Ils. For me and the fabulous nicole wallace, thanks for watching, and until tomorrow, sayonara. Hardball with Chris Matthews is next. Hes back lets play hardball good evening. Im Chris Matthews in washington. Did you catch president obama today . If you didnt, you missed the start of what could be the wildest barnstorming president ial campaign ever, certainly won by an incumbent and certainly a campaign for someone else. Barack obama made it clear today that it is personal. Hes in the race to secede him, because he passionately wants Hillary Clinton to win. And fanatically wants donald trump to lose. Lose humiliatingly. Lose in such a mortifying way that hell disappear from the countrys public life. In a clear sign the president knows how to do it, he chose pennsylvania today as the place he would plant his stake in Donald Trumps heart, knowing that trump knows he needs pennsylvania. He went there today in the 80degree heat to rouse philadelphians in the same way he did in getting himself elected in 08 and 12. He wants to use his presidency now to demolish the man who refuses to retract his celebrated charge that barack obama isnt a legitimate president. That he somehow snuck into the country, assumed an identity, and used affirmative action to get into Harvard University and into the white house. Well, donald trump should have been more careful in who he made as an enemy. This up withs coming back for payback. For a second straight day, by the way, Hillary Clinton was off the trail recovering from pneumonia. But she will resume campaigning on thursday. Today president showed why many consider him to be the democratic candidate, Hillary Clintons beth surrogate out
there. The president called clinton tough, prepared, and fit to be commander in chief. Here he is in philly. Can i just say, i am really into electing Hillary Clinton. This is not me going through the motions here. I really, really, really want to elect Hillary Clinton. I believe there has never been a man or a woman more qualified than Hillary Clinton to serve as our president. Well, it was a gorgeous day in the city, which is now the global city right now of this country. As i said, president obama is more fired up after going after clintons republican opponent, donald trump. He said trumps vision of the country is dark and pessimistic. He called trump out for hiding his tax returns, love this phrase, hiding his tax returns. And says donald trump isnt fit
to be commander in chief. I keep on reading this analysis that trumps got support from working folks. Really . This guy who spent 70 years on this earth, showing no concern for working people. I mean, he wasnt going to let you on his golf course. He wasnt going to let you buy in his condo. And now suddenly this guy is going to be your champion . One candidate, family fouation has saved countless lives around the world. The other candidates foundation took money other people gave to his charity, and then bought a 6foottall painting of himself. You know, he had the taste not to go for the 10foot version. Hes not offering any real policies or plans. Just offering division and offering fear. And hes bet ting if he scares enough people, he might scare
enough people to win this election. There are words in this speech that are magical to the political ear. One is, hes hiding his tax returns, hiding them. Not showing them to us, hiding them. The second was, this man of the people, donald trump wont even let you even on his golf course. Anyway, secretary clinton could benefit, of course, from the president s help today, just as polls show the race between her and trump tightening. President obama is enjoying some of his best Approval Ratings ever. Catch this. In the brandnew Washington Post abc poll this week shows president obama at 58 approval. Nobodys got numbers like that but him, and the nbc wall street journal poll last month, he has the support of 98 of africanamericans. Thats not a big surprise. 90 of democrats. And nearly 60 of young people. Can the president help win this race, well see. Joining me now, ed rendell. Howard fineman, global editorial director for the Huffington Pos post. And with me here in washington, susan page, Washington Bureau chief for the usa today. So weve got a guy so excited, hes in afterglow from the steelers last night. He and his son, nick, went up to fedex field, but the fact is the, the steelers did play a hell of a game. And i know the governor likes the steelers almost as much as he likes the eagles. Governor, republicans have this weird sense, i dont know what you call it, Heartbreak Hill might be a good phrase for pennsylvania. They always think they can win it, and they dont. Whats going on with their thinking so wrong that they think they can knock off this guy, win the election for president by winning pennsylvania . Well, because, in nonpresident ial years, democratic registration ads, which is over 900,000, that dissipates because they dont run in nonpresident ial years. But in president ial years, the turnout is extraordinarily good and president obama can jack that turnout up better than
