chris matthews in a town hall on wednesday. chris matthews: should the woman be punished? for having an abortion? mr. trump: look -- chris matthews: this is not something to dodge. it is either murder or law. should it be punished? donald trump: people in certain parts of the republican party would say yes. chris matthews: but would you? donald trump: i was say it is a very serious problem. it is a problem we have to decide on. mr. matthews: you are for banning it. mr. trump: are we going to say put them in jail? chris matthews: no, i am asking you. mr. trump: i am pro-life. mr. matthews: how do you actually do it? donald trump: you go back to a position like they had where people were perhaps go to illegal places, and you have to ban it. mr. matthews: they go to somebody who flunked out of medical school. donald trump: how do you feel about that catholic church position on abortion? mr. matthews: concur with their moral position, but not legally. donald trump: but what do you say about your church? chris matthews: churches make their morals. you are running for president,

chris matthews: churches make their morals. you are running for president, chief executive of the united states. do you believe in punishment for the abortion, yes or no? donald trump: the answer is there has to be some pot -- form of punishment. chris matthews: for the woman? donald trump: yes. i do take positions on everything else. it is political. mark: the political world has been reacting to that fascinating exchange. john kasich was in queens, new york, and he criticized donald trump's answer as inappropriate. around ininton was harlem, she criticized and was quick to respond via twitter when he said, just when he thought he could not get worse, perfect and telling, trump try to walk back his remarks in not one that to statements he put -- but two statements he put out. if congress were to pass legislation making abortion illegal and the courts upheld this in any state was permitted to ban this under federal law, the doctor or any other person performing this illegal act on a woman would be held legally responsible, not

joining me now, chris matthews, host of hardball, and matt dowd. here in new york, matt flegenheimer and kellyanne conway. cruzeads a pro-ted superpac. i begin with chris matthews pretty take me back to how you solve this. he moment you asked these questions. do you think you thought about this at all before? chris: it was a question from the audience. a young woman asked about abortion rights. i asked him the question on my mind. what do we do in terms of enforcement. woman beim, should the abortion?ho has an he took a while to answer and he said yes there ought to be some punishment for the woman. what about the guy involved? he said no, not him. later they retracted it.

i'm chris matthews in washington. well, the president has offered a calm but tough criticism of donald trump's statement this week on possession and use of nuclear weapons. >> what do the statements you mention tell us? they tell us that the person who made the statements doesn't know much about foreign policy

chris matthews was at a town hall on wednesday. chris matthews: should the women be punished? for having an abortion? mr. trump: look -- chris matthews: this is not something you can dodge. should it be punished? donald trump: people in certain parts of the republican party would say yes. chris matthews: but would you? donald trump: i would say it is a very serious problem. it is a problem we have to decide on. mr. matthews: you are for banning it. mr. trump: are we going to say put them in jail? chris matthews: no, i am asking you. you say you want to banning, what does that mean? mr. trump: i am pro-life. mr. matthews: how do you actually do it? donald trump: you go back to a position, like they had where people would perhaps go to illegal places, and you have to ban it. mr. matthews: they go to somebody who flunked out of medical school. donald trump: how do you feel about that catholic church position on abortion? mr. matthews: i concur with their moral position, but not legally. donald trump: but what do you say about your church? chris matthews: churches make their moral

matthews exposed that. >> chris matthews is a very good interviewer when talking to republicans. hillary clinton, not so much. and so now the trump campaign said that when trump -- when the candidate said that the laws will stay the same, it means until he is president and can start a pointing pro-life judges. the whole media narrative that trump, you know, yes he misspoke. but that she is hostile to wome. is the press taking that a little too far? >> i think he's giving them a lot to work with. and it's true that he is very critical and says terrible things about everybody. so -- men and women. that is absolutely a true statement. but the retweeting of that picture of ted cruz's wife which he now said he regrets doing, that is different than what he's been doing to the men. that really was something basically sort of saying, look, this woman is not as pretty as my wife. that is something a lot of women look at and say okay that, is sexist, right? that is somebody who has an issue with women. so -- >> reminds them of ex-boyfriends and all that? >> i think it's basically makes wom

