Show: HARDBALL Date: December 7, 2015 Guest: Robert Costa, Malcolm Nance
CHRIS MATTHEWS, HOST: Trump to Muslims -- You`re not welcome here.
Let`s play HARDBALL.
Good evening. I`m Chris Matthews in Washington.
Well, last night, Donald Trump blasted Barack Obama, saying, We need a new president fast. Well, today, he drove the heat even higher, saying the country should slam the door on Muslims, period.
His campaign issued this statement. Quote, "Donald J. Trump is calling for a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States until our country`s representatives can figure out what is going on. " And here`s his direct quote, "Until we`re able to determine and understand this problem and the dangerous threat it poses, our country cannot be the victims of horrendous attacks by people that believe only in jihad and have no sense of reason or respect for human life."
Well, tonight, Donald Trump is marking the anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor with an event aboard the USS Yorktown in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina. It`s a not so subtle backdrop for the candidate who appears to be benefiting most from the debate over national security and terrorism.
I`m joined right now by NBC`s Katy Tur, who is live at Trump`s event, as well as Robert Costa here -- he`s national political reporter from "The Washington Post" -- and MSNBC political analyst Eugene Robinson, also of "The Washington Post."
Katy, I always think that every time Trump does one of these numbers, the public`s going to say, No, he`s gone too far this time. What is your estimate, being with him? Is this too much?
KATY TUR, NBC CORRESPONDENT: I`ve got to tell you, from speaking with people who have come out to this event and asking them specifically, What do you think about the idea of banning all Muslims from coming into this country, the majority of them say that they like the idea, the ones that we`ve spoken to. They think it is a wise choice. They believe that Donald Trump is going to keep them safe.
The ones that waffled because said no comment, they`ll have to think about it, but it wouldn`t change their opinion of Donald Trump. They would still vote for him.
Why is this? Why is this? Well, about 60 percent of Republicans, according to one of our latest polls, say that one of their biggest concerns is being the victim of terrorism. They believe that Donald Trump is the person that`s going to keep them safe. He`s been unequivocal on bombing the hell out of ISIS, bringing back waterboarding and also (INAUDIBLE) more hard-line comments.
They believe that that`s the (INAUDIBLE) right way to be. They want it to be black and white. They don`t want nuance. They don`t want diplomacy. They don`t want anything related to what President Obama has been doing for the last eight years.
MATTHEWS: I guess the political question -- I`ll ask everybody else after you -- why jack it up? He was already the man in the catbird seat. He`s already the guy who`s seen as the toughest on illegal immigrants, and everybody, Muslims, anybody that might be somebody he doesn`t like.
Why does he have to raise the heat by saying we`re going to slam the door on Muslim people? By the way, how do you tell somebody`s a Muslim if they don`t tell you?
TUR: Well, they don`t want somebody necessarily who`s been a part of the establishment. They don`t care that he doesn`t have the experience. They believe that he`s going to put people around him who will be smart. They just -- frankly, just really trust him. they trust his opinion. They trust the way he sees the world. They like that he speaks directly to them.
(INAUDIBLE) over and over again, but these are people who believe in Donald Trump whole-heartedly. They come out to see him in droves, and they like what he is saying. And they don`t like the establishment. The closest person that they like second to Donald Trump is generally Ted Cruz. And he`s been very anti-establishment, as well.
But for the most part, we are seeing (ph) Ted Cruz didn`t totally condemn him for these comments, but we are seeing the vast majority of Republicans and Democrats coming out and saying that they don`t believe that this is a good idea.
Also, legal scholars and constitutional scholars saying that this isn`t legal and probably isn`t constitutional, either.
MATTHEWS: OK. Thank you, Katy Tur. We`re going to be back to catch Trump when he starts hitting the big points tonight.
Republicans have been quick to express their disagreement with Trump`s call to ban Muslims from entering the country. Senator Lindsey Graham tweeted, "Every candidate for president needs to do the right thing and condemn Donald Trump`s statement."
Jeb Bush said, "Donald Trump is unhinged." That`s an interesting line, he`s unhinged. "His policy proposals are not serious."
John Kasich said, "This is just more of the outrageous divisiveness that characterizes his every breath and another reason why he is entirely unsuited to lead the United States."
Even Ted Cruz, who has mirrored Trump`s hawkish tone in recent day, said he does not agree with Trump`s policy.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. TED CRUZ (R-TX), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: That is not my policy. I believe the focus should focus on radical Islamic terrorism. And we need to be directly focused on threats to the United States.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MATTHEWS: Carly Fiorina said it was dangerous and a dangerous overreaction, she called it. Let`s listen to her.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CARLY FIORINA (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I think Donald Trump`s overreaction is as dangerous as President Obama`s underreaction. President Obama isn`t prepared to do anything, which is clearly foolish. But Donald Trump always plays on everyone`s worst instincts and fears, and saying we`re not going to let a single Muslim into this country is a dangerous overreaaction.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MATTHEWS: Well, Ben Carson told reporters, "We do not and would not advocate being selective on one`s religion," in terms of letting people in the country.
And Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton condemned Trump in no uncertain terms, writing, "This is reprehensible, prejudiced and divisive. Donald Trump, you don`t get it. This makes us less safe."
Gentlemen, thank you. You`re out there covering this guy all the time. Why is he jacking it up tonight? He`s already on top of this baby. And all the polls show this is the hot issue, terrorism.
ROBERT COSTA, "WASHINGTON POST": Timing`s notable. There`s two new polls in Iowa today. One, Monmouth University, shows Cruz up in Iowa, first time Cruz has been leading in Iowa. Another CNN poll in Iowa shows Trump up. Trump needs to be the center of attention. He wants to dominate the conversation. This is him doing it once again.
EUGENE ROBINSON, "WASHINGTON POST," MSNBC POLITICAL ANALYST: Yes, and I -- I also think what he has done -- and first of all, it`s reprehensible, it`s ridiculous what he proposes, unconstitutional...
