nbc political analyst ben ginsburg. ben, thanks for joining us this morning. >>> be sure to count on complete coverage ahead on the "today" show. savannah guthrie and matt lauer are in cleveland this morning to bring you the very latest. >>>. >> we know there was heavy rain and high wind yesterday. a lot of people saw, heard, felt hail. aerg outside of my window which woke me up. it really was indeed hail. pea-sized in some places. pretty big. >> as we turn to chuck bell now for a look at the forecast for the day ahead. we don't have to worry about what we had last night happening again today? >> no, no. that was the cold front. pea to marble-sized hail covered the ground even at my house in northwest. a lot of people awakened at 10:45 last night. on the other side of the horizon, a pretty looking day. here's a look back in time. this is from late last night. here's the line of thunderstorms that fired up south of gaithersburg and put on a light show as it went through west washington and farther down into parts ofou al

. >> ben ginsburg is watching now with us. than the optics and the fact that it's a musical interlude and the fact that it was a surprise for the party, what's the net damage? >> the net damage is only to the way the program will unfold for the rest of the night. it's a tightly honed script, and something like this, if it takes too long, can throw off who gets to speak in primetime, and who doesn't. on the parliamentary side, it's possible that other states will now do sort of a similar tactic and ask for a polling of their delegation. that will really cause some havoc with the tv script for this evening. >> ben ginsburg, from our studio off the floor. with two of our friends here in the studio, anxious to partake. >> and they're just in alaska. it's very early in the alphabet. so -- >> this is a television show. it's a live television show that you want to keep on schedule. so, behind the podium, in the caff erns of the stadium there, there are very anxious republican party officials, very anxious officials with the donald tr

the fear in the gop, according to ben ginsburg that other states, this could be contagious. >> that's right. and the civic dorks portion of the program is supposed to have just ended. >> right. >> they have their daytime business and everything, but this roll call tonight is something that you love if you're into civics. it's supposed to be over and we're supposed to be back to the grand tv show, with all the speakers, including donald trump's children, but that's already officially delayed. and it seems like we're in a part of the process that may be just the beginning. as you say, we don't -- alaska is what we're waiting on right now. a man from the alaska delegation stood up and said our votes were not counted the way we wanted them to be counted. kelly o'donnell is on the floor, i believe. do we have kelly? kelly, go ahead. >> we are in the middle of it here in the alaska delegation. i'm with former state senator dave donnelly, who has told me that the 28 delegates are upset that their votes were not counted as recorded, by their state rules. what has happened here? there's been a

joining me now, the deputy editorial page editor for the washington post, and ben ginsburg, who is anutor, both attorneys, ruth, first to you. the legal ramifications to this and the political. >> so the legal ramifications to this are really good for hillary clinton. she can, as a matter of criminal investigation put this. behind her and go on with her campaign for president. the political ramifications as you're been discussing are much more complicated because the fbi director did a pretty unusual think for an fbi director or a prosecutor to do, which is he didn't just say, okay, no indictment, tlaung very much, everybody go home. he explained the reasons, not to bring an indictment, and then he offered some analysis of the secretary of state's behavior and that analysis is going to continue to resinate with people who have understandable questions about her behavior. >> ben web as a long time advisor to republican candidates and observer from the republican side, how does the republican nominee handle this and how do republican candidates handle this? >> well look, i appreciate th

i'm joined now by former governor and msnbc contributor howard dean, and msnbc political analyst ben ginsburg to see both of you. >> thank you. >> and nice of you to come out on free speech wednesday. what do you make of all this? ben, we even had a statement from the kremlin denying any involvement, saying this reminds me of a company where they tell each other horror stories and then start being frightened of their own stories. what's going on? >> well look, it's the democratic convention, the democrats had a big problem at the start of the week with the content of the e-mail. now they're trying to deflect from the content of the e-mail, after their chairman is out after the allegation back and forth from russia. it's a good political tactic to diffuse -- >> is it on a day when we could have gone on to tpp, he started out on talking of lack of press conferences by hillary clinton, instead, he creates his own controversy. >> he did, and then that may have been something that mr. trump would have had back when he said it, but the point is still the democrats calling attention to the content o

reverend al sharpton and ben ginsburg, thank you so much for being here.nd we're going to ask to stick around in case donald trump does come to the podium. we'll get your reaction. once again, we are keeping an eye on virginia beach where donald trump, new jersey governor chris christie are expected to campaign together. we'll bring you any new developments out of that event live. >>> plus we're going to talk to one of the black lives matter organizers. dallas police chief david brown addressing the tensions nationwide telling the media police officers have too much on their plate. >> again, i go back to i'm a person of faith. i believe that i'm able to stand here and discuss this with you is a testament to god's grace. and his sweet, tender mercies. just to be quite honest with you. because what we're doing, what we're trying to accomplish here is above challenging. we're asking cops to do too much in this country. about kids. and when millions couldn't get health care, this first lady worked with republicans and democrats to fix it. creating the children

