amoco >> today on "matter of fact," wild card races. republican senators in a high stakes game. will money deliver the win, on the battleground? then, should we build a wall? or build a bridge? does this guest have, a conspiracy theory, or reality? could your vote be hacked? and, soledad o'brien, we're very excited to open up the conversation. what's she saying about the year in politics? ? jessica: welcome to "matter of fact." i'm jessica gomez.

political battlefield. according to real-clear-politics, hillary clinton leads donald trump nationally by almost five points. the presidential race aside, both parties have eyes on control of the senate. and by all indications, it will be a close race to see who gains the majority control. republicans? or democrats? let's do the math, right now republicans control the senate with 54 seats. democrats hold4 with the democrats. if clinton wins the presidency, the democrats will need just 4 seats to become the majority party, if trump wins, the democrats would need 5 to regain control. that's because the vice president casts the tie breaking vote in the senate. some republican incumbents are in the fight of their lives, including senators john mccain of arizona and ron johnson of

political report. jennifer, thanks for joining us trade can senate republicans survive a potential trump loss? jennifer: it depends how bad that loss is. you see some republican survivin example. clinton is up a couple of points. then you go to pennsylvania, where pat toomey is seeking reelection and clinton is up as much as 11 points and he is now trailing the democratic opponent, and that has almost everything to do with trump's performance in that state,

women with college education. jessica: does a presidential loss always have a downballot effect? jennifer: no. we call them lonely landslides. the last one was 1996, where bill clinton won the presidency, yet republicans picked up 2 seats in the senate. i don't think this will be a lonely landslide. jessica: is the voters to get to the polls? jennifer: it's enough to motivate some voters, and republicans will have to work on that message come september. they have to make the argument that there needs to be a republicane to serve the check on a clinton presidency. that will motivate a lot of republicans. but he needs to be done

negatives, are democrats worried that her coattails are not enough? jennifer: they are worried in some states because they are not seeing the trump drag, evenly across all states. portman is doing fine. marco rubio in florida is holding its own. again, you go back to places like pennsylvania, and some races we wouldot in play that are. north carolina, senator richard are now faces a single-digit race. we are looking closely at races in arizona, and in missouri, where senator roy blunt is running. those races are closer than they ought to be. jessica: what does each party have to do to be in control? jennifer: democrats have a fairly simple plan.

i don't think there's a republican candidate who can escape a day without asked a question about trump. at the same time, they will have to get their vote out. they are counting on the clinton campaign to do that. the republican message is a little tougher. they have to skirt those trump questions every day. they start to pick their battles. they are not responding to egregious stuff. interesting to know how they will react to his shifting on immigration. for some of these senators, it's not what they want to hear. but their focus is really going to be getting their vote out, and their problem is, there's not a lot of infrastructure out

jessica: will those white, college-educated, suburban women swing the selection? jennifer: i think they will swing important states. they account for a lot of hillary clinton's lead in pennsylvania, which makes it less of a swing state than it has been. he might play a big role in north carolina, which explains why it is as close at his -- as it is today. what surprised you in this election season? jennifer: besides this election season? [laughter] i have been doing this for a long time, this is the strangest election i've ever watched. we've never seen a candidate like this, who seemed to be able to just kind of push away

should be even more entertaining. jennifer duffy, thank you very much. >> coming up, deporting millions, of undocumented immigrants. >> most americans can live with some kind of amnesty. >> what's the cost? and, she may know how to outsmart election hackers, but what about protecting our national security? plus, she's an award winning journalist and our new host. soledad o'brien has a message to

mr. trump: we're going to a wall folks, we're going to build a wall.

button issue in this election. with an estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants in the united states, advocates for amnesty and those who support the idea of building a wall aren't likely to find common ground any time soon. but has the debate shifted? donald trump now says he wants to be fair, but firm. is there a middle ground? mark krikorian is executive director of the center for immigration studies. let's talk about trump. he's heading to arizona in a few days. is this an about-face? mark: it really is more like the wind blowing a weathervane in circles. immigration is the only reason he's a presidential candidates successfully nominated by a party. the idea of president trump was

into the fact that ordinary republican voters didn't agree with her leadership class on this immigration issue. the problem is that he doesn't have a well-thought-out practice on immigration -- practice take on immigration. at one point he said, we will deport everybody a t apparently he's come to realize that's not going to happen. he's a weathervane, blowing around and who knows what he is going to say next time he talks about immigration. jessica: i was going to say is his policy clear to you? and, if so, how does it differ from clinton's proposal? mark: well it's not clear. clinton is probably more clear at least on the illegal immigration issue.

of what she wants to do. she has said clearly on tv consistently that no one in the united states who is an illegal immigrants will be deported unless they are convicted of violent felonies. that is a clear position, and that is very different from sort of what trump is saying. but trump's position -- it's hard to compare except now he seems to have become the knights member of the gang of 8. jessica: mark: they are sort of neither. most americans can live with some kind of amnesty for some part of the illegal population. the problem is that all proposals is that the amnesty, whatever form it takes, comes up front.

and the promises of enforcement are for the future. jessica: do you think the next president can solve this problem? what does he or she need to do? mark: first is border enforcement. even though trump talks about a wall, we have put a lot of effort into enforcing order over the last 20 years. we have more fencing than we used to. more importantly is o things. enforcement of the work site, keeping illegal immigrants from getting jobs, and the third thing is tracking visitors from abroad and making sure they leave when they are supposed to. the rule of thumb is always been that 40% of illegal immigration is people just like that.

foreign students who never left. it has switched now. most of the thousand of illegal aliens a day settling in the united states, the majority of them are visa holders. until we have a functioning check-in, check-out system for foreign visitors, and the check-in part is ok, the check-out part is very weak. jessica: i'm sure we will hear more about it in the coming weeks. could they decide the or next president? >> somebody could potentially break into the machines. >> "matter of fact" investigates election espionage and safeguarding the vote. plus, hashtag congress in five words. plus, hashtag congress in five words. for all those pokers, prodders, shuckers and sniffers, all stop & shop produce is triple checked.

