account the reality of our state of the world today. so i'm completely behind donald trump in that statement. >> i'm not so sure that it's about idea but i don't know that it's a great idea either. >> i'm a veteran paratrooper, been in three different campaigns and two different wars, iraq and afghanistan. and i've had too many brothers and sisters lost over there in those two wars to just let them come here free range in our country now. it's a kick in the face to every veteran there is that's fought in those wars. to us trying to protect our homeland from them coming in and then the current administration letting them in. >> but reaction against trump has come fast and furious today. the highest ranking republican elected house speaker paul ryan weighing in denouncing donald trump earlier today. >> normally, i do not comment on when's going on in the presidential election. i will take an exception today. this is not conservatism. what was proposed yesterday is not what this party stands for. and more importantly, it's not what this country stands for. not only are there many muslims serving in our armed forces, dying for this country, there are muslims serving right here in the house working every day to uphold and to defend the constitution. some of our best and biggest allies in this struggle and fight against radical islamic terror are muslims. >> joining me now nbc news political director moderator of "meet the press" chuck todd with steve kornacki here in the newsroom. we just heard within the last pour of jeb bush. i want to play that sound and then we'll talk. >> what we shouldn't do is to just, you know, say, all muslims aren't coming into our country. you've got to find the proper balance of believing in american values and being serious and real about keeping us safe. it's not about the blowhards out there just saying stuff. this's not a program. that's not a plan. this is serious business. >> and, chunlg, the big political, does any of this hurt donald trump? does it help donald trump? does it hurt or help jeb bush? >> look, if donald trump wants to be president of the united states he's really hurt himself. okay? this is not way to get to 50% plus 1 in this country and probably the support of majority of the republican partiment is it going to hurt him right now? probably not. this is basically the same message to preach since getting in the race. all of the problems you're feeling, let me tell you who to blame. mexicans. it is china. >> it's gotten -- >> no, no. >> more hard core. >> he escalates it and what's it done is you have had a republican party that's been afraid to confront him. you've had a republican party behind the scenes saying what do we do? they're condemning today. the question is, it's the next step. are they going to go to the point to hear candidates saying, i won't support him? are you going to go to the next step and the rnc says we don't want you on our debates and then decide it is so bad for the brand of the republican party that we have to make a public effort to keep him out of the party? which in many ways might only help him more with the same group of people who, of course, feel as if the establishment or the elites let them down? i'm not saying that's the answer but that is -- seems to be the only logical next step for the party to go. the party is panicked on this because he is -- he is doing -- this is doing to the party what they have always feared trump could do. one thing and everybody has to respond. every single republican in the country has to respond. >> we have heard from one of them today. >> going ahead and doing what paul l ryan said. i don't like to have to respond but today i have to. it's detrimental to the brand of the party. >> a brand new poll shows 68% of the trump supporters would vote for him even if he ran as an independent. i assume that has to be the rnc's biggest fear. >> well, yeah. i think that gets to the fear of the republican party has that chuck's talking about right there. the more they go after them, the more they go after him, i think the more loyalty engenders of the core of trump's base, the idea he is fought by the party establishment, he is the enemy, out to get him. and i'm looking at the reactions today and, right, it is true. not going to find a republican speaking up and saying, yes, i agree with donald trump on this. i, too, i want to embrace this plan. you had paul ryan really going out of his way to condemn the statements. same time you had ted cruz. you thought this was the most interesting one. you had ted cruz coming out, no, saying this isn't my proposal and then praised donald trump and then said he would refuse any opportunity to attack donald trump. >> steve, we have that sound if they want to roll it. go ahead and roll that ted cruz sound so people can hear what he had to say. >> i disagree with that proposal. i like donald trump. a lot of our friends here have encouraged me to criticize and attack donald trump. i'm not interested in doing so but i believe we need a plan that is focused on the direct threat and the threat we're facing is radical islam terrorism. >> so that's a different tone, chuck, from hearing and there are gradations of tone. >> this is ted cruz's strategy all along. any time that trump said something that people think call or require a condemnation, cruz has always refused to condemn the man, only the idea if he disagrees with the idea. but he's clearly walking that line because anybody that would stand to benefit the most from trump somehow getting out of the race would be ted cruz. so, you know, they are sort of swimming in the same pool of voters a little bit here and he can't be looking totally anti-trump or hurt himself. >> speaking of that pool of voters, steve, there is clearly a segment of the republican voting population who this all appeals to and iowa poll in september found that only 49% of iowa republicans think the religion of islam should be legal in america. let me say that again. 