All right, head to Bloomberg Politics right now, the story on donald trump, powerful weapon with his latest comments on abortion. Thanks for watching. Hardball with Chris Matthews is next. Important questions, important answers. Lets play hardball. Good evening, im Chris Matthews back in washington. There continues to be fallout from Donald Trumps comments on abortion and the use of Nuclear Weapons at our hardball town hall. Here is what he said about punishing women who receive one. Should the woman be punished for having an abortion . This is not something you can dodge. If you say abortion is a crime or abortion is murder, you have to deal with it under the law. Should abortion be punished . Well, people in certain parts
of the Republican Party, and con certificate testify republic certificatetives would say yes. How about you . I would say its a serious problem. Its problem that we have to decide on. Its very youre for banning it. Wait. Are you going to say put them in jail. No, im asking you. You say you want to ban that. What does that mean. I am prolife, why he. How do you ban abortion . How do you do it . You go back to a position like they had where people will perhaps go to illegal places. Yeah. But you have to ban it. Do you believe in punishment for abortion . Yes or no, as a principle. The answer is that there has to be some form of punishment. For the woman . Yeah, there has to be some form. Ten years, what . That, i dont know. Why not . I dont know. You take positions on everything else. I do take positions. Its a complicated position. The Trump Campaign later issued a couple of statements, first, quote, this issue is unclear and should be put back into the states for determination. That was followed later in the
day with a full reversal, quote, if congress were to pass legislation making abortion illegal, and the federal courts upheld the legislation or any state were permitted to ban abortion under state or federal law, the doctor or other person performing this illegal act upon a woman would be held legally responsible. Not the woman. Earlier today, trumps spokeswoman said this. He made a mistake. That is not how he really feels. Absolutely. This was a complete misspeak during a conversation over a hypothetical concept, and theres with a clarification issue. Okay. Mr. Trump is prolife with the exceptions, and does not punish women for abortions, even if theyre illegal. Im joined by katy tur, who is milwaukee, michael steele, and robert costa, National Political reporter for the washington post, political analyst. Katy, give us a sense, has he
spoken to the press, accepted questions since the town meeting yesterday . No, he has not. He visited the rnc earlier today and there were a number of reporters staked out in front. He went in without a comment and left without a comment. Waived to the reporters. He has been inactive on twitter today, only tweeting pretty much that he had a meeting with the rnc, not addressing the issue of abortion or his comments, or even the issue about what he said about Nuclear Weapons in your town hall yesterday. What do you make of how he is going to can you tell from the scheduled to from today, tomorrow, the next day, is he going to lay low, face this, strategy yet . Theyve obviously put out these new two statements . Really a 180 on what he said to me, which we have on tape of course, and we just showed it. What is their angle right now . What is their plan, do you know. The campaign is laying unusually low. I will say that the candidate himself had no public events
scheduled prior to this on thursday or friday. He is back on the trail here in wisconsin on saturday. As for his surrogates, theyve pulled Katrina Pearson from the airwaves, except for the interview she had this morning. Theyve denied interview requests with nbc news, and theyve been very tightlipped when it has come to this trying to make it look ridiculous, according to the campaign, to criticize him it comes to abortion. Just a few weeks ago, ted cruz was criticizing him for his support of planned parenthood, and now, all of a sudden, everyone is criticizing him for being too extreme on the topic. The campaign is seeing a real disconnect when it comes to that. But as for that borings controversy, my instinct from seeing this campaign for the last ten months, is that theyre going to try to lay low on it, not talk about it, wait for the news cycle to pass before donald
trump is on the trail again on saturday, at which point they hope theyll be able to move on. I dont think its the criticism. But it seems to me this isnt about criticism for the prochoice people or prolife people, abortion activists on either side. Its really about what he said. And when he was given a full opportunity to answer the question, what he said and it is now on tape and tape survives all kinds of public statements. The other four candidates all reacted to, when i say that, Donald Trumps comments on abortion. Lets watch. Should women who get abortions be punished . Of course not. Donalds comments today is the latest demonstration that he hasnt thought seriously about the problems facing this country. He is willing to say anything to try to get elected. Of course women shouldnt be punished. I think donald trump will figure out a way to say he didnt say it, he was misquoted, but i dont think so. Thats not an appropriate spo