i want to bring in ben ginsburg. nobody knows more about the rules and procedures at republican conventions than ben. it looks like the drama will be reince priebus. he doesn't want a recorded vote on the rules. he doesn't want this convention being bogged down. he doesn't want a chance that could pass. do you think he could get away with ignores these calls in the next few minutes from the floor? >> i think that's difficult to do if you're reince priebus. it's been reported that the delegates have met their obligations to get the signatures in. i'm also not sure it's going to be reince priebus in the chair. it's operating under the rules of the house of representatives. and it is completely possible that you will find a member of the house rules committee up there wielding the gavel. >> and so what happens if then -- if he is forced if it's priebus or somebody else if they are forced to recognize the free the delegates crowd, forced then to have a recorded vote? is there any chance that on the recorded vote, every de

. >> and our viewers who watched us at all during this political season have watched ben ginsburg, who has followed his own kind of emotional journey. ben, i think that's fair to say, a partner in jones day, former general counsel for dnc, ben, we talked so long. you were advocating the position. but we talked so long about the never-trump movement. about how many roadblocks could be thrown up at the convention. how many rules changes could be attempted. none of that happens. so what do you now expect to happen? especially any exigencies there? >> turns out, it was easier to get publicity than votes in the rules committee. i think there will be something of an attempt to try and make the points that never-trump and the conservative grassroots employmen movement to try to get the change, they'll try to do some things on the floor. but it is a large order to break through the clutter and the noise, get the chair to recognize you to be able to make those points. so i think tomorrow we'll see some parliamentary maneuverings. but it will be contained in a pretty diskreelts time period i thi

political analyst ben ginsburg will join us live in the next 30 minutes. later on, we'll check back in with tracie potts. >>> 5:47 now. developing this morning, police in kansas are searching for suspects in the deadly shooting of a police captain. the officer was rushed to the hospital where he later died. one person has been arrested meanwhile, baton rouge is preparing to bury two of its officers. funeral arrangements are set for matthew gerald and montrell jackson. the two officers and a sheriff's deputy were killed in an ambush on sunday. gavin long wanted to shoot anyone wearing a badge. >>> 5:47 now. in response to the deadly police shootings, montgomery county is hosting a policing. tonight's meeting is in germantown at 7:00. the first meeting was last night in silver spring and dozens of people came out. executive said he was once racially profiled by hourt county police while putting up campaign signs. police chief tom manger focuses on three things when managing his police force. >> hire the right people, invest in their training and hold my offi

halle jackson will have an update on the speaker's list and ben ginsburg, an expert on convention ruleslso a political analyst. based on the process of elimination of the confirmed and vetted candidates and what they have publicly said, where do we stand on a trump running mate? >> i'm glad to come to you now because i have breaking developments. working source ises today to see where we are. this is a curious period in what hob a an unprecedented year. sources familiar with the process say no decision has been made and the public reports that are out there are premature. what i'm being told is there are divisions within the inner circle about which of the three finalists, mike pence of indiana, chris christie of new jersey and former house speaker newt gingrich. there are members of the trump family who have favorites among those three. and interestingly, i'm now hearing that there's an element of this decision that is personal. that has to do with ivanka's husband and his connection in an unusual way to governor christie because it's his father who had been prosecuted by crihristie aa

i want to bring in molly ball, politics writer for "the atlantic" and ben ginsburg, former national counsel to both mitt romney's presidential campaign. good to see you both. ben, let me start with you. when we get back to the issue about this trump tweet and saying that they co opted the imagery and sent it from someone who had images about hillary being corrupt and blah, blah, blah, what's worse? trump sent the tweet knowing it could be viewed as anti semitic or he had no idea that it could create this kind of controversy? >> well, i'm not sure i like those options. look, at best, it was a really bad mistake, which you kind of have to own and then apologize and move on. even if nobody recognized that it had this symbolism to them, then that's sort of a comment about the professionalism of the team and not being sensitive enough to realize it. so you have to own it and just move on. >> well, they would like to move on, and they do have this big rally coming up later today in north carolina. donald trump appearing with senator bob corker. and molly, the two big rallies, north carolina the e

ben ginsburg. we've been talking about this for what feels like weeks, months. almost here. it seems like the trump people thought they had this under control until a couple days ago. we're starting to hear they're a little worried. >> i think all of this is a moving target. i think delegates are allowed to change their mind and notoriously unreliable in terms of giving hard counts at this stage. the nominees are right to worry always and to operate as if the worst could possibly happen. they have a lot of tools. >> if you were looking at this situation about to unfold in the next 24 to 36 hours, what will you be paying attention to to measure how it is going? >> the rules committee meeting tomorrow. the temporary committee of the rnc rules will run through the whole list of them. there are a number of test rules that i suspect folks will bring up to sort of gauge strength. and then there will ultimately be the attempt to amend the current rules to include the conscience clause or the unbinding clause. >> what is propelling things in a worse direction at this po

