Now the president ial debates could be in jeopardy and why fire marshals are now enemy number one for donald trump. Now because of your fire marshal, who i am not a fan of [ cheers and applause ] hes probably a democrat, probably a guy that doesnt get it. When all in starts right now. Good evening from new york, im chris hayes. Today donald trump launched day four of his personal war on a grieving Muslim American family who lost their son in the war in iraq and who would have been barred from immigrating this to country under trumps proposed muslim ban. The republican nominees vendetta against the parents of Army Captain Humayun Khan who died after standing in the way of a car carrying a suicide bomb echoes his attacks on the judge overseeing a fraud case against Trump University who trump insisted was biased due to his mexican heritage. It comes at a Pivotal Moment in the campaign. At least two new polls show Hillary Clinton with a widening lead over trump thanks to what appears to be a postconvention bounce. Trumps latest controversy started on the final night of the democratic the parents gave testimony on the contributions of american muslims. Donald trump consistently smears the character of muslims. He vows to build walls and ban us from this country. Have you even read the United States constitution . [ cheers and applause ] i will gladly lend you my copy. In an interview taped the following day, donald trump countered with what seemed like a coded reference to the familys religious tradition. If you look at his wife, she was standing there, she had nothing to say. She probably maybe she wasnt allowed to have anything to say. You tell me but plenty of people have written that. She was extremely quiet. Responding to trumps implication that she was submissive or muzzled by her husband, ghazala khan published a column in the Washington Post describing her son and her grieving over his loss. She told my colleague Lawrence Odonnell about her decision not to speak thursday night. I cannot see my sons picture and i cannot even come in the room where his pictures are. And thats why when i saw the picture on my bag i couldnt take it. So its very hard. Amid mounting backlash over trumps comments, his campaign went into damage control mode releasing a statement calling captain khan a hero to our country and saying we should honor all who made the ultimate sacrifice. Went on to say while i feel deeply for the loss of his son mr. Khan who has never met me has no right to stand in front of millions of people and claim i have never read the constitution. Which is false. Trump continued to harangue the khans on twitter yesterday. I was viciously attacked by mr. Khan at the democratic convention. Am i not allowed to respond. Hillary voted for the iraq war. Not me. Again this morning this story isnt about mr. Khan who is all over the place doing interviews but rather radical slauk terrorism and the u. S. , get smart. Meanwhile, his surrogates have begun innuendo against the family. Breitbart claims khan has connections to the saudi arabiand governor while a long time advise trump advisor claims he is a Muslim Brotherhood agent. Trumps remarks have been condemned by numerous veterans groups including the vfw which hosted him at its National Convention last week. In an msnbc on friday, the father pled with Senate Majority leader Mitch Mcconnell and House Speaker paul ryan to renounce their support for donald trump. There comes a time in a nation where a radical moral stand has to be taken regardless of the political cost. The only reason theyre not repudiating this, his behavior, his threat to our democracy is just because of political consequences. Mcconnell and ryan reiterated their opposition to trumps muslim ban. Senator jim once derided by trump for having been a prisoner of war put out a long statement. While our party bestowed him the nomination its not accompanied by unfettered license to malign the best among us. But all three have declined to take back their endorsements of donald trump. I spoke a short time ago with republican senator jeff flake who serves with john mccain in arizona and has not endorsed trump. I asked him how important he thought the muslim ban was as the genesis of all this. Well, thats very important. When he made that statement i think many americans, Many Republicans who are incensed by it, thats when i went actually to a mosque that week here in arizona and spoke about the contributions that Muslim Americans have made throughout the history of our country, fought in every war, theyve been First Responders to many of these terrorist attacks and this notion that we ought to have a religious test for people entering the country is just the antithesis of who we are as american so thats whats at the root of this and what incense it had khans so much. You used the phrase antithesis of americans and i cant help but notice your friend, colleague, senator in arizona john mccain who is up for reelection, who was personally insulted by donald trump way back in the beginning of this who put out a strong statement condemning trumps words about mr. Khan is nonetheless supporting donald trump. Is there a breaking point for your colleagues at which point they feel they can no longer abide this . Well, i dont want to speak for my of my colleagues, i can just say john mccain is a good man and to stand by the republican nominee i think its largely because he was that nominee eight years ago and he feels that its his duty and i respect that. But i think some of us need to push back on these statements made by donald trump for the good of the party, for good of the country we need to because somebody making these kind of statements shouldnt become president and i hope that he changes. Respectfully, sir, though, and i understand you dont want to speak for your colleague john mccain as a general principle it seems to me that perhaps ones duty to