Dems issue a strong warning about protest votes. The stakes are far too high to take that chance. When all in starts right now. Good evening from new york. Im chris hayes. At this hour donald trump is about to kick off a rally in waukesha, wisconsin, focused on, quote, law and order. His second rally of the day. Speaking in iowa this afternoon trump lashed out at Hillary Clinton once again claiming she somehow lacks the stamina to be president and referenced clinton leaving that september 11th Memorial Service when she had noom yanchts you see all the days off that hillary takes . Day off, day off, day off. All those day offs and then she cant even make it to her car. Isnt it tough . All those day offs. Right. Do you ever see her chart . She wont be campaigning today. She wont be campaigning today. This is day in, day out. And im campaigning saying whats going on . The record trumps comments came two hours after clinton took the stage at a Campaign Event with Bernie Sanders today in new hampshire. Trumps campaign is continuing to reel today from what was by nearly all accounts a disastrous debate performance by the candidate on monday night. A new nbc News Survey Monkey poll, 52 felt clinton won the debate while just 21 , one in five said trump came out on top, a remarkably low number. For his part trump maintained that despite the overwhelming consensus and data to the contrary, monday night went great. You sit back and you hear how she did so well in the debate. I dont think she did well in the debate at all. I dont think she did well at all. And i just walked in and i saw some of the great people that represent your state. And they said, wow, you did so great in the debate. And we understand it. We understand it. Even some of trumps most ardent supporters including two that nbc news spoke to at a trump rally in florida are acknowledging the obvious. He was a little unprepared, but hes honest. Hes not a politician, so you know, hes going to, you know, be a little slower than the other ones. But hes got experience. He did seem unprepared, yeah. I appreciate that he was out on the campaign, but he did need to get himself prepared for what might be coming at him and be able to respond appropriately rather than incomplete sentences and repetitive limited vocabulary. In washington this afternoon, Lindsey Graham echoed those thoughts. I thought she really was quite together. I thought donald had good moments. Missed a lot of opportunities. And the only advice i could give him, and take it for what its worth, prepare better. Trump largely did not do traditional debate prep. But now ahead of the second debate sunday, trumps advisers plan to more rigorously prepare him by drilling the republican nominee on crucial answers, facts and counterattacks. One Campaign Aide telling nbc news there are plans for mock debates, even talk of hiring professional debate coaches to help trump improve. Trump may not be willing or able to actually put in the work. Amazingly, people in trumps own orbit, people committed to getting him elected to president of the United States, his allies, are characterizing him as lacking the interest or Attention Span for any sort of sustained debate preparation. New york times reporting that whether hes open to practicing meticulously is a major concern in trump world. Sources saying that trump found it hard to focus in previous debate sessions. A Campaign Aide told nbc news that while trump knows he needs to do better in the next debate he simply is not good at staying focused for extended periods of time. Another close to trump and his family called the debate a disaster and said that trumps children are unhappy with the Campaign Leadership who they did not think sufficiently prepared their father. They think the campaign is hurting the Family Business although the trump children denied that claim directly to nbc news. In a statement, Trump Campaign disputed it by saying they are happier than ever before as they should be given the success in the polls and in mondays debate. Theres no truth to this fabricated lie. The business continues to be tremendously successful. Just take a guess who wrote that statement. Trump also offered nbc news a personal statement. Quote no guessing here. Your sources even if they exist are probably sources that have been fired long ago and have no knowledge of what is happening in the pain. Hard to be unhappy when we are doing so well. Steve, you talk about debate prep, prep or not. Would you concede that being president of the United States requires some degree of mental discipline, diligence, sustained periods of attention and focus . You know, chris, of course, i would. And is it important to practice . I think it is. Did he practice enough . And listen, you know this, i concede when you think our candidate perhaps missed steps. Heres what also is important. Its important to practice what you preach. And when we look at our opponent who is continually tried to act like she is the champion of the working person, what she has actually done in fact is take tens the of millions of dollars in speaking fees from wall street firms, hundreds of millions of dollars along with her husband from all kinds of unsavory characters all over the world and yet tried to act as though they are name the unsavory characters. Saudi arabia, russia. Which ones specifically. Russia, the uranium one deal is the most whats the name . Bill clinton got 500,000 for a single speech in moscow. I cant tell you the name of the person who signed the check. But they try