among tea party conservatives. among the very constituency of the freedom caucus. >> all right, chuck todd in sioux city. thank you for joining us. of course, chuck will be back tomorrow for mtp daily. and don't miss "hardball" tonight. harold shapeburger, the president of the international association of firefighters, he will be chris matthews' guest tonight. richard wolf picks up our coverage next. >> right now on msnbc live, in just one hour, house republicans meet behind closed doors to supposedly discuss the month ahead. that's going to be very hard toot without answering a much bigger question. who will be the new house speaker? hillary clinton takes a big jump in the polls. and does donald trump have more national security smarts than george w. bush? did he see the 9/11 attacks coming years before they happened. hello. i'm richard wolffe. we begin with the 2015

front-runners cementing their leads in all of the latest polls. could this really be the matchup we see in the general election? in every new poll, clinton has a commanding lead of more than 20 points over her closest rival, bernie sanders. one area where she is struggling, benghazi. brand-new numbers from the nbc news/"wall street journal" poll found 44% of americans are not satisfied with her response to the benghazi attack. just 27% are okay with her response. but while the candidate was off the campaign trail today, her daughter predicts that clinton's testimony before the house benghazi committee later in the week could actually help her. >> i think every opportunity my mom has, she proves again and again, why she should be our next president. i know i'm very biased. and i actually think i'm even more biased now, as a mom, than as a daughter, because i feel like i have a different stake in the future because of my daughter, charlotte. so i have no doubt on thursday she will be remarkable.

>> and on the republican side, donald trump is also dominating the polls. he's now been the republican front-runner for more than three months and his numbers have gone in one direction only, and that's up. so much for the summer of trump. in a new instagram video today, he took direct aim at hillary clinton. >> he's a master brarnder. >> and he's the most interesting character out there. and there is a macho appeal to saying, i'm just sick of nothing happening. i make things happen, vote for me. >> and i like him. >> which brings us to today's bing pulse question. for you to tell us what you think. based on what you're watching, do you think this was a bad day or a good day, for hillary clinton? go to pulse.msnbc.com to weigh in and please keep voting through the show. i want to bring in now, ryan grim, washington bureau chief for the "huffington post." sheerra center of "the boston globe," brian darling, former communications director for senator rand paul, and amy

holmes, anchor on the blaze tv. thank you all for being here. >> thank you. >> so, i want to give you each 30 seconds to say whether you think it was a bad day or good day for hillary clinton. now, we've had the poll numbers, which are good. but on the other hand, there was the trump ad, which clearly shows what a liability her husband can be. of course, benghazi is right around the corner as well. so, bearing that in mind, let's start with ryan. in 30 seconds, was ate good or a bad day for hillary clinton? >> well, i don't want to influence these polls too much, so people, you know, can make up their own minds, but i would say today is a good day. and it's a good day, because any day that gets hillary clinton a day closer to november 2016 is whiteout some type of a cataclysm, that forces her out of the race, is a good day for her. you know, right now, she sees nothing in between her and winning the presidency, which has long been her goal, except this extremely long campaign. and time just cannot move fast enough for her.

so nothing bad happened. she wins. >> time moved too fast for you. sorry about that one. brian, 30 seconds. tell me, good or bad day? >> it was a great day. hillary clinton had a great day today. new poll numbers out in new hampshire show that she's beating the socialist bernie sanders. you look at the fact that joe biden didn't announce for president yet today, so that's another sign it's a good day. and it's not thursday when she has to testify before those terrible republicans in the house that she's been campaigning against. so great day. >> okay. now, of course, remember that you can vote at home, tell us what you think. pulse.msnbc.com. sheerra, your turn. 30 seconds for you. a good day or bad day for hillary clinton? >> i agree with brian, it's a good day. because like he said, it is not thursday. but also, she is currently leading in 49 states in democratic primary polls. it's just new hampshire where she's had these issues, the all-important new hampshire primary for the clintons. and even in that case, we've seen polls either showing her in a statistical tie, closing the

