lesser of two evils, i guess. >> thanks to you david brody and chris alyssa and sam stein and katie turne is about to land or landed already. >> reporter: no, actually we are in the science center which is just around the corner from the convention house. donald trump will be landing here by helicopter for his formal welcome back with friends and family. we're going to find out if he addresses this latest controversy. and whether he feels the campaign should have come out a little sooner with their response, with their explanation, my gut says that he is going to defend this response and defend the time it took to do so. remember, with the campaign, they don't apologize, and donald trump does not apologize. even in the face of withering scrutiny. we've seen this time and again for the past 13 months. and it is important to remember, andrea, how that although we in the media and critics of donald trump get very focussed on these issues and we may report them out, there are a lot of folks out there at rallies, in these swing states ian that don't necessarily agree with this coverage. and

he could also be ad libbing, sam stein, we don't think that this is going to be another 1988 speech.nta convention. >> well, we remember in 2012 he ad libbed a bunch during the convention there, but really kept the crowd captivated and definitively the most memorable speech of that convention. he has the capacity to do it. i think he recognizes this isn't necessarily about defending his administration as much as his administration has been under attack and his wife has moved away from his administration's accomplishments. this is about telling his wife's story. it's a weird dynamic where we have a former president is now sort of auditioning to be the first spouse. and i think he has a unique task here in feeling out the hillary clinton biography in ways that no other speaker can. he has to do it in a political context because he is the former president, but this is what the first spouses speech is traditionally about, filling out those detail us. ly assume he will do that as the others have in the past. >> and then there is the challenge for bernie sanders, he's been going among all

there was a great piece wrote this week where sam stein tried to call the trump offices in all 50 statesd without much result, let's say. and he's not spending. and yet they are neck and neck. >> well, exactly, michael. which just testifies to something i believe strongly which at the end of the day message trump's organization any day. you can have all the organization in the world, but if you don't have a message the voters won't come out. so you need to have a powerful, compelling, clear message. the convention will be a great opportunity for both the candidates to frame-up what that is going to be. by the way, as i have seen historically in the conventions i've been involved in, you know, it's a four-day opportunity to really frame your message. you get to control the whole thing. and, by the way, it's an opportunity and quite often a chance to just completely wipe out what has happened before. it's a big reset. so if donald trump takes advantage of this, shows up with mike pence who is a really good and in a really boring way, he's not going to divert attention from donald trump bec

." >>> all right, good morning, it's wednesday, july 6th, and i'm sam stein. blistering report yesterday on hillary clinton's use of private e-mail while secretary of state. calling her actions extremely careless, and directly contradicting several of her explanations for how her private system worked. but

." >>> all right, good morning, it's wednesday, july 6th, and i'm sam stein. the fbi delivered a blistering report yesterday on hillary clinton's use of private e-mail while secretary of state. calling her actions extremely careless, and directly contradicting several of her explanations for how her private system worked. but in a dramatic news conference by the fbi's director james comey, he also recommended that clinton not be charged with a crime. and that has left top congressional republicans deeply unsatisfied. on tuesday evening, the speaker of the house, paul ryan, said he wanted penalties against clinton, and the hearing into the investigation led by comey. >> we're going to have hearings, jason chaffetz, chairman of the government oversight committee is going to be calling up james comey to ask questions. he didn't answer any questions with the press. and our judicialry committee sent a number of questions. >> do you think he caved to political pressure? >> i don't know the answer to that question. i don't know, you know, i'll take him at his word. b

here in cleveland, senior political editor and white house correspondent for the "huffington post," sam steing here, sam? >> you invited me. just told to show up. >> we didn't really mean it. >> oh. >> that was like one of those -- >> alex, what you doing? former adviser to former president george w. bush and executive producer of the circus on showtime. >> we meant for him to be here. >> mark mckinnon is supposed to be here. political reporter for the "washington post" and msnbc analyst robert costa joins us as well. good to have you all, including sam. >> so, the speech last noiltigh. >> yeah, the speech last night was not for everybody in the media. >> not for us. >> a dark vision of america. it was a dark and stormy night in donald trump's america. it really was -- >> for the people who actually are having a hard time in the country. >> for the people who are struggling, who are trying to vote for somebody that actually is going to make a difference in their life. and for the americans who turn on their tvs and look at their iphones every day and see more horrid images. mike barnicle was

