. >> >> a genius a genius. >> there is no one who has shown more genius. >> i want a man who is a genius. >> absolute genius. john: this is october, and according to trump's first law clinical physics, a controversy in motion tends to stay in motion. news cycles between now and election day remain a commodity.

especially for donald j. trump, who remains behind in the race. spat withican nominee machado how to-- make last week one of his worst. the nominee declared a nearly $1 billion loss on his 1995 income tax returns. the loss would have allowed him to limit his income tax burden over many years, maybe down to zero. a headline clinton wasted no time bringing it up today at a campaign rally in toledo, ohio. thatlinton: you all know in the debate, he said it was smart to avoid paying taxes. yesterday, his campaign was bragging it makes him a genius. [laughter] ms. clinton: here's my question. what kind of genius loses $1 billion in a single year? [applause] ms. clinton: this is trump to a

tee. he has taken corporate excess and made a business model out of it. he abuses his power, games the system, puts his own interest ahead of the country's. it's trump first and everyone else last. mark: trump clearly recognizing that he is on the defensive, gave extended prepared remarks today on this matter at a rally in pueblo, colorado. mr. trump: the unfairness of the tax laws is unbelievable. it is something i have been talking about for a long time, despite, frankly, being a big beneficiary of the laws. but i am working for you, not for trump. [applause] mr. trump: i have legally used the tax laws to my benefit and to the benefit of my company, my investors, and my employees. i mean, honestly, i have brilliantly used those laws. john: that is not the only area where donald trump is on

defense. new piece out in which more than 20 cast and crew members of "the apprentice" were interviewed. some of them describe crass and sexist behavior by trump. outlet published a report saying that more than a decade ago, he rented office space to an arabian bank with purported ties to hezbollah and hamas, and today we learned that on friday the new york attorney general eric schneiderman sent him a letter notifying him that his charitable foundation is notifying -- violating state law for soliciting donations without the proper certification and ordered him to seize fundraising immediately. donald trump does not have all that many more new cycles left to burn. the burning question, so to speak -- can he get off the defensive and onto the offensive before the debate on sunday, and if so, how? john: not entirely. the public polling is mostly bad for him.

clearly, he has lost ground since the debate. defensive, and the debate performance is what set it off. and so i think the press, even if things go slightly his way, barring some huge disclosure about hillary clinton -- i think trump will be on the defensive. he can claw his way back, but it really does wait for the debate. here is why i think this tax story is problematic for him. the reporters want to get these stories out as soon as possible, ideally before the debate, so they are pursuing that angle. trump's argument about the tax thing would be very powerful if he actually put his tax returns out and said, here is the ways in which i manipulated the system. i will put all that to an end when i am president, people like me would not be able to do what i did here. but as it is, we are still left with the question, what else is in the tax returns, and what is -- what other ways did he manipulate the tax system? what is the actual story here?

and that is why those stories, those questions will persist over this week and keep him on defense all the way to sunday. mark: another thing that most voters probably aren't thinking about, most of the stories involving the foundation reflects very poorly on trump's attorneys. whoever was doing the legal work for the foundation, they made a lot of mistakes. i doubt trump was directly involved in many of those decisions, but the lawyers should have stopped him from doing some of these things. the same types of people, lawyers and accounts, would have been involved in handling his tax returns, so trump now even more needs to release his returns, because while the story does not allege he did anything illegal or that they pushed the envelope, he has shown that he hires lawyers and accountants to are not careful in what they do. ofk: of course, -- john: course, when you hire bad people you are responsible for what they do. as someone who runs a charitable foundation, you just can't lay it off on the attorneys and the accountants. again, if he keeps not releasing tax returns after this revelation, it makes people wonder, what else is a problem

in the tax returns? mark: as i mentioned, there is the possibility always of a revelation involving the clintons. at 3:00 a.m. tomorrow morning eastern time, wikileaks founder julian assange is expected to make what his group is billing as a major announcement by video. the exact content of this is unclear at this hour, but assange has long promised to release documents but hillary clinton. advisoronald trump's oliver stone, who has long talked up assange and his prospects of changing the race, tweeted this cryptic message -- "i have confidence that my hero will educate the american people soon." soon," roger stone -- soon." there is hope that this will be the thing that takes clinton down and allows trump to go i had. thatare the surprises