gap, or in some cases, including the "boston globe" poll, just a wee bit ahead of bernie sanders. i think it's a good day, at least until thursday. >> excellent. okay, amy. it's up to you now. we've had three good days for hillary clinton. what do you think? good or a bad day? >> and it's a clean sweep, richard. i think it was a good day for hillary clinton. every day she's not being asked about the private e-mail server, private e-mail address, no new headlines on the front page of "the new york times" about that issue that's been dogging her and driving down her trustworthiness ratings, it's a great day for hillary clinton. it's also a good day for hillary when republicans appear to be in disarray. you have the former president of the united states saying he doesn't really like ted cruz. you have donald trump attacking jeb bush over george bush's 9/11. so it was a good day for hillary. >> all right. so, you all are pretty confident and i think the early numbers on the pulse voting suggest the viewers agree with you. but, i don't understand this

clinton ad that trump cheekily puts out there on instagram. ryan, how can this be a good day when bill clinton is still such a liability? >> well, i mean, what's she supposed to do? you know, divorce bill clinton? >> she could get him to be quiet. she could get him to stop praising donald trump. how about that? >> i think if bill clinton can magically do something that allows donald trump to win the republican primary, i think hillary would be deeply grateful to her husband for that. he's not electable, you know, as a general election matter. i don't think anybody who can find any path where he could get, you know, anywhere near 50% of the vote. you know, the coalition that put obama into place is going to be there generally for hillary clinton, give or take a few points. but if you're up against somebody who has called, you know, mexican immigrants rapists and murderers, then you're going

to see those latino numbers go even higher, despite donald trump's, you know, repeated claims that the hispanics love him. so, no, i mean, i think, you know, it's great for her if -- the more that trump surges. >> amy, you are not in tune, i see, with the republican people watching at home, who 90% think it was a bad day for hillary clinton. >> well, really, every day is a bad day, let's be fair. >> this super pac backing hillary clinton, plans to air an ad on her benghazi testimony. so aren't people getting a little bit too comfortable in how this week's going to play out for hillary clinton? >> well, i think, yes, because, you know, politics are always volatile. you have no idea exactly where this testimony is going to go, and type of questions. and trey gowdy, of course, has been on the defense because of kevin mccarthy's comments about the benghazi committee. but if anything, that might focus trey gowdy even more like a laser and try to get a good performance and good questions and answers out of this committee.

so we'll just have to wait and see, when hillary clinton was last testifying and she said, you know, at this point, what difference does it make, it was shocking to me how different the reactions were. on the right, republicans saw that as an absolutely catastrophic statement that could be used in the 2016 campaign and democrats thought it was a show of strength. perhaps we'll have another moment like that this week. >> brian, you said it was a good day for hillary clinton. obviously, people are still voting at home whether they think it was a good or bad day. but some new poll numbers from bloomberg, a poll in new hampshire, which shows that bernie sanders is still ahead. so, you know, she's supposed to have -- she's got good national numbers, but bernie sanders is still out there in new hampshire. that's not a good sign for hillary, is it? brian? >> no, no, when you look at these numbers, they are not good for hillary clinton, because she's not polling that far ahead of a guy who hasn't even announced for president.

joe biden's numbers are great! the guy's not even an announced candidate. i think jeb bush would kill to have numbers, the numbers that joe biden has, because he's doing so well. so, hillary clinton's running against one candidate who just dropped out, jim webb. a couple of people that not many americans know much about and bernie sanders. and i don't think there are many democrats who think he has a legitimate chance of winning this campaign. so when hillary clinton's -- hillary clinton will be truly tested when she has to run against a real candidate when joe biden jumps in the race, which i think most people expect will happen. it's on and it's going to be very interesting to watch. >> shira, joe biden, let's take a listen to what he said about the benghazi raid, because i think he's stirring the pot a little bit. >> in the cabinet room, and at the end of the day, making a decision, he said, now, i want everybody's opinion. and everybody went around the room and there were only two

people who were definitive. and were absolutely certain. leon panetta said go and bob gates, who's already publicly said this, said don't go. so as we walked out of the room and walked upstairs, i said, i told him my opinion, i thought he should go, but to follow his own instincts. >> only two people were definitive. joe biden may be polling low numbers, was he could surely mess with clinton's hawkish national security policy by doing this sort of thing. >> yes, he could. and the only way we'd ever really know is if president obama would ever say something about the situation, and i highly doubt he would. but what i really think joe biden is trying to do here instead, in addition to bolstering his foreign policy creds, is to show how close he is to the president. and hillary clinton during the democratic debate last week definitely made great efforts to show she was in line with the president and his agenda. and now we see joe biden doing

