Well be back here tomorrow in oregon and kentucky, until then, for the entire team here at eyewitness si. Coming up hardball with Chris Matthews. Trump versus the times. Lets play hardball. Good evening. Im Chris Matthews in new york. Donald trump pushed back hard yesterday that looked at his treatment of women and called the story a lame hit piece and a joke. He also said it was malicious and according to the times piece, interviews with dozens of women that knew him quote reveal
romantic advances, unending commentary on the peal form and an unsettling workplace conduct. A few of the times examples female trump executives said he told her you look like you like your candy. One said trump was dismissive towards here, hun and a miss usa contestant said he kissed me directly on the lips and i thought oh my gosh, gross. A former trump girlfriend said he asked her to change into a bikini during a pool party and told the crowd at the pool that is a stunning trump girl, isnt it . The trump times characterize it as a facetoface encounter. Lane herself today dispute that characterization. I was not happy with the way that the article was written and i was promised that it wouldnt
be done that way and it absolutely was. I dont think its fair to me and i dont really think its fair to him. It seems to me like they have an agenda and they are following it. I never said he paraded me anywhere and that word keeps coming up. He said now thats a stunning trump girl. I was very flattered and indeed flattered and i made that clear to the writer i was flattered. Trump says he will go on offense against Hillary Clinton and says quote just getting nasty with Hillary Clinton wont work. You got to get women to ask if hillary is true and authentic. He plans to challenge oher on benghazi and husbands infidelities. Trump plans to throw clintons husbands infidelities in his face questioning whether she enabled his behavior. Joining me is a political reporter for the New York Times and msnbc contributor and
john no, im sorry, no youre not. Shes with Time Magazine and john is a former senior strategists for the santorum president ial campaign. Let me go to jeremy. I know you have to speak for your newspaper, but how would you report on this back and forth he found a women not happy with the way the story was presented and said she was not by her terms exploited or abused or humiliated she says. The author of the piece should she wouldnt be portrayed that way. Shes not happy about and it i can understand if shes right she would be. Trump also pointed out there were some 50 women interviewed only four or five quoted in the piece which he suggested other women had good things to say about him. Can you comment on that . Ill let this story speak for itself. What i will say both sides of it . Trump did tweet something inaccurate the women interviewed for the story. He did. The reporter did a fine job reporting this piece pointed out that he did interview the women that the Trump Campaign told them to talk to and so that part of what trump pushed back on was not accurate. The beauty of the piece is it is very inappropriate. What about the portrayal of the woman that pushed back, ms. Lane . She said they got it all wrong and said they wouldnt write it that way. You know she was not paraded around. They kept saying paraded. I wasnt paraded around. Your thoughts . I didnt report the piece so i probably shouldnt no, but youre doing a good job here. Let me go to jay newton small. The way the story hits you, the story, the fact you can discern as being true, how does it hit you and what does it say about
the president ial candidate himself . Donald trump has a lot of roads to make with women. Calling Rosie Odonnell a fat pig or saying megyn kelly has been bleeding or calling Carly Fiorina ugly, these stories dont help him do they hurt . Are they worse if youve gotten through the thick of Public Information about it, what he said about Rosie Odonnell and said about megyn kelly the journalist, what he said about his opponent at one time, carly this is in our face already. People have they adjusted to that part of him and made their own discernment and why would this be worse . I dont think hes winning women over. These stories, he needs to be out there winning women over because hes not going to win a
general election without doing better with women and hes losing women enormously. He has to do better and his challenge is to show how he would govern and better represent women and better represent them than Hillary Clinton would. Stories like this do not help at all. There are positive aspects and im sure well see his daughter come out and talk about how hes a good businessman and how hes empowered women and there are aspects where he was one of the few to hire and promote women in the 80s and 90s but thats lost in what becomes the worst aspects of this character to sexualize every woman whether hes working with or dating. On, weve been through this before, we all were in it with clinton. You and i personally. I mean just broader and
kathleen willy and paula jones and accusations they made in his defense or whatever it worth. Its not that its similar. Everything is different but each case is its own self and it involves humiliation of women and some its things like saying i got to put it in perspective, you call someone hun or dear 30 years ago, i doesnt know if that was courtesy, niceness or charm. It could have been dismissiveness. Clearly had that impact and even if its 20 years ago. Well, first of all, one thing that worked in did thes favor is it was the New York Times. For republicans to be unified, he needs to be attacked by ob a obama, clinton and the New York Times. Number two, as you said, a lot of this is really people know these things about donald trump and again, im not an analyst. Im a strategists and if im a strategist for the trump
