>> today on "matter of fact" -- clinton and trump in a tug of war for key battleground states. >> clinton has to hold on to all that she has. >> can she hold on to a razor-thin lead? plus, the chief strategist for the republican national committee goes one on one with soledad. soledad: himself possibly as a uniter? >> hold on, soledad, with all due respect. >> do trump's claims stand up to scrutiny? soledad: the battle for the white working class vote. i'm soledad o'brien, welcome to "matter of fact." soledad: thanks for joining me. we'll be talking with trump advisor sean spicer in just a few minutes, but first, we're well over a year into the presidential election, and polls

hillary clinton and donald trump in a statistical tie in four battleground states. and clinton's lead nationally has narrowed. a recent average of all national polls tracked by realclearpolitics shows clinton barely out in front of trump, by 1.5 percentage points. carl cannon is the washington bureau chief of realclearpolitics. nice to have you. fo numbers, i want to ask about polls in general. receivables are starting to shift toward trump, and clinton is losing some of her lead. is that correlated with pr? is it driven by the news cycle? who wins in a news cycle? who is pummeled by the news cycle? carl: well, this year hasn't been volatile. it feels that way. soledad: i was going to say, it feels very volatile. carl: these candidates are volatile and national events are

-- hillary clinton has had a small lead. she has never really been behind trump and what we are waiting for now are the swing voters to decide and that's a bigger group than in the last few election. 30% poll in a yougov poll, it's an online poll, a very good poll done out of california. 5000 people they talked to, 1/3 of the people say they are voting third arty. stein, if they really follow through on that. 1/3 say they can't vote for either candidate, they just can't do it. hate them. and 1/3 of that group, the 10% of that 31%, says they don't know yet. and so that -- if trump is going to get to 48% in a three-person race, that might enough. he has to get more of those people. hillary clinton has to hold on to all that she has, solidify the democrats a little more, and get just enough swing voters to win. she doesn't need as many swing

she needs maybe 50%. soledad: do people look at these polls as not just a reflection of hey, you've been asked, and this is how you would vote, but also they want to be with the winner, meaning they will look at polls and it would shift how they think about voting, or they look at a poll and say, while, -- wow, i have to vote for my candidate because they are dropping? that's a great question. i'm so glad you asked it. we know people send messages with polls. "the washington post" had a fascinating question. you think will win, and who do you want to win. 58% people said hilary clinton. that strikes me -- that makes me think clinton may be more ahead than this poll average indicates , that the voters are trying to tell us something, but what? what are they trying to tell us? soledad: if you look specifically at the white working class vote, which i have found fascinating this cycle -- the 2012 exit polls, people who

up as high as 39%. tell me about that white working class voter. what are they thinking, how are they polling? carl: in ohio this week trump was up 43 points with this group. those aren't numbers you normally see in polling. he was ahead in that group of voters, 43 points ahead of hillary clinton, among white male voters in ohio. soledad: i'm sorry, he is ahead 43 points? carl: among white male voters in ohio, one poll showed. what does that tell us? this is a group that is unhappy with the status quo. they are unhapit it makes me think they really want to send a message. they are angry, they want change. i think to them trump reflects change more than clinton. soledad: is this a referendum in some ways on 2008? a lot of people refer back to this is when i lost my pension, this is when i lost my home, this is when my job security went down the drain.

depending on who you blame about where you are economically in the country, it feels like if you are blaming wall street, you're a hillary, formerly bernie voter in this white working class category. if you blame free trade, if you are blaming immigrants, if you are sort of angry about where america is, you are probably a trump voter. is there room for shifting? those seem like set categories to me. carl: your analysis, but there is some room for us to be surprised. what you look at is the brexit vote. in brexit, what you had in britain, you had the most conservative economic people, the tories, vote to leave and the most liberal, working class, younger whites vote to leave. it was as if the trump voters and the bernie voters voted together. if that happens, if clinton

to vote for her, then she could lose, and that is a coalition. we don't think of it in american politics that way but trump does and he openly appeals to bernie voters, and he is where sanders was on trade, nafta, tpp, and hillary clinton has moved towards trump and sanders on these issues. soledad: carl cannon, nice to have you nice to see you. ,>> coming up, the ie strategist for the gop. >> ensure that further jobs are created in america. >> what's his take on trump's promise to keep jobs at home? and, is your high schooler bored in class? could an investment by this woman help students wake up to