the same, essentially maybe giving us a hint what his term may be like, essentially running for a third obama term. >> i'm sorry, we're going to have to wrap it up right there. ryan grim, shira center, amy holmes, brian, thank you for being great sports and all agrees it was a good day for hillary clinton. let's look at the results for bing's pulse question. do you think it was a good or bad day for hillary clinton? 85% of you said it was a good day, 15% said it was a bad day. which maybe says something about what it's like when she's off the campaign trail. please keep voting at pulse.msnbc.com. we'll keep that voting throughout the end of the show. coming up, was donald trump right after all? did he really predict the attacks on september 11th? plus, huge tect sales for a movie coming out in two months. we'll break down the new "star wars" trailer that's driving all the buzz. and in less than an hour, house republicans will meet behind closed doors to try to

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the jeb bush/trump new fight over 9/11, who should be held accountable for it, how do you feel about that? >> bill clinton. i mean, it goes back to bill clinton. it was before george bush was ever even in office. >> that's the take from donald trump supporter on the growing feud between the gop front-runner and jeb bush on the national security crisis following 9/11. it was all bill clinton's fault. and while trump is taking some heat for criticizing another candidate, his supporters don't seem to mind it one bit. >> i would rather him go ahead and speak how he feels, because i think that that's going to be

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aleve pm. the only one to combine a sleep aid... plus the 12 hour pain relieving strength of aleve. be a morning person again with aleve pm. as donald trump hammers the bush administration for missing signs of the 9/11 terror attack, a book he wrote in 2000 is getting renewed attention. in a passage first picked up by buzzfeed, trump wrote, "i really am convinced we are if danger of the sort of terrorist attacks that will make the bombing of the trade center look like kids

playing like firecrackers. no sensible analyst rejects this possibility and plenty of them, like me, are not wondering if, but when it will happen." trump also referred to osama bin laden as public enemy number one. at the time, this echoed conventional wisdom at the end of the last clinton era. but it could still give trump more credibility, as he continues criticizing the last bush administration. >> i'm not saying i would have prevented it, but i would have had a chance, because i'm pretty good at this stuff. >> so i want to ask you about that -- hold on, mr. trump -- >> i would have had much stronger immigration policies -- >> yes, but -- >> they knew an attack was coming. george tennant, the cia director, knew in advance that there would be an attack. and he said so to the president. the fbi, nsc, the three agencies weren't talking to each other. >> joining me now, steve clemmons. welcome.

>> good to be with you, richard. >> steve, i want to start out with some pushback from jeb bush, because he's been pushing back hard. he said this last night on fox. take a listen. >> his view of history is just wrong. the simple fact is that when we were attacked, my brother created an environment where for 2,600 days we were safe. no one attacked us again. and just a tip of the hat to that and moving on to what the threats are today is what we ought to be focused on. donald trump is not a serious candidate as it relates to foreign policy. >> not a serious candidate, according to jeb bush, but he did see another attack from bin laden, apparently. >> it's very interesting, jeb bush is talking about what happened after 9/11 and what his brother did. donald trump is talking about what should have been obvious to many before 9/11 occurred. and i think donald trump, in a way, did predict something that was going on. you know, at the time, we had two u.s. military bases in saudi

arabia. there was concern that that was antagonizing and disrupting things in the middle east. there were people like chalmers johnson that wrote the book "blowback" the cost and consequences of american empire, that was popular at that moment. it became the most difficult book to get after 9/11, largely ignored before this kind of an attack. so donald trump did do something, he did put it in writing before that horrible, terrible day happened. >> steve, we just heard earlier from a trump reporter who said, it was all bill clinton's fault. but in the former years of the bush administration, there were missile attacks on the bin laden training camps and the clinton administration did take it seriously? >> you may remember the time we bombed a pharmaceuticals company in north africa. we bombed a number of other places and the clinton administration was very actively engaged in the hunt for bin laden. and there were moments when bin laden was in the sights of our government and action wasn't

