manafort was very clear.ad to walk him back on a couple of points. >> i would never call diversifying a ticket pandering. people do consider disparate demographics because it meets a need and brings people together. what trump said to clarify is we're going to consider the best person period, whether that person is male or female, white or black, i think he's more focused on picking the best person for the job. >> who does it look like has the most influence, from what you can tell seeing trump's behavior about this? it does seem here he wasn't quite on message, manafort, with what trump was trying to convey or maybe he was trying to change the whole thing as he was going. >> it's the total opposite that we've seen from the campaign. usually it's trump that says the frank thing and his staff has to clean it up. and here manafort says the frank thing and trump has to clean it up. it served to undermine paul manafort's credibility in the community. he's the guy that is supposed to be speaking to all of the prof

manafort saying probably not going to happen, at least not anytime soon. he's saying the only people who basically want him to do that are the people who aren't out there supporting him. he's saying his supporters aren't really interested in that so why should he? another point, the vp. who could that be? i can tell you who it probably won't be. paul manafort saying it in all likelihood will not be a woman, not a person of color. why? because it would look like they're pandering to people. but in terms of who it would be, he said that clearly someone who is going to be experienced to do the part of the job that trump does not want to do. manafort also saying they have a long list of potential candidates, but they all have a lot of problems. a lot of insight here in that "huffington post" article. >> they all have a lot of problems. >> we need to learn a lot more about what he meant by some of those comments because potentially very, very revealing. >> what's also interesting about this, we're getting more information from the campaign chairman than we're g

and i'm part of paul manafort's delegate team. so absolutely not.are all unified and we have one goal in miami-dade and that is to get donald trump elected and in the white house. >> to be fair, it is our reporting that the trump campaign never said that wylie was a short-term hire. so why is he gone now? >> it was always my understanding that he was a short-term hire. and i work for donald trump. so we -- that was always my understanding, is that he was just short-it term. >> well, let me ask you on another topic, where there has been some division. paul manafort, as you know, top trump aide, told the "huffington post" trump is unlikely to pick a woman or minority because, quote, that would be viewed as pandering. we heard trump say today he was misquoted. what exactly did manafort say? >> i don't know what paul had said in that regard. i do know donald trump well and i know that donald trump hires talent. and gender is not a job qualification for mr. trump. he hires the best. and if you look into the trump organization, the top executives in the t

david, i want to ask you about something else paul manafort. he said he's, donald trump's, going to win unless we, him, people are w.h.o. are working on the campaign screw it up. this is not a hard race. not a hard race. what do you think? >> well, of course, this is going to be a tough race. but i think that is surprising in itself because a lot of republicans thought hillary clinton was going to run away from this thing and then run away with this thing and then a flood of polls showing a very close race in battleground states. frankly, we seeing outlying polls. whether hillary clinton puts georgia in play. whether she can put arizona in play and pennsylvania in play. i think it's most likely that it comes down to the same battleground states that we have talked about in 2012 and 2008. can trump defeat hillary clinton in florida, ohio and virginia? and i think that's what we're -- you know, that's an unknown right now sitting here as we close out the month of may. i think manfort's comments on the vp pick you would haven't a woman or minority

you were listening to my interview with paul manafort.ve me the expectations of the meeting tomorrow and he said some meting of the minds, and what do you think is going to happen? >> well, sooner or later, there is going to be some unity of some sort, because people are starting to fold, and trump is the presumptive nominee, and i don't know what is in it for paul ryan the fight him, because to fight him is to fight the base of his own party. isn't it? face it. trump's real fans really don't care what paul ryan or mitt romney or jeb bush have to say about any of it. so, if, you know, ryan leaves in the it? i don't think that it helps him sh, and it may help trump. criticisms from people like him, the establishment always backfire and help trump and make him stronger. >> i talked about the tax return, and i pushed him on that, because some people are saying that there is a degree of hypocrisy and he says no. and mitt romney says it is disqualifying to not release the return, and trump said he would. and mitt romney's statement today sayin

