Welcome to mtp daily, im Steve Kornacki in for chuck todd. Its the end of a long week of soulsearching for the Republican Party and tonight, despite what you might be hearing, that Republican Party is close to unifying. Going into yesterdays meeting, the big facetoface sitdown between paul ryan and donald trump, the dynamic was a big question mark. Those two men have had significant differences on policy, and on the very question of what it means to be a republican. Trump already told chuck that everything is open to negotiation. This morning on nbcs today show trump said all of his policies are just, quote, suggestions at this point, and that includes his proposed muslim ban. I think millions of people who voted for you across the country, during the primary process felt as if you were actually proposing that. Are you softening your stance . Well, im not the president right now, so anything i suggest is really a suggestion. And if i were president , id put in legislation and do what i have to do. But would you put in legislation to no, ive been looking at it very strongly. Im not softening my stance, but im always flexible on issues and you have to be that way. So, yes, there are stark differences between ryan and trump. But trump is signaling that he is moveable when it comes to policy. And coming out of thursdays meeting, ryan still isnt ready to endorse trump, but now it is starting to feel more like a train that hasnt yet reached the station, rather than a train that isnt coming at all. Do you expect to endorse him . Yeah, i think this is going in a positive direction, and i think this is a first, very encouraging meeting. But again, in 45 minutes, you dont litigate all of the processes and all the issues and the principles that we are talking about. And there are plenty who think he will get there. Nbcs luke russert spoke exclusively today with the highest ranking republican woman in congress, House Republican conference chair kathie Mcmorris Rogers. I was encouraged. He listened. He expressed several times that he would like to work with us. I believe that we can unite around a belief that it cant be business as usual. It cant be status quo. And thats more than anything what donald trump represents. He represents that hes coming here to yeah, to be a disrupter. I believe that paul ryan is going to get there. And the House Freedom caucus, the conservative crowd that played a big role in pushing john boehner out as speaker, theyre showing signs of warming up to donald trump as well. Even senator Lindsey Graham, who still hasnt backed trump for president said he had a cordial phone call with the man who once gave out his cell phone number on national television. Trumps path to the nomination wasnt actually very different from mccains or romneys in terms of their vote share when they clinched the nomination, and the task isnt impossible. Look at this. Our new nbc survey monkey online tracking poll, showing clinton ahead of trump by just five points. Quinnipiac shows it close in three pivotal swing states. Clinton leads by a point in florida and pennsylvania and she trails by four in ohio. Now, those polls could prove to be outliers. Time will tell. But for now, theyre very encouraging to republicans. Trump may not be the most conservative candidate they could find, but his flexibility just might make him viable for a win this fall. Listen to John Boehners latest take. So why would paul ryan want his party taken over by somebody whos not a conservative . He may or may not. But the fact is, donald trump is going to be the nominee. And i think what paul is trying to do is to help shape the direction of trumps policies. Now, anybody that thinks that donald trump cant win, just watch. A win is something for republicans to get excited about. And if that sentiment keeps spreading in the party, then it will further quash whatever appetite there still is among republicans to resistant donald trump. Lets bring in luke russert who grabbed that interview with congresswoman Mcmorris Rogers earlier today. Luke, you were saying this yesterday. We had you on the show. Paul ryan at the start of of the week, this was huge news. He said he couldnt support at that point his partys nominee. Now feeling like a bit of an island when it comes to republican leaders. Reporter yeah, hes an outlier right now, mcconnell is on board. The nrsc chairman, roger wicker is on board. Those are the two men in charge of getting elected republicans back into the building come election time. You also see the leadership by kathie Mcmorris Rogers who i spoke to and youre starting to see this idea of, okay, donald trump may not be the person we thought we were going to be working with, but theres clearly somebody here that we can do business with. And by the way, he is kind of an empty suit when it comes to policy, because hes never really been well versed in it. And maybe, just maybe, we could fill that suit with our own policy ideas and trust that he would put smart people around him. Maybe all of this that hes been doing on the campaign trail is just for show. One member suggested this to me, scott dajer lay, also a member of the freedom caucus, take a listen to how he described it. I think donald trump, of course grew up in reality tv, i shouldnt say grew up, but was involved in reality tv, and when he campaigns, some of that comes out. If you meet him in private, hes a very serious guy and hes much more policyoriented, plus, i think hes willing to learn. So youre getting the sense that behind closed doors, Donald Trumps a different guy. Hes willing to learn. Hes going to be somebody that we can work with. It kind of brings to mind, steve, what bob dole said, which is that you never support ted cruz. And a lot of other republicans, john boehner included, ted cruz was so rigid, they felt it would be a disaster for him to be on the top of the ticket. He wouldnt budge on any issue. But donald