Head to bloombergpolitics. Com right now for a look at where congress is kind of regretting that saudi bill override. For donny and i, have a great weekend and sayonara. Hardball with Chris Matthews is next. The tweet where you live. Lets play hardball. Good evening. Im Chris Matthews in washington. So why did donald trump, busy as he is running for president , allow a former beauty contestant to live rentfree in his brain the last five days . Why doesnt he evict her from his mind and get back to the issues . Uncontrolled immigration, bad jobkilling trade deals, and stupid wars. Those are issues that he could win the white house, instead of tweeting about her at 3 00 in the morning. How could he ever perform as president when he cant focus his mind on matters of state . Better question, still, am i taking trump more seriously than hes taking himself . It began at 3 20 a. M. This morning, when he tweeted that reporters quoting anonymous Trump Campaign sources the were just pushing, quote, madeup lies, closed quote. Starting just after 5 00 a. M. , again this morning, trumps focus turned to his feud with beauty pageant winner, Alicia Machado. Heres trump before dawn this morning, talking to the world. Wow, crooked hillary was duped and used by my worst Miss Universe. Hillary floated her as an angel without checking her past, which is terrible . Five minutes later, trump went on. Using alicia m. In the debate as a paragon of virtue just showed that crooked hillary suffers from bad judgment. Hillary was set up by a con. At 5 30 a. M. , trump told his twitter followers to check out what he described as a sex tape and he said, did crooked hillary help disgusting alicia m. Become
a u. S. Citizen so she could use her in the debate . Nbc news has no evidence that clinton helped machado get her citizenship. She became an american in august. What trump referred to as a sex tape seems to be a Conspiracy Theory as well. According to nbc news, the closest thing might be a suggestive scene that was in a spanish reality show. Nbc news has not verified its authenticity. Later in the day, with the sun not up, trump tweeted, for those few people knocking me for tweeting at 3 00 in the morning, at least you know i will be there, awake, to answer the call. So what is trump up to, if anything, and why does he stick to this line of the attack . David corn is Washington Bureau chief for mother jones and an msnbc political analyst and ruth marcus is a great columnist for the Washington Post and matt schlapp is a member of trumps catholic advisory group. Of course, i have to start with you on that point. Happy day this is about yeah
im just wondering where the issue of decency stands on this socalled sex tape. I just wonder look, im not in the business of hatcheting donald trump. I think the voters ought to know what he stands for and who he is. But he did have a set of issues to run on that got him into the limelight. We really do have a debate in this country about our trade issues, we have real issues about whether we need any kind of immigration control, and certainly have a debate over the wars we could be fighting. He could have had a perfect storm of issue, yet hes chasing down this rabbit hole to a person that he doesnt well, unfortunately he didnt treat like a human being in the first instance when he dealt with her. And now hes treating it like the most important issue of the campaign. He seems crazy on this thing. Well, it was 15 hours ago, and i agree with you, this morning no, this morning. Exactly. Is the dead news at dawn . Does all news die at dawn . In all seriousness, i want to agree with what you said in your opening, which is, if he talks about jobs and the economy like he did in the first 20 to 30 minutes of the debate, if he talks about trade, if he talks
about yeah, so hillary just manipulated him i think he owned that part of the debate. When he got on the defense, first with the first question from lester holt, it wasnt no, with lester asked him a simple question. Its a fair question. Did you inherit 14 million to start, which got to his ego, and this is the problem with trump. This campaign shouldnt be about him. It should be about the issues hes raised. But its all about him i know. And it shouldnt be. Because the only reason hes in this campaign and hes are the issues he doesnt care you cant deny that he is in the thick of it. The issues and even the two polls that have come out in the last few days, this is a tight race, and if he continues to talk about the issues that matter to voters, he can win this thing. But havent we learned that thats actually not going to happen . That hes going to have his good 15 or 20 minutes and something is going to inevitably happen, because its not that hard somethings going to happen to her, too. No, its not, because she is a disciplined candidate. This is not a partisan somethth. She is, for the most part, a hugely disciplined candidate, and he, for the most part, is a hugely undisciplined candidate. Davids turn. A guy waking up or not going to bed at 3 00 a. M. And tweeting out these tweets is someone whos not stable. Its true. Oh, stop. No, come on no other politician youve never tweeted at 3 00 a. M. . Not about sex tapes that dont exist. Have you ever tweeted at 3 00 in the morning . Probably i no, no, the point is, hes in the thick of it im just teasg. In order to gain control of our nuclear triad, which he didnt understand what it was. And he thinks its important to go after Miss Universe, because everything in the world, everything in this campaign is about him and his emotions. And what he feels and what he vents about. I dont think thats right. This shows that he is not to be trusted. Can i make an offering. Im sure two of you disagree with me. There are legitimate voters out there who are concerned about the economic direction of the country, everything. They dont like the wars, their kids have been the ones
