joining us is alex altman. thanks very much for being with us. >> thanks for having me. >> i want to begin with your story begins, phone conversations which have been a regular part of reince priebus's routine in talking with donald trump, including one that involved house speaker paul ryan. if you could read between the tea leaves, what was the tone or tenor of that conversation? >> well, you know, i think that priebus and trump have developed sort of an unlikely partnership. and i think what priebus wanted to communicate to trump last week was that the republican party is really has sort of a sweeping panic now about the direction of the trump campaign, the trajectory of the polls is wrong. and what he told trump was the campaign was going in the wrong direction. they needed to turn it around. and what is going on inside the rnc at the moment is they're trying to make a deliberation in the next couple of weeks before early voting begins how they want to spend limited resources in terms of both cash and field

alex altman joining us from the washington bureau. thank you for your time. alex: thank you very much. announcer: a group seeking to raise the federal minimum wage its firsthour holds national convention tomorrow in richmond, virginia. watch our live coverage at 5:00 p.m. eastern time on c-span 2. announcer: on saturday, c-span's issue spotlight looks a trade does some other impact on the economy, jobs and the presidential election. and we will defend american jobs and american trades i saying no to bed deals like the transpacific partnership, and unfair trade practices, like when -- mr. trump: people in pennsylvania have lost one third of manufacturing jobs since the clintons put china into the wto. announcer: the program looks at nafta, the 1984 free trade agreement a tween the united states, mexico and canada. clinton: it will cause more jobs for people, for experts, for our markets and for democracy, for our allies.

joining us is alex altman. thanks very much for being with us. >> thanks for having me. >> i want to begin with your story begins, phone conversations which have been a regular part of reince priebus's routine in talking with donald trump, including one that

joining us is alex altman from "time" magazine. ks for joining us. > thanks for joining me. >> i want to talk about reince pre bus's conversation with paul ryan. what was the tone or tenor of that conversation? alex: i think priebus and trump have developed anen likely partnership. what priebus wanted to communicate with trump last week is that the republican party is really -- has sort of a sweeping panic now about the direction of the trump campaign and what he told trump was that the campaign was going in the wrong direction. they needed to turn it around. and what is going on inside the r.n.c. at the moment is they're trying to make a deliberation in the next couple of weeks before the voting begins how they want to spend resources in terms of party machinery as they get here in the fall. there's a menu of options on the table. this is something that the r.n.c. will have to make a determination about in the next couple of weeks. >> donald trump does not have a large staff. how reliant has he been, will he be on the r.n.c. moving

alex altman is a -- >> they're really pushing back hard and saying they can't do this, what "time" says they want done can't be done and some of our reporters are like, you need to check into this, but it happened? >> yes, it happened. you're not surprised to see this kind of pushback for what is obviously a tricky issue. the rnc has a joint fundraising agreement with mr. donald trump. reince priebus worked very carefully with him to forge a partnership and is in regular contact with mr. trump about all facets of the campaign. we reported that last week, precip priebus told trump that internal polling suggested his campaign is on the wrong trajectory and needs to turn it around and if that doesn't happen all options are on the table to redirect the party machinery going forward. >> so priebus tells him, turn it around. what is your reporting enthusiasm responded? >> well, trump has -- one thing he mentioned to us he listens to people much more than people realize. he believes reince is a friend, says reince is a great guy. the trusts his advice, and as we have seen, he has attempted at

the reporting of alex altman joining us. thank you for your time. >> guest: thanks very much. >> a live look at the greater richmond convention center in richmond, virginia. group called fight for $15 getting set to start its first ever nationwide convention here in richmond. workers from a number of industries to call for raising the minimum wage. it should get their way here in just a few moments. a little warming up the crowd before things get started, i can should get underway momentarily. live coverage russia thank you. while we wait for the event to get started heart of the discussion from today's "washington journal" on the impact of the affordable care act on insurance providers. >> host: here to give us an update on insurance providers and the affordable care act is zachary with bloomberg. >> guest: we've seen the five biggest public yes health insurers all talk about how they are now losing money from selling plan to individuals under the affordable care act. it raises a big concern going into the laws before scien

alex altman says no. in "time" magazine he writes, donald trump's sinking poll, unending attacks, have the gop reconsidering its strategy for november. he is "times" washington correspondent. he joins us right now. alex, you know, the big bombshell in your article this morning has everyone talking. you report the rnc, that reince priebus essentially threatened donald trump to turn things around or else, or else they will reallocate resources to congressional areas. explain. >> i'm not sure i used the word "threatened." at one point last week, after trump declined to -- initially declined to endorse paul ryan, he got on the phone to tell trump in pretty frank terms that his poll numbers were headed in the wrong direction, that republicans were frustrated with the way things were going, and that over the coming weeks the party had some difficult decisions to make. including, he suggested, potentially making the call to shift party resources, to down ticket house and senate races. but the story does not say,

host: "time" magazine, this is what the cover story looks like, "meltdown," the reporting of alex altman. this tweet says, donald trump has his own party, the r.n.c. could cut its ties and his supporters would carry o. it's like a cult filled with haters. daniel lippman, your response to that sentiment? guest: he actually draws support from a much wider pectrum than your kind of -- than you pick up on. because it's not just, you know, people who are concerned about immigrants or who have some of the sentiments that, you know, that we mentioned, but it's kind of -- there's lots of mainstream republicans who just can't get behind hillary clinton, and they view her as untrustworthy and someone who misleads american people. and so it's -- donald trump was just hitting a small part of the electorate, then he would not be where he is. he actually takes a significant -- 80% of republicans support him, and a bunch of democrats and independents do as well, and they support him for a variety of reasons. but if there was any other candidate besides hillary clinton running, then trump would probably

alex: we have to leave it there. the magisterial mike murphy and the majestic mike altman. -- mike feldman. ke murphy's podcasts called radio free gop. mike: it is good. alex: we will turn from the state of trump to the fourth estate after these words from our sponsor. ♪ john: who in the world would be better to talk about donald trump's love/hate relationship with the press than my next guest? thank you for coming on the show. jim: glad to be here. john: sean hannity owes the campaign what? jim: he's not only a very supportive television host, he's also an advice giver. he would reject the advisor label, though not entirely. he would admit he has a lot of interaction with the campaign and people around the candidate and his son, don junior, that he is a supportive tv has to is not a journalist. john: if you called him a trump whisper, what he reject that? jim: i think you would like that. alex: there's so much talk on the campaign trail about liberal media bias and you have two former news had that are active advisors to a campaign and someone who is currently on tv advising a political cam