Should Donald Trump focus on jobs and the economy?

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Should Donald Trump focus on jobs and the economy?

Team Trump revamps messaging as Election Day looms

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DONALD TRUMP REVAMPS CAMPAIGN TEAM, MESSAGING WITH ELECTION DAY CLOSING IN

Mercedes Schlapp: I think that obviously the economy remains the top issue for American voters.   However, I think that for Donald Trump it's important to come across being the compassionate American businessman.  I think this is part of what you're seeing in the campaign. What does he need to do? He needs to attract more suburban women to support him. Obviously increase his number of independents that would support him. He's fine with his base. This is great. But you need to also think about what women want to see. They want to see more of, not only can you come and fix the economy, but show us that you care.  

Gina Loudon: I wouldn't call it a shakeup.  I've said from the beginning that Trump knows a couple of   things very well. This is where his experience, his acumen is serving him. He knows how to surround himself with good people.  He knows timing. He knows when to peak. I think that's exactly what he's doing. He knew that he didn't need to peak when everybody was panicking about the polls. We're starting to see those coming together. And you see that now that he's made some of these campaign changes, I think Hillary Clinton's in real trouble.  He's proving he can be authentic and read from a prompter.  What in the world is she going to do?

Jessica Tarlov: I think this was always going to be a close race in terms of the vote.  I'm not sure about the Electoral College now and all of the maps look absolutely disastrous for the GOP. I wanted touch on something Gina said. This is obviously a shakeup. He's totally restructured the top of his campaign.  
I think it's a smart move. I respect Kellyanne Conway enormously. But I would say that Steve Bannon; his tactics almost undo what it is that she's there to do. I wouldn't be surprised if we saw trump going off teleprompter a little, as well, too. That's something that shored up his base. I don't think it plays as well in the general election crowd. I don't think we'll have teleprompter Don for the next 80 days.

Ric Grenell:  I think it's definitely a big shakeup.  I think Jessica’s right. It was needed. But look, I disagree with her a little bit in that Donald Trump's problem is just with GOP voters. If he can bring them home, the numbers show, and a lot of people in D.C. don't want to admit this, but Trump is doing better than Romney with nonwhite voters and categories except for with Republicans. He needs to bring Republicans   home. The combination of Steve Bannon and Kellyanne Conway is exactly playing to that. They are tried and true Republicans. They know the base and know conservatives.  I think the combination of them is going to help bring republicans home.

Jehmu Grenne: There are 80 days. We've had 430 days of verbal carnage. To Mercedes and Richard's point about Republican women, he just named a CEO for his campaign that wrote a headline that said   "birth control makes women unattractive and crazy." I'm not sure that's going to play to Republican women, moderate women out there.

$400M CASH PAYMENT TO IRAN WAS TIED TO RELEASE OF 4 AMERICANS/ RUSSIAN FIGHTER JETS USING IRANIAN BASES TO LAUNCH AIRSTRIKES AGAINST SYRIAN REBELS

Ric Grenell: They won. They got a ransom. This line from the White House that somehow it wasn't a ransom because it was a settlement of the 39-year agreement fails to understand that it wasn't a   diplomatic opening if it's an immediate payment. The Wall Street Journal did a good job of showing exactly what happened. The payment was held until the prisoners were released. That immediacy totally shows that this wasn't a diplomatic opening or an opportunity as President Obama says. It was total ransom.

Gina Loudon: You kill Americans and you become a top terrorist sponsor in the world, and pretty much    all bets are off.  I think that America needs to make that clear. I would invite our liberal friends here on the panel to explain to me something that I don't understand. Either these two, Hillary Clinton and Obama, are completely incompetent leaders or they're working against American interest.

Jessica Tarlov: I think my liberal body downstairs would say the same, too. Totally insane, Gina.  
To Ric's point, I understand the ransom argument. We know the $400 million was originally theirs.  
We negotiated a deal with them, which by the way, we know that nuclear physicists and arms experts across the world have said it was the best deal we could’ve gotten. And then we said, hey guess what? We want our guys back, which I think that we should.

Jehmu Grenne: Why are we talking it this when this was reported in January of this year? I can go back to January. I weighed 20 pounds less, and I still had a boyfriend, come on.  We're talking about this because Donald Trump created another of his conspiracies when he said he saw the cash coming off the   plane. There was transparency in January. We have got to stop trying to gin up these conspiracies. And guess what? This happened after secretary Clinton had left the state department.

Mercedes Schlapp: First of all, I can’t believe we're even joking about this because of the fact that we had American hostages held for quite some time. It was under Pastor Sayeed that this revelation came out, plus the Wall Street Journal talking about they were holding this money, $400 million. The Obama administration denies it. This is appalling. This is not how we should be running our foreign policy. It is one of the problems that we see where Iran looks at the U.S., and looks at us as this weak country willing to give concessions to Iran while they play us like a fiddle.  I think this is incredibly serious.

ELLEN DEGENERES ACCUSED OF RACISM AFTER TWEETING MEME OF USAIN BOLT

Jehmu Grenne: I don’t think this too P.C. social media is going to be the death of us all. But I think in the last year, Donald Trump has mainstreamed   megalomaniacs across social media.

Mercedes Schlapp: I think we have to be respectful and understand the fact that there is high tension now between the African-American community and other communities. I think when you look at –You’re blaming it on Donald Trump, Jehmu; Maybe it's a little more of the black lives matter, too.  Maybe just try to find a space where we can all respect each other.

Gina Loudon: This is conservative poetry. This is the moment where we can sit and hope that the liberals can understand what their rhetoric has done. The P.C police have been such a problem for conservatives, and now it’s backfired on them. So I’m just hoping that Ellen DeGeneres is one of those people who will quietly step in the ballot box and vote for trump to get rid of this.

Ric Grenell: I have zero sympathy for Ellen. She is a left-winger who has played into this identity politics for a very long time. She's getting exactly what she deserves. She's getting a taste of her own medicine.

Jessica Tarlov: I thought it was really funny, actually. The backlash, I get that.  Liberals are to blame   
Substantially for the P.C police issue. To quote Mayor Mike Bloomberg who sat at an address in Michigan University, micro aggressions are just that, micro. I want to say that when we freak out about things like this it detracts from real racism and bigotry.