and he has a warring campaign in some ways with paul manafort, corey lewandowski. we continue to see the campaign barreling forward, trump at the center being the key player and the decisionmaker. >> what's the deal? it seems like "game of thrones" over that campaign. let me say covering a lot of campaigns, they're all "game of thrones." the office poll sicks of campaigns are legendarily brutal. this one seems more brutal than usual. >> it's a different kind of campaign because it's very small in size. if you compare trump to the operation, it's small. in manafort you have someone who's building relationships in washington, doesn't have as close a rapport with lewandowski. but they're both useful to trump in different ways. they don't get along for the most part, however, but they seem to be operating for a moment in a way that's somewhat peaceful. >> all right. paul ryan is continuing as a sort of consolidation map, you saw those delegates smiling in north dakota today, some of them interviewed later weren't particularly big donald trump fans but this is the way t

paul manafort wants him to tone it back and moderate things like his muslim ban. i'll believe it when i see it. these things keep being said and then he keeps going to the crowds, to your point. >> he knows what fires up the cloud. >> donald trump's been winning the battle and hillary clinton is about winning the war. it's taken her longer to win the primary battle. when everything is chopped up in little bits, 140 characters and so on, it's worked for him so far. >> there's at least two donald trumps. for those who think donald trump can't win the election, they say, look at his problems with latinos, with women, with african-americans, i want to show you something. this is a bar graph. look at the top number there. changing business as usual. he has a 33-point advantage over hillary clinton. if voters decide come november this election is about changing a broken washington, donald trump will win the election. he scores ahead of her on trade deals, sanders voters might be available to him. on changing wall street, sanders voters might be available to him. if you

this is paul manafort.s statement says "the only people who want the tax returns are the people who want to defeat him." is thering? there that would allow him to be defeated if it was released? >> no. i think don with all respect -- and you're a great guy -- that's a misquote. i think paul was saying the only people who care about this issue are people who don't like donald trump anyway so -- >> a misquote? i read his exact words. >> well, was there a dot, dots, dot? i can't see. >> "the only people who want these tax returns are the people who want to defeat him. ". >> yeah, exactly. the only people who care about this stuff, this nonsense, are the people who want to defeat him. the american people care about jobs and they want a business -- one thing, don. this is the demonization of success. any time you have a gigantic businessman -- >> how is releasing tax returns a demonizing of success. >> don, if i could jump in here -- >> you never had a billionaire running for office like this. >> you're double s

you see manafort trying to professionalize the trump campaign but trump remains trump.hen you look at who he was having lunch with yesterday it was edward cline, the best selling author of clinton books that have tabloid references and news nuggets that have not been reported by any other outlets so that's the kind of person he's associating with. he's pivoting toward a general election and in typical trump style maybe the operation is becoming professional, but his tendency to reach for controversial characters remains. >> the story when we woke up this morning is donald trump is on his way to a big win in indiana and on his way to the republican nomination. do you think him coming out and doing something like this today gives leaders any pause to try to hit the brakes on this a little bit more? >> i don't see any kind of movement in that direction because there's a resignation among top republicans that trump's likely to be the nominee and on the right the eyed logical right there's a fear that cruz hasn't caught fire and if he doesn't do it in indiana it's hard to se

>> trump was also pressed in an interview that his chief paul manafort spoke. he's already started lottering on that. he operated by starting the conversation at the outer edges and brings it back toward the middle. within his comfort zone he'll offer more. trump said, quote, we're going to look at a lot of different things so who knows. manafort was also quoted saying for his running mate trump probably wouldn't pick a woman or person of color, quote, in fact, that would be viewed as pandering. when asked if that was his view, trump offered this up. >> no, i would say it wows be somebody but we don't do it for any specific reason. we're looking for absolute competence. i fully expect we'll have many women involved with not only -- i've had it with the campaign, but we're going to have many women involved and i think you're going to see that and you're going to see that very strongly. >> manafort's comments. last night the trump campaign announced that national political director nick wiley was no longer with the campaign. he worked with trump for six weeks. no

paul manafort's comments. what do you think meant by that.he mainstream media is running with it. >> this happens quite often about the media and the trump campaign. i am not sure what they those said, but he likely said what i'm saying, a lot of people are pointing to minorities and women for those position, and in trump does not look at race or gender when he puts people in those positions. he looks at competency and someone who believes in his agenda to make america great again. charles: today when donald trump came out in north dakota. there was something different about his swagger. this speech was a little bit different. and even comments that vince foster who was mentioned earlier in the week has no place in the campaign. is this the -- the so-called pivot? >> this is the presidential donald trump. this was not a rally. there is a difference between policy discussions with media and conferences like this as opposed to the rally. this is a donald trump you would see as commander-in-chief. the rallies are an opportunity for mr. trump to

