Yesterdays New York Times had a 5,000word story with a front page headline crossing the line trumps private conduct with women. And the times emailed a news alert donald trump has repeatedly unnerved women in private encounters over 40 years. Here is the thing, New York Times, im not saying that donald trump objectifying women for 40 years isnt a story, its been a story for 40 years. The special report . Not that special. Generally speaking the banner headline on the front page is
like reserved for a headline. Good morning, tuesday may 17th. Willie geist. Joe and mika will be with us shortly. We have nicole wallace, msnbc contributor Mike Barnacle, and mike halperin. It was a honor to serve alongside mr. Halperin. And you hear from professor after the university of Michigan School of Public Policy harold ford jr. And in washington anchor for world news america except im in boston. Like washington a little farther north. Yeah. Lets talk about why you were up there. Joe and mika honored by a cable hall of fame in an induction ceremony that went late. Tell uscady. It was great. The show was honored. It was a fabulous tribute. I think that was mike was referred to as the cranky uncle of the morning joe family. Sounds about right. Its kind of true, right. Mark halperin gave a nice tribute to joe and mika. That was lovely. I think nicole was mentioned, too, and willie was the chirpy child that kept mom and dad from fighting. Chirpy child . Not what i was hoping for. You got mentioned. Yeah. It was lovely. It was very nice, and a lot of people paid tribute to the show. You know, it was very good to recognize what this program has done and how different it is from everything that came before it on Cable Television and how joe and mika revolutionized the conversation and kept it partisan and got different points of view. We know in the world we live in, politically its great to have a place where we can talk about issues in the respectful way. Even when we have differences of opinion. It is. Nice of you to emcee the event. The plaque is on the wall. Yeah. I wrote the text for the plaque. There you go. Excellent. Joe will be with us in a few minutes. The race between donald trump and Hillary Clinton narrowing, according to the nbc News Survey Monkey weekly poll. Hillary clinton 48 to Donald Trumps 45. Clinton maintains her advantage over trump with women voters a 15 point margin. Down from 19 last week but big. Trumps 11 point lead among men remains unchanged. Clinton wins black voters 849, hispanic voters 6528 and trump is up among white voters. Both candidates holding their own among Party Supporters. Trump is doing better among independents. 44 to clintons 36. Trump called paul ryan the leader of the Republican Party, more republicans trust trump in this poll to lead the gop. 58 to 39 . Nicole, what jumps at you . What jumps out when i say to my democratic friends, you dont know that trump cant win. And so for me, what it say is stunning is that Bernie Sanders is still in the race delivering humiliating loss after humili e humiliating loss to Hillary Clinton weakening her. If you study the psychology of a swing voter, when they hear a negative message from a partisan on one side and the same negative message about a politician on the extreme opposite side it starts to sink in. I think that should hillary
clinton get edged out by donald trump in november, what will be interesting to me is that this is what had happened. When Bernie Sanders stayed in the race, when he had no mathematical possibility of being the democratic nominee and beat the you know what out of her. Donald trump picked up the attacks and went after her character and ethics and her energy. I think it will have been the period when the most damage was done to Hillary Clinton. Mark . What do you think . You could say the same thing about donald trump now. Right, the things coming out of nicoles former colleague mike gur stons mouth, the conservative. And the same thing that the democrats are saying about him. Mike gurstone isnt running for president. Right. But mitt romney ran for president saying the same thing about donald trump. Its strange because in our partisan and polarized country, normally in our politics now one tribe says one thing and the other says the other. Both face criticism within their own party as the same from the other side. And i agree this is a critical period for both of them. And you see now with the super pa pacs. Does trump need tv ads . He didnt when he was running for the nomination. Now that the clinton side is going up with tv ads big time from now through election day. Does trump need that backing or not . Harrold, its tight there, obviously. If you look in the numbers hillary has the leads among women and minority voters. Theyre going to decide the election. I dont disagree with what nicole said. I think mark balanced it out, but at this point, i think voters more and more are getting a look at the candidates and saying who can be president . If i were Hillary Clinton, and im for Hillary Clinton, i think the focus has to be on behaving like a president. At some point theyre going to say who i do trust . Second, i knew it was going to get tight. Ive shared with my democratic friends, didnt matter whom it was. This is what happens when you have a. Republican nominee and democratic nominee. It will be a month longer. Do know what happens to my inside . I went ah, a month longer. Were not going to have the grace period. Where i agree with you i think its trump its more important. He has to reconcile some of the parts of his party. As much as sanders is a problem, at some point he has to consider getting out before july. The goal is not for him to continue to make the important points. The goal is to beat the republican. I would say to my democratic friends, particularly sanders supporters, when does your focus switch to that . When did you begin to switch to taking on republicans and taking on donald trump and ensuring
