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we're also joined by republican strategist boris epstein. t's talk to you, boris, i want to cut right to the anti-trump ad by hillary clinton regarding trump's refusal to release his taxes. is that going to hurt him? why isn't he releasing them? >> it's to the going to hurt him. it has been around for months, hasn't had any play in the prime others, even in the open primaries. clinton has her own tax issues. the clinton foundation had to restate four years worth of tax returns because after she said we would not accept foreign government money she did, the foundation did. and $8.8 million of foundation -- >> foundation what? >> they received it. so they had to restate their tax returns. >> what you are saying is the clinton foundation has tax problems -- or tax issues, and that her attack on doubled matter. >> i'm saying if i'm hillary clinton i wouldn't open that pandora's box. >> what dues, marianne. >> it's easy. et cetera a not going to hurt donald trump with republicans because republicans don't like the irs. it will hurt him with indepe

let's talk it over with donald trump supporters and republican strategist boris epstein and cnn political commentator buck sexton. thank you both for coming on. we do appreciate it. >> of course. >> boris, i'm going to begin with you. the big question here in the wake of what sarah palin said today, has anyone in the trump campaign had any direct contact with palin about her vow to oust ryan or is she acting independently of the campaign? >> governor palin is free to come out and say whatever she feels. so she was saying that, you know, from her perspective and she's absolutely free to do so. i'm not going to go out and say that paul ryan's career is over, but what i would say is he is likely making a mistake. he is not listening to the american people. he's maybe acting in the best interest of republicans in congress or his own for reelection. but that is a mistake. having said that, let us not give this more importance than it should have. there's six months until the election, six months until the day. i'm convinced that not just pale ryan, but the overwhelming majority of the republic

joining me now is republican strategist boris epstein. epstein. it is there. let me begin with you, boris. big-time drug supporter. nothing but a headache today. am i right? >> it is great to move ahead. ashley: now is the big question. can after all the bruising and purple comments and the down in the mud fight that went on in this process, can the gop unite behind donald trump? >> absolutely. look at 2000. mccain versus bush. it very tough fight. the gop nominated around the nominee. some people for republicans. all of these young screaming networks. sure. the overwhelming majority will be behind trump. hillary or maybe bernie. ashley: what are their response of the democrats? did you watch donald trump to be the nominee? >> i do not know if it is what the democrats wanted. they are a better candidate. i would certainly say that we are not afraid of them. i understand that. he is certainly bradford and the name part of the establishment that does not have a voice. the question is, who do these voters at the end of the day trust. leading them to a place where

joining me now, adriana cohen, boston herald columnist, boris epstein, lee carter and kelly ridell.h you. sheldon, he played it kind of coy this time around -- [laughter] and it felt like he was more of a cruz guy, perhaps, but he is a true blue republican. however, how does donald trump accept money in a campaign that where, for the most part, was pegged on being self-funded? >> self-funded? yeah. he said this week that he's willing to accept funds. now, what he's done is he's opened up a joint account with the rnc, a joint fundraising account. we don't really know the details of whether that money will be split 50/50 with money to the trump campaign and also being used to fund some senatorial and house races, but he needs at least a billion dollars to run a competitive race against hillary clinton. he's about six months behind her in terms of fundraising, so it's great news about sheldon coming on, harold hamm, an oil baron in oklahoma, has also kind of endorsed trump, and he can write big checks. charles: yeah. >> we'll see what he can do. charles: although i'm pretty sure he wis

republican strategist and former communications aid to the mccain pollen presidential campaign, boris epstein. >> i got an hour sleep. it's a good nap. >> big question here, is this thing over? we talked so much about a potential contested convention. how are we going to talk about it now? >> as a hypothetical. it's not going to happen. it's over. if you look at the numbers, 1047, trump needs not that many more to get to 1237. you have new jersey coming up with 51. that's winner take all. then california, even before that you got west virginia and nevada, new mexico, oregon, all states where trump being the only candidate really on the ballot that matters. by the time the convention rolls around, he will be well past the 1237. >> is there any scenario where he is not the nominee? >> there's really not. the only -- there's no scenario of a contested convention. could somebody run as a third-party candidate, it's possible. it's extremely unlikely. nobody raised their hand. anybody whose name has been floated has denied or said no thank you. we have had -- we have nine states left. the republica