. >> it's just a quote paul m manafort. >> what trump said today is clear.ing to be a decision based on gender and race but someone who is the most qualified. mr. trump has exemplified that, hiring women and putting them in positions of power and seniority back when it wasn't popular. the decision will be made based off of qualifications, nothing further than that. >> i expect donald trump will nominate someone with a lot of government experience. that's what he said. i would say this. paul manafort, i believe what he says as far as i could throw him but not because of him. but because donald trump runs his campaign and paul manafort is speaking to all of the republicans that want to believe donald trump is going to be their kind of republican to the donors and everybody part of the party for a long time. at the end of the day, donald trump makes his own decisions and paul manafort said exactly that. he can't be managed. you have to look at who it's for. >> manafort said people can distance themselves from trump. it's going to be a-okay. the governor of new

here is what manafort said -- he's already started moderating on that. he operates by starting the conversation at the outer edges, and then brings it back toward the middle. within his comfort zone, he'll soften it some more. he'll still end up outside of the norm, but in line with what the american people are thinking. so, john, by the time we get to the convention, who knows what kind of muslim ban he'll be talking about. >> right. look, you can describe trump in a variety of ways. one way would be to say -- people who are skeptical about trump in a certain way, will say he doesn't believe in anything. he's just will to power. he'll say whatever he has to at any point along the way that he thinks will help him win. other people will describe it like machine afort. he'll take positions at what manafort describes as the outer edge, and he always expected those things would be pulled back in by reality. they're basically the same thing. >> they are. >> they don't speak to core ideological convictions or policy convictions that give you any sort of sense

joining me now is donald trump senior adviser paul manafort. paul, let's start with paul ryan's comments this week that he's not ready, as he put it, to endorse trump, and that it's basically on your candidate to unify the party. here is paul ryan. >> i think there's work that needs to be done in order to unify the party. i think our presumptive nominee needs to do that. i want to be a part of helping him do that. but right now, no, i think there's some work to do here. >> how seriously does trump take this split within the party, and how far is he willing to go when he meets with paul ryan later this week to try to repair the split? >> well, i think you need to put things into context here. a week ago, you had republican leaders in washington, some anyhow, saying there was going to be a contested convention. and last tuesday night in indiana, a state that trump was supposed to lose, he had an overwhelming victory and the race ended. it ended much sooner than anybody else expected, except maybe the people supporting donald trump, who knew he wa

in moments, we will speak about election strategy with paul manafort, one of donald trump's top political jat t strategists. but we begin tonight with our chief political correspondent carl cameron reporting tonight from washington. carl? >> thanks, megyn. trump is not only the presumptive nominee he's now uncontested. instead of focusing on the last nine contests he can get to work on winning the general election in november. the latest national poll by cnn/nrc taken before last night shows trump trailing clinton by double digits. trump knows the clinton campaign is already organizing to attack him in key swing states so trump aides have let it be known they're getting calls from veteran gop operatives around the country who say they are ready to get on the so-called trump train. trump's tapped ben carson to vet potentialitentiality projects a expected to announce his choice shortly before the july convention in cleveland. he's been arguing for more than a year that unlike his rivals who he called bought and paid for that trump has not been influenced by special interests but now he's pl

expect a lot more of that from paul manafort and the trump campaign in the coming days, guys.also in paul ryan, the house speaker's, press conference today and he was asked obviously probably every time about all of donald trump's issues, all his stances on issues. what did you hear from paul ryan today? >> well, he actually has not gone and actually endorsed donald trump of course yet, and one reason why, kate, is because they're actually trying to have discussions over policy issues and almost shape donald trump's views and make sure he does not step on this house republican agenda they're drafting right now. he was asked specifically about this issue of executive power. that's something that a lot of republicans are concerned about, that donald trump has an expansive view of executive power, and paul ryan made clear this is a key issue the two sides are discussing right now. >> we believe that this president has grossly exceeded his authority. he's not the only president to do that. he's just the most recent president to do it, and he's taken it very, very far. so, yes, thi