49% of iowa republicans said islam should be legal. of course, it is legal. to practice in the united states. but does that point to the group of voters that we heard from, from his event and gave him a standing ovation last night, steve? >> yes. but i think it's broader than that. a lot of times we look at trump saying this is a phenomenon of the republican base. i think specifically on this question of islam, on this question of muslims, it is broader than that because there was a poll taken just last month that asked the question, is islam itself compatible with american values in the american way of life? 56% of all americans, all parties said that it isn't and that includes 43% of democrats. i think that's one of the things you're seeing with donald trump here. you find the numbers tend to be all over the place a little bit depending on the poll you look at. what kind of voters are you encolliding in the polls? opening it up to non-traditional republicans, trump does better. we don't necessarily aappreciate it. it's not just the hard-core republican base. he is appealing to a broader swath than that. >> don't forget, kate, you know, we as americans and it's a human nature thing what you don't know you fear. and the fact of the matter is a lot of americans don't know a lot about islam. they just don't know a lot about it. there isn't this -- the two people you could say, let's -- these are two people you expect to speak for the religion of islam in america. that doesn't -- >> unfamiliarity. i grew up in upstate new york. i didn't know a single muslim american growing up. >> most famous people speaking out in defense of islam are american politicians not islam, not muslim right now. it is mostly the president or speaker ryan. plenty of people saying don't, you know, don't do this. i think that that also presents the challenge here where, again, the unfamiliarity breeds the fear because they just hear it's radical islamism. the lack of familiarity with a religion adds to this. >> chuck, lastly, what we're doing right here, the fact that we're talking about donald trump. >> hijacked everything. >> rush limbaugh today, i won't quote him directly but essentially said donald trump is playing the fmedia like a fiddl. >> the media, the press, the country. everybody's got their own conspiracy theory. in there to help the clintons secretly. he was worried the polls fall and threw this crazy idea out there and look what it did. everybody stopped in their tracks and everybody's talking about trump, trump, trump again. he doesn't do -- he isn't -- he doesn't do anything willy nilly. >> he's strategic. >> he is in this and you can't help but note the timing of this as ted cruz is surging in iowa from all -- no matter how you measure it, all of a sudden he freezes the race in place with this. everything, everybody has stopped in its place in the political world to deal with this. >> steve, steve schmidt, the gop analyst said to politico today, when republican voters look at obama, they see weakness, fecklessness and indecisiveness and trump is in their estimation the antidote to that. >> yeah. no. i mean, there's a contrast here, too, on trump's part. with this proposal, chuck's saying we have the different theories why he chose now. another one you throw out there is he threw it out a day after president obama gave his prime time address on his plan to defeat isis, dealing with terrorism and all sorts of commentary there about was the president strong enough, did he have a clear enough plan and here's donald trump going about as far as possible in the opposite direction as you can go. i think probably trying to draw a very intentional contrast there to appeal to voters feeling obama is very weak on this. >> steve, chuck, always good to see you goois. thanks for being with us. >> see you in a couple of hours. coming up, we'll go to capitol hill where the house is expected to vote on tighteninging restrictions on the u.s. visa waver program. proud of you, son. ge! a manufacturer. well that's why i dug this out for you. it's your grandpappy's hammer and he would have wanted you to have it. it meant a lot to him... yes, ge makes powerful machines. but i'll be writing the code that will allow those machines to share information with each other. i'll be changing the way the world works. 