>> i'm jennifer jacobs. mark: with all due respect to the russians, the chinese, wikileaks, and north america, the danger this whole time was carlos slim? ♪ sturgill: -- already unprecedented week in presidential politics reached new heights. two more women allege that donald trump sexually assaulted them years ago. "the washington post" published an account from a woman named kristin anderson claiming trump groped her at a new york nightclub decades ago.

she explained her decision to come forward after the hollywood access video emerged. >> i was just like, wow. that explains it. that explains what happened to me. in the early 1990's, i was in new york city and in a club with my friends. i am very clear on this. this is the vivid part for me. so, the person on my right, who unbeknownst to me at that time was donald trump, put their hands up my skirt. he did touch my vagina through my underwear, absolutely. and as i pushed the hand away, i got up and turned around and i see these eyebrows, very distinct eyebrows of donald trump. and i got up and i moved and i continued to talk with my friends. and they said that is donald , trump. i was like, ew.

he is gross. he just put his hand up my skirt. that is not ok. we all sort of brushed it off and moved on. mark: after that, another woman named summer zervos, who was a contestant on "the apprentice," held a news conference. along with her high profile attorney. she said trump made sexually aggressive advances on her in 2007. here is how she recalled the counter -- encounter. she said trump started kissing her without her consent. >> i pushed his chest to put space between us and i said come on, man, get real. he repeated my words back to me, get real, as he began to thrust his genitals. mark: trump continues to strongly deny the accusations of predatory behavior levied against him by an array of women. he did so today in a rally in greensboro, north carolina. right now i am , being viciously attacked with

lies and smears. it is a phony deal. i have no idea who these women are. i have no idea. when you looked at that horrible woman last night, you said, i don't think so. eyewitnesses already debunked the "people" magazine story. she is a liar. she is writing a story. check out her facebook page. you will understand. no witnesses, no backup, no anything else. somebody makes an accusation that you did something and you were not there. you never saw this person. it is a total lie. fabrication. sometimes they do it for fame, maybe to get money. who knows. i was with donald trump in 1980. i was sitting with him on an airplane and he went after me on the plane. yeah, i'm going to go after you. believe me, she would not be my first choice. that i can tell you. obama is an incompetent . he is an incompetent president.

he is talking about me like he knows me. i don't know him, he doesn't know me. and why doesn't some woman say what they and say falsely about me, they could say about him? mark: even if there are no new accusers, this story is not going away. a suggestion from mike pence is evidence undermining allegations , would be forthcoming. none has materialized. and trump said nothing today backing up this is a conspiracy, that the women are getting paid in any way, or that it is undermining aspects of their story. sitting in with me today is jennifer jacobs. jennifer, as we sit here today, the trump campaign has not offered anything specific that would undermine any accounts. where does the campaign stand in dealing with this issue? jennifer: all we have is donald

trump's word. he went aggressively after this. he had the battery of arguments. they are after fame, they are after money. he basically said these women are too unattractive for him to make sexual advances on. he just adamantly denied this and i think that is enough to for his supporters. they are willing to believe him. they trust him. and as far as further proof coming, you think they would want to put it out quickly. mark: mike pence is a careful guy. the only way they could have proof undermining the whole thing is if they found a clinton memo scripting it. i doubt that. no one has any connection between these women and politics , except for the fact some of them are saying they are hillary clinton supporters, not all. mike pence suggested there is evidence they will put out but now there are two new accusers , and of course the woman from "the apprentice" is someone he does know. so the notion that these

accusers are new to him, he will need to confront that. so what is your sense on how the campaign deals with this now? do they know the facts? do they try to get the facts or do you think they will parrot that? jennifer: i think they will parrot that. they have no other choice but to keep denying. mark: the other thing that fascinates me is, trump said my campaign does not want me to talk about it, but i will talk about it. if he did not talk about it, if he did not lash out, and we saw this with the cons, we sought -- saw this with the judge, we saw it with other people, he is driving the story. i don't doubt these new accusers would get attention in the press. and we should say that donald trump is entitled to the presumption of innocence, but these people are making credible claims with no obvious motive, many of whom have told people contemporaneously. their accounts will get attention, but they will get a