fighting, not the elite, but their kids have been fighting these wars, getting maimed by them, getting all kinds of traumatizati traumatization. The elite dont care. It is an issue whether weve been trading ourselves into oblivion, weve lost our manufacturing base, and we dont have, for both partys political reasons, a real immigration policy. Its really whoever can get in, is what it comes down to. Fine, ill try to get in, too. Im not knocking people for trying to get into this country, its where the jobs are. But nobodys got a system. Theres a legitimate concern on all three of those issues. Trump said he would be the champion of those issues. He is not performing as the champion. Hes performing as an act. Right now, an act. Talking about his misbehavior. Look we can keep talking about these tweets or we can talk about what the race is about. He talks about them the fact is matt hes talking about them were not making this the news. Hes making this the news lets talk about Hillary Clinton and i would say her success in focusing on the campaign where he cant win. Hillary clinton first mentioned a Alicia Machado at mondays debate. For the past four days, donald trump has continued to battle against the former Miss Universe. She threw this puck out and he cant get his stick off it. Lets watch. And one of the worst things he said was about a woman in a beauty contest. He loves beauty contests, supporting them and hanging around them. And he called this woman miss piggy. And then he called her miss housekeeping, because she was latina. She was the winner and you know, she gained a massive amount of weight. And it was a real problem. We had a real problem, not only that, her attitude. I saved her job, because they wanted to fire her for putting on so much weight. And it is a beauty contest. You know, i mean, say what you
want, bill, they know what theyre getting into. Its a beauty contest. And i said, dont do that. Let her try and lose the weight. Can you imagine i would end up in a position like this . So thats the way it is. A few times in my life, ive gotten up in the morning and seen the mouse is in the trap. The poor mouse is dead. And you wondered, did he really like the cheese that much, that he put his head in there and took the chance. Why did he put his head in that mousetrap . Why is he talking about . Why is he doing this now. Tell me, why is he doing this . Because hes never seen cheese that he cant go after, no matter how many times the trap comes and hits him on the nose or whatever, whatever happens. I mean usually gets you on the neck, is what it does. In politics while i was trying to get him out of the trap so he can go back in. In politics, sometimes its really important to not let an attack go unanswered, but sometimes in politics, its really important to know which attacks to leave unanswered. Is this the opposite of dukakis, you always say with dukakis, if youd only answer
them, schrummy and the rest of them, if youd only answered the charge, you would have won. Now were saying to the guy, dont answer the charge. And wait a second. If he had not kept going on this, the chances that we would be talking about Alicia Machado today, not great. And if the Clinton Campaign had been able to script this, they could not have scripted it any better. Hillary who deserves credit for taking this guy down a rabbit hole. But this did not happen in a vacuum. This happens in a context of years and years, including on this campaign, of donald trump making misogynistic remarks, and it started out, what about her looks . What about her looks . Whats wrong with Hillary Clintons looks . He did it with Carly Fiorina and i no hes misquoting, he didnt say look. He said looks. But you know, this is the big issue. And he knows, or he should know, or you people should it is a big issue weve got to get this guy
youve got a couple of minutes to respond. We can keep talking about this all we want. Thats fine, too. The fact is is this. Were talking about these mistakes. Hillary clintons been doing this for 25 years. She looks like a perfectly horrible candidate. This week . She had a good week. Her campaign shes unlikable. Okay, just what do you mean . Chris lets go right now, lets take a look at the polls and well see how this week is doing. Shes doing better than trump. How can you say shes doing worse the state polls, which is how we pick president s, by state, released today showed some good news for Hillary Clinton since mondays debate. Clinton now leads trump by four points in florida. She was behind him down there, according to a masondixon poll. In august, her lead was only two points. Anyway, in nevada by the way, its not nevada clinton leads by six points according to a Suffolk University whats Suffolk University doing out in nevada . Exactly. Compared to a twopoint lead back in august. In michigan, clinton is ahead by
seven, which means i think shell win michigan in a new detroit news poll. In new hampshire, clinton also leads by seven. Thats a very powerful fact. New hampshire should be even steven, according to new wbur poll. Meanwhile, fox news has a new national poll. Clinton leads trump by 4340 in a fourway race. Still close. Thats your point. My point, theres a lot of issues that divide this country pretty much 50 50. Clintons up two points since earlier this month while trump has remained steady. There is a national can we stop for a second. Theres a National Debate over a lot of economic issues, and social issues, and war issues that are really worthy of debate. Is it good for the country, people say, we just love the way things are going and elect hillary. If thats the message, i think its disastrous. Theres a real debate over, trump is a terrible vessel to make those charges. But it is a charge made by a lot of americans against the system. For republicans, if youpg about, with the mitt romney kind of candidates weve put up. When we go out and try to talk
