IE 11 is not supported. For an optimal experience visit our site on another browser.

All In With Chris Hayes, Transcript 10/11/2016

Guests: Blake Farenthold, Ben Howe, Robert Draper, Cornell Belcher, Howard Dean, Marybeth Glenn

Show: ALL IN with CHRIS HAYES Date: October 11, 2016 Guest: Blake Farenthold, Ben Howe, Robert Draper, Cornell Belcher, Howard Dean, Marybeth Glenn

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I have stronger leadership on both sides.

[20:00:02] CHRIS HAYES, MSNBC HOST: 28 days out, the republican nominee turns on republicans.

GOV. MIKE PENCE (R-IN), VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I think it`s important that we let Trump be Trump.

HAYES: Tonight, new poll numbers, a new down ballot reality, and new concerns about Donald Trump damages going beyond the Republican Party.

RHONDA: For me personally, if Hillary Clinton gets in, I myself, I`m ready for a revolution because we can`t have her in.

PENCE: Yeah you don`t -- don`t say that.

RHONDA: But I`m just saying it.

HAYES: Plus, more Trump tape fallout.

TRUMP: When you`re a star, they let you do it. You can do anything.

HAYES: The conservative uprising against GOP leadership refusing to disavow Trump. Meanwhile, in Florida.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Your vote, really, really, really counts a lot.

HAYES: Team Clinton calls in backup to avoid repeating history, and ALL IN starts right now.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HAYES: Good evening from New York. I`m Chris Hayes. With four weeks to the day until the election, the Republican Party`s Nominee for President has declared open war on the Republican Party. On defense and hemorrhaging endorsements after being caught on a 2005 tape, making obscene predatory comments about what he likes to do to women, Trump delivered a red meat performance at Sunday night`s debate making provocative attacks designed to shore up his base, and according to new polling from NBC News, The Wall Street Journal, it worked. Trump`s support from key parts of his coalition got a big bounce after the debate, up 12 points among white voters, 15 points among republicans. The problem for Trump, as it has been all along, is that those groups are not enough to win the election, not even close. Even after making up ground in the debate, Trump is still nine points behind Hillary Clinton among likely voters in a four-way race, which is why, as The Washington Post`s Janet Johnson points out in a great dispatch from Trump`s rally in Pennsylvania yesterday, crowds like these are his evidence he can still win. Crowds are his polls. Four weeks to Election Day with his base now revved up behind him, Trump is fully armed to strike at every institution of American democracy, from the press, to the debates, to the voting process, to his own political party.

Not only has Trump rallied his base behind him, he seems to have regained control of his Twitter feed, where this morning he hinted at a new game plan for the remaining 28 days of the race, quote, "It is so nice that the shackles have been taken off me, and I can now fight for America the way I want to." Apparently, that includes attacking the leadership of his own party, Trump tweeting. Despite winning the second debate in a landslide at every poll, it is hard to do well when Paul Ryan and others give zero support. Our very weak and ineffective leader, Paul Ryan had a bad conference call where his members went wild at his disloyalty. Disloyal R`s are far more difficult than crooked Hillary, they come at you from all sides. They don`t know how to win. I will teach them! Quick fact-check, of course, scientific polls actually suggest Clinton won the debate, Trump only winning surveys that allowed unlimited voting. The republican nominee later took aim at Senator John McCain, among the most prominent GOP lawmakers to revoke his endorsement over the Access Hollywood tape, quote, "The very foul mouthed Sen. John McCain begged for my support during his primary, I gave, he won, then dropped me over locker room remarks!" In an interview with NBC`s Kelly O`Donnell, Trump`s running mate, Mike Pence was asked about that tweet.

KELLY O`DONNELL, NBC POLITICAL REPORTER: How do you respond to this when you have personally reached out to John McCain to try to get his support? Isn`t this all being undercut, all the work you have done?

PENCE: John McCain`s an American hero and he`s my friend, and I was really proud that Donald Trump endorsed John McCain in his primary in Arizona.

O`DONNEL: Is he wrong to call him foul mouthed, Sir?

PENCE: But look, I think it`s very disappointing that after Donald Trump supported John McCain, that John McCain has chosen to withdraw his support.

HAYES: In other words, this is McCain`s fault. Donald Trump continued to harangue his fellow republicans at a fund-raiser in San Antonio today. According to Texas Tribune telling attendees, "I think they forgot that there was an election, because something happened in the last month where you didn`t see them, right?" I said, why aren`t they on the shows? Why aren`t they all over the place? "Sometimes it`s harder to beat our own party than it is to beat the person on the other side." Today, the Trump campaign is out with a new TV ad that perfectly encapsulates its burn-it- all-down approach. Leaning heavily on the fear mongering and conspiracy theorizing that excites the base and almost no one else.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hillary Clinton failed every single time as Secretary of State. Now, she wants to be President. Hillary Clinton doesn`t have the fortitude, strength or stamina to lead in our world. She failed as Secretary of State, don`t let her fail us again.

TRUMP: I`m Donald Trump, and I approve this message.

HAYES: A few things to note, the images of her fainting when she had pneumonia or coughing or tripping on the stairs and also note that chilling text at the end there, Donald Trump will protect you. He is the only one who can. You can set aside the fact the message of that ad is diametrically opposed to what Trump said about Clinton just two nights ago at the debate.