MATTHEWS: By the way, how do you enforce it?
ROBINSON: Well, it`s unenforceable. Whatever...
MATTHEWS: Suppose you have a Muslim -- if you will, Middle Eastern background, OK, or South Asian background, and you look a certain way when you come in the country, but you`re a complete agnostic. Are you still a Muslim?
ROBINSON: I think, as far as Donald Trump is concerned, you are, right.
(LAUGHTER)
MATTHEWS: If you look like a Muslim, you`re a Muslim, I guess.
ROBINSON: So what he has done politically is drawn a line, right? And you have Donald Trump over here, and you`ve got everybody else on the other side. You`ve got the other Republicans and President Obama.
And it also -- and it basically highlights the fact that when you actually look at the proposals that the other Republican candidates have for fighting ISIS, it`s basically the same as President Obama`s. They want to talk tough but...
MATTHEWS: OK, well, that...
ROBINSON: ... they want to do the same stuff.
MATTHEWS: OK...
ROBINSON: Except for Lindsey Graham, who wants to invade. But it draws this sharp line, and I think that`s potentially good for Trump.
MATTHEWS: In following the play-by-play, which I`m doing right now -- not the color of the game, but the play-by-play right now -- last night, the president said that terrorism is a cancer with no immediate cure. Today, Trump comes along and says, I got a cure. Slam the door on them.
There`s a direct -- I mean, I thought that was very interesting, the different theater here.
ROBINSON: Oh, I think...
MATTHEWS: One guy says, Calm down, the other guy says, I got a show for you.
ROBINSON: No, it`s...
MATTHEWS: We`re going to kick them out the door.
ROBINSON: Exactly. Exactly. And again, it sharpens this contradiction. It means nobody`s going to get to the right of him on the "Muslim menace," you know? I mean, they`re just not going to do it, just the way nobody`s ever going to get to the right of him...
MATTHEWS: OK...
ROBINSON: ... on immigration in general.
MATTHEWS: We`re on the eve of the eve (ph). We`re about to go into Christmas. There`s been Hanukkah now already. And we`re into this holiday season. People are shopping. There`s going to be a respite from politics for most people.
That respite will end about the day after New Year`s, two days after New Year`s, when we get back on that Monday, the 4th. Every -- then politics will start again. But then it`s only about three weeks before the caucuses. We`re getting very close to this being real.
Do you sense out there that the people who say they`re for Trump are any less committed than they were two, three months ago?
COSTA: Some of the most engaged voters in Iowa perhaps taking a look elsewhere. But when it comes to nationally, Trump is speaking to the anger in the Republican Party. He`s contrasting exactly what the president said last night about being welcome to Muslims in this country. Trump is doing the exact opposite.
MATTHEWS: He`s pulling out the welcome mat.
COSTA: He`s pulling out the welcome mat.
MATTHEWS: We don`t want them.
COSTA: The Republican for the Republican Party at this moment is that no one`s spending ads against Trump. There`s not a plan against Trump. They may have chastising tweets. They may have statements against Trump. Is that enough?
MATTHEWS: I love that. That`s like hanging chads.
ROBINSON: Exactly.
(CROSSTALK)
MATTHEWS: I don`t think that`s going to hurt this guy because I`m looking at polls that show of all the candidates -- and this will -- this will disrupt the thinking of progressives, certainly -- of all the candidates, he has this -- maybe not for Hillary Clinton, but he has the strongest stick-to-itiveness.
ROBINSON: Yes.
MATTHEWS: These people who are with him are with him!
ROBINSON: They`re with him.
MATTHEWS: And they don`t want to hear problems.
ROBINSON: And there are a lot of them. There`s 25 to 30 percent of the party with him. And as long as they stick with him, he`s going to do very well in this big field in Iowa. He`s going to do very well in New Hampshire. He`s going to do very well in South Carolina. And then where are we?
MATTHEWS: Let`s talk about any kind of notion of Christian or Christian -- Judeo-Christian belief in morality. He says, almost like Tony Soprano or somebody, that we got to go after the families of terrorists. I mean, where -- that`s something we usually don`t do in the Western world generally, go kill families.
Look, on Sunday, Trump said on "Face the Nation" that he didn`t trust the sister of San Bernardino attacker Syed Farook and said that as president, he`d target those families -- target them! I`m not sure what that means, but here he is.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I would be very tough on families because the families know what`s happening.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: His sister said she didn`t know what was going on. She was crestfallen for the victims here...
TRUMP: I probably don`t believe the sister.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You don`t believe the sister. So you`d go after here.
TRUMP: I would go after a lot of people and I`d find out whether or not they knew. I`d be able to find out. Because I don`t believe the sister. You know, they say they don`t mind dying. I think they do mind dying. But I can tell you this. They want their families left alone. We have to stop terrorism.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MATTHEWS: That`s how tough he`s getting.
Now we`re going to go live to him now in South Carolina, Donald Trump.
TRUMP: It`s the cheapest thing we can do, the cheapest thing, instead of fighting these wars that we don`t know what we`re doing and we have leaders that are afraid to do anything. We`re going to make it so brave, so strong that people (INAUDIBLE) they`re not messing (ph) -- they`re not messing.
And we`re going to take care of our great vets, our wounded warriors. We`re going to take care of them.
(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: Because they -- thank you. They are not being taken care of. We have illegal immigrants being taken care of better than our incredible veterans. And it`s not going to happen any longer.
(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: Not going to happen. Not going to happen!
So with ISIS -- Trump 46 percent. Can you imagine that, with all these characters running, on foreign policy, Trump way up. And you know, in theory, you could say, Well, maybe it`s not my thing, but people want to see strong. They want to see strength. They want to see protection. They want to be protected. And that`s it!
I watched last night, and I watched a president truly that didn`t know what he was doing.
(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: He didn`t know why he was there. He refuses to use the term "radical Islamic terrorism." He refuses to use the term! I don`t even know if he knows what the hell is going on! I really don`t.
