♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ >> we are just three days away from the second mega important presidential debate between hillary clinton and donald trump, but right now the nation's focus is on a massive storm barreling to the florida coast. hurricane matthew is expected to reach category 4 level tonight and has already killed more than 100 people in the caribbean, leaving florida gov. rick scott to issue a direct and dire warning. >> if you are reluctant to evacuate, think of all the people that the storm has artie killed. you and your family could be

among these numbers if you don't take this seriously. there are no excuses. you need to leave. evacuate, evacuate, evacuate. john: governor scott's equivalent of get off the beach. georgia, south carolina, and other states are on alert, and the white house is urging residents. to take the storm seriously hillary clinton and donald trump have addressed concern on twitter. nka trump canceled a scheduled event in florida today, and the clinton campaign closed offices and suspended tv ads on local stations. president obama has declared a state of emergency in florida. clinton's campaign manager today suggested that they should push back the october 11 voter registration deadline because of the hurricane. in the last two presidential cycles, both have been disrupted in a fund mentally by storms. couldn which way

hurricane matthew affect the presidential race this year? mark: there is uncertainty, and presidential campaigns hate stuff like this. they don't really know where the storm will go, how long it will dominate the news, not just in florida, but nationally, and what impact it will have. two big things to look at, lots of variables but two big things. one is governor scott, donald trump's chief proponent in the state. in the short term he will be incredibly busy, not thinking about politics much. but if he comes out of this well and his popularity surges, donald trump's top surrogate could be popular in florida for the duration. the clinton campaign has a much better machine to deal with voter registration, early voting, absentee ballots, and does the bad weather make their strong machine stand out more, or does it spoil everything, because people are not concerned with voting, and that hurts their chances? we don't know. john: for the history lesson here, people remembering the last two cycles, in 2008 there

was a storm that disrupted the republican convention to some extent, but not later in the voting cycle, and in 2012 you had both a hurricane disrupting the republican convention, and obviously hurricane sandy, which had a big impact because it was so close to new york and the media markets. mark: governor scott matters to some extent, but the second thing is more important. it seems to me both sides, their get out the vote operations will be negatively affected by this impact, so seems to me the one that is better will be better placed to deal with that, just because -- john: they are counting on more votes that way, and if the storm is sufficiently powerful that people are away from their homes, cannot find ballots, it might be the clintons don't bank the advantage they thought because very few people will vote early under these circumstances. it depends how disruptive it is and for how long. mark: obviously the questions relate to how long this goes on, how disruptive it is, especially in florida. john: the pressure is now on donald trump to meet or exceed expectations set by his poor

performance in the first debate, and by mike pence's much praised performance tuesday night. today, trump's economic advisor and a former trump aide were both quoted in a wall street journal story, saying the republican nominee needs to have a better night this sunday in st. louis than he did at hofstra university. it is rare to see people say that from trump world on the record, but it is the widely held sentiment among expectation setters. we might get a sneak peek this evening when the billionaire test drives townhall chops at a campaign event in new hampshire. john, if hillary clinton collapses in the debate somehow, that will be a great night for trump, but what would a w look like under the circumstances for trump? john: a lot of this depends on how we treat it. you and me and everyone in the media. we are back to the same question before the first debate. i think the standard has to be the same it was before, which is

that we should expect donald trump to behave like a president and have command over the issues, have compartment -- comportment on stage, not do many things he did on tuesday night in terms of how he prosecutes his case and defends himself. the standards should be exactly the same as they were for the first debate. for him to win the debate, he needs to win the debate, on all the metrics, substantive and style. mark: on style it is clear. no smoking, no negativity -- smirking, negativity, personal tax, talking less, all of that. they have shown the hand of little bit on what they will try to do to win on substance, to talk aboutsmirking, issues, talt things like taxes, issues, the obama foreign-policy record, where trump thinks he holds all the high cards, and i think that could be a win if he's able to effectively, depending on the moderator and citizen questions, effectively able to focus attention on the issues where republicans think they have the winning hand with voters. john: i want to say, i can't say it often enough, donald trump