." >>> good evening, i'm chris matthews, in washington. the president has offered a calm but tough criticism of donald trump's statement this week, on possession and use of nuclear weapons. >> what the statements you mentioned tell us, they tell us that the person who made the statements doesn't know much about foreign policy or nuclear policy or the korean peninsula or the world generally. we don't want somebody in the oval office who doesn't recognize how important that is. >> well, we know who is he

matthews exposed that. >> chris matthews is a very good interviewer when talking to republicans. hillary clinton, not so much. and so now the trump campaign said that when trump -- when the candidate said that the laws will stay the same, it means until he is president and can start a pointing pro-life judges. the whole media narrative that trump, you know, yes he misspoke. but that she is hostile to wome. is the press taking that a little too far? >> i think he's giving them a lot to work with. and it's true that he is very critical and says terrible things about everybody. so -- men and women. that is absolutely a true statement. but the retweeting of that picture of ted cruz's wife which he now said he regrets doing, that is different than what he's been doing to the men. that really was something basically sort of saying, look, this woman is not as pretty as my wife. that is something a lot of women look at and say okay that, is sexist, right? that is somebody who has an issue with women. so -- >> reminds them of ex-boyfriends and all that? >> i think it's basically makes wom

absolutely no part of the exchange between trump and chris matthews was edited out. we know that and mr. trump knows that too and any allegation otherwise is untrue. seriously. i mean even trying to sell this to a competing network, that is ridiculous. that does it for us tonight. we'll see you again tomorrow. now it's time for the last word with lawrence o'donnell. >>> the chief strategist for hillary clinton's and bernie sanders' campaigns will join us on a day when things got a little more intense between the candidates. and last night you saw it right here on msnbc, trump stepped right into a logic trap set by chris matthews who had been preparing for that moment since his days in catholic school. >> do you believe in punishment for abortion, yes or no. >> there has to be some form of punishment. >> for the women. >> yeah, there has to be some form. >> ten years? what. >> that, i don't know. >> why not? >> to punish a woman for having an abortion is beyond comprehension. >> of course women shouldn't be punished. >> donald trump is showing us exactly who he is and

we know the full-blown main stream media as we saw with chris matthews. everyone is out to try and stop donald trump from winning the nomination. >> was the question unfair? >> no, not at all. mr. trump answered the question, he just answered it after chris matthews said, but for women, and he just said yes. mr. trump was speaking about the legality. this was a hypothetical context of something happening that was illegal. mr. trump was just reinstating yes, if something is illegal, they should be punished. that's why he clarified for distinguishing the difference between the woman and the actual person committing the procedure that is not legal. >> let me ask you about these polls that show trump has a 73% disapproval rating with women. 73% of american women disapprove of him. mitt romney was viewed as unfavorable by 51% of women before the 2012 election. he lost with women, he only got 44% of their vote and he was killed in that election. so 51% unfavorable vote, he managed to get 44% of the voting for him. and he lost in an electoral landslide to barack

i think that's was a miscalculation for him to go on chris matthews. someone at that campaign should have been able to tell him, a, this is a bad idea because there's not a lot of gop primary voters watching chris matthews and msnbc. if you are, recognize chris matthews is a catholic and is likely to raise this issue days ahead of the primary where catholic voters are influential. someone should have warned trump about that. because donald trump, his whole candidacy is built on his personality and not a campaign operation, we're seeing these missteps on issue after issue. >> we have to take a quick break. much more ahead. the surprising ways he says nuclear weapons fit in. john kasich says trump is clearly not prepared to be commander in chief. talking tougher against trump and his opponents. i'll speak with governor kasich this hour. also i'll talk to glenn beck and trump's comments on abortion and the fact he's sticking by his campaign manager. more on that ahead. >>> as we mentioned, donald trump met with his national security advisers in washington

