Trump gets just 33 , thats the lowest ive seen in a poll nationally, to clintons 48 . 15 point spread there. Thats a huge fall from last month. Catch this. Last month, clinton had a slim threepoint lead. Now its 15 points. The dropping poll numbers are the latest evidence and most stark yet that donald trump has been hurt badly by the events of the last couple weeks. New polls in several key states also show trump bleeding bad. Remember the phrase battleground states . You dont hear that anymore. In florida, clinton leads by six points. In michigan, shes up by nine. Pennsylvania, where i come from, trump up by 11. He has to win that state. In new hampshire, she has a 15 point advantage. Thats a state hes been counting on. Meanwhile, a string of republicans have recently said they wont vote for their partys nominee, including congressman charlie dent of pennsylvania, adam kintsinger and adam hahn of new york who said they would Cross Party Lines and vote for Hillary Clinton. In recent days, trump has pushed the concern that the elections going to be rigged. Thats his word hes using now. Late today, president obama was asked about that suggestion by trump. I have never heard of somebody complaining about being cheated before the game was over. Or before the score is even tallied. So my suggestion would be, you know, go out there and try to win the election. If mr. Trump is up 10 or 15 points on election day and ends up losing, then maybe he can raise some questions. That doesnt seem to be the case at the moment. Boy, did he love putting that knife in. Doesnt seem to be the case now. Going to katy tur in portland, maine, where donald trump just spoke today. Michael steele is with us, former chair of the Republican National committee and msnbc political analyst and paul singer, washington correspondent for usa today. Katy, does trump hear it when the president puts the knife in, when he hits him hard like saying oh, if hes up by 10 or 15 he can claim he was rigged if he loses the election but that doesnt seem to be the case now. Zing. Reporter i think he does hear it. Thats why you hear him respond. Hes never been one to take a slight perceived or otherwise. Thats why we always say you see him counterpunch. I think whats going on right now, i know whats going on behind the scenes of the Trump Campaign and outside of the Trump Campaign is literally everybody is telling him to get it together, to get back on message, reset this campaign. I think we said he needs to reset it. I think nine or ten times at this point during this election season. But right now, if donald trump does not, the issue that hes facing is that hes going to go farther down in the polls. Thats what the gop is fearing. Frankly, if you are going to look at poll numbers, that is one of the only things that i think donald trump pays such close attention to that could potentially change his mind. He could have Newt Gingrich and rudy giuliani, chris christie, reince priebus, don jr. , saying you got to get it together, get away from controversial headlines. When he sees his poll numbers dropping, thats when i think you will see donald trump start to change. Today we saw something of that. He did try to pivot. He focused on president obama, he focused on Hillary Clinton. The issue was he still got tripped up. He still strayed from his message. He still brought up things that were baseless like the video that he said he saw of the iranians offloading cash and the iranians took this video and sent it to the u. S. We are still not surwhat hes talking about. The Campaign Said they were referring to a video on the morning shows yesterday that seems to be the video of the american detainees coming off the plane in switzerland. He also was talking again about the San Bernardino terrorists saying people saw bombs all over their apartment and didnt report that. Thats a baseless claim. Those are the things that drive headlines that the Trump Campaign does not want to see. The best advice he is getting from what i am hearing from folks is for him to be quiet, dont make the news, and let the press focus on Hillary Clinton. Wow. Hes a long way from that. Oh, yeah. What do you make of this . We will get back with katy on this point. This word intervention. The word intervention in my experience is when somebodys got a dope problem or booze problem, to be polite. An addiction problem. They are using something they shouldnt be using and its changed their life, their marriage, their job, so somebody has whats called intervention. Right. Their friends. Right. Newt gingrich has been using that word. Yeah. Its a killer word. I think because newt sees this as that serious. Where he sees why is he telling the press hes doing an intervention . Well, thats whats irritated the Trump Campaign. Quite frankly, some other folks around town. Was getting that out in front because now thats one more layer they have to deal with in trying to right this ship. Of course, you know donald trump well enough to know that when you Start Talking about him that way, he gets defensive. Who wouldnt . Right. Like intervention, were not doing no stinking intervention. Remember when reagan was so kind to go after mike dukakis saying i understand he had some counseling and 20, 30 years ago you couldnt even talk about mental illness. You still cant in many circles. Most people are sophisticated about it, understanding. They say if you had counseling, theres something wrong with you. Theres this old theory the candidates had, nixon, he had gotten counseling back in the 50s, which is what nixon went through, i can understand it. But this idea he needs counseling, he needs best friends to come in and put him down, get his head straightened out. The problem for trump at the moment really is, this has been through the campaign, that conflict is his brand and his success. Its almost like triumph the comic insult dog. He makes his brand off of being in your face and katys right, people are telling him