We have advice for donald trump before we go. For your next inflight meal, go ahead and lose the fork. You dont need it for chicken. Sayonara. Hardball with Chris Matthews is next. Have you no decency . Lets play hardball. Good evening. Im Chris Matthews in new york. In his strongest comments to date on donald trump, president obama today called the republican president ial nominee woefully unprepared to be president. He also questioned his judgment and temperament for the job. Obama said trump is in a Different League from past republican nominees like john mccain and mitt romney. Yes. I think the republican nominee is unfit to serve as president. I said so last week and he keeps on proving it. I think i was right and mitt romney and john mccain were wrong on certain policy issues but i never thought that they couldnt do the job. But thats not the situation here. And thats not just my opinion. That is the opinion of many prominent republicans. The president called on Republican Leaders to not only repudiate trumps statements but also his candidacy itself. Quote, there has to come a point he said at which you say enough. I think whats been interesting is the repeated denunciations of his statements by leading republicans. The question i think that they have to ask themselves is if you are repeatedly having to say in
very strong terms that what he has said is unacceptable, why are you still endorsing him . What does this say about your party that this is your standard bearer . There has to be a point at which you say this is not somebody i can support for president of the United States. Trump responded later in a statement. He questioned the leadership of president obama and Hillary Clinton. He said obama and clinton have singlehandedly destabilized the middle east, handed iraq, libya and syria to isis and allowed our personnel to be slaughtered in benghazi. They have produced the worst recovery since the great depression. They have shipped millions of our best jobs overseas to appease their global special interests. They have betrayed our security and our workers, our nation has been humiliated abroad and compromised by radical islam brought on to our shores. We need change now. Thats trump talking. Congressman, u. S. Congressman charlie dents a republican from pennsylvania. Michael steele is the former chairman of the Republican National committee and msnbc political analyst. EuGene Robinson is a columnist for the Washington Post and msnbc political analyst. I want congressman dent to start. Are you going to vote for trump . I have no plans, im not endorsing donald trump, i have no plans to vote for donald trump. I said that repeatedly given the incendiary comments and the lack of policy specifics and policy knowledge. Those are the issues that have kept me away from him. Bottom line, its a tough situation to be in. We have two president ial candidates who are skyhigh unfavorability ratings. I said that Hillary Clinton is unacceptable in my view, too, given the way she mishandled classified material, negligently and carelessly. Donald trumps incendiary comments are also a bridge too far for me to cross. Congressman, the problem most people have, especially moderate or centrist republicans is theres only going to be four names on the ballot and two with
a real chance of winning. Thats secretary clinton and donald trump. What do you do on your ballot when the time comes this november . Well, chris, i feel like a lot of, like millions of americans right now who are unhappy with the choices. When we have two candidates who have skyhigh unfavorability ratings we feel like we are in an awful position. Like i said, im not supporting Hillary Clinton under any circumstances and im not prepared to support donald trump or vote for donald trump based on all these comments. That leaves a blank ballot at the top of the ticket or voting for gary johnson, probably and bill wells. Where are you on that . I kind of wish that the libertarian ticket were flipped around. I have a high degree of respect for governor. Hes an eminently qualified guy. Top of the ticket causes me a lot of concern so i guess im in a position where im not prepared to cast a ballot. Thats just where i am. Again, i want to make sure we maintain the house and the senate. Im very concerned with making
sure pat toomey wins reelection. Yeah, i know. Just to stay on you because you are sort of the situation here right now with regard to trumps latest behavior, is it the dope issue that keeps you away from gary johnson . The dope, yeah, i mean i guess that didnt help. I think he made some comment to the effect he wasnt going to smoke any dope between now and the election. I guess its that, and its just other things. Im just not very comfortable with some of his positions, those few i have heard. The governor is a really standup kind of guy, have a lot of respect for him but im not even some of trumps strongest supporters distanced themselves. Rudy giuliani said today the situation quote, could have been handled better. Here is new Jersey Governor Chris Christie today. We need to honor their sacrifice for our country and we need to honor their sons
sacrifice for our country. And to focus on anything other than that to me is missing the point. Thats what we should be doing and any comments that were making publicly or privately should be with that in mind, so my view on this is that the khans have a right to say whatever it is they want regarding the loss of their son. Youre not going to find me being critical of mr. And mrs. Khan no matter what they do, even if i may disagree with any one particular statement they might make. Its just inappropriate for us in this context to be criticizing them and im not going to participate in that. Michael steele, as former rnc chair, still a republican, how do you face up to this . Because what the president , whos a democrat and has basically his thumb on the scale, he wants hillary to win, hes saying dont vote for trump. Well, theres only one other really natural option. You can go for johnson or stein, republicans not going to vote for the green party, probably. You are forcing them to say you