lot more attention not just , today, but into the weekend, because he responded. jennifer: i cannot underscore enough how much his supporters this trust -- do not trust the mainstream media. as reporters were coming into cincinnati last night, they were booed tremendously. it does not help with the wikileaks dump. mark: i talked to people at a trump event in lakeland. you and i were both covering it. some women had a combination of saying these people are lying or i don't care what he did. that is what men do. you know. i agree it's hard-core supporters. number one, he needs more than those supporters to win. two, i don't need polling numbers to know that some people are turned off by this. that there were some people who were thinking of voting for him, that will not now. in addition, the way he is handling this, disparaging the women, i've never seen anything like this in my career in politics.

to go out and knowingly, he clearly thinks in advance how he will handle it. jennifer: i interviewed republican women and asked them. they said they are tired. they said, we do not want to hear anything more about it. we want to move on. we're voting for the supreme court. we're voting for the gop platform. this is the man the party gave us. so we will still vote for him, even though yes, this is disgusting. we don't want to hear about it anymore. mark: i will say again, it is the case. let's say that one of these people turn out to have made up one of their stories. most of these people come across as people who don't have an ax to grind. they don't come across as eager to do this. to the contrary. and he is yet to have done anything. yet to have done anything to undermine their arguments. another part of donald trump's

plan to fight against these allegations is to continue attack "the new york times." they published one of the first stories. two women came forward on wednesday. today at that rally in north carolina, trump leveled a new attack claiming there is a role for a mexican billionaire carlos slim, who is a major shareholder to the new york times and a major donor to the clintons. >> no paper is more corrupt than the failing new york times. they are really bad people. the largest shareholder is carlos slim. now, carlos slim come as you know, comes from mexico. he has given millions of dollars to the clintons and their initiatives. carlos slim, largest owner of the paper from mexico. reporters at the "new york times," they are not journalists. they are corporate lobbyists for carlos slim and the clintons.

we're going to let foreign corporations and their ceos outcomes -- you cannot do this. mark: the times have dismissed trump's attack. again today, a spokesperson for slim says he does not get involved in politics in the united states or anywhere else. jennifer, we are fairly skeptical of how he is handling the attacks on the women themselves. how is this likely to play? jennifer: i guess it is more surprising that he did not bring up carlos slim earlier. it fits well into his theme of spirits the -- conspiracy theories and people are out to get him. mark: and a dangerous mexican trying to ruin the united states. jennifer: he has a lot of cartoon or real villains, the international elite. the clinton campaign and the media. it fits into his narrative of this whole people. he brought up this idea,

reviving the whole rigged election theme. he is very much trying to deflect. if he does not win this race he will blame so many people. it is already beginning. mark: this comes if not right dashed himself, this is right out of breitbart. there is no better way to rile people. and this argument is at least a little bit safer. safer than attacking the women as far as i am concerned. but there is that old saying, don't attack people who buy ink by the barrel. i don't think the "new york times" is cheerleading for trump. reporters will rally behind it. and it is the case, i know he thinks it is unfair, but it is the case that the press is cheering for hillary clinton for the most part and that will exacerbate that. it will make it harder for him to get favorable news coverage. jennifer: do you think his supporters know who these people are? he is not good at explaining.