TRUMP: She doesn`t quit, she doesn`t give up. I respect that. I tell it like it is. She`s a fighter, I disagree with much of what she`s fighting for. I do disagree with her judgment in many cases, but she does fight hard and she doesn`t quit, and she doesn`t give up, and I consider that to be a very good trait.

HAYES: Nothing sums up the state of the Trump campaign better than a web ad screen grab from the Breitbart home page yesterday. Breitbart, the Trump campaign, "It`s Us Against The World."

Joining me now, Congressman Blake Farenthold, Republican from Texas who`s endorsed Donald Trump. Congressman, do you think that Paul Ryan`s leadership is weak and he`s failed?

REP. BLAKE FARENTHOLD (R), TEXAS: Oh, I think he`s a -- folks are disappointed that he`s withdrawn his campaigning for Trump, but he`s not withdrawn his endorsement.

HAYES: What does that mean?

FARENTHOLD: You -- it probably means he still supports Trump, but he`s not going to be all in. I`m all in. I`m here on the show with you and I`m here to tell you Donald Trump is the way to go.

HAYES: Do you think John McCain is foul mouthed and do you think that he deserves the venom being directed by him -- at him by Donald Trump?

FARENTHOLD: Listen, I think Donald Trump is hurt, he was playing on the republican team and some teammates after coming in and saying they were going to support Donald Trump have pulled out, and that actually bothers me. I gave my word to Donald Trump that I was going to support him, endorse him, until he does something so bad to make him worse than Hillary, I`m still in.

HAYES: So, OK. So, that`s -- so, why did they -- why did they withdraw his support? Might seems to be they withdrew support because he was caught on tape bragging about serial sexual assault. That is -- that was not enough for you to withdraw your support, but you do recognize that that`s what he was doing, correct?

FARENTHOLD: No. I think this was a locker room talk that happened --

HAYES: Locker room.

FARENTHOLD: -- 10 years ago that he`s apologized for, it was a private conversation that was off the record that just happened to be caught on tape.

(CROSSTALK)

HAYES: Congressman, if someone off the record said -- if someone off the record, in a locker room -- this was not in the locker room, this was the workplace, who said, "I really like raping women." Would that be locker room talk?

FARENTHOLD: Again, it depends -- you don`t know the entire context of all this.

HAYES: Wait, you would be fine with that?

(CROSSTALK)

FARENTHOLD: -- Donald Trump. I don`t -- I don`t like what he said.

(CROSSTALK)

HAYES: If a tape came out with Donald Trump saying that --

FARENTHOLD: Donald Trump can defend himself on that.

HAYES: If a tape came out with Donald Trump saying that, saying, "I really like to rape women," you would continue to endorse him?

FARENTHOLD: Again, it would -- that would be bad and I would have to consider -- I`d consider it. But again, we`re talking about what Donald Trump said 10 years ago as opposed to what Hillary Clinton has done in the past two or three years. I mean, she`s been -- the ad is right. She`s been a failure as Secretary of State, she failed to negotiate a status of forces agreement in Iraq, you have Benghazi, you have the Syria, the red line in Syria situation.

HAYES: Congressman, actually this is interesting, were you in congress when the status of forces agreement was negotiated?

FARENTHOLD: I was -- I came in in 2010. It was negotiated --

HAYES: Before you left.

FARENTHOLD: I think before that.

HAYES: Yeah, were you publicly and prominently opposed to the details of the Bush administration`s status of forces agreement?

FARENTHOLD: Listen, I think we should have stayed in Iraq --

HAYES: No, no. I mean this is as a matter of where you are --

FARENTHOLD: -- I said that on a radio show that I was on.

HAYES: -- where you were on the record, were you on the record opposing the Bush administration status of forces agreement back when it was negotiated in 2008?

FARENTHOLD: I was -- I was opposed to our pulling out of Iraq.

HAYES: So you`re on the record on that?

FARENTHOLD: On the radio -- listen, I do a -- back in 2008, I was on the radio every morning talking about issues like this.

HAYES: So let me ask you this, you said until he is worse than Hillary Clinton, you`re going to continue to support Hillary Clinton. And I am genuinely curious what that would be? Like what would the line be when you said I`m off the Trump train and he -- and I can`t endorse him. Is there a thing that the man can do, a thing revealed about his past or present that could even conceivably or theoretically cause you to withdraw your support?

FARENTHOLD: Absolutely, but I think actions speak louder than words, and what all this kerfuffle is now, are about words 10 years ago. I don`t think we can find anybody who hasn`t said something at some point in their life they wouldn`t want splashed across the TV screens.

HAYES: Congressman, you do know that he has been actually accused, sued for at one point of sexual assault (INAUDIBLE) there`s other people he`s actually sued for sexual assault by an underage woman, which is being litigated, they deny it, but there are allegations of actions as well?

FARENTHOLD: Well, let`s talk about Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton defending what her husband did, too, and those are pretty well documented as well.

HAYES: All right, Congressman Blake Farenthold, thank you very much. I appreciate it, Sir.

