Show: HARDBALL Date: July 6, 2016 Guest: Heidi Przybyla, Dana Milbank, Cedric Richmond, Val Demings, Kim Ghattas, April Ryan (SPEECH JOINED IN PROGRESS) DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESUMPTIVE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: ... country`s in trouble. Between the debt, between the joblessness -- and let me tell you, with the phony 5 percent numbers that you hear about unemployment -- it`s a phony number. It`s a phony number. It`s a number that -- when somebody looks for a job -- and I don`t want to have you raise your hand because you may be embarrassed. I`d be a little embarrassed. Somebody looks for a job. And they give up. And they`re great people.
They`re unbelievable. They`ve worked all their lives. They can`t find a job, right? And they give up. Now they`re considered statistically employed. So we show this phony number. And on that, I don`t blame Obama so much because, frankly, this was to make presidents look good and make politicians look good, which is not an easy thing to do, OK, because they want to show, oh, how wonderful the economy -- so just as I was getting off the plane today, we announced trade deficit numbers for month, which were, like, almost record-setting. We have trade deficits that are worse than ever before. All I`ve done for years is talk about trade deficit, trade -- I used to talk about Japan. Now I talk more about China, but it`s still Japan. It`s everybody! It`s everybody. We don`t make good deals with anybody. But last night, I was talking about trade because I love it. It`s my favorite subject, that and strengthening our military and taking care of our vets. They`re my favorite subject. (CHEERS AND APPLAUSE) TRUMP: No, they`re my -- they`re my favorite subjects. (CHEERS AND APPLAUSE) TRUMP: Other than my children or my grandchildren. I could talk about my grandchildren -- let`s see. He was 39 minutes in the back of a plane talking about his -- ladies and gentlemen, the president is going to talk about his grandchildren. Well, I have two. He has two. I have eight, he has two. But he talk about -- how long are you going to talk about them? I`ll bet they`re beautiful, two beautiful children. So he says, They`re beautiful.
They`re really smart. They`re really good. I love them so much. They`re unbelievable. You know, one is brand-new, beautiful little baby. OK, after about a minute, what can you talk about? Oh, you can say, Here`s a picture. Look. Look. OK. So that`s one minute out of the 39-minute time, right? Then we talk about golf, right? So you say, Jack Nicklaus -- who endorsed me. I love Jack. I love Jack. (CHEERS AND APPLAUSE) TRUMP: He`s the greatest. Jack. Did you know Jack endorsed me? Do you know how young Jack was when he won the Ohio State championship? Jack Nicklaus. He`s the greatest guy. And he`s a friend of mine. And he endorsed me. I didn`t ask for the endorsement. I don`t want to do that.
I feel, like, sort of guilty when I ask these people for endorsements. I don`t know to do that. Jack endorsed me! I said, Thank you, Jack. I appreciate it. He said, Well, you`re going to do a great job. You`re got go shake things up. Now, when you talk about winners, is Jack a winner? Right? (CHEERS AND APPLAUSE) TRUMP: Did you see the U.S. Open was on the other day. I think Jack Nicklaus was in the top -- the top 10, like, I think it was 18 times. He was in the top -- I`ve never seen anything like it. His record is unbelievable. He won it four times, top 10 18 times. I mean, this guy is a winner! Right? So when I get endorsements from Jack Nicklaus -- Bobby Knight! Bobby Knight! (CHEERS AND APPLAUSE) TRUMP: Bobby Knight. Bobby will be speaking at the convention. We have so many people. We have such a great convention planned. But I just have to go back. So this is the final thing. So last night, I made a great speech, standing ovation, everyone crazy. Nobody talks about the crowd.
Every time I go home, my wife asks, How was the crowd? Again, they didn`t -- they never show the crowd. I tell you, they only show when we have protesters. I love my protesters!
Don`t we have any damn protesters today? (LAUGHTER) TRUMP: Because when we have protesters (INAUDIBLE) do you think you have one? No, he`s too -- just -- no, he`s -- he`s -- friend or foe? Friend or foe. He`s -- he`s friend. OK. But I love my protesters because the cameras spin around at angles that you wouldn`t believe. They do somersaults around to -- they look like a sausage because I went -- my first two speeches, I had no protesters. And every time I went home -- big crowds. And every time I went home, I said, Could you see the size of the crowd? No, I didn`t. Now, you can hear the size. Like, last night you heard the size, right?
Many, many more than the president and Hillary got! (CHEERS AND APPLAUSE) TRUMP: But so -- so people would say, Well, I hear it. You know, they hear that very -- you know, that sort of humming sort of -- that`s not, like, from 12 people. But we had this (INAUDIBLE) so what happens is -- last night, we had a great evening in North Carolina, a great -- we`re going to win North Carolina. We`re doing great there. We`re going to win Ohio. We`re doing great here. (CHEERS AND APPLAUSE) TRUMP: By the way, the section I just left last week, wonderful congressman and his wife, and I said to him, I won`t use -- I don`t want to embarrass anybody, but I said, Could you endorse me? He said, Even if I don`t like you, I would endorse you. You know why, Mr. Trump? You have a 29-point lead in this section of Ohio -- 29 points. I said, You`re right.
You have to endorse me! (CHEERS AND APPLAUSE) TRUMP: We`re going to take care of our miners and we`re going to take care of our steelworkers! Hillary`s not. She`s going to put you out of business because, if she ever won, she would sign TPP, which will make NAFTA, which was signed by her husband, which -- in my opinion, the worst trade deal in the history of this country, and it`s not even close, signed by Bill Clinton! And he didn`t suffer from it. It was everybody that followed him that suffered from it. (INAUDIBLE) jobs are moving. I look at your jobs, where they`re moving down to Mexico, right? They`re moving to Mexico. One after another, they`re moving to Mexico. China is coming in, dumping the steel, making it impossible for your steel plants. They`re devaluing their currencies. We do nothing about it. Folks, I`m going to do so much about it. It`s going to be so easy. It`s going to be so easy. (CHEERS AND APPLAUSE) TRUMP: It`s going to be so easy. So last night, we had this -- and then I wake up, and I hear, number one, I love Saddam Hussein. I hate Saddam Hussein. But I love Saddam Hussein, according to the press, because they`re dishonest as hell. They heard what I said. And number two -- and they said it very, very strongly. They said, He should have spoken about Hillary Clinton longer. Now, I wrote out, like, four pages that I wrote out. And I read it point by point by point! And after a long time -- I don`t know, many, many minutes -- you know, I got thousands of people. And this really stupid guy, Chuck Todd -- I won`t use his name. I refuse to use his name. I refuse to call him sleepy eyes! I`m not going to call him sleepy eyes.
But he`s talking about, He had an opportunity to hit Hillary Clinton! I -- did you see what I did to her last night? I just went -- am I correct? I mean, it got to a point -- it got -- I was hitting her so hard.
And the problem is I`m a professional. And I`m hitting her so hard. And I know it doesn`t mean anything because the system rigged and it`s fixed and it`s broken! So I`m doing it, and I`m doing it because I feel I have to do it. And it`s sort of boring to do it, to be honest with you. So I didn`t want to -- and I wanted to get on to the military and to vets. I wanted to get on to these other subjects. I wanted to get on to terror, OK? Because we are going to experience things that you won`t even believe, folks. Watch the predictions, lots of predictions, right? And I wanted to get on to terror. One of the reasons the women are liking me a lot lately is because... (CHEERS AND APPLAUSE) TRUMP: Thank you. Thank you! Thank you! Because they feel I`m going to keep our country safe! I`m going to (INAUDIBLE) (CHEERS AND APPLAUSE) TRUMP: And they love Ivanka and they love Melania! And Melania and Ivanka and Eric and Tiffany and Don are going to be speaking at the convention!
So we`re going to... (CHEERS AND APPLAUSE) TRUMP: And by the way, so just to finish, by the way -- so I get hit this morning, like, He had the opportunity to go after -- everyone said I made a great speech. I`ll tell you how bad my speech was last night. CNN covered it from point to point without a commercial! Fox covered it practically from beginning to end! Others covered it from -- that`s how bad my speech was yesterday!
That`s how bad! You know, if it were bad, folks -- these guys, they don`t care about polls.
They don`t care about anything. They only care about one thing. What`s the one thing? Ratings! Ratings! So I made a speech last night that some of the folks gave an A to, some of them gave an A-plus to, but when I saw NBC (INAUDIBLE) He had a chance to really go after Hillary Clinton! Oh, what I did to her! But you know, after a while, we have to talk about other things. OK. So here`s the story. We`re going to make America great again. (CHEERS AND APPLAUSE) TRUMP: We`re going to make America great. We`re going to take our country back for everybody, not for us, not for this room, not for this room, not for the overflow room, not for the people outside. We`re going to take our country back for everyone. We`re going to take it back for African-American youth, who have a 59 percent unemployment rate, by the way, 59 percent. We`re going to take it back for African-American youth, who have a 59 percent unemployment rate and have no chance! They have no chance in our society. You know who I just spoke to? Big Don King. Big Don King. Just spoke to him 10 minutes ago. I said, Don, I`d love you to speak at the convention because you know what? You beat the system. And he`s a friend of mine, Big Don, greatest boxing promoter of all time. In fact, somebody said -- and Mike Tyson endorsed me, as you know, and Don King endorsed me. You know what Don King did? He owns a newspaper. He endorsed Donald Trump for president, Bernie Sanders for vice president! How do you like -- and he put a big ad in his paper, his paper! He wants Bernie Sanders for vice president. I said, That`s a new one. That`s -- big Don King. So... AUDIENCE: Newt! Newt! Newt! Newt! TRUMP: Wow! That`s -- that -- I like that, too. We like -- we like Newt. (CHEERS AND APPLAUSE) TRUMP: And I`ll tell you what. Newt -- Newt has been my friend for a long time. And I`m not saying anything and I`m not telling even Newt anything, but I can tell you, in one form or another, Newt Gingrich is going to be involved with our government. That I can tell you. (CHEERS AND APPLAUSE) TRUMP: OK? He`s going to be (INAUDIBLE) He`s smart, he`s tough, he gets it. And he says I`m the biggest thing he`s ever seen in the history of politics (INAUDIBLE) (CHEERS AND APPLAUSE) TRUMP: No, Newt`s going to be involved, if I can get approval from his wife. That may be -- that may be tough, but that`s OK. And you know, I have somebody else very special here. So I have wonderful children. And you know, I`m lucky. They were smart. They were born smart, OK? They were smart. God was good. And they went to great schools. And they did well, and they`re in business and do well, and they feel so strongly about what I`m doing. They don`t even like it in terms of doing it themselves. They love what they`re doing. And my one boy is here, Eric Trump. Eric. (CHEERS AND APPLAUSE) TRUMP: And I`m very proud of Eric. He`s done a great job in the real estate business. Now I threw him into this political business.
(INAUDIBLE) he`s doing a damn good job! But he loves the real estate. And you know what I did? Let me tell you a little story. These -- I love this -- I love this crowd. Isn`t it nice when you don`t read from a speech? (CHEERS AND APPLAUSE) TRUMP: Ladies and gentlemen, thank you very much for being here, or Hillary with the teleprompters every single time. And whether you go north and south, or east and west, Donald Trump is a bad person. Donald Trump made a lot of money on Atlantic City, but he hurt the little people. She calls that the (INAUDIBLE) He hurt the (INAUDIBLE) I didn`t. Made a lot of money. And governor, what they did -- I`ll tell you, you see that shame -- I left seven years ago. But -- but she goes (INAUDIBLE) and then after a little while -- did you ever notice, after about 12 minutes, people start leaving? We can`t do that. The nice part is -- let me tell you -- so I go to Scotland, and I know I`m going to get killed when I got to Scotland because the press is so dishonest. I went to make sure that my boy -- who -- I bought Turnberry four or five years ago, and we`re doing this massive renovation, just like we`re going to be opening the old post office in October. We`re a year ahead of schedule. I could open it sooner, but I want to get it as close to the election as possible. Does that make sense to you? In fact, I could open in August! I`m delaying the opening because I want it to be so close because when I open it, even if I delay it a month or two -- the hotel`s going to open sooner. But I want to say we`re more than a year ahead of schedule and we`re under budget, and the product is even better than I said it was going to be, right? (CHEERS AND APPLAUSE) TRUMP: Maybe I`ll open it on November 7th, the day before the big day!
