Children. Matt borges said he was a good guy and one of the good guys was gone way too soon. Morning show starts right now. I like to play golf. Im a good golfer, believe people are shocked. People are shocked. Let me [ applause ] i should play obama for the presidency. [ applause ] ill do it. [ applause ] then id be assured of winning, okay . Assured. Good morning, everybody. How are you doing . Its thursday, august 4th. How do i sound . Much better today. Okay. Hopefully it lasts. Ive got lemon water here. Joe has the morning off. With us on set we have veteran columnist and msnbc contributor mike barnacle. You might be talking a lot this morning, mike. Managing editor of Bloomberg Politics and cohost of withual due respect that airs at 6 00 p. M. On msnbc. Mark halpern, how are you . Good morning. I loved watching your show yesterday. Was so good. I lost it a few time because they kept putting hillary up in speeches. I like watching your show. Speak out. Let everyone know. I did. I sent in a letter. Commentator for the new york and in washington, political analyst and former chairman of the Republican National committee. Hows that party doing, Michael Steele . Having fun, baby. Having fun. No, you are not. You are not having any fun. Hanging my head. It is a something show. In washington, anchor for bbc world news america, katty kay joins us. How are you . Good morning. Have you in of you all seriously, have you participated in an intervention . Im serious. Yes. I have. I havent a formal one . With someone you love and someone whos in deep trouble . The success rate isnt very high. It goes back for an international party, no. No, a person. Just a person. One person. Have you ever had an intervention where youve had to
get around with everybody that loves the person and try and tell them what hatheyre doing that is killing them . By the time you get to the intervention, its usually too late. The response is usually what . Denial. Rejection. Denial. We have a problem im fine. Anger. Thought you were my friends. Blame shifting. Ill never speak to you again. Its a relief. Those went well for you, didnt they . A friend of mine had a serious drug problem, and we had an intervention blamed cnn. All right. So joking. After a spate of National Polls showing trump slipping against Hillary Clinton including some new ones that well get to in a moment, fresh off the presses, after trumps ongoing feud with goldstar parents during the first days of the general election, after trumps refusal to back party icons like senator john mccain
and Speaker Paul Ryan, the talk yesterday was whether the candidate himself was in need of an intervention. And whether top allies would try to compel the nominee to make a dramatic reset of his campaign. Sources tell nbc news that trump will hear from rnc chairman reince priebus, former new york city mayor Rudy Giuliani, and exhouse speaker Newt Gingrich who spoke out yesterday. I think some of what trump has done is very selfdestructive. I dont know if its a fixable problem. I think its a very big moment for trump. Hes got to find a way to slow do down, really learn new lessons. Its like the apprentice, except hes the boss. Those at the top deny that any campaign intervention is in the works and that the candidate is in control. Focused. The campaign is moving forward in a positive way. The only need for an intervention is maybe with media
types who keep saying things that arent true. I talked to donald trump just about every day, and look, youre always going to hear inside baseball discussions. Ive never heard anything about a meeting of that kind. This campaign is totally focused, totally focused on strengthening america. This as an unidentified republican operative tells u. S. News and world report that trump has increasingly been back in regular contact with his former campaign manager, cory lewandowski. Trump was alarmed by a call last week from a Senior Adviser who lamented the campaigns lack of statebystate organization and warned the nominee that you are not going to win. The call was from jared kushner, the influential soninlaw held in high regard by trump. Trump himself suggested that he may have been thrown off message by his opponent. Many people in the gop who support your candidacy are advising to focus your attacks on Hillary Clinton. They say youre being baited into battle thats distract you from the message. What are your thoughts . I think thats probably right. More focused on Hillary Clinton. Shes a disaster. Well focus more on Hillary Clinton, absolutely. Its an interesting storyline, willie. My interest at this point is not i feel like weve watched this candidate again and again and again blow past stop signs and do things that are you cant take them back. You cant refocus. An intervention wont help. Weve signed of seen who he is through weve kind of seen who he is through this experience and how he would lead. I think the bigger question is about Republican Leaders and if they are going to take a stand now and preserve whats left of their party or go down in flames, losing every bit of their principle, promises to
their people and themselves, and moral compass. There weather whether its an intervention in that respect or friends calling, its hard for me to see how a visit from Rudy Giuliani and Chris Christie and reince priebus, going up to the top of trump tower and telling him whats what is going to change the way donald trump does business. Unless they threaten to leave. Theyve been waiting for the pivot. Hes not going to change. Its who he is. The idea that theyll suddenly built this statebystate organization with three months until election day, thats something you build over a generation as a party, over years and years and years. Theyre making money. They raised money, thats true. Its late to Start Building a conventional, formal president ial campaign. And lets get real, mark. Theyre not going to take the nomination away from him. No, but hes also not out of it. As bad as the weeks hes had, the people behind him who are rational and tactical would like to see him get back on track the next couple of weeks. If he has a strong first debate,