i think she really is. >> chris matthews, thank you. one of the things that is interesting about these front-runners tonight is that all of the other candidates running -- john kasich, ted cruz, bernie sanders -- all got out of dodge. the two front-runners knew they were going to do well in new york, they both staged their events in manhattan tonight. and i'm happy, it looks like we're going to have donald trump's remarks pretty much back to back with hillary clinton's remarks which we're expecting any moment. they are literally -- she's two avenues west of him. and three blocks south of him. they're both not just in new york and new york city and manhattan and midtown, but if you were going to either of those two places you would go to the same subway stop, they're that close together. and it is -- the rest of the country sometimes feels like new york treats them like flyover country, nights like this give lie to that accusation. >> by the way, they're just telling me we have a quick upda update. we are declaring that second place will

msnbc did not cut his conversation with chris matthews at all. that town hall was taped as a live event. it was not live as it happened, but it was aired in its form. everything that happened, all of it went to air. the network did not clip it, did not cut it, did not shorten mr. trump's answers. the officials statement from msnbc reads the town hall was taped in advance and then aired in its entirety. absolutely no part of the exchange between trump and chris matthews was edited out. we know that and mr. trump knows that too and any allegation otherwise is untrue. seriously. i mean even trying to sell this to a competing network, that is ridiculous. that does it for us tonight. we'll see you again tomorrow. now it's time for the last word with lawrence o'donnell. >>> the chief strategist for hillary clinton's and bernie sanders' campaigns will join us on a day when things got a little more intense between the candidates. and last night you saw it right here on msnbc, trump stepped right into a logic trap set by chris matthews who had been prepar

i give chris matthews credit for pressing donald trump on the question. i have interviewed donald trump in the past and it is hard to get him off the talking points but in the political arena he does not have many considered thoughts. >> mean was a good interviewer when he is interviewing republicans. >> now, when the candidate said the laws will stay the same meaning until he is president and appoints pro-life judges. >> but the media that he misspoke and he is hostile to women and this is a huge mess for the g.o.p....is the press take that too far? >> he has given them a lot to work with. it is true he is critical and says terrible things about everyone, men and women. but re-tweeting the picture of ted cruz's wife which he regrets doing, that is different than what he has been doing to the men because that is something for saying look at this women issue is not is pretty as my wife and women look at that and say, that is sexist, someone with an issue with women. >> reminds them of an ex-boyfriend? >> it makes women feel like our most important quality

that's what chris matthews was getting at with donald trump. this is what he admitted to that has so upset everything that he said it out loud. it's true. if we become a pro-life country that abortion is illegal that every time any woman becomes pregnant in the united states, she will face a government mandate that says she must bring that pregnancy to term and must give birth by order of the government. the government will use the criminal law to monitor every pregnancy in the country and to force every woman in america who gets pregnant to take that pregnancy to term and give birth if it's against her will. that's what it means in brass tacks. that means your pregnancy tests is potentially criminal evidence. if you have a miscarriage, god forbid, every physical aspect is potentially criminal evidence. the sight of your miscarriage is going to be treated and investigated as a crime scene. in a pro-life country, if the government knows you to be pregnant, and you do not give birth nine months later, that will be a matter for the police to inves

several hours after he said that to chris matthews. he put out a statement saying he actually wants to jail or punish doctors, not necessarily women, for the crime of having an abortion. that is not at all what he said out loud when chris matthews asked him about it today on camera. now, because this all happened while i was talking to hillary clinton at the apollo theater today and we did not know about it until after that conversation was over, i ended up -- i kid you not -- left the apollo theater, came back to my office then turned right back around, rushed back out again to find her again. after our interview was done because i felt like i really needed to get her response to this development. i'm not in the habit of following people back to their offices after my interview with them is over but in this case, that's exactly what i did and i'm glad i did it because watch this. madam secretary, i'm not in the habit of chasing people down after i've had the chance to speak to them for a second round, but while we were speaking today,

joining me is chris matthews. kathleen parker.