Oh, we`re going to have -- and the press will be there. They`ll be there by the hundreds. But they won`t say we`re under budget. They won`t say we`re ahead of schedule. But that`s OK. People know! But what happened is -- we have children. And I want to support my children. I think I`ve been a good father. And I want to support my -- so I put Eric Trump -- like, individual things -- Ivanka`s been great. Don`s been great. Tiffany`s just starting now. She just is graduating from college. Baron has great potential, but he`s 10, you know? But he`s got great potential. But I put my children as they grow a little bit older in charge of different jobs. And I put Eric in charge of the great Turnberry resort in Scotland where they -- home of the British Open, which now they call the Open Championship. And Eric spent the last year going back and forth.
He`d spend two days over there, then come back, then go back and fight with contractors, and he got great contractors and they did an unbelievable job.
I`ve been hearing about it. So I said, You know, if I go over there, these dishonest horrible human beings are going to say Trump went over to play golf. Trump -- in the middle of campaign. I can`t do that, but I have to support my children, right? (INAUDIBLE) if you were -- so -- so I said, You know what? I want to fly over and I`m going to fly back! And I want to support my son. So what happened -- but just to show you how -- no, no. Just to show you how dishonest Hillary Clinton is, and the press -- so I go out. We have the bagpipes, we have everything, we have a ribbon cutting on the ninth tee, on the beautiful ninth tee overlooking the ocean, and the beautiful lighthouse, one of the greatest courses anywhere in the world -- we rebuilt the course. We rebuilt everything. We rebuilt the hotel. It`s great. And that was the day that Europe had the big turn, where U.K. left, right?
They left. (CHEERS AND APPLAUSE) TRUMP: And I said (INAUDIBLE) but I have a pulse, right? That`s what we need. We need somebody with touch. We have horrible people. They have no touch, no brain, no nothing. So you had Obama, If that happens, they`re going to go to the back of the line. I would say that -- I think Obama might have been the reason that they broke away, OK? He doesn`t help (INAUDIBLE) He actually said that the U.K. is going to the back of the line. Not a nice statement. Not a nice - - can you imagine if I said that, the back of the line? Oh, would I be killed for that statement! So he said they`re going to the back of the line. OK. Bottom line is (INAUDIBLE) asked (ph) me -- a lot of times. I said, No, I think they`re going to break away. I think they want their independence. I think they`re going to break away. And I see what`s happening with migration. I see where countries are being forced against their will to take these people. They don`t want them.
And instead of building these wonderful places where they can ultimately go back to their homeland, where they want to be -- anyway, they`re just being forced -- so Germany is a disaster right now. Sweden, parts of Sweden. I mean, things are really bad. So I said, I think they`re going to -- and by the way, the odds were 20 percent that I`d be right, 20 percent, because they said it`s not going to happen. They`re going to approve, and that`s going to be the end of that. I was right! They broke away. They broke away. I was right. And then the next day, they said, Oh, Trump was right. The same thing could happen in the United States. Let me tell you, we`re going to be right a second time, folks. It`s going to (INAUDIBLE) (CHEERS AND APPLAUSE) TRUMP: Because we`re tired of incompetent people! We`re tired of incompetent leadership and incompetent people! And Hillary Clinton -- I said bad judgment. She`s incompetent, OK? She`s -- the only good thing she`s ever done is get out of trouble when anybody else would have been in jail by now! That`s the only thing that I`ve ever seen her do that was a great job! I got to give her credit! I got to give her credit. I got to give Bill Clinton credit for going to that plane and saying for 39 minutes, he talked about his grandchildren and he talked about golf. There`s no way you can do that. I told you, two minutes for the grandchildren, two minutes for golf. We got 35 or 36 minutes left! What are we going to -- let`s talk about Hillary! And Hillary then talks about, I think I`d reappoint the attorney general!
And you`re waiting for a decision by the attorney general! And you`re saying you`re going to give her a job! You`re not allowed to do that!
That`s bribery, folks! And then the attorney general comes out -- as Newt said, but the attorney general comes out and the attorney general says, No charges! It`s bribery, wouldn`t you say? It`s bribery! You`re not supposed -- she said she`s going to reappoint the attorney general, and the attorney general is waiting to make a determination as to whether or not she`s guilty! And boy, was that a fast determination. Wow! Should have waited a lot -- at least waited a little bit longer. Don`t just come out with one or two sentences. Talk about it a little bit! So look, again -- again, trouble (ph). So here`s what happens. So I go to Scotland, beautiful. The weather was beautiful. The waves are crashing up on the rocks. We`re opening the course, getting ready to cut a ribbon. We have so many press. We had over 400. Hope -- the legendary Hop -- how many, 400. 400, 450. It was unbelievable because they were all there for Brexit. And they were all there to see what was going to happen. Will the U.K. break away? And now that`s about six hours old, so they`re bored. They want the next story. So the next story is Trump. So I go there. And all of a sudden, I start hearing these things! What`s Trump doing in Scotland? Oh, he`s playing golf. OK. So I have a news conference. It was a great news conference. Even Newt said that was a great news conference, right? I did a good job, Newt?
When Newt says I did a good job -- he`s a very critical guy. He sometime says, I don`t like what he`s saying, but there I did a good job, right? AUDIENCE: Newt! Newt! Newt! Newt! TRUMP: Newt! Newt! So let me just tell you. So I`m -- I say, Any questions? (INAUDIBLE) not talking about the -- any questions? And the place goes crazy. The cameras -- I`m telling you, we had as big a group of media as you`ve ever seen. They all drove up, you know, from London, different -- everybody just converged on Turnberry. So, I`m taking questions. One of the questions was, Mr. Trump, if the pound goes down, how will Turnberry do? So, I say -- I didn`t bring this up. I said, look, here`s what happens. If the pound goes down, Turnberry will do very well, because a lot of people are going to travel to the U.K.
They will come to Scotland. Turnberry is going to do well if the pound goes down.
OK, period. That`s it. I answer the question. Next day, it`s in an ad by crooked Hillary Clinton and I`m all over the place, but they don`t show the question. It`s -- here`s the thing. They start off, did you hear Donald trump? Well, all he talked about was his resort. And they show me. They don`t show the question. If the pound goes down, Turnberry is going to do very well. OK? Then, they gave me a golf club. I said I don`t want to touch it. I don`t want to touch golf. I don`t want to -- I`m leaving. I inspected the hotel. I inspected the course. I said, Eric Trump, you did a great job.
I`m getting the hell out of here now, because I want to be back campaigning. I want to get out. Congratulations. My boy, I love you.
Come up, Eric, come up. I love you, my boy. I love you.
I said that`s my 6`6`` boy, but he`s always going to be my boy, right? So, I said, Eric, I`m out of here. I`m going. I`m leaving. I got to go. But they said, Mr. Trump, would you like to hit the first ball? No, I don`t want to touch your club, because I know, if I touch a club, these horrible, horrible human beings, plus the Hillary Clinton thousand-people staff she has, right, will come up with a clip of me holding a golf -- so I don`t want to touch it.
So we cut the ribbon. I inspected the property. I`m very proud of the job he did. Unbelievable job. And I went around, and I got out of there. I was in Scotland one night. That`s not easy. It`s a long trip, right? I was there one night, and I was out of there. So here`s what happens.
The next day, the news comes on. Donald Trump went to Scotland in the middle of the campaign to play golf. But here`s what`s worse. They took my statement on the pound -- if the pound goes down, Turnberry is going to do great. They don`t know I`m answering a question.
So, everyone thinks I`m bragging and I want the pound to go down. OK. But here`s the worst. But that crooked, crooked disgusting group that works for Hillary Clinton -- now, remember, I never touched a club. I never -- they show me hitting a ball, Donald Trump playing golf in Scotland during the, you know, troubles and everything else of the world.
And they put it in an ad. But the picture was from two years before at a different course. The only good thing -- no, it`s true. And they said playing golf at Turnberry. So, two good things happened out of it. Number one, the head of Turnberry called me up. He said, sir, did you take an ad because we`re swamped with business? I said, really?
That`s good, right? That`s good. And the other thing is the swing looked good. They didn`t put one of my bad swings. I have them too. The swing actually looked good. So, Hillary, thank you very much. But you know what. How dishonest is that?
So they show me playing golf at Turnberry, and I didn`t play golf. That was two years -- the picture was 2 years old or more. In fact, it was more. You know how I can tell it was more? I was even thinner. I said, man, I like that. Actually, I never went too wild, because I love the swing and I look thin. Well, relatively thin, OK? But I just want to say, this young guy, my daughter, my other son, Don, my wife, who puts up with a lot with all of that we`re going on -- this is big stuff. This is big stuff. But my family has been so -- my sister, who is incredible, my sister, who is a federal judge, court of appeals, my other sister Elizabeth, my brother Robert, who is a great guy. I have one brother who passed away.
But I have great children. Tiffany has been so amazing. My kids, my family have been so unbelievable. And this is not easy for them. They go out. Mostly, people love it, but some people don`t. You know, the one thing that`s interesting, and I told this to Eric on the plane -- my wife said, you know, when you go out, you never -- everybody loves you. Now most people love you, but there`s people that don`t. You never had those people before.
I said, but we have to make America great again. And, ultimately, hopefully, my biggest dream is to have those people love me, too, not because of me, but because we`re going to do such a great job. Does that make sense? Right? (CHEERING AND APPLAUSE) D. TRUMP: So I will introduce -- I will introduce Eric Trump. Eric Trump did an unbelievable job. He`s doing an unbelievable job. And he was pushed into the world of politics not because he wanted it, but because I said good luck on television tonight. You`re doing the show.
So, Eric Trump, everybody! (CHEERING AND APPLAUSE) ERIC TRUMP, EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT, TRUMP ORGANIZATION: Wow. Wow. Wow.
Thank you. We have some good fans over there. My father is just the greatest. I mean, I truly say this from the bottom of my heart. I love him to death. As a family, we love him. And thank you for loving him.
(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE) ARI MELBER, GUEST HOST: Good evening. I`m Ari Melber, in for Chris Matthews.
We have been here watching Donald Trump at this rally in Ohio. He spoke about many things. He did, in full disclosure, criticize this channel, as well as our colleagues, along with a lot of other media criticism, complaints about how he`s been treated, about accurate quotes he`s made that he feels were out of context, including, of course, some of his comments about Brexit.
And then the breaking news just in the past hour, he spoke to fact that Attorney General Loretta Lynch is saying the Clinton e-mail investigation will be officially and completely closed with no criminal charges filed.
In a statement just within the last hour, Lynch announced she is -- quote - - "accepting the unanimous" recommendation from FBI Director James Comey, who of course made that big news with his press conference, explaining why the FBI did not find evidence to support any charges against Hillary Clinton or her aides.
You may remember. That was yesterday. And he is now, James Comey, set to testify tomorrow before the House Government Oversight Committee. He will answer questions about the FBI investigation into Clinton`s e-mail, a big legal and, of course, political story.