to hang putin on us. Called him on the phone to thank him for that. I want to tip my cap to whoever in trump world googled the uranium one stop is now using it. Its not a terrible talking point for you guys. Theres a lot to that deal that looks sort of weird. I will absolutely 100 concede. I think its great that you guys have discovered this 45 days before the election. But to me that speaks to the fact that i just dont trust forget ideology, forget anything having to do with that, Donald Trumps vision, et cetera, experience. It just seems to me incredibly upsetting to think of a person who the people closest to him say he is incapable of studying or preparing for the most important 90 minutes of his campaign, having the most powerful job in the world. Chris, youre right. I will answer that. I would strenuously disagree with that. The Mainstream Media has tried time and again to point out this supposed discord within the Trump Campaign almost always with Anonymous Sources with people unwilling to go on the record. Ill tell you wait a second. Do you think the sources are made up . I think what theyre probably doing is disaffect people. People who either dont have what they want within the campaign or have been let go from the campaign. I think the campaign is, number one, incredibly disciplined, nobody two, incredibly excited about where we are. I think we are winning. I dont just think so. The polls show in battleground states. About 2. 3 points for Hillary Clinton right now. Thats within the margin of error. Were either winning or essentially tied. How about that, we can agree that were essentially tied right now. So theres enormous, i think, enthusiasm within the Trump Campaign and enormous unity. But the Mainstream Press tries to create this aura, this deception that theres division. Thats not the case. So will he prepare, of course he will. As a reporter, let me tell you, reporters are going to go knocking on the door of any campaign thats going to speak out of turn and print it from any campaign. Believe me do you remember back in 2008 people around Hillary Clinton were talking to the press anonymously all the time. The reason was because the campaign was sort of a disaster. That may be the case here. Let me ask you this, right . Donald trump doesnt have any experience in Public Service. You guys think thats a badge of honor. You think hes going to shake up the system. But at a certain level, right, there are qualities that he must possess or perfect as president of the United States. Sure. The idea that youll sit in a situation room meeting after a possible terrorist attack in the United States and impossible to get the man who is commanding the u. S. Military to concentrate for more than 15 minutes is unnerving. Sure. Chris, no, listen, you make a fair point. And we do hang our hat a lot on him being a maverick and an outsider, but as much as thats an attribute, there is a potential risk there and reasonable people have a right to be skeptical about that. I would, i guess, point to two things. One is i think his trip to mexico. He showed us when he went and visited president nieto, he showed us on an International Stage steve, whether he was president ial or not in that moment, they ended up calling each other liars within 24 hours on twitter. Listen, there was fallout afterward because trump was in the middle of a campaign. But also i would point to this, too, in the debate, was i thrilled with every part of the debate . No, i think theres things he can do better. Hell be better in the coming debates. He did fine. He certainly didnt lose anyone. But we need to make sure we win over a lot of voters. But he showed america that hes note a rash person, that hes absolutely ready even though hes never Held Public Office that hes absolutely ready to assume what you rightly describe is a very serious and at times grave responsibility of being commander in chief. Theres going to be a big audience for the American People to make that determination. I leave it to them. I do appreciate you coming on and not just spewing talking points genuinely. Thank you. Steve cortez. Chris, listen, heres what i think is important. Joining us now is gabe sherman, National Affairs editor and the author of the loudest voice in the room county on roger ailes. Roger ailes involvement. Longtime friends, someone who boosted his profile among conservatives by giving imhad this callin slot on fox and friends. Its already september and the blame game is getting reported here. You have two storylines coming out of this disastrous debate. One that ailes wanted to have a bigger role and couldnt get trump to focus. You have sources closest to the campaign saying we didnt want Roger Ailes Amz help, hes a shadow of his former self. Came and told war stories and was eased out of the circle. He has a personal relationship with trump, was on the phone with trump but wasnt present at any of the debate sessions such as they were. James carville was on our air after the debate saying youre going to see someone from the ailes camp leaking that ailes had nothing to do with it. In the times today youre seeing these story lines with each side trying to put distance between themselves and that performance. I think i thought ailes would play a rather significant role when he was ejected from fox news by the murdoch brothers because of a string of allegations of repeated serial, serious Sexual Harassment over the course of many years, some of which on record including blackmailing, really heinous behavior that was so ubiquitous