Both delivered speeches to their bases this afternoon. Trump spoke at the end will faith and Freedom Conference in washington, d. C, his first public event since that helicopter speech. Speech. Teleprompter her first public appearance is as big endorsements from president obama, joe biden, and Elizabeth Warren. Trump hit clinton. Clinton hit trump. When donald trump says lets make America Great again, that is code for lets take america backward. Mr. Trump Hillary Clinton or as i call her crooked Hillary Clinton, refuses to even say the words radical islam. This alone makes are unfit to be president. Mrs. Clinton anyone who wants to defund planned parenthood has no idea what is best for women. Mr. Trump she will appoint radical judges who will legislate from the bench overriding congress. The will of the people will mean nothing, nothing. Mrs. Clinton this is a man who is called women pigs, dogs and disgusting animals. Hard to imagine counting on him to respect our fundamental rights. Mr. Trump her policies would be a crushing blow to all poor people in this country. John this is coming off us dollar week for Hillary Clinton in one of the worst weeks for trump. For the moment, lets strip away that context and judge the speech on their own merits. We will expect to see a lot more of what we just saw over the months ahead. On this first day who had the better day . Mike Hillary Clinton because she had the better week, but donald trump, if you watched that speech today, he has picked up the pace with the teleprompters. Doing a little better reading the speech. The speech included all sorts of extraneous subjects he was throwing in there. I dont know why he did that. At the end of the day, it get backs to the point that you have discussed endlessly. There is no campaign there. There is just double child. John theres just donald trump. John i always thought it was strange that donald trump has the levels he has among religious republicans, given given the fact it is the one place where he seems shakiest to me. The idea that donald trump would have something with bornagain is not possible to know Hillary Clinton was very good. I thought trump, if only because he had such a horrible two weeks, he managed to give that speech today and do, behave like a somewhat normal candidate. Reading from the script, making his hits as expected. He was actually pretty good. Maybe a better day for trump because his week was so that. So bad. Mike because of the level of expectations. Dont you think that part of trumps appeal to evangelical and we have witnessed into the primaries is because of what he did today . He shows up any gives the strong man speech, attacking Hillary Clinton, and his points are about strength and help protect because country. That appeals to evangelicals as well as a whole host of people in the primaries. John yes, thats true. Nobody loves talking about polls more than donald trump what we did not hear him say much today about the Newest National survey by foxnews. It shows trump trailing Hillary Clinton in the general election pointp 42 to 39 , a six drop from a month ago for the republican nominee. Trump strength seems to be growing but this poll shows a 12 point swing in clintons direction among independents since mid may. It is important to know this poll is an briefly before in the field before the endorsements yesterday. Probably get a bigger bump in the coming days. How do you worried how worry do you think the Trump Campaign manager exists, should they be more worried than they seem to be . John i think the point you make is a relevant point. We are going to see Hillary Clinton as she has with astonishing speed moved to start unifying the democratic party. She is going to see a list. The present of nominee. Bernie sanders is falling in line. Ati am donald trump, looking just the overall, the sixpoint drop. Given how horrible the last couple weeks have been, he mightve expected this to be worse than what he has seen today. He might, i think wrongly, but it might look at those numbers and say, i only dropped six point . I can make that up. Mike donald trump is donald trump. He sees bright lights and everything. But Anyone Around him who has his ear, and i dont know that that is anyone, i think they would be very worried because you can sense anecdotally the mini collapse within that campaign and in a few weeks prior to the democratic convention, republican convention, he is going to be set in cement by the Democratic Campaign against him. John that number with the independents is the worrying thing. Thats the thing you are most worried about because his strength of independents has been a large part of why hes been able to keep the, be neck with clinton. If the bottom falls out among independent voters, available voters, at the bottom falls out there, he has no chance to beat Hillary Clinton. That seems to be what is happening. Trump campaignt the people have factored into the equation there are not white men in america to elect john those are your people. Ive ever seen. There is not enough of you out there, the conservative version of you. The democrats the demographics are stacked against him. With independent voters, they had been attracted to trump all along. What this poll to justice that independent voters have been affected in a significant way by all of the negative headlines and the controversy, trumps races comments and that is the real reason for worry for him. Hillary clinton unveils her allstar lineup of democratic last night, what it means for your 2016 Fantasy League right after this quick commercial break. John today at her home in washington, d. C. , Hillary Clinton hauled with massachusetts senator Elizabeth Warren, the newest highprofile recruit. After that big day of endorsements, warren is what heavy hitter of the murderers row of new democratic surrogates