. >> reporter: trump also answered questions about comments made by his chairman paul manafort. he said he will not likely choose a woman or minority of his running mate because doesn't want to be seen as pandering. not so, says the candidate. >> we're looking for absolute competence. i fully expect that we will have many women involved with not only -- i've had it with the campaign but many women involved and i think that you're going to see that and you're going to see that very strongly. so i look forward to it and i know he was misquoted a couple of times. >> reporter: trump again said he would release his tax returns once an irs audit is finished. >> hope actually it will be before the election. >> reporter: do you pay some federal taxes? >> i do. >> reporter: you do? >> i do. yes. >> reporter: despite reaching the key number of delegates, donald has to win over the skeptics and walked back his comments questioning the death of clinton's friend vincent foster in the '90s even though it was concluded that it was a case of suicide. >> i really know nothing about the vince fos

paul manafort was on saying his agenda and he articulate it had so well.hat bart of that agenda are we talking about? when we put out his tax plan or when he disavowed it this week and said he wasn't a big fan of his own tax plan. when he said we cannot raise the minimum wage and then turned around this week and said we probably can do it after all. this is why paul ryan cannot su moment because he is a conviction politician who believes in certain ideals. those voters out there who have an understanding of the republican party as something that has certain principles will not be able to rally behind this person and, yes, some of them obama is on to something, there will be a number who look and say i would rather have somebody who had a consistent viewpoint, maybe not one i agree with than one i don't know what he is going to say from one day to the next. >> do you really think they are going to go to this meeting, the nominee of the party, chairman of the national committee and speaker of the house they're going to sit down and come out and basically say

>> paul manafort was brought in, and each has a camp.ink wiley was part of the manafort campaign, he roughshod people on and trump made a decision. key is -- he ran walker's campaign, and political director of the rnc. as we're now moving to the rncr which isn't a good idea, he was a guy who knew all the players. >> i thought paul manafort was the guy in charge. >> i'm not sure of that. he has the title but he run the washington operation and the convention and corey runs everything else. corey is the guy that's basically closest to trump. trump is very loyal to his people and trump has people very loyal to him. >> corey lewandowski. how do you see it? >> it's both a good sign and a bad sign. it's always good when you have that kind of friction between two different factions in a campaign to kind of, like, shove one of them -- for the candidate to make a decision, be decisive and move things away. on the other hand, this was somebody who actually understood how a national campaign needs to run and a lot of the mechanics and operatives in

that's what paul manafort has done. that's what he did in ukraine, that's what he did in africa, that's what he did in portugal. that's what he's done all over the world. you couldn't find a more internationalist guy than paul manafort to be running this america first campaign. so if their controversy is about that, donald trump better expect this to be the first, not the last. and i think that's something hillary will look at. if donald trump wants to go after the clinton foundation, hillary will go after paul manafort. >> and let me go back to this search for the vp, robert. you have kelly ayotte, who is up for re-election. she seems skeptical of wanting any association with donald trump. who would, realistically, at this point, who would be your pick for the vp slot for donald trump? and who do you think is actually interested? >> well, let me answer your second question, first. i think chris christie probably is interested. he was one of the first people, first presidential candidates to endorse donald trump when he