FARENTHOLD: Thank you.

HAYES: I`m joined now by Ben Howe, Contributing Editor for Red State and Never Trump Conservative. Ben, how did -- how did -- this is the ultimate told you so moment. I woke up this morning, we all watched him basically - - he might as well tweeted an image of himself as the Joker with a -- with a lit match. And this is what folks like yourself have been saying in the Republican Party, this is what we warned you of.

BEN HOWE, CONTRIBUTING EDITOR FOR RED STATE: Well, yeah, and then the previous guest, the congressman is a perfect example of what the entire Republican Party is going to experience for the next several years, more so if he was to somehow still win this. Having to back up and support comments and statements and actions that are deplorable and pretend like -- he actually sat there for a moment and questioned whether or not, he would continue to support someone after they said that they liked raping people.

HAYES: Yes, I asked him -- I just asked him --

HOWE: How do you do that?

HAYE: Would you -- if he was caught on tape saying, "I like raping women, would that make you withdraw your endorsement?" and congressman said that would be bad and I -- he was unclear about what that that would be the straw that broke the camel`s back.

HOWE: They have a candidate that can`t be controlled, and rather than continuing to push their own ideas, or to have a base of what the party stands for, they decided to just latch onto whatever he says. Now, what`s interesting is that is the way to support Trump. I mean, I`ve said that for a long time. If you want to support Trump, what you have to do is pretend that everything he said is correct and deny lies right in front of your face, just totally deny that it even happened. That`s the only way you can support him, because there`s no way that intellectually, honestly support this guy. There`s no way you can do it, and that`s one of the reasons that I never have.

HAYES: Their -- I mean, he is now poised for -- I mean, Matt Mackowiak who`s a -- who`s a sort of Never Trump Political Consultant down in Austin, Texas we`ve had on the show. You know, he refers to a mass extinction event, the possibility of that. I mean, if he spends the next 28 days running base -- and we know that Steve Bannon has one that said he wanted to b-slap the Republican Party, that he wants to bring down Paul Ryan, I mean, if Steve Bannon, the CEO of the campaign, the man behind Breitbart, who bragged of being his campaign manager back in 2015 before he was -- he came on board, if this is what they want to do, they can cause tremendous damage.

HOWE: Well, I think that causing tremendous damage is all they have left. I mean, I can`t believe that people that are around him would actually think he has a shot at winning at this point, because let`s face it, there`s no way that the October surprises are done. There`s no way that Donald Trump is done making an ass out of himself, over and over. I mean, you know, when Ted Cruz endorsed him, when other people that I used to support endorsed him, they would -- they would say, you know, well, this is who he is, and we all know who he is, and they would forget that he`s going to reveal new things, and it`s not just going to be the -- you know, stuff from 2005, it`s going to be new things that he has said. And I think that going forward, people who don`t understand that it`s just going to get worse from here, it is going to cause that mass extinction event that Matt was talking about.

HAYES: You`ve written, I think, really powerfully about the incentive structure in the sort of conservative media, the world of conservative movement. And I want to be clear here that -- I don`t want to get on my high horse here right, because there are incentive structures everywhere, there`s incentive structure in cable news, there`s incentive structure in all kinds of different parts of the media, but how much of that -- how much can you explain what we`re seeing in the demand side of what the market demands from conservative media figures, from what the base demands from their politicians?

HOWE: Well, look, I think that when it comes to conservative media, there has been a civil war of sorts. It`s split up between people who lead by what they think, and those who lead by what the base asks for. And I do think that there`s a demand and it`s obviously in the millions of people who just salivate for this outrage. They want this outrange culture, and I think Donald Trump feeds into that, obviously, and it`s a -- it`s a great, you know, circle jerk, for lack of a better term. And I think that after the election is over, these guys are going to get together and they`re going to continue to do that Trump TV is something that I think is really going to happen, and you know, Bannon and Breitbart and Drudge and Alex Jones, and all those guys, I think are going to continue to feed off of this outrage culture and make money off of it. But I don`t think that it represents a huge portion of the electorate.