taken, because of the concern of collateral deaths. so, that was another element to this story. but, yes, we were tracking him, far earlier than 9/11. >> so the republicans said at the time, it was a sort of wag the dog scenario, like the movie at the time. now, jeb bush, he's got an op-ed in the national review, titled, a "a clear choice on national security." i want to quote a little bit from it. he said, in the latest episode of the reality show, there is donald trump's campaign. he has blamed my brother for the 9/11 terrorist attacks on our nation. that trump echoes the attacks of michael moore, and the fringe left against my brother is yet another example of his dangerous views on national security issues. is it really just a michael moore and fringe left position to say that george w. bush should have paid more attention? >> well, i think jeb bush is trying to paint that. the fact was you had a deep, i mean, a serious level, a deep fissure inside republican circles. those that were realists and were concerned about america's place in the world, and the costs and benefits of various

actions, like the potential invasion of iraq. there were many republican realists, very opposed to that action, worried that we'd go the wrong direction. and there were many neoconservatives that were pushing bush to take that action and to sort of own the middle east in a way that we never had before. and i think what jeb bush is doing is he is trying to paint those skeptics as fringe elements. and they simply aren't. they included people like brent scowcroft, his father's best friend, something that hasn't come up much in a media discussion. so there were a number of people that were all of the same ilk, having concern. not necessarily blaming president bush for the 9/11 attacks, but very skeptical of some of the actions taken after. >> steve clemens, joining us from london, thank you very much. >> thank you, richard. coming up, martin o'malley serenades the ladies of "the view" in his latest campaign stop. how are the other candidates courting voters today? we'll show you what's trending in 2016 right ahead. and an early christmas gift for "star wars" fans.

the full-length trailer for "the force awakens" is released and it ignites record ticket sales two months ahead of its premiere. we'll have a sneak peek. please stay with us.

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♪ because, baby, we have bad blood ♪ ♪ take a look at what you've done ♪ ♪ and maybe now we've got mad blood ♪ ♪ now we've got problems ♪ and now we can't solve them ♪ you made a really deep cut ♪ and baby, now we got bad blood ♪ ♪ hey >> that was martin o'malley murdering "bad blood" by taylor swift. maybe the most memorable thing the 2016 candidate has done so far, judging by the attention it god online today.

joining me now, nisha, martin hasn't posted that video, which would have been a big hit for him. >> this is a great moment for him. he's getting a lot of attention. it's fun and cute and has great viral potential. everyone's talking about it. but martin o'malley's campaign hasn't rolled out the video on their social media campaigns. when i came in here, they hadn't put it on their facebook page. they did a retweet of abc on twitter, but really weren't pushing it on twitter. they did send an e-mail to their supporter list, trying to fundraise off of it, but seem to be forgetting the social media aspect a little bit, so it's a little bit of a missed opportunity for them. >> maybe they're more in need of funds than of fans. let's talk about jim webb. >> we pulled the top candidate's social media post from crowd tangle. the top candidate posts we're seeing today from jim webb, these are his posts on twitter about dropping out of the race, which he did today, and he's considering, as we know, an independent run. so, jim webb doesn't have a big

following on social media. it's a pretty small following. but, his post got a lot of engagement today from the very small, but loyal and engaged fan base that he has. so his posts really stood out in terms of getting more engagement than they normally do, today. >> let's talk about marco rubio, because he's been pretty savvy. yesterday he did with common core. turns out he went back to the well again today. >> today, he's got another one of the top posts on facebook today from the candidates. he's talking about stopping common core again, which was also his top post yesterday. he's currently found a theme and an issue that works for him on social media. his fans are eating this up, and it works for him. it gets engagement, so he's just repeating the same pattern over and over. >> a big distinguishing point from jeb bush there. >> okay, ben carson, on a pro-life day of silence. something i didn't know about. >> yes. i didn't know this until recently either, but today is a pro-life day of silence solidarity. it's organized by pro-life and anti-abortion activist groups. ben carson has been pretty vocal on this issue, so he posted