hillary's campaign is most worried about in the final weeks of the campaign? mark: they are obviously -- john: they are obviously worried about the wikileaks thing. i should stipulate, unless you know something i don't, we have no idea what might be in the documents. unless there is something that genuinely scandalous, criminal behavior, that would be problematic. i think there's still focused on her health. part of the reason she was so effective in that first debate was that she looked strong and healthy, robust, confident. mark: cheated a somersault. no, -- she did a somersault. no, that was kate mckinnon. if she were to have another health issue, that would be a problem. one of the big questions involving any potential controversy or scandal, is does the staff know everything? it will be fascinating to know if they know what is in her

30,000 deleted e-mails for all we know wikileaks has access to. are they ready for any possible disclosure, be it about yoga, but a wedding, or about the foundation? john: but they like to do is attack the credibility of the source. julian assange is a rich topic in that area, not a guy with a lot of sympathy among american voters, to the extent that they know who he is. one thing we know about the clintons is they always divide their legal and political into different houses. the lawyers know everything and the clinical people often know very little. that is a problem. mark: if there is any clinton controversy, their first response will be, this is an old story brought up by political enemies trying to distract from the real issues in this campaign. john: you scripted that very well. mark: i can do it in my sleep. john: up next, a brand-new bloombergpolitics north carolina poll. plus the overlooked policy , issues of the presidential campaign, after these words from our sponsors. ♪

john: welcome back. we have a brand-new bloombergpolitics battleground state poll looking at north carolina, which remains in essential part of donald trump's narrow path to victory. and a four-way race, our poll shows hillary clinton leading by voters,1% among likely up 44% to 43% over trump and she is up by the same margin in a two-way race over trump. than a slightly tighter poll from quinnipiac survey released this afternoon. let's take a look at this map. there is hillary clinton up by three points, 46% to 43% among likely voters in north carolina. q pollsqueue polls --

put clinton up five points in florida, 46% to 41%, and up four points in pennsylvania, 45% to 41%. in ohio, the outlier, trump seems to be gaining ground, leading among likely buckeye voters 47%-42%. there is one more poll i want to show you. in new mexico, a state that would ordinarily be considered safely stashed in clinton's column, and albuquerque journal survey released yesterday shows that in beating trump by just four points, 35% to 31%. how is that possible, you might ask, because new mexico has been blue for long time. you have to think about gary johnson, who is a two-time governor of the land of enchantment. he polls a hefty 24% of likely voters in that poll. looking at all that stuff, the q polls, our poll, the journal poll, where does that leave the electoral math and the electoral

map? mark: trump has fallen behind further than he was. going into the first debate, he had the momentum and he has told almost even with clinton when there was a plausible electoral college cap. he must men -- when florida and north carolina to have a chance. he is behind in the states. if you look at where she is in these polls, he can come back, particularly if gary johnson gets a decent percent of the vote. he needs somein, combination of -- besides the big three and iowa, north carolina, florida, he needs probably three small states, unless he can win pennsylvania, which looks less likely. the reality is, i think trump needs to win both debates. he needs clinton to have some big stumble or disclosure. and he needs to perform day in and day out better. without those things, i think he will get tens of millions of votes, over 200 electoral votes, but he will is. the: the worrying -- john:

worrying thing for trump is the gary johnson vote is starting to collapse, and you're seeing it in some of these polls. that seems to be going to hillary clinton's benefit. at a lot of those small states that he has to put together if he is going to make that math work. put aside this new mexico thing, it is a bit of an anomaly. in nevada, where he has been ahead, she suddenly looks like she is ahead. colorado, it looks like she is ahead by a lot. new hampshire, she has always been stronger. the daunting this of it, this lost week of trump, where he was right on the break of seeing himself even with her, and his suddenly see himself slipping -- if i am in the trump campaign, i am scared. mark: i will say it again, i have set it from the beginning -- she is the favorite, he has been hurt badly. but we should not overreact. good week for him, a bad week for her, he can get that close to parity, but he will always have a narrow path.

