Over. We shall see. He was there today. Bloomberg politics. Com right now, john mccormicks great piece is up there about clintons spending binge on the olympics. Sayonara. Coming up, hardball with chris matthews. Unhinged . Lets play hardball. Good eecvening. Hillary clinton was endorsed today by a veteran National Security official but it was the language she used describing her opponent donald trump thats most shocking. The former acting cia director praised clinton as highly qualified for the presidency. His other reason for backing her is what he called his alarm over the prospect of a donald trump presidency. Michael morell said trump is not only unqualified for the job but
may well pose a threat to our National Security. Morell went on to suggest that vo Vladimir Putin sees trump as exploitable. Pointing to trumps temperament has become a major theme of the democrats this year. Imagine him in the oval Office Facing a real crisis. A man you can bait with a tweet is not a man we can trust with Nuclear Weapons. Yes, i think the republican nominee is unfit to serve as president. I said so last week and he keeps on proving it. I think i was right and mitt romney and john mccain were wrong on certain policy issues but i never thought that they couldnt do the job. Well, today the Clinton Campaign debuted a new ad
quoting conservative critics of trump. The message, trump is too dangerous to be president. If he governs consistent with some of the things he said as a candidate, i would be very frightened. Hes been talking about the option of using a Nuclear Weapon against our western european allies. This is not somebody who should be handed the nuclear codes. You have to ask yourself do i want a person of that temperament in control of the nuclear codes. And as of now, i have to say no. Northboubcs Hallie Jackson wisconsin where donald trump is expected to endorse paul ryan tonight. Im also joined by msnbc analyst mike murphy and valerie plame, former covert cia officer, a surrogate now for Hillary Clinton. Thank you for coming on tonight. I gues i want you to just take the time now to talk about the issue of Nuclear Weapons and how the president of the United States has the nuclear football, the codes for using, deciding on
whether to launch those missiles which hasnt been done since the days of harry truman when we had the two bombs over japan. What do you think about trump as a commander in chief in the nuclear age . The notion of donald trump having his fingers on the Nuclear Button is absolutely terrifying. Its august now, people are at the beach, but i think they are sort of seeing this through the clouds of their vacation. His temperament simply is not up to it. As has been said, hes a man who is provoked by 140 characters. That is not the sort of temperament you need. You have about 12 minutes when you as the president , when you are warned theres a possibility of an incoming nuclear attack. Within that time, you have to determine if its accurate and how to respond. You absorb the first attack or do you launch on warning is what its called, which is you immediately give the signal and
our Nuclear Weapons arsenal is launched. And trump time and again on this issue and so many others has shown not only his ignorance but his rashness. Do you think he has an itchy trigger finger . I think he hasnt really thought much about it, chris. He sort of answers on the fly. In an old interview he said he could learn everything he needs to know about the whole our whole Nuclear Posture in an hour. Hes such a good negotiator. And he has said so many things you never know what his statement is except that maybe its kind of true in his head at that moment. They include as i think in your interview that he said first of all, well, you know, sort of so what if other nations get Nuclear Weapons. I think he was referring to japan. He didnt take off the table the idea of using Nuclear Weapons in europe. It is very important for the president to be very careful of how they speak about either the use or nonuse of Nuclear Weapons. He clearly thinks hes smarter than anybody else including Vladimir Putin and i agree with morells assessment that he is in fact an unrecruited asset of putin. Putin is far craftier than he is and is obviously manipulating trump for his own purposes. Let me ask you about something we all wonder about occasionally. We know the president carries the code with him. Its called the football. Can he declare a launch just by his own sayso . Yes. He can. The secretary of defense says no, what happens then . Yes. What happens . Well, you know, of course the constitution says as you know that only congress has the power to declare war but theres no question that the president and the president alone has this