something in support of that with an image of a cute baby. it's getting lots of engagement. it's certainly working with his fans. he's also got a very engaged audience, and he does comparatively have a big audience, one of the biggest facebook audiences of all the 2016 candidates. so he's definitely driving a lot of engagement. >> and his activist fan base, those people who are going to show up to vote. this is perfect for them. >> it's really working for them. >> nbc's nisha chittal, thanks for joining us. so was it a good or bad day for hillary clinton? here is the score. can we pull that up right now? 70% says it was a good day, 30% says it was a bad day. since we left that discussion, the numbers have changed just a little bit. let's look at how this breaks out. republicans versus democrats. we've got 71% of democrats saying it was a bad thing, a bad day. 29% saying it was a good day. that number has really shifted

around since our discussion. we'll keep the voting at pulse.msnbc.com. that's going to be open through the end of the show. still ahead, could today be the day that paul ryan finally announces whether he wants what's beginning to feel like the most difficult job in congress. house speaker, gop leaders will be meeting behind closed doors in just a little while to talk about who will lead the party moving forward. we'll have the latest on that. and keeping minorities from casting a ballot. critics say that's the purpose of a new plan in alabama. we'll talk to the woman who's trying to stop it. plus, it's finally here. the first trailer is out now for the latest "star wars" installment. we'll break that down for you, that's coming right up. technology empowers us to achieve more. it pushes us to go further. special olympics has almost five million athletes in 170 countries. the microsoft cloud allows us to immediately be able to access information, wherever we are. information for an athlete's medical care, or information

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announced a plan that will virtually close 31 dmv offices. those offices will only open one day a month. he says it's a financial decision. but an editorial from the alabama media group says, quote, take a look at the ten alabama counties with the highest percentage of non-white registered voters. alabama just opted to close driver's license bureaus in eight of them. now, remember the state just passed a law requiring voters to have a photo i.d. to cast a ballot. bernie sanders says, quote, republican cowards all across the country, including alabama, are very clearly trying to win elections by suppressing the vote. and hillary clinton called the governor out while in alabama this weekend. >> this is wrong. 50 years after rosa parks sat and dr. martin luther king jr. marched and john lewis bled, it

is hard to believe that we are back having this same debate about whether or not every american gets a chance to vote and exercise his rights! all of these obstacles to voting didn't happen on their own. but for every republican governor working to roll back voting rights, there are americans determined to keep marching forward. >> now the governor, robert bentley, is firing back. >> she never lets facts get in the way of a good political agenda story. and, you know, and that's exactly what she was doing here. you know, she needs to get her facts straight. this has nothing to do with race. it's never had anything to do with race. this has to do with the fact that the legislator failed to do their job and adequately fund our law enforcement agency. it also is a rural issue. >> joining me now is alabama congresswoman, teri sewell, who

has asked the justice department to investigate these dmv closures and msnbc national reporter, zack roth. thank you both for being here. >> thank you. >> representative sewell, i want to start out with a letter you sent to the justice department. you said, quote, despite a budgetary pretext, the consequence of this decision is to deny the most vulnerable in alabama an equal opportunity to obtain a means to vote. have you had a response yet, from the doj? >> i haven't had a response yet from the doj. i did see attorney general loretta lynch a couple of days after i sent the letter formally and was able to hand her the letter personally. i think it's so important that we remember that the state of alabama or any state cannot require a photo i.d. and then at the same time, cut the most popular form of receiving that i.d., which is a driver's license. so, look, my governor and i can agree to disagree on whether or not the intent was voter

suppression, but i think there's no denying that the effect of it definitely will make it disproportionately harder for african-american voters in my district. >> zach, politics seems to happen through twitter nowadays, and the alabama governor went on twitter, going after hillary clinton. he said, it seems mrs. clinton isn't as well-versed in alabama's budgeting process as she is in exploiting a situation for her personal political gain. and he also said, meanwhile, mrs. clinton can work to solve our country's $18 trillion deficit in the unfortunate event she is elected president. it's not just clinton here, it's bernie sanders. is this issue going to run and run in terms of at least the democratic primary? >> yeah, absolutely. you're seeing it flare up now. and what we're seeing, democrats understand, this is not only an issue that a big part of their base cares hugely about for very obvious historical reasons, but also an issue where there's a real defining difference with republicans, where it's very clear now, the more people who vote, the better democrats do. the fewer people do, the fewer