trump has said things like calling for a ban on muslims coming into the country, calling mexicans coming across the border rapists, things that would tank any other politicians, but theyre now thinking they can do business with him. Paul ryan is the one holdout, protecting his own brand, his future and i think he wants to extract more concessions from trump or promises that he will focus on the role of congress as being an equalled legislative branch equal to the executive branch. I got to say, i was surprised by how quickly there was, at least on the surface, unification on capitol hill when trump came. Luke, i have a couple of guests here for a panel. Before i introduce them, im going to skip ahead here for one second. Larry kudlow is on set with me. And he has a question are for y. Reporter i used to do his show. I miss it. I told him that. Great report. What in your interview with kathie Mcmorris Rogers, shes the first person to talk about disrupter, and i think she used the word outsider. But i know she said disrupter and she said, its okay, well work with a disrupter. Now thats whats going on here as you well know. Thats trumps whole message. I have not heard other republicans welcome that, but maybe theyre going to have to, and maybe theyre learning. Reporter Mcmorris Rogers coming from washington state, a place that is very well known for its disruption, the birth place of amazon, the birth place of grunge music, right . Two things that completely disrupted what the status quo was. I think its a very keen insight you have there, larry, is that something republicans feel they can grab a hold of . Remember, the 2010, Republican Tea Party class, that was a political disruption if there ever was one. My goodness, that might be one of the biggest in history and im sure professor kornacki can shed from light on. But maybe thats the ticket. Maybe this is what we started in 2010, there are rough edges around it, dont get us wrong, lets try to make it better and maybe thats what we carry forward. But part of what folks that get caught up in that, the John Boehners, maybe mitch mcconnell, maybe paul ryan. So thats the line they have to walk, how much disruption is possible. Luke and larry, stand by for a second. Let me bring in the rest of the believe pa, Michael Steele is with us, former top aide to former House Speaker john boehner. And fresh off her road warriors special, msnbcs kasie hunt. Michael, that comment we played from your former boss, from john boehner, he wasnt with trump in the primary. He says hes with him now despite the differences and he said, if you dont think donald trump can win in november, think again. I know you werent with trump in the primaries, do you agree with that sentiment . I think thats entirely possible. I think people are yearning for an outsider, yearning to breakthrough the stalemate in washington, d. C. John boehner, while everyone thinks of him as a chamber of commerce, standard issue republican, he thinks of himself as a conservative rebel. Came to washington to disrupt the old order and hes always eager to see others do the same. And kasie, you covered the stop trump movement. You covered them as they tried to pull out all the stops. Now that theyve lost and trump will be the nominee, are you still seeing fullscale resistance from them, or are you seeing them make peace with this . You are seeing some remnants, talking about trumps tax returns, that he should put them out before the general election. But i also think youre seeing some wait and see. The whole party is grappling with and you saw this with paul ryan. Do we get to november and the demographics turn out to be destiny and donald trump is effectively winning or losing to Hillary Clinton in a landslide and the Republican Party needs to run away from him . Many republicans i talked to still feel like thats an open question. And i think that the never trump forces are suffering from the same problem all the way along, which is, theyre not unified, they dont have a leader or candidate to get behind. There were rumblings about mitt romney but that hasnt gone anywhere. And you were saying, basically whatever expression you used, it wasnt that big of a movement to begin with. I think it was small, but noisy and splintered. And there were plenty of voters in the Republican Party, 16, 17 candidates going down one at a time. Plenty of people voted for all those other candidates, but no one was able to solidify or really stand up to trump, show that they could be bigger than donald trump. And i think thats going to be the challenge for Hillary Clinton. Now she has a lot of advantages that these republican candidates didnt have. You know, her fame almost matches his, if not, does match his. Obviously her operation is ready to take on something of this scale. Shes going to have the funding. Shes got the fundamentals are on her side. I just think there are still a lot of unpredictable. We dont know what Michael Steele was saying is right in that regard. I saw you shaking your head. Is luke still here . I think he is. Luke, youre taking the temperature of the republican leaders. Let me try this. Steve talked about the new polling, which is phenomenal. Lot of the National Polls show hillary and trump even, within the error of margin. Okay . In vegas terms, its a push. And then we have these key swing state polls, florida, pennsylvania, and ohio. Again, essentially a push. The landslide argument for hillary, i think, has evaporated. Trumps had tremendous strength here. So, luke, are these gopers falling in line because they see his voter political power . And the whole thing has changed and these polls are gamechangers . Reporter well, i would say its early for the polling, right . Its just may. There were some questions about the quinnipiac polls, perhaps there was an oversample of likely voters, perhaps they did not have a big enough minority share. But i do think, to