Hardball. Thats now. Master and commander. Lets play hardball. Welcome to a night of political combat on an historic warship. For the first time in the final two months of the campaign, donald trump and Hillary Clinton will both take seats on the same spot to face the most central question of this campaign. Who should serve as the next u. S. Commander in chief . Im Chris Matthews now on the night deck of the Aircraft Carrier intrepid, sea, air and space museum in new york. We saw battles in okinawa and lady gullch plays host to the two major candidates, Hillary Clinton and donald trump. The two will be questioned
before a live audience. Hillary clinton will go first. Donald trump won the coin toss choosing to go second and being able to counter punch what his opponent has said. The moderator is matt lauer. It comes as a new online poll by nbc news finds that trump leads clinton by 19 Percentage Points among active and former members of the u. S. Military. 55 to 36 . Thats among military veterans and currently serving officers and men and women, of course. In a speech today in philadelphia, trump proposed a massive buildup of the military while at the same time calling Hillary Clinton trigger happy. Unlike my opponent, my Foreign Policy will emphasize diplomacy, not destruction. Sometimes, it seemed like there was not a country in the middle east that Hillary Clinton didnt
want to invade, intervene in or topple. She is trigger happy and very unstable whether we like it or not. Thats whats going on. She talks about her experience, but Hillary Clintons only Foreign Policy experience ended up in absolute failure. Everywhere she got involved, things got worse. Well, trumps charges appear to mimic the same attacks on clinton, the ones leveled on trump. Trump has only one way of responding to legitimate criticism of his own vulnerabilities. I know you are, but what am i . So what will the evening tell us tonight about who is better prepared to be commander in chief of our country . Joining me now, chuck todd, andrea mitchell, and eugene robinson, political analyst and columnist with the washington post. Let me start with chuck and work
our way across. It seems to me today, trump is up to something which i think he started his campaign with. By challenging the iraq war. Challenging our involvement in libya. Saying, ill tired of all this nation building, regime change. Cut it out. Will that work . Look, i think this is her biggest challenge. The whole campaign, the new team has been trying to simplify the message for trump. Change versus more of the same. And apply that prism to everything. In this case, the National Security, he is saying, hes changed and she is, if you didnt like the iraq war, bush and obama, middle east. Shes part of that same establishment that you havent been happy with the whole time. I think thats her chief challenge. Lets go one time. What is trump up to tonight . Hes accused hillary of the way things are, accused her of being more hawkish than she would like to be . More of a neo con . And also to question her judgment on the emails, on the other aspects of National Security. To bring up those other issues and say that she is the one just as he has been mimicking her attacks. Do you think bringing up emails on an Aircraft Carrier makes any sense . It just sounds a little small. Yeah. Okay. He may do it but it may not work here. This is about courage under fire and winning the big wars and american history. I think what could work here he brought it up today in his speech in philadelphia. What could work is an attack at the union league . Where we won the civil war . Theyre still fighting it. The attack on libya policy, for example. If he can mount that sort of sophisticated attack, im not sure, to tell you the truth. And he has another problem. He wants to portray himself as more dovish and more restrained. It is at the same time. We put out this poll and found, a very dangerous question. 34 of current and form he members of the United States military say they trust hillary. 33 trust trump. This is a dead heat. This is a republican leaning this is more of a negative number for trump. If you see the overall number, trump led by 19 points so there is a group of vote heres are picking trump over clinton. Is this a question of dove versus hawk . This is the temperament
issue. This is where i think trump has an easier task than clinton. The low bar of can dough the job. I dont know if he can mean it. He is very basic, a very basic problem. The idea that he is up to the job with many voters. She has a more complicated challenge. Everybody knows, shes got the resume for the job. The question is, does she have a new idea on how to fix it . She is talking about in her previous speech yesterday was that he is too reckless and that he doesnt know anything. When she said, i will not put Ground Troops on the ground in syria, not on my watchful then when he talked about having a free space for isis in syria. She said, look at the map, donald. She is so disparaging of him. Thats what youll hear. She has one big disadvantage. She goes first. He can come second. Hes even talked about using Nuclear Weapons. Hes very loose in his talk about nooks. He said he doesnt know why they havent been used already. After all his talk, the only thing that is clear is he has no clue about what he is talking about. One thing i think they overstepped with this super pac backing her. It said theyre quoting trump in one regard saying, i sort of like war in certain ways. And that includes nuclear war. That was a totally different occasion. They spliced it together. An old political cheap trick. Im surprised. Well talk about with it kellyanne. Im surprised the trump campaign
