. >>> let's bring in joe watkins, republican strategist and a former aide in the bush white house. and with a good morning to you, joe, so the departure of marco rubio, does that leave donald trump with an open path to the 1237 delegates needed for the nomination, or not? >> his challenge has been that he has hant had great organization on the ground. he's not a huge following. he's got great momentum but he hasn't been as organized as ted cruz who has raised a lot of money and has people in every single state working for him. if trump had that he would have a clearer path to the 1237 he needs. >> republican strategist steve schmidt was on "morning joe" and this happened on thursday where he was talking about the republican establishment and says it has a case of so-called influenza. they don't understand the plight of america's blue collar workers and it doesn't get how to defeat donald trump. doesn't understand donald trump himself. do you think the gop establishment is out of touch? >> well, steve schmidt raises a good point. i said over and over again the reason why donald trum

but he has a show to do it. >> joe watkins and rick tyler, good to see you both. thanks so much. >>> the backlash over a new hollywood film about ronald reagan. why comedian will ferrell backed out of that film. let's get mark his own cell phone. nice. send. brad could use a new bike. send. [google:] message. you decide. they're your kids. why are you guys texting grandma? it was him. it was him. keep your family connected. app-connect. on the newly redesigned passat. from volkswagen. unless you have allergies. flonase is the first and only nasal spray approved to relieve both itchy, watery eyes and congestion. no other nasal allergy spray can say that. go ahead, embrace those beautiful moments. flonase changes everything. to folks out there whose diabetic nerve pain... shoots and burns its way into your day, i hear you. to everyone with this pain that makes ordinary tasks extraordinarily painful, i hear you. make sure your doctor hears you too! i hear you because i was there when my dad suffered with diabetic nerve pain. if you have diabetes and burning, shooting

. >>> let's bring in joe watkins, republican strategist and former white house aide to president george h. w. bush, and rick tyler, msnbc political analyst and former national spokesman for the cruz campaign. so donald trump now says president obama was born in the u.s., but for hillary clinton, that admission is not enough. here's what she had to say at an event in washington yesterday -- >> he is feeding in to the worst impulses, the bigotry and bias that lurks in our country. barack obama was born in america, plain and simple. and donald trump owes him and the american people an apology. [ applause ] >> so joe, should trump apologize? >> well, he should, but he's not going to. if he really wanted to reach out to the african-american community, an apology would be in order. but even an apology wouldn't be enough. most african-americans, every african-american that i know is offended by his comments on the birther movement and the fact that he's continued them for so long. so i don't even think that an apology at this point would be enough. i mean, it's almost the midnight hour of the

. >> rick tyler, joe watkins, always a pleasure to have you. ta thank you so much. >> thanks, dara. >> thanks, dara. >>> john hinckley getting ready to be released from a washington mental hospital 35 years after shooting him. >>> and how qaa keep jeffries will report hillary clinton is having trouble with african-american millennials. max and i just discovered this dog treat called dentalife. it's really different. see? it's flexible... ...and it has a chewy, porous texture, full of little tiny air pockets that gives dogs' teeth a clean scrub all the way down to the gum line. (vo) purina dentalife. for life. get between you and life's dobeautiful moments.llergens flonase gives you more complete allergy relief. most allergy pills only control one inflammatory substance. flonase controls 6. and six is greater than one. flonase changes everything. ♪ ♪ [monster noises] ♪ take on any road with intuitive all-wheel drive. the nissan rogue, murano and pathfinder now get 0% apr for 72 months, plus $500 bonus cash. heythere's a more enjoyabley! wa

and joe watkins, republican strategist and former white house aide to president george h.w. bush. welcome. >> good morning. >> let's start with the tweet storm. hey. trump's barrage of tweets friday about former miss universe, alicia machado. people have been quick to call a lot of trump's previous controversies campaign killers. but do you think this one actually could be it? >> i do. the end is here. look, these -- this is the worst post debate spin in history. maybe -- maybe caligula had a worst debate spin in roman times. this is as bad as it gets. he could have survived his poor performance in the debate. now he's going on four, five days with the former miss universe. nobody cares about it. and he is just -- it's funny because the clintons are -- they have to be, the clinton camp has to be overjoyed with how they've been able to emotionally manipulate this man. they played right into his hands. and he has wasted four days, and -- and the biggest problem i'm sure we'll talk about is he's going to lose women. he's losing them big time. >> well, joe, what do you think? do you t