republicans do. you're seeing democrats bring this up, republicans try to shy away from it. although we did have jeb bush come out recently and say he wouldn't support reaffirming the vote rights act. so again, a very clear and stark difference between the parties on this. >> so i want to talk to congressman sewell here about the actual voters, because this is allegedly going to affect the people. we haven't had a presidential election under these new i.d. laws, but there was an election for governor in 2014. voter i.d. law affected somewhere between 250,000 and 500,000 voters. governor bentley won his race by 320,000 votes. congresswoman sewell, do you think these laws had an impact? >> i do believe that the photo i.d. laws had an impact in making it harder for folks to vote. you know, i think that my republican colleagues feel as if

just because there's not an outright denial of the right to vote, that's not suppression. but when you're making it harder to vote. when you're making it harder for folks to be able to cast their ballot, you are suppressing their ability. and in turn, it really goes to the integrity of the electoral process. so my hope is that the state of alabama will either repeal its photo i.d. law, but more importantly, open up the 31 dmv offices at reasonable -- during reasonable times, so that people have equal access. i want to make sure that my supporters and my voters and the -- actually, the constituents that i represent, that are in jefferson county and wilcox county have an equal access. to me, it's about providing equal access and if the state of alabama wants to close its budget, i have one for you. they should expand medicaid and $3 billion would come into the state of alabama and federal funding for 2017. >> zack, is anything going to change before the 2016 election? are these laws really fixed in

place here? >> yeah, i think there's not much going back on these. we've seen the governor retreat a little bit by saying, we'll keep it open one day of the weekend. the other thing -- >> does it make a difference? >> i don't think, if you're somebody trying to get an i.d. and you can't get there during the week, having it open a few hours during the weekend is a huge help, and that's what the congresswoman and the others have said. >> actually, they passed this law in 2011. they didn't get it approved by the federal government, as they were required to do, probably because they knew that it wouldn't deget approved. they waited until the voting rights act has been weakened two years later, and then they said, now the law is in effect. that shows you some of the background. congresswoman sewell, final word. i heard you trying to get in there. >> i was just saying, the governor actually said he was going to open them up one day a month. that really is a bareboned minimum of access. i think we here in congress must push ahead to try to restore the voting rights act of 1965. it's clear to me that had the

voting rights act been in effect, that these decisions, a decision such as this that would directly affect voting, would have been something that the justice department would have stricken down, before it had the negative impact. >> no doubt. we'll keep a close eye on how the votes go down there in alabama. thank you, congresswoman terri sewell and msnbc's zack roth. still ahead, republicans are about to meet in around 20 minutes with several items on the agenda, including this man, will paul ryan become the next leader? but first, the movie trailer that broke the internet. reading the clues in the new "star wars" "the force awakens" trailer.

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a huge day for "star wars" fans, with the release of the first full length trailer for the new movie "star wars: the force awakens." >> the dark side. a jedi. they're real. >> the force. it's calling to you. >> looks pretty awesome to me. the trailer premiered last night during monday night football. and was viewed online more than 2 million times in less than an hour. ticket sales for the film which comes out december 18th caused several online sites to crash.

many fans waited in long lines, like this one in seattle, for a chance to buy tickets for the first showings. one savvy ebay user is selling four imax 3-d tickets for $400. the force is indeed strong in that one. but fans aren't the only once losing their minds over the trailer. check out how lead actor john boega reacted when he saw the trailer for the first time. >> yeah. yeah. yeah. yep. yep. yep. whoa! what?! what?! what?! >> i guess he liked it. here with me now is andy, film and tv staff writer at buzzfeed. andy, what was your reaction to this trailer? >> i mean, you know, i grew up with these movies, so, ask, i was acting pretty much the same way john was. i was flipping out about it pretty hard. and you know, i don't think i'm

alone in that. i think pretty much everybody on the internet is going nuts over this trailer, which is impressive, since it's not even the first trailer, it's the second one. it's probably the biggest reaction i've ever seen to a follow-up trailer that isn't even the first look at the movie. >> explain this one to me, "star wars" fans weren't exactly excited by the prequel movies, as compared to the originals. what is it about this one that is capturing the attention? >> well, you know, i think there's a lot of hope that this is -- this is really the "star wars" story that we wanted all along. and i think a lot of people are learning that nostalgia is a really, really powerful thing. we're seeing a lot of remakes of older movies and tv shows and stuff. and so, you know, that's sort of being incorporated into this one. of course, we're getting new characters and we're getting a new story, but, we're also seeing the return of hans solo and luke skywalker and princess leia, you know, we're seeing all of them come back.

