ACU Chairman Matt Schlapp on MSNBC: 6/27/2016

Matt Schlapp, he's former White House political director for George W. Bush. Matt, thank you so much. With the flaws that I pointed out that Bernie Sanders has remarked on regarding Hillary Clinton and Wall Street, when you compare even her worst day against Donald Trump from his remarks in Scotland about his golf course benefiting as it seemed to be the greatest divide that we've seen in modern history in the UK, how does he capitalize on anything at this point when you see the image and words that we just witnessed between Senator Warren and Hillary Clinton? Well, let me just say, Tamron, I think it was smart of Senator Clinton to go out there with Elizabeth Warren. As a Republican, I think that would be a very dynamic and strong ticket. But Hillary Clinton does continue to have serious problems on these Wall Street questions. If you look at all the polls about the Bernie Sanders supporters, up to 25% of them are still saying they're not going to support Hillary Clinton. Bernie Sanders himself has raised, has really made the case as to why Hillary Clinton has big problems when it comes to her close ties with the big financial institutions. And it is correct to say that she and her husband have literally made hundreds of millions of dollars over the course of the last years talking to these groups, and they won't even release the transcripts from these speeches. So she has got to somehow appeal to that side of her party, because Donald Trump, the one thing, you can criticize him on many things, but the one thing he's really able to pull over and get some people who are unaffiliated, and even some liberals on, are the fact that he is talking about taking on these big moneyed interests, making things in this country again, and really reaching out to those union voters, which are a base of the Democratic Party. But Matt, many are making the argument that Senator Sanders has lost his leverage, or it is at least dimming, with Elizabeth Warren coming out so passionately and filling that void. And when you say, if this is the big problem for the Clintons, Wall Street, the list of problems for your party's nominee is endless, as long as the 14 holes of golf that he played in Scotland, and you have an endless list of Republicans who are now unwilling to come out and support him. Did you see Mitch McConnell over the weekend? Yeah, you know, Tamara, here's what's interesting. You're watching the Republican leaders in Washington, D.C. They are really uneasy with Donald Trump. One of the main reasons that is, is because he's taking them on and running against them. So I'm not surprised that there's that uneasiness. You know what? Republican just endorsed Hillary Clinton, and I'm sure you read this. Hank Paulson, the president I serve for, George W. Bush's Treasury Secretary, who is a Goldman Sachs guy, has endorsed Hillary Clinton. I actually don't think that helps Hillary Clinton when all these Wall Street titans come to her aid. But something is helping. Something is helping. Look at the polls. I know that Donald Trump has criticized the Washington Post polls, saying that it oversampled Democrats. But the real clear politics average at this point is somewhere around 6% between them. Those are not all executives in the GOP leadership circle. Those are everyday people who are changing their minds about Donald Trump. Taryn, you're right that Donald Trump does have a pushback from a lot of institutional Republicans. And I think it's smart for Trump to try to work on that every day. And many days, he loses ground with the things he says. Give me an example of where he's worked on it lately. The one that impresses you. Well, I mean, he had this big meeting with evangelical leaders, a couple hundred evangelical leaders in New York City. He's having other meetings on the road. He's trying, he's also doing, you know, he met recently with all the Republican senators. He is trying to improve it. But I would agree with you, he's got issue, he's got issues with Republicans. Tamron, you're right to say the polls have shifted against Trump in the last month. I don't think he's had a particularly good month. But what's more important than these national polls is look at these states. Look at Jennifer Granholm's state of Michigan, where Trump is doing better than any Republican. Even Mitt Romney, who was from Michigan, he's doing great in Pennsylvania, where he's basically tied with Hillary Clinton. So what I would encourage everybody to do is look at these battleground state polls. That is what is important at this stage. Yeah, but look at the states that are solid red, like Utah, where she could potentially win there. So we are right to look at the battleground states, but in an extraordinary fashion, you're seeing solid red Utah potentially taken by Hillary Clinton. That's right. Look, he's got a real, Mitt Romney has gone after Donald Trump with more energy than any Republicans ever seen Mitt Romney have ever, even when he himself ran for president. And it does seem to be having a problem in states like Utah and with LDS supporters. So once again, that's an important demographic for Republicans. And Donald Trump has got to continue to court them and he has to do better with them. All right, Matt. Thank you very much. And I should point to the bottom of our screen.