gerald seib and neera tanden, president of the liberal think tank, center for american progress. welcome to sunday. it's "meet the press." >>> from nbc news in washington, this is "meet the press" with chuck todd. >>> good sunday morning on this memorial day weekend. in a moment we'll bring you my interview with bernie sanders. this holiday weekend, we pause to take a look at this head-scratching presidential race. let's admit up front, every year some people are upset with the major party choices they have for president. and it's always this hold your nose business, lesser two of evils. and we push through it. but how did we get here? how did we get to the point, where on one side, hillary clinton would be the most unpopular nominee in history, if not for the fact that donald trump is even more unpopular? there are many possible answers to that question. but it's undeniable that this week both candidates seem to be doing whatever they could to make matters even worse. and while we're all asking what does this mean for november, maybe we should start asking, what does this mean f

gerald seib and near candidate, president of the liberal think tank, center for american progress. welcome to sunday. it's "meet the press." >>> from nbc news in washington, this is "meet the press" with chuck todd. >>> good sunday morning on this memorial day weekend. this holiday weekend, we pause to take a look at this head-scratching presidential race. let's admit up front, every year some people are upset with the major party choices they have for president. and it's always this hold your nose business, lesser two of evils. and we push through it. but how did we get here? how did we get to the point, where on one side, hillary clinton would be the most unpopular nominee in history, if not for the fact that donald trump is even more unpopular? there are many possible answers to that question. but it's undeniable this week both candidates seem to be doing whatever they could to make matters even worse. and while we're all asking what does this mean for november, maybe we should start asking, what does this mean for january? >> thank goodness for e-mails. i love e-mails! frankly,

panelists, gerald seib, neera tanden, president of the liberal think tank and a member of the platform hillary clinton. republican pollster and strategist, kt and robert costa of the washington post. neera, bernie sanders, is that still an opponent? an aggressive opponent of hillary clinton, bernie sanders that you just heard? >> i thought he made a lot of great points. i welcome that. he does seem to really focus on the general election, and which will be against donald trump. and i think he made -- he made clear that that is the paramount concern for democrats. we face a person who is sort of an unprecedented person in history in the general election. and i think he'll be clear about that when this primary is over into june. >> that sounds great, but it's not true. he is running -- to me, senator sanders is the most aggressive against secretary clinton. he's won 20 states, 10 million voters and counting. >> sure. >> and he now wants to kick off your platform committee, members like barney frank and former congressman and governor malloy. he's an open war far with the democratic natio

joining us now gerald seib for "the wall street journal," good morning. >> good morning. p"the washington post" story an "the new york times" story in terms of damage to donald trump? >> first on the idea of an independent or a third party run, i think that's still a serious idea but it's a long shot idea. i think it will either happen or not happen in the next couple of weeks and then goes away as an issue for donald trump. at this point in 1992 when ross perot mounted a very serious independent/third party run, he was already on the ballot in four states and was close in 20 more. so this is late in the game and the ballot access laws haven't gotten easier since 1992. i think this either happens very quickly or not at all. in terms of donald trump, it goes away as an issue entirely. the other stories about women and those sorts of things, look, it will be kind of a regular feature for the next five or six month. i think we'd better get buckled up and ready for it. >> do you think it causes any damage to him? back to charlie's question. >> i think there's something to wha