to these regular joes, as youre referring to them, these people that have fought the wars and have the economic consequences of our trade deals and everything else, trump actually does connect to them. And i think if you look at that fox poll this week . He had a bad week, ive said that. I agree with that. But if you look at that fox poll and look at how close it is, let me finish look at what the question was on the debate. She killed him. She the got over 60 , said they thought she won. Yet the race is still tight, which shows you, she can have a bad debate performance and still win this thing. One of the important thats hard to understand i just got to get a sentence out. Dont complain about the mike here. The mike might have been faulty. It was faulty. It is really remarkable given Donald Trumps flaws as a candidate that the race is and problems with his performance and her flaws, too. That the race is so close. And i contribute that to the unhappiness that chris is talking about. But this behavior does just not make sense. We have mike pence on next, i dont know the guy, hes the one who has to defend all this crap. He has no idea about these sex, lies, and videotape or whatever, hes not going to talk about it. So how does he or his component, the good guy, get tim kaine back on the issues for donald trump. You know how a Vice President ial debate is. The impact will probably be negligible. How many millions watching . 40 million . Half of what 40 million people. And i think theyre both sturdy, a little bit plain kind of presenters. And my guess is youll look for mike pence to connect to skr conservatives. Dont you wish he was running against evan bayh . Chris, you rightfully yearned for a policy debate. But donald trump isnt doing that. If you watch his convention speech, he puts out these peoples. Law and order, be tough. He wont tell us what his policy is regarding isis. Why because he cant put a paragraph together. He says he knows more about the generals and he doesnt. When joe mccarthy was going down, he drank too much, that was obvious, and killed himself with booze. People pointed out that he really didnt believe in any communist cause. If he believed in the cause he was fighting for so successfully and dramatically, he wouldnt have killed himself. He would have stucked to cause. But the minute he was censured, he quit. He gave up and drank himself to death. I look at trump, if he really cared about trade, really cared about illegal immigration, really cared about stupid wars, he would be talking about those relentless, like Bernie Sanders does. Bernie sanders doesnt change the topic. Bernie sticks to why hes running. But i think that the fault in your argument is that youre assuming that trump actually can control that. And we have not had evidence of that. Wheres the evidence . Let me tell you the evidence. How did he pull this race together in september . A whole month . What is the catholic role, by the way, youre religious, a sectarian role . Coalition politics, they have it on the democrats side whats your role i want to
know whats going on here. We want to make sure they understand the issue thats going on with catholics. Donald trump is news, first time hes running send me a memo on that. I want to keep up. How about i accepted you a tweet . Just send me a memo. 3 00 a. M. I would really like a piece of paper with something written on it. Anyway, thank you, david corn. Thank you, matt schlapp. Thank you for coming, ruth, youre always right. Except, dont use rhetorical devices to say im not thinking straight. Yes, you did, you said with, the trouble with your thinking is. Im saying, what ought to be the way politics is fought in this country over issues. Donald tru donald trump has fallen right into a trap set by clinton. Shes been able to put a name and a face on trumps challenge with women. Her name is looAlicia Machado. Her campaign is getting more confident that it will propel her to victory. Shes in many ways a mood ring. If you look at her, you can tell
how the campaign is going. Plus, the increasingly difficult job trumps surrogates are having. Imagine being kellyanne this week defending him. Imagine being mike pence next week, harder and harder. Now its mike pences turn. Hes got to answer about sex tapes and all of that, all of trumps recent missteps this next coming tuesday. Ill watch that debate. Well be on all night with that one. And what can we expect when saturday night live, i cant wait, begins its new season tomorrow night. The cold open, alec baldwin is set to play donald trump and Kate Mckinnon is hillary. And the big question, how they plan to parody how do you outparody parody. And how damaging will it be . Plus, my election diary for tonight as september draws to a close. This is hardball, the place for politics. Here i am. Building a jet engine. Weve been hearing so much about how youre a digital company, so you can see our confusion. Ge is an Industrial Company that actually builds worldchanging machines. Machines that can also communicate digitally. Like robots. Did you build that robot . Thats not a robot, thats my coworker earl. He builds jet engines with his human hands. What about that robot . That is a vending machine, ricky. John, give him a dollar. But the best place to start is in the forest. Kubo i spy something beginning with. S beetle snow. Kubo no. Beetle snow covered trees. Monkey nothing to do with snow. Narrator head outside to discover incredible animals and beautiful plants that come together to create an unforgettable adventure. Kubo wow narrator so grab your loved ones monkey dont even. Narrator and explore a world of possibilities. Kubo come on, this way. Narrator visit discovertheforest. Org to find the closest forest or park to you. Well, four days to go now before the Vice President ial showdown knicks tuesday. Tim kaine and mike pence will face off at longwood university
in farmville, virginia. Well be there, physically. Ill be there, as always there. Msnbc will have allday coverage and join me for a full hour of hardball at 7 00 p. M. To start the evening. The debate itself starts at 9 00 and then ill be back for postgame coverage and analysis on until 1 00 a. M. Thats tuesday here on msnbc, the place for politics. Down and pull up a seat to the table. Thats why she takes the time to season her turkey to perfection, and roast it until its just right. And she makes stuffing from scratch, topping it with a healthy helping of delicious