campaign one thing i do realize, the more ugly i can make the race between both parties, the more it is for my benefit because people are saying im sick of all that type of politics. Im going with the agent of change and the agent of change in this particular race is donald trump. Do you think thats true . I wrote a close for the show along those lines but my sort of bottom line will be at the end of the night because im already there which is this just turns people off to politics. They say im not running for anything if this is what illm o going to be hit with throwing past personal behavior against each other, people have to be perfect in their life or enjoy this. Trump seems to be able to enjoy this stuff thrown back and forth. He does. Its what animates him. Its what sustains him every single day getting in these fights on twitter, hurling insults at opponents and journalists that cross him who he believes somehow wronged him but i do think that youre right, chris. People are voting in the polls
are showing this, that they are selecting a president ial candidate for the first time based on a negative voting against someone. You talked to hillary supporters and voting for her because they want to vote against trump and the same is true for trump. They are picking him because they want to vote against hillary. Thats a striking and Unsettling Development in our politics. Ann in the Washington Post used all kinds of information and a new focus group that puts it into the likability issue on her side again it is the thing that republicans unite about. They dont like hillary and want to beat her or whatever the instinct and here we have people, have all this stuff used against trump now. There is no good news for anybody right now it seems. Its all relatively bad news depending how bad it is on either of them. Striking this is like a
nonideal Logical Campaign and issues and not a campaign about substance and policy but who you like more and who you would wrath v rather have a beer with more who you would like to throw a beer at . I dont know if its like or dislike more and scream at the tv more and so it reallily is about character. If you spend six months against character attack. This puts donald trump in the madman category in terms of behavior. Anyway, president obama made a strong case against donald trump yesterday during a commencement address at rutgers although never actually mentioned trumps name. But you know who hes talking about. Lets watch. The world is more enter connected thavr ever befo connected than ever before. Building walls wont change that. Isolating or disparaging muslims
or suggestioning they should be treated differently would alienate the communities at home and abroad who are the most important partners in the fight against violent extremism. If you were listening to todays political debate, you might wond wonder where this strain of anti intellectual came from. Its not cool to not know what youre talking ability. Thats not challenging political correct n correctness. Thats not knowing what youre talking about. Pretend for a second you can i think your ill mag nation will carry this, youre working for president obama now. How far can he go to rattle the cage of trump before trump pulls him into the cage . Not very far is my guess. If we dont hear by tonight, i would be shocked. Its smarter for obama than Hillary Clinton to do it, if for no other reason obama is better. Can he stay coy or distant when trump reaches out and says i know what youre talking about and gives him it back again with that stuff. No, i think ultimately it may be a gift for trump. First of all, it takes all the other issues off the table by this if trump fights with obama, things like middle income, blue color workers in ohio, if its trump versus obama, they will side with trump on these issues and so i think although its fun to watch and obama can be creative, i think ultimately politically helps trump more than Hillary Clinton. We shall see. Thank you. And john, coming up, Bernie Sanders continues to duke it out with Hillary Clinton despite impossible odds and senior aids
say they could make things messy at the convention come philadelphia this summer. What is it Bernie Sanders wants no matter who gets the nomination . Who do his supporters want the nominee to do whatever it is . Plus, after the assassination of president kennedy, Lyndon Johnson tack the reigns of power to change the course of american history. I urge every american to join in this effort to bring justice and hope to all our people. And to bring peace to our land. Later in the show, quite magically, Bryan Cranston become that guy, Lyndon Johnson. Anthony playing Martin Luther king and j roach once genitals the story of Lyndon Johnsons heroic role of bringing us to the role of 1964 tonight on the show and inside trumps bras strategy to go after bill and Hillary Clinton during debates this fall, during the debates
hell do it live on National Television all or nothing move that will work for him or it wont. Finally, let me finish with the election that looks to be a real life bonfire in the vanities. Thats what it is is looking like and this is hardball a place for politics. So what the Supreme Court said is well send it back at the lower courts but strongly endorsed a compromise that said even having to say they dont want to provide contraceptive care for employees would violate the religious freedom. They said this possible compromise would be this, the group simply buy insurance and