getting lost in all the playable sniping that has occurred for months are the major policy issues that would normally get at least some attention. today for instance the "new york times" had a great front page story about the future of the affordable care act. on our website right now, bloombergpolitics.com, we have an article on a hillary clinton proposal to limit contracts that make it more difficult for workers and consumers to bring legal action against corporations. on the campaign trail, candidates have dipped a pinky toe into the policy waters. trump talks about his tax plan and proposals for childcare deductions. today he announced a cyber review team he says look at the issue of online security. clinton has unveiled plans for expanding opportunities for workers with disabilities, student debt, curbing prescription drug costs, and others. but they don't get very much coverage. with 36 days to go, why has there been even less policy coverage than in the past? is there anything that can be

done before election day? john: because we are suckers for the shiny object. when i say we, i mean our colleagues and us, to some extent. these two candidates provide compelling, hilarious, appalling theater almost every day, and it is hard to resist covering that stuff and focusing on the way we obviously should on the issues of substance. mark: that is hard to cover policy when the campaigns won't give you policy experts. we ask all the time. is hard toy, it cover policy the week before the new hampshire primaries, a week before super tuesday. john: this whole campaign is been like that. mark: there is always a big thing, there is no low -- lull. not exempting ourselves. i will look back and say one of the great failures was that we let the circus show, freak show the campaignst have created -- more trump and ms. clinton: -- and say, we

should do 20 minutes on education. john: you are right the campaigns do not focus on policy enough. time has none, clintons are buried on her website. but the clinton campaign is intentionally making the campaign about his temperament. they are not focused on his lack of policy, they are focused on his business record and temperament. it is still not too late. the could talk about health care. a good story in "the new york times" today about this. good talk about kernel justice reform. there are a -- we could talk about criminal justice reform. there are a lot of things we should do to try to get a little bit of policy and before election day. mark: the voters will be electing someone who will have a huge influence on their lives. john: up next -- hand me that thing. you know who these two people are? find out, after this.

♪ mark: everywhere you go in gotham city, people are talking about one thing only -- the two men who will take the debate stage tomorrow night in virginia. i am kidding. they are talking about other stuff as well, including the mets. we sent our bloombergpolitics team to times square to see what new yorkers and tourists know about the two guys, these two guys, the vice presidential running mates. reporter: do you know who these guys are? >> i do not. reporter: any ideas? >> no. >> no. >> no idea. >> that is mitt romney. reporter: what job do you think

they have? >> a ceo. >> a newscaster. >> american football coach. >> sports coaches or something. >> >> a sports analyst. >> they look like they are in the golf world. reporter: do you know who that is? >> the vice presidential candidates. reporter: you got it. you know their names? >> mike pence and tim kaine. >> i am not sure about the democrat. >> that is pence, and i forget his name. reporter: that is so close. >> i use a cane. reporter: you use a what? >> i use a cane. reporter: do know their name? >> tim kaine and prince or something. reporter: do you know his name? >> pence. >> no idea who that one is. >> he gave a pretty boring speech at the convention. reporter: which one is pence?

>> >> this is trump's vp and this is hillary's vp. reporter: who do you think would win in a debate? >> this guy. he looks a little more intellectual. reporter: what words come to mind? >> a charmer. reporter: like a ladies' man. would you want him representing you on the world stage? >> he looks like putin would run rings around him. >> i think pence is going to win. he just seems more presidential. vice presidential. >> he has that stare. >> he looks winnable. reporter: i am sure he would love to hear that. >> of both of them have a nice smile. looks can be deceiving, but they look like nice people. >> distinguished-looking. >> one thing wrong with both of them -- they are politicians. reporter: boom.

