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All In With Chris Hayes, Transcript 4/27/2016

Guests: Stuart Stevens, John Nichols, Jess McIntosh, Katie Packer, Stephanie Goss

Show: ALL IN with CHRIS HAYES Date: April 27, 2016 Guest: Stuart Stevens, John Nichols, Jess McIntosh, Katie Packer, Stephanie Goss

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHRIS HAYES, MSNBC HOST (voice-over): Tonight on ALL IN --

SEN. TED CRUZ (R-TX), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: My vice presidential nominee, Carly Fiorina.

HAYES: Ted Cruz`s Hail Mary in the Hoosier State, to try and stop Trump. That after Cruz commits a stunning Indiana gaffe.

CRUZ: You know, the amazing thing is that basketball ring here in Indiana.

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: He called the rim a ring so he doesn`t know too much about the basketball world.

HAYES: Then, the Sanders campaign lays off hundreds of staff.

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (I-VT), DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Look, we are clearly the underdogs. I`m very good at arithmetic.

HAYES: But vows to stay in the race. Plus, Trump finally gets specific- ish on foreign policy.

TRUMP: ISIS will be gone if I`m elected president and they`ll be gone quickly.

HAYES: And starts his general election pivot on exactly the wrong foot.

TRUMP: If Hillary Clinton were a man, I don`t think she`d get 5 percent of the vote. The only thing she`s got going is the woman`s card.

HAYES: When ALL IN starts right now.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HAYES: Good evening from New York. I`m Chris Hayes.

And after Donald Trump`s clean sweep in all five Northeastern primaries last night, the state of Indiana may be all that stands between him and the Republican nomination. No contested convention, just end of story.

Tonight, Trump was campaigning in Indianapolis where he picked up what maybe the least surprising endorsement of this entire election cycle, from legendary Indiana University basketball coach Bobbi Knight, a man best known for being like Trump, well, somewhat undiplomatic.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SPORTS ANCHOR: (INAUDIBLE) an excellent free throw shooter will have the honor shooting the technical.

Lookie here, lookie here. Bobbi Knight just threw his chair across the free throw line.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HAYES: The university famously fired Knight in 2000. This was after video showed him choking a player, citing a pattern of uncivil defiance, and unacceptable behavior, which included verbally abusing a high ranking female official, and as I said, choking one of his players.

If he was going to endorse a politician, it was going to be Donald Trump.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BOBBY KNIGHT, BASKETBALL COACH: I am not here to represent the Republican Party and I`m not here to represent any organization that deals with politics. I think -- I think the most important thing in the world is that we vote for the best man there is for this job. Under his administration, there will never be another thing like what happened in Benghazi.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HAYES: Trump was always expected to win the five states that voted yesterday, all of them in Northeast, resembling places like New York and Massachusetts, where he`s done well before, even so -- and this is important -- last night was a huge victory for Trump who outperformed the delegate projections and the polls, winning over 50 percent of the vote in all five states for the first time, he may be starting to actually consolidate widespread Republican -- majority Republican support.

After last night`s results, Trump now has 991 delegates, according to NBC News, within striking distance of the 1,237 he needs to lock up the nomination before the convention in Cleveland, which means Indiana, which votes on May 3rd, next Tuesday, is all but a last stand for Ted Cruz and the faltering Never Trump movement.

Indiana has 57 delegates at stake, awarded on a winner take most bases and that could be enough to keep Trump below the threshold. Now, Trump is reportedly spending big money to end Cruz`s hope in the state while Cruz is pulling out every last conceivable stop to win over the hearts and minds of Indiana voters.

He campaigned last night at a gym that was the main location for the classic 1986 movie "Hoosiers", about an underdog basketball team from a small Indiana town competing the state championship.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How far?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ten feet.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ten feet.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think you`ll find exact same measurements as our gym back in Hickory. OK, let`s get dress for practice.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HAYES: Cruz attempted to recreate that moment from the movie but it did not go exactly as planned. Listen carefully.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CRUZ: We`re here on the Hickory basketball court and Bruce who travels with me. Bruce, I want to ask you -- do you have a tape measurer with you? How tall is that basketball rim?

BRUCE: Ten feet.

CRUZ: Ten feet. You know the amazing thing is that basketball ring here in Indiana it`s the same height as it is in New York state and every other place in this country, and there is nothing that the Hoosiers cannot do.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HAYES: You heard that right, he heard a basketball ring as in would you like to go shoot some basketball rings in Indiana, in the Hoosier gym.

A girl in the audience had the exact right reaction captured in a video loop posted to Vine, and let`s watch her face one more time, what?