mark: he does not explain it, not just to the people in the room but the soundbite on tv. he does not quite encapsulate it. ok let's go to one week ago. , that is when trump's access hollywood video tape came out. and at that point, many republicans started to abandon trump saying he should not be the nominee or they were not going to support him anymore. flashforward, some of the defectors from last weekend refected. and despite the allegations against donald trump this week, some gop officials have been halted. speaker ryan, paul ryan, who did in the wake of the debate criticize trump and say he was no longer going to campaign for him or work for him, gave a major speech in wisconsin but he did not mention donald trump. he talked about policy. so as the week ends, where does trump stand vis-a-vis his republican party? jennifer: he has gone full

circle back to the beginning of the campaign, where he is being rejected and disavowed by so many in the leadership. and i talked to campaign aides. they do not care. mark: they do not. jennifer: they have no concern about this whatsoever. they have dealt with naysayers. they told me they have heard this over and over again, that donald trump has no chance. they have heard the same criticisms over and over again. and they just disregard it. mark: some donors have abandoned the republican national committee because they are horrified about what happened this week, but he does not need that money. he will not win based on outspending hillary clinton. the rnc itself is still for him and i think, the fact that a handful unendorsed him over the week. and as the allegations came out,

people still reendorsed him. i do not know a single republican in the wake of these charges who said i'm throwing my support, they are cowed. a few heard from their constituents. a lot of them are said to have regretted it. and in fact, some of them publicly made it clear that they regretted it. he has the party afraid to cross him. in some ways he can beat them up and they will say can i please have another? because he is still the biggest force in republican politics. jennifer: we are not hearing that any major donors have asked for their money back. some of these donors have not donated for at least an election cycle. but we do not hear anybody saying, this has discussed at us. the trump campaign says we are waiting to see whether these next few weeks play out. mark: i don't know if anyone knows how the next allegations will play. but it is going to continue. taking a break now. when we come back, hillary clinton is warning voters not to take donald trump's bad week to

mean that the race is over. we will talk about her campaign and more, after these words from sponsors. ♪

♪ mark: as donald trump continues to fight accusations of sexual assault, hillary clinton has been laying low. she has no events scheduled between now and the final presidential debate in las vegas. instead, she has been dispatching some high-profile democrats on her behalf. president obama took the stage in cleveland where he took on donald trump pretty directly. hillary clinton did one interview today, not with a

journalist, but with ellen degeneres. she encouraged voters not to count donald trump down and out. >> obviously, there is a lot that is coming out which is distressing on many levels, but i don't one anybody to think this election is over because it has been so unpredictable up till now that i am not taking anything for granted. we have to work really hard for the next three and a half weeks because who knows what can happen. everybody who is watching and everyone who has followed the election, please turn out and , vote. mark: it is not just hillary clinton. her surrogates don't want to go out. their only two stories the media is interested in, wikileaks and donald trump. the clinton plan paying -- campaign does not want to play into any of those. they are staying out of it completely for the foreseeable future. jennifer: trump is filling that void beautifully. people argue that clinton is not great about defending herself on controversial questions. so she is deflecting this.

but one of the risks of not doing interviews right now is that she is maybe building up some pent-up a manned that will -- demand that will have to be released during the debate. mark: chris watts is going to have to ask her. she can spend that time preparing. she loves to prepare. she does not need to be on the trail. the obama's have done terrific jobs as surrogates. she can raise money and prepare for the debate and not have to worry about doing big rallies that are a strain on the schedule. they are going to stay out of this. you will not see a lot of clinton surrogates out and about. they are happy to leave the field right now to donald j. trump. we will talk to the lawyer of one woman who accused donald trump of grabbing her two decades ago. we will be right back. ♪

♪ mark: joining us is an attorney whose client sued donald trump back in 1997. she is now the daughter of gloria --, representing a new accuser that came out today. lisa bloom joins us. thank you for joining us. i am wondering how you feel about the way donald trump is handling these allegations and the way he is speaking about these women and if your client has a thought about that. lisa: my client jill hart was , the bravest one of all because she was the first one to come out using her face and name three months ago and the mainstream media essentially ignored the story. i wrote a piece for the huffington post that went viral and got over one million likes and no one really wanted to talk about sexual assault allegations against donald trump. my client filed a case against him back in 1997.

