Edition of hardball. Chris matthews live from brooklyn. Chris will join Bryan Williams and Rachel Maddow for our election coverage. That starts at 8 00 eastern. Stay with us. New york values. Lets play hardball. Live from the foot of the brooklyn bridge. The polls will be closed across the state. Donald trump and Hillary Clinton are looking for big victories tonight. The fight for this state has been the hardest fought of the democratic campaign. For clinton a big victory will clear her path. For sanders, it could prolong
this race to the convention. Secretary clinton voted this morning along with her husband, former president bill clinton. Last night, secretary clinton said she hoped to win in new york and helper wrap up the nomination. Thats the key fraez, wrap up. Her fraez, take a look. I am hoping to do really well tomorrow. Im hoping to wrap up the democratic nomination. I got to quickly add that before anybody has the wrong impression. Wow. Nobody got the wrong impression. They know what you meant, you got to wrap it up. She greeted supporters on the streets of midtown manhattan. Here is what he said. Senator, secretary clinton said she would wrap up the whole nomination today. Im afraid shes going to be mistaken. I think well do just fine. Im afraid shes going to be disappointed. I think well do just fine. The real clear politics average puts clinton ahead with a comfortable 12point lead in new york state. The numbers going into tonights vote 5341. Members of the clinton kpanl insist a win is a win. It would signal as a ruvulnerab. Not every city has a speaker who supports Hillary Clinton. Let me go back to you. People cant ask me why is this Campaign Getting so tough. Youre talking about her selling
her soul. These are very personal things. How do you take them back in philly if you have to. Its not about taking back but lets be clear. You have to. Either candidate is preferable to what the republicans have to offer. You guys are still fighting the race. Tell me why youre fighting it so tough . Bernie sanders is running for the nomination. Hillary clinton is running for the nomination. Youre trying to knock her head off. Thats not fair. Thats not fair at all. So much better. She has to deal with the devil. Isnt that pretty direct . Her campaign is funded by every special interest in this country. You keep hitting on the
200,000 per speech. You even put out the word it was a 20minute speech. She grabbed the money and ran. Youre saying that stuff. Thats just the facts. The facts are tough. Youre hitting those regard. This is a tough race. She is taking nothing for gra s granted. Mine is long island and chelsea all together. If you say dog or coffee it really comes out. The Sanders Campaign cant throw the kind of statements they have thrown out. Your statements have gotten more ratcheted up as the secretary gets more and more delegates. What spreads . A win. A win brings us closer. You think a narrow victory saying the single digit. You say you had to win. You said you had to win. If she comes out here with single digit win, its an embarrassme embarrassment. Bernie sanders won vermont with 86 of the vote. The headline in New York Times will be hillary wins, embarrassed. Its not going to be that. Jeff, you cant flip around on this. You and the campaign and you personally have said 25 or 26 times you need to win. You didnt say you need to lose in single digits. You didnt say we have no must win statements. Youll not find me having said that even once. The Campaign Said it 25 or 26
times. Theres no must win statements. If we split delegates here, thats a huge win. Bernie sanders has been, this has been a tame campaign compared to the general election. Your guy said he dont do this stuff. We dont do it. Wait until we get to the general election. You accuse her of selling her soul to the devil. When all these people give you money, they dont give it to you for something. Why did they give her 200,000 for the speech . I dont know. You keep raising it. Its in your ad. Why is it an issue . Why wont she release the speeches . Wheres the transcripts . Whats the worst that could be in there . There could be nothing. Leads you believe theres something. I think the clear answer to your question came up at the debate. When senator sanders was asked to give one clear example of where he saw a Campaign Contribution leading to a policy position of secretary clintons, he couldnt answer the question. We can go back and forth here. That spoke volumes. That silence on the senators part spoke volumes. Argue with him, not me. Thats not how money works in politics. Your candidate couldnt answer the question. Give me an example. How about the bankruptcy bill that senator warren pointed out that she kept flipflopping on. Lets a talk about senator sanders on this gun issue. Theres no issue why do you think hes progun righ rights . Thats a question hell have to answer. You think hes on the take . I would never say that. Let me bring in some other voices. She compared sanders to ralph nader suggesting sanders attacks could hurt come november. Heres joel. Its a desperate false attack by a campaign that is on the brink of losing in a state they said was a must win state for them. I think the real challenge here is senator sanders will stop delivering destructive attacks. Is he going to really try to support the party thats in favor of protecting voting right, women rights, Economic Justice or turn himself into someone who will do what he said he wasnt going to do and be a ralph nader and try to destroy