Lynch`s new announcement provides plenty of fodder, though, for Trump and Republicans. And at the rally there, he was with Newt Gingrich. He continues to speak, as we`re showing. Gingrich, of course, considered one of the contenders for the number two spot on the Republican ticket. Tonight`s event was even characterized as a tryout to become Trump`s running mate. It also comes as Senators Bob Corker and Joni Ernst both removed themselves, saying they don`t want a tryout, indeed, they don`t want to be considered for veep.
Now, Trump was hitting hard against Hillary Clinton in her e-mails. You probably heard some of that. Here is some of what he said. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) D. TRUMP: I just heard the news, it just happened, as you know, with the attorney general of the United States saying no problem. (BOOING) D. TRUMP: She made so many false statements. Is she going to be brought before Congress or something? Is something going to happen?
She claims this, was that it was more convenient to use just one device.
Oh, the fact is, the FBI director said Hillary used several different servers, even though she said it was one, and numerous mobile devices to send and read e-mails. Hillary Clinton said she turned over all of her related e-mails. Right?
She said that. I saw that. The FBI director said Hillary failed to turn over several thousand work-related e-mails, including e-mails that were classified. Right?
Rigged system, folks. It`s very sad. It`s very sad.
(END VIDEO CLIP) MELBER: And off with the papers, you saw. Both tonight and last night, Trump went as far to accuse Clinton of -- quote -- "bribing" Attorney General Lynch somehow with what he called a promise of retaining her at the Justice Department in a potential Clinton administration.
Here was Trump last night. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) D. TRUMP: She said today that we may consider the attorney general to go forward. That`s like a bribe, isn`t it? Isn`t that sort of a bribe? How can you say that? It`s a bribe!
I mean, the attorney general is sitting there, saying, if I get Hillary off the hook, I`m going to have four more years or eight more years. But if she loses, I`m out of a job. It is a bribe. She is laughing at the stupidity of our system. She is laughing, and so is her husband, Bill, laughing at what`s going on.
(END VIDEO CLIP) MELBER: I`m joined now by NBC`s Katy Tur, who is at that Trump rally where he continues to speak. We have cut away from him, having given him a chance to speak, to analyze and report a little bit.
Katy, your view of how Donald Trump has been dealing with what has been a very active couple of days here as the Clinton e-mail investigation is officially closed? KATY TUR, NBC NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Right now, he -- just a moment ago, he killed a mosquito and said something about Hillary Clinton. So he has certainly gotten quite a bit off-message.
And in the past two days, he`s been given a real opportunity, according to the Republican operatives and Republican advisers, to really hit it out of the park with Hillary Clinton. Essentially, the ball was put on the tee, and he was given an opportunity to swing the bat as hard as he can.
A nonpartisan figure, FBI Director James Comey, somebody who is well- respected, came out and excoriates Hillary Clinton on her judgment, saying that she was careless with classified material.
This feeds into the narrative that Donald Trump has been trying to paint that she`s not trustworthy, that she doesn`t have the judgment to be president of the United States.
And instead of staying on that message and hitting it over and over again, Donald Trump has repeatedly gone off-message, yesterday talking about Saddam Hussein and how he was good at killing terrorists, tonight, going onto a number of topics, starting with Clinton and just a list of what I have been writing down, then attacking Chuck Todd, then going back to the Saddam Hussein comments, back to the tweet over the weekend that was allegedly a Star of David tweet that he got a lot of flak for in the -- online.
Then he went back to Chuck Todd, then talking about Jack Nicklaus, then Newt Gingrich, then his Scotland golf course, then Attorney General Lynch being bribed by Hillary Clinton, he accused, then talking about Brexit, how he was right about Brexit, then talking about how he was unfairly criticized for saying that, if the pound goes down, the British currency goes down, then that would be good for his Scotland golf course. And then he went back to his golf course in general and talked about how he was unfairly criticized for being there and how he did not golf there. So, in terms of messaging, Donald Trump has... (CROSSTALK) MELBER: Yes, let me ask you, you just cited several of the examples. We know that he knows how to mix it up with the press. He is indeed, I would say, effective at sometimes manipulating with the press. He brags about it in "The Art of the Deal." But, tonight, he sounded particularly defensive about being quoted out of context on a number of stories. Is that normal or does that sound a little extra to you tonight?
TUR: It`s a little bit more than usual. This is not unusual for him to go on other tangents about stories that he doesn`t think he`s been treated fairly on. Tonight, though, is unusual, given the climate that this campaign is in and given that they have been given a real opportunity with Hillary Clinton.
So when you`re talking to GOP operatives, as I have been, and talking to donors and talking to folks who are just waiting for him to get on message, waiting for him to be a figure that the party can rally around, they said this was his real golden opportunity, but it is not one that he has taken.
And this is especially important at this moment, because he is trying to find a running mate. And today we already saw Senators Joni Ernst and Senator Bob Corker worker drop out of the running mate race, taking themselves out of contention.
I`m told that they were not high on the list to begin with. But the issue is, Donald Trump needs to find somebody competent that will assuage the GOP base in Washington. And he`s having a hard time doing that, because so many people say that they don`t necessarily want to be involved in this campaign because it is so unpredictable.
MELBER: Katy Tur on the road with Donald Trump, thank you very much.
I`m joined now by Dana Milbank, op-ed columnist with "The Washington Post," and MSNBC political analyst David Corn of "Mother Jones," as well as Heidi Przybyla, senior political reporter for "USA Today," all some HARDBALL regulars here.
David, your thoughts on Donald Trump`s inability to stick the landing in a week, where, as Katy mentioned and anyone in politics has noticed, there are some things one could criticize Hillary Clinton on with some evidence, even though I would note, as I have said, that it was a clean book of health on the criminal standard. And yet he is all over the map.
DAVID CORN, MSNBC POLITICAL ANALYST: I`m kind of stunned.
We have been sitting here in the studio watching him for it seems to be three hours, maybe only 45 minutes. And we -- I love Katy. I understand how she has to report in a very objective manner.
But in some ways, it looks like we`re seeing a guy who is unhinged.
DANA MILBANK, OP-ED COLUMNIST, "THE WASHINGTON POST": Yes.
CORN: If you showed anybody the last 20 minutes and said this fellow may be the leader of the free world one day, and they had not been -- at sea or exposed to this campaign to date, they would think that you were talking crazy talk.
It`s stream of consciousness; 90 percent of what he has said is about him and how he has been wronged by the media, by our colleague Chuck Todd and everybody else. He has gone back and forth between issues over and over and over again.
If I`m a Republican operative or donor or even a moderate suburban Republican voter, perhaps more importantly, and I`m watching this guy, I`m thinking, I don`t want him leading my team. His head could explode at any moment. And I think we have to kind of realize that he is an erratic, unstable candidate who can`t stick to a message and can`t deal with any subject seriously without calling names and making outlandish charges without proof.
MELBER: Heidi, the old saying in politics is, if you`re explaining, you`re losing.
And on a week when his opponent has come off of the FBI and Benghazi investigations, he is here explaining why, yes, it sounded silly when he talked about the Brexit in the context of his own golf course, but it wasn`t actually silly. Who else is thinking about that right now, except for Donald Trump?
HEIDI PRZYBYLA, "USA TODAY": Right.
And like David said, it is going to play right into Clinton`s hands in terms of that argument they have been trying to make about Donald Trump, which is all about temperament. He -- it was almost as if, at the beginning, they gave him these notes. He knew he had to read them. But in his heart, he couldn`t stop himself from going after, talking about all the ways in which he felt he had been wronged by the media, calling out your own Chuck Todd as sleepy eyes, and repeatedly coming -- making several swipes at Chuck Todd.
He made more the swipes at Chuck Todd than he did at Hillary Clinton in this speech, which, as you know, going into this, the Republicans were very much expecting him, like Katy said, to take that ball and to hit it out of the park. But this was more like -- really, I`m stunned too, just because we saw a lot during the primary campaign.
But this was a rambling variety show that, unlike I think we saw even during the primary, calling his -- impromptu calling his son up on the stage. And it is going to play into that temperament argument. And I have to imagine and would love to be a fly on the wall in Reince Priebus` office or any of the other Republicans who were expecting a very different him to give a very performance than he just did.
MELBER: Right.
And Chuck Todd, of course moderator of "Meet the Press," can speak for himself if and when he wants to about this. I would just note, on the substance, the remark from Chuck Todd that seemed to bother Donald Trump, Dana, was a criticism about Trump`s ability to deal with the political openings he`s been presented with, that is to say, not even a media criticism of, you know, what I sometimes get, oh, you covered Trump University, and you didn`t tell the good side of the story kind of media criticism. It was more that it really rankled him that someone pointed out something that, by the way, many Republicans have been pretty publicly agonizing over, which is the guy doesn`t have a general election focus, and this is a choice between two people.
MILBANK: And, Ari, the irony is, he just proved Chuck`s point with this nearly hour-long rambling exercise in narcissism right now.
MELBER: Now it`s getting deep. It is getting circular.
(LAUGHTER) MILBANK: But, first of all, I like Chuck`s eyes very much.
You know who I feel sorry for tonight is poor Newt Gingrich. And I never thought I would say these words.
(LAUGHTER) MILBANK: But this was his big coming out. Not only does Donald Trump step on the message the Republicans want to deliver about Hillary Clinton. He steps on his own message, which was having -- having Newt Gingrich out there tonight. And that`s why I say the sort of narcissism thing. He is living this campaign in his own head. I`m not terribly shocked. When I go to Trump rallies, this is very much what you see, as opposed to when you play a 30-second bite on TV. It rambles. It wanders. But there is a central, cohesive focus. And that is, isn`t Donald Trump wonderful?
MELBER: David, what does Gingrich bring to the table now?
CORN: Well, he brings two more ex-wives. So, there`s six amongst the both of them. He brings in ego that`s bigger than Donald Trump`s. He brings ethical lapses, his failed presidential campaign, the fact that he was booted out of the House speakership after trying to impeach Bill Clinton for acts or sexual improprieties, and he was engaged in his own set of those.
So, I don`t know what he brings. I -- is there any angry white guy out there who will only vote for Trump if Trump picks Newt Gingrich?
(LAUGHTER) CORN: Maybe he is the only one who will take the job. We have seen people running away from this like Trump is some spoiled, rotten rutabaga. And I don`t know even he brings anything to the table, other than another oversized, controversial personality, which I`m betting Reince Priebus would not like to see on the ticket.
MELBER: Yes.
Heidi, to extend the metaphor, I suppose the question is whether this
rutabaga has begun to mold and whether anyone would start smelling in it Cleveland.
(LAUGHTER) PRZYBYLA: Well, certainly, we haven`t talked to Bob Corker about that in any direct fashion. But he did bow out exactly under 24 hours after having his own appearance. MELBER: And what does that mean to you? What does that say?
PRZYBYLA: Well, he`s had problems from the beginning.
And I think he`s going to continue. This is going to just make it all the harder, really. Newt Gingrich even at one point, I think, was showing that he had some questions about Donald Trump after some of the racially charged comments that he made.
But in terms of what we`re seeing right now on the stump, this was supposed to be a trial run for Newt Gingrich. I didn`t even see Newt -- maybe -- did we miss -- did he speak briefly at the beginning?
MELBER: We missed him. PRZYBYLA: But, again, this is making clear that, going forward, it is all about -- it is all about Donald Trump.
MELBER: And, David, you`ve written whole books about issues around war and the legal standards that exist in the Bush era. We`ve seen a lot of comparisons recently, Donald Trump among others saying, hey, wait a minute.
Was Hillary Clinton let off the hook while others were not? One of the cases that`s been cited is General David Petraeus.
Of course, legally that was very different because there was direct evidence of passing material to an unauthorized person and misleading FBI agents. Neither of those allegations had any context in the Clinton context. But walk us through your view particularly the criticism that we`re hearing and somehow things were done differently this time out. Is that true in your knowledge of history? DAVID CORN, MOTHER JONES: No, I mean, what Hillary Clinton did with the e- mails was wrong. It violated established guidelines at the time. It was careless.