HAYES: That is I think very accurate. We`ll see where all this goes. Thank you Ben Howe, I appreciate. Still to come, republicans facing backlash for still standing by Trump after his infamous "Access Hollywood" comments. I`ll speak with one republican who calls them cowards, and is now leading the party. But first, Donald Trump stoking fierce of a rigged election could have lasting impact far beyond this November, the real threat of unshackled Trump after this two-minute break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HAYES: For months now, Donald Trump has been planting the seeds of doubt about the legitimacy of this election. And he was at it again last night.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: I just hear such reports about Philadelphia. And we have to make sure we`re protected. We have to make sure the people of Philadelphia are protected, that the vote counts are 100 percent, everybody wants that. But I hear these horror shows, I hear these horror shows. And we have to make sure that this election is not stolen from us and is not taken away from us.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HAYES: Trump has made such claims over and over on his website. He`s even recruiting poll watchers to, quote, "Help me stop crooked Hillary from rigging this election." Trump`s ally, Roger Stone runs a non-profit called "Stop The Steal" which warns, quote, "If this election is close, they will steal it." A claim justified in the conservative imagination by false allegations that democrats have benefited from widespread voter fraud. In the alternate universe, Trump cultivates among this (INAUDIBLE) amplified on right-wing websites like Breitbart, anyone who questions Trump is complicit in rigging the system. And any data that suggest Trump is losing is obviously corrupt.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: They said there`s no way we`re three down, even the polls are crooked. I`m telling you. Look, we`re in a rigged system, folks. We`re in a rigged system.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HAYES: For Trump and his supporters, no one is more crooked than the opponent he plans to jail, a woman who prompts spontaneous chants of "lock her up" in Trump rallies.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Crooked Hillary Clinton, oh, she`s crooked, folks. She`s crooked as a three-dollar bill. OK. Here`s one. Just came out, lock her up is right.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HAYES: The first Presidential Debate, Trump said he would support Clinton if she won, but then he backtracked, saying, quote, "We`re going to see what happens. We`re going to have to see." Imagine them for just a moment that if Trump were to lose and he simply refuses to accept the outcome, instead he holds rallies, ring (INAUDIBLE) his supporters who he has convinced the election was stolen to fundamentally reject the authority and legitimacy of the Clinton administration. At a Mike Pence town hall in Iowa today, we got a glimpse of what that might look like. As a woman who identified herself as Rhonda stood up and told Pence she is on social media nonstop, scared of voter fraud, and she for one, won`t accept anything but a Trump victory.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RHONDA: And I will tell you just for me, and I don`t want this to happen, but I will tell you, for me, personally, if Hillary Clinton gets in, I myself, I`m ready for a revolution, because we can`t have her in.

PENCE: Yeah, you don`t -- don`t say that.

RHONDA: But I`m just saying it. No, you know, I`m like Trump. You know, I might (INAUDIBLE) speak for people here (INAUDIBLE) saying that (INAUDIBLE) guys, come on.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HAYES: Joining me now, author Robert Draper, contributor to The New York Times Magazine. Robert, you were shaking your head at that clip.

ROBERT DRAPER, THE NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE CONTRIBUTOR: Yeah. Well, for one -- for one thing, one observation I have Chris, is if Trump tries to start a post-election revolution insisting that we should contest the results of this, Mike Pence will be out of there like a kerosened cat. He is looking at 2020. He is not going to want to have any part of this. But the other observation I have is that it`s a pity. I mean, I think Trump is really taking his supporters for a ride here. You know, he, in a lot of ways, I mean, he doesn`t like Hillary Clinton, but I think this is more, you know, just his competitive nature, if anything else. The people who really can`t stand are the republican establishment. I mean, he doesn`t want politicians and the (INAUDIBLE) his entire campaign is premised on that, but he`s -- you know, he believed that the establishment was trying to rig the delicate selection process to deny him the nomination. And there has been an uneasy relationship between them. And now, I think it has metastasized and it`s come out in the open, that`s the real foe (INAUDIBLE)

HAYES: One of the things, you have this great piece about the conservative mini civil war that had come out last week, I think, the Times Magazine. And one of the things that`s so fascinating there, are the structures of belief among the faithful in the Trump base.

DRAPER: Yeah.

HAYES: And the way in which once you turn around -- turn on Trump, you could go from being a trusted repository of insight and facts and truth to being a traitor who no one listens to anymore. It happened basically to Erick Erickson, you document that. And I wonder about when you apply that to the broader phenomenon of all the institutions of American governance, if there`s some group of millions of people who are basically anyone against Trump is illegitimate.

DRAPER: Yeah, I think there`s a real potential for that, Chris, after the election. And you layer that with an additional problem that would face a President Hillary Clinton, if she indeed does get elected, and that`s there is this, you know, seething and abiding contempt for her amongst house republicans. And so, you have these people then who are essentially going to reject the entire process and all the institutions supporting it. You have then another faction of people mainly house republicans, who are probably already contemplating, drafting articles of impeachment. You know, they`re probing through WikiLeaks right now or having their agents do so to find something that is worthy of impeachment articles. And so, I mean, it`s a pretty -- it`s a pretty ugly prescription that we have for, you know, any kind of hope of, you know, stable governance going forward.

HAYES: Well, and you were the one, I believe, who had that incredible reporting about the sort of now infamous 2009 inauguration night dinner among republican leaders, Mitch McConnell, in which they decided total, complete, absolute full-spectrum of obstruction was the only way -- was the strategy. And we, in some ways, we`re -- this is -- they`re reaping the rewards of that strategy.

DRAPER: Yeah, yeah. Now, you know, it`s worth pointing out, Chris, that yeah, I did report that in my book on the house of representatives. And at the time it was conceived, like, Frank Luntz just to be a bunch of republicans getting together, crying on each other`s shoulders. I mean, they saw this, you know, incredible inaugural event with Barack Obama with these huge crowds and it was really, "Wow, what do we do next?" It was only in the course of this kind of, what was meant to be a cathartic moment that they decided, "Well, let`s just say no to everything he does." And -- but you`re right that that -- then laid a predicate for a governance of no which in turned has now metastasized into a, you know, a government of rejection of things that we once held to be coherently legitimate.