and it really seems like j.j. abrams is getting the idea, too. he's going back to the old methods of doing things, where the prequels were mostly cgi. but here we're seeing, you know, actual actors in suits playing wookiees and practical effects and actual working droids instead of a bunch of computer-generated effects. >> and the director, j.j. abrams, has also taken these extraordinary measures to maintain the secrecy along the plot line? >> yes, yes, yes. >> what kind of things has he been doing to keep the secrecy up? >> one of the things people are pointing out about this trailer, and the poster came out, they noticed there's no luke skywalker. we think we've seen his hand in these first two trailers. we see a robotic hand touching r2-d2, and we think that's luke. but otherwise, he's completely absent from the poster. and that's probably the biggest best-kept secret in this series thus far is, there's been almost

no details about what luke is up to and what part he's going to play in these upcoming movies. >> andy, see if you can solve this mystery for me. i saw this on facebook. daisy ridley, lead actor in this movie, crying while she's watching the trailer of, i think it looks like on her iphone or something. what do you think she was crying about? >> you know, i think it's largely a reaction that a lot of us have had. it's -- it brings up a lot of emotions, seeing this. you know, just sort of getting a feeling that, like, "star wars" is back, you know? the way that we really want to see it. and you know, speaking of daisy ridley crying, one of the biggest frames in the trailer, too, is a shot of her crying while she's holding what looks to be john boega's character jacket or maybe some fur from chewbacca. so there's a lot going on there,

emotions are definitely high. >> so we'll take a kleenex with us. thank you, andy. >> thank you very much. still ahead, house publicans are set to meet in about ten minutes to discuss who will become the next speaker of the house. can they unite behind congressman paul ryan? or is the latest race to become speaker turning into a case of history repeating itself? we'll explain. (vo) what does the world run on? it runs on optimism. it's what sparks ideas. moves the world forward. invest with those who see the world as unstoppable. who have the curiosity to look beyond the expected and the conviction to be in it for the long term. oppenheimerfunds believes that's the right way to invest... ...in this big, bold, beautiful world.

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opens your nose up to 38% more than cold medicine alone. shut your mouth and say goodnight mouthbreathers. breathe right we're back with breaking news. in just a few minutes, republicans will meet behind closed doors to discuss who will become the next speaker of the house. and all eyes are on this man, paul ryan, who still won't say whether or not he'll run for the job. >> congressman ryan, how you doing? going to run? say anything new? going to run? >> nothing new for you. >> moments ago, speaker john boehner weighed in on ryan taking over his job. >> do you know what paul ryan is going to do? >> no, but i do expect we'll know later on this evening what his answer is. >> and immediately, ryan's spokesman responded, tweeting, as if i wasn't getting enough e-mails. thanks, speaker boehner. i still do not expect a final decision tonight. those close to him say ryan's

warming to the idea of becoming house speaker. but that he doesn't want threats of a revolt from the right if he does take the job, which was just the kind of threat that doomed kevin mccarthy the last front-runner for the job. nbc's luke russert joins me live on the phone from capitol hill. luke, are we hearing anymore about whether congressman ryan has actually made a decision? >> well, as of right now, it is still unknown what his decision is. i will say that he is certainly open to the possibility of taking the job, richard, and we should say that before this meeting at 7:00 p.m. with the house gop conference, paul ryan did have a meeting with five influential members of the house freedom caucus. and we do know that if ryan is to take this job, he wants to have a mandate. he would like to get 235 votes at least on the house floor, for his speakership, because he wants to enlarge his vision for house the house gop should be moving forward. i've got to tell you, richard, i