And I think James Comey`s statement was on the money. The issue as to where it was criminal or not. There is no precedent for this.
We`ve had legal experts the last few months say the U.S. government has never really brought a case in this way. So, Donald Trump has a really good opening here and as others have noted. He could criticize Hillary Clinton on the substance.
MELBER: Right. CORN: That she was careless and reckless. But he has to make it bigger, more conspiratorial. And that`s where he goes off the rails and shows that he`s not really a responsible person when it come to civil and political discourse.
MELBER: Well, Heidi, I want to ask you a question that I already have a theory about the answer to, I don`t know if you`ve ever had that happened on television before. But beyond what David just said, I actually wonder whether there is a competence issue of whether Donald Trump listens close enough and understands the nuances of what Director Comey said or has people around him who can brief him on that to actually get to the point to say there was a lot in that presentation about State Department policy, secrecy policy, responsible management of information at the height of diplomacy and national security.
That one could enter into with some substance and nuance that would actually be an argument against the nominee and her leadership rather than what he did, which is say, so, oh, this is a, quote, "rigged system" like he thought delegates were rigged against him, and it is back to his own talking points. Or am I not giving him enough credit? HEIDI PRZYBYLA, USA TODAY: Well, sure. Comey -- that`s why a lot of Republicans said when they were watching Comey`s statement, they were surprised that he didn`t recommend indict because they had given him a treasure trove of information that the Republicans will be -- sound bites rather that the Republicans will be using in ads.
And the fact that Trump a day after Comey gave him thought information, basically point by point, deconstructing everything that Clinton has said, leading up to this which was, at least misleading in terms of saying she didn`t send classified information, when, in fact, it was classified. And on down the line in terms of things that she said that wound up being intentionally or unintentionally not quite accurate. He had a lot there to work with.
And, you know, when your question is basically, does he not understand the nuance and the legal differences? I mean, that`s a -- many other issues, he is not shown much of an interest in kind of drilling down to that finite level, even in this case, where this could really benefit him to do so, if he could show the discipline to kind of tease that out and make a logical, compelling case using Comey`s own words.
MELBER: It would be bizarre if it wasn`t so routine. Heidi, David and Dana, thank you for joining us, coming out of that speech. Very interesting stuff.
Up next, we have the other big story. Protest and outrage in Louisiana after that cellphone video, graphic video showing police officers killing a black man in front of a convenience store. There are new developments and new video out tonight. We`re going to update you on the investigation, as well as the reaction. That`s next. This is HARDBALL, the place for politics. (COMMERCIAL BREAK) (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) MICHAEL MCCLANAHAN, BATON ROUGE NAACP: What I`m calling for today, is that the chief law enforcement officer, which is the mayor, to fire the chief of police immediately. I demand for the chief to be fired immediately.
(END VIDEO CLIP) MELBER: Welcome back to HARDBALL. That was Michael McClanahan in the Baton Rouge NAACP calling for what he wants in justice today. This after a black man was shot outside a convenience store in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, early Tuesday morning. Police say 37-year-old Alton Sterling was shot by police after getting into a confrontation with officers who were responding to a 911 call.
Now, tonight, we can tell you there is brand new video of the shooting.
This was recorded by the owner of the Triple S food mart.
Now, we`re going to warn you as we have in showing some of this throughout the day. This is very graphic and disturbing. It shows two officers on the ground with Sterling. It does not show what happened after the incident which could be crucial.
Now, the owner of the store who took this video, the new one, said he saw one of the officers remove what he believes was a gun from Sterling`s pocket. But the video was itself inconclusive as to what was removed from the officer. Now, in another separate video, one officer appears to shout, "He`s got a gun." We`ll play that for you.
(VIDEO CLIP PLAYS) MELBER: There are conflicting accounts about what happened. The chief of police telling reporters, Sterling was armed. But later when asked if he was armed, he referred to the federal investigators at DOJ who just today opened a civil rights investigation into the case. That is unusually fast.
The officers accused in the shooting has been identified as four-year veteran Blane Salamoni and three-year veteran Howie Lake II. They have been placed on administrative leave. That`s standard operating procedure.
Joining me now for all of this, Louisiana Congressman Cedric Richmond, and Val Demings, who served as the police chief of Orlando, also running for Congress.
Val, when we look at this kind of situation, we have a slice of video. We do not have all the videos. We do not know all the before and after. I want to ask you a fair question which is based on the video we do have.
Do you see anything wrong?
VAL DEMINGS, FORMER ORLANDO POLICE CHIEF: Well, first of all let me say that it is definitely a tragedy that has occurred in Baton Rouge. My heart goes out to the family and everybody who was there that had to witness it, everybody that will be affected by it. We know that all of the facts are not in.
We need to see all of the video from every different angle. We also need to interview all the witnesses and certainly track down the initial caller that I think can provide some very crucial information. But looking at that very narrow piece of video, I do not personally see anything, any actions that the suspect made would dictate the use of deadly force.
MELBER: You`re saying the way the suspect was pinned to the ground. We can probably show that on our screen so people see it again. That the way the suspect appears to be pinned or restrained on the video that is available, that doesn`t pose a kind of threat that would justify the officer`s use of deadly force?
DEMINGS: Well, as I`ve said, I spent 27 years at the Atlanta Police Department. I have worked the streets. I`ve worked in just about every different division, rose up through the ranks to become the chief, worked in internal affairs and investigated shootings. They`re very, very stressful.
There is a lot of pieces of information, physical evidence and statements that need to be taken. But when I look at the video without all of the information -- and it is still early -- but without all the information, when I look at the video that has been provided, I don`t see anything from viewing that that would -- that the suspect did, that would justify the use of deadly force.
MELBER: Congressman Richmond, what about you?
REP. CEDRIC RICHMOND (D), LOUISIANA: Well, I was concerned when I saw the video last night. But looking at the video that was released today, only doubles my concern and my troubles are increased. I mean, it`s very problematic to see that video and realize that someone lost life in that manner. And I agree with Val that looking at that short clip of just a moment in time, the use of deadly force seems very unreasonable there and only confirms that you need an outside, independent, law enforcement body to investigate this shooting.
MELBER: Congressman, you were telling some of the HARDBALL staff before the show that getting the federal investigators involved can sometimes take weeks or months. How fast was this compared to precedent and what was different this time?
RICHMOND: The only thing I can tell you is that I am some of my life experiences and after Katrina with the Danziger Bridge and the Henry Glover case, it took years for justice to come in on Danziger Bridge case. The New Orleans Police Department investigated, closed the investigation, ruled it self-defense because the decedents had fired on police. Well, the FBI comes in a couple years later, they do year-long or so investigation and find out the decedents weren`t armed at all, never fired on the police officers, and wind up charging them, convicting and now, they ultimate pled guilty after the appellate court got involved. So, for the Justice Department to be involved this early is unique, but in this case, I think, it was very warranted, because we really had to give the community a sense that this would be done by the rules, by the book.
It will be thorough. We`re not going to sweep anything under the rug and we`re going to make sure that we answer all of the questions that are raised by this video and that we`re going to let the facts take us wherever they lead us.
MELBER: All right. Congressman Richmond and Val Demings, thanks to both of you. Appreciate it.
Up next, the HARDBALL roundtable will be up next to talk about some of Donald Trump`s comments about dictators and strongmen that he likes. He brought it back up tonight. You`re watching HARDBALL, the place for politics. (COMMERCIAL BREAK) (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESUMPTIVE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: Saddam Hussein was a bad guy, right? He was a bad guy. Really bad guy.
But you know what he did well? He killed terrorists. He did that so good.
They didn`t read him the rights, they didn`t talk, they were terrorists, it was over.
Today, Iraq is Harvard for terrorism. You want to be a terrorist, you go to Iraq.
(END VIDEO CLIP) MELBER: Welcome back to HARDBALL. That was Donald Trump yesterday offering some praise for the former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein. And moments ago, he claimed the press took those remarks out of context.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIPS) TRUMP: I said, bad guy, Saddam Hussein, bad guy. Then I said again, Saddam Hussein is a bad guy.
But he did one thing well. He killed terrorists.
I wake up, I turn on the television. Donald Trump loves Saddam Hussein. I said, that`s not what I said. That`s not what I said. I don`t love Saddam Hussein. I hate Saddam Hussein, but he was damn good at killing terrorists.
(END VIDEO CLIP) MELBER: And this was not the first time Trump said complimentary things about authoritarian leaders and even yes, dictators. Here he is talking about Vladimir Putin.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIPS) TRUMP: I think I`d get along very well with Vladimir Putin, I just think so. People will say, what do you mean? I think I`ll get along well with him.
I think in terms of leadership, he`s getting an A, and our president is not doing so well. They did not look good together.
I got to know him very well because we were both on "60 Minutes," we were stable mates. And we did very well that night. But you know that.
(END VIDEO CLIP) MELBER: You know that. Trump also said North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un`s ability to retain power after his father died is amazing.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) TRUMP: If you look at North Korea, this guy -- I mean, he`s like a maniac, OK? You got to give him credit. How many young guys, he was like 26 or 25 when his father died, take over these tough generals and all of a sudden, you know, it`s pretty amazing, when you think of it. How does he do it?
Even though it`s a cultural thing, he goes in, takes over, it`s incredible.
He wiped out the uncle. He wiped out this one, that one. I mean, this guy doesn`t play games.
(END VIDEO CLIP) MELBER: Dictatorial nepotism clearly impressive there. Tonight`s roundtable joins me. Kim Ghattas, correspondent for the BBC and author of "The Secretary", John Capehart opinion writer for "The Washington Post", and April Ryan, Washington bureau chief for American Urban Radio Networks. Kim, what is the deal with everything he just said?
KIM GHATTAS, BBC: Well, Ari, I think Donald Trump does have a very strange fascination with strong men, but he`s factually incorrect, actually, because not only did Donald Trump -- not only did Saddam Hussein, of course, gas Kurds in his own country, repress the Shias in his own country, but he also harbored terrorists. He gave shelter to Abu Nidal, a Palestinian militant who carried out a lot of atrocities in the `80s. He gave shelter to the Mojahedin-e-Khalq, an Iranian opposition group that was listed as a terrorist organization.
So, the idea that he was going after terrorist is actually incorrect. The key idea, is, repression leads to more extremism. So, perhaps Saddam Hussein for some time provided a kind of stability, but in the long-term, stability that paid off quite well for his interests, to some extent for western interests, but in the long-term, it feeds extremism. And a lot of what we`re seeing in Iraq today is a result not only of the Iraq war, but of the kind of atmosphere, the kind of society that was built under Saddam Hussein.
MELBER: So, Jonathan, how about that point that Trump is both factually wrong on a details of what kind leader Saddam Hussein was, and wrong in a deeper sense for foreign policy, if he thinks this kind of authoritarianism would actually counter terror.
JONATHAN CAPEHART, THE WASHINGTON POST: Well, on the first point, it shows that Donald Trump has no knowledge of, in this case, foreign affairs, no knowledge of the history of Iraq or the Middle East. And on the other point, you know, we`re dealing with a person here who we just watched for 45 minutes, him talk for most of the time about himself, being wronged by the press, and nothing about where he wants to lead this country, and in particular, where he wants to lead when it comes to fighting terrorism and bringing about some kind of stability, or if not detente in the Middle East.
MELBER: April? APRIL RYAN, AMERICAN URBAN RADIO NETWORKS: Donald Trump seems to once again want to show that he`s really fascinated by dictatorships. Not only that, you know, one piece that really made many of us cringe, while we were watching him, he likened Saddam Hussein to the Harvard of terrorism, going against terror.