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that could go on indefinitely. >> >> it's all it is a feel or a touch. look. how many people more people got checks put into their accounts? obviously somebody gave them money. i hope that the fbi and our great law enforcement are able to figure this out. but they have tremendous money. i said knock out the oil. nobody listened to me. nobody knocked out the oil. i said check the banking systems. they have intricate banking webs. they have tremendous money. how many other people given $28,000 or more or less to go out and do destruction like the two animals did the other day in california? we have a very, very serious problem and we can solve the problem but we have to solve it through intelligence and we have to solve it through toughness. >> this is nicole. >> hi, nicole. i hope your father still likes me. >> i was going to ask you about your supporters. you have a lot of supporters and drawn to your strength and your straight talk for many, many months now. you have been atop of the republican field for a long time now. do you feel any obligation to them to balance your passion for the issues in the wake of the paris attacks in san bernardino with things that come part with the values and the constitution? >> yeah, i do. i have an obligation, not just to my supporters, the country. i have a great obligation to the country and i'm saying something to be said. and not all the candidates i'm running against come out and scorned me for this. i'm using common sense and something we have to use. you will have other world trade centers. you are going to have other cities being blown up. we don't want that. we don't want that to happen. that's going to happen. we have very, very lax laws. we have a president that's incompetent. we have a president that made a speech the other night that was at the end of the speech, i said, what did he say? he said nothing. reaction to donald trump is coming in today from capitol hill, as well, where we're also following developing news at this hour, the house expected to begin a vote on tightening parts of the so-called visa waiver program. currently that visa waiver program allows easier entry into the united states for those with passports from the 38 countries you see on the screen. for more, let's bring in nbc news capitol hill correspondent luke russert. luke, vote expected pretty soon? >> reporter: well, it was supposed to be in this hour, kate. however, it's now being delayed. not because there's a problem with the bill. this visa waiver's tightening bill expected to pass overwhelming and because democrats are on the house floor right now using a series of procedural motions to protest the vote they can't get a vote on a bill to prevent terrorists no-fly list from bying guns and something the senate voted on last week. democrats want the opportunity to vote on it here. they're not getting it. the visa waiver program, this is something that's going to get a huge number, we are talking over 300 or so votes on the house floor and originally zuszed in light of paris. there's a huge emphasis on it after san bernardino. and the idea essentially is that you would have a department of homeland security working in connection with interpol make some real changes to the poll with bio metric screening, more accountability in terms of coming in and out of the country and these are things that a lot of security professionals talked about as being very important and the president gave it his endorsement unofficially i would argue during his speech on sound so expect it to gate big vote, kate. >> what's the reaction like on capitol hill today to donald trump's proposal? there was some speaking out on the floor of the house. >> reporter: i think you played that clip of speaker ryan and i covered him and that's the most forceful to talk about anything, saying this is not in connection with american values. you sad david jolly, a member of the house from florida, he is's running in a senate republican primary in florida. he said that trump should bail out of the race. mitch mcconnell, doesn't usually talk about presidential politics, took an opportunity today to say donald trump's language wrong and not in connection with american values. similar to what paul ryan said. you're starting to see a real run away from trump in the most forceful manner that i remember. i even think it's fair to speak late at this point, kate, while the establishment said they'll support the nominee, after what happened with trump yesterday, from conversations i have had with a lot of members and a lot of aides, i think if trump were to get the nomination, there would be something would happen in cleveland from this establishment. they did not -- this scared them today and might be the one that really gets people working against donald trump in some cohesive manner behind the scenes. >> luke russert following it all on capitol hill, thank you. >> thank you. contributions of the growing muslim american community in context plus more of the extensive interview today with donald trump. wildlife rescue workers open up a lot of dawn. tough on grease...yet gentle. dawn helps open... something even bigger. go to facebook.com, dawn saves wildlife. ♪ hi, tom. how's the college visit? 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