that apparently dozens of people have come forward. Yeah. Just to make that on the record. What was your anticipation with that relationship would be like and how has it shaken out . The problem is that clearly hes a liability, a public liability. So if he signed on either as a paid adviser or official adviser, that would give the Clinton Campaign an opening to make ailes a major talking point. The trump people dont want that. Particularly given the centrality of misogyny in the kind of attack that the Clinton Campaign is currently leveling against donald trump. And you pointed out that the trump people want to go there, they want to make bill clintons women history an issue. If you bring ailes into the fold, thats an issue. Hes still advising the campaign. Hes still on the phone with trump and still in that orbit of trump world. Gabe sherman, appreciate it. The allure of third party candidates, the Clinton Campaign deploys its millennial arsenal, Michelle Obama and Bernie Sanders on the trail as gary johnson makes another jaw dropping gaffe. But first, Donald Trumps campaign trying to distract from his treatment while a former Miss Universe is taking the low road to get there. You think it smells fine but your passengers smell this. Eliminate odors youve gone noseblind to for up to 30 days with the febreze car vent clip break out the febreze, and [inhale exhale mnemonic] breathe happy. I just saved thousands on in less than a minute, i found out how much home i can afford. I like how you shop for loans the same way you shop for flights online. I didnt realize that lendingtree you can save money on almost any sort of loan. I consolidated my Credit Card Debt with a personal loan. I found a new credit card with 0 interest for 15 months. You just shop, compare, and save, and its all free. Go to lendingtree right now and start saving. I was going to Say Something extremely rough to hillary, to her family, and i said to myself, i cant do it. I just cant do it. Its inappropriate. Its not nice. Im very glad that i diplomat didnt mention, because chelsea was in t room, indiscretions by bill even though shes taken all these ads. Donald trump and his campaign have been patting themselves on the back for not bringing up bill clintons marital infidelities while at the same time bringing up bill clintons marital infidelities. Congratulations peaked yesterday in an interview with eric trump. That was a big moment for me and probably will actually be my life and this campaign and probably something ill always remember. I mean, he really took the high ground where he had the opportunity to go very, very low. Im proud of him for doing that. I think that took a lot of courage in so many regards and i think, you know, i think he really answered that well and took the high ground and kept the high road. Took a lot of courage. In congratulating himself for not bringing up bill clinton, trump was the one who in fact brought up bill clinton. Im not saying but im saying. Amid new scrutiny over his insulting treatment of a onetime Miss Universe winner alicia machado, trying very hard to change the subject. I find it so interesting that there continues to be this conversation about what he has said when you look at what she has done, gennifer flowers, paula jones, Monica Lewinsky, my goodness, lewinsky started an antibullying foundation because of what the clintons did to her. I think if you look at Hillary Clintons background and if you look at her being an enabler really in the 90s and really attacking these women, it goes against everything that she now tries to spout as a candidate for president. Theres so many more important issues that women care about including jobs, national security. If we want to dig back through the 90s at comments made about women, we can refer to secretary clinton referring to Monica Lewinsky as a neurotic loony tune. It will be tough to sell what on its face is a pretty ludicrous argument. Who is more of a miss only nus, the thrice married and calls women fat pig and reviews their chest sizes regularly on the howard stern show or the potential first woman president . So great to have you here at the table. Great to be back. What do you make of this bizarre turn that the campaign took in the last day in which apparently they want to have an argument about who is the real feminist. I saw talking points circulated by the Trump Campaign that i cant vouch for but the idea that Hillary Clinton is a feminist is a joke. It may be a form of swiftboating, because you have a happy marriage here where two people, the clintons, actually like each other, are interested in the same issues, talk to each other as much as to anybody else. Right. And then you have trump and all the horrible names hes called women. And in the swift boating example, that kerry suffered, it meant that you were accused of what you did right not what you did wrong. Yeah. I think its more evident in calling her a liar and cheating hillary and so on because every single Fact Checking service has pointed out that she is the most accurate and honest of all the candidates, and so instead of going after her weakness, he goes after her strength. And its also a projection. Like a reverse reality world or through the looking glass. He accuses the Clinton Foundation which does good stuff and about which absolutely no serious evidence of quid pro quo has emerged. On the other hand his foundation is being invesgated by the new York State Attorney general. Has had to pay jtice department fines more than once. You know, more