merely performing better than he performed, disastrously, in the first debate, that's not a win. and the obvious thing, if you are coaching him you would say, here is the starting point, you have to not cause problems for yourself, you have to not chase rabbits, you have to not take the bait over and over again, you have to try to be on offense, be smart and crisp and clear and quick on defense to get out and do the pivots. all those things,, that's the starting point not the point for victory. mark: he is so far behind in many places where he needs to be ahead, including nationally, the bar is different for him in what we constitute a win. in the first debate, i thought he just behaved in a dignified matter and should grace and humor he would have won. that's not enough. he needs to do all those things and force the fight onto terrain where republicans think they have the upper hand with voters, and it starts, again, it is taxes, the obama record, parts of the obama record people don't like, and i believe it is the

theme he hit on the first 20 minutes or so in the first debate. 30 years of dysfunction in washington, and we need an outsider. john: if you can perform for 90 minutes as well as he did in the first 15 minutes in the first debate, he would have a chance to win. he would not necessarily when, but he would have a chance. the whole point of the debate is ultimately to win the election and the bottom line right now, as it has been for a long time, he is behind, so if he doesn't gain votes on sunday night or put himself in a position to win votes he can't even have, he loses the debate. mark: and the election, importantly. after a spat with alicia much the, the 4 -- machado, former miss universe, donald trump's history of comments about women is certain to be brought up sunday night by the moderators and audience members and/or hillary clinton. when trump got. a possibility to try out a possible line with a reporter in nevada last night -- watch the result. >> you have two beautiful daughters who are past their

teenage years, which can be awkward and confusing. do you understand the concern from parents of girls that some wording you use to talk about attractiveness or unattractiveness might make it more difficult for girls struggling with their body image and the pressure to be perfect? mr. trump: a lot of this is done in the entertainment business, being interviewed for apprentice long before i thought of running for office. a lot of that was done for the purpose of entertainment. you know, when people hear it, i can tell you this, there's nobody, nobody who has more respect for women than i do. >> are you trying to tone it down now, not use those -- mr. trump: it's not a question of trying. it's very easy. but you are in the entertainment business, you have one of the top shows on television, you say things differently for a reason, and now it is a much different world. mark, a lot of people are

somewhere between appalled, incredulous and doubled over in laughter in that response. is that really the best response donald trump as to why he talks the way he talks about women? mark: not a great answer. it would be a better answer it after becoming a presidential candidate he had not said a lot of things, including last week, that were offensive to people, so i think that, you know, he doesn't want to apologize, he doesn't want to say, i realize how offensive this was. the entire way he has handled the insulting comments he made last week has been reflective not of being an entertainer, but of being somebody who doesn't want to behave in the way that a lot of americans think not just their president, but anyone running for president should behave. john: really any man should behave. look, you have a situation where basically, if you listen to that answer, his answer was, i called women's pigs, slobs, dogs, for the purpose of entertainment. it's actually making the situation worse. if that's the path he wants to go, it was good for ratings, good because that was my persona, that's the path he wants to go down, it will make the situation worse for him

rather than ameliorating it in any way, because there's no one that i know, republican, democrat, old, young, rich, poor, there's no women i know who thinks that the stuff that he says like that qualifies as entertaining. mark: howard stern says stuff like that, and if you were running for governor of new jersey under the right circumstances, he might be able to win. but president of the united thing. different this is the kind of thing that trump says that if he had advisers around, able to influence him, presently he would not say. john: he may not want to apologize, but there's nothing he could do for himself that would be better politically than if you were to actually apologize on sunday night for those statements, and recognize that it is offensive to more than half the country and he wants to change. honest to god. i don't think this i -- there's a single thing that could do more good. john: we will talk with a couple reporters about how hillary clinton and donald, are preparing for the big sunday night showdown in st. louis. we will do that when we come back right after this.