response. Women have the right to control their own bodies and to make those personal decisions themselves. But to punish a woman for having an abortion is beyond comprehension. Im constantly just taken aback at the kinds of things that he advocates for, you know. Mia angelo said show us who you are, and he has shown us who he is. Fundraising letter by mr. Trump, and put out this online video. Do you believe in punishment for abortion as a principle . The answer is that there has to be some form of punishment. For the woman . Yeah, there has to be some form of punishment. Michael steele, your view on this thing . Lets talk about the politics. The politics is not good. It hurts the party in its effort to create a different kind of
conversation with women. Certainly. A constituency well need in november. More importantly, it upends the opportunity to have an intelligent conversation about abortion. No one in this party who has ever made the argument that a women should be sent to jail, punished in any way shape or form. So he is wrong when he said some yeah. If they are, ive never heard them or seen them. So this has not been something that has been put out in the main by and large. I think what youre seeing right now is the Trump Campaign recognizing it is in full throated meltdown, when you combine everything that has happened, going back to the fight with ted cruzs wife other his wife, certainly the coreys arrest. And now this. This is not been a good period. He is done, quite honestly, in his doing, something that the other 16 candidates could not
do. Slow his own momentum and get him off of the surge. This is going to be a problem for the campaign. Its problem for the party. They need to come together and fix this. Because this hurts, and it stings and it stays. This is something youve already seen the commercial up on this. How do you make this argument to women in the fall that what im saying now i didnt mean it. And its a hard argument to make. I think misspeaking is when you get somebodys name wrong, misspeaking is a mistakes are made. He had an opportunity. Im two feet from mr. Donald trump, and he had a time to think. It was pressure. But his answer was punishment. He has a level of discomfort when he is talking about social issues, because his campaign is not one of being a conservative warrior. Thats where youre seeing trump right now. He is trying to navigate as he gets close to the nomination, but he is not a movement conservative. Its similar that mitt romney
said severely conservative, because he knew he had to keep the right with him, but not a comfortable move. The question is, was he finding his way in real time yesterday . I think thats the question. Was he finding his way. He hadnt gone through the preparation. Lets ill be a little cynical here. Politicians have a trade craft. They know certain areas you dont talk about. You dont talk about punishing women for abortion. Whatever your philosophical views. You dont talk about use of Nuclear Weapons. You dont talk about it ever. You dont say when youre going to use Nuclear Weapons, i dont think he is familiar with that. I think it goes on the social conservative front, what robert just said. This is new language for. New conversation for him. He is evolving into it. And is not evolving well on how to speak. I want to get katy back in here. Another moment from our town hall reaction around the world, our discussion about nuclear
weapons, and when this country would think of using them. I asked donald trump about keeping Nuclear Weapons on the table and dealing with isis. Here he is. I dont want to talk about Nuclear Weapons. President s dont talk about it. Were talking about nato, which by the way i said you good hooked. Some day, maybe. Maybe . Of course. If i was against iraq, i would be the first one to use the Nuclear Weapons. Can you tell the middle east i would never say that. I would never take my cards off the table. How about europe. You might use it in europe . No, i dont think so. Im just asking. I am not taking cards off the table. Katy, a lot of this as i said from trade craft, trying to figure out the candidate. Why wouldnt he simply say of course, i cant even imagine using a Nuclear Weapon in europe. Europe is a small part of the world. How would you get the enemy
isolated if you even wanted to with a Nuclear Weapon from the innocent civilians, same in the middle east. I think its because donald trump is not a politician, speaking to what robert and michael are talking about. He doesnt know the rules of engagement of politics. He doesnt know what are topics that are off bounds. He is not used to be told not to talk about something or not to comment on something. So it does certainly appear, especially in your town hall, he was searching for the answers to the questions in real time. Its surprising when it comes to the Nuclear Weapons questions, because he had been answering the questions and taking heat from the conversation he had with the New York Times over the weekend on Foreign Policy, in which he expressed openness to allowing japan or south korea to have a nuclear bomb. At that point, he was facing a lot of criticism on Foreign Policy experts, military experts, from a lot of folks out there that this is not something