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let's bring in joe watkins and rick tyler. gentlemen, with a good morning to you both. i'm going to pose the same question we heard in that clip we're going to play in a moment by going after delegates, is donald trump embracing what he has been attacking as a rigged system? could that hit his popularity with voters who like his outsider image? >> i don't think so. i think at the end of the day he doesn't take any kind of a hit for that. donald trump has defied most of the odds so far, i mean, we're been talking about him since his eninterest i into the race last year and i remember early on there was always about is this it for donald trump. how much longer you think he'll lastment we're looking at donald trump as the only candidate in the race still who has a path to 1237 before the convention. may not be a strong path but nonetheless he has a path to 1237. i don't think this impacts him negatively. >> can you ask about the new ap article that argues because of the large numbers of unbound delegates the pennsylvania is mainly meaningless. you're in pennsylvania. what

for analysis, let's bring in joe watkins, former h.w. bush and patrick murray. can i say, patrick is here in studio. the two of us looked at each other during these sound boits and went, uh-huh, let's go with the big news, chris christie has given his endorsement to trump. this happened after saying things like this. >> donald has a lot of talents, he does, he has been a successful businessman. he has absolutely no ability in this area. it doesn't make him a bad guy. i think he's generally a good person. but, you know what, he has no business being president of the united nations and if i thought he did, i wouldn't be running. i'd be helping him. >> so, patrick, what's chris christie get out of this? and how does this affect any of your home states? >> i have been following chris christie's career, since forever. >> yes. >> since he was u.s. attorney, a decade ago. in new jersey we have been used to seeing a chris christie who always makes that political calculation, how can this best serve me? he has pretty much decimated the republican party in the state of ne

thank you, luciana lopez, rick wade, joe watkins, you're not going anywhere, you'll stay with us for a segment later in the hour when we'll talk about swing states, this very topic and other issues that may effect november. stick around for that. also donald trump's controversial new comments about the threat of russia to its eastern european neighbors. we have got that, but up next, what investigators are learning about the texas hot air balloon accident that took the lives of 16 people. pregnancy is an exciting time, but you may experience common discomforts. introducing trunatal from one a day. trunatal is a new line of products designed to address discomforts with nausea relief and regularity support. add trunatal from one a day for relief and support you can trust. once i left the hospital after a dvt blood clot. what about my wife... ...what we're building together... ...and could this happen again? i was given warfarin in the hospital, but wondered, was this the best treatment for me? i spoke to my doctor and she told me about eliquis. eliquis treats dvt and pe blood clots and

. >> joe watkins is a former white house aide for president george h.w. bush and strategist and james peterson is director of african studies. thank you for being with us. james, i want to start with you. you heard hillary clinton connect the shootings to what she called systemic racism. donald trump saying the officer may have choked. is it more about poor policing or more about race? >> i think it's a combination of both, hallie. i think the only way that political leaders and those folks seeking presidential office should be talking about this is in the context of systems of institutional bias. it sdblt doesn't make sense to talk about the individual law enforcement officer. we've seen so many of these incidents over the last several years that it can't be about any one individual officer. it can't just be about bad policing. it has to be about institutional biases, the way police are trained that factor into these whole processes. i'm not hearing from either secretary clinton or mr. trump what some of the actual policy remedies are. i'm not hearing we

. >>> joining me now, susan del percio and joe watkins, david corn with us as well. joe, i'll start off with you because you are a republican, obviously, and so is susan, but your reaction to this. donald trump's comments, is it a racial litmus test? is it bigoted? is it racist? what is it? how do you describe what he said about this judge and a potential muslim judge? >> i wouldn't have said those things. i'm an african-american even before i'm a republican. when people see me, they see an african-american man and i don't want to be jujds or prejudged by anybody because of the color of my skin. i don't want anybody to make a judgment about me because of the color of my skin to figure out that they can figure out what's in my heart. i want them to see me for who i am and to judge me fairly on that. so i wouldn't have made comments like that, but i'm not running for president, of course. but i don't agree that the comments that were made. >> would you support donald trump? >> well, i don't support the comments that he made. the challenge for every republican is the wh

joining me gun, joe watkins, rick tyler, and sarah isner flores. rick, there's a new poll where an overwhelming majority of voters, 68%, think the loser of the election should accept the results. 14% say they think the loser should challenge the results. why does trump persist in his talk of contesting this vote? >> look, he did this to himself. the only reason chris wallace asked the question is because he had been undermining the election for the previous couple of weeks. he asked the question. and he was not very clear about it. he came out the next day in a speech, and he joked about it. look, nobody like -- nobody likes it when your candidate loses. the problem is, on the one side as you heard michelle obama say he's trying to depress the vote. and that may be true to a certain extent. i actually think the damage is much more prevalent on the republican side. if trump supporters actually believe he's going to side. if trump supporters think he is going to lose, which is likely, they are less likely to go out and vote, because they will think,