that mr. Obamas legacy continues and were able to grow wages and jobs. The minute he gets out, Hillary Clinton becomes a charter member of the dlc again. The key is i hear you. If the key is winning the presidency. I have a point of difference what is going on here at the table. Point of difference is voters are thinking about who can be president. I think voters are looking at these candidates and saying are you kidding me . Theyre not think abouting who can be president. Theyre thinking this is the gift weve been given . And the numbers that willie rolled out today, the numbers were talking about are a gift to the Clinton Campaign in the long run because if theres any complacency at all in that campaign about running against donald trump, it ought not to be there. He is a potentially lethal threat to her candidacy today and will be in the last week in october. And they better get going about
who she really is and she better start showing us who she really is. All right. I wasnt saying that i hear what youre saying. We have two choices. So people are looking at i agree with you in that regard pop there may be some truth there. Lets look closer at Donald Trumps campaign. After touting the financial benefits of relying on public polling, Donald Trumps campaign hired a pollster. The chief pollster for bob doles 1996 campaign and recently worked for rand pauls president ial bid and rick scott. In 2011 politico reported he passed up on the chance for working for trumps perspective bid. He ended up on the rick perry. He added this to chuck todd in augus
august. So this is one of many small steps, most of them small steps, and the professionalizations of Donald Trumps campaign. The acknowledgment he has to do things a little differently in the general election than he was able to do in the primary. Its that tension, right, that donald trump faces now between being himself, as he says being authentic. Being somebody who is a bit of a maverick and offend people sometimes and running a much more conventional campaign. Both to reach out to people who are in the center of american politics, but also because you need the structure of a conventional campaign. How he juggles the limitations of trying to be a more normal
candidate while keeping that quality of his, the people have flocked to during the primary campaign, i think thats biggest challenge. Can he do it . Can he work within the confines of a normal president ial campaign with the pollsters, the strategists, television, and raising money for super pacs and being donald trump, the guy who says things as they are. Hes given conflicting messages on this. He said in some interviews saying im not going to inspire voters in ohio if i become normal and traditional and he hires pollsters and seems to recognize he has to change some things. From the traditional wing of the Campaign Apparatus here. Theres no one more poll obsessed than donald trump. If you watch the live feed of his speeches, i was transfixed, he spends the first 20 minutes and this poll says and Bernie Sanders picked it up as a tick. I dont have any explanation for
it. Theres no one more poll obsessed on the race on either side than donald trump. All hes doing is hired his own pollster. The notion he hasnt been driven by the polls, and i think the affirmation for the nonnormal things hes done has been the response in the polls. But those are horse race polls hes citing rather than Public Opinion in terms of issues or crafting a message based on polling. I dont think hell pollster to craft messages. Hell use it to determine to where he should travel. I think the notion is some vast departure from the way things have been done is ludicrous. No one spent more time talking about that are poll numbers than donald trump. What i think hell do if you talk about the economy in the way that voters find more appealing. To the degree he can be disciplined about any method. Sure. Hell Start Talking about the economy in a way that voters respond to. He does from a gut level. I dont think a he does it well from a kbgut level. Where i think shes most
vulnerable is on the economy. I think hell bring on stage with him a little card with polltested language. Not changing his message. Hes underperformed as a candidate talking about the economy, trade, and immigration. And tonys record suggests hell help trump. This is a guy hell listen to . Who is tony fa brees zoe . He had associations with donald trump and worked with the dole campaign. Hes among the best pollsters in the Republican Party. And hes not strongly ideological guy. Hes about winning and messaging. Hes gotten a lot of people elected focussing, again, on Economic Issues particularly contrasts. If the Republican Party has a string on domestic policy, its on democrat on economics. Are they anywhere sophisticated as the Silicon Valley stuff that started with the Obama Campaign in 2012 . The microtargeting . Does the Trump Campaign have that capacity . Not yet. Its not clear they will. Trump played it down. I think clearly trump has a better chance of winning for hes gotten some infrastructure. Hes got a super pac and fundraising and polling and sophistication. But