(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: And then we`re looking at Hillary Clinton. And honestly, I know Hillary. It`s just going to be an extension of Obama, I think maybe worse. She`s got no strength. She`s got no stamina. Remember that. You don`t need a president with no strength or stamina when we`re being ripped off on trade, we`re being ripped off on "Obama care," which is going to be repealed and replaced by something really good...
(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: ... when our soldiers aren`t being taken care of, when our military has never been like it is today. One of the generals was on television, as usual, saying that we`re the least prepared now than any time that he`s ever seen it, and he`s been there a long time, retiring. That`s how we are, in the most dangerous world we`ve ever had because of the power of weapons.
We have people that don`t know -- they`re not -- I`m telling you, I watch them. I watch these generals being interviewed. Do you think General George Patton would be interviewed? Do you think -- (INAUDIBLE) they`ll be interviewed after total and complete victory. General Douglas MacArthur -- they`re (ph) not big for interview. You know, they shoot first, they talk later. These guys...
(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: These guys -- and I don`t think we`ll have to. You know, just so you understand -- Bush. Bush. He said yesterday, he was being interviewed. He said that he was -- he was talking about me. He was saying the nicest things about me. Of course, he said he`ll be elected. He`s at what, 3 percent, right?
(LAUGHTER)
TRUMP: No, but he said some things -- it was, like -- I said, Who says that about an opponent? You don`t say those things. You`ll find out what he said. But he said very nice things.
But if you look at what happens, where he is upset with me because he says the tone -- the tone of Donald Trump is not nice.
(CHEERS)
TUR: And I say it all the time. We have people whose heads are being chopped off in the Middle East because they`re Christian, and for other reasons. They`re being dunked and drowned in steel cages. And we talk about my tone. Hillary said the same thing. Mr. Trump`s tone is not nice. These people are living in a different planet, a different planet.
(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: And remember what I said about Hillary. We need somebody who`s strong. We need somebody with incredible energy, but incredible intelligence and all of those things. You know, I know a lot of tough people, but they`re not smart. That`s no good. They`re easy. We need tough. We need smart. We need like -- we are so far behind the 8-ball in this country.
We ow $19 trillion. The budget they signed two weeks ago is going to make it $21 trillion. It`s a -- think of it, trillion, trillion, trillion dollars. Who the hell ever heard of the 10 years ago? There was no such word.
We owe $21 trillion in the very near future. We`re really in trouble. We have to rebuild our country. We have to rebuild our infrastructure. We have to rebuild our military. And yet we do deals with China, where there`s a trade imbalance of over $400 billion a year in their favor, by the way, in case you had any question.
Japan -- they send the cars by the millions, $70 billion a year imbalance. That`s, like, a loss. You look at Mexico. We`re going to build a wall. It will be a real wall. It will be a real wall!
(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: Going to happen. It`s going to happen.
The people I`m dealing with -- and you know, I really focus on Hillary later because I have to get through these 15 people. You know, there`s 15 of us. I had Perry came at me strong. He went down. I had Governor Walker, nice guy, he went down. Every guy that attacks me, so far, they`ve all gone down. We`ve got to keep it that way, right?
(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: I mean, Lindsey Graham, he`s got zero! He`s at zero!
(BOOS)
TRUMP: Zero! Think of -- let me ask you a question. I don`t get Lindsey Graham. I don`t get him. He`s literally...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We don`t, either!
TRUMP: He says, "We don`t either."
(LAUGHTER)
TRUMP: He`s literally at zero. You see it. And he keeps talking. He gets so much television. I mean, he`s on television all the time, and he doesn`t go up. He`s at zero, folks. His ideas are so bad. I`m more militaristic than him, but I know how to win. He doesn`t. He wants to just attack everything. He doesn`t know where the hell -- and he always sits with John McCain. It`s like they`re the Bobbsy twins. They`re always sitting together.
(LAUGHTER)
TRUMP: No, it`s true. Did you ever notice? Some time ,I want to see him by himself. He`s always sitting with John McCain, who`s fine. I`m not knocking it. But you`ve got to know what to do.
Now me, I was against the war in Iraq. So everyone says, Oh, do you have the right -- I have a great temperament. But you`ve got to attack (INAUDIBLE) do something (INAUDIBLE) know what you`re doing.
I said if you attack a rat and you wipe it out, Iran is going to take over the entire Middle East because you`re going to ruin the balance. It was so simple to me. And actually, they sent a group from the White House to see me because I got so much publicity, so much publicity that they sent a group from the White House, see Mr. Trump. See if you -- I said, fellows, you`re going to have Iran take over the Middle East. And that`s what`s happening. And Iran is going to take over Iraq sure as you`re sitting there.
And by the way, Iraq with the second largest oil reserves anywhere in the world. We lost thousands of lives. We have wounded warriors, who I love, all over the place -- $2 trillion. We have nothing. We got nothing. We got absolutely nothing!
And we left. And we have a president shouldn`t have been there, but then we shouldn`t have left the way we left.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (INAUDIBLE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE)
(BOOS, CHEERS, APPLAUSE)
AUDIENCE: Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump!
TRUMP: Thank you. That`s all right. Treat her very nicely, please. I don`t even know what she said, but whatever it was. I don`t know what she said, but whatever it is, but treat her nicely. Thank you very much. All right. Treat her nicely. Thank you.
You know, they have a system now. They will have four people. We were interrupted four times one night a couple of weeks ago. And they will have four people, one person at a time. And they will scream something.
And then the next day, the press will say, protesters. You have thousands of people here tonight, and they will talk about three or four people. In that case , it`s one. That person had a very weak voice.
(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: What a weak voice.
(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: Strange. Strange. It`s too bad.
You know, the funny thing is, I look at Democrats and liberals and conservatives, Republicans. Wouldn`t it be good for all of us if we could get together and really make our country great again?
