hey, good morning. i'm brian stelter, and it's time for "reliable sources." our weekly look at the story behind the story. how the media really works, how the news really gets made. we have a lot to analyze this morning. donald trump is making up a massive media conspiracy, falsely claiming that we are rigging the election. he even wants "saturday night live" canceled. i'll have a response coming up. plus, clint greenwald is live in new york to discuss the wikileaks dump. and we'll have billy bush here.

he's one half of the fallout from that vulgar "access hollywood" tape. imagine for me a row of dominoes. so many dominoes have fallen since that tape was leaked nine days ago. new allegations keep surfacing as more and more women come forward accusing trump of unwanted sexual advances. with that in mind, take a journey back in time for a moment. these tabloid sex scandals help fuel the media rise of donald trump as a playboy, a rising tv persona decades ago. but could these same stories derail his chances of winning the white house? is the trump of today the same trump of the '90s? what can his past tell us about a trump presidency? we have a panel to answer those questions. joining me are three men who know trump better than anyone. trump biographers. brad thomas, author of "the trump factor, unlocking the secrets behind the trump empire."

great to see you all. brad, let me start with you. you were with the trump campaign on friday. you've been paying close attention to how trump is engaging here. are you surprised by his recent behavior saying that hillary clinton should take a drug test, saying there is a massive media conspiracy against him. based on what you know about him, are you surprised by this? >> no, i'm not, brian. i was at the rally in charlotte on friday. i've attended quite a few rallies over the last year or so, and i'm seeing these voters really starting to gain more energy. donald trump has really energized this campaign, so what you're seeing in terms of the media has energized his brand. >> the polls show enthusiasm for trump is actually waning. are you trying to take the anecdotes from the campaign trail and say they apply to the entire country? >> i haven't looked at the polls

in detail. the market is ultimately going to decide what happens. we are three weeks away from this election, and i think the two most important things are the fundamentals today driving this campaign, which are security and financial security. i think that's what the voters really want to hear from in the next three weeks. >> you're saying he should stop talking about the accusers, stop attacking these women? >> what i'm saying is i think the voters want to hear what he's running on. same for hillary. and i think that those are the two most important things that really voters want to hear about right now. it's the fundamentals of this country focusing on the financial security of this country and focusing on security of this country. those are the two most important things. we are three weeks away from this election. three weeks. >> with that in mind, tim, let me ask you. do you think the press has overplayed these accuser stories? there has been wall-to-wall coverage of sexual assault

allegations against trump for almost the last week. >> we know this got started because of the tape that got leaked. >> and then the debate question by anderson cooper. >> he said i've always been about words. bill clinton has been about actions. he threw the gauntlet down who said, has anybody been assaulted by me? lo and behold, the floodgates opened. i don't think you can have too much coverage of this. women feeling free to come forward about men sexually or physically abusing them is not a long tradition in this country. i think for a lot of women, the issue comes up, wow, it was 30 years ago. why are they talking about it now? as we saw in the bill cosby case and roger ailes case, i think women sometimes need other women to come forward to feel empowered themselves to speak about abuse. >> your most recent book was about abuse in the catholic church. do you see parallels? >> absolutely.

this is the way things work, and i'm almost shocked no one in the trump campaign seems to understand what's happening in this area since the 1990s. whenever an abused person finally gets the courage to come forward, others with the same experience come forward also. none of these predatory figures have just one victim. i think what's interesting, too, and it's consistent, is that they always have the same age victim, the same rough profile of appearance, and they also conduct the same behavior. >> trump's denials this week, a number of statements from the campaign, a number of comments at rallies. is this consistent with his behavior over the decades? >> his rule is to never admit anything. deny everything and then fling an accusation back at the other person. you can often hear what he's worried about by seeing what he criticizes people for. if he says, let's do a drug test because i think hillary lost energy at the last debate, it's

because at the first debate, donald ran out of gas and everybody was saying, why did he lose energy? so we should expect he's going to accuse hillary of almost anything because he feels under attack, and he's not going to come clean and say anything honest about these charges. >> let me ask brad. brad, where do you think trump's conspiratorial mindset comes from? >> you know, i would really say this, brian. look, this is a businessman. i have visited every property in the world that donald trump owns. i've met with all of his employees. i started writing my book over three years ago. so, you know, i've got a pretty good knowledge and probably the best knowledge of donald trump's businesses than anybody on the planet, including donald trump. when you say conspiracy, i don't understand what that means. >> let me tell you what it means. if trump is a billionaire businessman, then he knows there is not a massive corporate conspiracy against him.

