NBC's Today Show panel was amazed Wednesday by how close the poll numbers between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton are in key battleground states, in spite of Trump's recent campaign woes.
Host Savannah Guthrie asked MSNBC's Steve Kornacki to explain why the two presidential nominees are close or in a dead heat in three key battleground states of Ohio, Pennsylvania and Florida. Trump has struggled with reports of poor fundraising and the fallout from his racially charged comments about a judge in the Trump University case.
"It's amazing," Kornacki said. "If you took the 2012 electoral map, Obama versus Romney, and kept it the same, if you can flip Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Florida, you're the next president. For all of the trouble he's had, you've got them dead even in Ohio and Pennsylvania. Florida is bad news for him. He's down in this thing."
"How worried is the Clinton campaign about just that?" host Matt Lauer asked. "Great weeks for Hillary Clinton, terrible weeks for Donald Trump and they look at those polls in those states, how do they explain that?"
Trump and Clinton have recently hit each other on the economy. Clinton blasted Trump's economic policy during a speech Tuesday, saying, "Just like he shouldn't have his finger on the button, he shouldn't have his hands on our economy."
"The poll on the economy, Hillary Clinton gives that speech yesterday, the subject is the economy, she's trying to discredit Trump on the economy," Kornacki said. "Trump leading Clinton by eight points. They're aware of the challenge. That's where the speeches like you saw yesterday from Hillary Clinton are coming from."
Trump is expected to give his rebuttal in a speech criticizing Clinton on Wednesday.