Meanwhile donald trump is regaining ground in battleground states, hes up two in nevada, hes up three in both florida and in ohio. Hes up eight in ohio. You might say trump is back himself taking time away from the teleprompter to hit back at colin powell. Hit back at a pastor in ohio and to put down Hillary Clinton for her health. Hit back at a pastor in ohio and to put down Hillary Clinton for her health. Shes lying in bed, getting better, and we want her back on the trail. As i said, trump mocked a pastor in flint. The pastor interrupted donald trump when he started criticizing Hillary Clinton in the church. Hillary failed on the economy. Just like shes failed on foreign policy. Now Hillary Clinton. Mr. Donald trump, i invited you here to thank us, not give a political speech. Okay, thats good. Well, that was tough. Today donald trump said that reverend, that was reverend faith timmons was nervous. When she got up to introduce me, she was so nervous she was shaking. So and then she came up. But the aud negligence was fantastic, but she was so nervous, she was like a nervous mess. So i figured something was up, really. His latest target is a pastor who asked him not to insult. Reverend faith green tim mons is not a nervous mess, shes a rock for her community in trying times, she deserves better than that. And flint deserves better, in fact so does america. None of this of course is likely to surprise or disturb the voter now looking to vote for trump. Perhaps it will remind them of his brand. Trump is on one side of what is said on september 15, an equal divide. So trump seems to go back and forth between a teleprompter and being donald trump. What brought him back to being trump today . Because hillarys back . Do you have a sense that has he thinks these polls are trend . Because i heard about that today listening to the other discussions on other programs. I keep saying, when is a blip on the screen a cycle . When does it become a trend . Something thats moving in one direction, unless stopped . Well, i said to trump, chris, as he was looking over all of these polls on his plane, they were piling up, and he reviews them very carefully. I said, well, some of the polls show you are up nationally and in swing at a times. And he looked at me incredulous, and he said, some . Some . All of them are up. So hes very confident as he looks at the data. Well see if it lasts. He thinks part of the reason is the comment by secretary clinton about Trump Supporters being deplorable. Okay. Lets go about lets talk about that with Michael Steele and jane newton small. With these polls, the New York Times the New York Times cbs poll, which closed yesterday, i believe, thats been thats barely covered the whole weekend. So it certainly went as late as tuesday night. That does cover the period of people, we were all blabbing about that. Do you think that was a changer . I think it did . Deplorables . Move people to trump column . I think the combination of the deplorable, and of course, the general feel around the campaign, the clinton campaign, people are sensitive to that. Its funny, you get beyond labor day and the dynamics in the races change. People get more connected to it. Reporters can tell you on the ground that, you know, theres a different kind of energy. And the voters are more sensitive. They pick up stuff. They dont they may not articulate it directly, but that is a sense, theres something not quite right. Thats like me in the nba. I get to decide who i like, who im rooting for, the individual players. And the regular season is too darned long. Its 82 games. Anyway, your thoughts about this. Is there something that makes this more grabable. That they actually might move now . I think theres definitely a feeling of people definitely paying attention. But theres a huge group of the silent majority, the independents are finally sort of now really paying attention. But i have to disagree a little bit with you, mr. Steele, in the sense that, i think what hurt hillary more was the fainting spell, was the pneumonia, was sort of covering up, its all the things that people dont like about the clintons, was this sense of not being honest, not being forthright, of sort of hiding things. She blamed that im not going to be critical, but just factually, she blamed that on her staff, saying they werent quick enough, but the staff is trained by her. They know what theyre supposed to ive always said in politics, never, ever blame staff people. Because everything comes from the top. Theyre taught how to behave it stops here. Its the way it works. Anyway, secretary clinton used her first appearance on the trail today to slam donald trump as a loose cannon. I thought she worked very well today coming back from a by the way, shes not back from pneumonia, shes got it. And i thought she performed really well and strong, and i thought gutsy today. Lets watch. People accuse me of all kinds of things. You probably have seen that. But nobody ever accuses me of quitting. And i will never give up. Ill never walk away. No matter how tough the going gets. Im actually asking americans to hold me accountable for my ideas. And hold my opponent accountable for his. Are we going to bring people together or pit americans against each other and rip our country apart. Are we going to work with our allies to keep us safe or are we going to put a loose cannon in charge, who would risk everything, generations of americans have worked so hard to build . I think Hillary Clinton is shaping the battlefield. Shes setting it up, going into this debate, to be the kind of debate that she would like to win, and she should win. Preparation, seriousness, no pizazz, no showing off, no wild, crazy