Cruz acknowledged the flub today, emphasizing he really does know the game of basketball.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CRUZ: Sometimes when you`re speaking and you guys have cameras in your face you say things, you stumble over words. I know nobody on the media has ever stumbled over a word. You`ve never said anything on air that was the wrong word at the wrong time. You know, I`ll tell you in high school when I played basketball in high school, when we did something wrong, the coach would have us run laps and laps and laps until we fell over. I think my campaign team after I messed up the reference, the Hoosiers, I think they wanted me to have run laps.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HAYES: This afternoon, in what seems like a pretty transparent attempt to divert media attention from Trump`s big victory last night, Ted Cruz, who has less than half the delegates needed to win the nomination, announced his pick for vice president.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CRUZ: An extraordinary leader, my friend and the next vice president of the United States, Carly Fiorina.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HAYES: The stagecraft was -- well, a bit -- a bit awkward. Note the guy who suddenly places a Cruz-Fiorina sign on the podium while no one is looking. Cruz then, well, he leaves the stage about as soon as Fiorina comes on, only to return after her remarks are over for what turns out to be a fairly poorly coordinated arm-raising photo-op.

There they are. Let`s do it.

The last time anyone picked a running mate without having won the nomination was Ronald Reagan, challenging Gerald Ford in 1976, also the last year we had a contested convention, interestingly enough. At this point, it is looking unlikely that Cruz`s Hail Mary pass will be any more successful than the last one. His unconventional strategy was not lost on Donald Trump who, of course, weighed in moments ago.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: A new relationship has started, Cruz and Carly. He is the first presidential candidate in the history of this country who`s mathematically eliminated from becoming a president who chose a vice presidential candidate, OK? It`s a record. Hey, look, honestly, I wish him well. But, folks, they`re not going do it for you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HAYES: Joining me now, Stuart Stevens, former chief strategist to Mitt Romney in 2012, who is opposed, I should say, to Donald Trump`s candidacy for president.

Stuart, you know, I followed you on Twitter throughout this campaign and I`ve talked before and your posture towards Trump is this is someone who is not up to being president of the United States, not up to being the nominee. He`s petulant, he`s insecure, he`s undisciplined and the process is a rigorous and difficult process and he will not make it through. What is your feeling now?

STUART STEVENS, FORMER CHIEF STRATEGIST, ROMNEY 2012: Well, I hope I`m right. I think -- you know, you`d rather be Trump where you are in this race than anybody else. He certainly has an advantage here. It`s been a strange year.

I don`t think Donald Trump`s qualified to be president of the United States and I hope he`s not the Republican nominee. I hope Indiana doesn`t vote for Donald Trump. I hope they vote for Ted Cruz as an alternative.

Strange things happen in politics or Donald Trump wouldn`t be where he is. So I think we have to -- those of us that don`t support Donald Trump have to hope that strange things continue to happen and someone gets close and people pause and we go into another direction.

HAYES: It`s been interesting to watch. I was watching Mike Murphy, I was talking a bit, and Nicolle Wallace last night on our air was talking, and people who have been in the world of essentially the Republican consultant class have worked on Republican campaigns have a relationship to politics and Republican voters and have to message candidates and figure out what works and what doesn`t.

It does seem like collectively as a class, the Republican consultant class, sort of missed all this in this midst.

STEVENS: Well, you know, there`s a couple of ways to look at Trump, I think. One way is to say, well, look, this has happened before in statewide races. Republicans have proven they`ll vote for someone who looks to be unelectable. It happened in Indiana with Richard Murdoch. It happened in Missouri with Todd Akin and in Nevada, Sharron Angle.

So, it hasn`t happened on a national level, but what is national primary but a series of state races so maybe it`s odd that it hasn`t happened before. That`s one way to look at it.

The other way to look at it is what I call the Guns of August theory referring to that great book of Barbara Tuchman about the start of World War 1 which is what is happening here is a weird combination of different factors that involve miscalculation, cowardness, underestimating someone, strange events that have led us to this.

HAYES: Yes.

STEVENS: It`s probably some combination of those two.

HAYES: Yes, the Republican version of World War I in which each individual actor making each individual decision and each individual moment has some rational basis to pursue the tactic they are at that moment that leads to massive barbarism and cataclysm, which is basically the World War I theory.

There is part of this that I think has really struck me. Going to the exits last night. In basically every state we have exit polling of, you have over 60 percent support for the Muslim ban. So, 68 percent in Pennsylvania, 68 in New York, 69 in Wisconsin, 67 in North Carolina, 65 percent in Ohio, down the line, a high of 71 in Tennessee, a low of 63 in Virginia.

What does that say to you about what he is reaching inside the belief system of your median Republican voter?

STEVENS: Listen, I think Donald Trump speaks to something that`s dark inside a lot of people. I think that he is a grievance-monger. What he is offering that part of you that feels cheated, that feels slighted. He`s going to settle that score.