And it`s just very interesting. And once again, to piggy back off what Jonathan said, you have to remember, this is a totally different society than 20, 30 years ago. Right now, we have Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, we have places in Africa, terror is breeding everywhere, and he can`t even pronounce Tanzania. I`m saying it myself, Tanzania, he cannot pronounce Tanzania. He said Tanzania.
So, the bottom line is, once he learns foreign policy, maybe he`ll understand how dictatorships play a part in the wrong way in world policy.
MELBER: Yes. There maybe ways to go there.
I want to thank Kim Ghattas, Jonathan Capehart, and April Ryan, for hanging with us. That is HARDBALL for now. Thank you for watching.
"ALL IN WITH CHRIS HAYES" starts right now.
END THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED. END
(SPEECH JOINED IN PROGRESS)
DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESUMPTIVE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: ... country`s in trouble. Between the debt, between the joblessness -- and let me tell you, with the phony 5 percent numbers that you hear about unemployment -- it`s a phony number. It`s a phony number. It`s a number that -- when somebody looks for a job -- and I don`t want to have you raise your hand because you may be embarrassed. I`d be a little embarrassed.
Somebody looks for a job. And they give up. And they`re great people. They`re unbelievable. They`ve worked all their lives. They can`t find a job, right? And they give up. Now they`re considered statistically employed.
So we show this phony number. And on that, I don`t blame Obama so much because, frankly, this was to make presidents look good and make politicians look good, which is not an easy thing to do, OK, because they want to show, oh, how wonderful the economy -- so just as I was getting off the plane today, we announced trade deficit numbers for month, which were, like, almost record-setting. We have trade deficits that are worse than ever before.
All I`ve done for years is talk about trade deficit, trade -- I used to talk about Japan. Now I talk more about China, but it`s still Japan. It`s everybody! It`s everybody. We don`t make good deals with anybody.
But last night, I was talking about trade because I love it. It`s my favorite subject, that and strengthening our military and taking care of our vets. They`re my favorite subject.
(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: No, they`re my -- they`re my favorite subjects.
(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: Other than my children or my grandchildren. I could talk about my grandchildren -- let`s see. He was 39 minutes in the back of a plane talking about his -- ladies and gentlemen, the president is going to talk about his grandchildren. Well, I have two. He has two. I have eight, he has two.
But he talk about -- how long are you going to talk about them? I`ll bet they`re beautiful, two beautiful children. So he says, They`re beautiful. They`re really smart. They`re really good. I love them so much. They`re unbelievable. You know, one is brand-new, beautiful little baby.
OK, after about a minute, what can you talk about? Oh, you can say, Here`s a picture. Look. Look. OK. So that`s one minute out of the 39-minute time, right?
Then we talk about golf, right? So you say, Jack Nicklaus -- who endorsed me. I love Jack. I love Jack.
(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: He`s the greatest. Jack. Did you know Jack endorsed me? Do you know how young Jack was when he won the Ohio State championship? Jack Nicklaus. He`s the greatest guy. And he`s a friend of mine. And he endorsed me. I didn`t ask for the endorsement. I don`t want to do that. I feel, like, sort of guilty when I ask these people for endorsements. I don`t know to do that.
Jack endorsed me! I said, Thank you, Jack. I appreciate it. He said, Well, you`re going to do a great job. You`re got go shake things up. Now, when you talk about winners, is Jack a winner? Right?
(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: Did you see the U.S. Open was on the other day. I think Jack Nicklaus was in the top -- the top 10, like, I think it was 18 times. He was in the top -- I`ve never seen anything like it. His record is unbelievable. He won it four times, top 10 18 times. I mean, this guy is a winner! Right?
So when I get endorsements from Jack Nicklaus -- Bobby Knight! Bobby Knight!
(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: Bobby Knight. Bobby will be speaking at the convention. We have so many people. We have such a great convention planned. But I just have to go back. So this is the final thing. So last night, I made a great speech, standing ovation, everyone crazy. Nobody talks about the crowd. Every time I go home, my wife asks, How was the crowd? Again, they didn`t -- they never show the crowd.
I tell you, they only show when we have protesters. I love my protesters! Don`t we have any damn protesters today?
(LAUGHTER)
TRUMP: Because when we have protesters (INAUDIBLE) do you think you have one? No, he`s too -- just -- no, he`s -- he`s -- friend or foe? Friend or foe. He`s -- he`s friend. OK.
But I love my protesters because the cameras spin around at angles that you wouldn`t believe. They do somersaults around to -- they look like a sausage because I went -- my first two speeches, I had no protesters. And every time I went home -- big crowds. And every time I went home, I said, Could you see the size of the crowd? No, I didn`t.
Now, you can hear the size. Like, last night you heard the size, right? Many, many more than the president and Hillary got!
(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: But so -- so people would say, Well, I hear it. You know, they hear that very -- you know, that sort of humming sort of -- that`s not, like, from 12 people.
But we had this (INAUDIBLE) so what happens is -- last night, we had a great evening in North Carolina, a great -- we`re going to win North Carolina. We`re doing great there. We`re going to win Ohio. We`re doing great here.
(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: By the way, the section I just left last week, wonderful congressman and his wife, and I said to him, I won`t use -- I don`t want to embarrass anybody, but I said, Could you endorse me? He said, Even if I don`t like you, I would endorse you. You know why, Mr. Trump? You have a 29-point lead in this section of Ohio -- 29 points. I said, You`re right. You have to endorse me!
(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: We`re going to take care of our miners and we`re going to take care of our steelworkers! Hillary`s not. She`s going to put you out of business because, if she ever won, she would sign TPP, which will make NAFTA, which was signed by her husband, which -- in my opinion, the worst trade deal in the history of this country, and it`s not even close, signed by Bill Clinton! And he didn`t suffer from it. It was everybody that followed him that suffered from it.
(INAUDIBLE) jobs are moving. I look at your jobs, where they`re moving down to Mexico, right? They`re moving to Mexico. One after another, they`re moving to Mexico. China is coming in, dumping the steel, making it impossible for your steel plants. They`re devaluing their currencies. We do nothing about it. Folks, I`m going to do so much about it. It`s going to be so easy. It`s going to be so easy.
(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: It`s going to be so easy. So last night, we had this -- and then I wake up, and I hear, number one, I love Saddam Hussein. I hate Saddam Hussein. But I love Saddam Hussein, according to the press, because they`re dishonest as hell. They heard what I said.
And number two -- and they said it very, very strongly. They said, He should have spoken about Hillary Clinton longer.
Now, I wrote out, like, four pages that I wrote out. And I read it point by point by point! And after a long time -- I don`t know, many, many minutes -- you know, I got thousands of people. And this really stupid guy, Chuck Todd -- I won`t use his name. I refuse to use his name. I refuse to call him sleepy eyes! I`m not going to call him sleepy eyes. But he`s talking about, He had an opportunity to hit Hillary Clinton!
I -- did you see what I did to her last night? I just went -- am I correct? I mean, it got to a point -- it got -- I was hitting her so hard. And the problem is I`m a professional. And I`m hitting her so hard. And I know it doesn`t mean anything because the system rigged and it`s fixed and it`s broken!
So I`m doing it, and I`m doing it because I feel I have to do it. And it`s sort of boring to do it, to be honest with you. So I didn`t want to -- and I wanted to get on to the military and to vets. I wanted to get on to these other subjects. I wanted to get on to terror, OK? Because we are going to experience things that you won`t even believe, folks. Watch the predictions, lots of predictions, right? And I wanted to get on to terror.
One of the reasons the women are liking me a lot lately is because...
(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: Thank you. Thank you! Thank you! Because they feel I`m going to keep our country safe! I`m going to (INAUDIBLE)
(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: And they love Ivanka and they love Melania! And Melania and Ivanka and Eric and Tiffany and Don are going to be speaking at the convention! So we`re going to...
(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: And by the way, so just to finish, by the way -- so I get hit this morning, like, He had the opportunity to go after -- everyone said I made a great speech.
I`ll tell you how bad my speech was last night. CNN covered it from point to point without a commercial! Fox covered it practically from beginning to end! Others covered it from -- that`s how bad my speech was yesterday! That`s how bad!
You know, if it were bad, folks -- these guys, they don`t care about polls. They don`t care about anything. They only care about one thing. What`s the one thing? Ratings! Ratings!
So I made a speech last night that some of the folks gave an A to, some of them gave an A-plus to, but when I saw NBC (INAUDIBLE) He had a chance to really go after Hillary Clinton! Oh, what I did to her!
But you know, after a while, we have to talk about other things. OK. So here`s the story. We`re going to make America great again.
(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: We`re going to make America great. We`re going to take our country back for everybody, not for us, not for this room, not for this room, not for the overflow room, not for the people outside. We`re going to take our country back for everyone.
We`re going to take it back for African-American youth, who have a 59 percent unemployment rate, by the way, 59 percent. We`re going to take it back for African-American youth, who have a 59 percent unemployment rate and have no chance! They have no chance in our society.
You know who I just spoke to? Big Don King. Big Don King. Just spoke to him 10 minutes ago. I said, Don, I`d love you to speak at the convention because you know what? You beat the system. And he`s a friend of mine, Big Don, greatest boxing promoter of all time. In fact, somebody said -- and Mike Tyson endorsed me, as you know, and Don King endorsed me.
You know what Don King did? He owns a newspaper. He endorsed Donald Trump for president, Bernie Sanders for vice president! How do you like -- and he put a big ad in his paper, his paper! He wants Bernie Sanders for vice president. I said, That`s a new one. That`s -- big Don King. So...
AUDIENCE: Newt! Newt! Newt! Newt!
TRUMP: Wow! That`s -- that -- I like that, too. We like -- we like Newt.
(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: And I`ll tell you what. Newt -- Newt has been my friend for a long time. And I`m not saying anything and I`m not telling even Newt anything, but I can tell you, in one form or another, Newt Gingrich is going to be involved with our government. That I can tell you.
(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: OK? He`s going to be (INAUDIBLE) He`s smart, he`s tough, he gets it. And he says I`m the biggest thing he`s ever seen in the history of politics (INAUDIBLE)
(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: No, Newt`s going to be involved, if I can get approval from his wife. That may be -- that may be tough, but that`s OK.
And you know, I have somebody else very special here. So I have wonderful children. And you know, I`m lucky. They were smart. They were born smart, OK? They were smart. God was good. And they went to great schools. And they did well, and they`re in business and do well, and they feel so strongly about what I`m doing. They don`t even like it in terms of doing it themselves. They love what they`re doing.
And my one boy is here, Eric Trump. Eric.
(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: And I`m very proud of Eric. He`s done a great job in the real estate business. Now I threw him into this political business. (INAUDIBLE) he`s doing a damn good job! But he loves the real estate.
And you know what I did? Let me tell you a little story. These -- I love this -- I love this crowd. Isn`t it nice when you don`t read from a speech?
(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: Ladies and gentlemen, thank you very much for being here, or Hillary with the teleprompters every single time. And whether you go north and south, or east and west, Donald Trump is a bad person. Donald Trump made a lot of money on Atlantic City, but he hurt the little people. She calls that the (INAUDIBLE) He hurt the (INAUDIBLE) I didn`t. Made a lot of money. And governor, what they did -- I`ll tell you, you see that shame -- I left seven years ago. But -- but she goes (INAUDIBLE) and then after a little while -- did you ever notice, after about 12 minutes, people start leaving? We can`t do that.
The nice part is -- let me tell you -- so I go to Scotland, and I know I`m going to get killed when I got to Scotland because the press is so dishonest. I went to make sure that my boy -- who -- I bought Turnberry four or five years ago, and we`re doing this massive renovation, just like we`re going to be opening the old post office in October.