he knows that's not possible because he's an elitist, an insider. he knows how it really works. >> you're asking me? >> that's what i mean by a conspiratorial mind. what he said on thursday, talking about the banks and corporations and globalists, it came awfully close to anti-semitic language. i'm just asking you, based on your experience with him, where does that come from? >> i really don't. this is a guy who has created his brand and his followers because of his bold demeanor. and he comes across as a very tough, strong individual. and that's how he's been able to really grow his brand over the years to become this successful businessman. again, brian, i wrote a book about donald trump's businesses. i didn't write a book about donald trump's politics. i covered all the businesses in very granular detail. i certainly can speak more about -- >> that's why i'm surprised that

he's claiming these conspiracies that don't exist. tim, let me ask you about threats. an incredibly strange week. he threatened to sue the "new york times" because they published accounts from several of these women. i don't think there's been a lawsuit filed. i don't think there will be a lawsuit filed, but he did sue you? what is the action he takes when he does sue a journalist? >> i think donald trump saying this is a conspiracy, the elections are rigged, you have an individual losing badly in the polls. it looks like he's going to lose badly in the general election, so he has no problem saying, it's rigged. i will blow the whole thing up for self-preservation reasons. he's finding conspiracies everywhere because if there is a conspiracy, it doesn't mean it was his fault if he lost. >> it's a selfish thing to do, isn't it? >> it's destructive and dangerous. it's beyond that.

you have people using the media for his own needs. what a dangerous moment in american politics. he sued me for libel in 2006. he lost that case. he sat through a discovery that was very troubling for him. a discovery process. should he sue the media now around these allegations from women that he's a social predator, he'll go through a brutal discovery process in that. more importantly, he's making these threats to sue, i think, to try to chill the media. i think the media was slow to report aggressively on the trump phenomenon, but once it got its footing, the media has been a very important force in this election in terms of outing some of the things the public didn't know about donald trump and should know. he's now using threats of lawsuits to chill the media. >> michael, do you agree that was the intent of his claims? >> oh, sure. intent is the name of the game with him. one of the things that's

important to note, and say donald grew things on his. i'm also quite privy to good data on brand equity. i'm hearing in the last two weeks his brand equity is plummeting. he's now perceived as boring. not by the eletites but by the middle class. actually, when you poll republican households without a college education, they're turning off his brand. they may still vote for him but this is doing long-term damage to his businesses. >> if the three of you could stick around. we'd love to bring you back later in the hour. up next, more on this media conspiracy idea. where the alt right website brooit bart's relationship with the trump campaign is leading to a crackup of conservative media. you have to hear what we have to say about that right after the break.

welcome back. donald trump taking his media bashing to a new extreme this weekend. he's replacing his birther conspiracy theory with another, even grander, conspiracy. yes, he is claiming that global elites, banks, politicians and of course the media, are all conspiring against him. >> the election is being rigged by corrupt media pushing completely false allegations and outright lies in an effort to elect her president.

>> corrupt media. in trump's world, journalists are really just clinton campaign workers in disguise collaborating with her in an attempt to rig the election. this is not just false, it's ludicrous, and it's damaging. but you know what, his current conspiracy theory is ripped from these pages, the pages of the right wing website breitbart news. it's right there, the mainstream media are colluding to elect hillary clinton. he even canceled on his friend sean hannity this week. he's giving no interviews. neither is hillary clinton preparing for the debate. what are the consequences of this conspiratorial talk? joining me now, senior editor at "the atlantic" and margaret with the "washington post." margaret, what do we even say? how do we prove that we are not all conspiring? >> brian, i'm not sure how you prove it.