HAYES: Yeah. Do you worry -- like, you`re a great reporter, Robert, and I follow your reporting religiously and your writing, and you`ve been writing about this, and you write about right with tremendous, I think, insight and empathy, and are you worried about the fundamental institutions of American government at this moment?

DRAPER: Well, yeah, either way. I mean, if Donald Trump is elected president, I can see a lot of these republicans who have fallen in with him, albeit with, you know, with a -- with a certain glumness and a certain wariness. I can see a, you know, an authoritarian Trump administration that would compel them to draft articles of impeachment. And, you know, it`s -- I mean, I`m not telling you anything here that you don`t know, Chris, that republicans have for decades been hearing contemptible things about Hillary Clinton. I mean, they really do believe she`s the spawn of Lucifer. The notion that will suddenly, you know, be chastened by even a landslide defeat, and say we should perhaps work with this new president, really stretches credulity.

HAYES: Yeah, Robert Draper, thanks for being with me tonight. That got dark, but --

DRAPER: Yes, sorry about that.

HAYES: Still ahead, how far down can Donald Trump drag the Republican Party? The new down-ballot reality coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HAYES: There are, of course, two people running for president, while one was waging war with everyone in his path, the other one was touting high- water surrogates to the campaign trail and introducing progressive new policy. Hillary Clinton pledging more tax relief for families with young kids, announcing a plan to double the child tax credit and increase the amount of money that low income families could get back in refunds. The plan that anti-poverty experts have long championed, aimed at improving the lives of millions of children living in poverty. In case what is at stake in this election has not been clear, Clinton addressing that, too, today, giving a speech on climate change, taking her campaign to the front lines of the issue, Miami, Florida. Clinton bringing along one of the most prominent voices on the matter, former Vice President Al Gore. Also, highlighting the stark choice in this election. President Obama who directly took on Clinton`s opponent earlier tonight in North Carolina, addressing the remarks Trump made in the now infamous "Access Hollywood" tape.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, UNITED STATES PRESIDENT: You don`t have to be a husband or a father to hear what we heard just a few days ago and say, that`s not right. You just have to be a decent human being to say that`s not right.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HAYES: Ahead, I`ll talk with one conservative who`s just about had enough of Donald Trump and the republicans and conservatives who continue to stand by him.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REBECCA TRAISTER: This is the first woman to ever be in a general election presidential debates, and this was one of her three debates? She had to go in there with that man and have him standing over her shoulder and have the women in the room and -- and -- it was so degrading. It was degrading to watch. I`m sure it was degrading to participate in.

You could tell she was rattled. I mean, obviously her strategy was to stay calm and speak in a controlled voice, to not push back at all the things -- here he is. He`s saying she has hate in her heart, he`s saying she should be jailed. She doesn`t really respond to any of it. You could tell she was working very hard to stay under control.

It was terrible to watch.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HAYES: Rebecca Traister last night on the degrading spectacle of the second presidential debate held in the wake of the release of the now infamous Access Hollywood tape. And those out there are still on the Trump train are out there defending the candidate`s remarks made on the tape in which he bragged about sexually assaulting women.

Former presidential hopeful Ben Carson at first called the comments abominable only to shrug the whole thing off just seconds later.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BEN CARSON, FMR. PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: As I was growing up,. people were always trying to talk about their sexual conquest and trying to make themselves appear like don -- Casanova. I`m surprised you haven`t heard that. I really am.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I haven`t heard it. And I know a lot of people who haven`t heard it.

CARSON: Maybe that`s the problem. Maybe that`s the problem.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HAYES: Meanwhile, Trump`s son, Eric, is chalking up his father`s bragging over grabbing a woman`s gentiles as a sign of his alpha personality, quote, "I think sometimes when guys are together they carried away. Sometimes that`s what happens when alpha personalities are in the same presence at the same time. I`m not saying it`s right. It`s not the person that he is."

Of course, one would expect Trump surrogates to rally around the candidate. Republican lawmakers still backing their embattled nominee are another story.

Senator Marco Rubio, who is locked in a tight reelection race in Florida releasina statement today that at first Rubio patting himself on the back for rejectnig Trump`s offensive rhetoric and behavior and then went to say he still supports the guy. Quote, "I disagree with him on many things, but I disagree with his opponent on virtually everything. I wish we had better choices for president, but I do not want Hillary Clinton to be our next president, therefore my position has not changed."

Needless to say, many conservatives have had quite enough of all this, and that includes Mary Beth Glenn, conservative blogger, who unleashed an anguished and angry 17 tweet storm denouncing Republicans who haven`t pulled their support from Trump after his comments.

"He treats women like dogs and you go against everything I and other female conservatives said you were and back down like cowards. Get this straight, we don`t need you to stand up for us, you needed to stand up for you, for your dignity, for your reputation."

Joining me now, the author of those tweets, Marybeth Glenn. She supported Marco Rubio in the presidential primaries, now supports independent candidate Evan McMullin.

And Marybeth, thanks for being on.

What was going through your head? What prompted you to kind of take to Twitter with this I found very affecting and moving series of tweets?

MARYBETH GLENN, CONSERVATIVE BLOGGER: Well, you know, I had been talking about Trump and the issues of the conservative movement for over a year now, talking about how Trump will be a toxic end to the conservative movement if we let it. And it was just a combined between all of his talk about minorities and women and the way he treats the disabled. Everything.