mark: they are politicians. tim kaine are -- experienced at their jobs and both were considered safe picks. is this debate going to get a lot of attention? no one expected it to be highly rated, but it does matter. what is the best case scenario for the trump campaign and for clinton and kaine out of this debate? john: it seems to me mike pence has a couple of jobs, one of which is the job joe biden has four years ago. the republicans who are worried about donald trump. he is not going to spend a lot of time reaching out to the center, i think he is going to consolidate their public and vote that is worried about trump. if he does that, that will be a good debate for him. i think tim kaine has the opportunity, because of how well her that it has done, to start to reach out and exploit that same shakiness, reach out to republicans, trying to convince those suburban republican women

who are shaky about trump, maybe more so after last week -- to come over to the democratic side. mark: i think pence can do three things to help the ticket. is is to show trump how it done, change washington, talk about the clintons being part of the old guard. two, he can reach out the republican base. there are a lot of social, religious, economic conservatives who do not trust trump and will like to see that pencil be part of the white house. the last thing he can do is be a circuit breaker. if he wins, he gives them back a little momentum. i think cain and talk about the clinton message out of the exact same handbook as the clinton. there's not much difference between two of them on anything they are running on. the other thing he can do is try to put pants on the defensive. he has been skillful in interviews, avoiding confronting some of trump's more out there statements. kaine is skillful, he

could try to make pension it. john: many people will say tim kaine should go after mike pence on gays and lesbians in indiana. that is not going to do the job. pinjob is going to be to mike pence on trump. they are both representatives of the guys on the top of the ticket. this is about them as a stand-in for their respective overlords. mark: the other thing is, you clinton pencee team came out not just with hillary credit having performed better, but most of the topics they wanted to cover were covered, either brought up by lester holt or by herself. pence has the opportunity to bring up some of the things brought up about her e-mail, some of the things about the obama-clinton record on foreign policy and put them out there and a prominent way, as prominent a platform as you can get at this point, and to try

them -- try to make them part of the conversation. john: a lot of people think this debate is going to be boring, and i have said it is like vanilla pudding. but the truth is, both of these guys are men of substance. they know a lot of stuff, have been in governance for a long time. one of the things that was disappointing about the first debate is that it was so devoid of substance. this could be an interesting debate. it will not be fireworks and ice cream and soda coming out of the debate center, but it could be something where they actually talk about stuff of real merit. mark: there better be diet coke, i will need that to stay awake. i think both these guys are generally liked and respected by the clinical establishment. both of them are preparing a time. tim kaine is working with a lot of the same people who prepared hillary clinton. is a serious guide. -- he is a serious guide. -- guy. the trump campaign needs to

convince people -- convince trump to prepare for the next debate. if mike pence does better, i think his folks can say to trump, he came prepared, this is the result, please prepare for the debate. john: they can say that, but whether trump will listen is a different story. mark: up, strategizing with a couple of strategists after this word from our sponsors.

john: this is the time when we gery withttle strate

the strategist, republican style. she joins us from farmville, virginia, where the vice presidential debate will take place tomorrow. and nrdc bureau, we have barry bennett, former trump advisor and current trump supporter. sarah, let me start with you. how bad has the last week then for donald trump? in terms of his electoral prospects? sarah: it has been that. when the election has been about donald trump, he does not do well. i think the most telling numbers are the economy numbers. ofwas up 15 at the beginning september. he's now at a virtual tie with hillary clinton, which is a huge swing in who voters trust to handle the economy. i don't necessarily think it was the debate, but it was a sustained look at donald trump this week then we have seen through the summer, and voters don't actually like it when it is about donald trump. when it's about hillary, they don't like her.

john: he is down eight on "strong and decisive leader" and down five on "temperament to serve effectively as president" and down six on "can better handle responsibilities of commander-in-chief." those are not great numbers. i can't believe you're going to say last week was great for donald trump, but evaluate how serious you think the threat is over what happened in the last seven or eight days. barry: i think if you look at this, you have to be amazed that the polling numbers have not dropped more. you lose the debate to the one in these public polls and you only lose a point or points and a half? it is pretty stunning. i think a lot of this is baked in. we use that phrase over and over again, but it seems like it is going to be hard to shop the voters at this point. do you think donald trumps national popular vote to ceiling is as a percentage of a four-way vote? sarah: is in that the question -- the winner is