We`re a year ahead of schedule. I could open it sooner, but I want to get it as close to the election as possible. Does that make sense to you? In fact, I could open in August! I`m delaying the opening because I want it to be so close because when I open it, even if I delay it a month or two -- the hotel`s going to open sooner.
But I want to say we`re more than a year ahead of schedule and we`re under budget, and the product is even better than I said it was going to be, right?
(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: Maybe I`ll open it on November 7th, the day before the big day! Oh, we`re going to have -- and the press will be there. They`ll be there by the hundreds. But they won`t say we`re under budget. They won`t say we`re ahead of schedule. But that`s OK. People know!
But what happened is -- we have children. And I want to support my children. I think I`ve been a good father. And I want to support my -- so I put Eric Trump -- like, individual things -- Ivanka`s been great. Don`s been great. Tiffany`s just starting now. She just is graduating from college. Baron has great potential, but he`s 10, you know? But he`s got great potential.
But I put my children as they grow a little bit older in charge of different jobs. And I put Eric in charge of the great Turnberry resort in Scotland where they -- home of the British Open, which now they call the Open Championship. And Eric spent the last year going back and forth. He`d spend two days over there, then come back, then go back and fight with contractors, and he got great contractors and they did an unbelievable job. I`ve been hearing about it.
So I said, You know, if I go over there, these dishonest horrible human beings are going to say Trump went over to play golf. Trump -- in the middle of campaign. I can`t do that, but I have to support my children, right? (INAUDIBLE) if you were -- so -- so I said, You know what? I want to fly over and I`m going to fly back! And I want to support my son.
So what happened -- but just to show you how -- no, no. Just to show you how dishonest Hillary Clinton is, and the press -- so I go out. We have the bagpipes, we have everything, we have a ribbon cutting on the ninth tee, on the beautiful ninth tee overlooking the ocean, and the beautiful lighthouse, one of the greatest courses anywhere in the world -- we rebuilt the course. We rebuilt everything. We rebuilt the hotel. It`s great.
And that was the day that Europe had the big turn, where U.K. left, right? They left.
(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: And I said (INAUDIBLE) but I have a pulse, right? That`s what we need. We need somebody with touch. We have horrible people. They have no touch, no brain, no nothing.
So you had Obama, If that happens, they`re going to go to the back of the line. I would say that -- I think Obama might have been the reason that they broke away, OK? He doesn`t help (INAUDIBLE) He actually said that the U.K. is going to the back of the line. Not a nice statement. Not a nice - - can you imagine if I said that, the back of the line? Oh, would I be killed for that statement!
So he said they`re going to the back of the line. OK. Bottom line is (INAUDIBLE) asked (ph) me -- a lot of times. I said, No, I think they`re going to break away. I think they want their independence. I think they`re going to break away. And I see what`s happening with migration. I see where countries are being forced against their will to take these people. They don`t want them.
And instead of building these wonderful places where they can ultimately go back to their homeland, where they want to be -- anyway, they`re just being forced -- so Germany is a disaster right now. Sweden, parts of Sweden. I mean, things are really bad.
So I said, I think they`re going to -- and by the way, the odds were 20 percent that I`d be right, 20 percent, because they said it`s not going to happen. They`re going to approve, and that`s going to be the end of that.
I was right! They broke away. They broke away. I was right. And then the next day, they said, Oh, Trump was right. The same thing could happen in the United States.
Let me tell you, we`re going to be right a second time, folks. It`s going to (INAUDIBLE)
(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: Because we`re tired of incompetent people! We`re tired of incompetent leadership and incompetent people! And Hillary Clinton -- I said bad judgment. She`s incompetent, OK? She`s -- the only good thing she`s ever done is get out of trouble when anybody else would have been in jail by now! That`s the only thing that I`ve ever seen her do that was a great job! I got to give her credit!
I got to give her credit. I got to give Bill Clinton credit for going to that plane and saying for 39 minutes, he talked about his grandchildren and he talked about golf. There`s no way you can do that. I told you, two minutes for the grandchildren, two minutes for golf. We got 35 or 36 minutes left! What are we going to -- let`s talk about Hillary!
And Hillary then talks about, I think I`d reappoint the attorney general! And you`re waiting for a decision by the attorney general! And you`re saying you`re going to give her a job! You`re not allowed to do that! That`s bribery, folks!
And then the attorney general comes out -- as Newt said, but the attorney general comes out and the attorney general says, No charges! It`s bribery, wouldn`t you say? It`s bribery! You`re not supposed -- she said she`s going to reappoint the attorney general, and the attorney general is waiting to make a determination as to whether or not she`s guilty!
And boy, was that a fast determination. Wow! Should have waited a lot -- at least waited a little bit longer. Don`t just come out with one or two sentences. Talk about it a little bit!
So look, again -- again, trouble (ph). So here`s what happens. So I go to Scotland, beautiful. The weather was beautiful. The waves are crashing up on the rocks. We`re opening the course, getting ready to cut a ribbon.
We have so many press. We had over 400. Hope -- the legendary Hop -- how many, 400. 400, 450. It was unbelievable because they were all there for Brexit. And they were all there to see what was going to happen. Will the U.K. break away?
And now that`s about six hours old, so they`re bored. They want the next story. So the next story is Trump. So I go there. And all of a sudden, I start hearing these things! What`s Trump doing in Scotland? Oh, he`s playing golf.
OK. So I have a news conference. It was a great news conference. Even Newt said that was a great news conference, right? I did a good job, Newt? When Newt says I did a good job -- he`s a very critical guy. He sometime says, I don`t like what he`s saying, but there I did a good job, right?
AUDIENCE: Newt! Newt! Newt! Newt!
TRUMP: Newt! Newt! So let me just tell you. So I`m -- I say, Any questions? (INAUDIBLE) not talking about the -- any questions? And the place goes crazy. The cameras -- I`m telling you, we had as big a group of media as you`ve ever seen. They all drove up, you know, from London, different -- everybody just converged on Turnberry.
So, I`m taking questions. One of the questions was, Mr. Trump, if the pound goes down, how will Turnberry do? So, I say -- I didn`t bring this up. I said, look, here`s what happens. If the pound goes down, Turnberry will do very well, because a lot of people are going to travel to the U.K. They will come to Scotland. Turnberry is going to do well if the pound goes down.
OK, period. That`s it. I answer the question. Next day, it`s in an ad by crooked Hillary Clinton and I`m all over the place, but they don`t show the question. It`s -- here`s the thing. They start off, did you hear Donald trump? Well, all he talked about was his resort. And they show me. They don`t show the question. If the pound goes down, Turnberry is going to do very well. OK?
Then, they gave me a golf club. I said I don`t want to touch it. I don`t want to touch golf. I don`t want to -- I`m leaving. I inspected the hotel. I inspected the course. I said, Eric Trump, you did a great job. I`m getting the hell out of here now, because I want to be back campaigning. I want to get out. Congratulations. My boy, I love you.
Come up, Eric, come up. I love you, my boy. I love you.
I said that`s my 6`6`` boy, but he`s always going to be my boy, right? So, I said, Eric, I`m out of here. I`m going. I`m leaving. I got to go. But they said, Mr. Trump, would you like to hit the first ball? No, I don`t want to touch your club, because I know, if I touch a club, these horrible, horrible human beings, plus the Hillary Clinton thousand-people staff she has, right, will come up with a clip of me holding a golf -- so I don`t want to touch it.
So we cut the ribbon. I inspected the property. I`m very proud of the job he did. Unbelievable job. And I went around, and I got out of there. I was in Scotland one night. That`s not easy. It`s a long trip, right? I was there one night, and I was out of there. So here`s what happens.
The next day, the news comes on. Donald Trump went to Scotland in the middle of the campaign to play golf. But here`s what`s worse. They took my statement on the pound -- if the pound goes down, Turnberry is going to do great. They don`t know I`m answering a question.
So, everyone thinks I`m bragging and I want the pound to go down. OK. But here`s the worst. But that crooked, crooked disgusting group that works for Hillary Clinton -- now, remember, I never touched a club. I never -- they show me hitting a ball, Donald Trump playing golf in Scotland during the, you know, troubles and everything else of the world.
And they put it in an ad. But the picture was from two years before at a different course. The only good thing -- no, it`s true. And they said playing golf at Turnberry. So, two good things happened out of it. Number one, the head of Turnberry called me up. He said, sir, did you take an ad because we`re swamped with business? I said, really?
That`s good, right? That`s good. And the other thing is the swing looked good. They didn`t put one of my bad swings. I have them too. The swing actually looked good. So, Hillary, thank you very much. But you know what. How dishonest is that?
So they show me playing golf at Turnberry, and I didn`t play golf. That was two years -- the picture was 2 years old or more. In fact, it was more. You know how I can tell it was more? I was even thinner. I said, man, I like that. Actually, I never went too wild, because I love the swing and I look thin. Well, relatively thin, OK?
But I just want to say, this young guy, my daughter, my other son, Don, my wife, who puts up with a lot with all of that we`re going on -- this is big stuff. This is big stuff. But my family has been so -- my sister, who is incredible, my sister, who is a federal judge, court of appeals, my other sister Elizabeth, my brother Robert, who is a great guy. I have one brother who passed away.
But I have great children. Tiffany has been so amazing. My kids, my family have been so unbelievable. And this is not easy for them. They go out. Mostly, people love it, but some people don`t. You know, the one thing that`s interesting, and I told this to Eric on the plane -- my wife said, you know, when you go out, you never -- everybody loves you. Now most people love you, but there`s people that don`t. You never had those people before.
I said, but we have to make America great again. And, ultimately, hopefully, my biggest dream is to have those people love me, too, not because of me, but because we`re going to do such a great job. Does that make sense? Right?
(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)
D. TRUMP: So I will introduce -- I will introduce Eric Trump. Eric Trump did an unbelievable job. He`s doing an unbelievable job. And he was pushed into the world of politics not because he wanted it, but because I said good luck on television tonight. You`re doing the show.
So, Eric Trump, everybody!
(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)
ERIC TRUMP, EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT, TRUMP ORGANIZATION: Wow. Wow. Wow.
Thank you. We have some good fans over there. My father is just the greatest. I mean, I truly say this from the bottom of my heart. I love him to death. As a family, we love him. And thank you for loving him.
(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)
ARI MELBER, GUEST HOST: Good evening. I`m Ari Melber, in for Chris Matthews.
We have been here watching Donald Trump at this rally in Ohio. He spoke about many things. He did, in full disclosure, criticize this channel, as well as our colleagues, along with a lot of other media criticism, complaints about how he`s been treated, about accurate quotes he`s made that he feels were out of context, including, of course, some of his comments about Brexit.
And then the breaking news just in the past hour, he spoke to fact that Attorney General Loretta Lynch is saying the Clinton e-mail investigation will be officially and completely closed with no criminal charges filed. In a statement just within the last hour, Lynch announced she is -- quote - - "accepting the unanimous" recommendation from FBI Director James Comey, who of course made that big news with his press conference, explaining why the FBI did not find evidence to support any charges against Hillary Clinton or her aides.
You may remember. That was yesterday. And he is now, James Comey, set to testify tomorrow before the House Government Oversight Committee. He will answer questions about the FBI investigation into Clinton`s e-mail, a big legal and, of course, political story.
Lynch`s new announcement provides plenty of fodder, though, for Trump and Republicans. And at the rally there, he was with Newt Gingrich. He continues to speak, as we`re showing.
Gingrich, of course, considered one of the contenders for the number two spot on the Republican ticket. Tonight`s event was even characterized as a tryout to become Trump`s running mate. It also comes as Senators Bob Corker and Joni Ernst both removed themselves, saying they don`t want a tryout, indeed, they don`t want to be considered for veep.
Now, Trump was hitting hard against Hillary Clinton in her e-mails. You probably heard some of that. Here is some of what he said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
D. TRUMP: I just heard the news, it just happened, as you know, with the attorney general of the United States saying no problem.