I don`t think it`s the best of our politics or the best within all of us and probably all of us have that inside us somewhere. I think the best of our politics is somebody who makes us feel better about ourselves, better about our country, bigger, and I think Donald Trump has an inverse effect.

HAYES: Stuart Stevens, always a pleasure. Stuart Stevens, who aside from being a man who works in politics, is a phenomenal writer. You should check out his books. I appreciate it, Stuart.

STEVENS: Thank you, buddy.

HAYES: All right. I`m joined now by Rick Tyler, former spokesman for the Cruz campaign and now, an MSNBC political analyst.

Well, look, it`s very easy to second guess what Ted Cruz did today because they`re running out of runway, right?

RICK TYLER, MSNBC POLITICAL ANALYST: Right.

HAYES: I mean, desperate times call for desperate measures.

TYLER: Well, I`ve heard it call desperate, but, you know, when you`re that far behind, doing nothing is dumb and doing something is smart, and they did something and I think it was fairly smart and apparently it worked. They replaced the story.

The whole idea is not to divert attention, as some people -- as you said, but it`s to replace the story that you don`t like. They don`t like the story that happened yesterday.

HAYES: Chew up a news cycle.

TYLER: That`s right.

And I think it was fairly effective and, look, Carly Fiorina is very competent. She could talk about business, probably more so that Donald Trump. She certainly could talk about foreign policy more so than Donald Trump after that speech that he gave today, which was incoherent, vague, contradictory, not well-informed.

So, not only that she has one thing that Donald Trump, John Kasich and Ted Cruz have never done. None of them won a California primary and she has.

HAYES: OK. Whether that`s true or not, I mean, she also has pretty high unfavorables I got say, even among Republicans. Certainly, in the general, she has pretty high unfavorables, but in some ways, she`s a placeholder, right? I mean, the issue is, they need to win Indiana, right?

TYLER: They do. And she can speak to evangelicals, I think you show that today and she had an aspirational appeal today about the Constitution, about the country, things that Donald Trump never talks about, and you don`t even know if he believes.

HAYES: But, Rick, she was saying that before. If that was selling, people would have bought it when she was -- this is like the penult of an episode of a reality show when they bring the people from the first few episodes who were voted off the island or kicked out of the kitchen back to like participate in the challenge.

TYLER: Well, I don`t know because lots of candidates don`t win their first time around. Many win on their third time around. Newt Gingrich won on his third time around. Ronald Reagan won his third time around. Two, there`s one before that, but no one pays attention to that.

So, look, she didn`t succeed or do as well as she had hoped to do, but she`s a terrific communicator. I think she`s a complement. I think she would make actually a damn good vice president.

HAYES: What message -- it`s been a long time I should know since there is a vice president in United States who never held elected office before, what was your message from last night. I mean, when you look at those numbers, 62 percent, 64 percent, there`s been a long time where is this consolidation happening. And for long time, it hasn`t been happening. It`s been manifestly not happening. Is this a regional effect or are we starting to see that consolidation happening?

TYLER: I think it`s very regional. I come from New England. I grew up in New Hampshire. I spent a lot of time in Maine. New England and the Northeast is very, very different. Except for Pennsylvania which is different because you have a lot of blue dog Democrats who lived, they`re very pro-life, they`re pro-gun, they vote Democrat.

Now, they can be appealed to by Republican and the Republican Party has done good there, but among the other four states, there`s zero senators, Republican senators that have been elected by those states. There`s one representative that goes to the house.

And New England has belabored on this idea that if the Republicans would put up moderate candidates, they would win and they do that and they lose.

And Donald Trump, if he had -- if he were to identify an underlying governing theory for him, which he didn`t seem to have, he would be a Northeastern liberal progressive. That`s what he fits in.

(LAUGHTER)

TYLER: You don`t like that.

HAYES: Oh, I just think it`s a preposterous label. I mean --

TYLER: No, it`s not.

HAYES: To the extent there`s ideological label, I mean, there is literally not a single progressive I know anywhere --

TYLER: His foreign speech today was exactly what Hillary Clinton`s speech --

HAYES: Oh, all he talked about was more spending for the military -- look, whatever you say about Donald Trump`s ideology which I find hard to pin down --

TYLER: Agreed.

HAYES: -- but banning Muslims and mass deportation, there`s not a single person who calls themselves a progressive in American public life, full stop, who calls himself that term who believes in those positions. There`s not one.

TYLER: I don`t think he believes it either.

HAYES: Nobody believes.

TYLER: You show those numbers. Look, I don`t think -- I think those people who want a ban on Muslims are not really saying I don`t want Muslims. They`re saying they don`t trust the United States to keep us safe. That`s what they`re saying.

HAYES: That`s a charitable read and I wish for you and the rest of the countries that`s the correct one.

Rick Tyler, thank you.

TYLER: Thanks, Chris.