to those of you say why didn't they do something at the time, jill hart did. and she felt vindicated by the tape where he brags about sexual assault and she and i appreciate all of the women that are coming forward now and speaking out. mark: one of the factors in this case is people are going to say are there mitigating things that might undermine their story? your client, after the alleged events, went on to date donald trump. is that kind of factor, do you think, something that donald trump could point to in the case of these other women? in other words, other factors that could undermine their story? lisa: this is a story that spans 24 years. and so it is hard to tell in a brief segment. but she was sexually harassed in 1992 and 1993. she has a corroborating witness , a man that is not her ex-husband, who recalls it all

and has told us that she told them about it at the time. she filed a case in 1994. and in that case went on. jill hart added her sexual harassment claim in 1997. trump then came to the bargaining table three weeks later and settled both of them. a year later, donald trump said he wanted to invite them to his bygones be bygones and they were surprised. and guess what? donald trump behaved very nicely. it was very appropriate. she and her husband said let's go forward. and then for 19 years, they had a cordial relationship. and that is the way it was. she said i am a christian and i for gave him. when she and her husband got divorced and donald trump invited her to a party, she went to the party. it was a very brief dating thing. and she said it was very , disappointing and not for her. jennifer: talk to us a little bit about statutes of

limitation. would you have any expectations in these other cases that local prosecutors would bring forth charges and how would that affect donald trump if they did? lisa: we learned from the bill cosby case, i represent one of those accusers as well, but we have learned that the statutes of limitations are very, very short. the time that most women come forward is many years later. i have another woman who i am speaking to who is also a trump accuser that was also more than 20 years ago. there is no criminal statute of limitations that is going to help her. there is no civil statute of limitations. i don't know any accusers who want to sue donald trump now. they seem to be motivated now to come forward because he said to anderson cooper in the last debate that he had not groped anyone. and for many women that is the , breaking point. they're calling me and saying now it is time to speak out. jennifer: what is the calculus for some of the women to? -- for the women that are

hesitant to come forward, what publicg to help them go at this point? lisa: fear. most sexual assault victims are afraid to confront their perpetrator in general. and add onto that, this is a wealthy man that lashes out at people who speak against him. he has millions of followers, some of whom have been violent to those that oppose -- oppose him. people don't want to be in the media glare. they just want to live their lives. i have spent hours and hours talking to women over the last week who are really scared and i have to tell them these things could happen to you. you will be vilified on social media. can you handle that? and on the other hand once you , walk through the fire, you can feel very empowered. and to all of the victims i represent in high profile cases, they stand taller afterwards. they feel very good about speaking their truth. what doesn't kill you makes you stronger. mark: i take your point about this being a limited segment. less than 30 seconds to go. i appreciate you coming on. i just want to ask how you feel

about how trump is fighting back. lisa: i think it is shameful. he is not addressing any of them. this is a man who confessed on tape who bragged about sexual assault. why doesn't he come clean and apologize to people? mark: ok. lisa bloom, thank you very much. appreciate having you on. when we come back, we will talk more about the latest allegations against donald trump. we talked to a political analyst who has handled his share of tough situations. and see what he says. and what they might do differently in the coming days. more on that and what is going on on the trump trail after this. ♪

♪ mark: welcome back. joining us now, former campaign

manager for ted cruz, a veteran of a lot of presidential and other campaigns. he is out in houston, texas. jeff, welcome. i want to talk about the human aspects of this as well as the sort of the inside politics of it. say you're the campaign manager for donald trump and an accusation comes up and he says, jeff, this thing is just false. are you comfortable without knowing whether it's true or full's setting then to your --kes people and surrogates false saying then to your spokes people, everybody go out and say it's false? or would you want to figure out for yourself whether it was true or false? jeff: i would probably pull him into a dark room and have a real serious conversation. but that's all you have to go by. you can only take a word and after being in a campaign for a couple years together you really know if they are shading the truth or not. that is really all you have to go by. i would have a very serious, private conversation, and let them know if this isn't exactly the truth that we can't be caught so let's defend what we , can defend and not go any