(BOOING)
D. TRUMP: She made so many false statements. Is she going to be brought before Congress or something? Is something going to happen?
She claims this, was that it was more convenient to use just one device. Oh, the fact is, the FBI director said Hillary used several different servers, even though she said it was one, and numerous mobile devices to send and read e-mails.
Hillary Clinton said she turned over all of her related e-mails. Right? She said that. I saw that. The FBI director said Hillary failed to turn over several thousand work-related e-mails, including e-mails that were classified. Right?
Rigged system, folks. It`s very sad. It`s very sad.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MELBER: And off with the papers, you saw. Both tonight and last night, Trump went as far to accuse Clinton of -- quote -- "bribing" Attorney General Lynch somehow with what he called a promise of retaining her at the Justice Department in a potential Clinton administration.
Here was Trump last night.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
D. TRUMP: She said today that we may consider the attorney general to go forward. That`s like a bribe, isn`t it? Isn`t that sort of a bribe?
How can you say that? It`s a bribe!
I mean, the attorney general is sitting there, saying, if I get Hillary off the hook, I`m going to have four more years or eight more years. But if she loses, I`m out of a job. It is a bribe. She is laughing at the stupidity of our system. She is laughing, and so is her husband, Bill, laughing at what`s going on.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MELBER: I`m joined now by NBC`s Katy Tur, who is at that Trump rally where he continues to speak.
We have cut away from him, having given him a chance to speak, to analyze and report a little bit.
Katy, your view of how Donald Trump has been dealing with what has been a very active couple of days here as the Clinton e-mail investigation is officially closed?
KATY TUR, NBC NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Right now, he -- just a moment ago, he killed a mosquito and said something about Hillary Clinton. So he has certainly gotten quite a bit off-message.
And in the past two days, he`s been given a real opportunity, according to the Republican operatives and Republican advisers, to really hit it out of the park with Hillary Clinton. Essentially, the ball was put on the tee, and he was given an opportunity to swing the bat as hard as he can.
A nonpartisan figure, FBI Director James Comey, somebody who is well- respected, came out and excoriates Hillary Clinton on her judgment, saying that she was careless with classified material.
This feeds into the narrative that Donald Trump has been trying to paint that she`s not trustworthy, that she doesn`t have the judgment to be president of the United States.
And instead of staying on that message and hitting it over and over again, Donald Trump has repeatedly gone off-message, yesterday talking about Saddam Hussein and how he was good at killing terrorists, tonight, going onto a number of topics, starting with Clinton and just a list of what I have been writing down, then attacking Chuck Todd, then going back to the Saddam Hussein comments, back to the tweet over the weekend that was allegedly a Star of David tweet that he got a lot of flak for in the -- online.
Then he went back to Chuck Todd, then talking about Jack Nicklaus, then Newt Gingrich, then his Scotland golf course, then Attorney General Lynch being bribed by Hillary Clinton, he accused, then talking about Brexit, how he was right about Brexit, then talking about how he was unfairly criticized for saying that, if the pound goes down, the British currency goes down, then that would be good for his Scotland golf course.
And then he went back to his golf course in general and talked about how he was unfairly criticized for being there and how he did not golf there. So, in terms of messaging, Donald Trump has...
(CROSSTALK)
MELBER: Yes, let me ask you, you just cited several of the examples. We know that he knows how to mix it up with the press. He is indeed, I would say, effective at sometimes manipulating with the press. He brags about it in "The Art of the Deal."
But, tonight, he sounded particularly defensive about being quoted out of context on a number of stories. Is that normal or does that sound a little extra to you tonight?
TUR: It`s a little bit more than usual. This is not unusual for him to go on other tangents about stories that he doesn`t think he`s been treated fairly on.
Tonight, though, is unusual, given the climate that this campaign is in and given that they have been given a real opportunity with Hillary Clinton. So when you`re talking to GOP operatives, as I have been, and talking to donors and talking to folks who are just waiting for him to get on message, waiting for him to be a figure that the party can rally around, they said this was his real golden opportunity, but it is not one that he has taken.
And this is especially important at this moment, because he is trying to find a running mate. And today we already saw Senators Joni Ernst and Senator Bob Corker worker drop out of the running mate race, taking themselves out of contention.
I`m told that they were not high on the list to begin with. But the issue is, Donald Trump needs to find somebody competent that will assuage the GOP base in Washington. And he`s having a hard time doing that, because so many people say that they don`t necessarily want to be involved in this campaign because it is so unpredictable.
MELBER: Katy Tur on the road with Donald Trump, thank you very much.
I`m joined now by Dana Milbank, op-ed columnist with "The Washington Post," and MSNBC political analyst David Corn of "Mother Jones," as well as Heidi Przybyla, senior political reporter for "USA Today," all some HARDBALL regulars here.
David, your thoughts on Donald Trump`s inability to stick the landing in a week, where, as Katy mentioned and anyone in politics has noticed, there are some things one could criticize Hillary Clinton on with some evidence, even though I would note, as I have said, that it was a clean book of health on the criminal standard. And yet he is all over the map.
DAVID CORN, MSNBC POLITICAL ANALYST: I`m kind of stunned.
We have been sitting here in the studio watching him for it seems to be three hours, maybe only 45 minutes. And we -- I love Katy. I understand how she has to report in a very objective manner.
But in some ways, it looks like we`re seeing a guy who is unhinged.
DANA MILBANK, OP-ED COLUMNIST, "THE WASHINGTON POST": Yes.
CORN: If you showed anybody the last 20 minutes and said this fellow may be the leader of the free world one day, and they had not been -- at sea or exposed to this campaign to date, they would think that you were talking crazy talk.
It`s stream of consciousness; 90 percent of what he has said is about him and how he has been wronged by the media, by our colleague Chuck Todd and everybody else. He has gone back and forth between issues over and over and over again.
If I`m a Republican operative or donor or even a moderate suburban Republican voter, perhaps more importantly, and I`m watching this guy, I`m thinking, I don`t want him leading my team. His head could explode at any moment. And I think we have to kind of realize that he is an erratic, unstable candidate who can`t stick to a message and can`t deal with any subject seriously without calling names and making outlandish charges without proof.
MELBER: Heidi, the old saying in politics is, if you`re explaining, you`re losing.
And on a week when his opponent has come off of the FBI and Benghazi investigations, he is here explaining why, yes, it sounded silly when he talked about the Brexit in the context of his own golf course, but it wasn`t actually silly. Who else is thinking about that right now, except for Donald Trump?
HEIDI PRZYBYLA, "USA TODAY": Right.
And like David said, it is going to play right into Clinton`s hands in terms of that argument they have been trying to make about Donald Trump, which is all about temperament. He -- it was almost as if, at the beginning, they gave him these notes. He knew he had to read them. But in his heart, he couldn`t stop himself from going after, talking about all the ways in which he felt he had been wronged by the media, calling out your own Chuck Todd as sleepy eyes, and repeatedly coming -- making several swipes at Chuck Todd.
He made more the swipes at Chuck Todd than he did at Hillary Clinton in this speech, which, as you know, going into this, the Republicans were very much expecting him, like Katy said, to take that ball and to hit it out of the park. But this was more like -- really, I`m stunned too, just because we saw a lot during the primary campaign.
But this was a rambling variety show that, unlike I think we saw even during the primary, calling his -- impromptu calling his son up on the stage. And it is going to play into that temperament argument.
And I have to imagine and would love to be a fly on the wall in Reince Priebus` office or any of the other Republicans who were expecting a very different him to give a very performance than he just did.
MELBER: Right.
And Chuck Todd, of course moderator of "Meet the Press," can speak for himself if and when he wants to about this. I would just note, on the substance, the remark from Chuck Todd that seemed to bother Donald Trump, Dana, was a criticism about Trump`s ability to deal with the political openings he`s been presented with, that is to say, not even a media criticism of, you know, what I sometimes get, oh, you covered Trump University, and you didn`t tell the good side of the story kind of media criticism.
It was more that it really rankled him that someone pointed out something that, by the way, many Republicans have been pretty publicly agonizing over, which is the guy doesn`t have a general election focus, and this is a choice between two people.
MILBANK: And, Ari, the irony is, he just proved Chuck`s point with this nearly hour-long rambling exercise in narcissism right now.
MELBER: Now it`s getting deep. It is getting circular.
(LAUGHTER)
MILBANK: But, first of all, I like Chuck`s eyes very much.
You know who I feel sorry for tonight is poor Newt Gingrich. And I never thought I would say these words.
(LAUGHTER)
MILBANK: But this was his big coming out. Not only does Donald Trump step on the message the Republicans want to deliver about Hillary Clinton.
He steps on his own message, which was having -- having Newt Gingrich out there tonight. And that`s why I say the sort of narcissism thing. He is living this campaign in his own head. I`m not terribly shocked. When I go to Trump rallies, this is very much what you see, as opposed to when you play a 30-second bite on TV.
It rambles. It wanders. But there is a central, cohesive focus. And that is, isn`t Donald Trump wonderful?
MELBER: David, what does Gingrich bring to the table now?
CORN: Well, he brings two more ex-wives. So, there`s six amongst the both of them.
He brings in ego that`s bigger than Donald Trump`s. He brings ethical lapses, his failed presidential campaign, the fact that he was booted out of the House speakership after trying to impeach Bill Clinton for acts or sexual improprieties, and he was engaged in his own set of those.
So, I don`t know what he brings. I -- is there any angry white guy out there who will only vote for Trump if Trump picks Newt Gingrich?
(LAUGHTER)
CORN: Maybe he is the only one who will take the job. We have seen people running away from this like Trump is some spoiled, rotten rutabaga.
And I don`t know even he brings anything to the table, other than another oversized, controversial personality, which I`m betting Reince Priebus would not like to see on the ticket.
MELBER: Yes.
Heidi, to extend the metaphor, I suppose the question is whether this rutabaga has begun to mold and whether anyone would start smelling in it Cleveland.
(LAUGHTER)
PRZYBYLA: Well, certainly, we haven`t talked to Bob Corker about that in any direct fashion. But he did bow out exactly under 24 hours after having his own appearance.
MELBER: And what does that mean to you? What does that say?
PRZYBYLA: Well, he`s had problems from the beginning.
And I think he`s going to continue. This is going to just make it all the harder, really. Newt Gingrich even at one point, I think, was showing that he had some questions about Donald Trump after some of the racially charged comments that he made.
But in terms of what we`re seeing right now on the stump, this was supposed to be a trial run for Newt Gingrich. I didn`t even see Newt -- maybe -- did we miss -- did he speak briefly at the beginning?
MELBER: We missed him.
PRZYBYLA: But, again, this is making clear that, going forward, it is all about -- it is all about Donald Trump.
MELBER: And, David, you`ve written whole books about issues around war and the legal standards that exist in the Bush era. We`ve seen a lot of comparisons recently, Donald Trump among others saying, hey, wait a minute. Was Hillary Clinton let off the hook while others were not? One of the cases that`s been cited is General David Petraeus.
Of course, legally that was very different because there was direct evidence of passing material to an unauthorized person and misleading FBI agents. Neither of those allegations had any context in the Clinton context. But walk us through your view particularly the criticism that we`re hearing and somehow things were done differently this time out. Is that true in your knowledge of history?
DAVID CORN, MOTHER JONES: No, I mean, what Hillary Clinton did with the e- mails was wrong. It violated established guidelines at the time. It was careless.
And I think James Comey`s statement was on the money. The issue as to where it was criminal or not. There is no precedent for this.
We`ve had legal experts the last few months say the U.S. government has never really brought a case in this way. So, Donald Trump has a really good opening here and as others have noted. He could criticize Hillary Clinton on the substance.
MELBER: Right.