soledad: the power of millennials and minorities as a voting force generally tends to favor democratic candidates. but the group needed to

the white non-college educated voter, the white working class. now, four years ago, 30% of all voters identified as being part of the white working class. i now that's a large part of the gop base. so what's the best strategy to win over the working class white vote? sean spicer is chief strategist for the republican national committee. he's also advising the trump campaign, and he joins us from the trump tower in new york city. nice to have you, thanks for being with us. sean: thanks for having me. i appreciate it. soledad: you bet. so trump was in flint, michigan on wednesday and he was talking about jobs overseas and polls have shown this is resonating among the white non-college working class voter. and every time i hear it i think , he is literally contradicting himself, right? because we know in his businesses he has sent jobs overseas. we know his ties, his suits, his

long, are created china, in honduras, in mexico. isn't he being completely hypocritical? sean: well, no, because i think what he is talking about is the policies of the government that reward companies to do that kind of business, not just reward them, but create a tax system and regulatory system that makes it easier and cheaper to do business overseas than want to do work here in the united states. and so he is trying to say that if elected president, i will that will insure manufacturing base returns and create a tax system and regulatory system that rewards companies for staying here in america creating jobs. soledad: i want to ask you a quick question about the autopsy back in 2012. i think in the past you and i have spoken about this, the kind of why the republicans lost the election. in 2012 there was a sense of let's walk through what went wrong. some of the takeaways i'm going

minorities, gay rights not going away. and i look at this past year and i wonder, is the republican party basically just giving up on minorities now? because none of that stuff has really been done. sean: well, no, absolutely not. a couple of things. that report had over 219 recommendations and almost on every single one of them we made substantial progress, especially in the area of the ground game and the data and that's why you are seeing registration up, and i think that's going to be huge as we head into the final 53 days. minorities, absolutely not. look at where donald trump was yesterday, flint, michigan. look where he was last week, in a school talking about school choice, he was in suburbs of philadelphia. soledad: and those are come i think it's for to say photo ops , with brown people, black people behind you. no i think that's fair to say. , but if you look at the polling the numbers, his appeal to black voters is tiny. sean: really? one poll came out today that said he is at 19% of the black vote. there was one that had him at

look i'll give you this -- we need to do better. we have to go into communities, churches, businesses, neighborhoods we haven't been going into traditionally as republicans and take our conservative message and solutions to those neighborhoods. i will give that to you six days a week and twice on sundays that we have to be going into more places and talking to more people. not just because it's a growing segments of the preparation, but frankly, it is the right thing to do. and what you have seen trump do over the last few weeks is have events in flint, philadelphia, cleveland, and suburbs of some of these places where there are large minority populations. whole roundtables with hispanics. can we do more? absolutely. do we need to do more? absolutely. but i think that when you look at what past campaigns have done, trump in the last month has probably done more in terms of outreach than a lot of the last couple cycles bind. soledad: but if you look at -- sean: hold on. is that enough? no, we have to do more and more. that message needs to resonate.

starting to show that. one poll came out today, showing he's nationally at 19% of the black vote. remember mccain got 4% of the , black vote, romney got 6. we need to do better. i grant you i don't want to be , in single digits, i want to be in high double digits but every day we make progress is good for this party. soledad: at the same time you've also been empowering, raising the voices of people who are very hostile to latinos. people who are very overly hostile to african americans. at the exact same time, and more than just the past few weeks t sean: well, again, i think there is no question and we can agree that the party needs to do better -- soledad: by donald trump himself has done that. that's not just the party -- sean: look, he was down in mexico a couple weeks ago talking about the important contributions mexico and mexican people have made to our country, our economy -- sean: after calling them rapists, right?

to talk about our party improving, you want me to talk about our candidate, i am. i give you that. our party needs to better, our candidates need to do better, but at the end of the day, we are doing better and we are doing more and i'm proud of what our party and candidates are doing to reach out and make this country better. soledad: sean spicer is the chief strategist for the public and national committee. thank you for talking with me. sean: thank you. soledad: we talk about a lot more and you can see it on our website, matteroffact.tv. >> that took decades to build. >> you're lifted up so high and that evokes a lot of emotion. >> how this architect made history just by doing her job. and later, a third of all teenagers say school is boring. why this woman believes they can