probably 44% or 45%. mark: you agree? betting against donald trump on his ceiling has proven to be a poor that time and time again. i think barry might be a point or two points low, but i think he is about right. mark: that seems to be the critical question, because i think trump can get to 45 nationally. i'm not sure he can get to 46 or 47. at ohio, he is already a 47 in the latest polling. you can get there. turn out could add two or three points to these polls. he could get there. sarah, if you were in the holding room with mike pence tomorrow night and he said, what is the one thing i need to look on list on the stage, what would you tell him? sarah: if i was advising mike pence, i thought the piece in the wall street journal was the best tonight. mike pence should go rogue. if they ask them, do you think trump should turn over his tax

returns, mike pence should say, yes. at this point, if this is really baked in, if the election is going to be about donald trump, which is not good for trump, mike pence would do himself a lot of favors down the road, 2020, if he breaks with the top of the ticket and says, i think he should turn over tax returns, i turned over mine. but i don't think he would do that. mark: that is the silliest thing i've ever heard on this program. what should he actually do? i actually -- sarah: think he is the voice of reason on this ticket. mark: let's say he wants to help trump win, what should we do -- he do? sarah: then he needs to make it all about hillary clinton. i don't want to ignore the question of the vice presidential debate, because i think it could be interesting. but i want to look to the next presidential debate. if you are invited in to work on donald trump's debate prep, what

would your advice be about how to remediate the problems he has caused himself? barry: next is the town hall format, that we different experience. here you get a chance to actually connect with the questioner. you can score points on feminist in a town hall format, where you can't is standing behind a podium. i think it is important how he interacts with the questioner and answers their question directly, quickly, and then have is to something else. it is an entirely different format, which i think plays to his advantage. john: describe the complexity involved. one of the things about the format is the two of them can step out from the podium and get in each other's face. he is a big man, she is a woman. how dangerous is that territory when you get the two of them out there with the gender dynamics that are in play? sarah: i'm not that worried about this. i agree with very that this format favors donald trump over the last format. he has better television skills, better charisma on camera.

i think this, barring some catastrophe, will be in his way. in thewant to do better second debate closer to the election, might be the time to shine. should he get into hillary clinton's face? probably not, but anything barring sort of a poking her moment, i think he is fine. john: if you look at this stage trump needs to win, which one would be concerning you the most these days? sarah: north carolina. other republican senate candidates have been pulling ahead of donald trump. the senate race is now a heat, donald trump is behind in the latest polling. i would be concerned that you are not doing better in a state like north carolina. ohio, he is above where many people thought he would be. he needs to look for that in these other states. trump thewould donald

behind in a state mitt romney won against barack obama? barry: i think the one thing we know is that north carolina, florida, ohio, and pennsylvania all have in common is that today, there are 200,000 fewer democrats in each of those states then there were four years ago. the underpinnings are pretty good. i think it is close, i think he will do fine. he is going to run some ads, for the first time, we will see what the ads do. i feel pretty good about it. john: thank you, you are great to come on. we will talk next about donald trump's rough week and a few of the reporters who cover him, right after this. if you are watching and washington, d.c., you can also listen to us on the radio on 99.1 fm. we will be right back. ♪

mark: for many of you, today is the first day back at work, but donald trumpering and hillary clinton have been on the clock all weekend. joining us is bloomberg politics reporter kevin cirilli, and katy tur is in pueblo, colorado. both cover donald trump with alarming regularity. we're going to start with sound from the event donald trump had this afternoon, where he talked about the unrest we have seen in some major american cities. mr. trump: we are a divided nation, and each week it seems we're getting more and more divided, with race riots on our streets on a monthly basis. somebody said, don't call them race riots, but that's what they are. they are race riots, and it's happening more and more.