stepping up to the 2016 election plate and swinging for the fences. In this already vastly overextended baseball metaphor, clintons lineup includes warre and Vice President joe biden. They both spoke last night. And of course, hitting in the cleanup spot as president barack obama with his appearance on the tonight show with jimmy fallon last night. But take a look at the replay. Trump is allowed, nasty, thinskinned fraud who has never risked anything for anyone and who serves no one but himself. I find Donald Trumps conduct in this regard reprehensible. In gauging attack in a pillar of democracy, by threats of intimidation, and other cutting undercutting the legit missy of a judge by suggested because of his heritage she is on capable of being fair. In addition to this, it is racist. President obama thank you, congress, for spending 8 years wishing you could replace me with a republican. Or to put it another way how do you like me now . A couple of hard hits the net jok that joke. The strength of clintons lineup is only highlighted by the strength of the republican bench. After trump highlighted that his comments were misconstrued, ben carson said that trump fully recognizes that was not the right thing to say. Ben carson, you had one job buddy. Hillary clinton has had one super surrogate, her husband, with her the whole time, and now she has filled out the roster with warren and biden and obama. What roles do you think they will play in our campaign as we go for . Mike a couple of things, it is going to be a long time before we have a president of the United States as cool as barack obama is. Yeah. All of Hillary Clintons surrogates can all hit majorly pitches to continue endlessly this baseball metaphor. Seeminglyrrogates, he has nine, the best of the surrogates he has happened to be his children, i think. Going forward the strongest surrogate that Hillary Clinton has, i think, without doubt will be the president of the United States who is fully committed to beating donald trump. Not just beating donald trump but destating donald trump because of largely the roots o f his antipathy toward him is the birth certificate. John 100 . And the suggestion he is not a legitimate president of the United States. I think you have got threes three will all be a big part of the campaign. I think as i suggested they will play distinct roles. Shaping uparren is as an attack dog figure. She will appeal to the populace with a degreerump of ferocity the Hillary Clinton is not capable of. As pocahontas her but she is good in that role. Workingclassg to right voters, especially men, who Hillary Clinton had trouble with. And president obama, the authority of the office. No one is in a better position, better than Hillary Clinton, no one is in position to suggest that trump is unfit to be commanderinchief than the guy who was commanderinchief now. Mike what is interesting about Elizabeth Warren to me is the fearlessness with which she takes on donald trump when the field of republican candidates against donald trump, all of them, were fearful of him. John none of those folks, none of them will be afraid of donald trump here he will have good days on his campaign, no doubt. But i do not see a single surrogate, a single surrogate right now for donald trump. There is not one. There is not one who can play at a Major League Level like all those four people at the top of the democratic surrogate lineup. Mike speaking of trumps surrogate problem, Top Republicans like paul ryan and Mitch Mcconnell are still clearly uncomfortable with having him as their parties presented nominee. In tone and substance, the two leaders are handling this hot potato in somewhat different ways. Take a look at the latest rounds of trump criticism. Ryan in an interview and mcconnell in the latest episode of bloomberg, masses in politics podcast. Paul ryan that comment is beyond the pale. That is not political correctness, suggesting a person came to a job because of race or ethnicity, that is not a politically incorrect thing to do. That is a wrong thing to say. I hope he gets that. I believe he walks this comment back. Is morecore visible important to the party of lincoln . Ryan hopefully this will not continue. Mitch mcconnell he does not know a lot about the issues. You see that in the debates he has but his debated in. That is why i have argued to him publicly and privately he ought to use a script more often turned there is nothing wrong with having prepared text. Indicatesrtant it a level of seriousness to convey to the American People about the job you are seeking. Mike mcconnell is being tougher than ryan. Especially when he said he knows nothing about the issues. You can coach him. What is going on here . John there are the institutional issues between the house and the senate. We can talk about those in the second but Mitch Mcconnell is in the job, his last job here he is not going to do anything else as majority leader, or a minority leader if the democrats take over. Paul ryan was to be president and he is looking at 2020. Donald likelihood that trump is going to lose this election and ryan is trying to figure out a way to both protect his members but not alienate trump voters that he might need when he runs for president next time around. Mike Mitch Mcconnell has a reputation, as you know, of being principally a very cautious individual who would not tell you if your coat were i on fire. Nor would i tell. John that is happened several times in the past. You said nothing. Mike whats going to mcconnells mind, if you put yourself and mcconnells mind, hes basically seeming to write donald trump off. John mcconnell was really focused more than anything, mcconnell was focused on trying to somehow against the odds, given the number of seats republicans are defending in the senate, he wants to keep hold of the majority. To do that, under