but we also have paul manafort saying it is unlikely he releases taxes. to some americans it is offensive. maybe to supporters might not be. to the paul ryan it is. >> i think you have to separate out these issues a little bit. donald trump has been enormously effective and his supporters are not going to be upset about anything he does or says. that is very well determined. we have moved from the republican primary electorate and playing to the base to winning a general election. it is a totally different cohort. there are folks in the sensible center who are insulted. the celebrity demagogue act which says american people are too dumb to care about consistency will offend some folks. for paul ryan who really has tried to embrace it, donald trump is the opposite of that vision. they are on opposite ends of the party. if he is talking about real unity that is a big deal. >> since we are talking about unity i want to show you the democratic story of unity getting headlines, the president. the president is on an overseas trip in japan being asked questions

number one, one of those relationships with paul manafort, right, somebody who has risen to the top as far as the springboard and structure of the trump campaign, somebody who has been viewed by some as potentially manafort's mentor through the political process. also, when trump has talked about who he wants to bring on to his team or as he's looking for, for example, a running mate, not that, again, not at all speculating that baker would be in that position, but somebody who could -- no, somebody who could help potentially navigate those relationships in washington, somebody with experience and somebody who understands how this city works and how to sort of massage and network relationships here. >> all right. hallie jackson and luke russert, great. learned a lot. today's panel, amy holmes, speech writer for former senate majority leader bill frist, author of "black ethnic" and finally senior political wrirlt at "538." what's the purpose, having worked on capitol hill, i keep going back and forth on what this meeting was, essentially a made-for-tv moment where essentially it's all b

manafort is going to be in cleveland over the next few days.mething everyone is watching. >> all right. hillary clinton is increasingly fighting two front at once. the continued primary challenge from bernie sanders and her likely general election opponent donald trump who is increasingly using personal attacks. here is trump senior strategist paul manafort yesterday on hardball hinting at more to come. >> said hillary clinton did nasty, terrible things to these women who alleged to have relationships with her husband. did she or did she not do that? >> he'll be talking about those in the campaigns. >> does he know what he's talking about? >> he definitely does. >> how do you know? >> i believe in him. >> you believe everything. >> he told me thinks. >> he told you stuff about clintons and back unreported behavior he will bring out. >> we have talked about the hypocrisy of hillary clinton playing the female card and his willingness to expose that card for what it is. >> what is this thing about hillary clinton being married to somebody who is a

like manafort might as well have founded racist sidewalk dog [bleep]. it is just like how extreme and evil can one person be? so basically do you understand what this, donald trump's campaign is currently being run by the same guy who represented dictators and genocidal maniacs when they were trying to appear more presidential. and basically his job was to take these nontraditional politicians and make them more palatable to americans. we arrange friendly introductions, news coverage, tens of millions in foreign aid. and swrenly keeping them in power. including, including the madmen who ruled and terrorized nigeria, glie ear and kenya, angola and somalia. so when donald trump needed help remaining his image, the decision was easy for him. he basically just said let's hire the guy without does african dictators. he gets me. yeah. i'm telling you people, this [bleep] is real. for more perspective on this and how the race might play out we're joined by an expert on brutal political campaigns, everybody! (cheers and applause) good sir, i brieng dire news to

this is paul manafort.only people who want the tax returns are the people who want to defeat him. is there something in there that would allow him to be defeated if it was release. >> no i think it's a misquote. i think he's saying the only people who care about this issue is people who don't like donald trump anyway. >> i read his exact words. >> was there a dot dot dot. i can't see. >> the only people who want the tax returns are the people who want to defeat him. >> exactly. the only people who care about this stuff, the american people care about jobs and they want a business -- one thing, this is the success. any time you have a gigantic businessman -- >> how is releasing tax returns -- >> you've never had a billionaire running for office. >> i want to move on because i want to talk about something that you think is probably more important and that is we're going to talk about the e-mails. i'm sure you would like to hear about that more. i want to play more on wolf blitzer's interview with hillary clin

paul manafort on with whether donald trump can unite the republican party.ris wallace. with exactly six months to election day, donald trump will be the republican nominee. but can he unite the party? >> we want to bring unity to the republican party. we have to bring unity. >> saying we're unified doesn't in and of itself unify us. >> i didn't get paul ryan. i don't know what happened. the only important thing is the unification of the people. >> we'll talk with senior adviser paul manafort about trump's fight to rally the party and defeat the democrats in november. >> then, a showdown between the feds in north carolina over the legality of its transgender bathroom law. >> this