stuff is coming out every day. But he takes what he is and what he does and projects theres this bizarre. She has had a hate filled campaign. You just told me youre waiting for the mad hare, the mad hatter and the white rabbit to come by. He is smart, though, because he has the biggest gender gap and race gap in the history of the nation. It is pretty remarkable to look at how much along demographic lines this race is shaking out. Women voters ultimately right now, people of color are overwhelmingly choosing Hillary Clinton over donald trump. Women even more than men. Right now theres this battle for College Educated women, particularly white women since women of collar are largely in the camp of Hillary Clinton are between these two. Its interesting to see the terrain right now being fought on the terrain of the fight for the womens vote. But i dont think College Educated young white women are voting for trump. They just regret Bernie Sanders or theyre not sure about clinton. Right, yeah. For obvious reasons. They havent yet had these theyre graduating in debt but they havent yet realized that theyre going to earn a Million Dollars less over their lifetime to pay it back. Also, theyve grown up in a climate where they have reproductive rights. So we didnt. We remember back alley abortions which will happen again if he appoints the next Supreme Court justice. So the bottom line, the absolute base of a womans functioning as a free agent which is control over her own body, we will lose. They will lose women of reproductive age, the millennials. Its very important to have that sense of context. It seems theres this question right about this generational gap. You see obviously women 18 to 34 have lower margins for Hillary Clinton in sort of talking to some of the reasons for that, the reasons you might think that is the case . Its experience. Theyve been told you can be anything you want. Im glad that theyve been told that because theyll get mad as hell when they find out that its not true. Do you think theres a certain degree to which the historic nature of the Clinton Campaign and what she would represent feels less earth shattering for people of a younger generation. And thats good news. Thats okay. We wanted them to feel entitled. They come in and well, well see a woman president in our lifetime. So we dont have to rush until shes perfect. And they have longer lifetimes. Absolutely. But nobody is, in fact, perfect. Shes the best qualified person. The president even said this and Bernie Sanders said this. Ever to run for the office. But there was a really good cooperation between Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton. They were on the trail today. And it was the perfect function of a candidate like bernie who raised free universal education and a candidate like hillary who knows whats possible and so talks about debtfree education because she understands that very rich folks should maybe not have a free education. Came up with the together came up with the millennial platform. When you look at this campaign, particularly the Trump Campaign, i think rebecca trace has written about this, a fantastic writer, a friend of mine, this idea that this is really kind of revenge of the theres sort of this deep misogyny that is both focused on Hillary Clinton at large and sort of channelled through donald trump. The republicans have been, i must say, you sort of evoking him for years with dog whistles on racism, with their war against women, reproductive rights and everything else. Finally when frankensteins creature rises and moves, then they acted horrified. Oh, my god, its alive. But they have invoked it. His campaign has given permission in a way that she will do exactly the opposite. Like youve lifted a rock and all the worse side of our country has crawled out. But i believe in the better side. So does she. But it requires love and aspiration. It requires presence most of all. We always say if you cant see it, you cant be it. Requires empathy. Earlier this year i was in australia and i was reminded that the woman who was there, the prime minister, experienced exactly thsame thing. And barbara mikulski, the former senator from maryland has just come out today on the web saying the same things were said about me. I think thats what allows us to know that its misogyny because very different people have the same experience. Gloria steinem and robin morgan, such a great pleasure to have you here. Still to come, while democrats focus on trump, is the rest of the gop flying under the radar . Why Congressional Republicans have been blocking funds for flint, ahead. Either Hillary Clinton or her opponent will be elected president this year. And if you vote for someone other than hillary or if you dont vote at all, then you are helping to elect hillarys opponent. And the stakes are far too high to take that chance. Hillary clintons surrogates are fanning out with a warning that a vote for anyone other than clinton or not voting is risking putting donald trump in the white house. It wasnt just Michelle Obama making that appeal today. If theres one message i want to deliver to everybody if you dont vote, thats a vote for trump. If you dont vote, thats a vote for trump. If you vote for a thirdparty candidate who has got no chance to win, thats a vote for trump. This direct message seems largely aimed at reaching millennial voters. The recent quinnipiac poll shows voters between 18 and 34 say they would vote for libertarian candidate gary johnson. His running mate bill weld said