chris matthews is a hardline left-wing democrat. if you're going to go on his show, you better have been coached, you better be prepared, you better know how to say i'm not answering that and better be prepared to say look, that's not what i'm talking about. the current governor of maryland won a huge upset victory for republican because he talked about taxes. and they would ask him about everything else. he'd say, glad you asked that, let me tell you about taxes. he spent four months talking about taxes. i think that larry hogan who's not a big fan of trump, but hogan's campaign is a pretty good model for trump to look at. he needs to get back to immigration, get back to jobs, get back to national security. there's a report out this evening that up to 60 isis supporters are working at the brussels airport. there are more than enough occasions for him to get on his themes and his issues. he needs to elevate the campaign and, frankly, he needs to give a series of speeches like aipac where he's got a teleprompter, it is a formal speec

chris matthews is fine with sitting. that's why they call him hardball. [ light laughter ] i mean, look at matthew's face while trump was talking. [ laughter ] this is the face of a man thinking, i will die in this chair if i need to. [ light laughter ] matthews wouldn't let trump off the hook. instead, pressing him for specifics on how an abortion ban would actually work. and that's when trump, who has clearly put zero thought into this issue got himself into trouble. >> should the woman be punished for having an abortion? >> look -- >> this is not something you can dodge. if you say abortion is a crime or abortion is murder, you hav to deal with it under the law. should abortion be punished? >> well, people in certain parts of the republican party and conservative republicans would say yes, they should be punished? >> how about you? >> i would say that it's a very serious problem. and it's a problem we have to decide on. >> do you believe on punishment for abortion, yes or no? it's the principle. >> the answer is, ther

people like anderson cooper and chris matthews have been great. they've been asking follow ups but it's very hard with politicians who just roll right over and try and ignore the question and don't answer it. but that's their normal m.o. so you just have to overcome it and keep pressing. i want so much to jump into the tv and answer that question. >> do you have a question in mind or a topic you think you need to be probed about? >> no. they all need to be just followed up. if you hear an answer and you didn't, they are. >> at times they did though, cony. at times they did. they showed some graphs at some times when a particular candidate. >> yeah, the fox news debate. >> they brought up various graphs. >> i've noticed a shift in the wind is some of the questions about the horse races and the people polls. which is what it always should be. you know what i would love to see at the end, i mean, during debates, have you ever seen the pardon the interruption on cnn? at the end of the program they have a guy whose fact checking and anything they say t

i came away thinking this was a performance by chris matthews. is that going to lead to everybody trying to do their matthews impersonation? i'm not sure. to pull that off, you have to have a certain knowledge of history, and in this case, he did, on a couple of issues, particularly the role of the church and abortion. i thought it was some of the most effective television, not just from a theatrical standpoint, but from a .ubstantive standpoint no surprises, it made a whole lot of news. bullet stick? we have been asking the about forous miscues from trump many months. we will see. i don't know. host: time for a couple more calls. catherine, alabama, democrat. caller: i would like to make my point about hillary. first, i must say that chris matthews did excellent job. he is an excellent interviewer. it was great. hillary. let's get to the situation. all of these republican people, y'all are not talking about what they are legislating really behind the scenes. i'm not a media person, some sorry -- so i am sorry. it is time we have a female take th

matthews that there should abortions. national organizations were quick to put lots of daylight between themselves and the real estate developer turned presidential candidate. they said trump doesn't understand the movement. senator ted cruz said trump had committed this gaff for a simple reason, he is not really pro-life. i report on his statement-- a report on his statement >> reporter: doing what he does best, donald trump over abortion. the republican front runner suggesting women should be punished for having the procedure. >> do you believe in punishment for abortion? >> the answer is that there has to be some form of punishment >> to the woman? >> yeah. there has to be some form >> what? >> that i don't know. >> reporter: donald trump's campaign came out with a statement saying the issue regarding abortion is unclear and should be left up to the state. he further clarified in a later statement saying that should abortion ever been out lawed in country, doctors should be punished for carrying out the procedure not w

joining me now, chris matthews, host of hardball, and matt dowd. here in new york, matt flegenheimer and kellyanne conway. cruzeads a pro-ted superpac. i begin with chris matthews pretty take me back to how you solve this. he moment you asked these questions. do you think you thought about this at all before? chris: it was a question from the audience. a young woman asked about abortion rights. i asked him the question on my mind. what do we do in terms of enforcement. woman beim, should the abortion?ho has an he took a while to answer and he said yes there ought to be some punishment for the woman. what about the guy involved? he said no, not him. later they retracted it. i thought he made a very big mistake. i've never heard say punish the woman. it is always the doctor. never the woman. charlie: what did you think when you saw that? dowd: i think i thought the same thing chris matthews thought. i was shocked that he answered that way. he was totally unprepared for the question. that is a foundation of this campaign he has had. he has done well b