democratic strategist maria cardona, cardona is a clinton supporters and a 2016 super delegate and boris epstein. he is a donald trump supporter. sally, to you first. you've been a sanders supporter. yet, this week, you wrote, i'm having a hard time being a bernie sanders supporter at the moment. why is that? >> well, i was disappointed with the behavior of some, not ail, but some sanders supporters in nevada. the media got it wrong. chairs weren't thrown. but what did happen was far less civil than i would like to see. i'm also disappointed in the way the sanders campaign responded. i think you have to come very clearly, repeatedly, first thing out of your mouth against that kind of behavior without saying buts and talking about process. but that said -- >> democrats have criticized donald trump for not immediately criticizing supporters who resorted to violence. >> that's right. part of the thing that's been inspiring about bernie sanders' campaign all along, it's represented the moral high ground in this country for folks frustrated by politics. you have to continue to occupy that moral high

joining us now, boris epstein, richard fowler a nationally syndicated radio host and senior fellow withhe new leaders council and charles hurt, a columnist for the washington times. gentlemen, good to see you. boris, donald trump is a man with no classical training in foreign affairs. a man who has never held office. yet boris he is resonating with american voters on this very issue of terror. why? >> because he is able to get to the point. he doesn't pars his words. and he speaks what he believes. he doesn't wait. if you look at the clock when hillary clinton was making those comments it was 2:00 eastern. donald trump was out six hours before then talking about what actually happen. same thing happened in brussels. as soon as the brussels terror attack happened donald trump was on the phone to the radio shows, to the morning shows, giving his view, speaking to the american people. what did hillary clinton do? she had a conference call with 30 of her advisors and then gave a speech at stanford. that difference is exactly why donald trump is leading in the polls as a whole and on terrori

boris epstein, tara, and ben, thanks to all of you in offering your insight. don't miss jake tapper's entire interview with marco rubio. he is now speaking out for the first time on all of these issues on state of the union tomorrow night at 9:00 eastern only on cnn. we'll get his take on how he feels about trump now, whether he is going to be a supporter or on the never trump train. it is interesting what he has to say. up ahead, this hour, live in our "cnn newsroom." he is the last world war ii veteran to lead a major party ticket. the lone former republican presidential nominee attended this summer's gop convention, bob dole joining us live next. plus, it is all about the golden state. all three candidates spending a lot of time there and money. they are in california right now. will trump be the first republican to win there in about 30 years? later -- >> usef was just four years old when masked men attacked him outside his bag dag home. >> it was such a touching story. this is now ten years after this tragedy. it turned into a story of hope. a cnn exclusi

with me, back with me, republican strategist and donald trump supporter, boris epstein, and maria, doingr a clinton stuper pac. clinton says she's above the fray, not respond to trump's personal attacks, but as we saw in the primaries, when his republican counterparts ignored attacks, just didn't seem to work. what do you think of the strategy? >> well, first of all, the republican primary electorate is different from the general election, and if trump continues to be obsessed with going negative, blaming hillary clinton for what her husband did in office, the 80% negatives that he has with women are going to go up to 100%. when you are facing a general election electorate where 53% of the electorate are women and majority are women of color, now with hugely high negative perceptions of trump to begin with, that's not a strategy that i think is going to work. secondly, when he goes that way, that route, it betrays and lack of ability on his part to meet hillary clinton on the batt battlefield of ideas, on real proposals to meet solutions as we meet as a country, and that's where she is g

boris epstein former aide to john mccain and trump supporter. we're getting down to the wire. have to have it all covered. erick, let me start with you, don't give in to evil? is that a little strong? you think donald trump is evil? >> one of the criticisms i think about ted cruz he often sounded like he is campaigning for preacher in chief instead of commander-in-chief. if i were cruz i would stay away from good versus evil theme on eve of indiana. melissa: boris, you know talk radio is a huge force in wisconsin. we saw that conservative radio really went against trump and they were very successful. what is going on in indiana now on that front? it seems like radio isn't having the same impact? >> it is not. indiana is a mix of wisconsin and michigan as something said earlier in your program but also with other states in it. very interesting state. unlike others. hoosiers think for themselves. they do like people like bobby knight that supported trump. cruz's game has gotten tired. he is tired. you can see it in him. he pulling things out like good versus evil. he couldn't ev

boris epstein a republican strategist and former communications aide to the mccain/palin presidentialcampaign. and alan colmes is host of the alan colmes show. good evening to all of you, thanks for being here tonightment alan, i feel like i want to start with you. we've had this open fbi investigation. now we learn that her very close aide huma abedin is going to be questioned by the fbi. the feeling is it just doesn't look good for hillary clinton. >> i don't know what that means clinton. in the statement, it says there's no evidence she will fully compromised anything or had any wrongdoing. of course there will be an investigation. they'll talk to her aides. they may even talk to her. but that doesn't mean she's indictable. >> alan, but saying -- boris, i'll toss this to you -- that you'll have to assume that intent has to be a key focus. boris, there's a lot more at work. >> under the key statutes, they don't necessarily need intent. they just need to prove there was a server out there and you have to find out why. to alan's point, of course it's bad. you have the presumptive nomi