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internet hacking threats around the globe. and here at home. american businesses, government agencies, including the internal revenue service, and state department have fallen victim to hackers breaking through digital firewalls. media outlets and political organizations like the democratic national committee have had emails stolen and exposed. and with the presidential election about two months away, election officials are focused on safeguarding the vote, making but just how vulnerable is our election network? "matter of fact" correspondent diane roberts investigates the integrity of the ballot box. >> it was adlai stevenson who was not elected president. diane: back when grandmotherly norma kacen first voted, there was no internet for anyone to hack. her vote was safe and secure. but these days reports of

the state department and dnc computer systems have raised concerns about whether they can hack into our voting set-up too -- manipulating behavior of a computer network state by state. >> this key is on the election officer's neck at all times. >> it's very secure. >> we have a number of checks and balances that are in place. this is important for elections officials around the country, especially in battleground states. ta machines, 14 have machines 15 years or older, including battle ground states like florida, new hampshire, and virginia. linda lindberg is director of elections in arlington county. she say's they're opting for optical scanning technology this year instead of those wireless touch screen machines that were so innovative at the time. >> there was some concern that electronic machines could be

diane: no voters will fill out a ballot and send it through an optical scanning machine that internally reads and records the information. machines not tied together on one network are harder to hack. >> you heard it drop in to the box, the light changed green and the counter increased to one. diane: voter watchdog groups say absentee and in-person voters can help insure voting integrity by using paper ballots. it seems what was old is new ai >> while we need to be vigilant about hacking, the source of some of the problems can be traced back to voters themselves. lindberg says you should double check your ballot before handing it in to avoid mistakes. diane, we've mostly been talking about in person voting -- what about the integrity of absentee

have concerns about this a recent study by verified voting, electronic privacy information center and common cause reports these voters must waive their right to a secret ballot in order to vote by e-mail, fax and internet portals. that makes those methods insecure and it's the process for 32 states. they are hoping to changes and goes right back to paper. jessica: diane, thanks so much. >> coming up next, hating, on congress? plus, soledad o'brien previews the new season of matter of fact. you love summer but it's tough on your feet leaving them feeling rough. discover amop? pedi perfect. it's the beauty secret that's earning five star reviews for buffing away hard, dry skin

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jessica: now for a quick reality check, your congressional representatives have been out for a long summer break, six weeks to be exact. when members return after labor day, they will tackle unfinished business.

zika virus, passing government spending bills, and a decision by senate republicans to reconsider hearings on the nomination of merrick garland to the supreme court. but while they were taking their august recess, twitter didn't forget them. a twitter hashtag, congress in five words, offered these examples, for sale to the highest bidder. neither party cares about us with power -- why i have trust issues -- and what a bunch of , clowns. for the record, congress has been in session 93 days this year. when they get back, there are just 33 working days left til year end. congress should be heartened however,their approval rating has gone up by five points, from

18% this month. while the country may be at a loss over our congress, nasa just found an important object, lost in space. for almost two years, the national aeronautic space administration couldn't find the signal to the stereo-b spacecraft, one of two satellites sent to monitor solar storms. after the $550 million mission moved into orbit around the sun, the spacecraft refused to phone home. but luckily, nasa's deep space network was able to make the connection. all systems restored. tweet us at matter-of-fact-tv. check in on facebook. and, connect with our video site matteroffact.tv to view and share videos from all our programs. when we return, she's warming up to pitch, for the season opener. >> these are some of the most important conversations of our

jessica:

last lazy days of summer, a change of season is in the air. "matter of fact" is getting ready to move into a new season, with host, soledad o'brien, who sent us this message. >> i'm inviting you to join us for season 2 of "matter of fact ," which kicks off right after labor day. we will be extending the conversation, adding some new voices and different perspectives. while we would love to hear from our familiar faces and emerging want a fresh take and we like to push people to understand -- clearly there's much happening in politics and we are excited to be part of this conversation, a conversation that i think is the most important one of our lives. i hope you will join me for "mattet." that starts right after labor day. jessica: in the meantime, thanks for joining us today. we'll be back next week with

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- you are being watched. the government has a secret system--at a machine th spies on you every hour of every day. becausi know,or,it. i designed the machine to detect acts of terr but it sees everything...ing, violent crimes involv people like you, crimes the government considered i they wouldn't acrrt,el ev ansot. i decided i would. with the ski someone lls to intervene. hunted by ities, we work in secret.the autr er fin you will nevd us. but victim or perpetrator, if you're number's up, we'll find you. [digital trilling]