HAYES: Still to come, Donald Trump`s highly anticipated foreign policy speech Rick was just mentioning, and I will give you a spoiler -- he hasn`t quite mastered the teleprompter or the substance. We`ll play that sound ahead.

First, after Bernie Sanders falls further behind the Democratic race, the candidate says there`s hundreds of layoffs coming for campaign staffers. What that change signals. Right after this break, back in 120 seconds. Don`t go anywhere.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HAYES: The Bernie Sanders campaign seems to have reached a turning point. Less than 24 hours after Hillary Clinton won four out of five states, Senator Bernie Sanders told "The New York Times" today he is planning to layoff hundreds of campaign staffers across the country and focus much of his remaining effort on winning California, saying, quote, "We want to win as many delegates as we can so we do not need workers now in states around the country."

A Sanders spokesman, Michael Briggs, told NBC News the layoffs are part of a right-sizing in light of the dwindling number of remaining primary contests.

Sanders added he hopes to be able to hire them back in the near future. But another decisive night for Clinton, particularly in delegate rich states like Pennsylvania and Maryland has made Sanders ability to win an outright majority of pledged delegates increasingly unlikely.

According to NBC News, Clinton now has to win about one-third of the remaining pledged delegates on the table to wrap things up, while Sanders would need to win about two-thirds, which is perhaps why Clinton already sounds like she`s looking towards the general election.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: And I applaud Senator Sanders and his millions of supporters for challenging us to get unaccountable money out of politics and giving greater emphasis to closing the gap of inequality. And I know, together, we will get that done.

(CHEERS)

Because whether you support Senator Sanders or you support me, there`s much more that you unites us than divides us.

(CHEERS)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HAYES: Sanders is determined to stay in the race until the end, and he continues to argue he would be the better general election candidate. But with the odds stacked against him, Sanders is also considering the future of the Democratic Party.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SANDERS: I will do everything I can. I think Hillary Clinton and I agree on this, that we will do everything we can to make sure that a Republican does not win the White House. And I will knock my brains out, I will work seven days a week to make sure that that does not happen if I am the nominee and if I`m not the nominee. That`s what I will do.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HAYES: Joining me now, John Nichols, Washington correspondent for "The Nation".

John, I understand you`re reporting on this today. What is the thinking now? What is going on inside the Sanders campaign?

JOHN NICHOLS, THE NATION: Well, there seems to be a lot of things going on, but let`s be clear about a couple of things. Tonight, Sanders is in Bloomington, Indiana, tomorrow in Eugene, Oregon, so obviously continuing to campaign.

You have this interview where the senator has said that he`s going to reduce his campaign staff at the same time when I`ve been talking to folks in California especially, not so much to Sanders folks, but to unions that are allied with him, to some of his key backers, they seem to be very geared up and ready for a California fight.

So, I guess the bottom line what you get is reality that the Sanders campaign is going on, it`s going forward, but you clearly have this combination now of a series of tough losses on Tuesday night, a Wednesday interview that says yes, they are right-sizing or down-sizing the campaign.

I think what this adds up to is that you`re seeing a campaign that`s now focusing on winning delegates and focusing on framing a message for a convention, but perhaps less and less on that focusing on actually winning the nomination.

HAYES: Yes, it`s going to be a very interesting period now. Because they put out a statement last night where they talked about sort of getting delegates to go into the convention with the strength to advocate in things like $15 federal minimum wage and single payer. And now, you`ve got all these people invested in Bernie Sanders. Let`s remember, this guy won 45 percent, not a majority, but about 45 percent of people that come in to vote.

This is what he told me on Monday night and how he will be interacting with them and the calls for unity. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SANDERS: We`re not a movement where I can snap my fingers and say to you or to anybody else what you should do because you won`t listen to me. You shouldn`t. You make these decisions yourself.

I think if we end up losing, and I hope we do not and if Secretary Clinton wins, it is incumbent upon her to tell millions of people who right now do not believe in establishment politics or establishment economics, who have serious misgivings about a candidate who has received millions of dollars from Wall Street and other special interests.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HAYES: So, that was the tone. I pressed him on that and he said, look, I`m going do everything I can to make sure the Republicans don`t win the White House. But how do you see this proceeding now in this sort of interesting phase of the campaign?

NICHOLS: Well, this is a very significant part of the campaign and, you know, I`ve covered presidential races going back for a very long time. And when you have a strong insurgency, one that is still within a zone where you suggested if they had an incredible streak going forward they would be very competitive for the nomination, when you have a strong insurgency in a position like that, you don`t just end it. You look for ways in which to develop a relationship with the front-runner and that relationship is not necessarily -- it doesn`t necessarily begin easily.