martha: paul manafort promising to flip the script on the convention. he said trump is a tv star so don't expect the same old format. >> this is the ultimate reality show. it's the presidency of the united states. we'll put it in ways we hope will be entertaining and more important, informative. martha: we talk to barry bennett what they may have planned for this summer. it's interesting to hear paul manafort say something that was said when trump started running. he said, it looks like a big show. bill: they are giving us some hints about what to expect in cleveland. so we'll suck that out in about 10 minutes. martha: hillary clinton suffering another loss last night. bernie sanders has won 19 states compared to her 23. while she may be crushing it in delegate counts, this whole thing works in a weird way. bernie sanders says it will be a tough battle, but he is not going anywhere. >> let me be as clear as i can be. we are in this campaign to win the democratic nomination. we fully acknowledge we are good at arithmetic, that we have an uphill climb ahe

joining me now is paul manafort, thank you for being with us. your reaction to paul ryan's comments, what is he waiting for? >> he said and frankly donald trump has said that he's prepared to meet with the party to begin talking about how we unify with the party and taking on clinton in the fall. this is part of the estimate of a very difficult election here with donald trump. he learns from a feel ield of 1 candidates and he has now the highest vote in the history of politics. that strong mandate is build the raw vision and program that he laid out on the campaign trail that's adopted in the primary process which is still not over and only going to pilot more trump wins. now, the goal is donald trump indicated this yesterday was to reach out leaders of the party in washington and begin to put together the team to run in the fall. paul ryan's comment was surprising to us. we already indicated that we are coming to washington next week and talking to public leaders and working closer with chairman priebus that's been working with us, the party wi

joining us is donald trump's convention manager paul manafort.lf the presumptive nominee. what plans are you make for the general election? >> right now we're starting to focus on unifying the party, beginning to talk to party leaders about the things that are necessary going into cleveland. first thing we have to do have successful convention. we've got to plan starting after tuesday, the indiana primary, when we believe everybody in the country will recognize that donald trump will be the nominee of the party and that that nomination will be clear by certainly california and as a result, the whole strategy of ted cruz, of a second ballot will be rendered not true. >> dickerson: in terms of funding a general election, mr. trump has talked how he's self funded will he be able to main in that that? >> he's been a candidate running for the nomination. once he is the nominee of the republican party he has further responsibilities besides his own candidacy where he is the head of the ticket, where he is committed to making sure that nancy pelosi is n

so whenever he sits down with paul ryan and paul manafort getting advice from chris christie, he is not going to change in the way he's reacting and treating women of the and then to say that hillary clinton is hated by women? well, that's called projection, sort of a negative way. >> just quickly going back from the personal attacks to, again, some of the substantive arguments that are out there, john, donald trump now saying that his debt buy-back plan or describing basically the united states walking away from its debts, a la bankruptcy, which again opens up a wound for him. let me play what he said. >> won't that undermine the full faith and credibility of the united states? >> no. we have $19 trillion in debt and it's going to be 21 because frankly the budget was horrible. i'm a low interest rate person. if you have inflation, we'll have to change that theory because you have to stop things and slow things down but right now we have low interest rates. we have to rebuild the whole infrastructure of our country. >> so, john, he went on to give more detail that people have read into

i spoke to paul manafort who works for trump, over the weekend.o lock it up outright. they have a huge delegate lead and expect to do well tomorrow in indiana. but he told me, they are preserving the right to make challenges, because he told me if they're short of 1,237 when this is all over, they want to go through the process at the n rnc and wrest back delegates in necessary. >> is that in the credentials committee, before the convention has its first meeting? >> bingo. you have a contest and the credentials committee, and they do that in the days leading up to the convention. manafort said we expect to win, we're optimistic. you've heard that many times. but two, he was saying, we're ready to go, we're ready to get in there, because they think they have a couple of states where they could make a good challenge. >> the good thing is, if you like popular elections, trump was able to hold the pennsylvania delegates and they'll be with him on the first ballot. they're unbound delegates. to me, that seems more significant. that trump's able to get