the u. S. Has been for, ever, really. Its gone against some long held beliefs that this country has had, as well as our allies. And so was facing heat for that. He was also facing heat for bringing up Nuclear Weapons in the first place. So for him to go into that topic again with you, a few days later, does show that his team, either is not advising him or he is not listening. You know, the phrase Tactical Nuclear battle field, these are hundreds of kilo tons, talking about dropping hiroshima, let me ask you about the politics coming up. Next week is wisconsin. He is sinking. Is it going to be seen as a verdict on what he has been saying, taken that way . I think with respect to the abortion question, given the makeup of the republican electorate, gop electorate in wisconsin, yeah, i think a lot of tm will react visceral to
that. It will give a greater spread to cruz in that regard. A Greater Movement against him in cleveland. A Greater Movement in cleveland. There is still that dynamic in play. He is up 30 in new york. Thats what im looking at, to see how those numbers change. I would respectfully disagree about wisconsin. I think with the milwaukee suburbs, ideological conservatives. It isnt the usual rust belt state. The state im paying attention to, pennsylvania, can you win the philly suburbs. Can cruz get people from the center of the state, kasich get the moderates. I think kasich can take him. Well see. Kasich is right there right now. Katy tur, what are they worried about right now, state wise. A couple of things to watch out for in wisconsin. Likely voters say they have a favorable view of donald trump. Thats a very, very low number and the abortion comments certainly dont help that number. I spoke to a number of women here in milwaukee today and asked them how they felt about donald trump and it really divides wrong generational lines. The younger women dont like his bombbast, the older women were more apt to give him the benefit of the doubt. What theyll face after this, what leaders have told me, in order to mitigate the stem, the bleeding, really, theyre going to have to focus on the older women, white women voters, and try to stop the bleeding from the younger women voters in the Republican Party in general and that should be a play when it comes to wisconsin on tuesday. One thing that is in trumps favor in this state is that it is an open primary, it means that there is a staple day registration. Traditionally, that has gone well for donald trump. He is not necessarily a Republican Party candidate. But he has been able to bring over independents and maybe even
some of the soft democrats. So the campaign is really going to be focusing on those people, but so far, a wild car state. From all the polling, which the Campaign Points out, is just a registered republican voters. Ted cruz is in the lead. Yeah, well, thank you. Great reporting as always. Ill be out there myself on tuesday, i think in milwaukee. Thank you. Coming up, when donald trump there should be some sort of punishment for women who have abortions, he engaged or enraged both sides of the abortion debate. When we come back, my exclusive interview with cecile richardson. Bernie sanders has momentum heading into wisconsin next tuesday, but trumps remarks could energize Hillary Clintons supporters. Dont you think . Any way, the hardball round table is here to talk about women voters, and what has become a sizable gender gap. Finally, the question of timing. When will the countrys voters make a final assessment of donald trump and his fitness for the presidency. This is hardball, the place for politics. For your retirement, you want to celebrate the little things, because theyre big to you. And that is why you invest. The best returns arent just measured in dollars. Td ameritrade®. Who dont have access thto basic banking,on people but that is changing. At temenos, with the microsoft cloud, we can enable a banker to travel to the most remote locations with nothing but a phone and a tablet. Everywhere where theres a phone, you have a bank. Now a person is able to start a business, and employ somebody for the first time. The microsoft cloud helped us to bring banking
to ten Million People in just two years. Its transforming our world. Election numbers from new york. The empire state remains solidly blue. Lets take a look at the hardball scoreboard. According to a new quinnipiac poll, Hillary Clinton holds a huge lead over donald trump. 53, trump 33. Hillary thumps ted cruz as well. Clinton 53, cruz, 32. Closer between clinton and kasich. Clinton 46, kasich, 41. Bernie sanders best of three republicans hopeful by even larger margins. Sanders by 24 over trump. 5632. He dominates with cruz, doubling up the texas senator, sanders, 56, cruz 28. Bernie enjoys a double digit over kasich as well, sanders 47,
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antiabortion groups, the march for life, education and defense fund, Jeannie Mancini, said mr. Trumps comments is completely out of touch with the prolife movement. No prolifer would ever want to punish a woman for having an abortion. This is the nature of what we are about. Any way, Jeannie Mancini will join me shortly, as will cecile richards. The remarks of yesterday are playing among women there in wisconsin. Msnb Chris Jansing in milwaukee. Thank you for joining us. Youve been talking to people. All day long. The reaction from w