I talked yesterday to Reverend Jesse Jackson about what he did in 1988 as he headed toward the Democratic National Convention that year with a large number of delegates, with a very passionate movement supporting him. And, you know, what he described was at times difficult meetings and at times real back and forth about platform debates, about rules changes, about speaking slots, and even vice presidential choices. But at the end of the day, I think that the signals that you`ve gotten both from Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders is that they both seem to recognize that taking on a Donald Trump, now the likely Republican nominee, is going to require them both to have some communication and ultimately some connection.

So I think that`s likely to happen. But too many people in political and media elites, I think, they keep looking for a quick easy solution and sometimes this takes time.

HAYES: Yes, there`s not going a quick easy one. John Nichols, thanks for joining us tonight. Appreciate it.

Still to come, sometimes the best way to interpret a Donald Trump speech is to watch the reactions of people behind him. Last night did not disappoint. That is right after this quick break. Don`t go anywhere.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HAYES: Ever since he gave his endorsement of Donald Trump, he`s become a bit of a thing to try to read the mind of Chris Christie as he stands behind the Republican front-runner. Of course, there was this awkward appearance back in March during a Trump post-Super Tuesday lap, immortalized in Vine form. Christie`s body language and quizzical facial expression spanning a viral free Chris Christie hashtag, even prompted the New Jersey governor himself to address the concerned public on the matter, clarifying, "No, I wasn`t being held hostage by Donald Trump."

Last night, Christie`s face seemed to register a different emotion, one of apparent amusement.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: So, look, I`m not changing. You know, I went to the best schools. I`m like a very smart person. I`m going to represent our country with dignity and very well.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HAYES: The Christie who really stole the show yesterday was not the governor of New Jersey, but rather the state`s first lady, when Donald Trump asserted the only reason Hillary Clinton was winning because of her gender, it sure seemed like Mary Pat Christie had a few thoughts on that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: I think the only card she`s got going is the woman`s card. She`s got nothing else going. And, frankly, if Hillary Clinton were a man, I don`t think she`d get 5 percent of the vote. The only thing she`s got going is the woman`s card and the beautiful thing is, women don`t like her.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HAYES: A closer examination of the side eyes seen round the world shows some possible apprehension about the Republican front-runner displayed across Mary Pat Christie`s face. Why that moment last night was just a tiny preview to the entire rest of the campaign, later in the show.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. DENNIS HASTERT, (R) ILLINOIS: The evidence in President Clinton`s case is overwhelming that he has abused and violated the public trust. In this nation all men are created equal. Simply put, the president in our representative democracy is not a sovereign who is above the law.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HAYES: That was Congressman Dennis Hastert shortly before he voted to impeach President Bill Clinton. And just one month before he became the speaker of the House in the wake of the resignation of Speaker Newt Gingrich who would later admit to having an extramarital affair during the Clinton impeachment, and in the wake of a Gingrich successor Congressman Bob Livingston taking himself out of the running and resigning from Congress because of questions surrounding his own marital infidelity.

And Hastert will go on to become the longest serving -- he went on to become the longest serving Republican speaker of the House in the history of the United States. And today, he went before a federal judge who called him a, quote, serial child molester.

Hastert had pleaded guilty to illegal bank transactions connected to his payments to an individual, identified as individual A in court documents, who Hastert allegedly molested when Hastert was a wrestling coach at Yorkville High in Illinois and individual A was 14 years old.

Prior to today`s sentencing, prosecutors submitted documents asserted Hastert had sexually molested five children during his time as a wrestling coach, and one of those survivors who had been identified as individual D until today testified at today`s hearing in open court.

53-year-old Scott Cross saying, quote, "I`ve always felt that what Coach Hastert had done to me was my darkest secret."

In a somewhat shocking twist it turns out that Scott Cross`s brother, Tom Cross, was a political protege of Hastert in the Illinois legislature. In fact, Tom Cross was the GOP leader in the Illinois House, and Hastert had even asked the former legislator, the brother of one of his victims, he was in the house and he had asked the former legislator for a letter of support for his sentencing according to the prosecution, though, there was some uncertainty about that in court today.

There were others who did oblige with a letter of support, including five former or current U.S. congressmen, like former majority leader Tom Delay who wrote the following, "when Speaker Hastert became Speaker of the House and I became Majority leader, he started a bible study every Wednesday at lunch. We all have our flaws, but Dennis Hastert has very few. He is a good man and loves the Lord."

Today, Judge Thomas Dirkin (ph) sentenced Hastert to 15 months in prison two and a half times what the prosecution recommended noting that if statute of limitations had not run out on the sexual abuse charges themselves, Hastert would have faced a far longer sentence in state court.

In court today, Hastert apologized and said, quote, "I know I`m here because I mistreated some of my athletes that I coached." As Speaker of the House, Hastert urged life sentences for repeat child molesters.

