Eric began Thursday's show with new polling that shows Hillary Clinton opening up wider leads over Donald Trump both nationally and in some key states. Republican pollster Chris Wilson and Trump strategist Sarah Huckabee opined on the numbers. "This is going to be a very close election," Huckabee insisted, "and Americans are going to get to decide on one big thing. Do they want to keep our country safe and free or do they want to lose it? People are voting on the economy and national security and he does better on both those issues. Hillary Clinton is one of the most flawed candidates we have ever seen, she should probably be in prison." But Wilson agreed with Trump critics who say there is chaos within his campaign. "You hear Trump saying there is no problem in his campaign but he fired two people this week. You don't fire people if there are no problems. The challenge for the Trump campaign is that Hillary Clinton got a bump from her convention and she is continuing to grow. He is trailing in states that he needs to win." Eric pointed out that the Trump campaign raised a very impressive $82-million last month, much of it from small donors.

Even though the United States shipped $400-million in cash to Iran on the very day that four American hostages were released, President Obama insists the payment was absolutely not ransom. Eric scrutinized that claim with Wall Street Journal correspondent Jay Solomon. "Money was sent simultaneously with the release of these Americans," Solomon reported. "Even if it the intent was not a quid pro quo, that's how the Iranian government spun it. An Iranian general called a payment for the release of the 'spies,' as he called them. The timing of this was terrible and sending cash perpetuated the idea that this was a ransom payment." Eric concluded, "For these two events to happen at the same time would be like getting struck by lightning in the morning and winning the lottery in the afternoon."

The Obama administration claims that ISIS is losing territory, but other reports show that the Islamic State has expanded into 18 countries. Eric asked national security analyst Dr. Sebastian Gorka to assess the current strength of ISIS. "They are now in Indonesia, The Philippines, and Afghanistan," Gorka marveled. "Think about that - ISIS now has its own affiliate in Afghanistan. This is incredible and the narrative that they are on the ropes has been broken because ISIS has doubled in size. The false wisdom of the administration is that if we just send a few more bombers and trainers to Iraq and Syria we will win. But outside of the war zone there has been a jihadi attack every 84 hours! Look at France and the UK and Turkey and Saudi Arabia, this is a worldwide phenomenon." Gorka also denounced the Obama administration for its controversial cash payment to Iran. "Iran is one of the greatest sponsors of terrorism in the world today and we gave them $400-million. This is material support of terrorism!"

Eric welcomed Republican Congressman Charlie Dent, who has announced that he will not vote for Donald Trump. "My reservations about our nominee," he explained, "is that he has made very disparaging statements about POWs, John McCain, the disabled, Mexicans, Muslims, women, and most recently the Khan family. These issues, along with the lack of policy knowledge, cause me a lot of concern. I'm also opposed to Hillary Clinton, who has disqualified herself from serving as commander-in-chief." Eric contended that Dent and other anti-Trump Republicans are damaging the country and the conservative cause: "Do you realize that you will have a liberal Supreme Court for the lifetimes of our children and grandchildren if Hillary Clinton gets elected? How about gun control and abortion at the Supreme Court level? These are more important than whether or not Donald Trump fights with John McCain."

Donald Trump complains that the mainstream media are unfairly hammering him on a daily basis. Eric invited former Bush spokesperson and 'The Five' co-host Dana Perino to evaluate the coverage. "Donald Trump talks about the bad press he's been getting," she began, "but it is also the bad press he has been earning. That is something only he can change. He keeps giving the media something to whack him with, he is not helping himself and the media is looking for any excuse to go after him. He got a nice bounce out of the convention but then he kept stepping on his lines. I understand Donald Trump attacking the media, but the media are not going to change in the next 90 days. Give them something good to cover!"

New polling shows that Americans trust Donald Trump more on the economy, but Hillary Clinton leads on just about every other issue. Pollsters Kirsten Soltis Anderson and Margie Omero crunched the numbers. "Some of Hillary Clinton's strong showing is because of the convention," Anderson said, "but a lot of it is because the conversation has moved away from the issues where Donald Trump is the strongest. The economy is the only area where he has an advantage, but the focus has not been on the economy, it's been on issues like the Gold Star family. If Trump can get the conversation back to the economy, he'll be on much more favorable territory." Omero pointed out that Donald Trump is hemorrhaging support even on issues that usually favor conservatives. "Hillary Clinton is up by ten points and that advantage extends to things that are historically Republican advantages like foreign policy and nuclear weapons and terrorism. Those things have moved in Clinton's favor because of what we've seen from Trump in the past few weeks."