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i'll ask chris matthews ahead. you're watching msnbc, the place for politics live from fly creek new york. it's how i try to live... how i stay active. so i need nutrition... that won't weigh me down. for the nutrition you want without the calories you don't... try boost® 100 calories. each delicious snack size drink gives you... 25 vitamins and minerals and 10 grams of protein. and it's available in two new flavors, vanilla caramel and double chocolate fudge. i'm not about to swim in the slow lane. stay strong. stay active with boost®. ♪jake reese, "day to feel alive"♪ ♪jake reese, "day to feel alive"♪ ♪jake reese, "day to feel alive"♪ ♪ ♪ take on the unexpected. the new 2016 nissan altima. built to stand out. >>> earlier today, the trump campaign held the first of several meetings with several members of congress who have endorsed the republican front-runner. the meeting was held at a popular club off of capitol hill. those in attendance included members of upcoming primary states like here in n

with brian williams, rachel maddow, chris matthews, i'll be there as well. straight ahead. >>> will wisconsin make history. let's play "hardball." >>> good evening, i'm chris matthews, out in milwaukee. we learn whether donald trump has withstood his week of trouble or that his trouble has only begun. tonight, we learn whether the democratic race is trending toward bernie sanders or hillary clinton is holding strong. wisconsin will matter. this state has been a political weather vein. in 1960, john f. kennedy battled out with hubert humphrey. >> we have a chance in this primary if we insist upon this primary contest being a sober and serious discussion of the issues and not a beauty contest or a personality parade. the wisconsin presidential primary is not a hollywood talent contest. >> well, kennedy won in wisconsin, only to have walter cronkite, voting for the catholic candidate. polls showing anti-vietnam war, eugene mccarthy beating him in wisconsin, forced lyndon johnson to quit the race, creating a future primary contest between mccarthy and senator ro

i begin with chris matthews. take me back to how you saw this, the moment that you asked these questions, do you think he had thought about this question at all before, chris? >> well, it was a question from the audience, a young woman asked it about abortion rights. and i asked him the questions on my mind a long time. what do we do in terms of enforcement. i asked him should the womb punished who has an abortionment and he took awhile to answer it. and he said yes, there ought to be some punish am for the woman am and i asked maybe just to keep it going, i said what about the guy voferred, there is always some guy involved, he said no, not him. and later of course they sort of retracted and a couple of hours later they fully retracted it. i thought that he made a very explosive statement at the time. i have never heard anyone on the prolife side of things say punish the woman. it's always the doctor or the person who performs the procedure, never the woman. i have never heard that before. >> rose: matt dowd, wh

chris matthews who had a hand in this news circle this season out in wisconsin. more on that as we go into the evening. >> that's right. his trump town hall in wisconsin ended up being the closest thing trump has had to game changing media appearance yet thus far in the race. donald trump and ted cruz battling it out in wisconsin. ted cruz seems to be ahead in the polls but trump is not conceding. he's been campaigning really, really hard in t state. he hasn't walked away at all. with that in mind we've been wondering where donald trump's best chances are. where he needs to perform best in the state. if not for an entire win, at least holding onto delegates. for that we go to steve. >> what you said there at the end is the key. on the republican side in wisconsin, there are two battles playing out. one of them is on the surface. one just beneath the csurface. you win the statewide vote, you get 18 delegates out of 42. the one under the surface in wisconsin is for the other 24 delegates that are at stake here. if the polls are right and trump loses statewide, this

with brian williams, rachel maddow, chris matthews, i'll be there as well. straight ahead. >>> will wisconsin make history. let's play "hardball." >>> good evening, i'm chris matthews, out in milwaukee. we learn whether donald trump has withstood his week of trouble or that his trouble has only begun. tonight, we learn whether the democratic race is trending toward bernie sanders or hillary clinton is holding strong. wisconsin will matter. this state has been a