joe watkins, strapt jist and former aide to president george h.w. bush, and rick tyler, political analyst and former spokesman for ted cruz. great to have you with us. how unprecedented is this public fight especially after an election? >> it was kind of a shame, not very graceful. the problem with palmieri's argument, the reason it doesn't work is, a, you'd have to believe there were enough white supremacists to swing the election. b, you would have to believe that those white supremacists used to vote for democrats in pennsylvania, wisconsin, michigan, and ohio. particularly eastern ohio. so it was her argument really that white supremacists used to vote for democrats and now vote for republicans? there's no basis to the argument. it came up a lot during the campaign. now everybody wants donald trump to somehow distance himself. that reminds me of when richard nixon said, you know, the people deserve to know if their president's ape crook. i'm not a crook. and every political practitioner from then on understood that you don't repeat your opponent

for more, i want to bring in joe watkins, a republican strategist, former aide in the george h.w. bush white house. he joins us now. so let me ask you that basic question. we outlined what some are saying this is really all about for donald trump. what do you think this trip to detroit is all about? >> i think you're right. i don't know how he moves the dial at all with african-americans. most of us have been offended by what we've heard in the speeches which makes it sound like all black people are poor and live in the inner city and all black people worried about getting shot when they walk down the street. that is not the case. most african-americans are offended by that kind of talk. talking to us as if all of us have the same situation and not having any regard that we're americans too and there's a lot of diversity like there is in any other community in this country. but if donald trump was really serious about talking to african-americans, having a real dialogue, he wouldn't need questions in advance. we wouldn't need scripted answers because he's an unscripted kind of a c

bush reverend joe watkins. thank you for joining me. secretary kerry with andrea mitchell talking about the dangers of donald trump moving the embassy to jerusalem. >> the whole world knows that has profound, profound questions of sovereignty. it would have a huge impact on the arab world's perception of jurisdiction and sovereignty over religious sites. >> could there be violence. >> again, i'm not going to get into predicting violence. you know, i think everybody it make their own judgments about what acts are in citement and what are not. >> intelligence and secure is your background. does moving the embassy to jerusalem make america any safer? >> i would say probably not. i mean, i think kerry is both right and wrong. i mean, the discussion when it comes to palestine and israelis, look, as he pointed out, it's much more to do with israelis, continuation of ongoing war that truthfully in many ways habit closed. looks i think jerusalem should be part of israel. to unilaterally move it in the midst of this brouhaha isn't a wise move. a

. >> joe watkins is a former aide and the george hw bush white house. a lot of people taking offense in fact to the way that donald trump has presented this message. what do o you think of the message as he is trying to win back and what do you think? >> well, he is not going to do it talking that way and then what is important to the people of color and then the black people is having some african americans at the highest level of the campaign so that you can find out what african american issues are and how to solve them. you don't win the vote by saying that we ought to vote with you because you have nothing else to lose. you show what you would do to solve the problem that is we face. if you want to talk about law and order, talk about the african americans just in the last couple of years that were stopped by the police and lost their lives. >> i don't want to look back. i proefr to look forward, but did he lose the opportunities along the way and just in the last couple of months he is offered chances to speak before and well known groups and larg

bush, joe watkins and from los angeles, democratic strategist, chris kofins waking up early. >> good to be here. >> joe, let's start with these daily briefings. why not take them? one would assume you could take the time to take the daily briefings like your predecessors have. >> i assume in time he will. i think it's still very early. there's lots to do. he has to make choices for his cabinet. he has plenty to do and plenty to assume. remember, this is an outsider candidate who became the president-elect of the united states, so he's still learning a lot about the job and going at a pace comfortable for him. i think he's thinking first things first and better start naming members of my cabinet and then to become more fully climateized to the office of the presidency. >> chris, do you agree with that assessment? one would assume if you're leader of the free world, you would be able to multitask. >> it's concerning, to say the least. considering he's never had any real policy or governing experience. you would consider all the briefings you would want to get the intelligence briefings

let's bring in joe watkins, republican strategist and former white house aide for george h.w. bush. and political analyst. hello. good to see you on a saturday morning. joe, we'll start with you first. did hillary clinton go too far by tying donald trump to white supremacists and do you see an alternative to all the mudslinging we are now seeing in this race on race? >> well, you know, when somebody attacks you, you have to respond. otherwise, the attack can-can stick. sadly what happens is when you have this kind of mudslinging, it distracts from the major issues that impact america from any serious discussion or debate on those issues. you have 6 million americans working part-time for economic reasons. a bunch are not participating in the labor force. they would love to hear how they are going to put amecans back to work. specifically, what hopes they have to get back to work. but as long as you have these charges thrown about who is a bigot and so on and so forth, it all gets blurred and all you have are a for you here what the gop sean spicer told one of my colleagues about hil