what i said earlier, that theres this idea that perhaps theres something we can build on here with donald trump. The amount of votes that hes been able to get, look, its very rare that you have a republican in a contested primary overwhelmingly win massachusetts and then win alabama. All right . So theres something there. Theres something going on. How do we tap into that in a way that does not make the party an unwelcoming place for different types of people, or for newer voters in the future . And thats what theyre trying to figure out. Hes tapped into something, hes blown up many, many years of conservative orthodoxy and assumed beliefs within the conservative movement and within the Republican Party. So where is there an opportunity to build . So when you say falling in line, i think theres an idea of, okay being, we may have not been right all these years. Perhaps there are some things we mismanaged and we perhaps were expecting our voters to come along with us on some of these things. And maybe you try to repeal obamacare 15 times in a row and it doesnt work, that you should focus on something else, that people have been left behind. I think that message has been heard loud and clear. But they realize the demographic on the horizon. Latinos are the Fastest Growing voting group. Theres a need for change, but how do we do it. To me right now, the politics of this race, trump has tremendous momentum and this is adding to it, this peacekeeping in washington. Hillary clinton has lost momentum. Almost on a daily basis. She cant put Bernie Sanders away. And hes got momentum in the democratic party. I think thats a big change also. And well see how that plays out. The clinton people would tell you, were in the same position barack obama was in 2008, he was losing the late primaries and he ended up winning in the fall. But Michael Steele, i want to bring you back in on the point luke was making there. The message to republicans who didnt support donald trump in the primaries, when you look at what he said in the primaries, the breaks he made with sort of traditional, conservative orthodoxy, winning in massachusetts and winning big also in alabama, whats the message you take away from that . I think that people are looking for something new, something that can break through. Something that can actually help them. Weve had 15 years of stagnating wages for the middle class in this country, and wave election after wave election, with people promising to change that. Most memorably president obama, and then failing to do so. So i think that republicans right now, you have a group that have already decided to endorse donald trump. You have a Smaller Group probably who are never trump, and a big group who are skeptical but who want to win in november. Because nothing unifies the Republican Party like opposition to Hillary Clinton and the washington democrats. Because we believe that she would be a National Security disaster and an economic disaster, and the country cant afford four more years like the last eight. Youre nodding your head, kasie. Yeah, i think that the challenge here for trump is simply convincing republicans that he can win an election. And they havent been convinced of that so far. And thats what the fundraising conversations are all about. The rncs running out of money to save the senate. Theyre not sure hes going to do big fund raisers, they know its going to cost potential lie a billion dollars that beat Hillary Clinton, and he hasnt convinced them that he can win in the swing states. The polling is important. Its why you saw paul ryan be careful in how hes much oprahiopra hes approaching this. My sense is that he has less time than he thought he had to come around with reconciling with trump. I totally agree. Let me ask you a specific question on that. You looked at running for the u. S. Senate in connecticut. Blue state. If you were running this year, trumps the nominee, youre running in a blue state, how would you be treating trump . Id be treating him very well. I treat him very well right now. Ive been a big supporter of his tax cut plan. Not necessarily the full monty on trade and immigration, but i love his wage message as Michael Steele suggested. So i would want his coattails in a state like connecticut. Would there be coattails in a state like connecticut . Its a blue state. The democrats have run it for the last 15 years and its in shambles. Its a lot like the washington story. Nothing ever gets done to improve the economy in connecticut. Nothing ever seems to get done in washington, and theres a popular revolt against it. This is a populous revolt year and i agree with you, my last column, almost word for word. Mr. Trump needs to prove to people that he can do the job. Hes come a long way, but he has to do more. Hes got to show them seriousness of policy, of demeanor and purpose. If he can do that, i think hes going to win big. Final thoughts. It makes a difference too that trump is now starting to reach out to them more. I had a Top Republican say to me today, for example, that if trump had called Lindsey Graham last wednesday, he might not have come out as aggressively against trump and that trump is realizing theres value in doing what he did this week in washington. What a panel we had, thank you everybody for the time. That was a good discussion there. And coming up, as paul ryan talks about unity, but stops short for now of formally backing trump, does he have to worry about a problem in his own backyard . Ryans republican challenger is going to join me next. And later, the debate over bathroom rights hits the white house. The details over the administrations new guidelines and one one texas leader is calling it blackmail. Donald trump is flatout denying a story published by the Washington Post today. They report earlier in his career, trump would speak to reporters, pretending to be his own publicist. The Washington Post obtai