further than that. mark: i want to get you on the record on two things just as our conversation continues so the viewers know where you stand. first of all, are you supporting mr. trump for president? jeff: i am. mark: okay. i'm sure you're familiar with at least some of the allegations and some of the accounts these women have given. do you find them credible, not credible, or don't know? >> i think they're credible enough that they need to be handled, pivoted, and get away from them. when you wake up in a presidential campaign every day you get to decide what your message is. you don't get to decide what the press will cover. you don't get to decide what your opponent says of course. you do get to decide what you're going to say that day. and for them to spend so much time really, i mean they need to handle the "access hollywood" -- i frankly the debate gave them an opportunity to do so. he had not had a real public statement outside the hostage video, not had a chance to really address that until the debate, so he got to tell 80 million people all at once his answer and that was fine. these allegations you need to

pivot and get back. we have 76% of the people in the country that want change. hillary represents change. and for them to spend day after day after day, not necessarily them as much as him, the principal, to continue to litigate this in front of millions of people as people are actually voting, he is a vessel for the party at this point whether anyone likes it or not. for him to spend that much time litigating these criticisms and charges is not the right way to go. he needs to address it and pivot and get to his message, which actually frankly is a winning message. jennifer: jeff, what do you make of some of the vulgar things we're seeing at some of the trump campaigns, women wearing t-shirts that say, trump talks dirty to me or trump grabbed me here with an arrow pointed down to between their legs. but also not just about this particular topic but just using various explicit phrases in speech and talking to the press, yelling at the press, on t-shirts and signs.

what do you make of the whole idea of them really using this vulgar language? jeff: it's rough stuff to be sure. you don't control everybody at your rallies, but it's disappointing to see. i think it's because the topics have gotten so disappointing to see. and because they believe, let's put yourself in mr. trump's shoes for a second and his supporters' shoes. if this isn't true, imagine how angry you would be. if there is absolutely no shred of any truth to this, imagine the anger you would have. so to a certain point they're getting whipped up and it's for sure a little bit out of control. but he's got a motivation among some folks who have not been participants in the political process before. they've never been to a rally. some have never even voted before or infrequently vote at least. you're seeing a lot of passions that run very high. right now in this moment somewhere in this country somebody is probably getting pushed or shoved or hit in a debate over who they're going to vote for in this campaign. i was just in an event not long ago where we were sitting around a bon fire, a wonderful scene. two people had no idea about

each other. both talking about the presidential, in their own little groups, and the guy reached over to the lady and said you're a bigot for supporting donald trump. inflamed tensions and alcohol was involved, but people are whipped up. that is the way presidential campaigns get. i think we're seeing it on a new scale now. mark: let's get back to how the campaign is handling it. say your donald trump campaign manager and he says the allegations are false. we need to undermine the accounts. what do you do? do you have your opposition research department look in their background, hire private detectives, what do you do to try to undermine their accounts, their credibility if that is what donald trump seems to want to do? jeff: they have a secret weapon. maybe not so secret weapon. but they have his wife. they have his daughter. they have tiffany his daughter. in a way they even have his son. during the republican convention, that was -- what i took away from that convention and what actually hillary, i think mistakenly so, when they said say one good thing about each other, when she talked

about what role model he was for his kids. let's take that. use that. i don't think you can -- i think you have to pivot optically. mark: i understand. maybe they will come out though so far most of the public comments they've made haven't been particularly helpful. i'm asking about the claim mike pence made this morning that donald trump made yesterday that they're going to have information that undermines the accounts of some of the accusers. if donald trump wants that information how do you get it at , this point in the campaign? private detectives? google? can, i mean, you can but i don't think that's what you would do. you would certainly spend a little bit of time doing that just to see if they're on the payroll or have a history of doing this. you'd want to know immediately. so walk through the technical process when that happens. like for instance, when it was , discovered that ted cruz's father, you know, participated in the jfk assassination you spend a little time to see where he was at that period of time. you absolutely need to know all the facts of the campaign not just through the principal's eyes. then if there is something