the democratic party. He pledged to support the eventual nominee. Its ridiculous. They dont have anything to say about this whole campaign because they know its a problem. They go to rich people and say give us a big check. The rest of it goes to the democratic party. What this group does is it hands out money to secretary clinton. They gave her 10 million and the party 5 million. They retained all this money. Because secretary clinton gets the first 2700 of every contribution, she gets all of that money even though its being funded with money given above the 2700 limit. Shes getting a loan from the dnc or taking contributions
thats improper. Its one of the two. Who pays for the food . Its supposed to be proportionate. This is another example of sanders this is another example of Sanders Campaign having nothing substantive to say. Werent you grossed out by that money they raised . They means you have to earn about 600,000 after taxes to sit with george and Hillary Clinton. Doesnt that bother you . Theres no question that we need to Reform Campaign finance. The question here is again, why is the Sanders Campaign throwing out baseless attacks . Finance reform or do it. Its july at the convention. Hillary clinton has problems with indictments. Thats absurd. In that happens. Subjective here. Should joe biden come in and replace Hillary Clinton as the
nominee of the party . I think thats crazy. A lot of people are talking joe biden has to come in and save the party. Bernie cant win the general. Bernie is the strongest. Good luck tonight, both of you. Its great race. You need the work on the bas accent, chris. Coming up, just as Hillary Clinton is looking to win big in new york, shes is. Donald trump has a chance to take all the marbles tonight. All the delegates in the republican race inching him closer to the nomination in cleveland. Not as cool as philly. The stop trump forces arent going down without a fight. This is hardball live from brooklyn, new york. Welcome back. You can see the bridge is right behind me. According to recent polls, new york state is set to give donald trump a major boost. Hes leading by double digits in the polls and could score the lions share. Earlier today he picked up the support of former new york mayor, rudy giuliani. Trump is clearly the best choice. Hes the best choice for new york and the country. He can beat Hillary Clinton. Cruz is a straight overhand fast ball for clinton. Shell knock him out of park. Trump will have no idea what to
do. Democrats have been hitting very right wing republicans like cruz out of ballpark for years. Pretty smart talk. He didnt admit himself as part of the trump campaign. Why the distancing. He said he wouldnt endorse and he is endorsing. He still says im not part of the campaign. He made it clear he wasnt fan of the third man in the race. Listen to this language. This is what peter king said about ted cruz. You dont hear this often. First of all, i am not endorsing ted cruz. I hate ted cruz. I think ill take cyanide if he ever got the nomination. I hate ted cruz. Ill take cyanide if he gets the
nomination. Ted cruz has derided new york values. Tonight, new york will deliver its response. Robert costas National Political reporter for the washington post. I want to go to robert costas. I think the message coming out of new york state, without getting into numbers, is that you cant call a place sodom and gomorrah one week and come back and say i love it the next. Thats cruz problem. He has started to look forward. New york has never been place where hes really had an opportunity ever since the new york values comment in that debate. Last night he accused cruz of hating new york. Lets watch. Tomorrow, were going to show ted cruz, who hates new york, hates new york. When you look at that debate and see the way he talked about us and new york values, heres a man that turned down sending money for this state and plenty of other money. We had lots of things coming into new york and he voted against. No new yorker can vote for ted cruz. Here is what cruz did say about new york values. Lets watch. I think most people know exactly what new york values are. Im from new york. Youre from new york, you might not. I promise you in the state of South Carolina they do. There are many, many wonderful, wonderful working men and women in the state of new york. Every one understands that the values in new york city are socially liberal, proabortion, progay marriage. Focused around money and the media. What do you think of that . Thats part of the reason why people are disenfranchised with the republican party. This is the party that left us. I was a republican until ronald reag reagan. Im an independent today. Were the guys that try to get our soldiers out of prison around the world. Were also the ones working on traumatic brain injury for our soldiers. Were working on biofuel. Who is he talking about when blaming republicans for having misguided judgment. We had to read lonely crowd. It explained how i came to