it's an absurd claim. i've spent decades in the newspaper business. i've worked at the "new york times" and the "washington post." nobody is sitting in a room with each other and planning to, you know, do anything evil to a candidate. it's just not the case. and i also think that this idea that there's something called the media, my colleague at the "washington post," paul farry, wrote a great piece about how there is really no such thing. there are media outlets, there are newspapers, there are cable tv stations, there are network news, but there is no little group called the media that gets together and decides to do terrible things to donald trump. how do you prove that? it's a reality check. >> especially now that we're all mediamakers. now that we're all snapchatting and facebooking, we are all media. the traditional media, we are competitive. we're market driven. i compete with you, margaret. i want to beat you to stories.

that's the kind of thing that discourages what trump would call collusion in the media. david, is this the moment where we're trying to cover up something crazy and treat it like it's sane? >> trump has a more fundamental problem than that. remember that scene where austin powers assures elizabeth hurley, this isn't my bag and the officer produces a bag with austin power's picture on it that says, yes, this is my bag, baby. you've got the videotape. if his claim is people are inventing these terrible stories about me, the stories are all verified and agreed and approved and endorsed and proven by his own words and face. one of the things he's doing here, it's a little like the claims when you get these scammed nigerian e-mails, they're deliberately incredible because the scammers don't want to weed out anyone with any skepticism. if they sent you a proper note that really looked like it was

from citibank, you might pull in people who would jump off the train later. whereas, if you make it stupid from the start, that's how you know you're dealing with real suckers. >> how do we persuade 40% of the country that is inclined to believe trump when he says the media is colluding. margaret, you were editor of the "new york times." did you ever find evidence that "the times" would make up sources the way trump is alleging? >> no, there is no reason to think that. i was critical of "the times'" use of sources but i never thought they were made up. >> right. let's talk about the media crack-up. we're witnessing this unprecedented divide between the gop establishment with trump and it's also fracturing the media. what happens to fox news after election day? how is this affecting conservative media? >> fox is reeling from its own internal trauma. the departure of roger ailes.

fox news is confronting that existential question. in parkt, it's a genuine news entity with very capable people. you see that at 6:00, you see that with many people that work at fox news. then there's this other part that exists with mainline fantasy into the conservative bloodstream. i said in 2010 that republicans began by thinking fox worked for us, then we discovered we all worked for fox. i took some heat for that at the time, but that has become half of the fox identity, not the other half. and the question for that network is going to be, do they want to be a trusted news source, or do they want to be a fantasy bubble for people -- a safe space, a refuge, from political reality? >> breitbart as well, their role of bringing conspiracy theories in the mainstreen. you wrote about steve bannon. now the breitbart boss. what has been his role this week

with trump's behavior? >> well, you know, when i saw the use of the clinton accusers at the debate, it certainly seemed to have the name steve bannon written all over it. it's the kind of theater that he specializes in. and i think that he is a huge influence on that campaign, and the distance between breitbart and the trump campaign is virtually nothing at this point, and we've seen that for many months. >> and breitbart, its idea is publishing is a form of warfare. media is a form of warfare. and that's what we're seeing. david, one last thought for you. we'll have the debate on wednesday. it's going to be moderated by chris wallace of fox news. it's the first time fox news has ever moderated a liberal debate. do you think liberals are right to have any concerns about

chris wallace? >> who is a better interviewer in america than chris wallace? he'll do a fantastic job. >> margaret, do you agree? >> i think chris is pretty tough. i was concerned when he said he didn't believe in truth squadding or fact checking. that bothered me. i think he's a tough, aggressive interviewer and it should be -- it's a hell of a job at this point. >> i think he may have a harder job than the 50 three moderators. up next -- glen greenwald is here. we're going to talk about the one issue conservative media can agree upon. it's that the mainstream press is ignoring the wikileaks release of clinton campaign e-mails. we'll talk about that in depth with glen right after the break.