anybody. I want to refer you to 2010, chris, when there was a Senate Election between pat toomey and joe sestak. The president came in to philadelphia two times, michelle came in once, and their message was, theyre out to get me. And he took that message into the city, into different areas of the city. And even though it was a republican wave year, sestak lost by a little less than two points. And the turnout, pat toomey told me, when he saw the turnout in philadelphia, he thought hed lost. So no one can generate better turnout like the president. He is the best. He is the turnouter in chief. Okay, howard, its personal with this guy. I mean, i hope you agree with me. I think he wants to be trump almost more than he wants Hillary Clinton to be a successor. He wants this guy disgraced and humiliated. He wants him out of there after what he did to him. Chris, a couple of things. First of all, ive been covering this a long time, covering president ial politics. And i dont remember an outgoing sitting president , campaigning this hard, this early. I think its almost unprecedented, number one. Number two, the language that president obama used today in philly, thats tough language. Thats political. You know, dynamite. And its still only september. I mean, and hes already got the pedal to the metal. Thats number two. Number three, philadelphia is the key to pennsylvania. Because in part, as the governor knows, western pennsylvania has been trending more republican. In the counties around pittsbur have become more republican. Theyre sort of part of an lashya, not the east coast. So trumps going to get his votes out in the western part of the state and its crucial for the president to turn out those people that you talked about. Africanamericans, registered democrats, and most importantly, i think, young people of all colors. White, africanamerican, hispanic, et cetera. Theyve got to turn out to make sure that pennsylvania remains Heartbreak Hill for the republicans. You know, its interesting. We have an independent democratic president whos very popular right now. Its hard to believe were saying a popular president , after all hes been through. But he is. 58 . I cant think of a popular president , if you go back to eisenhower, he campaigned very hard for nixon at the very end. But nixon was stupid and thought to bring him in early. Come into philly, get a half million to a million people. Even in new york, you get big crowds. But this time, we have a popular president , who seems to really like the person hes campaigning for. Unlike and bill clinton and al gore had that weird conflict of relationship there. Well, first of all, hays a popular president so he can do the candidate some good. And the candidate also likes him. It goes two way. John mccain, george w. Bush at that point was politically toxic. Ronald reagan had a complicated relationship but he did some campaigning for george sr. But not the kind of campaigning we saw today by Barack Obama Obama was gleeful today. He was joyful. It was like, why dont we we dont see that on the campaign stump, with either of the candidates weve got. They dont seem happy to be there. He seemed happy to be there. Governor, youre the expert. By the way, the best mayor the city ever had. Pennsylvania is a weird state. Explain pennsylvania to the person who doesnt get it. You can be in three quarters of the state and think youre in alabama republican wise, and then you go to pittsburgh, and especially philly and the burbs around it, and you realize youre sort of more in jersey or new york. Youre in a different state. It is, its too separate and distinct states. Urban and suburban versus rural. And theres a lot of rural area. Pennsylvania is a very big state, biggest state east of the mississippi, in area. And six different tv markets. But the key, howard is right about turnout in philadelphia. Thats key number one. Key number two for democrats to carry the state is to win the suburbs by significant numbers. Barack obama in 2012 carried the four suburban counties, which as you know, chris, used to be republican territory. He carried it by a margin of 120,000. Hillary clinton is on a pace to carry it by double and maybe even triple that, if the polls
are correct. If she carries the suburbs by 250, the city by anywhere near what barack obama carried it, shes going to come out of the counties, three quarter of a mill votes up. And thats a third of the state. Thats a third of the state. Howard, lets take a look at pennsylvania and the country. My argument, i might as well give it away now. Leah atwater, one tough political operative, he said the best way to win a campaign, if you can do it, is to find the state that the other side knows they desperately need to win, and then early on, yank it away from them. Take their heart out early, break their spirit, like atwater did it with michigan against the democrats. If they take pennsylvania away from trump, doesnt he know hes going to lose . I think the mathematics, chris, dont work, because pennsylvania has enough of an latchya in it, enough of those rural areas, and enough county
around pittsburgh that are becoming more republican. I know that. So trump, trump has to Win Every One of those votes, because hes basically maximizing White Conservative rural turnout. And x urban turnout. Hes got to get that maximum to have a chance at pennsylvania. Also, the Electoral College mathematics any way you cut it dont work without pennsylvania. I dont see how trump can win without p. A. Take this one. President obama today mocked donald trump, his sarcasm today was so rich. He knocked trump for his bromance with Vladimir Putin, his role modeling of the guy. It was rich stuff today from president obama. Lets watch. Youve got the donald, who just last week went on Russian State Television to talk down
our military and to curry favor with Vladimir Putin are. He loves this guy. Loves this guy, and when they interview and ask him, well, why do you support this guy . Hes a strong guy. Look, hes got an 82 poll rating. Well, yeah, Saddam Hussein had a 90 poll rating. I mean, if you control the media and youve taken away everybodys Civil Liberties and you jail dissidents, thats what happens. You know, susan, everybody i watched all the faces, like we all do in crowds, the faces those people were having a great time. And they completely got all his shots. They completely there was no communication problem. They got the humiliation, the ridicule he was throwing at trump. You know whats the best way to make a point, to put the knife into somebody . Its with a little bit of humor. Which is what he was doing there, by ridiculing the notion