new york in the early 60s. The cab driver said how do you like our fair. How do you like it . Some prideful of this city. For this guy, thats what he was doing. He was pandering of the country people. Payday tonight, huh . The story for me is not ted cruz. The story for me is donald trump here in new york. I ask george pataki, another republican from new york. Hes for kasich. I asked him right after he endorsed kasich, is donald trump a republican . The governor said hes what he says he is that day. The story is theres no trust. Im following through with the governor. The doubt here, this is a republican primary. The doubt is the leader and the doubt is not just in new york. Its across the country. Why is he likely to get a huge plurality tonight based upon all the polling . I heard him on wabc and she asked him how did he do. He said i hope i do better than 50 . I heard it was going to be a a good night. This is about delegate count coming out of here for the 1237 were headed to. You know that. Its a new york story. Its a national story. I understand. Robert, what do you think about the fight . Can he roll all the way to cleveland . Hes going have a speed bump in indiana. Thats a conservative state. It a state that looks friendly to cruz politics. I think kasich is more likely to come in second tonight. Pennsylvania for sure. Probably in delaware. Probably in rhode island. I dont see cruz doing well in any of the North Eastern states. I agree with you. Donald trump may not do as well here in new york. I agree with that. I think kasich can win. I think he can be number two in about ten of them. I agree. Back to the 1237, were looking at tactical voting by the republican party. Kasich and cruz are not being viewed separately. Theyre package to deny you think voters are changing like that . I do. That will happen in pa p and in indiana and california. Tactical voting in order to deny the 1237 on the first ballot because everyone tells me that unless trump closes the deal in cleveland on first ballot, were going to someone else. You pull all of rubios candidates. Okay. I disagree with both of you. Robert, who is most likely right . Me or these two guys . They say it will go to the convention. What do you think . All this chatter about a contested convention and having kasich come in with a ticket or cruz come in with a ticket its before trump has a likely big win in new york. Hes going to sweep through the northeast next week. The question is, if trump gets close, if hes close to 1237 but not close enough, some of these unbound delegates start the move toward trump to try to avoid this scenario where you have a second ballot and chaos on the floor. Or if he gets close do more ploouf away from him to make sure he doesnt get to 1237 . 1237 is 1237. Its not 1100. Hes our sophisticated actor. You think its a disaster if trump is the nominee . No, i think its healthy for the party. This is the most successful third party in the history of democracy. It goes through turmoil. I say if trumps the nominee, it will be a disaster. You with hillary . Im not with any other alternative. You going way in november . I guess im going to have to look really hard. Come back again. Beautiful radio voice. Its so sophisticated. Thank you. Up next, Bernie Sanders is vowing to take his fight to the convention. The duel between sanders and
clinton hurting democrats running for lower offices . This is hardball live from the foot of the brooklyn bridge. There is a democratic primary taking place in new york state. Now, the polls dont close there until 9 00 p. M. We dont know who is going to be winning or losing. You know what, were going to do a lot better than people thought we would. Thats so bernie. Were going to do a lot better than most people thought we would with the finger up there. Welcome back to hardball. That was senator Bernie Sanders. Mos moments ago the Campaign Rally up in penn state. With the increasing likelihood of donald trump becoming the republican nominee, democrats see chance for major gains in the house of representatives and possibly taking back the u. S. Senate. Theyre five votes shy right now. Could the nasty tone hurt the party come november. Joining me right now is the former chair of the Democratic Congressional campaign committee, new york congressman steve israel. Keep going. Keep going. Hes supporting Hillary Clinton. With me now is one of the great leaders of american letters. Let me start with steve israel. This has got a real new york flair to it up here. Ive always said new york media needs to be refed every two hours. Theyre looking for raw meat, red meat. Every two hours you have to say