theres a reason young people are turning to a third party. Both the establishment parties in washington are trying to scare everybody to think you have to vote for an r, you got to vote for a d because weve got a monopoly on power in washington. Wed like to keep the monopoly. Hes concerned that young voters who voted for barack obama may not turn out to vote in the same level as they did in 2012. A gallup poll show that less than half of those below 35 are less than certain theyll even make it to the polls. To help ensure theyll get people to vote, Hillary Clinton hit the campaign trail this afternoon with the ultimate millennial whisperer. We must invest in our young people and the future of this country. This election is enormously important for the future of our country. It is imperative that we elect Hillary Clinton as our next president. Meanwhile, theres a list of conservatives elites lining up to support Hillary Clinton continues to fwroe, a huge part of the conservative base is continuing to fall in line behind trump. Well tell you who that is coming up. Today there was a breakthrough on capitol hill to avoid a government shutdown. There had been an impasse over whether flint, michigan, would get federal dollars to help with its continuing water crisis. According to a report, the rbts are still dealing with an Unprecedented Health hazard from lead contamination in their Drinking Water brought about by government failure. The shortterm budget deal in congress does not provide the money but an amendment worked out between democrats and republicans would provide Financial Assistance in a future bill probably in a lame duck session. If youve been watching the president ial campaign, you probably heard nothing about this which is strange because in a typical president ial cycle, it is the kind of fight that democrats would be stressing up and down the balt includg the president ial contest. But in this Campaign Cycle the Clinton Campaign appears to have made a decision to depict trump as a particular threat not linking him to republicans in congress. We know from a leaked internal dnc memo featured by buzzfeeds ruby kramer that the Communications Director wrote the campaign does not want to connect trump and the Republican Party. They want to make trump look even more extreme than the rank and File Republican member of congress. Otherwise in their mind trump will come across as less scary than it really is. That email was most likely hacked as it was leaked. Perhaps that strategy had been effective in running against trump but might be hurting downballot democrats. The model currently gives Hillary Clinton about a 70 chance of prevailing but giving democrats less than a 40 chance of retaking the senate. Reich, au of saving capitalism. You have a sort of open letter to the Hillary Clinton campaign, the democrats, on precisely this issue. What was your sort of main thrust . Chris, the danger look, donald trump is nuts. Hes a bigot. Hes a megalomaniac, a narcissist, a zin xenophobe, you name it. To make sure that Hillary Clinton becomes president. But there is one danger here by making him the exclusive focus and decoupling him from other republicans and that danger is all the rest of the ticket. I mean the senate hangs in the balance. You want to fire up the base with respect to the house and the senate and gubernatorial races. Right. You want to make sure that the Progressive Agenda comes through because you want to make sure Hillary Clinton has a mandate when she becomes president assuming she becomes president. Theres a real danger of making donald this all about donald trump. Yeah, i think its a really good point. Theres a real problem here, right . I dont think its obvious or easy what you do because, as you said, hes distinct, unique in many ways. When you think about the sort of what does the Republican Party stand for idealogically . Theres a fair amount of consensus, sick leave, climate change, regulation, raising the minimum wage, things like that. But in terms of what youre fighting against, in some ways the Republican Party seems so idealogically confused at the moment that its a little hard to know what youre pushing against oppositionaly because trump is at the top of that ticket. But chris, theres something very basic. Supply side trickledown economics. A republican a basic republican platform. You also have deregulation of health and safety and the environment. You have the republican ideas basically about a social agenda with regard to antigay rights and antiabortion and mixing religion. These are things the republicans have been pushing for years. Thes a lot of veiled and not so veiled racism thats been part of the republican campaigns for years. Why not at least talk about it and link donald trump donald trump is talking about exactly the same things. Donald trump is sort of the embodiment of these same republican ideas turned into a monster, but at least link the republicans up with donald trump. Its also a good point because the nightmare scenario for democrats were trump to win, that would almost definitely go alongside with them maintaining the senate and the house. Youd suddenly have three branches of government in control of the Republican Party at large and donald trump has a few policy issues that he wants to push, but when you look at who they floated, for instance, to run the epa who is a notorious climate denier, thats who you would be getting in terms of republican governance at large. And the danger of allowing the senate to stay republican, the