(CROSSTALK)
TRUMP: Isn`t that what we want to do?
(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: I will bet you that if I spoke to that young woman that -- quickly, I really think I could convince her that we`re all in this together, folks.
We want to have a strong country, right? We have to have -- Pastor, stand up. And what a good guy this is.
You have been so great to me, and a pastor and a great guy. He has been so great to me. I appreciate it, Pastor. Thank you. Thank you.
(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: But, you know, if you think about it -- and you have some that can never be satisfied, no matter what. They`re just troublemakers, et cetera, et cetera.
But most people aren`t and they believe something. And I have some very smart friends don`t agree with me. They agree with the other side. But I really believe that if you are talking about making America great, we have to be strong, we have to be vigilant. And if we`re not vigilant...
(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)
CROWD: USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA!
TRUMP: That was the same person.
I got to tell you, so far, the security is not doing a great job in here. I will tell you that.
(LAUGHTER)
TRUMP: That was the same person. You can do it very nice, but why don`t you get her out? Because, honestly, it`s inappropriate.
So, security, strengthen yourself up. See?
(BOOING)
TRUMP: Our country has this kind of security. That`s the problem here.
All right, get her out. Please. Thank you. Treat her very nicely, please. But she should now be taken out. Same person. One person. It`s one person. They let her out, they give her a second chance and the same thing happens.
But you would think, you would think that everybody, we`re all in the same basket, that everybody, every single person...
CROWD: Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump!
TRUMP: All right, so, I have a lot of time. Does everybody have a lot of time tonight?
(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: I don`t want the person to be hurt, but I will tell you, security is very weak. I can`t believe these security people.
One person, one person, and we have wasted five minutes. All right, get them out. Thank you.
(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: So, would you think that, if we could get together, we would all be in the same boat.
Now, last night, we all saw and we witnessed something that I thought was highly inappropriate. In fact, I tweeted, "Is that all there is?" about the president`s speech.
And I wrote something today that I think is very, very salient, very important, and probably not politically correct, but I don`t care.
(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: You know we had a situation in California very recently where somebody was making bombs in an apartment. The mother saw him. The mother didn`t notice anything wrong.
I watched the sister being interviewed. Believe me, in my opinion, she was lying like crazy. I watched that interview.
(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: Oh, my brother was such a wonderful guy. I didn`t know, I didn`t know, I didn`t know. And I watched the next-door neighbor saying, oh, well, we didn`t report them because we didn`t want to racially profile or we didn`t want to profile. Give me a break. Give me a break.
We`re like the stupid country in so many different ways. So, can you imagine what our great leaders of the past would have said with the kind of crap that`s happening with us? They didn`t want to report them because they thought it was profiling. Oh, OK, they saw bombs, they saw the pipe bombs. Oh, this wasn`t to build a bathroom. When a bomb is this long, got to put too many of them together for a bathroom, right?
(LAUGHTER)
TRUMP: And we thought they may be, but we didn`t want to racially profile them. oh, OK, you`re OK. You`re innocent.
Or how about where the families and the girlfriends and the wives and everything, they go back with World Trade Center, the worst -- worse than Pearl Harbor, because, with the World Trade Center, they were killing innocent civilians. At least, while it was a dirty, rotten sneak attack, at least -- at least they were attacked -- wow, that was a hell of a... (LAUGHTER)
TRUMP: Thank goodness he`s on my side.
(LAUGHTER)
TRUMP: But, while it was an attack, at least it was military.
But this was an attack on the World Trade Center. So, what`s happened is, we`re out of control. We have no idea who is coming into our country. We have no idea if they love us or if they hate us. We have no idea if they want to bomb us. We have no idea what`s going on.
And then I looked at poll numbers, and I don`t mean polls where I`m winning. Those numbers, I like looking at. These numbers, I hated to look at. And it`s very, very sad. I will go after some of the numbers; 25 percent of those polls -- and this was from the Center for Security Policy, very highly respected group of people, who I know, actually.
This is people living in this country; 25 percent of those polls agreed violence against Americans is justified, as Muslims, 25 percent; 51 percent -- these are Muslims living in this country. By the way, I have friends that are Muslims. They`re great people. But they know we have a problem. They know we have a real problem, because something`s going on. And we can`t put up with it, folks. We can`t put up with it.
Fifty-one percent, 51 percent, highly respected number of polling groups, want to be governed according to Sharia. You know what Sharia is. So, I wrote this out. The mainstream media wants to surrender the Constitution, the mainstream media. These people back here, they are the worst. They are so dishonest.
(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: No, no. They`re so dishonest.
(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: They are so dishonest.
I mean, I had one from NBC, a reporter from NBC, and actually another one, I think, from CBS. They actually -- in Columbus, Ohio, I had a tremendous crowd, like 10,000 people. It was a lovefest. It went on for a long time. Everybody stayed right until the end, right until the end.
I had one of the politicians, Kasich, who is just -- he`s a horrible debater. To me, he`s a horrible -- he made a statement that, oh, they left after 10 minutes.
Now, the press was there, they saw it. Nobody says it was a lie. It was a total lie. In fact, I had more people at the end than I had at the beginning. Nobody is leaving. Nobody is leaving here, except for the one person that was screaming.
(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: So, we asked the press to report that it was total lie. And they don`t want to do that, because it`s not the thing to do.
You know, we get the biggest crowds. They don`t want to show this crowd tonight. They`re not going to show all the people outside trying to get in. They don`t do that. They have the cameras right in my face.
I say, fan the crowd just to show them. Look at all the people over here. It`s a record in the history of the ship.
(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: But they don`t show it. They don`t show it.
(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: No, no. And I say fan it, I say fan it, and they never, ever fan it. I say fan the crowd. They never fan it.
And yet I guarantee you that young woman that just got taken out after interrupting us three times, I guarantee the cameras will be on her. I guarantee. It`s disgusting. It`s disgusting.