welcome back to "reliable sources." i'm brian stelter. donald trump is heaping praise on wikileaks while the clinton campaign condemns the ongoing publication of stolen e-mails from john podesta. wikileaks is publishing more e-mails every day. despite trump's claims the media

is ignoring this. this type of document dump is irresistible to journalists. it's providing a glimpse into the inner workings of the clinton campaign. it's showing efforts to control and shape favorable news coverage. what are we learning and how newsworthy are these really? joining me now is someone very familiar with reporting on leaked and hacked information, the man who helped break the snowden leaks wide open. your relationship to wikileaks has changed. how so? >> ironically wikileaks was one of the most vocal critics on how we reportod the snowden archive. we didn't just take it and dump it all into the internet but curated it, tried to protect people's personal information. not only us but all news organizations still haven't disclosed all of them because of the impact it would have on innocent people. when you get a large archive of information, your responsibility

as a journalist is not just to dump it on to the internet but protect people's reputation and privacy and only publish that in the public interest. >> now that wikileaks has dumped the podesta e-mails. is it ethical to report on stolen information? >> not only ethsical, but it would be incredibly unethical. many of the most important stories in the history of journalism come from stolen materials. the pentagon papers, the snowden materials. those that give information to discover the bush eavesdropping program. so many of these that lead to the best journalism are grounded in illegality. no journalist has the right to say i'm not going to report on anything unless the source is upstanding. >> this stolen trove this week, i've gotten a sense they believe there are bombshells. let me put on the screen a few examples of what sean hannity

stood out. media coclusion between the clinton campaign and journalists. "the new york times" in one case, louing edits to quotes of clinton. the boston globe pumping up the campaign. univision pressured to attack trump. the campaign bragging about media support and donna br zill leaking a town hall question. are these efforts of collusion? >> i think they are examples of -- some of them ever the normal standard back and forth jockeying between campaigns and journalists. others are examples of serious impropriety. donna brazile leaking getting a hold of a town hall question and only giving it to the clinton campaign and not's sanders campaign is an example of cheating. >> i wrote about this earlier this week. explain what happened here. what seems to have happened here. a cnn tv one town hall back in march. sanders and clinton both on stage. an e-mail that shows then cnn

contributor and dnc vice contributor e-mailing a question that seems to be a town hall question to jennifer palmieri at the clinton campaign. the next day a version of that question was read online. cnn has flatly denied sharing any question. i've been inside just one of these debate preps. i can't imagine a question leaking out. then snow it did. they suggested tv one was maybe the person that sent the question to donna brazile. he hasn't really responded. he sort of denied it. >> she's the one who passed it to the clinton campaign. >> it's still a mystery. trump has taken this to say, oh, well clinton is being given debate questions, using the plural, using questions. he's taking a grain of truth and turning it into a lie. >> there's this massive transparency disparity because we have unprecedented transparity into one campaign, the clinton campaign.

she's released her tax returns, financial disclosures for the clinton foundation. we read her e-mails for the state department. not all of them, but many of them. on the other side almost no transparency into donald trump and his business practices and his campaign because he won't even release his tax return. it's incredibly hypocritical to act as though there's these scandals being hidden when he's essentially hiding everything about himself. that said, there are extremely interesting aspects of these e-mails which maybe the political junkies or reporters seem like business as usual but to the ordinary person is sheds real light on the kind of games that get played, the manipulation of public opinion that even if it's common is still really disturbing and, therefore, deserves lots of attention. >> you say manipulation of public opinion, what are examples in this e-mail of that? >> there's things where the clinton campaign talks openly about the fact their public messaging is at odds with what hillary clinton really believes about ways to mislead sanders

supporters into believing they are getting concessions that in reality are inconsequential. there's an e-mail that talks about how the regime of qatar, one of the most repressive regimes, was promising to give $1 million to the clinton foundation for bill clinton's birthday in exchange for five minutes of meeting time with him. this is the stuff clinton partisans will say it's no big deal. it's not shocking. but that's not the standard newsworthiness. lots of things that are newsworthy aren't shocking. it's not shocking that donald trump is a serial groper of women but it's still extremely newsworthy. that's the same for the tradeoffs and money transfers and media manipulation taking place as evidenced by that e-mail archive. >> i was listening to news radio yesterday, all i heard about was trump and not clinton. do you think there's been awn far balance in the wikileaks references versus donald trump? >> i think it's simply the case the political and media elite

are united behind hillary clinton and against donald trump. but donald trump is so off the charts in terms of convention and what's normal and what's acceptable that even if it may not be justified, it's just inevitable that you put your eyes on this explosion and this extreme amount of deviation from what's normal and pay attention to it and talk about it more than a conventional campaign. >> off the charts. that's a good phrase. >> glenn, good to see you. >> thanks. up next, talking about trump's conspiracy theories. for example, about election rigging and why they are so dangerous. so off the charts. we'll be right back.