something nasty about your opponent. This debate for Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders have lived up to the need of red meat. There a a new york street brawl. Im not going predict what the margin of victory will be, but i will predict Hillary Clinton who is already ahead with add to that. The thing to look for tonight, i think, on both sides of the aisle is does Bernie Sanders overperform in the Hudson Valley and does john kasich overer form on long island where you have moderate suburbs . If kasich doesnt over perform
in nassau county, it means donald trump is the nominee. Youre not running for reelection. No. What are your fellow members of the house . Who would they run on the ticket with, bernie or hillary . Who do they want to run . Hillary. Why . Having hillary at the top of the ticket is a much broader appeal in the competitive districts that we have to win. In the red to blue districts and front line districts, you want somebody that can afeel a broader that jmajority of voter. We just had jeff weaver here. He says things like Hillary Clinton sold her soul to the devil or whatever he phrases it. He phrased it like that. They say shes on the take. How do you reunite come philadelphia in july when youre supposed to get together and hold each others hands in the
air when youve said that kind of stuff . I think you had me on the show. I dont know why. Im not a political junkie. Talk about this citys culture and whats going on in the city. Bernie with his brooklyn accent. My attraction to mr. Sanders is hes rather unconventional and courageous. When he says that Benjamin Netanyahu is not right all the time, youd lose your job if you said that. You cant do that. This man does that. Interesting guy. Does he strike you as man of principle . Thats not a vote getter although it might be among young people. In the city it survives generation after generation. I think the American People are
people who come from bad governments to become americans. The bad governments they left to become americans are not necessarily much better than what they led. Yet the people are survivors. The people are risk takers. Americans are risk taking people. They get on a little barge and come over through the sharks that get over here. Its attribute to their fortitude, personality, power. You mean de blassio is not a little better than raul castro . Im not saying that. Of course he is. This is amazing citying. People are so courageous in this city. Here we are the great junkie political show, yours. I dont think the political system gets down to changing the way people let me throw that at steve who is a pro. Youre a great writer as well as this guy. Not in his league yet. Let me ask you this, could a mayor of new york do this . Build a brooklyn bridge. This fantastic structure after the civil war. Its amazing to walk under it. All day weve been up here. Do we do anything like this anymore . No. This kun trip has divested from infrastructure. New york is considered a World Capital. The reason its considered a World Capital is because of the erie canal. Im supporting Hillary Clinton is she was on the issue of infrastructure. She thinks we have to go back
into the business of building again. That is the full proof recipe for economic stagnation. You build bridges. You build canals. You build roads. You modernize your internet. Thats why im supporting Hillary Clinton. One day i hope to sell a fraction of the books hes sold. He said you arrive in new york in penn station. Not like a prince but like a rat. Penn station is disgusting. Nice people that work there. All right. Theres still great buildings going on. You can see the energy of the skyscraper builders. The iron workers. This twin tower and heres the place that was destroyed in 2001. Today its there freedom tower. Its incredible building. It wasnt built by chinese labor. It was built by americans with all sorts of backgrounds. If trump were smart, hed stop talking about all this stuff he doesnt know anything about and talk about building. It is something he knows about. U. S. Congressman steve israel. What more can i say . Up next, much more on the battle for new york tonight. A special brooklyn round table coming here. They will speak regular American Standard english. Youre watching hardball. The place for politics. Live from brooklyn. The new craftsman pro series riding mowers. Now available with power steering. So you can turn with ease. Available with the tightest turning radius in the industry. And powerful v twin engines with up to 26 horsepower. Because the beer you drink after you mow your lawn tastes better than the beer you drink after someone else mows your lawn. Craftsman. When