(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: So we talk about the media, the major -- and, by the way, some of the media`s terrific, but most of it, 70 percent, 75 percent, is absolute dishonest, absolute scum.
Remember that, scum, scum. They`re totally dishonest people.
(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: I had one the other day where I finished the speech, and they said, oh, Trump was interrupted and he left early.
Like, I -- I spoke like for 45, 50 minutes. I then answered question -- questions. And then I went around and did -- you know, everybody knew it was false. Amazingly, there`s a media group that calls the media. And the next day, they did the most beautiful story about what a lie it was from NBC.
She`s back there, little Katy. She`s back there. What a lie it was.
(BOOING)
TRUMP: No. What a lie -- Katy Tur. What a lie it was from NBC to have written that. It was a total lie.
And they did a story where they -- I didn`t know they had a group like this -- where they actually criticized the media. And they said it was a total lie. And I loved it. I loved it. I loved it.
And then other people pick it up. It`s NBC, so somebody picks it up. Third-rate reporter, remember that. Third-rate. Third-rate.
(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: So, I said here, the mainstream media wants to surrender our Constitution and our constitutional rights. And I don`t want that. I want ISIS to surrender. OK?
(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: I want ISIS to surrender. Very simple. It`s very simple.
So, here`s what happened. It`s been a little bit of a controversial day. It`s been a great day, because the poll numbers are through the roof. I like that. But I have more of -- I wish we could call -- is there any way we can call the election tomorrow? Wouldn`t we love that?
(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: Now they`re coming at us in full force. They`re coming -- they`re not coming at me. They`re coming at all of us. They`re coming at all of us, because we have a noisy majority.
They used to call it the quiet majority. People are fed up. They`re fed up with incompetence. They are fed up with stupid leaders. They are fed up with stupid people.
(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: They are fed up with stupid people, where our president makes a deal for Sergeant Bergdahl, a dirty rotten no-good traitor...
(BOOING)
TRUMP: ... who -- think of it -- they knew he was a traitor, because a general and a colonel went to see his group.
Six people were killed looking for him, OK? Six people were killed, young, unbelievable. I watched the parents on television. I have seen the parents. But I watched the parents on television devastated, will never be the same. They left to try and bring him back. He left. He deserted.
You know, in the old days, when we were a strong country, it would be boom, gone. It was called desertion.
(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: Now, the other day, I heard they won`t even do anything to him. Can you believe it? They think he`s going to get away with nothing. He`s going to have nothing.
So, he left. Oh, they treated him pretty rough, though. He got in there. He said, I shouldn`t have done this. This isn`t working out the way -- this isn`t working out the way I thought.
Anyway, so we get him back. And here`s the deal with me. We get a dirty no-good traitor, six people killed trying to find him. They get five of their greatest killers that they have been after -- after -- think of it -- for six years. In fact, I hear nine years.
So they get these total -- right now have gone. They`re out on the battlefield trying to kill everybody in front of them, including you folks, I hate to tell you.
So we get Bergdahl, and they get five of the killers that they have wanted for many years. That`s the way we do it.
The Iran deal, we gave them $150 billion. It`s called amateur night. We gave them $150 billion; 24 days, 24 days -- we think there`s something wrong -- 24 days we have to wait, but it`s much longer than that, because there is a whole process before the clock starts ticking. So it could be forever.
But the best is where they have the right to self-inspect. Are you doing nuclear weapons over there? Oh, we will inspect tomorrow. Oh, no, we`re not doing nuclear weapons.
(LAUGHTER)
TRUMP: You know, the Persians are great negotiators. Always have been. And somebody would say that`s profiling. Trust me, they`re great negotiators.
And Kerry is a horrible negotiator. And Obama is a horrible negotiator, horrible. He`s a horrible negotiator.
(APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: These people are horrible.
(APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: I always thought Obama would be a unifier. I never thought of him as being like a divider, because I said, you know what? I don`t think he`s going to be a good president. I backed McCain. He lost, by the way.
And, you know, I don`t blame McCain for losing, because a lot of bad things were happening. That was a tough one. But I backed McCain. He lost. I backed Romney. He should have won, but he sort of went away on vacation or something the last month, and he lost.
And I said, this time, I`m going to do it myself. We`re not going to lose.
(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: We`re not -- we`re not losing.
And the recent FOX poll that just came out has me beating Hillary very easily one-on-one. I love that.
(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: I love it. That`s so important.
So we put out a statement today. We watched this. And it`s impossible to watch this gross incompetence that I watched last night. And we put out a statement a little while ago. And these people are going crazy.
(LAUGHTER)
TRUMP: They won`t report it properly. Should I read you the statement?
(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: Donald J. Trump is calling for -- now, listen. You got to listen to this.
This is pretty, pretty heavy stuff. And it`s common sense. And we have to do it. Remember the poll numbers, 25 percent, 51 percent. Remember the poll numbers. OK? So, remember this. So, listen.
"Donald J. Trump is calling for a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States until our country`s representatives can figure out what the hell is going on."
(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: We have no choice. We have no choice. We have no choice.
According to Pew Research, among others, there is a great hatred toward Americans by large segments of the Muslim population. Most recently, a poll from Center for Security Policy released data showing 25 percent of those polled agreed that violence against Americans -- these are people that are here, by the way, people here -- 25, not 1 percent.
By the way, 1 percent would be unacceptable. One percent is unacceptable. Twenty-five percent of those polled agreed that violence against Americans here in the United States is justified as part -- think of that -- as part of the global jihad.
(BOOING)
TRUMP: They want to change your religion. I don`t think so. I don`t think so. I don`t think so -- not going to happen -- as part of the global jihad.
And 51 percent of those polled agreed that Muslims in America should have the choice of being governed according to Sharia. You know what Sharia is? Fifty-one percent.
(BOOING)
TRUMP: Sharia authorizes -- and, look, this is -- I mean, it`s terrible. Sharia authorizes such atrocities as murder against nonbelievers who won`t convert, beheadings, and more unthinkable acts that pose great harm to Americans, especially women.