think speaker boehner may have gotten ahead of himself a little bit by saying we'll have a decision tonight. but it seems they'll definitely talk about the way forward this evening, but don't necessarily expect a decision from paul ryan tonight. especially, that could change, if the caucus gets really heavily behind him quickly. >> maybe speaker boehner wants to get out of his job, quickly? >> i think it's fair to say that boehner certainly wants to get to his florida condominium and start up his golf game by the end of the month, but it remains to be seen whether the conference will allow him to do that. one thing i'll just say, raic richard, from getting a feel of the conference, the amount of pressure on ryan is enormous. and the appeals to his sense of duty and sort of god and country, and this idea that if we were to take a pass on it, he is in fact acting in his own interest and not for the good of everybody, that's a lot on his mind. it's still a 50/50 choice, but

that weighs heavily on his head. >> stay on the story for us. >> it's flashback time. this is not the first time house republicans have found themselves in complete disarray while trying to find a leader. think back to 1998, after house republicans suffered major losses in the midterm elections, republicans strong armed then speaker newt gingrich to step down, as allegations surfaced about his extramarital affairs. the next nominee for speaker after gingrich, bob livingston, never even took the speaker's job. he stepped down shortly after he was elected, also amid rumors of infidelity. dennis hastert began lobbying for the job just minutes after livington said he wouldn't take the job. and ultimately, he won the speaker's role. he held that roll until 2007, resigns after republicans lost control of the house and the senate. later he, too, faced numerous allegations of personal misconduct. joining me now is the washington bureau chief for "the chicago sun-times," lynn sweet.

lynn, you were there when hastert stepped down and gingrich began lobbying for the job of speaker. does this remind you of that time? >> not at all, except it was as historic now as it is then. there was a gasp when livingston wrapped up a long speech, which people thought was a prelude to him saying, "now i'm happy to be your next speaker," and then he said, i'm not going to be your candidate. that's when the house came in on a saturday with their main job supposedly to impeach then president bill clinton. what happened next was remarkable. and that with the help of then majority leader tom delay, a figure so controversial, he knew he couldn't become speaker, the forces for denny hastert organized his election, i would say, within an hour or two. you knew it was going to be him. >> it will be interesting to see if that kind of maneuvering happens tonight. but they didn't have a freedom caucus back then, and i would like to play some sound from congressman raul labrador, a

cofounder of the freedom caucus, talking to andrea mitchell today. >> i think what's a little bit frustrating about this process is that there are some people who will assume that paul ryan is the only one who can bring the conference together. i think that's a little bit presumptuous, and i think that's a little bit wrong. >> lynn, did we have, back in the day, this kind of statement, making it so difficult for what seems like the consensus candidate to emerge? >> no, this is unusual. denny hastert had what he called or at least what others called the hastert rule, that republicans could governor -- if they went along with the majority of the majority. what's happening here is that there is, to quote the federalist papers, there's, in a sense, of a tyranny of the minority within the republican caucus. where they just want to not, necessarily, governor within their party, but they want to have what does seem like leverage that outweighs their numbers. that is different, that's what is historic about what's

happening in their intraparty quarrels right now. >> so the tyranny of the minority is maybe echoing what republican voters are thinking. there's a new nbc news/"wall street journal" poll showing that republican primary voters are torn about what they want from a house speaker. 56% say they want someone who stands up for principles. 40% say they want someone who seeks compromise. isn't think the debate we're having, whether we can get a house speaker that stands up for principles and wants compromise. >> what is the title of the job? it is the speaker of the house. that's the whole chamber, both parties. it's to make the trains run on time. you know, there are plenty of people there, it seems, that could take on this ideological role. that's what is frustrating about what the freedom caucus is trying to do. there are ways that they could try and force an ideological agenda. it seems what they want now is a weak speaker candidate, so they can make a deal. and ryan is not going to be a

weak speaker if he takes the job. >> we're going to keep a close eye on what paul ryan is thinking, as well as the rest of the republican caucus. lynn sweet, thank you. >> thank you. >> and thank you for watching "msnbc live." i'm richard wolffe. "hardball with chris matthews" starts right now. the fall of the house of bush. let's play "hardball." good evening. i'm chris matthews. up in new york, there's something in the political air this october 20th, it's in the attitude of people. something distrusting and uneasy. you feel it again in the breeze that just struck across our northern border, by the way. canada our close neighbor and strongest trading partner, has just dumped the conservative party after its decade in power. dumped it good. so yes, there is something happening in our neighborhood, something radical and exciting. i was in montreal theas