♪ ♪ call in some backup from the nation's capital for the next block. phil rucker is in the post newsroom, and in our washington bureau, bloomberg's own margaret talev, senior white house correspondent covering the clinton campaign. thank you both for joining us. how has the clinton campaign approached sunday night's debate? margaret: several of us talked to robbie mook of the clinton campaign earlier today, and he emphasized they believe donald trump will come better prepared to the next debate then heated to the last, which is kind of a low bar, not surprising they think he would surpass that. they are also predicting, they

don't think he's going to go to the personal tax, presumably on -- personal attacks, presently on the clinton's past infidelities, which donald trump flirted with at the tail end of the last debate. they don't expect him to do that. i would be shocked if she weren't preparing for that anyway just in case. but for her the real challenges the different format, the town hall format. she's really strong when it comes to kind of, you know, i would say man-to-man combat, one-on-one combat in the traditional debate style. the venue where she's emotionally connecting with random strangers that she's never met is maybe a little tougher for her, something she will work on in the next few days. john: putting the question on the republican side, donald trump will clearly be doing more prep than last time. is he doing anything like what a normal presidential candidate would do in the face of a debate, a mock debate, building a set, stocking it with fake questioners? phil: so, yes and no. [laughter] he has refused to do a mock

debate. he feels like that kind of rehearsal, preparing script or dancers, is not for him -- scripted answers, is not for him. but he's doing a town hall meeting in new hampshire tonight, where i believe he will be with new jersey governor chris christie who has been taking the lead in preparing him for this town hall debate, and it will be a chance for him to work on how to interact with voters, body language issues, how to build a connection with people when they are asking him a question, and of course to talk about some of his answers. one of the things he's trying to work on better this time than the first debate is taking advantage of opportunities to hit hillary clinton. for example, if cyber security comes up, talk about her e-mails, and so forth, so we will see if it works. kent totorms like wars, have -- tend to have more tv stories than print stories. companies a lot of attention on this debate, needs to not only do well but needs a lot of

people to watch. sense, in your newsroom and news in general from thursday to sunday how much focus there will be on politics as opposed to the storm? phil: right now, we are really looking at the storm, and politics is taking a backseat, although sunday is three days away from now, so we will have to see. i think a lot will depend on what the impact, the devastation is in florida, in georgia. we will see. millions of people are being evacuated so clearly it is a big story, and it will be even bigger if there are casualties. mark: of course our hopes and thoughts are with all the people in florida and in the path of the storm, a huge storm and one where public officials are doing their best to try to prepare, but some things cannot be controlled by human beings. john: margaret, look at the politics of it, though. we talked about it a little earlier in the show. two battleground states in florida and north carolina that could be significantly affected by the storm. talk about the ways you think it could impact efforts on the ground game, efforts for early

vote, efforts to rally the base in both parties, etc. margaret: one thing that robby mook said earlier, they are expecting as many as 40% of votes altogether could be cast before election day, and the three states that he really emphasized were florida, north carolina, and nevada in terms of states that could be decided before election day. two of the states are directly in the path of the storm. so that becomes a very important proposition for the clinton campaign. we saw, the controversy over adm, halfway placing anv with the weather channel and and pulling it back. they are concerned with not being seen as politicizing the storm or interfering with public safety issues. it will certainly affect the continuity of turnout efforts, doorknocking efforts, that sort of thing, that the infrastructure of the campaign has built in. they say they are communicate indirectly with volunteers and staff in the states saying, your first priority is to heed, you

know, the instructions about evacuation and that sort of thing. but the intensity of the storm, what actually happens, how it affects people, will matter on a couple friends. number 1 -- fronts. number one, can people get home to vote? will they be concentrating on voting? but you know, another issue is the public response, both of republican governor in a republican state and the democratic president who remains popular. if minority areas are disproportionately affected by the storm, will that affect voting in african-american, hispanic areas both in terms of turnout and in belief and what a democratic administration could do versus a republican administration. finally, once the storm passes, certainly it would make sense to expect visits from both hillary clinton and donald trump in which the storm plays a role. will they visit affected sites, that sort of thing. how they do in that very real, delicate setting may also