danger of not making much more headway in the house is huge. The danger of keeping all of these states that are under republican control allowing them to continue to, you know, engage in Voter Suppression and gerrymandering, youve got to create and youve got to understand that the Republican Party is a huge menace. Its not just donald trump. But making donald trump the crazy and saying, oh, the rest of the republicans are not crazy, you are setting yourself up. Youre giving them a free pass. I think theres a lot to that. I think democrats do have an opportunity to the extent they want to push a unified front. There is a lot. You look at the platform, theres a lot there and a lot to run on. To the extent they coordinate from Hillary Clinton on down, theres an agenda there to go take to voters, but they have to do that. And it also has to be part of the Clinton Campaign. Exactly. The most Progressive Democratic agenda in generations, but if you dont talk about it, if you dont make it part of your campaign, whats the use of having that . You have to fire up the base. Young people can get upset about donald trump, of course. But unless they are motivated toward some set of ideals and some sort of new principles and bold visions, you know, they may not turn out. Robert reich, thank you very much for your time. Thanks, chris. Still to come, big Voting Rights victory in a state that could be up for grabs in november. First thing 1, thing 2, a Stunning Exchange last hour between a president ial candidate and my colleague Chris Matthews. E thing 1 tonight, earlier this month libertarian candidate gary johnson for a lot of heat for this moment. What would you do if you were elected about aleppo . About . Aleppo. And what is aleppo . Youre kidding. No. Aleppo is in syria. Its the epicenter of the refugee cries okay. Got it. Got it. Got it. Well johnson may have topped that tonight appearing in an msnbc town hall. My colleague Chris Matthews asked him this. Who is my favorite foreign leader. Who is my favorite any one of the continents, one country a foreign leader that you respect and look up to. Anybody. Johnsons answer is thing 2 in just 60 seconds. At tonights town hall libertarian candidate gary johnson and his running mate bill weld. Who is your favorite foreign leader . Who is my favorite just name any one of the continents, any country, one foreign leader that you respect and look up to. Anybody. I like shimon peres. Im talking about living. Go ahead. You got to do this. Anywhere, any continent, canada, mexico, europe over there, asia, south america, africa, name a foreign leader that you respect. I guess im having an aleppo moment in the former president of mexico. But the whole world. I know, i know. Anybody in the world you like. Anybody. Pick any leader. The former president of mexico. Which one . Im having a brain name any. Who is your favorite foreign leader. Get him off the look. Merkel. Okay, fine, save yourself. Cant argue with that. This is the first election since 1965, the full protection of the Voting Rights act which is worrying a lot of Voting Rights advocates. Theres good news out of georgia where a federal lawsuit has temporarily suspended a requirement that has prevented tens of thousands of people from voting after the state failed to process over 40,000 registration applications over a threeyear period due to socalled mismatched information. Youll never guess who those new registrants are. Over 86 of them of the applications that werent processed were nonwhite even though whites have made up nearly half of those who sought to register during that period. The lawsuit brought by National Voting advocacy groups states theres a long and well documented history of voting related discrimination against blacks in georgia. Origins the Voter Registration verification protocol are part and parcel of that history of discrimination. Brian kemp denies disenfranchising voters of color. His spokeswoman saying that the verification process georgia currently uses was precleared by the u. S. Department of justice in 2010. Cases like this are always important but particularly this year in a state thats in play after voting for republicans in the last five president ial elections, any demographic shift. The race is now relatively close, trump up by 4 1 2 points. The absence of Voting Rights protections ahead of this election means that lawyers are going to have to play whack a mole state by state by state for the next 41 days. Thats not the way it should work. The Voting Rights lawyers are now democracies last line of defense. A remarkable trend is taking place during this election, elite high profile conservative figures continue to distance themselves from the republican nominee for president. Neither of the living former president s have endorsed donald trump nor have the last nominee mitt romney. Although he hasnt confirmed it Kathleen Kennedy townsend said that george h. W. Bush told her that he is voting for Hillary Clinton. There are numerous members of the Bush Administration that are supporting clinton or refusing to support trump. Today they gained another when john warner announced hed be supporting her. Then the traditionally leaning newspapers that have endorsed clinton. The Arizona Republic is the latest to join the group. The paper has never in its 186year history endorsed a democrat for president. It published an editorial that reads clinton retains her composure under pressure, trump responds to criticism with the petulance of verbal spit wads. Colorful writers over