dont include contraceptive and Insurance Company takes it from there and provides no cost. Thats why both sides are saying there is something in it for them but the other part of this is that supporters are saying the pact the Supreme Court wouldnt get to the main question of the case sent them to the lower court shows the court cant be fully functional with eight justices. Makes sense. You need five to beat four. Thank you Pete Williams at the Supreme Court. Hardball returns after this. Real is touching a ray. Amazing is moving like one. Real is making new friends. Amazing is getting this close. Real is an animal rescue. Amazing is over twentyseven thousand of them. There is only one place where real and amazing live. Seaworld. Real. Amazing they made a mistake. The check they sent isnt enough to replace your totaled new car. The guy says they didnt make the mistake. You made the mistake. I beg your pardon . He says, you should have chosen fullcar replacement. Excuse me . Let me be frank, he says you picked the wrong insurance plan. no. I picked the wrong Insurance Company. with Liberty Mutual new car replacement, well replace the full value of your car plus depreciation. Call
and if you have more than one Liberty Mutual policy, you qualify for a multipolicy discount, saving you money on your car and home coverage. Call Liberty Mutual for a free quote today at thats see Car Insurance in a whole new light. Liberty mutual insurance. Is it a bird . Is it a plane . It is a superdelegate. [ laughter ] all right. Flying over the sky. All right. Nobody would have believed that we would receive well over 9 million votes at this point in the campaign. [ cheers ] this coming tuesday, were going to win a great victory
right here in kentucky. [ cheers ] and by the way, i think were going to win in oregon, as well. So [ cheers ] and then on june 7th, we got california and a bunch of other states. Welcome back. That was of course Bernie Sanders campaigning now in kentucky over this weekend ahead of tomorrows primary there. The republican contest all but wrapped up of course but democrats are fighting until the end in philadelphia this summer. Joining me is jeff weaver. Jeff, im trying to figure out lets try a peace treaty between you and me for a second. Always, of course. Lets forget, put aside who will be the nominee. Let talk principle. Bernie is not running out of ego, how hard if you fight win or lose, what will you try to get done in philadelphia to come out with different principles
enshrined, what would they be . I certainly think the platform will be important, chris. If you look at the issues Bernie Sanders has talked about on the campaign trail unlike donald trump who takes, spends his time hurling insults, Bernie Sanders gives long speeches about raising the minimum wage to 15 and universal health care through a single parent system and dealing with a corrupt finance system and making sure wealth and income stops going to the people at the very top. Creating a new trade policy that benefits working class people and not just people on wall street. These are types of issues Bernie Sanders has been fighting for the whole campaign. When you come out of the convention and youll be there and senator sanders, when you come out, will we have something that looks like a commitment as health care as a right . We certainly would hope so and beyond the issues in the platform, there are a number of
electoral issues that i think will have to be addressed at the convention. I think we have to deal with things like closed primaries, superdelegates, sameday registration and a host of other issues that are keeping people from participating in the democratic process. Getting rid of bringing in sameday regulistration, what about state conventions and state caucuses rather than primaries. Arent primaries the most democratic way to do something if you get into Electoral Reform . We need to look at that. One of the issues weve seen in experience from this Campaign Cycle you win them well, we do often win them, but many cases the state parties dont have the resources to run them effectively why cant these states have primaries . I dont understand how cheap they are. A primary seems basic as part of the political system. I think caucus reform is an issue well certainly have to
put on the table. For instance, in some states you dont know how many people voted or who they voted for, right . Let me ask you about the tough turkey one. Your best one. Besides the good issue, one we believe in, everybody on the Progressive Side over where the progressives come and everybody likes the idea of helping kids with tuition. They need help with the bills they have to pay, loans are outrageous, suspects six figures, what do we do about the deal like Hillary Clinton giving speeches for a couple hundred thousand dollars a pop . How do you stop somebody out of office from doing that . She wasnt in office she was between office but out of public office. How do you stop somebody from doing that . Well, i dont know you stop them from doing that but there is a political price to be paid and if we increase the base of the Democratic Party so it includes more young people and working class people and people Bernie Sanders is bringing into the process, i think people wont do those speeches because
they know the political price will be too high. What happens if trump hits that issue this summer and fall and nails hillary on that . Would you agree or get quiet because you were the guys that raised the issue. He didnt raise it, you did. Certainly an issue raised. These speeches, i think this whole issue would have gone away if the content of the speeches, the problem was chris, the speeches were giv