hasnt come back and said thats a cheap shot. Theyll probably get around to that. I dont know why it is taking so long. There are legitimate questions about trumps temperament and necessary charge of the Nuclear Weapons. But why Say Something he didnt say . I get you. It is the kind of distortion that we call out in politics. There is one danger that trump has in going last. It is an advantage, certainly. If he makes a big blunder. If there is something he really doesnt know, and we know that he doesnt know a lot of the stuff. He gets asked a question and he completely mixes up, shia and sunni. Thats what people will remember. Lets talk about the usual were all familiar with the cold war, right . It was about who is the strongest . It is like, who is more macho . Tonight it doesnt seem to be that. At the same time, theyre both trying on say, dont worry. Im the restraining force. Im not the one nation building. At the same time, they want to be seen as stronger but also more restraint and they want to make the other side look, not stronger but more dangerous. How do they fine tune this . What did he today was to talk about a military budget that was out of sight. We havent seen anything like that since ronald reagan. He kept quoting the heritage foundation. Where did he get money . He never explained it. They want to get rid of the sequester but not saying what part of the defense you take it out of. He is talking about a military buildup that would be extraordinary. By the way, this trump speech today, it was totally different than everything he said during the primaries. Look. One thing you can say is this new team has put some discipline on him that i dont think they thought was possible. He looked like a tennis match. He is getting faster at reading off a teleprompter. He didnt own the speech. There are so many ways hes contradicted what he said. This is why tonight, number one, he has to view it as a very important opportunity. He wont have the teleprompter out there. There are a the love viewers who will be grading him on a curve. Thats an advantage to him. By the way, this speech today, none of it was his. Okay. Lets give everybody a score card. Is this a battle, who will be the strongest commander in dmeef the smarter commander in chief . What is it . Do they grew he what bits . No. I think Hillary Clinton will think a successful night is, his temperament game issue. Trump will believe this is a good night, how about that, trump seemed like he can do the job. He really didnt. Thats the score card. Who do you trust . Who do you trust . Who is the temperament . She is answered the 3 00 phone call question. I think she has to prove you mean in the room when they killed osama bin laden. Yeah. The advertisement from eight years ago. She proved her commander in chief in terms of being tough as a gender issue. Thats no longer on the table. Now she has to prove that she has the judgment and she is not willynilly getting into regime change, pulling mubarak out, getting into libya. I would say she has less to gain and less to lose than trump does. Trump could gain a lot. He could lose a lot. It makes it a referendum on
trump. That scheme attic has been good for Hillary Clinton. The dangerous thing about the guy in this case who is behind in the polling. The other one gets to take hail mary shots. Will he accept that he can catch up a little but be careful. I think thas the question. Chuck todd said he is being careful. Coming up, well hear from both the trump and the clinton campaigns. Tonight, the pre game for the people fighting. Theyre all coming here. When we come back, Kellyanne Conway and his top adviser will be sitting right here with me with a preview of what they want their guy to do tonight and maybe he is ready to do it. This is hardball live at the intrepid Aircraft Carrier. Safety doesnt come in a box. Its not a banner that goes on a wall. Its not something you do now and then. Or when its convenient. Its using stateoftheart simulators to better prepare for any situation. Its giving offshore teams onshore support. And its empowering anyone to stop a job if something doesnt seem right. At bp, safety is never being satisfied. And always working to be better. At bp, safety is never being satisfied. At bp, afety is never being satisfied. Take on any road with intuitive allwheel drive. The nissan rogue, murano and pathfinder. Now get 0 apr for 72 months, plus 500 bonus cash. Usic] welcome home, man. [busy city noises]
fmale teacher and then name thelargest planet . T . Male teacher someone we havent heard from. Female teacher anyone else . Through internet essentials, comcast is on track to connect 3 Million People in need to low cost, high Speed Internet at home, helping to make sure that every hand in the classroom goes up. Male teacher okay, veronica. Amphibian. Male teacher excellent. Welcome to a brighter future. Welcome to it all. Comcast. In a trump administration, our actions in the middle east will be tempered by realism. The current strategy of toppling regimes with no plan for what to do the day after only produces power vacuum thats are filled
simply by terrorists. Unlike my possibly, my Foreign Policy will emphasize diplomacy, not destruction. Welcome back to hardball. From the flight deck of the Aircraft Carrier, the commander in chief forum right here. That was donald trump today laying out his vision of war on terror and contrasting it with Hillary Clinton, of course. Theres maketure of trump coming here. Joining me, Kellyanne Conway. Thank you for joining me. A big night here. If you, when i first heard donald trump running for president on the issue of Foreign Policy, i heard a very clear condemn nation of the pattern in which we go into countries like iraq, weve toppled the government, driven the military into isis and then