step back from conflict, be quiet and sit still for awhile. Thats not his brand, not his strength. How do you tell a guy who made his whole career, even his Business Career out of conflict, that the way you will succeed now is to take conflict out of this for awhile and sit still . I dont see how you can get him to do that. Rudy giuliani today is no calm customer either, downplayed reports he and gingrich were going to hold this intervention. Heres the former mayor. First of all, i find the word intervention completely out of line. I agree with you on that. That word i think honestly, i love him dearly, but i think that word was used by newt in a memo that got around. What was this meeting about . There wasnt a meeting. I meet with donald trump all the time. I was with him two days ago, spent two and a half hours with him. We talk. We talk about issues. Sometimes we make changes. Sometimes he makes changes. Its an evolving campaign. Hes a new candidate. That adds a little bit of more of a learning curve than would normally be the case. But you get bad weeks and good weeks. Thats for sure. Let me get back to katy, what do you think he thinks of the word intervention when he catches rudy talking about it . By the way, dearly in love with Newt Gingrich . Nobody is dearly in love with Newt Gingrich. Maybe his wife. But dearly in love with is an amazing statement from giuliani. What do you think trump thinks when he hears his friends talk about like hes got an addiction problem or whatever it is . Reporter i dont think he likes the word intervention. I dont think he likes the word addiction. That does imply some sort of substance abuse. But you may not be able to say that. Ultimately, donald trump has something of an addiction to headlines. He has an addiction to creating controversy, drama. He likes dominating the newscasts. He likes dominating the newspapers. Thats why you have seen him jump from one controversy to the next. We have just seen him extinguish a controversy by creating another. In the past two weeks, five, six or seven, taking the past two days into account, the melania plagiarism, donald trump trying to link cruzs father to jfk, then the russian hacking stuff, calling for that, then we are getting into the latest headlines with trump fighting with the khan family and now not endorsing paul ryan. How about going after melanias immigration papers . I dont know if theres any truth at all to this but this seems to be the very thing to drive him off the handle. It drives him crazy. Reporter potentially. Normally spouses are off limits but the reason shes getting a little more focus on her is because donald trump has been so fervent about his immigration stances, about building a wall, about being strong about the borders. So naturally, reporters will start looking into melanias status and past and now there are questions surrounding when exactly she came to the United States. The photos that came out over the weekend in the New York Post were dated a year before she and donald trump say that she came here. We asked the campaign if they dispute that date and they said they basically did not dispute that date. They just referred me to melanias statement that she never did anything wrong, she came here legally and followed all of the rules. This is the kind of thing that happens in the press when youre down, by the way. Not knocking the press but when youre down they start to eat on your bones. House Speaker Paul Ryan also commented on trumps stumbles since the convention. Heres what he had to say to a local wisconsin radio interviewer. Would there ever be a bridge too far where you i have always said of course there are moments in that, im not going to get into the speculation or hypothetical. None of these things are ever blank checks. That goes with any situation, in any kind of race. But right now, its important that the voters, he won the delegates. He won the thing fair and square. Its just that simple. Well, they are all going around the place. What do you make of this . It seems like people are talking about him to the media. They are not talking to him. They are talking about him like hes a case. Yeah. Thats rubbing a lot of people raw at this point. I think for paul ryan and a lot of other folks, asking is there a bridge too far is getting to the point of ridiculous because heres the rub. He made it. Donald trump won, 13 plus million voters in the primary. He went through the process. Hes the nominee. To sit there and think that paul ryan, who is the titular head of the party in many respects is now just going to go oh, im sorry, we cant do that, its just not real. Its not realistic. You think he wants to get the nomination under rule 9 . No. Because people tell me the only person that could replace trump if there was ever some dramatic overstep by him and they said this is enough, a bridge too far to use that interviewers questions, the only guy that could unite the party would be ryan. That wont happen because that will not unite the party. All the trump voters are going to not sit back and go oh, okay, well accepthat. This is not realistic. So heres the thing. Everybody now, this is where trump needs to help the rest of the party, they trying to help make him a better candidate, try to inform him and get him up to speed on National Security so he understands that Nuclear Triad did you see what the president said to him . If i give him classified briefings hes got to keep them secret as if hes not capable of it. Thats the concern. They treat him like a kid. Like a juvenile delinquent or something. This guy cant control himself. Michael would understand this better than any of us, i think. Part of what an election involves is organizing the party at the grassroots and through the states. The Hillary Clinton campaign, if you watch that convention, the democratic convention, was stacked with Political Leadership within the party, all willing, governors, senators, all willing to go out in the