matter, so the storm will have a huge impact potentially in a couple really important states. toward sundayad night, the first debate usually has the highest audience. do you get the sense between the storm and the fact it's the second debate, there is football on sunday, that people will be tuning in anything like the numbers of the first? phil: i can't imagine it will reach the numbers of the first. but i also think it will reach more people than the vice presidential debate, which had a fairly low viewership a couple nights ago, so somewhere in between. but as important as people watching the debate is people tuning in in 48 to 72 hours following, to the media narrative and the coverage, seeing some of the clips online, getting a sense of how trump performed, whether he improved, whether he scored points against hillary or not, so we will be watching. mark: i wonder if either of you have any reporting on this. the clinton campaign, following recent history, being super

aggressive on social media, surrogates, seem to outdo the trunk campaign to some extent. any idea if the rnc and trunk campaign are gearing up to be more competitive on winning the debate, after the debate? phil: i assume they are trying. one thing that is striking about the trump campaign, as prolific as donald trump is on twitter, his advisers really are not that active on twitter, not like the clinton campaign where there's an army of operatives and strategists constantly trying to drive a social media conversation. mark: i don't know if they don't realize it, or they are not political but reporters are heavily influenced by following twitter during the debates and the immediate aftermath. whether it matters as much as reporters think or not, it is certainly one place where the clinton campaign outdoes the trump campaign. phil: exactly right. john: margaret, last question for you. bill clinton, he came to the

first debate, first time he had been in the hole for -- hall for hillary clinton. do we expect him in st. louis, or is it less likely given his a formal care act comments? margaret: also, he was so good in his town hall debate, you wouldn't want to see the memory of him upstage the memory of her. it in the first debate really went down to the wire whether he would be in the room or watching from a hotel room, and the decision to put him out there really was made sort of in the last minute, so i think anything is possible, sort of a game they call on their part. mark: i would like to see him there. john: who doesn't like to see president clinton in the hall? -- phil: the handshake with melania. [laughter] john: we will talk about clinton, trump, how their big showdown will affect down ballot races, when we come back.

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john: there is reporting in the new york times today about a new republican sense of anxiety about donald trump's nude get in battleground and national -- new dip in that a crown and national polls, possibly triggering a mass panic in down ballot candidates causing them to break rank from "with all due respect -- from their nominee posthaste. if trump has a disastrous night in st. louis, how quickly will the gop freak out happened, what will it look like, and what will the indications be? mark: they will not just freak out because of a bad debate

performance, they will freak out if it leads to a further deterioration in the polls. a lot of republican oriented groups and campaigns have very bad numbers for trump, in some cases worse than the public data nationally in battleground states. if you distance yourself from trump and handle it badly, the press will write endless stories about the distancing, and you can create a situation where trump does even worse and drags you down further. if they have to distance themselves, they have to do it in an artful and delicate way, but i think it would be a very, very tough thing for the republicans to do. but if trump is down eight points nationally after this debate, i think you will see a ton of it. john: i mean, i think the debate, how he loses the debate, if you lost, the debate, how he loses matters a lot. if you lost narrowly, lost on substance, lost in a respectable way, i don't think the polls would collapse and you would not see the freak out. but if he has another performance like the first debate where he not only fails

on stage that spends a -- but spends a week making things worse, i think the freak at will be instantaneous. we see republican senate candidates all over the country, once who were doing well, who have done well by providing an example of how to artfully distance yourself from trump. rob portman has been keeping his distance. there's models for how to do it. mark: look at the national polls, state polls. if you have a contest of clinton 44, trump 41, and you have gary johnson, just nine, undecided -- stein andon -- jill undecideds. but if it ends up being 48-41, 48-40, the candidates will see that the trump floor is a danger. john: 1996 all over again. there was a moment when it was explicit in 1996 that people realized bob dole was cooked and it was over, three weeks out,

and the republican party basically got up and said, all clear, everyone just abandon bob dole and figure out how to do it, but get away from that. mark: but the difference between bob dole in 1996 and george herbert walker bush in 1990 when they were distancing from him was, dole and bush, former national party chairs, they got the joke and they knew you could not lash back, but trump i presume will lash back. john: when we come back, the former campaign manager of ted cruz, jeff roe, will join us along with democratic strategist steve mcmahon, but first these potent words from our sponsors. ♪

