i had the same reaction chris cillizza did.med pretty strong in that setting. >> yeah, you know, both of these candidates are hostile to the press and they don't do very well when they take hostile questions. and what i would say in response to chris is she has a habit of when she's asked challenging questions, particularly about the relationship between the state department and the clinton foundation and about her e-mail, where she has a very difficult time telling the truth and often tells flat out lies and she stuck her foot in her mouth a number of times and created new news stories and new rounds of, you know, news stories simply by taking questions, which i think is why she's so resistant to fielding questions in the first place. >> let's look at the state of this race again. we always sort of use labor day as the barometer, as the mile mark, whatever you want to call it. we're in the home stretch now. we put a bunch of the numbers up at the top of the show. we can show you the bottom line, these two new polls out today.

joining me now chris cillizza.se anybody that these candidates are preparing for the debate in a dramatically different way. donald trump is down today but last night had a big rally in chester, pennsylvania. he went to geno steaks. i can vouch for them. he was as self-possessed as anyone saying maybe i will get one for hillary. said the debate prep is going fine. but the debate prep is so different there aren't binders. he's not studying videos. we heard from a source they would like to show him the videos of his primary debates but he thinks his performances are so good that it doesn't help to get him to improve. >> as of last week he hadn't practiced. hadn't done mock debates. this is the fundamental difference between the two. if you think of everything being high school, which it is in life, hillary clinton is kid in the front of the room who reads the extra credit books, has huge amounts of knowledge as her command at all times. donald trump is the guy in the back slinging zingers and joking around and gettin

joining me now for our daily fix, chris cillizza, msnbc contributor and founder of the "washington post"fix" block. maria theresa kumar an msnbc contributor and "usa today's" immigration reporter alan gomez. welcome all. maria teresa i was watching you talking with rachel maddow talking after donald trump's immigration speech and i wanted to give you a chance to sound off because you were passionate about what you heard and how it struck you. >> listening to donald trump as an american was chilling, andrea. because he was basically talking in dog-whistle politics that everybody knows, talking about a history that perhaps has not been the brightest in our country. some of the stuff that he was talking about was basically, as you mentioned, this idea of extreme street ivetting, a depo task force, ideological certification, that should make americans on edge because what you're condoning is racial profiling. the fact he wants to take away birth right citizenship should alarm everybody because you're not goidoing it for all america you're doing it for a group of people and when he was in me

i think another week and we'll see where we are. >> chris cillizza, amy chozick and amy philip. think we know where we'll be. >> thank you very much. >> coming up, which donald trump will show up in tonight's debate? some of his advisers wonder the same thing. that's next here on "andrea mitchell reports" live from hofstra university. an important message for americans eligible for medicare. are you receiving all the benefits available to you? do you know there is money available to lower your medicare prescription costs? now is the time to find the coverage that's right for you ... at the right price. the way to do that is to explore your options. you can spend hours doing that yourself ... or you can call healthmarkets ... and let us do the legwork for you - with no cost or obligation. we'll search a variety of plans from nationally recognized companies to find the coverage that's the best fit for you. ... at a price that fits your budget. and we'll do it at no charge to you. plus you may be able to save money on prescriptions. we'll tell you if you qualify. why pay a penny mo

chris cillizza and andrea mitchell, thank you very much. more on "andrea mitchell reports" up next including breaking news. the u.s. now sending more american military personnel to iraq. why and what they will do. that's next here only on msnbc. ugh. heartburn. sorry ma'am. no burning here. try new alka-seltzer heartburn relief gummies. they don't taste chalky and work fast. mmmm. incredible. can i try? she doesn't have heartburn. new alka-seltzer heartburn relief gummies. enjoy the relief. mother in-law with a glad bag, full of trash. what happens next? nothing. only glad has febreze to neutralize odors for 5 days. guaranteed. even the most perceptive noses won't notice the trash. be happy. it's glad. our partnership with habitat for humanity at pg&e, we believe solar should be accessible to everyone. allows us to provide the benefits of solar power to the types of customers who need it most. pg&e provided all of the homes here with solar panels. the solar savings can mean a lot, especially for low-income families. with the savings that i