joining me now, republican strategist joe watkins. joe, thank you so much for your time. >> good to be with you, tamron. >> when you hear senators like mitch mcconnell say donald trump needs to get on script or one senator who said he needs to act more presidential, being a southern child it reminds me are going to, i don't know, walmart with your mom and she says you better act like you have some sense. is he acting a role or is he, you know, supposed to already be presidential here now that we've gone through this primary? i just don't understand the concept of telling him to act presidential as if he is from central casting since we are here in california? >> well, of course the presidency is an important role and it's important to realize that you're representing all americans and speaking to all americans. i think he realizes that now. clearly his speech yesterday was -- i thought it was very, very good. i agree with reince priebus, that it was right on message, right on point. i think he's changing the script right now. i think

let's bring in former campaign manager for carly fiorina and joe watkins, former white house aide and rick tyler. thank you all for being here this morning. >> good to be here. >> let's start with you, rick. you heard giuliani speaking. do you agree? is president obama trying to throw up roadblocks for trump here? is this just hyperbole? >> it seems curious that obama has not acted tough anywhere from red lines in syria to the russians and now all of a sudden he has a political adversary and a democratic party that wants to undermine trump's legitimacy. he is lending credence to that. >> trump walks into the white house january 20. president obama has ordered new sanctions. how is this going to play out? does trump have room to undo them or change them? >> there's always the possibility that donald trump could undo it or change it. vladimir putin has said he wants to wait to see how the trump team handles their relationship once they take office on january 20th. it's a wait and see. but it does make it a little tricky for donald trump starting as president-elect. this is unprecedented

. >> i want to bring in joe watkins. steve is a democratic strategist who served as deputy national campaign manager back in 2008. joe, i want to start with you. trump is trying to pin this controversy on hillary clinton. he said clinton through her surrogates is trying to -- is that a better strategy than simply saying i'm sorry and putting it behind him? >> i think that the campaign wants to get past this. this is a huge thing. this is what you don't want if you're running for the presidency. i was a former staffer for a presidential candidate. when the staff doesn't do its job right you have these kind of distractions. they are try to go move forward obviously. i think he was very smart to say hey, i screwed up. i should have done more research. i didn't mean to address anybody. >> why not? it is a huge distraction. seeing that hillary clinton has given a time to focus on why couldn't he simply say sorry, our mistake. >> good question. very good question but that's just not been the mind set of the campaign at least t

bush, joe watkins. joe, it's a great pleasure having you on. >> thanks, tamron. >> i'm sure you heard our reporters on the ground. the theme of the senator cruz campaign right now is just keep going until we can't. what do you see happening after indiana, if donald trump does win double digits in that state? >> what happens is, is that ted cruz has to begin dialing back his comments, his attacks on donald trump and he has to begin to make peace with donald trump. if donald trump wins tomorrow, as i think everybody expects him to do, especially if he wins by double digits, ted cruz has got to stop talking about a contested convention and stop talking about how he's going beat donald trump and he's got to make his peace with donald trump and start working on bringing the party together, because the party has to be unified behind the nominee. >> but when you think at what seemed at the beginning 1700 republicans running for president, in fact 17, very few, if any, have made peace with donald trump. marco r

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let's bring in rick tyler, former national spokesman for the ted cruz campaign and analyst, joe watkins, former white house aide to president george h.w. bush, and sarah isgar-flores, former deputy manager for carly fiorina and director for the rnc. great to have you here this morning. >> good morning. >> thanks. >> today, senator orrin hatch is saying that the president-elect is "very high on romney" and wants to have a friendship there. sarah, you advised romney in 2012. do you think he would really work for trump? >> i do, and i think it would send a powerful message to unite the conservative movement and republican party. during this election season, every time hillary had a scandal after scandal, the democrats were lockstep, would never criticize her. that obviously didn't happen on the republican side. now we own this presidency. we own the congress. so the american people are looking to republicans, you know, are you going to have the solutions that you said you had? i think uniting the apartment and having mitt romney in the cabinet makes a lot of sense. and i think for to do it