It just all came to a head when all of a sudden on Friday we had proof of him bragging about sexually assaulting women and yet all of our lawmakers were still supporting him or the vast majority that were supporting him continue their support for him. And I was truly revolted. I was just absolutely revolted.

HAYES: Did it surprise you that so many have stuck with him throughout?

GLENN: It really has. I mean, we can either -- you know, the soul of the conservative movement is what is at stake right now. So, you know, the fact that these men can`t see that and women can`t see that is really sad. I mean, we are turning people away from the conservative movement. And it`s for good reason.

HAYES: It`s striking to me if you tally up Republican office holders who have rejected Trump, a much larger percentage of women have done so than men, whether that`s members of congress, Senate, governor. what does that say to you?

GLENN: Well, it says that women see Trump for who he is. You know, that`s the surprising thing. This was not a shocking news clip that came out on Friday. This was not some breaking story that we shouldn`t have expected. This is who he is. This is who we knew he was. We preached about this since day one saying that this is who this man is.

And the fact that this came as some revelation surprises me. Can I was disheartened when I saw it, you know, or when I heard it. It`s horrible. But it`s something that I expected of him. And actually, I expect much worse. You wonder what`s going to come out now. But I mean, I expected that of them.

So just for the fact that our lawmakers, especially the men, and, you know, the women have left -- a lot of the women have walked away -- but the men and women that remain in support of him, they need to either decide that conservatism is going to survive or that they`re going to go down in a titanic with Trump because I don`t see him winning. He doesn`t have the female support. He shouldn`t have the female support. There`s no reason for a woman to support this man, there just isn`t. You know, there are other options.

And we have our principles that we should be sticking to. So, there`s no reason for women or men to be supporting this man. So the fact that these legislators are staying on with him even though the ship is sinking is really telling.

And like I said, it angered me. You know, I have supported these men for so many years, I had defended them for so many years, and yet when it comes -- when the chips fall and they`re supposed to defend us and they`re supposed to defend women, they continue to support this monster.

HAYES: I should say, Marybeth, that you`re not alone. Christianity Today editorial headlines, speak truth to Trump, urging people to vote against him. Evangelical Magazine World, editorial headline unfit for power.

So there are a lot of other people who feel the same way as you do. Marybeth Glenn, thanks for your time. Appreciate it.

GLENN: Thank you so much.

HAYES: Still to come, more of a particularly fired up President Obama tonight unloading on Donald Trump and the Republicans standing by him. We`ll play you what he said. And trust me, you don`t want to miss it just ahead.

But first, tonight`s Thing One, Thing Two starts right after this break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HAYES: Thing One tonight, RNC spokesman Sean Spicer is what`s often referred to as a flake. And he`s committed to his flaking duty in the same way a lawyer is bound to defend their client no matter what terrible things that client has done.

As he told The Washington Post himself, when he started working closely with the Trump campaign, quote, "there are doctors who help people who have done bad things. There are lawyers who defend bad people. I don`t think it`s unique to my profession."

This after Spicer was deployed to do damage control after it became clear that large parts of Melania Trump`s RNC speech were lifted from Michelle Obama`s 2008 DNC speech. And here`s how he defended against those plagiarism accusations.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEAN SPICER, RNC SPOKESMAN: Melania Trump said the strength of your dreams and you`re willingness to work for them, Twilight Sparkle from My Little Pony said this is your dream.

UNIDENITIFIED MALE: You guys aren`t taking it seriously?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HAYES; One day after that, the Trump campaign completely negated Spicer`s flimsy defense by admitted the lines were accidentally taken from Michelle Obama, not from My Little Pony`s Twilight Sparkle.

Then this Sunday, Sean Spicer was asked whether he would characterize the actions Donald Trump was describing on the Access Hollywood bus about grabbing a woman by the genitals as sexual assault. According to The Weekly Standard Spicer responded, "I don`t know, I`m not a lawyer."

But when The Washington Post followed up with him, Spicer disputed that quote, telling the post, "I never said it."

And you`ll never guess what there`s audio evidence of Sean Spicer saying. That`s Thing 2 in 60 seconds.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HAYES: In the debate spin room on Sunday, RNC spokesman Sean Spicer was asked whether he would characterize the act Donald Trump was describing on the Access Hollywood bus as sexual assault. Sean Spicer responded, "I don`t know, I`m not a lawyer."

When The Washington Post followed up, Spicer disputed the quote telling The Post I never said it. But then, the original reporter who cited Spicer, The Weekly Standard`s John McCormack provided The Post with an audio recording of a man who clearly sounds like Spicer in the spin room speaking those exact words, to which Spicer responds, well, I was asked a question about a matter of law. It is never appropriate to touch anyone in an unwelcome manner.

Complete 180 when audio proof was provided.

I wonder where Sean Spicer could have possibly gotten the idea you can just take things that are tape and shove them down the memory hole.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: He said I was in favor of Libya. I never discussed that subject. I was in favor of Libya?

We should do on a humanitarian basis immediately go into Libya.

I don`t condone violence.

Again, I don`t condone violence.