his population, the only way for them to do that is to put as much distance as possible between themselves and donald trump. And he is starting to lay down markers for that permit Mitch Mcconnell is going to be running away from donald trump all election long. Mike do think paul ryans job is bigger of the house, the leader of the National Republican party, the phrase leadership and character, together, what is he sacrificing in terms of his hesitancy to really come out and say, listen, this guy is not what i thought . John you tell me. What do you think he is sacrificing. You seem to be suggesting something. The i think at the end of day, he is sacrificing a lot of his hardearned reputation he has. Toa smart guy who wants broaden his approach to politics at and poverty. Ridiculous an position right now which is to basically say, he is a racist. Till endorse them. Not a great place to be. Today the funeral of a great, great man. Rest in ali laid to louisville, kentucky, this afternoon. We will talk about that special service when we come back. It has been a week since muhammad ali passed away the age of 74 but the world is still mourinning. Bill clinton and heads of state from turkey and jordan gathered, honoring the home and all he and the city of his childhood, louisville kentucky. A long time now, back to 1980. In marblehead, massachusetts, where you spent some time in the presence of ali. Tell us about that moment. You wrote about it. Mike actually, it was 36 years ago this past wednesday. Muhammad ali was in massachusetts. He was going to address the class day for the class of 1975. It was june, 1980, at harvard. I emet him. I went up to meet them in the morning. He was staying at a friends home. I spent the day with him but the most poignant and most insightful part of the day to me was just he and i having breakfast in this mans home, and he spoke eloquently about didnt of fear, the anything fear happening to him because he had fought the government, changed his name. Given of his olympic metal all for his belief in his commitment. He talked about, i estimate one point, do you worry about brain damage . I was referring specific be to the thriller in mainila fight. He said, if it happens, it happens. He was an enormously charismatic figure. And you were kind of in awe when you are with him and you had to fight that feeling of awe in order to listen to what he was saying. John one of the stories about ali is this. You have met president s, heads of states, fortune 500 ceos. And you, like every other journalist i know who spent time with ali, and most other sports figures who spent time with ali, celebrities, everybody speaks of him and the same way. The biggest egos in the world. Even bigger egos than yours were presence wasn his a Magical Experience just because of the totally selfcreated man. His energy, his wit. And the charisma that you talked about. I literally, there is no one who does not have that kind of sad because of his death and realtime, people would say, there is nothing like him and no one like him. Mike this is 1980 and he was already are googly the most famous person in the world arguably. An iconic figure of the 20th and the 21st centurys. He was in fault in tw involved in two of the greatest sporting events, the rumble in the jungle and the thriller in manila, in which both men almost died. That fight was held at 10 00 in the morning. The temperature in the rain was 120 degrees. In the ring. After the fight, ali said, joe frazier and i went to manila as champions and we came home as old men. You yes, those fights, if go back and watch them now, youtube, it is something. Degree to thing the which boxing is no longer mike it used to be the most important sports event. Every celebrity, the greatest writers, everybody flocked to the ring. Now, boxer still exists but it is nothing like the kind of attraction. Probably because of ali. The perception, right or wrong, that somehow that ali, the beatings he took was part of why he ended up with parkinsons. I think it is part of why boxing has lost favor in our society. People looked at ali and said, rightly or wrongly, they see him as a vivid illustration how savage the sport is. I think the country has turned against the sport for that reason. Mike i absolutely agree with you. Wonder of pro football will be next. In ali, you also wonder in the passage of time does is allow us to look at this, so many people missed the importance of his inial cultural statements the 1960s. Some of the greatest newspaper writers of alltime missed it and made fun of him or ran him down. Changed his name. He was a muslim. Because he came out against the war in vietnam. But he was right. John the day after he passed away, the nba finals, there were people that talk to lebron james and cleveland. In cleveland. And the warriors at the oracle arena. James pointed out that he felt someali had freed to take of the stances he has taken. Ali was a important as an athlete, more important in some ways, outside of athletics than the things he did in. From the moment he decided to resist the draft, he not only became incredibly important figure in black culture, the antiwar movement, but he freed athletes to become engaged in politics in a way they never have before. You suddenly had things from the 1968 olympics with carlos with the black power salute. On every dimension of sports, suddenly sports figures were like, hey, i can be involved in the broader social issues that rack the country. Mike you have to ask yourself this question that took great andage to get in a ring fight for your life is muhammad ali did. Today you hear many athletes today, which among them would have the courage he had to stand up for himself and his believes. Beliefs. John i stand by my assertion that he was a signal phenomenaon in terms of the politicization of sports, some