. >> joining me now is joe watkins, a republican strategist and former bush white house aide. also rick tyler, mkz political analyst. good morning to you. >> good morning. >> so joe, i'll start with you. i want your reaction to the length donald trump is going in order to stay on the nra's good side. how do you read it? >> well, he's a smart guy. a lot of these groups are going to get in line now. donald trump, you look at the numbers nationally, this is a competitive race. and you're going to see a lot of these groups, the nra and others even if he doesn't support every plank of the platform, supporting him and doing it with gusto. they think that trump has a chance to win and they are going to be behind him. >> you think they are getting in line because they believe in donald trump the man or don't want hillary clinton to get to the white house? >> they want to have a seat at the table. for all of these groups, they want to have a seat at the table with the person who is president of the united states. if the their candidate has a shot to win they are going to do everything

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coming now joe watkins republican strategist and aide to president george h.w. bush and msnbc analyst and former spokesman for ted cruz. rick, you know this question is going to you first given what we've just heard from donald trump. is ted cruz's political career ruined and will he come around to endorsing donald trump. >> i don't think his career is ruined at all. doesn't make sense for cruz, having given that speech, which was a good speech, one of the best of the convention, about principle concerns and the defense thereof, how could he endorse donald trump. he debate endorse him, not likely he will endorse him. all the booing started by representative king of the delegation, not everyone booing. i think the speech historically remember were you in the room when ted cruz gave his speech not were you in the room when donald trump got nominated fl i think that's significant. >> you gave a plat out no, his political career is not ruined. does that mean does ted cruz -- hillary clinton would want to win in 2016 so ted cruz can jump back in and run in 2020. is t

karine jean pierre with joe watkins, a former aide in the bush 41 white house. you heard what donald trump said to mika and how kellyanne conway tried to clarify it last night and i'm sure you heard how sean spicer tried to clarify it as well. do you think we're getting ahead of ourselves, ojoe? >> i think the president-elect donald trump has really been a master of understanding the difference between policy and messaging and likes to message on social media, a way to get to people in an unfiltered way and he did it all during the campaign very successfully. >> it's one thing talking about policy that might affect us domestically. what do you think about nuclear weapons on twitter? >> well, it's more of the same. >> are you comfortable with him tweeting about nuclear weapons, joe? >> i've been saying that. what i did say is there's a difference between policy and substantive policy and messaging and so he has chosen to be unfiltered and message people because it moves folks, makes people stand straight up and listen to whatever it is he's talking about and to r

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. >> joe watkins, and robert, thank you for being here. >>> planning for retirement. just how stressed americans are about it. hear how a change in mind-set could be all that it takes to fix that. >> also, the trump can economic council 22 advisers in all. what do they offer trump to help him bring overseas jobs back to america? we see the answers to one of those advisers at 15 past the hour here on m is snbc live. hour here on m is snbc live. ♪ ♪ only those who dare drive the world forward. introducing the first-ever cadillac ct6. at ally bank, no branches equals great rates. it's a fact. kind of like grandkids equals free tech support. oh, look at you, so great to see you! none of this works. come on in. d open up but my back pain was making it hard to sleep and open up on time. then i found aleve pm. the only one to combine a sleep aid plus the 12 hour pain relieving strength of aleve. now i'm back. aleve pm for a better am. ...one of many pieces in my i havlife.hma... so when my asthma symptoms kept coming back on my long-term control medicine. i talked to my

. >> ed rendell, joe watkins, we'll let you go on to your plans, your barbecues, joe, get out of that tie. >> that's right. >> something more casual. appreciate both of you being with us. thanks so much. >>> the gop national convention beginning two weeks from today. donald trump is facing with a battle within his own party from the stop trump movement. >> colorado's taught me a lot about politics. i learned a lot. because polls came out that i was going to win colorado and doing really well in colorado, and looked good, and i was looking forward to it, and then all of the sudden, i didn't get the delegates. i said, but what happened to vote? do you remember? we had some of you folks probably were out there with a little picketing, and a little craziness. >> that was friday in denver, colorado, joining me now, kendall uru, he's a gop delegate from colorado. you have said this about the stop trump movement and the challenge to the convention rules. you've said even if it doesn't make it through rules, so be it, then it's a floor fight. you are against donald trump here, what's your pat

i want to bring in republican strategist reverend joe watkins, aide to former president george h.w. bush. could you have imagined a back and forth between the former president bush like we're seeing now? twitter didn't exist, but -- i'm going to take that laugh as a no. let's move on, joe, from the parlor game, which we all love. to some serious stuff, because donald trump's far from the first person to question the effecti effectiveness, even the relevancy of the united nations, right? he says things, though, are going to be different after january 20th. i guess the question is, how? what's he going to do, how is the united nations going to change because donald trump is president? >> well, i guess one of the ways it may change is with his new appointments. certainly, as we know, there will be a new u.n. representative at the united nations and representing the united states in governor nikki haley. she's got a great background as a republican governor of south carolina. she's kind of new to the game of diplomacy, but i think she'll do well. but then, he's got an ambassador pick fo