♪ ♪ if we had a countdown clock, we would have one up now, because just days left before

the next presidential debate. joining us from houston, jeff roe, former campaign manager of ted cruz, and from the city of angels, steve mcmahon, cofounder of purple strategies. we haven't talked to either of you in a wild. jeff, what is the state of the presidential race as you see it? jeff: trump is down a bit, and it is setting up a super bowl of sorts for sunday. to realign the race, it is important, because of the storm, the other news, the waning days, the early votes coming in in key states, it is critical to reset the narrative. if you remember going into the first debate, trump had momentum, he was on a tear, he was putting states that were seemingly out of reach in play, and that change to sunday night. it slid back, and more resembles how we went into the conventions. it makes sunday very critical. but to be clear, some outlier polls show some trump hanging tough nationally but most

never seem to have a margin of victory advantage for clinton. mark: trump put himself in the current hole from a bad debate performance. can you dig out with a good one? steve: that's a good question. structurally, this race has always been about a three or four point advantage to the democrat, just because of the electoral college and partisanship in the country, but what you see in the last week, as trump has become trump again, he has begun to slide backward. you look at the battleground states, the states where he looked like he might have a chance to win a couple weeks ago, he now looks like he's falling behind. states like colorado, new hampshire, some of the others that, nevada, that he really desperately needs to win. even in ohio there was a poll yesterday showing hillary clinton ahead for the first time in some time, so he's losing ground in florida and virginia, in the states he must have. losing ground in states republicans have never been successful unless they have won, like ohio, and it's getting very

late in the game for him to turn it around. being desperate, angry, lashing out is exactly the wrong strategy for him, which is i predict what we will see on sunday night. john: just think about the town hall format. we talk about this around the office a lot. it's not obvious if either one of them is demonstrably better in this setting. who do you think, when you think,, trump is more of a showman, she has more experience debating, who does the format favor? steve: actually, this will not surprising because i'm a democrat, but i believe hillary clinton is probably more natural in this formats, because they are more like how democrats have to campaign for president, running for senate, for instance. donald trump throughout his campaign has mostly been big rallies, standing behind the podium, screaming insults that people, and he's not walking around the crowd interacting with real voters. for hillary it is a more natural setting. donald trump is a showman so he will obviously be a good performer. but for her, it doesn't take a performance, it is just who she

is how she has campaigned. mark: you were running ted cruz's campaign and he spent a lot of time watching your guy on the debate stage with donald trump. make a case for why steve is wrong in this is more favorable for donald trump? jeff: i would actually agree with him. [laughter] this is why i think. john: thanks a lot, buddy. [laughter] jeff: 25,000 people -- this is where i believe steve has it wrong. he has the opportunity to showcase a part of himself he has never done before. in that sense, the expectations, if you see this guy who is red-faced, yelling, getting people whipped up, 25,000 people, 50 foot flag, presidential look, and then you see in his advertising even of late where he's kissing a child on the cheek at the end of one of the commercials, this is an opportunity, i believe he walks in structurally at a disadvantage from the way he has campaigned versus how hillary has campaigned, but i think the

sky is the limit for donald. if he comes out and is a motive, connects,- emotive, a real that could be opportunity. john:john: so he should avoid taking any babies out of the room? jeff: at least for one night. mark: you guys have done a lot of races. i want to talk about one which has not gotten enough attention, the ohio senate. jeff, what lessons are there for the real candidates running this year, with portman running way ahead of trump in ohio, putting away a race people thought would be close? incumbente is this dilemma they have when they have a candidate who is running against them. how long do you ignore them and just kind of act like nothing's going on in your race, everything is fine, versus when do you engage them? that goes on in every campaign. what the portman campaign did