If you see somebody getting ready to throw a tomato, knock the crap out of them, would you? Seriously.

I don`t know Putin. I think it would be great about we got along with Russia, but I don`t know Putin.

If Putin wants to go in and I got to know him very well because we were both on 60 Minutes, we were stablemates. And we did very well that night.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HAYES: President Obama concluded a rally for Hillary Clinton in Greensboro, North Carolina less than two hours ago. He had some pretty pointed things to say about recent developments in the 2016 campaign including the presidential qualifications of Donald Trump.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OBAMA: The guy says stuff that nobody would find tolerable if they were applying for a job at 7-Eleven. Or you -- I mean, I don`t know what job -- if you were kind of vetting somebody for a job, and then you heard what somebody said on tape about women, set aside what they were saying about that stuff, that you would hire that person for that job.

Democracy in a big diverse country doesn`t work if you are constantly demonize each other. And I mean that literally, by the way. I was reading the other day, there`s a guy on the radio who apparently Trump`s on his show frequently, he said me and Hillary are demons, said we smell like sulfur. Ain`t that something?

Now, I mean, come on, people. Democracy does not work if you just say stuff like that or -- and apparently there are people who believe that stuff.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HAYES: The last part was a reference to Alex Jones who yesterday said that sources quote high up folks, unquote, told him President Obama and Hillary Clinton are actually demons. President Obama has his own bully pulpit and he clearly plans to use it.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HAYES: The Clinton campaign made a decision back in May to cast Donald Trump as an outlier, a man so out of step with the Republicans that Hillary Clinton should not connect him to the Republican Party. It was a decision that angered some Democrats. According to hacked DNC emails that were released by WikiLeaks, the response from DNC`s communication director Luis Miranda was, quote, "I think that`s crazy and insane."

But now that Donald Trump has taken a nose dive in the polls and RNC chair Reince Priebus told party officials to redirect funds away from Trump to down ballot nominee, though they`ve disputed that now.

Clinton appears to be trying to remind voters there are plenty of Republican senate and congressional candidates still supporting Donald Trump. Today, shortly after Florida Senator Marco Rubio, who is facing reelection, said he stands by Trump and not pulling his endorsement, Clinton told an audience in Miami they should vote for his Democratic opponent.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CLINTON: It is an unacceptable response for Marco Rubio when asked about climate change to say, I`m not a scientist. Well, why doesn`t he ask a scientist? And maybe then he`d understand why it`s so important that he, representing Florida, be committed to climate change. That`s why I hope you`ll elect Patrick Murphy to the United States Senate.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HAYES: What about those Republican candidates who are sticking with Trump through months of misogyny, racism and violent rhetoric have finally decided to distance themselves from the top of the ticket. According to internal polls conducted by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, 61 percent of voters said Republicans who decided to withdraw support for Trump over the past few days, quote, lack character and integrity.

In a prediction of more problems for down ballot Republicans comes from yesterday`s NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll which shows that on the question of which party should control congress Democrats have widened their lead to 7 percentage points up from 3 points last month.

And now the question seems to be how bad will things get for Republicans on election day.

Joining me now, Cornell Belcher, Democratic pollster, president of Brilliant Corners Research and strategies, and Howard Dean former chair of the DNC and an MSNBC political analyst.

Cornell, let me start with you. This is something that you and I have been talking about through this election the degree to which the top of the ticket and the down ballot congressional senate races and even others, gubernatorial races like, for instance, in North Carolina are tethered. They seem to have become untethered about a month ago. Now they seem -- it seems that a big enough Trump loss can`t help but drag a lot of them down.

CORNELL BELCHER, DEMOCRATIC POLLSTER: That`s a good point. I mean, I think what you`ll see now are Democrats really trying to tie the Republican brand around one of the most unpopular candidates for president ever.

And one of the things that I will point to is that back when I was actually working for Governor Dean as his pollster at the DNC, around 2006 in our internal polling, we saw the generic horse race open up to 11 or 12 points. And historically, you do need that sort of 10-point gap to be opened up in order for us to flip the house because, as you know, the seats are so gerrymandered, right.

Right now, it`s a seven points and it`s beginning to sort of move in the right direction. The NBC/Wall Street Journal poll from 2012 when we did pick up seats I think it moves up to 14. So, it`s moving there, but I think Democrats have to do a good job of tying him to the Republican brand to get to that ten-point gap, because when we get to the 10-point gap I think the House Republicans are in a little trouble.

HAYES: The squirming that`s happening is sort of remarkable, right. You`ve got -- I think that the Senator from Nebraska, Fisher, had -- she had endorsed Donald Trump, then unendorsed Donald Trump, and then I think we`re now just getting a statement that she has re-endorsed Donald Trump.

I mean, so this seems like an opportunity for Democratic candidates.

HOWARD DEAN, FRM. CHAIR, DNC: First of all, let me take two seconds, Cornell`s got a new book coming out. Everybody should go get it.

HAYES: Nice.

DEAN: Everybody should go get it.

It has a great forward in it.

HAYES: What a mensch this guy, Howard Dean.

BELCHER: A forward by Governor Dean.

DEAN: Here`s the really interesting thing about this. The clip that you showed at the beginning of that, if the poll numbers didn`t show that Hillary Clinton had a significant lead in Florida, her internal polls, she never would have said that.