aggressively apparent that you can use to dispute this then you , use it. they weren't in the same area. if he actually wasn't on the flight, let's take the facts. if it's he said/she said you get away from it and handle it optically. you address it. you make a statement or a press statement. it doesn't have to be on camera. but you then get away from it. that's why i think they are mishandling it. mark: i want to be sure we're not leaving a little news here on the floor. were you just saying when the allegation was raised that ted cruz's father might have been involved in kennedy's assassination you looked into it , to make sure it wasn't true? jeff: oh, sure. i called rafael and see if he knew lee harvey oswald. you figure out what the truths are. mark: what did he say when you asked him? jeff: we can't discuss that on open air. no. so he said no. but you have a team of people, research folks in a presidential campaign that they are rapid , response and they're paying attention and get it to the research department and the research department spends some time doing it. the campaign manager is typically in a very aggressive

tone trying to get the information. when it is done, you settle on a course of action and you move. you don't let this define the candidacy. mark: right. jennifer: jeff, do you think it is a good idea for hillary clinton to be laying low and not having any events until the debate? jeff: this prevent defense she has conducted since i guess ahn event i think is , a real mistake. you can't beat somebody for president in july and august. the fact that donald trump is having more events per day and more rallies than their entire ticket has in a day, i feel is mistaken. you want to have at this everybody drops the presence of point, trying to reach across the aisle. we are a little over three weeks out. you now need to be motivated. you can actually increase, the data we have, this is peer reviewed academic research, shows you can get two points out of a visit.

that's why we travel in a presidential campaign. you can get up to four points depending on how the local press coverage goes and how directly you engage them. and so for her to be off the field, i think they have this idea that when you're -- when your opponent is slitting his throat, don't take away the knife. i think that's their approach. i think it's a mistake. she needs energy. she needs excitement. she needs passion. and they just don't have it during i don't understand, i mean i'm happy for it but i , don't understand the prevent defense they've put on for so many months and i don't know if it's because they don't want to talk about wikileaks or don't have anything to say. there could be those two things. the way they're conducting a campaign is not a way to put a candidate away in a week they just had. she should be everywhere this week pressing the case. not just using surrogates and mrs. obama did a great job yesterday pressing the case. but he's become a candidate. that is a rallying cry for her own voters. mark: jeff, thanks so much for

joining us. we'll have you back again soon. appreciate it. we're going to talk about the republican party's chances on the down ballot races in november when we come back right after this. ♪

♪ mark: we are joined now by our bloomberg politics reporter. he has a story up on our website now. the headline of the piece, even if clinton defeats trump by a wide margin the house and senate may not change hands. a lot of democrats are trying to argue otherwise. in fact, if you look at all the polling data and the body language of democrats, the house still looks pretty safe and the senate is an open question. >> that is absolutely right.

i think both houses theoretically can be in play if there is a way that materializes in the final few weeks and it does happen only the last week or two as we know. it is not clear what is going to happen. but republicans in the senate have taken the step of differentiating themselves from trump even if they are supporting him. they are running on their own profiles, folks like kelly ayotte in new hampshire, pat toomey in pennsylvania. they're not trying to ride the coat tails of the top of the ticket, and that is probably a smart move. mark: including not campaigning with him. that state,me to they are busy. >> as a result they are running ahead of him even someone like richard burr consistently ahead in north carolina when trump is a little ahead a little bit behind in the polls. they made the smart calculation. in the house it is even more , complicated for democrats. republicans have the deck stacked in their favor because of geographical advantages and redistricting. what democrats need to do there is very, very tormenting when you think about it. they need to win 190 seats that are -- that lean in their direction according to the political report. they need to win all 17