well and what incumbents routinely do poorly is engaged immediately. they accept they are in a tough race, they accept they are in a presidential swing state, in a battleground year, and they went after it early and often. and i think that's one of the lessons. incomeincumbent -- as an that you want to have invincibility, don't want to show vulnerability to your opponent. it's actually difficult to take a race seriously, show you are worried and could be defeated, and engage a campaign structurally from the very beginning. he did that and was a master at it. it didn't hurt he had a poor challenger, but he put the race away, and can you believe we are talking about the dscc pulling out of critical battleground states they should always be in at this point in the race? john: today we got news from the publishing world. donald trump's paperback is out. the hardcover version was called "crippled america," and the new

version is called "great again, how to fix our crippled america." do you think that was a will handled piece of shifting, a little switcheroo? what is the lesson that he has decided to go that way? steve: here's what i take from it. kellyanne conway is firmly in control. somebody must have explained to donald trump that the negative, angry, vitriolic people don't get elected president. the american people typically, whether it is a democrat or republican, they tend to be drawn to somebody who is offering a positive, aspirational vision for the future, that takes america to a better place, where we all benefit, where we all work together, where we all kind of strife together -- strive together. you can see it in hillary's slogan, stronger together. that is an embodiment of this idea. donald trump finally figured out that the election is about the future, and about a better future, and that's what people want, even his most ardent supporters desperately want a better america, and i think he

probably made that little switch in time for the paperback so he could sell more copies and perhaps position himself a little better to actually be that kind of leader. john: do we have that book cover? mark: they were up. john: i like the different faces. that's the best part. mark: gentlemen, thank you so much. coming up, we talk more about donald trump's town hall in new hampshire and how hillary clinton is preparing for sunday's debate. if you are watching in washington, you can listen everyday on the radio. bloomberg 99.1 fm. we will be right back. ♪

♪ at this hour, the north carolina governor cap mccrory

has ordered a state of emergency for all counties in the path of hurricane matthew. a little storm news. we have other news, that donald trump is in new hampshire getting ready for the townhall meeting we talked about. that event will undoubtedly be scrutinized for clues as to how he's comparing for the second debate this sunday. bc -- nbc now is in correspondent kelly o'donnell, covering trump in new hampshire. and once again the great correspondent kasie hunt. kelly, why sandown? kelly: in part, this is a republican area, so that will bring about a friendly crowd, a crown that will ask questions. a conversation with howie carr, the conservative boston radio host, as moderator. the other part, governor chris christie held his very first town hall of his presidential run at this first place just hours after running into the

race in 2015, so he has already done the run through here and he will be joining donald trump tonight. this is familiar turf. invitation only, which we have seen has bristled some of the feelings in the area, but there will be about 150 guests, and this will be a real time, see it for yourself, dresser herself for sunday night, the kind of debate prep trump advisors say the candidate wants to do, where he is taking some questions, where he can try some things out, where he gets a little more experience with this format. they say he loves this format, but we all know from watching him that his big rally, that is his most energetic, in the zone place for donald trump to be. this will be good practice. until he also has other times set aside between now and sunday to do more work. but it's interesting to see a candidate who is pretty candid about the fact that we are getting to see the debate prep, instead of it being holed in a

hotel working with advisers, that kind of thing. it will be interesting to watch. people like the protectable, but at the same time, don't worry about what you can't control. how is the clinton campaign doing with the storm? kasie: people like the protectable, robby mook was on e phone today with reporters, talking about both their early voter registration efforts and the storm a little bit. he says they hope they extend the photo registration deadline in florida. mark: which is tuesday as of now. kasie: and they are doing with this small flap over ads placed on the weather channel, which they are now asking to have those delayed until the storm passes. i think, look, this is a real, i don't think we want to get too much into that, i know you talked about it a little at the beginning of the show, but too much into the politics of it before we understand the ramifications for people of the state. but clearly depending on the impact, so close to election day, it could really impact, in a state that was one of the most