it matters. Welcome back to hardball. New yorkers headed to the polls today. Hillary clinton and donald trump need more than a win. They said they need to crush. On the republican side, new york delegate sweep could put trump closer to locking in the nomination ahead of the cleveland convention. I still think he can do it. Joining me is the hardball round table. The Great NationalAffairs Editor of new york magazine. Have to start with you gabe. Give me the sense of this. Its not confusing. Its very clear. You got two front runners who want to crush their opponents tonight and end this thing. In their hometown. The symbolism is very important for them to stamp their status as the frontrunner. Is this like the schoolyard when you get the other kid down and bang their head into the cement . In good will hunting. Remember that scene . Yes thats the idea high pressu pressu pressure. How unrealist it may be. Hillary has to maximize it to tell bernie hes not the revolutionary Success Story he thinks he is. Does he have a set of ears that can hear that . He does not. No matter how much hillary wins by, bernie will not stop. Trump has to crush everybody. Ted cruz, you couldnt find him with the entire police department. He got booed in the bronx. You have not heard from ted cruz since. Joy. You know when i was growing up, you could tell the difference between the concession speech and a victory speech. It was great. The guy would cry a bit and lose. He would say i lost. Now, i know were going to hear from cruz. It will not be a defeat speech. What is he talking about . Is that going to be a problem with bernie . Is he going to take crushing defeat at penn state tonight . I think they will chalk it up to the establishment. If they dont win here tonight, youll hear a lot about the closed primary process. Only democrats can vote . Only democrats can vote and millions of people were
disenfranchised. He wouldnt have been in the race. It is a good point. Hes got the money to go on. I dont think they will take that as a rebuke to his message. I think they will spin it as a victory. Theres three races going on. New york primary will get numbers. The national numbers. Bernie is in the passing lane. Hes moving ahead of hillary. He closed a month ago from nine to two now. Hes going to go right past her. Money game. The third fight. He wins the small donations and wins nationally. This thing doesnt end, does it . For bernie it doesnt. I think the super delegates will decide when it ends. Theres no sign they are moving in his direction. He can keep running. He will have to persuade that
wing of the party hes their guy. Hes not making that case. His whole aim here is to prove the system that might reject him in the end to be corrupt and bankrupt, which means as gabe says, if all the super delegates stick with hillary and its in good measure the super delegates who provide her the margin, he will declare the thing illegitimate. Does he have are a shot of beating her with pledge deleg e delegat delegates . No. Barack obama had a lead thats half of what hillary has now. The math is not on his said. Hes saying the process is corrupt and that what the demand will be at the end is to ultimately change the process including super delegates. Trump will make the message to the National Party he has grown ups in charge now. Paul manaffoort is the Campaign Manager now. Is corey out . Hes not going to be fired. Hes been layered. Paul manafort, hes a baby boomer. Hes been around for 40 years. Hes an experienced guy at three conventions. Now hes been given a job bigger than any hes had before which is to run the whole campaign. His last big campaign was running the guy, the proputin guy in ukraine. Hes in the a regular guy. Theres a big pr firm in washington. Who is black with now . On kasich. Manafort is on the inside. Is this what change looks
like . Theyre other good buddy is carl rove. He was tight with those three. Hes trying to play some kind of mark hannah figure long after the idea of a republican king maker. Is he still walking down the aisle. I think it must Say Something about the new guard that his other clients. He said its a mixed bag. Any way. The roundtable is staying with us. He used to start with a huge bag of currency and divy it up among the tribal leaders. Theyll be back to tell me something i dont know. This is hardball, the place for politics. Were back with hardball roundtable below the brooklyn