soledad: welcome back to "matter

." now, a story, 100 years in the making. it's true. the smithsonian's national museum of african american history and culture is just about to open its doors to the public. it is an effort that started in 1915. visitors can take in collections that include a dress civil rights activist rosa parks was making shortly before her 1955 arrest. they can see chuck berry's cadillac. take in a tuskegee airplane used to train african-american pilots during world war ii. now "matter of fact" coes takes us inside the museum, to meet one of the creative forces behind its design. diane: every artifact has a story, one of struggle, perseverance, and ultimately, success. zena howard knows those ideals all too well, as one of the very few african american women architects in the u.s. >> there is less than 200 in the

diane: she became interested in becoming an architect as early as 8-years-old. >> i knew what i wanted to do but i didn't have a bunch of people to tell me what that was. particular people saying "i want to be that -- i want to be a fireman, doctor, lawyer, policeman." diane: but it all clicked when she saw the 1970's, at a drawing table. >> and i was like, what is that, and i had to research it had to know what he did for a living and then my parents were able to help me understand what it meant. diane: as the daughter of civil rights activists from the south, zena grew up to break barriers and become one of the few in her field. this perkins and will architect says being part of the national museum of african american history and culture project is

talk about my history as an african american, our history as americans, with people that don't necessarily look like me in a way that feels finally safe and authentic. diane: she worked on the sweeping staircase that leads to the history gallery. one of her favorite spots allows visitors to take in the black experience from the bottom up. zena: it sense, let's us know how far we've come. look down into the history gallery and then you're lifted up so high and that evokes a lot of emotion. soledad: black female architects, incredibly rare. diane: there are not a lot of them in the united states. as a matter of fact, they only make up .2% of licensed architects in the united states. and what are the chances behind zena howard? i met another black female architect when i was at the museum. deryl mckissack. she's president and ceo of

hundred years, her ancestors started it, and she calls herself 5th generation slave builder. one of her ancestors was a slave builder. she's continuing the building tradition. her actual firm herself started with just herself and $1000. and it has grown to 200 employees in 5 states. she does a lot of work. her company worked on the memorial in washington, d.c., as well. she is looking to expand to other countries as well. and they are the oldest african american architectual firm in the united states. really incredible women. soledad: very appropriate that she's part of this museum. i love that. i can't wait to go check it out. diane, thank you. >> coming up next, rethinking

now, kind of a rare sight. kids cheering an announcement about learning more in school. these d.c.-area students will take part in a kind of innovation laboratory within their school. the washington leadership academy is one of 10 schools in the nation to win a $10 million dollar grant from x.q., the super school project. it is funded by laurene powell jobs, the widow of apple founder, steve jobs. russlyn ali, the ceo of x.q. says it' for engaging kids in their high school education and preparing them for the workplace of the future. is $100 million a lot of money for 10 schools or is it a little money when you think about the budget for the schools across the country? >> well, money alone is not enough, and money alone won't be our only responsibility. we are in this with them for a long time to meet them where they are and help them reach their dreams in their communities.

as risk capital, giving teachers, parents, students, and administrators a chance to try new approaches without fear of failure, and a goal of figuring out what works. >> when we return -- >> we were so na?ve about the whole drug thing. >> america's deadly addiction. >> can't bring my son back.

>> i took my first handful of pills. soledad: this week "matter of the national association of broadcasters to talk about the opioid addiction problem claiming lives and devastating families in all of our communities. the national institute of health says there are more than 2 million americans addicted to opioids. recently, on this show, the surgeon general, dr. vivek murthy, called it america's epidemic. >> about 20 years ago we began an effort to treat pain more aggressively as a country.

to treat pain more aggressively was not accompanied by the training and support that clinicians needed, and it was accompanied by heavy marketing of opioid medication to doctors. what we saw over the that followed was devastating. soledad: so over the next year, we will commit time in our show to examine the causes, highlight efforts in local communities to address the crisis, and the policy initiatives needed to support a national response. we'll continue to report on the advocacy of those directly affected. whose marine son died of an overdose while receiving in patient care at a veteran's hospital in wisconsin. >> i mean, obviously, you can't bring my son back now, but let's save some other sons and daughters. soledad: our goal is to keep a conversation going that will do more than create an awareness of the problem. our goal is to illuminate solutions. thanks for joining us, everybody.

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>> welcome to "teen kids news." let's begin with our top story for this week. when it comes to applying to college, or even for a summer job, it's helpful to show that you've held leadership positions. but what does it take to be a leader? amelia finds out. >> leaders -- they're all around us. for example... >> i mean, there are, like, the obvious leaders like