HAYES: Ding, ding, ding, ding, ding. That is exactly right.

DEAN: Unbelievable that she would do that.

HAYES: Because she would not want to alienate possible Marco Rubio voters, which has been the strategy.

DEAN: Which also means that Marco`s numbers are not nearly as good as they were two weeks ago. This was a seat that most Democrats did not think we`d...

HAYES: Had written off.

DEAN: That`s right. And now this is a senate seat that`s obviously in play in somebody`s internal poll.

HAYES: So, here`s the witness protection program answer from Mitch McConnell which I find fascinating, it`s a similar event yesterday in Kentucky opening the event.

"If any of you here are thinking I`m going to elaborate on the presidential debate, let me disabuse you of that notion. If you`re interested in anything else, please stay. If you`re interested in the presidential election, you might as well get up and leave, because I don`t have any other observations to make on that."

Now, that doesn`t strike me as a sustainable position. Now Mitch McConnell could probably get away with that. He`s not in cycle right now.

DEAN: One other -- yeah, just one other point that I want to make here. I guarantee you right now in the Brooklyn headquarters there is not one iota of overconfidence. Robbie Mook is going to drive this thing for the next 28 days and he doesn`t give a damn what the margins are. The Clinton campaign with Robbie and John Podesta at the top of it, are not going to make -- let this one slip away. So, that`s critical.

There`s 28 days a long time. So, I`m not doing the victory dance.

HAYES: I agree with you. And Cornell, I think we`ll see equilibrium move -- I think those margins will narrow, if I had to make a prediction about what we`ll see.

BELCHER: No, I think that`s absolutely right.

Look, we -- in modern times we don`t have six or seven point races this country, right, victories, right. I think we`ll sort of get closer, because Republicans, some Republicans will come back to him, because he`ll get more on script.

But I don`t want to celebrate too much because we still have some problems with mobilization.

I think the Pew poll came out, the Latino poll came out today shows that Latino voters are 7 or 8 points off of their certainty to vote from where they were in `12. And among Millennial Latinos, it`s 12 points.

So, what that means -- if you`ve got seven or eight points off the turnout with Latinos, that means a lot of those states out west -- Colorado, Nevada become really tough and particularly on the senate side and your ideals of putting a state like Arizona in play becomes a lot harder if in fact -- you know, parts of that Obama coalition aren`t fully mobilized.

So, I think, you know, at the turn I also think that the Clinton campaign - - and hopefully more broadly spend more time trying to mobilize those voters, particularly those younger, browner voters that were so critical to Barack Obama in 2012 and `08.

HAYES: Howard, I want to show you two graphics FiveThirtyEight just put up, which is basically what the presidential election look likes if only men vote. Do we have that one? If only men are voting.

BELCHER: wow.

HAYES: Right. If we reversed the 19th Amendment. And what it looks like if only women vote, if we had a sort of new amendment that took away the franchise from men.

I mean, it is so striking at this point. In some ways the way that you have both the kind of explicit -- you know, the front and center fact of the first woman possibly to elect for president with all the sort of subtext around it with this unprecedented gender split.

DEAN: Although, there was a really interesting poll today. And I`m not sure if it was NBC/ Wall Street Journal or not, which showed that the advantage for Trump among college educated men has shrunk to 1 percent and it`s gotten huge with women.

I don`t think the women`s vote is -- I don`t think you can turn that around at this point. I think it`s just two that the tape cemented the bad position. They`re not going to change their mind. That language was searing for most women in this country. And I don`t think that`s going to change.

And that does put Trump in a real hole. I do agree it`s going to close, but I don`t think it`s going to close enough.

BELCHER: Real quick point on that, Chris, it`ll be interesting the next time I`m on, show that same map with only white voters, because that`s a key question. Even given`s Trump`s collapse in particular parts of this country, he`s still probably going to win the vast majority of white voters. And even with that woman`s number, the gender gap has been driven the last couple of elections by the increasing number of black and brown women in that fold.

Race still matters a lot in this country.

HAYES: Yeah, it was interesting to see one of the top lines we started this show with, so we`ll bring it back around. The idea that the recovery among, essentially self-identified Republicans and white voters was the biggest thing that he won back after the debate.

So the sort of doubling down on the kind of base satisfaction red meat brought back those voters in the fold which are the ones he needed, but still not quite enough to produce a majority which is the basic issue for the Republican Party in some ways and the kind of existential issue.

BELCHER: It`s what my book talks about, by the way.

HAYES: What`s it called, by the way, Cornell?

BELCHER: A Black Man in the White House.

HAYES: A Black Man in the White House. So, you`ve got this situation where, do you think -- I want to ask you one more thing about 2006 because Cornell brought it up. The timing of Mark Foley revelations was the congressman who had been sending sexual solicitations to pages.

DEAN: Right.

HAYES: That broke right around the same time as the "Access Hollywood" tape. And people should keep in mind the way that cascade dominoed and how it distributed to that.

Cornell Belcher and Howard Dean, thank you for joining us.

That is ALL IN for this evening.

"THE RACHEL MADDOW SHOW" starts now.

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