a teacher here in lieu experience county who lost his son to opioid abuse in 2017. according to dea, more than 5,000 people died of drug overdoses in pennsylvania alone, a 64% increase since 2015. how many people in this room know someone who has been affected by opioids?

this is the untold story. you are a nurse. tell us about your experience with opioid addiction. >> i'm a nurse and i'm still a nurse. i was an e.r. nurse for 35 years. and of course we call this the opioid crisis now. those of us who work in hospitals and emergency rooms know it has been around forever and ever. okay? it certainly has increased in the numbers that we see overdosing. the drugs are stronger and not as pure and mixed with other things. >> tell me how it works. how does a young person get caught into it? does it start with a prescription? >> it can be either on the street, you know, with their peers or getting messed up with the wrong type of people. trying the drugs. these drugs are very addictive and before you know it, you're hooked. >> i hear heroin is cheap. >> heroin from what i understand, i haven't bought any lately, is cheap, really, compared to even some other

street drugs like some of the pills and things that they buy. but that's the thing. they don't know what they are getting. it can be mixed with other things. >> that's what i hear. that's what kills them. >> we see them with fentanyl, the fentanyl overdoses. >> dottie, what do you know? what do you experience. stand up, please. >> i know the drug crisis is an important issue. but the thing i'm concerned about is health care. because many, many, many people, they have no coverage, and the affordable care act is being dismantled every day. we need either that to improve, that part, or we need a national health care program. >> right now, let's go.

how many people here think the short-term solution the presidents to get back in power is to fix obamacare? [ applause ] how many people would like to see in addition that, a public option? [ applause ] how many people would like to go all the way, bernie sanders and a couple of others are saying a national health care plan called medicare for all? how many would like to see that? [ cheers and applause ] someone else? go ahead. >> hi, chris. >> what do you think? >> i'll get back to the opioid crisis. >> go ahead. >> i work in a recovery field. i have been in the field for over 20 years. i'm in recovery myself for 34 years. >> what were you in? >> i abused everything there is to use. >> pardon me? >> i've used everything there is to use and i have been in recovery for 34 years. >> how did you get out? and into recovery? >> i went to -- i went to a

rehab and i went to a long-term rehab and i belong to alcoholics anonymous. >> good for you. >> and i've been doing it for 34 years. >> so you were in the program. >> i am. i think the answer right now is that you have to go after big pharma. [ applause ] big pharma is ruining -- they overprescribing? >> absolutely. we are seeing kids, kids don't start off with marijuana and beer anymore. that he start off with opiates. kids are dying. we had in lieu experience county over 100 deaths last year. 105 deaths, all opiate-related. fentanyl is coming in from china. you can't just build a wall. it's coming from china. we have to stop what's coming in to this country. [ applause ] >> you know one thing and many people already know it. a kid comes in or person comes in with a broken leg and they give them a narcotic.

and then the person likes it. they don't want to reduce the dosage. they find a way to keep it. >> then you end up in the streets and buying from the streets. up buying from the streets. they are prescribing -- oxycontin was designed for people terminally ill with cancer. now they'll give it to you for a broken arm, for a sore back. >> all this stuff is addictive. we'll be right back. up next we'll have some hot butt button issues. don't go anywhere. issues. don't go anywhere. look limu. a civilian buying a new car. let's go. limu's right. liberty mutual can save you money by customizing your car insurance, so you only pay for what you need.

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thank you to the voters in this key swing state and how they're voting about right now in their heads right now because everybody's voting all the time. we're thinking about it all the time. let me go to carly 20 years old and i let's talk about i thought roe v. wade was settled for a while. the last couple of months it's more difficult to have an abortion unless you have a health issue with the mother. i thought we agreed on that as a compromise, apparently not.

how many people in this crowd would like to leave the law where it's at as interpreted by the constitution, leave it the way it is? how many would like to do what they're doing now in alabama which is to make it almost impossible to have an abortion? how many people would like to have liberalize it and make it late term? you're with me. >> i'm a pro-life catholic woman and i don't want to let religion be a basis for my argument. i would like to base it on facts. so two facts are that 18 days a baby has a heartbeat. at ten weeks a baby can feel pain. and i truly believe right now this is the civil rights issue of our time. you know, what you won't hear in the main stream media is that if roe v. wade is overturned it will ban all abortions. that's up to the local and state governments. so, you know, that's basically the basis of federalism is

giving all the power to the local and state governments. >> i think that's the pro-life position. anyone agree with it? i want to have one other voice-over here. you have expressed yourself facially so here you go. i want to hear the other view. >> i totally disagree. in the past before roe vs. wade women if they wanted an abortion for medical reasons or rape were basically put on a stand in front of a bunch of men to determine whether they were telling the truth or not. i fear that would happen again, and as everyone -- it's your own body, it's your own business. i can't say whether i will or won't have one. if you don't believe in abortion, don't get one. and people don't purposely get pregnant just to have abortions. so quit acting like people love having one. >> okay, i promised -- let me go

who else? where am i going? >> hi, chris. i'm patrick joyce, a proud retired teacher. i spent 38 years in the classroom. and they actually paid me to do it, go figure. when i look around today and see the effect of trump on education, though, it really makes me sad for the future. look at who's running the department of education, a woman who knows nothing about education, about kids. a person who is -- >> you've made your point. >> yes. >> so you don't like the secretary of education. who's that? >> that's betsey devos. >> thank you. we've heard your voice. i think we're all pro-education. let me ask more hot button issues just to cause trouble. ready? i want to ask some questions,

okay? one of the candidates for president said they think it's a good idea that people be allowed to vote while their federal prisoners. anyone agree with that? anyone think it's a good idea to vote while you're a prisoner? let me ask you about some of these other issues? gun laws, should we leave them the way they are? >> no. >> what should we do make them tougher? >> yes. >> background checks? >> yes. >> charlottesville. is anyone happy with the way it came out the president's mouth? >> no. >> okay, capitol punishment, keep it or get rid of it? how many say get rid of capital punishment? not so much opinion there anyway. let me ask you about this one which is my favorite question. do you think the politicians in both parties especially in d.c.,

new york maybe look down on you. and how do you know that and how do you sense that? how do you get that sense? >> chris, i got to tell you the one thing that can bring democrats and republicans together is term limits. these people hold on like they own the job. >> that's a good idea. they're never going to vote for their own term limits but go ahead. >> let me tell you how i know that my representative didn't respect me, that when i called his office in washington, d.c. his staff hung up on me because i was pro-affordable care act. your staff, mr. barletta. >> but he doesn't have a staff now. >> and he did. and actually he lost the last election. >> thank you very much. response. >> yeah, of course i don't know the situation. i highly doubt anybody on my staff would hang up on someone.

>> okay, that's what we're here for. thanks to our guests. i love being here in pennsylvania. that's all for our special night of "hardball" in missouri county. what a night. good evening. i'm donny deutsche, and i am thrilled to be here. there are exactly 535 days until the 2020 election, and tonight and every week we're going to break down the top stories of the week and how they're shaping the election. and tonight roe v. wade v. trump. plus my advice to senator cory booker for his run for the white house. and the milwaukee bucks fight for their nba title. here to talk trump, taxes and unfortunate new divided politics in sports. lots to cover, and this is "saturday night politics."