joining me now, sam stein from the huffington post. all i could think about, is this on in brooklyn campaign headquarters and are they white knuckling their way through this entire thing? >> hearts racing, get on with it, james comey. yeah, it was very suspenseful. and the fact that he gave a press conference was very surprising to a lot of people, myself included. he could have put in a written statement, detailing his findings, outlining his conclusion, but he chose to go in front of cameras and you have to wonder if that was a deliberate decision on his part, to placate both sides of this, to show republicans that he had gone through these details exhaustively, that he turned up a lot of poor decisions on clinton's behalf, potentially illegal decisions, but come to a determination. i think he was trying to split the difference and that probably fed his decision to go on camera. >> i saw folks tweeting about it, highlighting the fact that there was no indictment. when you stop for a second to consider the possibility of an alternativ

with me now is "washington post" columnist and "huffington host" sam stein. >> that was incredible. >for years now said they're doing outreach and they are in different times of republican party had outreach programs. how are they doing so far? >> based on that, not so good. i mean, i think the word "jaw-dropping" was invented for that comment. i had breakfast -- i was at a breakfast this morning with reince priebus, the party chairman are are who famously commissioned the autopsy, i believe. i don't know if you can revive an autopsy. but all of the diagnosis was there was not followed. and, in fact, it's opposite day in the republican party. and they need to do better. >> and sam, this congressman is not exactly someone who is not being put on a platter here on the convention. >> steve king is on the fringe of his party, so i don't want to paint too broad a brush here of the republican party. but that being said, whenever you have someone who is an elected official going out and saying stuff like that, who cheers the trump campaign for its immigration platform, you have serious outre

. >> and sam stein. >> actually, well orchestrated for once. >> you know, i saw some clinton apologies saying this was a big win for hillary clinton. no, pretty rough all the way around yesterday. >> well, i disagree with that in the sense that if you are at a fork in the road and a choice here. she gets indicted and she doesn't get indicted or the indictment was recommended, she would almost certainly not be the democratic nominee and certainly not be the next president of the united states. >> huge win. >> she didn't get indicted. i was with the clinton campaign yesterday at their event yesterday in charlotte and all of them, the collective sigh of relief, was audible. now, the "new york times" which has covered this quite well one of the pieces yesterday described this as the worst piece, the worst possible piece of good news for hillary clinton in the sense that everything is potentially devastating in the sense that republicans can use the things that he said. this raises lots of suspicions you already started to allude to. >> it also proves, mika, she just didn't tell the truth.

from everything we've seen, dallas is actually an example of a city that does it right and sam steineferring me to an article that was actually written a year ago talking about the reason why the murder rate in dallas is so low because of great practices that the police department have been active. >> this is an article by radially who was on top of this story for a while in "washington post." he notes the murder in dallas was the lowest it's been and he credits and the police chief himself credits that the community approach to policing, they're open and transparent about the use of excessive force and it's paid off. they are very open, very honest about how they go about doing this. they work within actors within the community so they can build a layer of trust and it works. it's comprehensive. it's effective. >> why the white house put after ferguson the community policing initiative together. at the time eric holder and valerie jarrod, $260 million program. i also thought we saw overnight as i was anchoring they had the police conference with the police chief and how open he was

actually, they pay sam stein's check. >> i get what you're saying. >> thank you.>> welcome. >> i haven't read the company talking points, but we're very excited. we can't wait for this new reality. i'm assuming it's going to be a great search. >> what a yahoo. >> the best search. as donald trump says, the best. >> moving on, donald trump, speaking of the best, departed cleveland on friday with scathing remarks for ted cruz. >> not really leaving him behind, is he? >> gnaw. >> he's a hard habit to break. >> ted cruz refused to endorse him in his convention speech and cited insults to his wife and father in not supporting trump. >> you turn on some of the dishonest media, you'll see, oh, wow, this happened and that happened. what happened? you know, somebody got booed the hell out of a place by thousands and thousands of people. there wasn't one person in the room. i like ted, he's fine. again, i don't want his endorsement. if he gives it, i will not accept it. i will not accept. won't matter. >> there were two things he said yesterday. ready? i didn't start anythin

john hallman and senior political editor and white house correspondent for the huffington post, sam stein. you're here. show your id. >> willie, that was a heck of a night last night. a heck of a night, right? >> i'm stopping it. >> philadelphia had dog tracks as good as the one we went to last night. >> how could you have a problem with what happened last night. >> i heard that the convention went well too. >> the off track betting was good. >> man, one store after another store after another store. last night was like murderer's row. >> when joe biden is pushed all the way up to 9:00 when he's not speak in the primetime hour. the president's speech was incredibly uplifting, a defense of his legacy. here's where we were, here's where we are today. made a case that hillary clinton is an extension of the obama years. how qualified she is, what she did in the situation room. a two-piece speech. >> let's start with the president's speech delivered 12 years to the day since he first arrived on the national political scene with his 2004 speech to the democratic convention. last night he sought