stuff. Simple, i know my stuff, this guys not ready, at all, never will be. And if youre talking about substance, then she absolutely wins. Wherever we talk about substantiative things, hillary does better in the polls than donald trump. Can she shape the way we look at this debate . I dont think the deplorable thing actually hurt her. I have this group of independent women ive been following the entire campaign from the various states that ive traveled to, and the independent women that ive been speaking to have said, that they actually this is a debate theyre having amongst themselves. Is it really am i deplorable person . Am i in that basket of voters that are racist and sexist and xenophobic, if i vote for trump . Whats worse, being in a basket or binder . Where do they get these metaphors from . People dont fit in baskets or binders. Whyd they say basket i never thought of people in a basket. Roses are in a basket. Thats the debate clinton wants people to have. This is the problem. I take your point and i see where youre going, chris you do . I do see where youre going. Im not sure i do. Im trying to figure this thing out. Heres the rub. Heres the thing. Shes setting this up. You know, hold me accountable for my ideas. Well, this isnt that election. It has not been this election. It has this is no one is what is the debate going to be about. The debate is about actions. Youll be held accountable for your actions. That is her problem. Its a problem with the way her staff and she handle what happened on friday and sunday. It is the words that she has used to describe the american people. Similarly for donald trump, but here is the rub that really rubs them the wrong way. He pays less of a price for it than she does. Thats called the curve. Thats called the curve. I was saying to all of you, i guess i can go back to robert now, i think the hillary people are plainly as brian said today, whats his last name . Fallon. Fallon. Brian fallon. Brian fallon said today, we dont want to be judged on a curve. I think thats whats going on here. I think most people will judge us on a curve. If donald trump comes out there and is calm and serious and matches her point by point, people will say, he won. That could happen. Im just saying, i think thats what the clinton people are deadly afraid of. An even match, he wins. Trumps told me hes not doing formal debate prep, as we know. Why . Roger ailes is playing a role, not a formal role, in getting trump ready for the debates. Trump said ailes is walking him through the history of debates, how former candidates, people hes worked, nixon and others have handled the these debates. And one thing trumps working for is, does clinton attack him . He said hes ready to be the statesmen if thats the tone of the debate. Hes also ready to be the attack dog. It will be interesting to see how clinton handles him. Does she bait him, bring him out, or keep hip on a different level. Well, donald trump jr. , a top e i ereleased mine, i think she should release hers. Welcome back to hardball. That was paul ryan, the speaker of the house, calling on donald trump to release his tax returns. For months, the press and fellow republicans have asked trump to do the same thing. The quinnipiac poll out today shows that 75 of americans agree that trump should publicly release his tax returns. 60 , three out of five republicans say the same thing, release the returns. So far what trump has done, is release a number of excuses for why he wont. Yesterday he told fox news that he would release his taxes immediately, but only if Hillary Clinton released her emails. Lets watch him. She has 33,000 emails that she deleted. When is she going to release her emails . She probably knows how to find it. Let her release her emails and ill release my tax returns immediatably. And this week, kellyanne conway, his new campaign manager, said she doubted that he would make public his charitable contributions. Listen. Part of why people are calling for him to release his taxes is so we do know how much he has given to charity. Will you or the campaign release exactly what that number is . And the reason i ask i doubt it. Why would you doubt it . I doubt it, because, this is like badgering. In other words, i dont see it as journalism, i see it as badgerism. Finally, donald trump jr. Seemed to put the kibosh on his father releasing his tax returns because of this. He has a 12,000 page tax return. That would create probably 300 million independent financial auditors out of every person in the country asking questions that are going to distract from his main message. Right now im joined by our roundtable, john stanton, hes in the middle, Washington Bureau chief for buzzfeed, colleen mccain, correspondent for the wall street journal, and sabrina siddiqui, political reporter for the guardian. This is a mound of growing alibis. First of all, he says hes under audit, so he cant do it. But then he says he can do it, but hes only going to do it if she releases her emails. Then the son comes along, donald trump jr. , and says, well it would distract from dads message. Heres the contradiction, he says he cant do it, then says he wont do it. Why does he keep saying hell do it if Something Else says hes under audit. The question is not whether or not it will distract from his message, but if it undercuts one of the central themes of his campaign, by pointing to the weighing in which executives have skirted tax reform. So is it possible that donald trump is exploiting the same loopholes is he right politically to hide them . It could become an issue. It could become untenable for mitt romney. It did. So far, hes able too get away with it. Bernie sanders got away with it. Much lower