toss-ups. then they need to win 11-12 races that lean republican. republicans are up 10 to 15 points in those. they need something like a miracle to pull that off. mark: a miracle or a wave which we've seen in the past. jennifer: that is a lot of trouble for the democrats. can they pull that off? what is their path? is there any way for them to succeed? sahil: i think one thing they need to do is reduce trump's margin with hard core republicans. that is a demographic he is doing very well with. these are dark red districts where republicans tend to be safe, where there are a lot more republicans than democrats. what trump has done in the last couple weeks even as he's been sinking in the polls with other democrats, like minorities, millennials, college-educated women, he is doing very well with republicans. he is up to somewhere 85% to 90%. so i think the path for democrats involves a wave that cuts into his support not only with these other demographics but with traditionally republican leaning voters. mark: the biggest success story is probably at this point rob portman the candidate from ohio running way ahead of trump. it is a state that trump is

doing well in. what are the keys as to why portman is doing so much better than trump in ohio. sahil: a money advantage. he has just run a very good campaign. democrats will admit it. he has run from the start not trying to be flashy one way or the other in favor of trump or against trump, but he's just kind of hunkered down and done all the right things you do in a mechanical sense in ohio. he's up double digits consistently as much as 17 or 18 points. mark: sahil, thanks very much. his story is on our website bloomberg politics.com. things are getting nasty out on the campaign trail for the press when they're with donald trump. i've seen it with my own eyes. we'll talk with two reporters who go out on the trail right after this. ♪

♪

mark: joining us from the tar heel state in charlotte, nbc news correspondent katy tur who covers donald trump and here in the nation's capital, chief national correspondent for the "new york times" magazine. katy, i just love your macro 40,000 feet sense of how the trump campaign and donald trump himself is handling the allegations leveled today, the two new ones. katy: well, he did promise evidence that would dispute these allegations yesterday and governor pence promised that evidence as well this morning, but so far we have yet to see any concrete evidence that shows donald trump did not do the things that these multiple women now are accusing him of doing. instead today he got on stage in , greensboro, north carolina. we'll see if he does this again here in charlotte in a few minutes, and he basically pointed to a plot against him i guess you could call it between the media and the clintons and a mexican billionaire named carlos slim, who is a minority

shareholder in the "new york times." he called him a majority shareholder. he is not. but he does own quite a bit, a large stake in terms, in comparison to the other shareholders minus the sulzberger family. basically saying this mexican billionaire is somehow influencing or what the reporters are reporting on and suggesting negative headlines against donald trump in order to get back at him for something. it's unclear what. so he is continuing on this conspiracy theory track we've seen him put forth the last couple of days saying there is , this global system in place, shadowy global system in place that's trying to tear him down , so he can't effect the change that he wants to if he were the president. that involves the media. it involves the banks. it involves the clintons. and it borders pretty closely according to the anti-defamation

league on anti-semitic tropes, and they cautioned him against going further with that. donald trump so far has not offered anything besides that as irrefutable evidence that he is innocent in any of these cases. mark: mark, two-part question. one, what do you make of the way trump is handling these allegations, and two, when carlos slim wants you to write a story how does he communicate , that to you? >> it's funny. i was just consulting the carlos slim memo of the day -- no. he is actually better paid than the other ones. actually he owns larry king's network also. if you're going to blame larry king for going to russian tv --. anyway. mark: what is your over all sense of how trump is dealing with these allegations? >> he is litigating it very specifically. you could argue he could make some sort of blanket denial. the fact that there is an argument he could make in his case, how do you prove a negative over and over again? you could just say i don't, you know, this didn't happen. this was a long time ago. i'm not going to comment on it.

this is about the economy and hillary clinton and pivot to there. i don't really know what he gains by just sort of getting up there and doing what he's doing. but, yes. an interesting strategy. very quintessential trump i would say. jennifer: you recently spent a lot of time with hillary clinton. what are your thoughts about her health? is there any reason for voters to be worried at this point? did you see any evidence of any sort of concern? guest: i didn't see any and i didn't examine her. mark: did you arm wrestle? guest: we did not arm wrestle. she actually proposed it, but i thought it would be inappropriate. no. she seemed fine, but worn down. i think she is still getting over pneumonia. it's been a very tough campaign i think for everyone. but, no. she seemed okay. one of the interesting things about running against trump for her is it has allowed her in a way to hide, which is not -- not hide but he is monopolizing so , much of the spotlight, so much of the oxygen in this race has been given over to him. i think no matter who wins, it will be remembered as the donald trump campaign just because he has defined so much of it and in a way that she has sort of been in the shadows of all this.