CORN: That she was careless and reckless. But he has to make it bigger, more conspiratorial. And that`s where he goes off the rails and shows that he`s not really a responsible person when it come to civil and political discourse.
MELBER: Well, Heidi, I want to ask you a question that I already have a theory about the answer to, I don`t know if you`ve ever had that happened on television before. But beyond what David just said, I actually wonder whether there is a competence issue of whether Donald Trump listens close enough and understands the nuances of what Director Comey said or has people around him who can brief him on that to actually get to the point to say there was a lot in that presentation about State Department policy, secrecy policy, responsible management of information at the height of diplomacy and national security.
That one could enter into with some substance and nuance that would actually be an argument against the nominee and her leadership rather than what he did, which is say, so, oh, this is a, quote, "rigged system" like he thought delegates were rigged against him, and it is back to his own talking points. Or am I not giving him enough credit?
HEIDI PRZYBYLA, USA TODAY: Well, sure. Comey -- that`s why a lot of Republicans said when they were watching Comey`s statement, they were surprised that he didn`t recommend indict because they had given him a treasure trove of information that the Republicans will be -- sound bites rather that the Republicans will be using in ads.
And the fact that Trump a day after Comey gave him thought information, basically point by point, deconstructing everything that Clinton has said, leading up to this which was, at least misleading in terms of saying she didn`t send classified information, when, in fact, it was classified. And on down the line in terms of things that she said that wound up being intentionally or unintentionally not quite accurate. He had a lot there to work with.
And, you know, when your question is basically, does he not understand the nuance and the legal differences? I mean, that`s a -- many other issues, he is not shown much of an interest in kind of drilling down to that finite level, even in this case, where this could really benefit him to do so, if he could show the discipline to kind of tease that out and make a logical, compelling case using Comey`s own words.
MELBER: It would be bizarre if it wasn`t so routine. Heidi, David and Dana, thank you for joining us, coming out of that speech. Very interesting stuff.
Up next, we have the other big story. Protest and outrage in Louisiana after that cellphone video, graphic video showing police officers killing a black man in front of a convenience store. There are new developments and new video out tonight. We`re going to update you on the investigation, as well as the reaction. That`s next.
This is HARDBALL, the place for politics.
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MICHAEL MCCLANAHAN, BATON ROUGE NAACP: What I`m calling for today, is that the chief law enforcement officer, which is the mayor, to fire the chief of police immediately. I demand for the chief to be fired immediately.
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MELBER: Welcome back to HARDBALL.
That was Michael McClanahan in the Baton Rouge NAACP calling for what he wants in justice today. This after a black man was shot outside a convenience store in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, early Tuesday morning. Police say 37-year-old Alton Sterling was shot by police after getting into a confrontation with officers who were responding to a 911 call.
Now, tonight, we can tell you there is brand new video of the shooting. This was recorded by the owner of the Triple S food mart.
Now, we`re going to warn you as we have in showing some of this throughout the day. This is very graphic and disturbing. It shows two officers on the ground with Sterling. It does not show what happened after the incident which could be crucial.
Now, the owner of the store who took this video, the new one, said he saw one of the officers remove what he believes was a gun from Sterling`s pocket. But the video was itself inconclusive as to what was removed from the officer. Now, in another separate video, one officer appears to shout, "He`s got a gun." We`ll play that for you.
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MELBER: There are conflicting accounts about what happened. The chief of police telling reporters, Sterling was armed. But later when asked if he was armed, he referred to the federal investigators at DOJ who just today opened a civil rights investigation into the case. That is unusually fast.
The officers accused in the shooting has been identified as four-year veteran Blane Salamoni and three-year veteran Howie Lake II. They have been placed on administrative leave. That`s standard operating procedure.
Joining me now for all of this, Louisiana Congressman Cedric Richmond, and Val Demings, who served as the police chief of Orlando, also running for Congress.
Val, when we look at this kind of situation, we have a slice of video. We do not have all the videos. We do not know all the before and after.
I want to ask you a fair question which is based on the video we do have. Do you see anything wrong?
VAL DEMINGS, FORMER ORLANDO POLICE CHIEF: Well, first of all let me say that it is definitely a tragedy that has occurred in Baton Rouge. My heart goes out to the family and everybody who was there that had to witness it, everybody that will be affected by it. We know that all of the facts are not in.
We need to see all of the video from every different angle. We also need to interview all the witnesses and certainly track down the initial caller that I think can provide some very crucial information. But looking at that very narrow piece of video, I do not personally see anything, any actions that the suspect made would dictate the use of deadly force.
MELBER: You`re saying the way the suspect was pinned to the ground. We can probably show that on our screen so people see it again. That the way the suspect appears to be pinned or restrained on the video that is available, that doesn`t pose a kind of threat that would justify the officer`s use of deadly force?
DEMINGS: Well, as I`ve said, I spent 27 years at the Atlanta Police Department. I have worked the streets. I`ve worked in just about every different division, rose up through the ranks to become the chief, worked in internal affairs and investigated shootings. They`re very, very stressful.
There is a lot of pieces of information, physical evidence and statements that need to be taken. But when I look at the video without all of the information -- and it is still early -- but without all the information, when I look at the video that has been provided, I don`t see anything from viewing that that would -- that the suspect did, that would justify the use of deadly force.
MELBER: Congressman Richmond, what about you?
REP. CEDRIC RICHMOND (D), LOUISIANA: Well, I was concerned when I saw the video last night. But looking at the video that was released today, only doubles my concern and my troubles are increased.
I mean, it`s very problematic to see that video and realize that someone lost life in that manner. And I agree with Val that looking at that short clip of just a moment in time, the use of deadly force seems very unreasonable there and only confirms that you need an outside, independent, law enforcement body to investigate this shooting.
MELBER: Congressman, you were telling some of the HARDBALL staff before the show that getting the federal investigators involved can sometimes take weeks or months. How fast was this compared to precedent and what was different this time?
RICHMOND: The only thing I can tell you is that I am some of my life experiences and after Katrina with the Danziger Bridge and the Henry Glover case, it took years for justice to come in on Danziger Bridge case. The New Orleans Police Department investigated, closed the investigation, ruled it self-defense because the decedents had fired on police. Well, the FBI comes in a couple years later, they do year-long or so investigation and find out the decedents weren`t armed at all, never fired on the police officers, and wind up charging them, convicting and now, they ultimate pled guilty after the appellate court got involved.
So, for the Justice Department to be involved this early is unique, but in this case, I think, it was very warranted, because we really had to give the community a sense that this would be done by the rules, by the book. It will be thorough. We`re not going to sweep anything under the rug and we`re going to make sure that we answer all of the questions that are raised by this video and that we`re going to let the facts take us wherever they lead us.
MELBER: All right. Congressman Richmond and Val Demings, thanks to both of you. Appreciate it.
Up next, the HARDBALL roundtable will be up next to talk about some of Donald Trump`s comments about dictators and strongmen that he likes. He brought it back up tonight.
You`re watching HARDBALL, the place for politics.
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DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESUMPTIVE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: Saddam Hussein was a bad guy, right? He was a bad guy. Really bad guy.
But you know what he did well? He killed terrorists. He did that so good. They didn`t read him the rights, they didn`t talk, they were terrorists, it was over.
Today, Iraq is Harvard for terrorism. You want to be a terrorist, you go to Iraq.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MELBER: Welcome back to HARDBALL.
That was Donald Trump yesterday offering some praise for the former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein. And moments ago, he claimed the press took those remarks out of context.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIPS)
TRUMP: I said, bad guy, Saddam Hussein, bad guy. Then I said again, Saddam Hussein is a bad guy.
But he did one thing well. He killed terrorists.
I wake up, I turn on the television. Donald Trump loves Saddam Hussein. I said, that`s not what I said. That`s not what I said. I don`t love Saddam Hussein. I hate Saddam Hussein, but he was damn good at killing terrorists.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MELBER: And this was not the first time Trump said complimentary things about authoritarian leaders and even yes, dictators. Here he is talking about Vladimir Putin.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIPS)
TRUMP: I think I`d get along very well with Vladimir Putin, I just think so. People will say, what do you mean? I think I`ll get along well with him.
I think in terms of leadership, he`s getting an A, and our president is not doing so well. They did not look good together.
I got to know him very well because we were both on "60 Minutes," we were stable mates. And we did very well that night. But you know that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MELBER: You know that.
Trump also said North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un`s ability to retain power after his father died is amazing.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: If you look at North Korea, this guy -- I mean, he`s like a maniac, OK? You got to give him credit. How many young guys, he was like 26 or 25 when his father died, take over these tough generals and all of a sudden, you know, it`s pretty amazing, when you think of it. How does he do it?
Even though it`s a cultural thing, he goes in, takes over, it`s incredible. He wiped out the uncle. He wiped out this one, that one. I mean, this guy doesn`t play games.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MELBER: Dictatorial nepotism clearly impressive there. Tonight`s roundtable joins me.
Kim Ghattas, correspondent for the BBC and author of "The Secretary", John Capehart opinion writer for "The Washington Post", and April Ryan, Washington bureau chief for American Urban Radio Networks.
Kim, what is the deal with everything he just said?
KIM GHATTAS, BBC: Well, Ari, I think Donald Trump does have a very strange fascination with strong men, but he`s factually incorrect, actually, because not only did Donald Trump -- not only did Saddam Hussein, of course, gas Kurds in his own country, repress the Shias in his own country, but he also harbored terrorists. He gave shelter to Abu Nidal, a Palestinian militant who carried out a lot of atrocities in the `80s. He gave shelter to the Mojahedin-e-Khalq, an Iranian opposition group that was listed as a terrorist organization.
So, the idea that he was going after terrorist is actually incorrect. The key idea, is, repression leads to more extremism. So, perhaps Saddam Hussein for some time provided a kind of stability, but in the long-term, stability that paid off quite well for his interests, to some extent for western interests, but in the long-term, it feeds extremism.
And a lot of what we`re seeing in Iraq today is a result not only of the Iraq war, but of the kind of atmosphere, the kind of society that was built under Saddam Hussein.
MELBER: So, Jonathan, how about that point that Trump is both factually wrong on a details of what kind leader Saddam Hussein was, and wrong in a deeper sense for foreign policy, if he thinks this kind of authoritarianism would actually counter terror.
JONATHAN CAPEHART, THE WASHINGTON POST: Well, on the first point, it shows that Donald Trump has no knowledge of, in this case, foreign affairs, no knowledge of the history of Iraq or the Middle East. And on the other point, you know, we`re dealing with a person here who we just watched for 45 minutes, him talk for most of the time about himself, being wronged by the press, and nothing about where he wants to lead this country, and in particular, where he wants to lead when it comes to fighting terrorism and bringing about some kind of stability, or if not detente in the Middle East.
MELBER: April?
APRIL RYAN, AMERICAN URBAN RADIO NETWORKS: Donald Trump seems to once again want to show that he`s really fascinated by dictatorships. Not only that, you know, one piece that really made many of us cringe, while we were watching him, he likened Saddam Hussein to the Harvard of terrorism, going against terror.
And it`s just very interesting. And once again, to piggy back off what Jonathan said, you have to remember, this is a totally different society than 20, 30 years ago. Right now, we have Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, we have places in Africa, terror is breeding everywhere, and he can`t even pronounce Tanzania. I`m saying it myself, Tanzania, he cannot pronounce Tanzania. He said Tanzania.
So, the bottom line is, once he learns foreign policy, maybe he`ll understand how dictatorships play a part in the wrong way in world policy.
MELBER: Yes. There maybe ways to go there.
I want to thank Kim Ghattas, Jonathan Capehart, and April Ryan, for hanging with us.
That is HARDBALL for now. Thank you for watching.
"ALL IN WITH CHRIS HAYES" starts right now.
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