I mean, you look, especially women. Tough stuff. And we have a president that won`t even mention the term. And you`re talking about numbers like this.
"Mr. Trump stated, without looking at the various polling data, it`s obvious to anybody the hatred is beyond comprehension" of such a big portion.
"Where the hatred comes from and why, we will have to determine." We are going to have to figure it out. We have to figure it out. We can`t live like this. It`s going to get worse and worse. You are going to have more World Trade Centers. It`s going to get worse and worse, folks.
We can be politically correct and we can be stupid, but it`s going to get worse and worse.
"Until we are able to determine and understand this problem, and the dangerous threat it poses, our country cannot be the victim of horrendous attacks by people that believe only in jihad."
These are people only believe in jihad. They don`t want our system. They don`t want our system, and have no sense of reason or respect for human life. They have no respect for human life.
(SHOUTING)
TRUMP: That`s all right. He sounds like he`s very exhausted. It`s all right. Yes, he`s tired.
So, they have no respect for human life. So we have to do something. Now, we can be weak, we can be ineffective. We can be foolish. It`s all right. It`s all right. I`m sure he`s a nice person. I`m sure he can be reasoned with. Be very gentle. You know, whenever I`m tough, the press is, oh, he was nasty. Whenever I say, be very gentle, they say, he`s not as strong as we thought he was. You can`t win. So, I try to cut it down the middle. I try and cut it down. Be very nice. So, prior to Paris, which was a disaster, which, by the way, if some of the people in those places where it was slaughter, absolute slaughter had guns, you wouldn`t have had the carnage that you had in Paris. You wouldn`t have had that carnage. (APPLAUSE) If they had guns, you wouldn`t have had that carnage. (APPLAUSE) So important the Second Amendment, we have to preserve it and cherish it. And we can`t let these weak leaders diminish it. If they had guns in Paris, if five people in that room, Paris and France has probably the toughest gun laws anywhere in the world and it was like target practice. Come over here. Boom. Come over here, boom. People are sitting by the hundreds. And many others are going to be dying. They`re sitting in a hospital in many cases waiting to die. Now, same thing a few days ago in California. No guns. We didn`t have guns. The bad guys had the guns. And these young people -- and I tell the press, you`ve got stop calling them masterminds. These are dirty rotten scum. These aren`t mastermind. (APPLAUSE) Remember the guy in Paris with the big dirty hat? Remember the guy in Paris, the mastermind. I was watching all the networks. I won`t mention who but some of them disgusted me. The mastermind is on the loose. We have kids that are watching the Internet. They want to be masterminds. Then you wonder why do we lose all these kids? They go over there. They`re young, impressionable. They go over there and they want to join ISIS. And we have our anchors. I think I got them mostly stopped. Did you notice that? I don`t hear it too much. They say the young mastermind. Oh, he`s brilliant. He`s brilliant. I don`t even think he`s got a high IQ. I call him, in Paris, I called him the guy with the dirty filthy hat. OK? Not a smart guy, a dummy. Puts people in there, mastermind. Bing, bing, bing, they start shooting everybody. You`ve got to be a mastermind. So, the press has to be responsible. They`re not being responsible, because we are losing a lot of people because of the Internet. And we have to do something. We have to go see Bill Gates at a lot of different people, that really understand what`s happening. You have to talk to them maybe in certain areas, closing that Internet up in some way. People will say, oh, freedom of speech, freedom of speech. These are foolish people. We have a lot of foolish people. We have a lot of foolish people. We`ve got to do something with the Internet because they are recruiting by the thousands. They`re leaving our country. When they come back, we take them back. "Oh, come on back. Where were you?" "I was fighting for ISIS." "Oh, come on back. Go home. Enjoy yourself." When they leave our country, and they go to fight for ISIS or any of the other groups, they never come back. They never can come back. They never can come back. (APPLAUSE) They can never, ever, ever, ever come back. It`s over. How about that? Now they become radicalized. They are totally radicalized. And how about the woman? She was in Pakistan, then Saudi Arabia. She brings -- she comes in on an engagement deal and she radicalized the guy. Probably a guy couldn`t get women. I don`t know what the hell his problem was. Probably the first woman he ever had. I don`t know what was going on, but he became radicalized quickly. Notice how easy? He becomes radicalized. And then they go on a spree. Folks, those days are over. Those days are over. We have to be tough. We have to be smart. We have to be vigilant. (APPLAUSE) Yes. We have to look at mosques. And we have to respect mosques. But yes, we have to look at mosques. We have no choice. We have to see what`s happening, because something is happening in there. Man, there`s anger. There`s anger. We have to know about it. We can`t be these people that are sitting back like in the World Trade Center like so many different things. We can`t be people that knew what was going on two weeks in California, probably months knew what was going on and didn`t want to tell anybody. We can`t be that. We have to be strong. When we see violations, you have to report those violations and quickly. Don`t worry about profiling. I promise I will defend from you profiling. I promise. (APPLAUSE) So when I started this whole quest, you know, who knew it was going to turn into this. It`s been an amazing thing. No matter where I go, I have tremendous crowds, packed crowds. Packed. We went Dallas, 20,000 people in Dallas, 25,000 people. I mean, we have -- Mobile, Alabama, 35,000 people. Here, every time I come to South Carolina, every time I go to North Carolina, every time I go to Iowa, New Hampshire, Virginia, wherever I go, Florida -- we have crowds that are maxed. I mean, the only problem we have is the size of the room. Thousands of people outside trying to get in. Usually I do a double. I talk to them for a while, which I don`t exactly love doing after the first one. But there is unbelievable love in these rooms. All the same. CROWD MEMBER: I love you, Donald! TRUMP: I love you, too. I love you. Stand up. Who said it? (APPLAUSE) TRUMP: Thank you, thank you. Thank you, darling. I love you, too. There`s an unbelievable love in all of these places. Oklahoma, 20,000 people standing in a park on