Joining me now, NBC News correspondent Stephanie Goss who was in that courtroom today in Chicago, Illinois.

I just can`t imagine what was that scene like in there, Stephanie?

STEPHANIE GOSS, NBC NEWS: It was incredible, Chris. I mean, It`s so hard to reconcile, as you described, you know, Dennis Hastert this beloved speaker of the house and the man that was wheeled in in a wheelchair today, frail, and accused of being, as you said, a serial child molester.

And just after that statement that Hastert gave, where he apologized for mistreating some of his athletes. The judge then pointedly asked him did you sexually abuse -- and he goes through all of the names. And Hastert admitted in that moment to sexually abusing two of them. One of them was a man who died in 1995.

His sister gave a statement in court today and she had said to Hastert in court that she was his worst nightmare having confronted him in 1995 over the allegations just after her brother had died and Hastert was stone-faced, she said, and didn`t say anything to him at the time.

There was also individual D, as you mentioned, who now a 53-year-old businessman, father of two, who identifies himself in court, incredibly emotional, at times not even being able to continue discussing the abuse at the hands of Hastert -- Chris.

HAYES: Stephanie Goss, thank you for that, really appreciate that.

Joining me now Lynn Sweet, Washington bureau chief of the Chicago Sun Times.

And Lynn, I just. I cannot get my head around this fact, this is someone who was third in line to be president of the United states. He is the longest serving Republican speaker of the House. He`s someone who voted for impeachment during that whole period. He`s a beloved figure in Illinois politics. I mean, you`ve covered the guy. You covered impeachment. What do you make of this?

LYNN SWEET, WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF, CHICAGO SUN TIMES: Well, everyone was stunned, everyone is stunned and then you have the small world of Illinois politics where Scott Cross, who is a hero, for being...

HAYES; Tremendous courage to stand in open federal courthouse today at 53 and say what happened, just tremendous courage.

SWEET: Absolutely.

So I applaud him and he gave a very eloquent statement about why he came forward to help others know who might be in his situation that it`s not about them, and he -- if anyone is in that situation, you know, I`ll help you get the transcript because it`s very important to hear now that decades have passed how he said I`m here partly in this court to help people who might be in my situation.

But the other side, Chris, you know, just think Denny Hastert was a local hero when Scott Cross met him when he was a teen, the Yorkville High School wrestling team had just won the state championships. And even though now we might think of it as a suburb of Chicago, back then it was like a little village winning the championship was a big deal. And that acclaim and popularity helped give Denny his start in local politics that lead to him being speaker.

Now, having said all that, that also means that somewhere in there, Denny calculated that no one would ever come forward to speak against him or accuse him of anything. And he was able to pull off a long political career without getting caught until these structured payments from -- that got him in trouble -- started a few years ago.

HAYES: I also have to say, I mean I`ve reported on particularly in the context of the church I`ve reported on people who have serially preyed on children. It is behavior that doesn`t often just stop on a dime, this is someone who is doing this while he was in high school and then had a long political career. And we know nothing, there`s no allegations afterwards, but good lord almighty do I wonder whether that just stopped when he left the precincts of Yorkville High School.

SWEET: Well, we don`t know. No one had ever mentioned any kind of behavior. You know, I cover all kinds of very sleazy allegations on a variety of figures...

HAYES: Yes, you covered Illinois politics, so it`s -- yes.

SWEET: Right. So nothing would have surprised me. But it also shows that the -- that this is also a story if we can learn from this is how hard it is for victims to feel that they can go into a safe place and be believed.

HAYES: That`s right. That`s right.

Lynn Sweet, thank you very much.

SWEET: Thank you.

HAYES: All right, we`ll be right back. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HAYES: Do you remember this amazing lady?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VIRGINIA MCLAURIN: Hi.

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: How are you?

MCLAURIN: I`m fine.

OBAMA: Oh, it`s nice to see you.

MCLAURIN: Oh, it`s an honor.

OBAMA: Do you want to say hi to Michelle?

MCLAURIN: Yes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HAYES: All right, that is Virginia McLaurin. She`s now 107-year-old woman whose meeting and dance party with the president and the first lady in February pretty much set the entire internet on fire, justifiably. And McLaurin got interview requests from around the country after that video came out, but she couldn`t get on an airplane, because she didn`t have a photo ID.

To get one, McLaurin needed a birth certificate from the state of South Carolina. The state wouldn`t give that to her without a photo ID, which is the very thing she was trying to get.

She was stuck.

"I don`t think I`ll ever get that face card," she told the Washington Post`s Courtlan Malloy (ph). "I was birthed by a midwife and the birth they put in the bible somewhere. I don`t know if they even had birth certificates back then."

And that`s just one example of the problem with voter ID laws that Republicans around the country have been pushing ostensibly to combat the almost entirely nonexistent scourge of voter fraud.