incredible responsibility of declaring nuclear war. There have been cases notably when nixon in the waning days of watergate when i guess he was drinking a little too heavily, that the secretary of defense and secretary of state sort of quietly put out the word to the Nuclear Command control that, you know, the orders needed to go through them first. Its not very clear, its not made public exactly how that goes, but the possibility of an accident is already so high. Do you want to put it in the hands of someone like donald trump . Well, this afternoon, donald trump tried to flip the script, you might say, calling Hillary Clinton unhinged and unfit to be president. Lets watch. Unstable, Hillary Clinton, lacks the judgment, temperament and moral character to lead this country. Shes a dangerous liar. Shes really pretty close to unhinged and you have seen it. You have seen it a couple of times. But people in the background know it. The people that know her, know it. And shes like an unbalanced person. Hillarys central role in making iran the dominant islamic power that they are today in the middle east proves that she is totally unfit to lead. Let me go to Hallie Jackson. It looks to me like operationally there hes translating from some other language. Who is reading him those words . He has words like unhinged on a card in front of him. Hes got words like unfit and hes looking down reading them. So somebody in that campaign decided to off of notes. Script him with this tit for tat if you will with hillary. Who is telling him to read that script . Well, look, first, look at the language. You are talking about the language hes using. Its language the Democrats Use against donald trump. So its a bit of the im rubber,
youre glue defense. For trump, he apparently believes this is going to be an effective line of attack. Ill tell you something. It is more disciplined than we have seen with him. He comes out onstage and instead of talking about polls or the latest media narrative, hes hitting Hillary Clinton and hitting president obama. He also called by the way clinton the queen of corruption. You know whos words those were . Maine governor paul le page who said it at his rally yesterday. Trump liked it, said it caught his imagination. I bring that up because le page said this week he had a talk with donald trump about being more disciplined. Coming from paul le page, thats kind of interesting. But i do think it shows that trump knows he needs to be more on message. I will tell you this. Hes telling his top advisors, donald trump, not only that he knows what hes doing, and he knows what he has to do. And that is continue to go after clinton and make sure the spotlight stays on her. I think that is what you are going to see tonight in green bay. After this, what we expect is an endorsement of paul ryan. Which is also significant for
trump. It is a backtrack for him. That is something we rarely see from this candidate. Mike murphy, i cant wait to hear from you. I want to presage what you say. When you bring wild ideas from le page to trump, you are sort of hauling a call to new castle as the brits would say. What do you make of this . You once said to me, i asked what was the heart of darkness about this guy, whats the real reason you wont back him, and you said his absolute ignorance of Foreign Policy. Go on. Yeah. No, look, im no trump defender and i cant vote for him, i dont think he has the judgment or the training to be commander in chief and the way hes out shopping for crazy things to say like its open mic night or something is a troubling sign. That said, i think we are going a little too far on the Nuclear Button stuff. I dont think trump would be madly jabbing at the desk trying to launch our deterrent. I think its a more every day problem, that he does not
understand Foreign Policy and his impulsive fly by the seat of his pants style could get him into all kinds of Foreign Policy trouble. Hes already been the first president in decades to try to destabilize the Nato Alliance which is one of the foundations of our whole strategy. I dont think he understands Nuclear Deterrence which is all about the threat of Nuclear Weapons rather than the use of them. Yeah. They are not like cinder blocks. You dont have to use them to have an effect. Back in march, i asked trump about using Nuclear Weapons. Lets watch what he actually said. Look, nuclear should be off the table but would there be a time when it could be used . Possibly. The trouble is when you said that, the whole world, David Cameron in britain hear the president of the United States maybe talk about using Nuclear Weapons. No one wants to hear that. Why do we make them . I would be the last one to use the Nuclear Weapons. Sort of like can you tell the middle east we are not using the Nuclear Weapons . I would never say that. I would never take my cards off the table. How about europe . Im not going to at a time
off the table. You might use it in europe . No, i dont think so. Just say i will never use it in europe. Im not taking cards off the table. Valerie, heres the question. You have been in intelligence, you know what weapons we have, you know how we think and what deterrence is all about. What would be the advantage in terms of telling the europeans who are all our allies that we might use the weapon over there, the Nuclear Weapon in europe . What would be need to keep that on the table . Well, sometimes even a blind pig finds the acorn. Trump actually hit it right on. Why do we have Nuclear Weapons if were not going to use them. Which is the broader existential question of our whole nuclear program. Im a Firm Believer that now Nuclear Weapons in the 21st century do not make us safer. But hes just saying whatever comes into his mind in the moment and you know it. He can change at a whim. He is simply like your other guest mike murphy said, he simply does not have the knowledge, the background, nor the discipline to even learn about this, to understand whats the difference between nuclear use, Nuclear Deterrence policy and how you speak about these things responsibly without the rest of the World Leaders having their hair on fire over this. Let me get back to hallie on this. Go ahead, michael. No, just everything trump everything is negotiating a parking lot deal so hes confusing Nuclear Weapons with tactics rather than the strategic purpose of Nuclear Weapons which is you dont use them because of the deterrent of the idea. Nuclear strategy is a big complicated thing thats gone through a long complicated debate in our National Security establishment and hes totally ignorant of any of it. It scares the hell out of people when he throws terms like this around because it underlines his ignorance. Hallie, a lot of people including me, are always hopeful about candidates. We watched people come to the