quick notice. There is an unbelievable love and there`s an unbelievable love of the country. We want to see good things. We don`t want to be bad people. We don`t want to be tough and nasty. And we believe in the Constitution more than anybody. But we can`t let people use and abuse our rights. We can`t let people kill us. They want to kill us. They want to destroy us. We can`t let it happen. We just can`t let it happen. And I have a friend who is a very, very successful man. And I went to one event. He came with me, with 24,000 people. And this guy is really a tough cookie, he`s a great financial guy, one of the guys that I definitely used to negotiate with Japan, China. Believe me, you are going to be in good shape if that happens. We won`t have these characters. You know, this whole thing with all of these guys -- by the way, I`m the only one self-funding my campaign. Everyone else is controlled. Only one. (APPLAUSE) I`m the only one. Only one. I`m self-funding my campaign. And these other guys, you know, they`re getting millions and millions of dollars from people I know. I have one guy came and wanted to give me a lot of money. Honestly, I can`t take it. I don`t want to do it. I can`t take it -- which is very sort of me like for me to not take money, my whole money I`ve been taking, taking. Now I`m like, what am I doing? But he came and I said, "What are you going to do? I don`t want your money." He said, "I`ve got to go someplace else." They are like gamblers. They`re like gamblers. Got to go some -- I said, "but you like me best." "I like you best, but I`m going to go someplace else." Because they want to be part, they want to -- so they give -- who is more than me? I gave millions to these guys. Nobody knows the system better than me. I knew it from the other side. Don`t forget, I was the fair-haired boy. I was the establishment, they would come to me, I would give them money. I would write checks sometimes to senators, whatever the max, bing, bing, bing. I used to say, senators, don`t come to my office. Anybody that`s a U.S. senator and calls me, we`ll send you a campaign contribution. But you know what? I`ll tell you something, in the end, the people that give these millions of dollars to these horrible corrupt PACs, they`re corrupt. They totally control Bush, and Rubio -- I won`t say Cruz because he`s been very nice to me. (BOOS) TRUMP: No, but he`s been nice. I can`t -- he`s got to hit me first. Once he hits me, I promise you. I promise you. No, I`ve been nice to Christie but he really hit me today. Chris Christie, I mean, I don`t know. He`s a friend of mine, but he`s not doing well in the polls and he really, really hit me today. He hated this. Yet, he said anybody could come. You got to look at some of the statements from the past. But he really hit me on the whole thing with we have to stop the Muslims until we find out what`s going on. Does that make sense, by the way? (APPLAUSE) And he talked about that`s an experience -- in other words, he has experience. That`s the statement of an inexperienced man. The statement I made about we have to stop people that want to kill us from coming in. Does that sound like inexperience? So, Chris, who`s a friend of mine, he hit me hard. And I said, I`ve got to hit him at least once. So, I won`t do this a lot. But look, here`s the story. (LAUGHTER) The George Washington Bridge, he knew about it. Hey. How do you have breakfast with people every day of your lives, they`re closing up the largest bridge in the world, the biggest in the United States, traffic flowing, during rush hour, people couldn`t get across for six, seven hours, ambulances, fire trucks. They`re with him all the time, the people that did it. They never said, hey, boss, we`re closing up the George Washington Bridge tonight. They never said it. They`re talking about the weather, right? Then -- so, he knew about it. He knew about it. Totally knew about it. He has a very friendly group of people over there that they don`t think so. But, I don`t know, look, it`s called life. You`ve got to be smart in life. I would say there`s less than 1 percent chance -- could be but I doubt it. He knew about it. They`ve mentioned -- they didn`t mention at one of their meetings? I think they had breakfast every day or every other day. They didn`t say, Chris, tonight we`re closing up the George Washington Bridge because the mayor of a certain area is against you. Oh, OK. They didn`t mention it. Nobody believes that. Number two, nine downgrades of the state. Nine downgrades, it`s a disaster. I have property over there. The taxes are through -- I`ll use an expression, coming out of my ears, OK? Tremendous taxes over there. He had nine downgrades. You had Christie, you know, so friendly with President Obama during the flood. I actually called, I said, "Let me ask you, is he going to vote for Obama? I thought he was going to vote for Obama." I don`t know. I think he possibly did. And, Romney, I was very disappointed. One of the reasons I was disappointed was he called Christie and they had dinner right after the election. If Christie did that to me, I would have never spoken to him again. I would have never done it. So, when Chris talks about -- when he talks about lack of experience, I built this incredible company, I filed papers, everyone is saying, "Wow! That is unbelievable." I probably would have filed them if I didn`t run because I built a great, great company, tremendous cash, tremendous assets, tremendous net worth, very little debt, unbelievable cash flow, and I filed. Everybody said, number one, he won`t run. And I ran. I took a deep breath. I went, let`s go, to my wife. We came down the escalator, right? The famous escalator. Hopefully in many years, that will be a very famous thing because we will have turned around our country and that will be a positive note, OK? Hopefully. (APPLAUSE) But -- then they said, oh, well, he announced. All these talking heads, most of whom are not even smart people, believe me. Then they said, well, they went to Ivy League college. So did I go to Ivy League college. They went to this. Most of them did go to Ivy League colleges, by the way. They say they`re brilliant. One is brilliant because he wears glasses, you know? Like Perry. Remember Perry? But what happens, what happens, they say, "Well, never filed form A." That`s basically where you sign your life away. I filed form A. Then they said, "Well, he`ll never sign his financial statement because maybe he`s not as rich as everybody thinks." What they don`t know, and then they said, "And if he does, he`ll ask for many, many delays because you`re entitled to 45-day delays and delays. You can delay until ever. And he`ll delay it until after the election." I said no. So I filed it ahead of schedule. And what happened? Remember? They went down, they