A lot of people, like Virignia McLaurin, just can`t get IDs.

Despite that, this week, a federal judge upheld North Carolina`s strict voter law, limiting early voting and requiring voters to show an ID. Opponents of the law who argue it unfairly targets voters of color, are now appealing that ruling.

And here`s the good news, at least for Virginia McLaurin, this story has a happy ending. And we will bring it to you in just 60 seconds.

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HAYES: OK, so here is the rest of the story about Virginia McLaurin, the 107-year-old woman who appeared in a video with President Obama that was viewed nearly 66 million times, but who still couldn`t get a photo ID.

Yesterday, Washington, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser presented McLaurin with a new ID and announced a new regulation to make it easier for senior citizens to get them.

Now, D.C. doesn`t require an ID to vote, but 34 states have laws requesting or requiring voters to show some form of identification at the polls.

And they`re full of people just like Virginia McLaurin who face the possibility of disenfranchisement because they can`t get an ID.

Remember that next time some GOP lawmaker argues that voter ID laws are all about maintaining the integrity of our electoral system.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: My foreign policy will always put the interests of the American people and American security above all else. It has to be first. It has to be. That will be the foundation of every single decision that I will make.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HAYES: Earlier today, Donald Trump made his first major foreign policy speech of the campaign. The event was billed at his attempt at a serious address, the way to show the Washington, D.C. establishment he has a clear foreign policy vision on day one if he should be elected president.

At the event held at a ballroom in the vaunted Mayflower Hotel, it did indeed have many of the trappings of major beltway address. Trump was introduced by Zalmay Khalilzad, an old voice of the Republican foreign policy elite, best known as W`s former ambassador to Iraq and Afghanistan.

In attendance, Senator Jeff Sessions, anti-tax zealot Grover Norquist. Perhaps, the surest sign that Trump was trying to put his best, most restrained foot forward, there were teleprompters, two of them, and at times they tripped him up a bit.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Look at what happened in the 1990s. Our embassies in Kenya and Tanzania -- and this was a horrible period of time for us -- were attacked...

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HAYES: Now the speech itself, while focused on foreign policy, wasn`t exactly a deep dive into the details, for example, on ISIS.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: ISIS will be gone if I`m elected president and they`ll be gone quickly. They will be gone very, very quickly.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HAYES: He also had a bunch of pretty confusing internal contradictions, but perhaps what stood out was the embrace of many of the old ideas that had defined Republican foreign policy for decades. Specifically, Trump`s pivot away from a more lean Pentagon budget to a wholesale embrace of more military spending.

(BEGIN VIDEO LIP)

TRUMP: We will spend what we need to rebuild our military. It is the cheapest single investment we can make. We will develop, build and purchase the best equipment known to mankind. Our military dominance must be unquestioned and I mean unquestioned by anybody and everybody.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HAYES: As it is now.

Even as the speech was widely panned, Trump appeared to receive the stamp of approval from at least one member of the Washington establishment, chair of the Senator foreign relations committee, Senator Bob Corker.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. BOB CORKER, (R) TENNESSEE: I was pleased with what I heard. I thought this was a great step in the right direction. I thought it was full of substance. I thought it laid out a vision for America, obviously some details need to be filled in, but I thought it was very, very good and was pleased at what he had to say.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HAYE: That`s a respected voice in foreign policy in the Republican Party.

Now, Trump on foreign policy is nothing if not a lump of clay. And I`m pretty sure there are more than enough people in Washington who are happy do some molding.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Well I think the only card she has is the woman`s card. She`s got nothing else going. And frankly if Hillary Clinton were a man, I don`t think she`d get 5 percent of the vote. The only thing she`s got going is the woman`s card and the beautiful thing is women don`t like her.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HAYES: Donald Trump concluded last night that the only reason why Hillary Clinton is winning primary contests is because of her gender, a sentiment Trump has expressed before and the Democratic front-runner made note of it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HILLARY CLINTON, 2016 DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The other day, Mr. Trump accused me of playing the, quote, woman card. Well, if fighting for women`s health care and paid family leave and equal pay is playing the woman card, then deal me in.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HAYES: This morning, rather than offering his plan on the same issues, Trump went a different route and noted that Clinton in her message would perhaps be better received if she wasn`t quite so yelly.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Well I haven`t quite recovered -- it`s early in the morning -- from her shouting that message. And I know a lot of people would say you can`t say that about a woman because of course a woman doesn`t shout, but the way she shouted that message was not good. That`s the way she said it and it`s -- I guess I`ll have to get used to a lot of that over the next four or five months.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HAYES: Joining me now, Katie Packer, former deputy campaign manager from Mitt Romney`s 2012 presidential campaign, founder of the anti-Trump Our Principles PAC, and Jess McIntosh, spokesperson for Emily`s List, which is a pack that supports pro-choice women candidates and has endorsed Hillary Clinton.