dont like your guy because hes saying stuff about muslims and american gold star families, so you got to vote for my guy or my woman candidate here. You got on vote for hillary. They wont accept that from him, are they . Let me ask you this. Or are they . Vote for my candidate. Let me get this straight. After seven years of not listening to barack obama, republicans are now going to start listening to barack obama on who to vote for for president . Come on. No, i appreciate the president pontificating from the podium today. It was very nice to hear him opine on a very, what is a very personal beef he has with donald trump, rightly so. I get it. The whole birther thing. But look, at the end of the day republicans like the congressman and others will have to make a very personal decision about this nominee, the direction of the party, the direction of the country. Those are all going to be very personal decisions. Im not going to base a decision today on what i know today. Let me get closer to this election, the voting day, and see where we are. I think thats what im hearing from a lot of republicans as
well. I think its still very fluid, its very dynamic for a lot of folks. They dont like this, they think this is a fight that donald trump, like so many others, have unnecessarily picked with the khans but at the same time, they are not ready to go hog wild like the president wants us to do for Hillary Clinton because as congressman dent pointed out, thats a bridge too far as well. Eugene, i think you may even have had this experience at holding your nose occasionally when you vote. Oh, my god, am i really doing this, some of these guys are not exactly the winners you wanted. As a professor at georgetown once said theres a huge difference between free choice and free will. Free choice, you get a couple options. Free will, you can make it up. Like i know congressman dent is trying to do. Come up with something here, come up with something. But youre looking at that ballot, its choice. It is not free will. You are stuck. Your thoughts. Yeah. Yeah. Its not, you know, with apologies to michael, for these elected officials its not strictly just a personal choice. This is a public choice. And i think what president obama was doing in a way is sort of pointing that out and saying all you reasonable people, you are saying all these reasonable things about the khans and about this controversy and this and that, yet you still say you are going to vote for this unreasonable person at the center of all this, donald trump. And so you want to hitch your wagon to him, be my guest. Here he goes today. In an interview with the Washington Post, your paper today, donald trump refused to support, listen to this, senator john mccain and Speaker Paul Ryan in their republican primaries. Ryan, by the way, trump said i like paul but these are horrible times for our country. We need very strong leadership. We need very very strong leadership and im just not quite there yet. Im not quite there yet. I tell you, congressman dent, this guy just is such a player. This is gamesmanship. He doesnt even know this guy running against paul ryan. Hes not trying to make up his
mind. He just wants to ditto here or whatever the right word is. Thats probably not the right word. What do you think trumps doing here . I dont understand why he would want to get involved in paul ryans primary. Paul ryan will win that primary, hes got 80 of the vote. Hes going to win. I dont see anything productive coming out of that for donald trump to kind of put a stick in the face of paul ryan. It makes no sense to me at all. In fact, it further antagonizes many folks he would need to have support him. It makes no sense to me. I also would like to follow up. I heard what the president said today, too, but most republicans arent in the business of taking advice from president obama on how to vote in a president ial election. I just wanted to lets take a look at this. Heres the khans, ghazala and khizr. They told me they didnt want and suggested they wouldnt accept an apology from trump at this point. Here they are last night on hardball. The best apology would be that his supporter repudiate him, and pronounce their repudiation. We dont need any apology from him. We are beyond those apologies. We were promised several months ago that he will pivot in the right direction, he will change and he will not do all that, but do you want to hear anything more from him . No. No, i dont want to hear anything from him and i dont want to say anything to him. Michael, this sounds like they want the guy to lose at this point. Of course they do. They spoke at the democratic convention, chris. Of course they do. I get that. Taking the gold star family portion out of it, you know, i think that this is the unfortunate part of our politics when we start bringing these families into this political atmosphere, a highly charged
political atmosphere, this becomes an unfortunate conversation. Theres no way that in my view, my own personal view, that that family should have been subjected to a National Stage this way. I would normally agree with you and be suspicious like we all should be about when somebody comes forward to the advantage of one party to the disadvantage of the other. However, the khan family, mr. And mrs. , both of them, he wrote an article, public article that brought himself to the attention of the clinton people. He raised his hand and said ive got something to say and i want to say it. No, again, thats fine, but again, i think the Political Parties hold some responsibility here on both sides when they do this. This is just you mean they, the democrats, should not have allowed or urged that family to make their statement more widely . Theres a problem with that, youre saying . Yeah. I just think the way this has played out particularly given sort of the asymmetrical nature of the other candidate, donald trump basically took what mr. Khan said as a personal attack