he can be back in this race. The Electoral College math is so daunting. Reince priebus said for years for us to be the democrats we need to run a perfect race. As you look at states like colorado where hillary were not doing that . Colorado where Hillary Clinton was yesterday where republicans have written it off, hes not leaving himself much of a margin of error or any margin of error to win 270 electoral votes. Michael steele, if you were invited to the alleged intervention, what would you tell donald trump three months out . Id start with the one question, do you want to be president. If the answer is yes, then you damn sure need to start acting like it. Right now to the points made around the table, you are losing this election. Listen to your brotherinlaw. Hes smart. Youre losing this election, youre giving it away. Youre leaving good information, good opportunities on the table that you can take to Hillary Clinton, that you can take to the democrats, thats what this
election is about. Its not about you. Its not about showboating. Its not about a primary that you beat 15 other guys at. This is about how youre going to run the country, from what you will do in the middle east to how youre going to grow jobs. Thats the focus you need to have. If you want this job, youd better tell the American People you want it and start acting like it. Otherwise, this is over. And as a party, were going to focus on preserving the senate and holding the house and making the other gains we need to make and rebuild after youre done with this. Look, we say what we see. I saw that he would win the nomination. You can see a lot of things here. And we get used to it because we watch it close up. Mark halpern, he doesnt want to win, does he . I mean, is this a candidate who wants to win . Is this a candidate who flips around the purple heart and, you know disgraces himself in front of goldstar families . Especially those who really have given the ultimate and went on stage and talked about him . He took the bait like a child and started let that news cycle go for six days. Is this a candidate who want to win, or is getting bored and childlike, like i dont like this, why dont i screw it up and get out of here . Thats what i see. Theres no rational way to explain how hes behaved the past two weeksf he wants to win. It doesnt look like theres someone who wants to win. No rational way. He has an obligation to the party even though hes an outsider. He ran for the nomination. Hes got an obligation to not hurt the other people. The problem for the party and people blindly saying they should denounce him, theres no textbook that tells you heres how you win a race in a general election is 70 of the base is mad at you. 70 of the base does not want them to renounce trump, the nominee. Isnt this a moment where it cant be about reelection, it
cant be maybe its about leading . Maybe in the end youll be right . Maybe thats a risk you should take because what youre doing is wrong . Thats a dilemma for some. For most they feel the obligation, like paul ryan feels his obligation is to not let Hillary Clinton have a House Majority. While it seems tempting to some to say renounce trump, most of the house members are in districts that are are heavily republican. If they renounce trump, they run the risk of losing the house. They also run the risk of transforming the country in a negative way. With this in the background, trump was greeted by huge crowds in florida arenas. 8,000 people in Daytona Beach. Another 10,000 last night in jacksonville. Trump dismissed any talk of disunity within his Campaign Organization and spoke optimistically about his chances while reminding republicans what makes him so unique. I just want to tell you the campaign is doing really well. Its never been so well united. We started on june 16th. I would say right now its the
best in terms of being united that its been since we began. You know, the route to the white house for the republicans is much more difficult. You know that. You look at the maps. You look at the maps. And yet for me, not being your typical republican i guess, we have a lot of states in play right now that will i think were going to do great in michigan. Most republicans would never even stop for dinner in some of those states. You know what, sort of like i feel the same about isis, i dont really want to tell you what the states are because theyve got a lot of money. What theyll do is immediately start advertising, trumps a horrible human being. Theyll show the golf shot. At least they gave me my swing looked good. [ laughter ] no, its true. If i were them, i would have picked a badlooking swing where im falling over. I have them, too. I would have picked a badlooking swing. At least my swing looked good. Thank you, hillary. It was a good swing. A new poll out of pennsylvania spells some trouble for donald
trumps result belt strategy. It shows Hillary Clinton leading by 11 points among likely voters, 4938. This after a suffolk poll last week that shows clinton beating trump by nine points in pennsylvania. Whose 20 Electoral College votes are essential to his victory. A Fox News National poll shows Hillary Clinton with a tenpoint lead, 4939. The latest in a string of descending numbers for trump. Clinton has obamalike margins with women voters, 5734. Africanamerican voters, 874. His panic voters where Hillary Clinton is up 6820. And an 18point lead with voters under 30 where Hillary Clinton leads 2931. Trumps dominant groups include men. His lead, five points, 4540. A tenpoint advantage against white voters, while posting hefty leads with white evangelical voters and white voters without a college degree. A new National Poll taken over the month of july shows secretary clinton with a