closely decided in 2012, expected to be close this time, anything could really happen. mark: none of us know. john and i debated at the beginning of the show, does their superior ground game mean that in the tougher terrain of trying to get people to turn utterly, absentee, in a storm, do they thrive in the tougher terrain, or is their advantage wiped out because of the tougher terrain, people moved around by the storm, it mitigates their advantage? kasie: one of the greatest challenges for the clinton campaign here is the unpredictability of the trump side. to a certain extent, they don't know what they are running against, so anything making this more unpredictable, i think that will up the level of stress for the clinton campaign, and this is yet another thing that makes florida more unpredictable and difficult to grapple with. i do think they believe that the trunk campaign, if they -- trump campaign, if they have a ground game anywhere, they have a ground game in florida. they have more stuff down there in recent days, now dealing with

trying to re-house them in light of the storm. but i don't think it necessarily helps. john: let me ask you about florida and trump, kelly. this is his adopted second-home, a place where he spends a lot of time, for he also owns an incredibly opulent resoryt, mar-a-lago, which is on the beachfront. what challenges does this present to trump, and how are people preparing for that and thinking about it? kelly: it is complex, for that very reason. he has a business in the eye of the storm. we don't typically see that. so far, we has to be more traditional response with the tweet where he is wishing people will and urging them to be safe, a more lengthy statement, but talking to advisors they say, we just don't know what we are doing with yet in how this will affect the campaign, the public events, and so forth. for donald trump there is a real, ongoing impact with the property he owns, the employees he has, and that is something

that can, on the one hand, give him a more vested stake in talking about florida, which he does refer to frequently as his second home, it puts him in the middle of that. but it also means he will be judged for how he handles it as a boss, as a person who was big in the community, are they taking the right steps, are they following the rules, and are they working in conjunction with governor rick scott, who has been of course supportive of trump? it puts donald trump in a situation where we have not seen him very often. that is, a true national emergency where he has to make judgments, not only as a candidate but as someone who has a real invested interest in the state where this is going to be felt. so, that is a new way for us to assess how donald trump handles an emergency. does he have the right tone? does he do the right things? does he set an example. that will be interesting over the next 48 hours. of course, separate from the real human life aspects, the

political calculation is something he has to tread carefully, and advisers i talked to say they are not entirely sure how to handle it best, because we don't know the scope of what will happen. john: so the clinton campaign will be watching donald trump here in new hampshire, watching very carefully, i'm sure. do you have a sense of what they think about this, as a way of preparing for the debates? -- they do it in a much more structured and rigorous way. they look at this and say what? kelly: we talked about this a little yesterday. she has been doing town hall events as well, which she doesn't always do. kasie: to a certain extent, there is value in putting the candidate in the physical space they will be in, and the only way you can really do that in a real ways to do what he's doing in new hampshire. kasie:that said -- mark: in trump's case it is the only way to do it at all because he will not do a rehearsal. kasie: that's exactly what i was going to say. she's going to do the actual town hall and also spent two

days mocking this up. they have not done mock debates yet, but our understanding of what they are doing later today, tomorrow, saturday, with of course the same person playing trump again. i think the question is, is trump going to be willing to do, as you say, the prep that at least his advisers things he needs to? hunt in this chair. kelly o, come back soon. thank you for being here. up next, we will talk with one of florida's top political strategists about the hurricane and more, right after this. ♪