And let me start with you, Katie. I mean, that was a classic Trump press conference because there were periods where you thought this is something that could approach a reasonable attractive general election message on trade and wages and then after the whole thing, that comment on Hillary Clinton, which whatever you think about Hillary Clinton`s policies, whatever degree you agree or disagree with her or think of her record, it`s just a ridiculous sexist thing to say hence the side eye from the first lady of New Jersey.

KATIE PACKER, FOUNDER OUR PRINCIPLES: Well, I think Mary Pat Christie`s reaction says it all. If you can`t get Mary Pat Chrisie, and she`s the wife of his number one fan, it`s going to be pretty tough to get independent suburban women voters.

But the truth is Donald Trump wouldn`t be where he is if he wasn`t a trust fund baby and so to accusing Hillary Clinton of that seems a little disingenuous.

But I think, you know, every time he talks about women he`s literally repelling them. And the notion -- you know, I mean, I think he`s right that Hillary Clinton isn`t particularly well liked by women. She`s incredibly vulnerable. And by nominating Donald Trump we`re managing as a party to get behind a candidate who has a far worse approval rating with women.

The last time I checked, he was at 68 percent unfavorable, 32 favorable with women and something like 55 percnet very unfavorable with general election women voters.

So, he`s got some real problems.

HAYES: He`s at 69 percent in the NBC News, Wall Street Journal unfavorable view of him. 20 percent say they have a favorable view.

And Jess, I`ve got to imagine that, you know, the Clinton campaign put out a tweet sort of responding to what he said.

I mean, in some ways it -- for someone who is running to be the first women president of the Untied States, for someone who I think has at times had a hard time figuring out what her relationship should be to that in terms of how much it is centered in the campaign, this presents a sort of ideal foil in that respect, because she doesn`t have to bring it up to the extent that he keeps bringing up and then just sort of counter punches.

JESS MCINTOSH, EMILY`S LIST: I think you`re right about that. I think Hillary Clinton has really come into her own this election, being able to as frankly a lot of women candidates have in the past few years, being able to say I am running because I care about these issues because I care about you, but also it`s OK to celebrate the fact that we have women running.

I think that we`re seeing Hillary able to say I`m a woman and so I understand what women in this country are going through and this is what I want to do to help all of us lift everyone up, but she doesn`t have to run as the first woman president. She has qualifications that she`s running on.

That said, there couldn`t possibly be a clearer contrast and it`s not just because Hillary Clinton`s a woman, it`s because she`s a woman who has spent her entire career lifting up and centering women, whether it was the Secretary of State or as New York senator or as first lady, that`s been a focus for her.

So to be running against the guy that -- I mean, he cannot help himself. Every time he talks about women, he does something awful whether it`s Carly Fiorina or Megyn Kelly or Hillary Clinton. He has to know, he`s not a dumb man, he must know when he pulls this kind of stuff his numbers just go down and down and down for somebody that obsessed with the polls, you think he would learn a lesson.

HAYES: The other thing about this, Katie, I was looking at the data from - - I think it was Gallup, about how closely people are paying attention to this race, right. And there`s a little bit of a gender gap. So far men are paying a little bit more -- more men are paying close attention than women, right?

There`s a whole trove of stuff. Like, just -- it`s not just a week, this is a guy who literally in an interview, talked about -- and I`m not making this up -- what kind of breasts his infant daughter would have when she grew up.

Like, there`s an unbelievable treasure trove, if you`re the OPO (ph) department against this guy, that has not even been out there.

PACKER: Well, I mean, beyond just the unusual sexual comments that he`s made about both of his daughters, and the hideous comments he`s made about other women, what we have found in our research at Burning Glass (ph) is that women sort of reject somebody that talks about minorities the way he talks about minorities and the way he just sort of bullies people in general. And this just goes back to my big issue that Hillary Clinton is incredibly vulnerable if we nominate the right kind of candidate, but Donald Trump is not a candidate that can compete with her on these...

HAYES: Quickly, do you think Ted Cruz could, though, either?

PACKER: Well, Ted Cruz has some challenges, too, but at least Ted doesn`t like openly disdain women. He doesn`t have...

MCINTOSH: He doesn`t have the rhetoric, but he does have the agenda.

PACKER: ...not so far that we`re talking about today, unfortunately, so.

HAYES: Yeah, we`re not even -- I mean, what`s amazing is we`re not even talking about the substance, about, you know, no exceptions on abortion or things like that because the tonal -- I think you`re right, that the tonal barrier is so large that people aren`t even going to get over that. Although, who knows, we`ve been so wrong about so many things.

Katie Packer, Jess McIntosh, thank you both.

That is All In for this evening.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED. END