one was willie horton, despite a life sentence, he received 10 weakened passes from prison. on fled, kidnapped a young couple, stabbing the man and repeatedly raped his girlfriend. we can prison passes. dukakis. >> so-called independent committees started running these ads. talked roger ailes had to the guy or the people producing the willie horton many, many times. so the notion it was no collaboration between the two is nonsense. amy: that was the former governor massachusetts michael to caucus speaking in "above the fray." 1988,mpaign manager in susan estrich, is now roger ailes personal attorney. the development that has shocked many in part because she is also a prominent feminist legal caller. 1991, she wrote in a stanford law review "it should be obvious the system contains serious -- those the words oford susan estrich. ,ur guest is sarah ellison writes for "vanity fair" and before that "wall street journal" and rupert murdoch -- you worked there for 10 years. >> for 10 years before he took over the paper. amy: your response. quite a choice for a lawyer and quite as c

somebody and they commit a crime and the politics of it are tough and everybody remembers the willie horton case. the bias of my predecessors and frankly a number of my advisers early in my presidency is be careful about that. but i thought it was very important for us to send a clear message that we believe in the principals behind criminal justice reform even if ultimately we need legislation. so we have focused more on commutations than on pardons. i would argue by the time i leave office the number of pardons we grant would be roughly in line with what other presidents have done but standing up this commutations process has required a lot of effort and energy and it's not like we got a slug of money to do it. you have got limited resources. the primary job of the justice department is to prevent crime and to convict those who have committed crimes and to keep the american people safe and that means that you have had this extraordinary effort by a lot of people inside the justice department to go above and beyond what they're doing to also review these petitions that have been taking pla

he talked about willie horton, the memory of willie horton from that george bush campaign against michaelnd caucus in 1988. ad bush campaign ran the above the convict who was for load in massachusetts and got out of prison and did some pretty heinous crimes. colored the perception of the clemency powers of a governor or president. it underscored how careless it can be if just 100 -- one of these 500 people goes on to commit a serious crime. that comes back on obama. host: here's surest -- here's the president's response to your question. processas that slow goes forward, i wanted to see if we could reinvigorate the pardon process that has become stalled. partly because it is politically risky. you can meet somebody and they commit a crime. the politics of it are tough. everybody remembers the willie horton ad. the bias, i think, of my predecessors and thankfully, a number of my advisors early in my presidency said to be careful about that. i thought it was very important for us to send a clear message that we believe in the principles behind criminal justice reform, but ultimately we need

that ad reminded me of willie horton back in the '88 campaign.e happened to work but this one i don't think is going to work. >> i think that was my initial response, that it just seemed old school. it may be very effective but it seemed old school. hillary clinton is flooding the airwaves with campaign ads, appeared on jimmy kimmel last night, but she only has one campaign event scheduled this week. and then we have donald trump, who made a small advertising buy but has four big rallies this week. margaret, what's your take on the two different strategies here? >> donald trump doesn't have the resources that hillary clinton has. he had one month where he said oh, we caught up. he far lags behind mitt romney in 2012 and his numbers aren't there. he's compensating with earned media. he's been in ohio day after day after day having huge rallies. this is a campaign that has spent more on renting stadiums in key target states than they have on field staff in any states. it's an earned media strategy and it's gotten him to date $3 billion in free ads.

there's the willie horton add that cost dukakis the election. and 1964's daisy ad run by johnson against goldwater that featured a young girl picking daisy petals followed by a countdown and a nuclear explosion. >> we must either love each other or november 3rd. the stakes are too high for you to stay home. >> it never mentioned barry goldwater by name but it implied that the republican standard bearer was trigger happy with nuclear weapons. it only aired once, but it galvanized people's fears about goldwater. >> reporter: as the assault gets underway, the republican nominee helping the commercials can help him close the gap against hillary clinton. ads. the campaign says the one we showed you and more will be airing over 10 days in four swing states. this ad release cements a strong week for them and they're hoping this plus the staff shakeup gets things back on track. steve: interesting. thank you. well, challenging gender stereotypes when it comes to bringing home the bacon. alison: how many women react differently to providing for their fami

and everybody remembers the willie horton ad. so the bias, i think, of my predecessors and frankly a number of my advisers early in my presidency is be careful about that. but i thought it was very important for us to send a clear message that we believe in the principles behind criminal justice reform, even if we ultimately need legislation. so we have focused more on commutations than we have on pardons. i would argue by the time i leave office, the number ofpard roughly in line with what other presidents have done. but standing up this commutations process has required a lot of effort and energy, and it's not like we got a new slug of money to do it. so you've got limited resources. the primary job of the justice department is to prevent crime, and to convict those who have committed crimes and to keep the american people safe. that means that you've had this extraordinary effort by a lot of people inside the justice department to go above and beyond what they're doing, but also review these petitions that have been taking pla

and they commit a crime and, you know, the politics of it are tough and everybody remembers the willie horton ad, and so the bias i think of my predecessors and frankly a number of my advisers early in my presidency is be careful about that, but i thought it was very important for us to send a clear message that we believe in the principles behind criminal justice reform even if ultimately we need legislation so we have focused more on commutations than we have on pardons. i would argue, gregory, that by the time i leave office the number of pardons that we grant will be roughly in line with what other presidents have done, but standing up this commutations process has required a lot of effort, a lot of energy, and it's not like we've got a new slug of money to do it. we've got limited resources, the primary job of this justice department is to prevent crime and committed to keeping crimes and keeping people safe and that means you've had this extraordinary and herculean effort by a lot of people inside this justice department to go above and beyond what they are doing also to review these pe