, patti solis doyle, a former hillary clinton president ideal campaign manager, van jones, and boris epstein, a republican strategist and donald trump campaign surrogate. guys, thanks so much for joining me. so, kevin, back to where we began this show, try this playbook on for size as someone who was part of mitt romney's campaign. a republican campaign taking on california and new york. they're going to focus there along with some other unlikely states. was that under consideration for mitt moromney? >> no. one of the big challenges is the voters donald trump appeals to the most, middle-class white voters, where they are most prevalent in places like california, in the central valley, there's not enough of those voters to make that a strong play. where donald trump is weakest, minority populations, suburban voters, women voters, those populations are dominant in many of those states like california, like new york. if you couple that with the fact that donald trump is behind on building the infrastructure that you need to build in order to prosper in some of those states where the democrats

. >> joining me now is boris epstein. i appreciate your time. you heard from bernie sanders. no secret when it comes to the polls hillary clinton and donald trump neck and neck, but the dominance of bernie sanders in these polls as he just mentioned, what do you account that to? >> governor kasich was coming in polls also but where is he now. the reason is bernie sanders has not been under the spotlight. the only negative story was that horrible story about the university that has wife ran up in vermont that she ran to the ground with debt. just an example of how bernie sanders' economy would work. so not much of a focus on him from the national immediate are a. and obviously not any attacks in the media from the republican side. so those polls are not reliable at all. if he were to become the nominee, i guarantee trump would be in the need nationally. >> and polls taken in bust belt state rust belt states, trump trailing hillary clinton and he says the white working class.be state rust belt states, trump trailing hillary clinton and he says the white working class. is that a

i have boris epstein, republican strategist and trump surrogate and supporter. david ferin fold and mo alayi. gentlemen, welcome to all of you. and, david, let me just turn and begin with you because we have been reading your post pieces. you have been, you know, for quite a while holding mr. trump's feet to the fire with the veterans fund-raiser piece. right? we'll get to the media bashing in a second but you eloquently outnulined the questions you wanted. do you feel like you got them? >> partly. we wanted to know how much trump raised. $5.5 million. more than what cory lewandowski was telling us. >> a lot of money. wow. >> for the folks that got the donations, a huge life changing donation. the point is not to say he didn't give money to veterans but not sort of giving details of what had happened to the money he said he would permly give and gathered from others to give away and we know the total figure now and the question is what took so long and trump talked a lot about vetting. i had to vet the groups to make sure they were worthwhile and trying to dig i

let's bring in boris epstein, strategist and trump supporter and jamie weinstein for the daily calleror coming on. jamie, start with you. the critic isn't surprising, leon panetta. how will trump counter this? >> well, it's going or the very hard to counter it i think. i mean, basically it's a sound bite foreign policy, a way to control the news cycles and not really thought out the policy and doesn't know very much about the world. and panetta is right to the extent that trump has a policy and that is to a very limited extent to bring the bases from around the world from korea, from japan, leave nato, and that's going to dismantle the national security infrastructure we built up since world war ii and taking that down, once you remove it from around the world, it is not easy to put back if you realize it was a tremendous mistake as i think it would be. >> and now, david petraeus is weighing in, someone who trump has praised. he wrote this piece in "the washington post" and while not using trump's name he lays out some of trump's rhetoric and including proposed ban on muslims that tru

joining us now miami beach mayor phillip levine and boris epstein. first to you, mr.th a piece that happens to track perfectly with hillary's theme which donald trump has a problem with women and in it we find out that he's promoted women within his organization for 25 years in a way that other companies haven't. why is that not a good piece for trump? >> well, i can't talk to whether he has a great relationship with women. the fact of the matter is the polling shows that women really don't approve of him. nor do african-americans or hispanics. i think he has a bigger problem with the truth, and of course as soon as he gets out of his irs federal investigation, maybe he will release his tax returns. we would love to see them so we can show that he's actually not a billionaire. we can show all the off-shore corporations he has. >> i think boris, the mayor makes a good point. why is this obsession with the p.c. stuff? like he's a sexist. >> if i were affiliated with the clintons, i probably wouldn't talk about taxes seeing as the clinton foundation has to restate four y