his skills pay for some of that. He doesnt need as much a normal candidate. If he goes out there with a card and poll tested economic language and has in his head the latest hit on Hillary Clinton theres no way hes going to pass over the little card. Now he can do both. He has twitter, too. He can do all three. I think that the most Interesting Development is not the pollster. Its how fully frontal theyre being about how low theyre going to go in attacking Hillary Clinton. Today you brought me to the next story. Were learning from the Trump Campaign that trump plans to raise bill clintons infidelities in debates against Hillary Clinton. Telling the new york tooichls it will be a broad attack on his character. Getting nasty with hillary wont work. You have to get people to look hard at her character. What do you think of this as a strategy . First of all, a candidate is announcing the thing hes going stay on the stage in a debate in five months. So you can contrast that with the New York Times raising questions about mr. Trumps past. He countered saying that the person who was a subject of the protagonist in the story was not suggesting anything negative. Unfortunately it looks as if its going to become a race about personalities and not vision. And i think at some point the voters i think, voters will reject this path. Largely whatever you want to say about bill clinton and his personal life and private life. If it didnt wreck his political life why should his personality
choices wreck his wifes political career. Having said that, its going to be entertaining at the least and could be a disaster in terms of the politics. I hope we explore how hes taken on David Cameron openly. I think it was a weird thing to do. To say im going to remember what he said. Ive never remembered a president saying you better know im going to remember this if im elected president. Our greatest ally. Its a strange set of circumstanc circumstances. Nicer putin, no doubt about it. But how to you say that to one of our greatest friend and ally . I cant stop laughing. Lets go to barnacle. Katty, what do you think about that . Well, you know, cameron is not backing down from it. Hes got no reason to do so. Donald trump has now come out in favor of britain leaving the European Union which puts him on a different side of the page from David Cameron politically
on that critical issue at the moment. Why on earth would David Cameron say, by the way, i like donald trump . You know, donald trump is a bit of a gift at at the moment to politicians in london. Hes a gift to the london mayor. Hes a bit of a gift to David Cameron, too. There are a few people in the u. K. At the moment who have as high unfavorability ratings as donald trump. Does it hurt him to do this . I cant figure out how that plays. I think people who think that traditional Foreign Policy views are going to matter. You know, you talked about before about who is qualified to be president. For a lot of americans, they want a president someone who will change washington. Thats the biggest quality they want. A guy that sends signals hes going to stand up to traditional American Allies i think thats a signifier to change to some people. Lets listen to what donald trump said about Prime Minister cameron. David cameron recently said
he stands by his comments that your position on muslims was stupid, divisive, and wrong. Yeah. He wouldnt apologize. Honestly, i dont care. It doesnt matter. Its fine. If youre. And hes the british Prime Minister. Looks like we wont have a good relationship. Who knows. It sounds like hes not willing to address the problem either. You like David Cameron to withdraw the particular comments that youre stupid, divisive, and wrong. Number one im not stupid. I can tell you that now. And just the opposite. Number two, in terms of divisive. I dont think im a divisive person. Im a unifier unlike our president now. If you listen to that, he would say im responding to something an cameron. Im not coming out of nowhere with the comments. I think the interesting thing what mark said how does it play as we move into the general election stage . Its one thing to say we want somebody who will do Foreign Policy differently. Its another to take on directly a country for which a lot of Americans Still have enormous amount of affection and would see as a country you would want to keep on board. If youre going to alienate a country around the world, britain, really, for the u. S. , it just seems why pick that fight . Why not try and build a better relationship . I think a lot of people will think, you know, who next . Is this somebody who is reliable in terms of Foreign Policy . And i still think, as we head into this stage, hillarys safety and perhaps over caution could actually Start Playing better precisely because donald trump looks too much of a somebody who is, you know, you cant quite rely on when it comes to issues of Foreign Policy. Katty, what would be your instinct on how Donald Trumps position on immigration, on the muslim ban would play out inGreat Britain among people . As David Cameron has said, i think the muslim ban was widely derided among brits and even his position on immigration has been fairly criticized, even though we have issues with immigration ourselves. Youre not hearing people in britain talk the donald trumptype language when it comes to immigrants. Still ahead on morning joe part lightning rod and lightning in a bottle. What does the clinton have in mind if the clintons make it back to the white house . Chuck todd and tom brokhaw join us. And