we went into gadhafi land. Chased him into a sewer pipe. No idea what to do next. Then we started going for syria and we slowed down at that point. Kellyanne . If your candidate against that pattern . Yes, he is. He administration it very clear that Hillary Clinton own thats pattern. A lot of this happened on her watchful libya, syria, a failure. Benghazi. Even more importantly, that Hillary Clintons tenure as secretary of state is back in the news. Whether it is the pay for may, the concierge at the state department, letting people give to the Clinton Global Initiative known as a foundation, foreign donations. What is being scrutinized now. She says im experienced. President obama means she is qualified. If this is what experience and qualification means, i think Many Americans are preferring the strenlts. He is winning by 20 points. Theres a reason for that. Most people care about their kids having to fight wars. Were going to spend a lot of
time tonight and over the week with people coming over. All kinds of mental and emotional problems. I have a son, one of my sons has deployed three times. You know all about it. And they dont want us fighting wars. They will fight war we tell them to fight. So wed better pick the right fights. And we have to decide. We have to stop being in these perpetual wars. A report came out in the last 24 hours that showed the conflict has cost the United States of america just over 6 trillion, chris. We have to get ourselves out of this. We have to decide if we are going to go to war, we have to have very clear objectives for how were going to deal with the day after. We have done a great job getting rid of these leaders. Gadhafi is probably the most dramatic. And to me we end up with nothing but a big mess. What have we learned that donald trump can put to use . I think when we talk about, donald trump talked about today, defeating isis, and looking for the right kind of advice coming in from the department of defense. The general officer corps. Thats the smart decision we need unlike what we have experienced. Lets talk politics. This is politics. The pro Clinton Super pac group called priorities usa put out a new wbr id wbr12333 ad attack trump for his statements on war and Nuclear Weapons. Im really good at war. I love war in a certain way. Including with nukes, yes. I know more about it than the generals. That is misleading there. His mention of nukes had nothing to do with the statement before. b
it was from a completely different event. He was wbrid wbr12633 answering at that point, a question about japan wanting to acquire Nuclear Weapons of lets watch the part of that it the clinton people interesting clinton pac people grabbed from. That quote and attached to a statement about war. So north korea has nukes. Japan has a big problem with it. Maybe they would be better off if they defended themselves. Including with nukes, yes, including with nukes. That was tied together to the earlier statement about i like certain things about war. I would call that a lie. What do you make of it . Thank you for calling them out. I was on your show yesterday. You called out the other distortion and lie when he made a comment about china and they made it sound like woman. I think voters see right through this. What do you think voters expect ask deserve . A politics speech like the one donald trump delivered today in philadelphia, and a town hall
sponsored tonight or slice and dice and cherry picked . I have my faith in voters that they know that is complete desperation. Donald trump is rising in the polls. He went to mexico last week. He was in louisiana, in detroit, hes looking president ial. After the democratic convention, they said shes not president ial. Weve responded. Heres more today. The trumpster talking about his man to counter isis. I want general flynn to answer this. Immediately after taking office, i will ask my generals to present to me a plan within 30 days to defeat and destroy isis. This will require military warfare but also cyber warfare, financial warfare and ideological warfare. Will the military the, i think they like the on give you option one, two, and three. Fumd to the joint chiefs, a month from now i want to plan to
kill these guys. Well take care of the diplomatic part later. I want to beat them up on the battlefield box they come back with a plan to do it . I think the four parts that he said, cyber, financial, military, four great strategic areas. Why havent they done it yet . The ideological come possibly, the president of the United States, Hillary Clinton. They wont even call the enemy what it is. If you dont clearly define the let the that youre up against it is isis. It is radical islamism. They have attacked in 22 to 25 countries. In battle, what difference does it call . The nazis or the germans . What difference is it. . Just like we called the nazis out. For 40 years we beat them ideologically more than on the battlefield. We have to be able to do that. This is a big xoenlt of it. From the the military piece of this, this is where donald trump
said, in 30 days i want a man that shows you 19 generals would have a monthlong planning. Not a monthlong plan. 30 days. First you have to call them the islam fascism . Very important. The other part of this is that we have to be able to demonstrate that we can beat these guys. We know we can. By the way, if it is not a big deal, why doesnt hillary just say it . She called them our determined enemies in the connection speech. Thats crazy. Churchill mispronounced their names. He called them nazis. Thank you. This up next, were going to hear from the clinton side about what to expect from secretary clinton tonight. Commander in chief forum set to begin at the top of the hour. There we are on the west side of
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