48point lead among hispanics. Trump is at just 18 in the Florida Atlantic university poll. Thats a dropoff actually from mitt romneys 27 in 2012 and john mccains 31 among hispanics in 2008, and way down from the last successful republican, george w. Bush, who narrowed the gap among hispanics to nine points in 2004. Yes . This is where i think one of the most Dangerous Things is happening for the Republican Party now. The Republican Party now in early august sounds like four years ago in late october. Forget all the polls. The polls are crooked, fixed. Were drawing 10,000, big crowds. We must be winning. If that is the attitude that they have, the complacency involved there, theyll lose in a landslide. What jumps out as at you looking at the numbers, nick . Its pennsylvania. If he cant overperform in pennsylvania, hes not going to win the presidency. They have this idea of the special threestate strategy of sweeping ohio, florida, and pennsylvania. Thats his path to victory. Pennsylvania is one of those states, a result belttype state, where his rust belttype state, where his voters he says i can overperform. Hes underperforming. If he cant win, he cant be president. He had a sanderslike performance in terms of money raising the past couple of months. Raised a lot of money. We said around this table if he could get his act together on the small donor part of it, he could clean up. That the appetite was out there for those donors. It sure looks as though him in partnership with the rnc provide the technical background for him to do it. Hes blown up. There was a big suppressed appetite for that kind of giving among his supporters. Its really there. He might be a sanderstype candidate in fundraising on the right. A big deal. Michael steele, hes raised all this money in this last quarter. Whats he going to do with it . I mean, he has no ground game. At least that weve been told about. He has no like sophisticated get
out the vote operations that are necessary. Whats he going to do with the money . I think a lot of that is going to go to some of the down ballot races. Certainly some of the senate races that are on the radar screen. Well see some of that money. The rnc does have its organizations on the ground. Theyve always had those in place. Theyve been building that for the past 18 months or so. So those dollars will go there. Its not like donald trump wont have any ground game. You do expect the president ial campaign to have an infrastructure for that. But the party does, as well. And thats been in place for quite some time. A lot of those dollars will go there. I do have a question for mark, and that is looking at the poll numbers, mark, would you say that if were ten days from now look at a doubledigit drop lead for Hillary Clinton in places like colorado, pennsylvania, florida, that this this is the glide path that you cant overcome eventually . Thats going to set in place the outcome of this election, its going to be hard to overcome that . Look, the first debate can make up five points on his own if he beats her badly. Im not saying he will. If he does, his problem i asked joel bennett, Hillary Clinton strategist and pollster in philadelphia, whats trumps floor . Whats the lowest he said about 40. Thats where trump is in a lot of these polls. In some polls hes not even at 40. You get to labor day, and if its not a competitive race, youre already seeing talk from republicans, lets stop trying to help trump. Lets try to keep the house and senate. He doesnt have much time will to try to figure out how to get above 50 or keep her at above 40 or keep her at 50, or the psychology change for republicans. He has to get to the mid 40s in a lot of places and quick nationally. Katty kay, his loose talk about nukes and Everything Else pertaining to Foreign Policy, it cant look good from around the world. Youve got to get so many questions in your travels. Yeah. Were going from the kind of wow, there is exciting in america and these crazy americans, what are they up to, to, my god, this could be a terrifying stage of reaction from the rest of the world. I dont think its any surprise that the people youre starting to see come out and say that they wont vote for donald trump tend to be on the National Security wing of the Republican Party. Kinsing her is one. Tim solve abroad in iraq kinzinger is one. Tim self abroad in iraq. I interviewed president clintons defense secretary. He said he wouldnt be able to vote for donald trump in november either. I wouldnt be surprised if after labor day you had a slew of senior Foreign Policy types coming out on the republican side saying we just cant vote for donald trump. The next step would be if they said they were meg whitman style going to support Hillary Clinton. I dont know if theyll go that far. Thats where youll get the
first big fracture in the party. I think the Republican Leaders need to get their heads out of something. Heres what the sand . The sand. Paul ryans long, hot summer, this is the New York Times, theres no reason to believe that trumps conduct will do anything but get crazier as the election approaches, especially if it appears that hes guaranteed to lose. In which case paul ryan would have endured his long humiliation for exactly nothing. Mark halperin, im going to you ask about this. More than most politicians, ryan has always laid claim to a mix of moral and subs