joining me for insight and analysis this sunday morning are chris cillizza. welcome to sunday, it's "meet the press." >> from nbc in washington, this is "meet the press" with chuck todd. >> good sunday morning and a happy labor day weekend. end of summer to everyone. it is hard to look at the events of this past week and not think it all seems oddly familiar. wash rinse repeat. friday was hillary clinton and e-mails. the fbi revealed details about their interview and ended up raising new questions and giving republicans yet more ammunition about how she and her aides handled e-mails and classified information at the state department. on wednesday it was trump and the issue of deportation. in the afternoon he seemed accommodating. maybe even presidential in a meeting with mexico's president in mexico city. then just hours later before supporters in phoenix, trump gave a thundering anti-illegal immigration speech that seemed more suited for the primaries than the general election. and just yesterday trump made a rare attempt at winning over african american vot

. >>> chris cillizza of the washington post -- >> saquizza -- >> i got get it right. >> pod tunes. >> and i don't think you have your own pod cast yes. >> i don't. >> and rick tyler, msnbc contributor. have you a pod cast yet? >> not yet. only matter of time, rick. >> trump and pence essentially say the same thing that collins said. it is in the trump surrogate world that says they are trying to clarify about what trump said and simply say he is a stronger leader for his people than president obama is for his. acceptable answer to you? >> no. remarkable thing he is saying this. this is a man who grew up in the cold war generation. i lived through part of that generation and putin is a former cia/kgb agent, what ronald reagan called an evil empire. and to somehow praise putin because he praised donald trump, i think it is completely unacceptable. having said that, we did align with the russians in world war ii 1 and world war ii to defeat nazi and fascist italy. working with the russians to defeat isis, is an opportunity. but to praise putin -- >> do you think voters care? i've been wo

i think that should be enough to carry the day. >> chris cillizza and gene, isn't there a concern people of people? >> yes. i think the one thing you have to remember about 125 million people voted in 2012. most models in polls is based on what we know in the past. i always tell people polling is as much art as it is science. based on what you put into the machine is what under the circumstances out of the machine. if turnout drastically drops, 100 million, 110 million. that's significant and we don't necessarily know how to deal with it. >> how will it go? >> can i make one suggests. if i was donald trump and trying to be strategic, i would try to bump up gary johnson, get gary johnson into those debates, at least the first one. to joe's point, i think it's unlikely donald trump can win 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, anything close to a majority of the vote. it is not nearly unlikely he can win somewhere between 43 and 47. what do you need in that situation? you need the third party candidate to take 12, 11. you need that. >> mika, in 1992, bill clinton got 370 electoral votes against george h.w.

joining me now chris cillizza and susan page. for either candidate. >> no. in some ways i don't think it's surprising. let's remind ourselves we are dealing with the two least popular presidential nominees in political history. what you see is a lot of people viewed two boxers in the center of the ring, neither able to knock the other one out politically speaking. leaning on one another. hillary clinton is in the better position thanks to demographics in the electoral map. candidates have not yet turned a corner with voters they have something to vote for. so much of what you are seeing now is voters running against the other. >> we'll unveil the rest of the national poll numbers at 5:00 on "meet the press" daily at 5:00. susan, we know hillary clinton has been inching up. she's recovered from other polling. still, everything is now on the line with this debate monday night. >> one interesting thing is what people cared about and didn't care about. just 8% said they were most concerned about hillary clinton's health. that's been a