mark: some days, it's not clear to me what message donald trump is trying to drive. he talked about a lot of different things at a couple of events already. what message do think he is on today? i think earlier today he was discussing the turmoil and unrest happening in our cities throughout the country. but i think you really hit the nail on the head because the past week for donald trump's campaign, there has not been a cohesive message. we have seen a little bit of it, when donald trump goes on twitter, the issue of follow the money and attacking hillary clinton for the clinton foundation or her wall street paid speeches -- all that goes away and is overshadowed by something he says off teleprompter. that's a huge challenge for the senior aides that i speak with , and i am sure katie speaks with as well, and it has really set them back. john: there's no way you can describe this moment as anything

other than donald trump should be feeling embattled. is that the atmosphere, or is it something else? katy: 100%. the campaign realizes it is now or never, and that is why you heard paul trump very much on teleprompter here. we were told he was going to get deeper into his own personal history and direct response to what came out over the weekend, that nearly $1 billion declaration he made on his 1995 taxes, the campaign realizing they need to find a way to spin that. they have been in full battle mode for over seven days. it has been controversy after controversy, scandal after scandal. not just allegations of sexism, which bubbled up again today, but the taxes and the attorney general filing a cease and desist order on a trump foundation for not filing the correct paperwork.

the trump campaign is trying to push back on all fronts. what you heard here today is donald trump trying to refrain the narrative, paint himself as an underdog back in the 1990's, who everybody was rooting against, someone they wanted to he was going through his difficulties in the 1990's, losing $1 billion nearly in one year. he says he was able to rebuild himself and was able to bring himself back up, despite what everybody was saying about him. he won, i won, he said over and over again. he is trying to tell voters he is going to do the same thing for them. but we are 36 days until the election, and donald trump is having a very hard time, as kevin mentioned, staying on message, let alone one cohesive message, one coherent message. we are going to see how long this text and whether it is going to do anything for those undecided voters, or if those voters have already decided they're going to go towards hillary clinton. mark: he sounds like he is

trying to turn himself into the comeback kid. kevin: who doesn't love a good comeback story? but i think in addition to all of that, we have to look behind the scenes, where the rnc is saying they have the appropriate ground game in place to turn out voters on election day. but i have to be honest, the sources i'm speaking with in swing states such as florida would paint a different picture. in addition to trying to put out all of these fires, i think there are some real operational questions about the clinical ground game with the trump campaign. that being said, just anecdotally speaking, we talked to a lot of independent voters and we will wait a few days to see whether or not the polls reflect this -- but we talk to voters, and the trump message on defense with his issue on a tax return is that he was able to be smart enough to beat the system and this is just another example for why the system is so messed up. to some small business owners, to some independent voters, this

is just simply the lesser of two evils decision between hillary clinton and donald trump. and i'm not necessarily sure that the tax issue right now -- we will have to see if more comes out -- i'm not sure right now that that issue will convince independent voters who are concerned about both candidates to turn her back on trump. john: we are going to turn this dyad into a triad by adding jenna johnson, a political reporter for the "washington post" who covers donald trump. here is how donald trump attacks hillary clinton during his rally on saturday night in manheim, pennsylvania. mr. trump: i hear too many stories about pennsylvania, certain areas. i hear too many bad stories and we can't lose an election because of -- you know what i'm talking about. so go and vote and then go check out areas, the cousin lot of bad things happen, and we don't want

to lose for that reason. we don't want to lose, but we especially don't want to lose for that reason. so go over and watch, and watch carefully. here is a woman -- she's supposed to fight all of these different things, and she can't make it 15 feet to her car. give me a break. give me a break. [applause] mr. trump: i don't even think she's loyal to bill, if you want to know the truth. john: those are just some of the highlight from that event. jenna, you were there and you wrote a detailed, brilliant, --vocative, wonderful evocative piece about it. tell us what it was like to be there and watch that spectacle unfold. jenna: i have been to more than 100 donald trump rallies in the last year and in the last couple of weeks and months, he's gotten really good at staying on message, reading from a teleprompter, sticking to the

talking points his staff has given him. and saturday night was an example of him just for getting all of that -- forgetting all of that and letting loose and saying exactly what he's thinking. saying a lot of things i don't think we have ever heard a presidential candidate say at a rally before. this rally in particular, i had planned on writing an article about him seizing on comments hillary clinton made about bernie sanders' millennial supporters and why they are unemployed and why they like him. in one comment she made about them living in their parents' basements. his campaign sent out a statement saying he's going to give this statement tonight and on these comments. so i pre-wrote a story thinking that was going to be the news and i had to delete that story and write a new story because he