joe watkins, republican strategist and former aide to president george h.w. bush, and sarah florez, republican strategist formerly of the carly fiorina campaign. joe, let's talk about the polls. we see clinton pulling ahead in swing states, north carolina, florida, your home state. what about the down ballot voting? >> there's a lot of worry. a lot of people know that this presidential race could and likely will affect the number of the down ballot races. certainly in pennsylvania, we've got a hotly contested u.s. senate race going on. the incumbent, of course, is a friend of mine. and -- and a very good person. and in pennsylvania, by the way, you've got a slightly more -- about a million more diabetic voters than republican voters. and so in order for a republican to win or to retain his or her seat, they've got to win democrat votes, as well this makes it tough in the year when you have a woman running against pat toomey, the incumbent senator, and hillary clinton leading the ticket in a year where donald trump is losing ground in pennsylvania. >> well, sa

joe watkins, republican strategist and former white house aid to george h.w. bush. >> good morning. >> good morning, todd. >> good morning, todd. >> connecticut's own paul manafort is out. >> he gave an interview saying he liked the way he was. he wanted to be authentic. that meant he wasn't being strong with the voters. we had a quasi faux a pathology he issued. he had a couple successful speeches, very successful. went down to louisiana and actually showed empathy for the victims and the flooding down there. that was good. so there is definitely a changeup. if he can keep going, that would be good. >> one follow-up question. it seems to me about that going to louisiana and meeting with flood victims would be a departure from manafort because manafort is a traditionalist, no? >> i would like to know who set up the louisiana trip because it was fraught with risk. when you go to do something like that and you're a candidate and people lost their homes and businesses, people lost lives, family members. you have to be very casement his goal was to show he cared a

and let's bring in joe watkins, and rick tyler, msnbc political analyst and national spokesman for ted cruz. before we get into the recount, let's talk about the news from cuba, castro is dead, and the u.s. has a new president. what does that do for the new u.s. and cuban relationship? >> i would suspect at this juncture, he will probably want to wait and see. cuban exile families are rejoicing today in castro's death, and he will have to take maybe a more measured approach. >> what is the point of a recount. could it change anything? >> no. if somebody has no chance of winning at all, and -- she talks about this voter fraud, and the green party is trying to raise money off of the recount so they are raising millions, as much as $7 million, and the states have no guarantee of doing no recount, and they are hoping to overturn the election for hillary clinton, and it's a money-raising fraud is what it is. >> and yesterday some said they are getting $2,000 to $3,000 a day to change their votes. how realistic is that? >> zero. it's been -- for many years, we get a rogue electorate here or

joe watkins, republican strategist and former aide to george h.w. bush and reich tyler, an msnbc political analyst. rick, i want your reaction to "the washington post" report by the push to stop trump by changing party rules, in fact shawn spicer released a statement. all of the discussion about the rnc rules committee acting to undermine the presumptive nominee is silly, there is no organized effort, strategy or leader of this so called movement. it's nothing more than a media creation and series of tweets. you agree? you hear anything about these? >> i am. i agree with shawn on the one hand it's not silly, it will be could be and might be very, very serious, if the trump continues to perform the way he's been performing and people see the writing on the wall that november would be an imminent disaster. on the other hand he is right, the efforts that i've seen are not serious, and it's very difficult to beat something with nothing, and so for they have not presented what their something would be. people are not going to overthrow donald trump for s

. >> well, let's bring in joe watkins, republican strategist and former white house aide to former president h.w. bush and rick tyler former analyst and spokesman for ted cruz. hi, guys. good to see you both. rick, between gingrich and christie, who is the better choice there? is there someone trump should be looking at that he's not. >> trump has run an idea he's going to have a revolution in washington, d.c., and turn over the tables. if that's the case, there's only one person to pick, have you to pick a revolutionary that would be newt gingrich. chris christie isn't popular in his own state, part of the establishment, thune, d.c. insider establishment. mike pence was a big disappointment in indiana with the religious liberty bill he backed out of. he may not win his own re-election. it comes down to, is this going to be more of the same, hillary clinton or really change washington and get corruption out of washington. donald trump seems to have bet the house on the idea we will change washington. if you're going to do that, bring in a revolutionary. the only one there is newt gingrich, i