>> i talked to paul manafort tuesday. remember, he was brought in to do exactly what he's doing, that is to build bridges that he and the trump campaign, others realize should have been built long ago to republicans on capitol hill, to the republican conservative think tanks in washington. that process is now just beginning. the question is whether or not it's too little too late and if there is an opening with people like paul ryan and i don't know there is. >> jeremy, good to see you again. thanks so much as always for being with us. a quick programming note at the top of the hour. be sure to catch the msnbc road warriors, our political team including katy tur, kasie hunt, hallie jackson. they have been on the 2016 trail and they have great stories, 4:00 p.m. eastern time on msnbc. >>> up next, a famous face we h weighing in on the 2016 race. actor rob reiner joins me to support hillary clinton and donald trump's stance -- and president obama's stance on donald trump and personal addiction and a message he hopes to send

fabrizio and manafort worked together on bob dole's 1996 campaign. trump looking to bridge the divide within his party and bulk up his own foreign policy credentials reaching out to former secretary of state henry kissinger. according to "the washington post," the two are set to meet in new york on wednesday. trump, of course, receiving criticism from republicans throughout the primary for his foreign policy views. particularly when it comes to vladimir putin in russia and also over some of his attacks on george w. bush and the iraq war. mitt romney and john mccain, the last two republican nominees received endorsements from kissinger when they ran for president. also new this morning, check this out. a tight race in our newest nbc news/surveymonkey tracking poll. just three points separating donald trump from hillary clinton. 48% to 45% lead there for the former secretary of state. the story behind the numbers here not surprisingly a massive gender gap. clinton leading by 15 points with women. trump trouncing her when it comes to men. and add those

. >> we'll have paul manafort on in a few minutes. i'll asking you about this thinking though, what is the purpose. i hate meetings. i'll admit that. tell me what a meeting will accomplish. both sides go in with some posture and come out with the same posture. they go in with the idea we'll come out united or they don't. what's it purpose. >> i think there's some benefit here. i don't think that either of these folks ryan or trump run i ing, i think there's some benefit of sitting down in the room and having a face-to-face conversation just man-to-man. will this change things? will this mean that donald trump will be accepted by the republican party. no, i don't think so. there's still a lot of work to be done. it's not going to be done in an office. it's going to be done on the campaign trail. do they feel comfortable with donald trump in his stump speeches. do they feel like his tone has progressed enough to where they feel comfortable having him as or supporting him as the nominee. do they believe his values are their values. is he

i know that manafort and others are trying to smooth things over with those on capitol hill.it's very telling that the only real emphatic endorsement for a senator has been joe sessions. the others have said they will always endorse the republican nominee, or they have not endorsed at all, mike lindsey graham. no one was expecting lindsey graham to endorse donald trump after this entire campaign so far. tur with any extraordinarily lifelike background behind her. [laughter] coming up -- trump as the nominee, how republic -- how vulnerable are republican house candidates all over america? listen to us on area radio nbc on 99.1. ♪ >> chatter is growing about how dangerous donald trump might be. there are at least seven senate contests continued tossups by a political report. we wanted to focus on the less talked about house races. we called in a couple of experts. they join us from our d.c. bureau, looking like twins. david, let's talk about the house. give us a sense of what the current house battleground looks like. david: republicans have 247, 188 . seats in picked up 37 196

and manafort is right.on 40% of the vote of the republicans which is 30% to 35% of the total vote. he built up a cult amongst 14% of the voters. that means there are other republicans he has to bring to the fold. and there are independent he has to bring to the polls if he want to win the presidency including conservative republicans. if manafort and trump think they will shove the rather flexible and undefined agenda he did very well with with getting 13% of the voters, they will have to do better than that. bill: what he just said is there will be a meeting of the minds. which i interpret as there will be party unity at some point. >> the concern republicans have is trump keeps saying he doesn't think party unity is necessary. if you start with that attitude and that perspective you won't be able to move this thing in the right direction. bill: i think what he said is i don't need all of them. but on party unity. it's early. perhaps in hindsight for republicans it's's good trump is this far ahead in the f