ones party and perhaps moral commitments that a politician might have seem to be in conflict. At a certain point i think we can all agree there are certain things that say a nominee of the party you support would say or support that would be past good conscience what you can continue to support. What is that line . If it has not been crossed yet, what could conceivably be the line that would cross that . Like i said i dont want to speak for anyone else. I think the muslim ban for me was one of those lines. His criticism of john mccain and then some of the positions hes taken. Not just the tone and tenor of the campaign but the positions on immigration, for example. Just saying were going to build a wall and make mexico pay for it. We in arizona need meaningful immigration reform. The statements made about nato and the arrangements with the european countries. We cant have that position and move ahead so its not just the tone and tenor of the campaign, its the positions hes taken and for me hes gone beyond and like i said Many Republicans, i respect those who say im going to support the nominee, we hope that he changes. We have 100 days, 99 days left. Its increasingly unlikely in my view that hell change these positions but i hope he does. Okay. But, sir, at a certain point whats the line from einstein about insanity doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. Weve all been observing this for over a years. We know whether you like him or not who this individual is. Isnt that people lying to themselves and saying he might change . Hope spreads eternal and we have some time left and he chose a good running mate. Mike pence is a good man. I hope hes able to move him and move donald trump on some of these positions. But when he continues to make statements like he did about the khans that becomes increasingly unlikely that he is going to change and thats too bad for us. May i ask who youll be voting for for president this fall . Ive said i wont vote for Hillary Clinton, i know too much about her record and i do think that some republicans go far too far saying she ought to be locked up because when you say that it doesnt allow us to actually have the real debate on a number of topics that we ought to be having a debate on. I cant vote for donald trump given the things he said. I still want to support our nominee. Well see who else is on the ballot. All right, you can always write in jeff flake, senator, thank you very much. Thank you. Joining me now, congressman charlie dent. You tweeted this captain khan was a hero. Anyone diminishing his valor should be condemned. Who do you mean by anyone . Obviously i very much disagree with the comments of donald trump with respect to the khans. As the party of Abraham Lincoln i often looked at Abraham Lincoln at a time like this. Ive been too too many funerals sadly of Service Members who died in afghanistan or iraq and i always go to Abraham Lincoln who said these individuals gave that last full measure of devotion so to criticize a family a gold star family that lost a loved one in the line of duty is just beyond the pale. Its out of bounds and that kind of comment is indefensible and has to be condemned. And then what . Have you decided on who youre supporting in this president ial election yet . I have not endorsed the nominee and im not voting if Hillary Clinton. Thats where i am and continue to be as ive been on your show before and other shows. Ive said that given the incendiary comments from the p. O. W. S and john mccain to the disabled to mexicans to women to the muslim comments, to david duke and now the khan family that has given me a lot of pause as well as the policy contradictions, were also talking about russia right now, too, and ukraine and crimea and these policy contradictions and lack of specifics are also very troubling to me and thats why ive not endorsed . Why are there not more people like you, congressman . Why have the overwhelming majority of your colleagues endorsed despite the fact that id be willing to bet behind closed doors the vast majority speak about him the way youre speaking about him now in public. Thats a good question. I spent a lot of time in congress, in my 12th year and ive taken grief for from some people saying im not sufficiently pure enough and i dont meet the litmus test criteria. Some of those same folks trying to impose a purity test or litmus test have the first ones to endorse a populist nominee who is not ideologically so i dont understand the same groups criticizing folks like me and others for not being pure enough are happy to jump on board of a populist campaign that is anything but ideologically doctrine their. What does that say about the core of the Republican Party . What is it . Why are they willing to go on . I think one thing donald trump has done that we should take note of is hes pulled back the curtain, so to speak, on the republican primary voter. Hes pulled it back and what hes divulged is that Many Republican primary voters are not in fact ideologically doctrinaire, and they might be somewhat conservative. Theyre conservative on some issues and less so on others. Hes pointed that out and thats been helpful bull the way hes gone about it has caused me concern. Congressman charlie dent, thanks for joining us. Im joined by the former Deputy Campaign manager for Carly Fiorina and michael steele, former chairman of the rnc. Two updates, trump basically indicated he thought khan was opposed to him because hes trying to keep muslim terrorists out of the country. That was his objection and i want to play for you this remarkable moment i thought at a pence event today in carson city, nevada. Take a listen. I am a military mom, my son is currently serving in the u. S. Air force. [ applause ] thank you, thank you. Thank you so much. My question for you, mr. Pence, is time and time again trump has disrespected our Nations Armed forces and