bridge. Joy, under the bridge, tell me something i dont know. Not only is new york one of the most restrictive voting states in the country, no early voting, none of the other things that make it easier. No souls to the polls. Nothing. But it also is a state thats unique if in that for the democrats not only do you get six to seven democratic options, one set of bernie, one set of clinton. People have an opportunity to vote for Hillary Clinton but some bernie and some hillary delegates and game the convention. Make a psa, if you want to vote in a primary, register in that party. Okay . Because being an independent voter sounds really great but you dont get to vote in primaries. Some of these brooklyn districts here near where we are, very important to donald trump. Primarily because theyre virtually no republicans in them. And he can win three delegates with almost a handful of votes. What we used to call ruttenbergs. Rumors were out smfl these heavily democratic precincts had no republican ballots because they werent used to having republicans vote. They did eventually get ballots and the bronx. I wouldnt just put it to hipsters but all over. Turns out they did get the ballots there and some republicans trickled in. Small numbers. So tonight were talking about trump and hillary and bernie. Tomorrow morning kasich is going to have a tough morning. If he doesnt have a good night, how does he make the argument to go on . As a moderate, as an establishment candidate, if he cant turn out any votes here it has to be a convincing second. If he gets one or two delegates whats the point . The hot hand, let me ask about this, did you notice the two most unpopular candidates running for president are the least well known . He and Bernie Sanders. And i said that about Bernie Sanders, although his names out there, he hasnt taken a lot
scar tissue. People have not hit him on the right because theyre waiting for him. On the left theyve been nervous. Hitting him. Kasichs unfavorables are good but he has no name i. D. His unfavorables are good primarily because nobody knows who he is. Whats he running for . Hes running on the desperate hope there will be an open convention and the good people of ohio where hes governor will rise up like the fans in the dog pound at the Cleveland Browns games and make him the nominee. Tomorrow morning, what the heck is he going to say . These days in this fight, a few delegates here and there, comes in second all over the northeast, doesnt he basically own the vp nomination if he wants it . If he wants it . I dont think so. Because what is he going to bring . Other than ohio . Ohio. But trump did well. Trump told me that he would have if he had several more days he would have won ohio. I think he brings hes going to have to wrestle Chris Christie to a mat to get
that, i think Chris Christies going to fight for it. Two northeasterners . Dont count anything out, Chris Christie is desperate for it. I dont think geography means anything, i dont think voting record, how many votes he gets to your point, he would somehow trump would somehow attempt to reassure people nervous about a Trump Presidency in the same way, ironically that people thought that george w. Picking dick cheney would bring sober judgment to the bush administration. No one would think that trump will listen to kasich the way bush was run by cheney. Somewhere in texas george w. Is thinking, why did i pick dick cheney . I forgot, he was the head of the selection process. Anyway. Joy, herman, what a group. Well be here all night. When we return, let me finish with a correction of fact. Watching hardball, the place for politics live from new york. Man 1 i came as fast as i could. Whats up . Man 2 this isnt public yet. Man 1 what isnt . Man 2 weve been attacked. Man 1 the network . Man 2 shhhh. Man 1 when did this happen . Man 2 over the last six months. Man 1 how did we miss it . Man 2 we caught it, just not in time. Man 1 who . How . Man 2 not sure, probably offshore, foreign, pros. Man 1 what did they get . Man 2 what didnt they get. Man 1 i need to call mike. Man 2 dont use your phone. Its not just security, its defense. Bae systems. Let me finish tonight with a correction of fact. Bernie sanders is running a tv ad right now that basically accuses those he calls washington politicians of taking 200,000 in speaking fees while opposing a hike in the federal minimum wage to 15 an hour. Well, the fact is and senator sanders knows its a fact is washington politicians, members of congress, u. S. Senators, are
not permitted to accept speaking fees to any amount. No member of congress, no u. S. Senator, is permitted to accept a dollar or a cent for giving a speech. That is the fact. Now listen to the Bernie Sanders ad. While washington politicians are paid over 200,000 an hour for speeches, they oppose raising the living wage to 15 an hour. 200,000 an hour for them. Not even 15 bucks an hour for all americans. Enough is enough. It even shows the u. S. Capitol where congressmen and senators work. If its not true, if washington politicians, the people we elect to send to washington, dont get money from corporations for giving speeches, not even a dollar, much less in the hundreds of thousands, which is what Hillary Clinton collected on a trio of occasions after leaving the state department, why on gods earth did senator sanders paint all of washington with that brush . I think what hes doing here is attacking all other politicians with a broad brush of corruption, while crowning