that you would have praised the irony. The irony, yeah. And its like everybody and as you say, everybody understood it. And rather than a frontal assault about, well, you know, Vladimir Putin is a despot, to talk about it that way, its just, it engages the crowd, it makes the point. Its what makes politics fun. You know, governor, i remember you campaigning and your connection with people. And this guys ability to get the philadelphia attitude, almost. The attitude come on this is a joke. This guy, i mean, the rich ridicule that everybody like giggles fans, for example, they dont like the other side much. Is this going to work with some of the republicans up there. He was saying today like a lot of stuff, that the president was, this isnt the party of lincoln or reagan. This is something outrageous and you moderate folks watching on television should be thinking about voting for hillary. Yeah, i think so, chris. I think thats going to work for suburban republicans, who are essentially moderate. I think the president actually laid off a little bit. I thought what donald trump said friday night was the single most
frightening thing hes said on the campaign trail. That when the iranian votes circle our naval ships, stray into iranian waters and make derisive gestures towards our sailors with, if he was president , we would blow them out of the water. Were going to start a potential world war because someone made gestures to us . Good lord hes unhinged hes unhinged i think, chris, i think all the people in pennsylvania who would be impressed by that threat, and i know who those people are, theyre already voting for donald trump. I think the governor the Governors Point is partly that youve got these suburbanites, including a lot of women, you know, who are looking at that, and you know, they dont find that amusing. You know, they dont find the threat amusing. I know. Like the Robert De Niro character in taxi driver. You talking to me . you talking to me . thats all we need is a president like that, with a hair trigger. Thank you, governor rendell. Thank you, howard fineman. Good luck with those steelers. Whos that running back . Williams . Unbelievable. Deangelo williams. Hes only number two. Wait until we get leveon bell back, baby. Okay, baby. Anyway, coming up, Donald Trumps right to make Hillary Clinton pay for her basket of deplorables comment, but the Clinton Campaign says the issues a winner for them. Thats an interesting development. And can trump claim the high ground for what hill raary said . Maybe not. And whats bill up to . Conason spent a lot of time with him and hes with us tonight. And Donald Trumps trying to talk about Hillary Clintons absence from the campaign trail. Hes pushing a plan to give families a tax break for child care expenses. Well keep an eye on that and whether trumps going to speak during our hour. Finally tonight, my election diary on where the Campaign Stands right now after what happened today in philly. This is hardball, the place for politics. We know you need wifi like you need air. Thats why we offer free wifi at breakfast, by the pool, even while youre sleeping. You can exhale now. Enjoy free wifi and free hot breakfast. Book at hampton. Com for a guaranteed discount. Donald trump yesterday promised to release very specific numbers from a recent physical he had. Well, today, Television Host dr. Oz says that results or some results from that physical will be revealed on his show this thursday when trump appears there. But dr. Oz made clear today, it was up to trump what he chooses to reveal during that program. Lets listen. What if theres some embarrassing things on there . I bet you wont release them. Well, its still going to be his decision. Its his decision. Look, the metaphor me is, this is a doctors office, the studio. Im not going to ask questions he doesnt want to have answered, and i also dont want to talk about anybody else. Were not going to be talking about secretary clinton, for sure. And i dont want to talk about things that are outside the health purview. Well be right back. Where we explore. Protecting biodiversity. Everywhere we work. Defeating malaria. Improving energy efficiency. Developing more clean burning natural gas. My job . My job at exxonmobil . Turning algae into biofuels. Reducing Energy Poverty in the developing world. Making cars go further with less. Fueling the global economy. And you thought we just made the gas. Energy lives here. 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. Wehile my opponent slanders you as deplorable and irredeemable, we call you hardworking american patriots who love your country and want a Better Future for all of our people. I love the gestures he uses. Theyre like jesus gestures in the religious books. Inappropriately, of course. Welcome back to hardball. That was donald trump today continuing his line of attack on Hillary Clinton for her remark this friday, this past friday, that half his spottupporters ar quote, a basket of deplorables. While trump has called her remark the biggest mistake of the political season, and while clinton regrets characterizing half of his supporters has deplorable, some in the Clinton Campaign say they welcome this debate. Jesse ferguson reached by nbc news today says the Trump Campaign is seemingly inviting a debate to the extent to which his campaign has promoted and fueled an alt right hate
movement that Many Americans do find deplorable, as we saw monday night when his vp nominee refused to call david duke deplorable. The trump news strategy has started to backfire, ac