field, mobilize boring stuff. Mobilize their fundraising networks and move the ground for her. Donald trump needs to grab that partys infrastructure and have it enthusiastically embrace him. So the democrats have a better organized Political Party this year. What a weird turnaround that is. The smart politics for donald trump, this is what he has to understand, paul ryan is his biggest ally right now. Hes not the enemy here. Paul ryan is the guy who will muster the forces to go work through the rnc and the states to help you win this race. Why is trump haywire . Because hes still in a defensive crouch, in my view. Hes listening to say stuff about him, infer stuff about him and hes defensive about it. He needs to thicken the skin and recognize you are running for president. You are now in the thick of this. This isnt a business deal anymore. They think its all about temperament. The iq testing, i think hes ahead of most of these guys. Its temperament. He gets really ticked off. Hes an outsider. Thats the hardest thing about politics, putting up with the stuff thrown at you. I dont think i could do it. Katy tur, thank you for being there with the latest. You got to write a book after this. You have to write one. Michael steele reporter you tell me every time i have to do it now. I just think you have all this stuff. All the notebooks. Coming up, we keep hearing it from donald trump about how the president ial election might be rigged. President obama recently actually certainly popped a hole in that balloon today. Made a lot of fun of this guy. Plus trump is hoping to turn things around over that 400 million payment to iran this january. This is august. And we are talking about it. It might sound like a political winner for trump but when you dig into it, its not what trump makes it out to be. Its not ransom. It was part of an overall deal. It wasnt fresh money coming from somewhere to pay off kidnappers. We will get the facts coming up. President obamas making good on his promise to do whatever he can to help Hillary Clinton and defeat donald trump. With trumps allies pushing the birther line again, thats Cory Lewandowski pushing that again, its a reminder that for this president , this things personal. Never forget what trump did to obama. Made him show his papers. Like he had stopped him in his car. Finally, let me finish with a matter of Nuclear Weapons. That is not trumps strong suit. Lets take a look at this lets take a look at this new advertisement. The ad from a House Republican running for reelection out in colorado. People ask me what do you think about trump . Honestly, i dont care for him much. And i certainly dont trust hillary. Im a marine. For me, country comes first. My duty is always to you. So if donald trump is the president , ill stand up to him. I guess he wants people to vote for gary johnson. Pg e, this is jerris, how may i help you today . I help customers with their bills. Theres different rates to fit different needs, so listening is a huge part of my job. Because customers want to know that you hear them. They have kids, they have families, they have priorities. I definitely understand that. I have three children, i was a stay at home mom, i didnt have money to pay the bills, and so i put myself in their shoes. And im going to do all that i can to lower their bills and to help their situation. To choose the rate plan that works best for your family, visit pge. Com rates. Together, were building a better california. If mr. Trump is welcome back to hardball. Donald trump likes to make the claim the election is rigged. The whole system is rigged. Hes pointed to several Court Cases Nationwide in which restrictive laws requiring voters to show photo identification have been thrown out of court. He said those decisions open the door to fraud come november. But tonight, president obama said he isnt buying trumps claims of a rigged election. If mr. Trump is suggesting that there is a Conspiracy Theory that is being propagated across the country, including in places like texas where typically its not democrats who are in charge of voting booths, thats ridiculous. That doesnt make any sense and i dont think anybody would take that seriously. I have never heard of somebody complaining about being cheated before the game was over. Or before the scores even tallied. So my suggestion would be, you know, go out there and try to win the election. If mr. Trump is up 10 or 15 points on election day and ends up losing, then, you know, maybe he can raise some questions. Im joined by stephanie, president of emilys list and j. D. Good to see you. Let me ask you about how this is hitting you. Is there any evidence out there, rigged is the kind of term they use in third world countries. If i lost its rigged, if i win chris, chris, are you suggesting theres not hyperbole in politics . Perish the thought. Tell me about this one. It might surprise you a little bit. Let me begin in florida where im now a voter. I have absolute faith in what happens here in florida. I have been a voter, i have been impressed with photo i. D. , checking signatures, they do it right here. Heres whats surprising and its not the traditional republican democrat breakdown. I was alarmed to hear today that out in arizona, has the same date for the primary as florida does, august 30th, secretary of state Michelle Regan and Helen Purcell are not going to enforce the harvest laws on the books. They say they wont enforce them. To the president ial election, yes, there are real concerns. Court cases and terry mcauliffe, the guy who could raise all that money from the chinese and the clinton gore 96 campaign, first tried to issue that blanket pardon or change in status for felons. The Virginia Supreme Court said no. So hes going to sit down individually and sign 200,000 changes in status . That is one guy intent on putting virginia in the democrat column. What about the republican open statements in places like pennsylvania, where two Top R