presidency like Ronald Reagan who behaved much more moderately than a lot of his critics had reason to believe he would perform once he got there. People on the left, for example, center left. Reagan turned out to be one of our great president s objectively said. People dont like hearing that, but look at the list. Anyway, and then what shatters that with regard to trump is he got the nomination of the Republican Party and hasnt changed a whit from the guy out there duking it out with 16 other opponents in the primaries, lihe hasnt adjustedo the fact hes now the party nominee, one of the two people thats probably our next president. That shatters the idea he will change if he actually gets inaugurated. Doesnt it . Heres just the thought experiment, sort of the thing i would say to potentially rebut that. That is this. For months, yes, after donald trump became the presumptive nominee i believe it was may 5, he continue to relitigate the primaries, talk about his primary opponents even when a lot of republicans felt like my goodness, why arent you focusing on Hillary Clinton for these five weeks when she was
still locked in the battle with bernie sanders. What did trump say at the time . It was my campaign doesnt really begin until after the convention. Whether you buy into that line or not, that is some insight into Donald Trumps psyche and why there are still some who are hopeful, who kcontinue to have eternal optimism that perhaps donald trump, now that we are out of the conventions and turned to the general election, could maybe change. I will tell you this, too. I think one thing you hear from folks who come to these rallies, even people just out, i crisscross the country talking to people, one thing you hear about donald trump is well, hes really not going to do that, necessarily. Thats something i heard from some of his supporters. I know all about that. No wall. They say well, right, they say, because heres the thing. They like what he portrays, what he symbolizes, even if they dont necessarily agree with the policies hes talking about. Potentially for them its gamble but they believe it will pay
off. Thank you. Thank you, mike. Valerie, good to have you back. Coming up, as donald trump stumbles some republicans are taking a good hard look at the libertarian ticket this year. Former new mexico governor gary johnson. And former Massachusetts Governor could have a real impact on the ballot come november. They come to hardball right now. Plus, inside the newest poll numbers and its a dire picture for donald trump. Hes losing ground with virtually every Demographic Group in our new nbc poll. Among africanamericans hes polling at 1 . We have the numbers coming up. In a rare back and forth with reporters, Hillary Clinton was asked questions about trump, her email and why many voters dont trust her. Some of her answers were very revealing and in some cases disturbing. Let me finish with where this president ial campaign has actually landed on the nuclear issue. Nexium 24 hour introduces new, easytoswallow tablets. So now, there are more ways, for more people. To experience. Complete protection from frequent heartburn. Nexium 24hr. The easytoswallow tablet is here. i one coat, yes one coat guaranteed marquee interior. Behrs most advanced paint. Come find our top rated paints, only at the home depot. The economy created 255,000 jobs last month. Much more than expected and a sign the countrys growth rate isnt as slow as feared. The Unemployment Rate remained the same at 4. 9 . Well be right back. to dog give it. Sure its free for everyone. Oh well thats nice and checking your score wont hurt your credit. Oh to dog im so proud of you. Well thank you. Get your free credit scorecard at discover. Com. Even if youre not a customer. Poallergies . Reather. Stuffy nose . Cant sleep . Take that. A breathe right nasal strip instantly opens your nose up to 38 more than allergy medicine alone. Shut your mouth and say goodnight, mouthbreathers. Breathe right. Welcome back to hardball. With the republicans losing confidence in their nominee donald trump, some on the right and center right are looking around for other options. One place they might look is the Libertarian Party. This years libertarian ticket features two former republican governors, gary johnson and bill weld of massachusetts. According to the latest nbc wall street journal poll, Hillary Clinton leads trump by nine points with johnson getting 10 of the vote and Green Party Candidate jill stein at 5 . In order to qualify for a president ial debate spot this fall, a candidate must have a level of support of at least 15 of the National Electorate as determined by five National Public opinion polling organizations selected by the commission on government
debates. Right now, gary johnson has an average of 8 , supporting