. >> and chris cillizza. >> whatever it was. >> much more here. this is "andrea mitchell reports."ight back. >> let's reject the cynicism, the bullying, the divisive rhetoric that my opponent uses to make us afraid of each other. (announcer vo) who says your desk phone always has to be at your desk? now, with one talk from verizon... hi, pete. i'm glad you called. (announcer vo) all your phones can work together on one number. you can move calls between phones, so conversations can go where you go. take your time. i'm not going anywhere. (announcer vo) and when you're not available, one talk helps find the right person who is. hi, john. (announcer vo) so wherever work takes you, you can put your customers first. introducing one talk-- another way verizon connects your business better. learn how at onetalk.com. glad forceflex. extra strong to avoid rips and tears. be happy, it's glad. [ crowd noisewhoa. [ gears stopping ] when your pain reliever stops working, your whole day stops. try this. but just one aleve has the strength to stop pain for 12 hours. tylenol and advil can quit af

chris cillizza of "the washington post," he has been one of the biggest advocates saying we've got to can't talk about hillary clinton's health, it's ridiculous, let's not delve into conspiracy theories, and a mere five days later he's saying -- five days later it's now okay -- trish: it's also been portrayed as somewhat my i don't imagine nistic to go after hillary clinton and her health issues where, obviously, that wasn't an issue. john mccain was fair game. do you think, as meghan points out, it's as simple as a bias in the media. >> >> well, i don't know. john mccain actually did the right thing and gave, i think -- i believe more than a thousand pages about his medical history. he had suffered cancer -- >> skin cancer. >> -- that were revealed completely and early by revealing his medical records. and neither donald trump nor hillary clinton should do it, and you know what? it really doesn't matter if you're over 65. anyone running for president could have had cancer as a young person and be a cancer survivor, anyone could have a pacemaker and a fragile heart at any age. it is t

. >>> we have msnbc contributor and editor of "the fix" at "washington post" our own chris cillizza. hallie jackson. we'll start with you. donald trump is set to visit a largely black church in detroit tomorrow as part of his continued effort to court minority voters on even days and offend them on odd days. his campaign also reportedly looking to keep him on script during the conversation with the church's pastor. >> yes. >> what are you hearing about it? >> keeping him on script apparently, literally, joe. report out in "new york times" a leaked memo that shows the q and a he will conduct with a black pastor who is, this is going to be on the impact network. this is a christian network owned by an african-american group. so, the issue is the article paints a picture of a campaign that appears to be nervous about donald trump going off script. they are literally trying to keep him on message by writing out some of these answers. let's look at one. pull up the graphic. first question is, are you a christian and do you believe the bible is an inspired word of god? trump's response tha

also, nbc's peter alexander and "the washington post's" chris cillizza. we shall return. reese, "day to feel alive"♪ ♪jake reese, "day to feel alive"♪ [chains dragging] [eerie music playing] [crickets chirping] [owl hoots] announcer: if you don't fix them, sparks from dragging tow chains can cause a wildfire. and that could be scary. bye, smokey! only you can prevent wildfires. >> previously on game shows with gary johnson. >> geography 16. >> this city had been its nation's business capital and was once the end of the silk road. ga gary? >> what is aleppo? >> you're kidding. >> it's time for celebrity "family feud." >> name one former leader that you look up to. >> shimon peres. >> i'm talking about any living leader. >> former leader of mexico. >> which one? >> i'm having a hard time. >> name a foreign leader. any foreign leader. >> merkel. >> can't argue with that. >> joining us the host of msnbc's "hardball." that was not a hardball. >> we don't have the bells and whistles. >> nbc's news national correspondent pete nagarir alexs with us and chris cillizza. >> he said

and i forget, maybe it was chris cillizza who said, my gosh, roger ailes telling old war stories, donald unfocused? how could this not lead to a great result in the debate? i love all this talking about, oh, this camp inside the trump campaign are saying, this camp. it's all donald trump. if donald trump wants to focus, and he wants to prepare for the debate, that's fine. i just -- go to the first page of "art of the deal." it's not how he's been doingbeds for the last 40 years. he literally says, i don't prepare. that's not what i do. that's not what makes me successful. i don't prepare for my day. i just show up and see what happens. and that's what he's been doing this whole campaign, and who is going to walk in there and say, hey, donald, you need to change your m.o. that you think has been working for you for 40 years. >> the lesson he learned over the last 16 months is just being himself and winging it has worked. there have been rewards. he went from 1% of the primary to winning the primary, becoming the nominee. now he's on the doorstep of the white house. his thinking is why wou