what secretary clinton did this week is basically her willy horton ad against donald trump. trying to make this a racially tinged campaign which i detest. i reject that. i think we ought to be focused on america's position in the world, creating jobs in america, and we ought to be focused especially on -- >> well donald trump called her a bigot. donald trump brought that in. we're out of time, but you -- two things. i would love to have you back. you and i don't agree on much, but i don't agree with donald trump when he said no one listens to your radio show. because everybody told me they heard it. and i don't agree it's still the party of lincoln. we'll debate both of those. >> we very much are, al. look forward to it. have a great weekend. >> thank you. thank you for being with me this morning. >>> straight ahead, you'll never believe who's criticizing the president over his handling of the louisiana storm. plus challenges facing hillary clinton. the "politicsnation" panel weighs in. she spent summer binge-watching. soon, she'll be binge-studying. get back to great. this

everyone remembers the willie horton. frankly, a number of my advisors early in my presidency is, be careful about that. but i thought it was very important for us to send a clear message that we believe in the principles behind criminal justice reform even if ultimately we need legislation. so we have focused more on commutations than we have on pardons. by the time i leave office, the number of pardons we grant will be roughly in line with what other presidents have done. but standing up this commutat n commutations process required a lot of effort and energy and it is not like we got a new shrug of money to do it. so you've got limited resources. primary job of the justice department is to prevent crime and to convict those who have committed crimes and to keep the american people safe and that means that you've had this extraordinary and effort by people in the justice department to go above and beyond and to review what has taken place. and we've been able to get organizations around the country to screen and help pe

willie horton. the most base, icky, bad ways to go about not expanding his base. the fox news audience that roger ailes helped develop, they're ageing white men. >> you're saying we're not necessarily looking at the 1988 electorate he was so good at. we're talking about fox being to the right and that's fine, but don't forget how it got developed. it was an anti-clinton machine. that's when it started. roger ailes has devoted the last 25 years going after the clintons and developed a network based on that. the wealth of information in how to position them that he has that he can offer donald trump is just tremendous. >> i think hillary does provide a huge opening for trump because both their unfavorables are very high. trump's just happen to be a lot higher than hers. if he is able to home in on her and focus on her, that would be really good. he's done really well with the red meat base, but he needs to start thinking about the independents. >> the political judgment is they're not admitting to this yet. they're trying to workshop it. we have to take our last qui

any time racial politics of this kind gets involved, whether it's the willy horton ads during georgeush or bill clinton, it's never good for american people. it becomes, it makes meanal ds disgust would the political process. >> she is trying to hold him to account for who his supporters are. among the white supremacist groups. he talked about, donald trump responded to this in an interview. here's what he said. >> do you want white supremacists to vote for you? >> no, i don't. not at all. i will tell you, this is not about hate, this is about love. we love our country. we want our country to come back. we want our country to be strong, again. >> doug, it seems like normally when a republican is asked or any, i mean, any politician is asked about something, a racist group, there is this almost knee jerk condinaticondenination tha trump doesn't fall though script. >> he goes off the script. he is the king pin of dog whistle and inuelaw and order i clever way of being a bigot. let's not focus in '68 on the vietnam war. let's talk about crime on the street and african-american riots and

>> listen, short of hillary clinton sitting in a tank with willie horton railing against the 47% of governmentoaders, what are they going to say at this point? they have nothing and the message right now is base building, you're seeing them try to double down on the strategy that seemingly works so well, and it did in the republican primary, try and pull off that hail mary. the most important republican in the united states right now is colin powell and if colin powell doesn't come out and give a full throated endorsement of support for what hillary clinton is saying that was the reason she started her e-mail server, that could be a problem so right now all eyes are on what colin powell has to say and that could be a devastating ad if they get that. >> every booking producer in america is cold calling colin powell, including ours tonight thank you for joining us this hour. conventions for the two major parties this year, there were headline speeches, of course, from the candidates themselves, in both conventions this year, we had a headline speeches from the candidate's families. we had big sp

the ad with the tank, him riding around and the willie horton ad got him. connell: good to see you.ther thing hillary clinton says donald trump's policies are favoring the rich. here it is. >> a myth out there that he will stick it to the rich and powerful because somehow he's really on the side of the little guys. [laughter] don't believe it. connell: all right, say are is with us, washington examiner, and she says hillary clinton is the one getting the backing from the rich. it is interesting, sarah, she seems like the wall street candidate in some ways. i don't know if we get that from the primaries, but seems she has more support from the wall street crowd many ways than donald trump has, she's going after the rich. why is that? >> the numbers reflect that. if you break down her contributors by industry, it is the number one contributor. hard to make the argument with credibility that donald trump is the one that's going to buckle to the interests of wall street and to the powers that be in america when she is herself funded by those same interests, and not just her campaign, no

everyone republican the willy horton ad. the bias of my predecessor website and a number of my advisors early in my presidency was "be careful about that." i thought it was important to send a clear message that we believe in the principals behind criminal justice reform even if we ultimately need legislation. we have focused more on commutations than pardons. i think it will be roughly in line with what other presidents have done, but standing up this process required a lot of effort and energy and it's not like we got a new slug of money to do it. so we have limited resources. the primary job of the justice department is to prevent crime and convict those who committed crimes and keep the american people safe, and that means you have had extraordinary and herculean effort. and we have been able to get organizations around the country to participate to screen and help people apply. and the main criteria i tried to set is if under today's laws, because there have been changes in how we charge nonviolence drug offenses, today