mark: katy, i want to ask you about wikileaks. is the trump campaign or trump himself pushing any particular aspect of what is in the latest batch of disclosures from the e-mail inbox? katy: you know, i have not been able to get further on that angle as of now today, john. i did not hear the entirety of donald trump's greensboro speech because i was doing a few other things. but they are trying to seize upon wikileaks as much as they possibly can. i do know that. they've been trying to get trump to hit on it as much as he can during these rallies because they think it is an effective message for them. one of their most effective messages that hillary clinton is not working for the american public but is working for , herself, and there is something shady going on behind the scenes. i'm sorry. it is so loud in here and it is hard to keep my thoughts straight right now. basically they're trying to paint hillary clinton as somebody who is not trustworthy who is working for herself, not , working for the american public, not trust worthy, and they hope the e-mails can prove

that she somehow rigged the election so she can take it from bernie sanders, that sort of thing. if there is any evidence that comes to light in the wikileaks, they'll try to use it as much as they can. the issue is can they keep their candidate on that message? he is known to go off script quite a bit, go off prompter quite a bit. and he has been pretty bogged down with trying to refute these allegations going off script to them buty to deny , insult his accusers by saying that he doesn't think that some of them -- they don't look like the type of people that he would do that to i guess is what he said earlier in greensboro. mark: you are one of the few reporters i know who has been able to spend time with hillary clinton lately. your time with her was how long ago? mark l.: about two weeks ago. it was a few days before the access hollywood thing. mark: you spent time with her over the years. how does she seem in terms of her mood? i know she said some sassy things to you about she wasn't going to lose. does she seem confident genuinely or is that for show?

mark l.: i think it's always for show to a point. i think they are a very worried campaign as you should be at this stage of the game. i think like a lot of people in both parties they don't, you , know, quite know what they're dealing with here. there's just not -- there is a playbook to running against a mitt romney or john mccain or george w. bush. i think whether she wins, whether it is advantageous for her to be running against donald trump, it is a very wearying experience, a sad experience, no fun to have your husband's accusers from so many years ago trotted out to a debate. yeah, it's new, uncharted territory which has become certainly a cliché in this case but keeps being true over and but keeps being true over and over again. , jennifer: what surprised you most? was there anything she said or did that startled or surprised you? mark l.: i think what was clear up close is her contempt for donald trump is even more palpable than it is on the debate stage. i think she is quite sickened by the race that he is running and by some of the things he has been doing and saying about her. that was pretty clear.

again, this was a few days before the second debate and the "access hollywood" stuff. i don't think i was surprised by that. she is usually a better poker player than that, usually a little bit better at hiding her emotions. mark: it's been an eventful seven days. the debate is next wednesday. i'm not asking to you predict but what is something you're , looking at between now and the debate to see how it develops? you have these competing drum beats. you have wikileaks on one side, the women coming forward on the other side. i do think as katy was saying the wikileaks narrative is potentially very effective for donald trump because it makes a case that this is a politician. i am not a politician. yes, i say some things that are maybe troubling to people but this is not who i've been for a long time. she's been in politics for how ever many years, and this shows how she is not on your side. she is working for the any number of people who are in on the conspiracy whether it's the media or carlos slim, the debate moderators. mark: take your point.

the question now is not just did he say things but did he do , things. that is being adjudicated all the way through wednesday. thank you, mark. thank you, katy, for listening to us along with donald trump's sound track with which you are hauntingly familiar. we'll be right back with "all due respect" in a moment. if you're here in washington, d.c. where we are you can listen every day at this time to this this program on 99.1 fm in the nation's capital. we'll be right back. ♪

♪ mark: any time, check out bloomberg politics.com for more coverage on this wild race. thanks for watching. up next bloomberg technology. sayonara. ♪

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