let's bring in joe watkins, strategist and former aide to p. george h.w. bush, and rick tyler, former national spokesman forred at t for ted cruz and msnbc analyst. sarah, trump spent more than a year encouraging this rhetoric and now saying it's terrible. does he really think it's terrible? what's going on here? >> well, i think some of this is the press once again struggling to find a way to cover who donald trump says. he is talking about how great it is for supporters there he won and the press is instead concentrating on this one aspect of what he said. i think they're missing the point. he's enjoying the win with his supporters. that's why they're having the thank you tour. i wouldn't take it quite so literally about what he was talking about before the election. obviously emotions were high on both sides before the election. now the election's over, time to move ahead for the country. >> joe, if this was serious, does trump really think he can get the genie back in the bottle as it were and suddenly roll out a whole new style? the whole new way of t

joe watkins, former white house aide to president george h.w. bush. and sarah isgar flores, former deputy campaign manager for carly fiorina and former deputy communications director for the rnc, the best in the business. good to have you with us. sarah, politico polled a selection of insiders from both parties who say that clinton's ground game will make all the difference in these last few days. do you agree with that system in. >> you know, the clinton team tried to basically say that they have the 2012 ground game. but numbers don't bear it out. north carolina and florida, republicans are actually further ahead than they were in 2012. on the other hand, those numbers are shifting as we get closer to election day. clark county in nevada, democrats 13 spoip 3 points ahe. trump could stand to only lose that by six. the question is when that's her ground game or a reaction against donald trump. the enthusiasm numbers to for hillary clinton sloent the level that i think -- shown the level that i think she would want. that's why she had to be in michiga

. >> let's bring in rick tyler, msnbc political analyst and joe watkins, republican strategist. so gentlemen with a good morning to you both. rick, i'll start with you. i want to talk about protests at donald trump's rally last night. 35 people arrested there. so where does it go from here? what does a convention look like? a trump white house look like? will there be protests following him everywhere? >> i don't know about the white housement we'll see what happens there. but yeah, i think the protests are going to follow along. the protests have been at republican conventions forever. maybe this one will be quite larger. but alex, i think the protests help donald trump because they emphasize that you know, this is the left that's trying to shut down free speech, it doesn't help that you have a lot of mexican flags on american soil. i know people are trying to show their heritage and pride but it's sort of reinforces donald trump's message that you're losing your job to illegal immigration. >> rick, i got to ask. you said it helps donald trump. is that with his base? >> yes. >>

. >> let's bring in joe watkins,istratist and and former white house aide for george h. w. bush. rick tyler, msnbc political analyst and spokesman for ted cruz. and sarah azger flores, former deputy campaign manager for carly fiorina and communications director. thanks for being here. >> good morning. >> rick, i'm going to start with you. why is this still going on, and have you seen this level of post-election vitriol ever before? >> a little bit. not this bad i don't think. i don't understand her argument. her argument -- i think kellyanne's right, they break down the blue wall. and a lot of white working class voters who used to vote for democrats voted for a republican this time in donald trump. and as palmieri's argument, is it really that there were so many racists that vote for donald trump that he won? if that's true, then didn't they used to vote for democrats? so i don't think she really wants to go there. i think it's a lot of sour grapes. they ought to be gracious they lost the election. they should move on. >> and joe, what's your reaction to this? that this is still

joining me, sarah isner flores, former campaign manager for carly fiorina, joe watkins, former white house aide for president george h.w. bush, and rick tyler, msnbc analyst and former spokesman for ted cruz's presidential campaign. great to have you guys this morning. >> good morning. >> hi. >> let's start with you, joe. trump said friday, let it be an arms race. if he wants to do this, he will need a lot of money from congress. how seriously do you take these statements? >> well, i think there's a difference between messaging and policy, of course. you know, messaging is something that he did successfully during the campaign using twitter to talk to his base and voters. he's doing the same as pinellas county. and obviously it's very difficult from policy which is substantive, of course, costs money, and usually needs the support of congress to enact. so i submit that there's a big difference. donald trump has not yet come to that point. nonetheless, there's a difference between messaging and policy. >> okay. >> rick, i was to ask but this part of kellyanne conway's interview thursd