income. He got away wit. But that may not be what hes really worried about. He came out and said, i took advantage of lobbying and giving money to politicians to get them to give me what i wanted and now im here to change the system. But of course, i took advantage of it. If he shows up where would that show up in his tax returns . It it shows up because of loopholes, not paying any taxes. Of course, you know he does that as a good american, im take advantage of the rules and now im here to change them. But if it show hes not giving money to all these charities he claims hes giving to, that could hurt him. Exaggerating. The other argument is hes afraid to show hes not as rich as he says he is. And thats just the ego argument. And thats probably the bestcase scenario. The little hands thing. Its like the little hands thing. Right. Exactly. It means something to him. But he managed to get away with this for a long time. In part because he was so many controversial things. We were focused on whatever controversial thing he said the last time. And now that hes using a teleprompter, we have time the guy is stubborn. Robert costa has a report, he asked him, basically, was the president born in this country and trump refuses to take back birtherism, which bothers so many people, not just africanamericans. The statement that the president we have right now is somehow illegitimate. Thats such a core part of his following. Thats how he built himself to be where he is, by seizing on all of these supporters of his, who do not believe that this president was born in the united states. And thats not something hes going to give up. And we know that donald trump doesnt take statements back. The one time he expressed socalled regret, he refused to specify which one of the dozens of comments hes made that are controversial was the one he was expressing regret for and he didnt apologize for anything in the course of this campaign. So do we First Release his tax returns or admit that barack obama is american . His head will explode before either of those two. Earlier this week, barack obama questioned why donald trump hasnt released his tax returns. He calls himself a business guy, but americas got a lot of businessmen and women who succeeded without hiding their tax returns or leaving a trail of lawsuits or workers who didnt get paid. People feeling like they got cheated. Hes got a whole style of irony here, that definitely works. It worked in philly, because philly thinks like that. They love this stuff up there. And obama also talked about why trump has been able to kind of get away with this. Hidings a good word. And he said, you know, in politics, voters are restless and theyre attracted to the new, shiny object. And obama said he benefited from that in 2008 and trump is benefiting from that now. And also, trump is running this whole Campaign Based on upending the rules and just kind of throwing out all the rules, not just on transparency nick kristof today in the New York Times, hes a liberal guy, smart, progressive guy. He said, why does trump get the credit, get the problems for being honest, more than hillary. How can that be . He says, look at all the facts. Theres no argument that trumps more honest than hillary. I think theres a you were pointing to the president s speech. He actually went on a tear about this issue because of the double standards he believes the media are applying to these two candidates, where anytime theres any negative press about hillary, even if its deserved, it brings up notions about trust and transparency. When donald trump has defied all the rule, and i think it is incumbent on the media, where David Fahrenthold has done great work about his charitable giving, and the media needs to press him on that. He also just doesnt care what anybody thinks. Thats the problem. Democrats always seem to care, particularly hillary and these people around her. They get super secretive and i think that translates into some peoples minds as honest. Straightforwardness. Thursday september 15th 2016. So in midseptember, this wild and woolly campaign went to a dead even heat. Clinton 42 in a new cbs New York Times poll, donald trump at 42 . It went to dead even on the same day that Hillary Clinton came back on the campaign trail trying for a second time to power through her pneumonia. The same day that donald trump some say reverted to being more trump, less teleprompter taking a swing at the flint, michigan, pastor who told him to take his politicking outside and came on the same day the Washington Post used a survey to show how Hillary Clinton and trump people live in distance worlds to each other. Check the date. Here we are. The united states, anything but a country divided, a people divided between a wellknown figure of the center left, that would be Hillary Clinton, and a wellknown figure of business and reality tv whose outsider positioning of himself defines his politics. A neat choice, many would say, between what many would call a contest between the too familiar and the too bizarre. Thats hardball for now. Thanks for being with us. Join me again tomorrow night at 7 00 eastern, see you then. Anyone with type 2 diabetes knows how it feels to see your numbers go up, despite your best efforts. But what if you could turn things around . What if you could. Love your numbers . Discover oncedaily invokana®. Its the 1 prescribed sglt2 inhibitor that works to lower a1c. A pill taken just once in the morning, invokana® is used along with diet and exercise to significantly lower blood sugar in adults with type 2 diabetes. In fact, its been proven to be more effective at lowering a1c than januvia. 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