♪ ♪ all eyes tonight are on

florida and the approach of hurricane matthew. president obama had phone calls today with the governors of florida and georgia and south carolina and north carolina. this is a storm that of course could have a lot of implications in the general election, including in the battleground state of florida, with the election 33 days away. in person early voting. in florida starts october 24th. joining us is somebody who knows all this quite well, former assistant secretary of state, longtime republican strategist, and one of the smartest people we know, rich heffley. florida, as we were talking about during the break, tons of people vote absentee, vote early, vote on election day, three separate ways of voting. talk about how the storm will impact early voting, absentee elections? rich: elections? rich: essentially we have three

elections. back in the 1980 election, only 11% of the vote happened before election day, and now a majority of the vote happens before election day, and it is time shifted around a little. you have the absentees, overseas when at last week, in-state started going out tuesday. we are supposed to finish tomorrow. voting, as you mentioned, starts the, 24th. that has changed and time shifted. it used to be, republicans had a great advantage in winning absentee ballots, and the democrats have caught up and that's basically even. early voting, everyone thought when that happened that would be a big advantage to the democrats, and that has essentially drawn even. and on election day, that is really still, even though it is less than a majority of the vote, is key because in the gubernatorial elections the publicans won on election day, and in the presidentials they have lost, and we have lost presidential's and -- won presidentials and lost gubernatorial's. john: what has changed since 2012 that makes florida more hospitable for donald trump than the last two republican nominees? rich: you have a lot more voters

voting in the presidential preference primary on the democratic side. . we have gained in registration since the last presidential election, we being republicans. we have never been in the majority, in a close registration state, but it has gotten better. between the intensity, registration, and the political environment, you have all republican statewide elected officials with the exception of bill nelson for u.s. senate. you are watching rick scott do an extraordinary job with this hurricane. he did a great job with the last one, did a great job with the pulse. , rick scott in many ways is a trump model. hope and pray all the storm does not cause a lot of devastation and rick scott continues to be as aggressive as he was today handling it, is he a potent political force in the state? if he's more energized for trump, does that make a difference?

rich: absolutely. there have only been two republican governors reelected in florida, rick scott and jeb bush. so he is a potent political force. he is the governor. he has all the tools of the governor's mentioned, and has really know been catching stride. if you watched him with the pulse, with the hurricanes his business background and leadership have benefited the citizens of florida. mark: clinton's campaign manager said they wanted to extend the deadline in florida to register to vote passed tuesday -- past tuesday. our republicans likely to go with that? rich: i don't think so. it will be litigated, we will go to court. it's florida. we can all see that part. but the fact of the matter is, if they were not prepared for this and now they say that four days out you need to extend because the storm is heading south florida, i think that is kind of thin soup, but we want

anybody to have the right to vote if that's what it takes. mark: thanks for coming in. welcome to new york city. we will be right back. ♪

♪ ♪ >> this is ted cruz calling. i was calling to encourage you to come out and vote on election day. this election is critical to the direction of our country, and i urge you to come out and support freedom, the constitution, the bill of rights. you can vote by absentee ballot. if you need help getting applications for a absentee ballot, the republican party of texas can help you with that. thank you, and god bless you. fired up and ready to go.

that was ted cruz working at a rnc phone bank in texas. cruz did not mention his former rival donald trump on the call, but still didn't seem like he was really loving it. [laughter] john: remember one time we talked about having custom emojis, and one would be the sad octopus? that is the sad octopus right there, ted cruz as sad octopus. [laughter] up, emily chang vp ofown with xiamomi's global operations and sling's ceo. thanks for watching. we will see you tomorrow. sayonara. [laughter] ♪

mark: i'm mark crumpton, you're watching "bloomberg technology." let's begin with news. hurricane matthew is battering

the east coast. more than two million residents have been warned to evacuate. after reaching areas cut off by the storm, haitian officials have dramatically increased the numb of fatalities. 8 people now confirmed dead. the previous number was 23. russia has issued a warning to the u.s. against attacking forces allied with the syrian government. it's the latest sign of escalating tensions between moscow and washington. the kremlin said strikes targeting government controlled territories are a direct threat against russian december ployed in the area. by consensus, the united nations security council today formally nominated an tan tone -- antonio gutierrez to be the next secretary general he spent 10 years as u.n. high commissioner for refugees he said he wants to serve the most vulnerable. >> conflict and terrorism, the victims of the violation of rights, the victims of poverty