could not stay on message. you could just tell he was so angry and frustrated. -- frustrated about all these other things. mark: to what extent can we say the trump senior staff is currently frustrated as opposed to just accepting trump will be trump? think if they are not frustrated, that would be surprising at the moment. they wanted to get on message earlier and that's why you see these indications from the campaign that he is going to say this, that, or the other or stick closely to a message at the campaign rally. -- at a campaign rally. we had not seen that before this team came on board. there is a desire to make sure he is prepared for the debate. but this 3:00 a.m. tweeting, the mocking of hillary clinton being sick and doing an impression of her, is not something that helps his image as somebody who has the correct temperament to be president. if the senior staff on the

campaign is not frustrated, i'm not so sure, they must see different polling than the rest of us because that donald trump is not one that rates well with -- even with his own supporters. they laugh at it, they think it's funny, but if you ask them if this is what their presidential candidate should be doing, they say it is a distraction. we might enjoy it, but we don't think it helps his message or a house convince voters might be unsure about him. mark: the trump coverage trio is going to take some yoga breaths. when we come back, we will talk about how donald trump seems to be preparing for the upcoming town hall debate. ♪

mr. trump: general, thank you, and thank you for your bravery. amazing. i've heard your name mentioned many times. thank you for being here, and thank you for the question. i want to ask you one question. you have all of those aircraft landings on the carrier, and i understand it's a very special talent. >> it's a talent you acquire if you start off with the basics. mr. trump: ic. i see. he puts it down a little bit. that's good. is he here? stand up. [applause] mr. trump: they really went after you. i didn't know you would be here. the world is changing. you're not allowed to pray before a football game. i thought it was horrible. i thought it was horrible. what did they do to you? sorry to take away from your question, but it is an extension of your question. john: that was donald trump. the mellow yellow version this

morning at the forum in virginia, where he seeming to practicing some personal town hall moves. we're back with three reporters on the trump beat. we have "the washington post"'s jenna johnson, katy tur, and kevin cirilli. jenna, at this moment, what do you know about the ways in which that speech relates to the ways mr. trump is trying to right the ship as he heads into the second debate this weekend in st. louis? jenna: the campaign is trying to get him to practice more and be better prepared at the debate. but it is up to him if he wants to listen to the advice they have been giving him for quite a while now. you know, really study and get ready. last week, i was out on the trail with them the whole week, and in each of his speeches, he tackled one of the questions that came up in the first debate

and he kind of fumble. so we saw him give a very direct response to a comment hillary clinton made about implicit bias in police officers and how it's a problem for everyone. he gave a response at the rally that he could have given at the debate. this morning in virginia at the town hall, he talked about cyber security, a question he seemed to kind of fumble with at the debate. you can kind of see how they are trying to get him prepared while he is already out in public, getting used to talking about these things. and also the town hall format, i had not seen him take questions from an audience like that on his own terms in quite a while. mark: it has been a while. kevin and katy, thank you both for coming. donald trump today talked to the people they're are like he was

practicing for a town hall to feel the pain of the voters. kevin first, then katy, do you think trump will excel at walking over to them and repeating their names, like i am doing now? kevin: i think the only time we have seen donald trump really in this type of format was on "the apprentice" and he had the situation there of having to fire people. this is going to be a dynamic mark, where he is going to be talking to people who are either going to hire or fire him. the times i've seen him interact with people over the past year, i have to be honest, i think -- much for youru so answer in your service to america. hard-working a young lady, i know this economy that is difficult. tell us your thoughts. i agree with kevin, the times we have seen him interact one-on-one with voters have not been inspiring, to say the least.

he is often very superficial and will walk up, say hello and have small chit and walk away. -- small chit chat and walk away. i have not seen a conversation last for more than a few minutes. usually just says this is great and moves on. john: you are great, thank you all. we will be right back with you. ♪

mark: watch our coverage of the the vp debate on bloomberg tv and on twitter tomorrow. thanks for watching. sayonara. ♪

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