there. Despite all that the base doesnt seem to care. One of the key groups most against Trump Evangelicals once skeptical of trump have rallied to his side. So theres a sort of fascinating thing happening, right . You have this totally novel, unique candidate, unprecedented in american history. Someone with as little Public Service as he does. The question is will this break the Republican Party apart or will it fall together . Were basically seeing them come together at the level of 90 , weekly churchgoers. Theyre basically all in. Trump is doing as well with the Republican Base as mitt romney did. The gop is much less divided than people expected. This highlights what tea partiers number one grievance was. That the Republican Party elites and the Party Leaders particularly moderate more business friendly folks were in touch with the red meat of where the yeah, but let me just say this. Whats weird about that is the ideological valance about all this. Obviously it wasnt retroactively we can tell them. But at it was how big the deficit was, thats obvious ridiculous if youre going to vote for donald trump because he obviously doesnt seem particularly concerned about limited government the guy could give a flip about abortion or the sanctity of life. You did say any issue. Any issue. The one group of people that have had a little bit of honor in this whole debacle was conservative elections. Theres a rigorous debate among those who dont fear the electorate and republicans who are no longer in office. Right. Called it profiles in courageness. One party nominated a traditional smart tough left figure and the other nominated a fascist hamburglar and the only people to stand up to him are those who have no consequences for doing the right thing. Thats the most disappointing part of this nightmare circus. You seem genuinely ive been watching on twitter. Youre a former speech writer for the president. Youre in a world where you interact with people on the other side of the aisle. From both sides. I say it all the time. This is your shtick. You are saying about the couraginess, these are the Chicken Hawks of the Republican Party. They have nothing to lose they dont have to worry about it. I do think romney he has nothing to lose but romney i think of all these sort of political figures did show a sort of higher level of courage on this than others. Well, he wait a while, right . He waited until it was too late. Ted cruz did the same. But the ted cruz thing is a perfect microcosm of the entire feckless collapse. And once again this is a case where liberal intellectuals understood conservative politics. If you wanted to understand what was happening in our democracy conservative intellectuals were incorrect and liberals were accurate. Heres Erick Erickson who is obviously you know rabidly antiobama Antidemocratic Party extremely i would say a sort of pugilistic not really sure what hes been up to. Even though youre a straight shooter. Cant handle it. Cant handle it. Ericson is in the camp and hes talking about being lobbied by christians, church members. When i see christians saying we have license to choose bad men because god chose bad men i see the sparks of apostasy. That is not healthy but it reeks of deser peration. And look, when evangelical christians bring up that bible verse, theyre talking about the oppressive Old Testament forces who went after the jewish people, right . Theyre comparing i forget what particular nebber ka nezer. The idea being that the verse in question is god choosing sort of broken or sinner men as leaders. Thats more high dudgeon than im capable of and im a drama queen over the top. But this has been a key part of how evangelicals make site of supporting trump. One of his earlier issues at the Washington Post im on board with this guy. And folks saying the first senator to endorse trump incited this bible verse about it . Interesting. This is a reality check for liberals, democrats center left if the Democratic Party put forward a nominee and theres no analog to trump but if the Democratic Party put forward someone as you believe as manifestly as unqualified and ill suited to be the president like would you vote for essentially ted cruz absolutely every time. But thats easy to say in the hypothetical. Theres no part of yourself that says i wouldnt doubt that at all . Sure, ill doubt it. Part of the reason i dont know, lets not let them totally off the hook, is donald trump a republican or are we letting them off the hook, weve heard that conversation before. The answer is its a little bit of both. Donald trump is the end point of this entire ridiculous farce. Were not facing this question because they screwed up. Thanks for joining me. Appreciate it. Straight shooters. Thats all for this evening. Thats my brand, too. The Rachel Maddow show starts right now. Pew, pew, pew. Thank you, my friend. Weve got two scoops for you tonight. Right here at the top of the show, weve got two scoops and hot fudge and sprinkles. Here we go. The first scoop is an advanced look at what appears to be another bombshell story thats due to hit the president ial campaign tomorrow morning. Weve got exclusively an advanced look at a little piece of it. We do not yet have the whole article. If this sounds familiar at all, thats because this is the second time weve been able to do this in just a couple of weeks. Just over two weeks when Investigative ReporterKirk Eichenwald published this cover story in newsweek magazine. It was a big deal everywhere, it was a big deal before it was