. >> thank you very much, joe watkins and steve mcman, thank you both for being on the show. we are asking of our pulse question. here are the results. so far, 30% of you say yes and 70% of you say no. we'll keep on collecting your votes on that one. let us know what you think. surveillance camera, video on a bus captures a frightening moment for a california man, what an e-cigarette explodes in his pocket. how that all happens next. >>> a bad cold cannot stop queen elizabeth from getting in the christmas spirit. the latest on their travel plans, coming up. says it won't let up for a while. the cadillac xt5... what should we do? ...tailored to you. wait it out. equipped with apple carplay compatibility. ♪ now during season's best, get this low mileage lease on this cadillac xt5 from around $429 per month, or purchase with 0% apr financing. sometino big deal.shing my gums bleed. but my hygienist said, it is a big deal. go pro with crest pro health gum protection. it helps prevent gum bleeding by targeting harmful bacteria on your gums. left untreated, these symptoms could le

james patterson is an associa professor at lehigh university and joe watkins, a former white house aide in the george h.w. bush administration. we were talking yesterday about donald trump and you like so many said to me, stop normalizing this man. he is our president-elect. if we continue to argue about donald trump's character, do we risk drowning out conversations about what he's going to do as president? >> stephanie, first of all, it's peterson, and second, it's our challenge and charge as american citizens to have both conversations at the same time. there's no reason why we in the media and the american citizenry cannot critique his character. by the way, the question of character at the centerpiece of almost every presidential election and every presidential campaign and administration since i've been alive so i don't know why we would dispense with that where donald trump emerged in 2016. so i think we can be critical of his character and keep it in the context of the political evolution we've seen over the last couple of years has taken place and also have a steady sort of eye

here to talk everything transition, joe watkins, republican strategist who served in the george bushed a handwriting and then surrogate for the second president bush. let's talk about what the house speaker was just referring to, this firewall potentially between the trump white house and the business interests. do you think that should happen? should there be a blind trust and are you concerned if there's not? >> there should be a blind trust. >> how is it blind if it's his kids, jared kushner? is it really a blind trust? >> he needs to be removed from it so he can tend to the business of the country and not have any distractions. being president of the united states is a huge job and it's important that the president not be distracted and listen to the people closest to him and his children are bright kids. they probably went to the best university in the country, university of pennsylvania. i'm an alum. they are well-trained and able to handle the business and lots of other people there can do that. >> that's not a concern for you. let me talk about steve bannon. you have advocacy g

joe watkins is a republican strategist and former white house aide in the george h.w. bush administration and michelle juwando. welcome to both of you. michelle, let me start with you. do you think this effort is worthwhile, good for the country? >> you know, i think your money can be spent in many other ways and this might not be the way that i would recommend, particularly angry clinton voters to use their resources. if you look at two of the states that miss stein is moving forward with the recount, michigan and in wisconsin, her margin of the votes she received was greater than the difference between donald trump and hillary clinton. so i have a concern that you start a fund raising campaign that continually grows and now up to like $6 million and if we really talk about issues, we talk about voter suppression and how that works out in states like wisconsin. 300,000 voters didn't have the proper id and the difference between trump and clinton, 27,000 votes. so let's talk about that. >> joe, what do you do when people are upset, they don't like the outcome of the vo

you're going to be finding yourself six feet under before you know your name. >> joe watkins, howard dean, a big thanks to both of you on this new year's day. >> thanks. >> good to see you. >> thanks, craig. >>> a judge says bill cosby's wife must testify in a defamation suit against her husband. it is expected to happen early next week. coming up, the latest on that suit as well as the separate criminal charges against the legendary comedian. i'm here at my house, on thanksgiving day and i have a massive heart attack right in my driveway. the doctor put me on a bayer aspirin regimen. be sure to talk to your doctor before you begin an aspirin regimen. go talk to your doctor. you're not indestructible anymore. for the new mattress models! it's time to make room during sleep train's huge year end clearance sale... get beautyrest, posturepedic, even tempur-pedic mattress sets at low clearance prices! save even more on floor samples, demonstrators, and closeout inventory! plus, same-day delivery, set-up and removal of your old set. why wait for the new models? sleep train's year end clea

let me start off with you, joe, here. donald trump says that he wanted to make money. is that what he said in that quote? because when you listen to his own words, he was hoping it could happen so that he could make money. is there a distinction here? >> yeah, he did say that. i mean there's plenty of -- he's got plenty of quotes over the last 20 or 30 years for folks to draw from. but what hurts other candidates hasn't yet so far hurt donald trump, so it's kind of counter intuitive. you'd suppose a remark like that would really hurt him, but it's that same spirit that he has of how do you take advantage of an opportunity that americans are looking for him to do as a candidate for president. so you've got six million americans working part-time for economic reasons. another nearly 27% of the unemployed, long-term unemployed, looking for an opportunity. they're looking for somebody to come in and shake it up and get them back to work to grow the economy. so this kind of thing doesn't hurt donald trump with the people who already like him. >> david, are we back to the gr