thanks. >>> i'm chris matthews, out in milwaukee, wisconsin, where voters tonight give a nasty swipe at donald trump and also delivered a wicked wake-up call to hillary clinton. trump was walloped on the republican side by about 20 points with clinton also taking a double digit defeat, ripping open at least for the next to weeks the separate claims to the party's nomination. here's where things stand at this hour tonight. bernie sanders is the projected winner on the democratic side. he leads clinton by 12 point. the gap is even wider on the

chris matthews is there tonight able to take it all in. chris? >> yes, brian, thank you. we've got rick tyler here, chief spokesman for ted cruz until awhile ago. let me ask you, if donald trump wins at 9:00, if he gets the call early tonight, big win, double digits, maybe 20 points, who knows -- what is the rest of the stop trump movement look like to you right now? >> it's going to be a bad week for ted cruz this week and next week with the new england states although cruz has a chance to pick up some especially unbound delegates in pennsylvania. he seems to be strong in maryland. his goal here hopefully for him would be to key donald trump under 50%. he's got to get above 20% and maybe pick of some delegates here. >> if that doesn't happen, if trump peaks 50%, if used to be your guy comes in under 20, kasich second, it looks like it could be a bow none intra night. >> it could be. but then cruz has got to move to indiana and indiana's going to be a strong state. it has a lot of delegates, 57, for a small state. they've done so well, gotten a lot of rewarded delegates.

we've got 78% in before we characterize the margin but chris matthews is in milwaukee, wisconsin, where the hour grows late and the beverages continue to be served. chris. >> well, as a nondrinker, i appreciate that but i woken up for greatness. thank you, i have chris hayes who i proceed each evening and offer a lead-in of some worth. >> always, chris. >> let's talk about the democrats. talking a lot about trump. hillary clinton seems to have like -- she's home but the lights are off. nobody is home right now. i got the filing her campaign came in, sleep walking and she just -- say whatever you think. >> here's -- >> she's not leading. >> the most interesting thing to me about the democratic campaign this point is the equilibrium which it's found. we have not seen momentum or consolidation anyway. states that you would democratically predict for bernie sanders are going for bernie sanders. states you would predict go for hillary clinton are going for hillary clinton. what i would have predicted which has not borne out is as you've marched along there would be some kind of consolidation

chris matthews, kathleen parker, hugh hewitt and perry bacon. chris, fire away. >> i think one thing that bernie sanders is saying is not true. he's talking about members of congress, people in washington, taking money for speeches. you voted that out years ago. >> right, there are no honorariums. the bottom line here, we have two candidates who are at the more narrow end of the funnel as we end the primary election contest. it will get more heated. but look, compared to the republicans who are in utter chaos, our two candidates have been substantive and robust. they have kept largely to the issues that are important to the american people. talked about how they want to build on the congressional delegates -- congressional democrats' legacy. we want to move the country for and help people reach the middle class. they have slightly different approaches to how to get there. but it's a substantialtive discussion. >> bernie sanders has really attacked the 1990 -- the crime bill of '94 and welfare bill of '96 were bad legislation. do you agree with t

i'm chris matthews. thanks for watching. >>> she was born in illinois. >> they were a middle class family. >> her mother taught her to fight back. >> you go right back out there and give her what for. >> her father was a tough-minded republican. >> old school, task master. very conservative. >> do you recognize this girl and the woman she will become? >> you came of age in the civil rights movement, the vietnam war, the women's movement. >> why have you got down to that god forsaken place. i love him. wasn't to try it. >> she was the boss. >> i could have stayed home and baked cookies. >> she was carving a new role. >> women's rights are human rights once and for all. it takes a village to raise a child. i have been accused of everything. >> she left office with her dignity intact. >> it's our job to figure out what happened. >> hillary has a lot of grit. takes a licking and keeps on ticking. >> i am running for president of the united states. ♪ >> good evening. i'm chris matthews. she's wait aid long