couldn`t believe it. It was much, much, much better than anybody ever -- I built a great company. And the reason, honestly, worth billions and billions of dollars. Remember that -- low debt, great cash flow. The greatest assets, Doral, Trump Tower -- CHRIS MATTHEWS, MSNBC HOST: Well, that`s Donald Trump, of course, doing whatever it is. Robert Costa is here and Gene Robinson joining us right now. Also, Malcolm Nance is going to join us right now. We`re going to start perhaps with some of the political statements tonight. "I`m going to somehow cut down on the Internet to stop any kind of bad efforts by the terrorists to use the Internet." How would you do that? ROBERT COSTA, THE WASHINGTON POST: It`s an infrequent thing for Trump to talk about on the campaign trail. He`s talking about stopping free speech. He mentioned Bill Gates perhaps cutting Internet being exported across the border. This is new territory. (CROSSTALK) COSTA: New territory. MATTHEWS: Right? EUGENE ROBINSON, THE WASHINGTON POST: Yes, the great firewall. In addition to the great wall of Mexico, he`ll build a great fire wall -- MATTHEWS: Malcolm, would that work in any way? I mean, in any serious way could you curtail dangerous traffic on the Internet and leave the free speech we enjoy to our people? Could you do both? MALCOLM NANCE: No, absolutely not. What`s he going to do? Is he going to shut down the Internet? You know, there`s another world outside the United States that is completely and wholly independent of us. It`s good rhetoric, but not going to work. MATTHEWS: OK, back to the crazy -- I mean, not crazy but the political fire power. There is an act here that works. First of all, he decided to mow down Governor Christie by saying he knew -- less than 1 percent chance -- 99 percent that Governor Christie knew. The way he made the case was very convincing. He works every day with Megyn Kelly -- not Megyn Kelly, Bridget Kelly. They work together and have a meal together, and you don`t think he or she ever mentioned the fact that we`re shutting down the bridge to punish the mayor of Fort Lee? COSTA: Christie insists he did not know. But the political consequences of Trump`s statement, Christie has been rising in New Hampshire. Trump wants to hold on to New Hampshire in case he loses Iowa, somehow Cruz -- (CROSSTALK) MATTHEWS: Christie is back on defense, right? ROBINSON: Yes, he puts Christie back on defense. Exactly. And so, you know, the pretext was that Christie attacked him today for his statement about keeping all Muslims out. In fact, other candidates also attacked Trump. He chose to go after Christie, and I think that`s the reason. I think he wants to bring him down a peg. MATTHEWS: He talked about the regular political people being on a different planet. I think I know what he`s talking about. The political Republican establishment and the Democratic world of Hillary Clinton have left a vast opening in the middle for this guy. White working class guys, whatever they are. I didn`t get a good look at the audience tonight, who they were. COSTA: South Carolina Republicans, working class Republicans. When he says different world, he`s talking about finger-wagging Republican establishment and he is saying I`m separate from that. MATTHEWS: Well, let`s go to Katy Tur. Katy, are you used to this kind of trash talk from him? KATY TUR, NBC NEWS CORRESPONDENT: I`m sorry. Repeat that one more time. It`s hard to hear you -- MATTHEWS: I`m trying to couch this in the most politically correct way. Are you used to the trash talk that Donald Trump threw at you tonight? TUR: I can`t understand you. I`m sorry, Chris. To give you context of how this went down about the Muslim bent he spoke about. He read from statements saying this is very serious stuff. I got done with it, and the crowd went wild, standing ovation. They do support this idea of banning all Muslims from coming into this country. That does according to Donald Trump`s campaign include people that are coming in on tourist visas. People who want to come and visit New York or visit Washington, D.C., or visit any of the other various places in this country. It also includes, according to the campaign, Muslim-Americans, American citizens who might be abroad. I`m not sure if that means if they were abroad visiting family or abroad going on vacation themselves, whether they would be able to get back into this country. I am also not entirely sure if that means they would start to try to deport people or -- I don`t think it actually could happen. It`s certainly illegal and could potentially be unconstitutional. In terms of the Muslim ban, that is playing well with this crowd here in South Carolina. MATTHEWS: Thank you so much, Katy Tur, in South Carolina. It was very professional of her. But I guess she didn`t hear what he was saying about her. I`m sure she did. ROBINSON: I`m sure she heard. MATTHEWS: What do you make of this sort of working the refs, Gene? ROBINSON: Well, that was interesting. He spent a good chunk of the speech going after the press. MATTHEWS: By name. ROBINSON: Yes. COSTA: Called them dumb. MATTHEWS: Yes. ROBINSON: Called them scum, scum, scum. I mean, look, attacking the press has been popular with the Republican base for a long time. He is kind of doubling down on that. It`s one of the riffs in a riff-filled speech that tried to hit as many buttons as possible. MATTHEWS: Let me go to Malcolm on this. Malcolm Nance, the Republican right, it`s generally a common theme of theirs, they keep hitting the president for not using the frame "radical Islamic terrorism". Now, we all know he talks about it, but doesn`t like the phrase because it seems to imply that we`re fighting a religion. Why do they insist he use the phrase? Simply because he won`t use it? NANCE: No. I think they believe that Islam itself and the tenets that are espoused by groups that they say like ISIS and Hamas, they think Islam itself is radical and that these people are radical. ISIS is not radical Islam. This is not Islam. ISIS is a cult that is a segment that is completely un-Islamic. Even though the Muslim jurisprudential organizations will tell you that. And by using this dangerous rhetoric -- I need to say this -- this endangers our service members overseas. This endangers our intelligence officers who are trying to defend us with our allies. This rhetoric is absolutely not going to play well in our allies` capitals but plays very well in Raqqa, Syria, where ISIS has their headquarters. MATTHEWS: You nailed it. Thanks so much Malcolm Nance for joining us and getting that point through. Thank you very much, Gene Robinson, as always, Robert Costa, and Malcolm Nance. And that`s HARDBALL for now. Thanks for being with us. "ALL IN WITH CHRIS HAYES" starts right now. THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED. END