here in cleveland with me ben ginsburg, political analyst, supers lawyer, former romney adviser.'ve been through this rodeo before. your thoughts today as trump reaches out and puts mike pence on this ticket. >> mike pence is a great choice for dealing with the desperate parts of the republican party so that this is part of the theme of we're going to have a unified convention. a very good rules committee meeting, the platform went off without much of a hitch. that's going to mat sessions in the hall much better, i think, from the trump campaign point of view. >> regular, normal people care about outcomes and politicos tend to carry about process. i'm for the sure process matters but political unit at nbc observing about this selection process, messy message isn't a good starting point for trust among the two men at the top of the ticket. we've had power struggles in the trump team likely to linger throughout the remainder of the campaign, that from lid report and discussion with paul manafort, convention chair. the idea he was at the last minute, i had a republican aide tell me

ben ginsburg, behavioral patterns unprecedented in modern society. a good way of putting it.. >> thanks, dave. >>> next, to our most important number of the day, not going to give it away just yet, but it does involve trump and the campaign's confidence in beating the odds come november. this company's servers. accessible by thousands of suppliers and employees globally. but with cyber threats on the rise, mary's data could be under attack. with the help of at&t, and security that senses and mitigates cyber threats, their critical data is safer than ever. giving them the agility to be open & secure. because no one knows & like at&t. jack knocked over a candlestick, onto the shag carpeting... ...and his pants ignited into flames, causing him to stop, drop and roll. luckily jack recently had geico help him with renters insurance. because all his belongings went up in flames. jack got full replacement and now has new pants he ordered from banana republic. visit geico.com and see how affordable renters insurance can be. trolling for a gig with can't blame you. it's a drone you co

let's bring in msnbc political analyst ben ginsburg, former general counsel for the republican national committee. you know these rules as well as anyone. how unusual was this sort of fight on the floor in this fashion on the first day? >> well, pretty unusual, chris. what happens, there have been fights on the floor before and voice votes. what was different about this is that there were petitions filed. so those petitions gave the people in the never trump movement more authority to be upset with what happened. >> so ben, what then happens now? if you have this frustration. the question is are there any procedural outlets that they can now move forward with that frustration, that they can try some new tactics or has this been effectively crushed? >> well, there are a couple of things. there's the street theater element of it which means you can protest and yell loudly. that's unlikely to happen. this is the republican convention, after all. secondly, you can do things like try and abstain from the presidential vote. anyone in a delegation can ask for an actual polling of that delegati

attorney and republican strategist ben ginsburg. ario for the convention? >> oh y thi, i think the worse- scenario for the convention is probably a really ugly fight. lots of procedural objections that end up with donald trump as the nominee simply because the person who looks like the inevitable nominee now gets dusted up a great deal by the process. >> and what do you think is going to happen? does it seem -- we're hearing more, we're reading more and more stories and we're hearing more reports that ari said that never trump movement is not going to find footing in the convention. >> look, for it to find footing, it is a really difficult task to come in, organize the convention, get 2,472 republicans who are not habitual quick movers about things and not inclined to do something unprecedented. to actually get them to take the votes to move. i'm not sure that an amendment in the rules committee saying everything gets pushed off to 2016 has any real effect because you just put a phrase in every amendment that got passed that said, no

ben ginsburg. good day to have ben on. that was confusing late yesterday. wow, eggs steve schmi-- i guess schmidt didn't mince words last night. what a catastrophe. >> steve is one of the guys early on that said trump had what it took to win the republican nomination and maybe even beyond that. that is unfortunate and we're going to talk about the whole day. >> lay it out. >> obviously melania's speech at the end was what everybody was talking about. when the speech was over, i could tell she had actually struck a chord, because i started getting texts and e-mails. >> really. >> before the internet took up to say, wow, she outperformed. wow, what a great speech she gave. i would say more than usual from friends. even from people who don't like trump. so melania actually outperformed. then, of course, the questions about the speech, which, i'm sorry, if anybody believes she's like bartelby the scrivener and in the back writing this down her self. this is an example of a campaign not built out. the start of daft controversy a few weeks ago. they needed somebo

she can take root gator ben's bird --ruth gator ben's ruth bader ginsburg with her.andump is growing with it, presidency, america will be closed to overregulation and over business. bless each and every one of you. and god bless america. thank you. please welcome former united michael mukasey. e: -- mr. mckay see -- years know, over the hillary clinton has done a lot of things and said a lot of why she should not be president of the united , but how she treated and what she did with government secrets when she was secretary of state and what she said about what she did both before and after she got caught exquisitely sums up the case against her presidency. secret andd received top-secret and beyond top-secret information in e-mails on the unsecured private e-mail system instead of on a secure government system. and she did it without authorization. she said, falsely, that there was no classified information. , that what shely did was authorized. when dosage is a? -- what else did she say? when we travel to sensitive places like russia, we often receive warnings from