veterans and is his disrespect for mr. Khan and his family is just an example of that. [ boos ] will there ever be a point in time when youre able to look at trump in the eye and tell him enough is enough. [ boos ] you have a son in the military. How do you tolerate his disrespect . Well, i think what difference does it make . Thats all right. Thats all right. Folks, thats what freedom looks like and thats what freedom sounds like. Michael, your reaction to that . Well, i think its a very powerful moment and i would love to i heard the rest of what mike pence had to say on that point because i think i think he is trying to maybe quietly get donald trump off of this. Donald trump opened up a can of worms that was so unnecessary to open up. The first part of the statement they put out today was all they should have ever said was we thank this gold star family for their sacrifice and their service to our nation period. Do not engage, do not take on, do not go down that road because there is no win here. The fact that people were booing her sends the message that people are not tolerant. And think its an ugly can of worms they dont need to get into. Get off of this, move on to talk about the economy, 1. 5 growth thats been reported as of friday. Or the muslim ban. The muslim ban. All of that stuff is not part of the conversation. But it is. Sara, here i want to make this point because i think its important to separate out policy from decency. So lets be clear there are thousands of families in this country that have lost loved ones dear to them in the various wars weve been fighting for 15 years. Some are trump supporters, some are ted cruz supporters, some are Bernie Sanders supporters. They have every conceivable view on war and peace and every policy issue and theres no trump card not to invoke a pun because one of those families has that. Lets put that aside. The issue seems to be the fundamental one of decency. Just basic take all ideology aside. Comport yourself as a decent human being in the public sphere. Thats the test. I think thats right. From a political standpoint, they came out of the dnc convention, we knew hillary would get some kind of bump out of that. The best way to tamp that down was to, again, make this a referendum on Hillary Clinton. Look at her Chris Wallace interview yesterday on fox news. Even the Washington Post gave her four pinocchios for her statement that comey said he had been completely truthful to the American People. If you look up the definition of political malpractice it has changed today. All it says is look at the last 72 hours. Its unbelievable we are still talking about this and, again to your point set aside the morality, the decency of it, just politically speaking what in the world are we doing here . This is something he does, with consistency. My question, michael, is i guess were just going to do this for the next 100 days. Hell do things that people find odious that im sure people off the record say to you because they fundamentally have some continually beating heart of decency in their own chests they find odious and repellent and then putting on a happy face in public. Is that the game for the next three months. It may be for a lot of people but i think theres a significant number of us out here who have been trying to help steer this thing away from what has become the thing it stuck in and thats Donald Trumps personal peeve. He takes these comments personally and feel he is needs to respond and thats not the way this works out let people express what they want to express. You dont have to respond to everything thats said to you or about you. There are central focuses that he needs to have right now the economy and hillary. Good luck. Theres no other discussion the country has to have right now. Good luck. I know. We try. Thank you for stopping by, appreciate it. Still to come, is donald trump skipping the president ial debates, his bizarre complaints about the schedule. And his authoritative claim putin will not go into ukraine. Theres just one small problem with that. Ill explain after this twominute break. Its easy to love your laxative when that lax loves your body back. Only miralax hydrates, eases and softens to unblock naturally, so you have peace of mind from start to finish. Love your laxative. Miralax. Esuthey offer a claimfreece a smarter discount. H saves money. Because safe drivers cost less to insure, which saves money. They let you pay your bill electronically, which saves postage, which saves money. They settle claims quickly, which saves time, which saves money. And they offer home and Auto Insurance, so you can bundle your policies, which saves money. Esurance was born online and built to save. And when they save, you save. Thats auto and Home Insurance for the modern world. Esurance, an allstate company. Click or call. Every day is a chance to dop, something great. And for the ones they love, theyd do anything. Sears optical has glasses made for doing. Right now, buy one pair and get another free. Quality eyewear for doers. Sears optical hes not going into ukraine, okay, just so you understand. Hes not going go into ukraine. You can mark it down, put it down, take it anyway you want. Hes there are, isnt he . Hes there in a certain way but im not there, you have obama there and frankly that whole part of the world is a mess under obama. That was donald trump in an interview talking about russian president Vladimir Putin, the comments trump made during that interview call into question two things one, what uld trumps policy posture towards russia be should he become president and, two, does he know anything about what hes talking about. After being on the receiving end of a lot of criticism, trump took to twitter to explain himself. When i said in an interview that putin is not going into ukraine, you can mark it down im saying if im president already in crimea. He tweeted 13 minutes