on him when he talked about not reading the constitution. Thats what pricked his skin in that regard. Now this is where we are. So i think that sacrifice should have been the only thing that donald trump talked about but unfortunately, the politics prevailed. Just to make it clear, i can argue you are always reasonable when you are arguing here and i accept it as a point of view but tell you one thing. When trump attacked the woman here, a very quiet woman who is in grief over the loss of her son which we can all figure out, we can figure out that emotion, she didnt want to have to confront a situation where she couldnt speak. Last night on the show, when i asked her what was it like the first time you saw your son in uniform, she couldnt talk. She pulled her veil across her face, turned to the side, didnt want to show her face. I accept completely her reason for not wanting to Say Something on stage. When he went after her on that, that to me got very nasty. Very nasty. Very nasty. Anyway, shes what we call a
civilian. What i mean . A civilian. Gene, more next time, sir. I have been told to stop talking. You are all staying with us. Coming up, is trump hurting his own brand. Think about it. His brand is im a nationalist fighting for america, im appealing to work people. Then he calls on russia to get on his side against Hillary Clinton, to hack into her email. Hes fighting now with a gold star family, the ultimate patriotic family, challenging the essence of his patriotic call, his nationalism. Then he goes after saying a woman who gets preyed upon at work should just walk away from the job as if working people have that option with their employers and workplace. Most people are working paycheck to paycheck. They dont just walk away and say i dont like the unhealthy workplace here. Donald trump needs to win. Thats ahead. Plus two warriors join us. Former senator bob kerry, medal of honor winner and retired general, barry mccaffrey. We get their thoughts on the
nature of sacrifice and trumps battle with the khan family, who were on this show just last night. Heres trumps behavior. Is it helping Hillary Clinton expand the electoral map . New polls are giving democrats real hope they can flip some traditional red states blue this year. Hillary is on the road right now to about 55 45. Let me finish with a very basic thought. About life and death. This is hardball. With usaa is awesome. Homeowners insurance Life Insurance automobile insurance i spent 20 years active duty they still refer to me as Gunnery Sergeant when i call being a usaa member because of my service in the military to pass that on to my kids something that makes me happy my name is roger zapata and im a usaa member for life. Usaa. We know what it means to serve. Get an insurance quote and see why 92 of our members plan to stay for life. Introduces new, easytoswallow tablets. So now, there are more ways,
for more people. To experience. Complete protection from frequent heartburn. Nexium 24hr. The easytoswallow tablet is here. Bp wind farms are monitored 24 7 at our remote operations center, so onsite teams can count on Early Warning of approaching weather. Because safety is never being satisfied. And always working to be better. Congressman Richard Hanna became the first elected republican to say hes going to vote for Hillary Clinton, the democratic candidate. In a letter to the syracuse post standard, congressman hanna wrote for me it is not enough to simply denounce his comments. He is unfit to serve our party and cannot lead this country. Hannas a moderate republican not running for reelection this year. Youre here to buy a car. What would help is simply being able to recognize a fair price. Truecar has pricing data on every make and model, so all you have to do is search for the car you want, there it is. Now youre an expert in less than a minute. This is truecar. One coat, yes one coat guaranteed marquee interior. Behrs most advanced paint. Come find our top rated paints, only at the home depot. Welcome back to hardball. Donald trumps strong
nationalistic appeal has rallied millions of working class voters. I make this promise. We will make america strong again. We will make america proud again. We will make america safe again. And we will make America Great again. Hes compromised that appeal, you could say, by seeming to be in cahoots with russian president putin. Last week, trump encouraged russia to hack into Hillary Clintons emails. It would be interesting to see, i will tell you this, russia, if youre listening, i hope youre able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing. I think you will probably be rewarded mightily by our press. Lets see if that happens. That will be next. This week, trump went after
the parents of a fallen soldier. His wife, 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. Finally, trump got flagged for failing to stand up for working class people. He told usa today that if his daughter ivanka was sexually preyed upon at work, she would just leave. He said i would like to think she would find another career or find another company if that was the case. But Many Americans live paycheck to paycheck, we all know, and struggle to find just one job and hold on to it. They are the ones trump needs, i would think, if he hopes to win this election. Back with michael steele, Eugene Robinson and joined by molly ball, staff writer for the atlantic. Molly, your thoughts on this. Take your time. I think trump has a strong brand first of all. I think it appeals to people i know in pennsylvania who do like that shove back. They have been shoved around as
a working person and shove back. That has a lot of people for working people. Until this week hes been running evenly with hillary on just that. Your thoughts on whether that supports that brand or hurts it . I think its totally consistent. I think the nationalism that donald trump espouses is not the sort of abstract patriotism of like the america