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donald trump's biggest lie is about the election itself. the integrity of the election. he is alleging a massive conspiracy thereby creating a massive challenge for the news media. trump has been planting seeds for over a year warning supporters not to trust the government or the media or the polls because it's all rigged, he says. in april he started saying this. >> the system, folks, is rigged. it's a rigged, disgusting, dirty system. >> that was a response to ted cruz winning delegates in that convoluted primary process. but as we all know, trump prevailed so i guess the system wasn't disgusting after all? guess again. in august, trump talked about the general election being stolen from him. >> i'm afraid the election is going to be rigged.

i have to be honest. >> the subtext is that trump is a winner and he can't possibly be a loser unless it's somebody else's fault. he kept planting more and more seeds like here on sean hannity's show. >> i'm telling you november 8th, we better be careful because that election is going to be rigged, and i hope the republicans are watching closely or it's going to be taken away from us. >> the first couple times he said this, it was news. it was very disturbing news. it got a lot of attention. but over time, the repetition, trump's lies about election rigging have become a form of background noise, more of the same. and this is a propaganda technique whether trump knows it or not. if you say something often enough, if you plant enough seeds, people start to wonder, will my vote matter? will it actually count? now, you probably didn't hear this next trump seed because it's from monday of this week, just one day after the second debate. >> even the polls are crooked. we have to make sure that this

election is not stolen from us and is not taken away from us. and everybody knows what i'm talking about. >> everybody knows what i'm talking about. he's in the suburbs of philadelphia there. now, if you read right wing websites that wrongly claim there is widespread voter fraud in places like philadelphia, then you might know what trump is talking about. but that remark, "we have to make sure the election is not stolen from us" mostly escaped scrutiny. cnn only played the clip once until now. the anchor who did play it, brianna keeler, to her credit, did not let supporter peter king dodge her question. >> i don't know if there's evidence or not. >> no, there isn't. >> there has been serious allegations -- >> he's talking about widespread voter fraud that would swing an election in a state where polls show he is down considerably. i mean, what he is saying has no basis in reality.

>> brianna is right, and we need to keep saying it. we, as a country, cannot allow ourselves to become numb to this. we, as a media, cannot shrug it off as old news. because the real danger here is that when trump lies to his supporters about the others who are trying to steal the election, some of his supporters believe him. >> our lives depend on this election. our kids' futures depend on this election. for me, personally, if hillary clinton gets in, i myself, i'm ready for a revolution. >> mike pence was on stage, and he did try to temper her concerns. watch what he said to her. >> there's a revolution coming on november the 8th. i promise you. >> what are we going to do to safeguard our votes? >> so she said there, what are we going to do to safeguard our votes? this is the whole ball game, and this is what i really want to say. i'm proud that journalists are

standing up, individually, speaking up in ways that we rarely see. they're not anti-trump, they're pro democracy. julie pates writing for the ap today said trumps claims about vote rigging made without evidence, undercuts the essence of american democracy. we haven't seen this system of government since the brink of the civil war. i know trump supporters tend to dismiss those sources. that's why conservative journalists have to play a role here and conservative commentators, too. on the day of donald trump's -- president obama's election, sean hannity accepted the results. >> the race for the white house has been called in obama's favor and the voice of the people were heard last night. they wanted barack obama for four more years and now we have him. by the way, good look with that. >> let's remember that sound

bite. will hannity say that if clinton prevails three weeks from now? what's happening right now is a test. it's a test for our voting system run by the states. our voting system is run by republicans and democrats with thousands of volunteers and layers of oversight. when there's voter fraud, when it rarely happens it is investigated. so it's a test for our system, but what's happening is also a test for journalism. there is a lot the media can do to instill confidence in our elexs system. this might mean phone banks or election tools on election day giving people a way to report possible fraud. this might also remind people that voter fraud is rare and it is prosecuted. we have an obligation to you, the audience, because trump has peddled this stuff before. on the night president obama was re-elected, trump through a tantrum on twitter. he said this election is a sham

and a travesty. he wrote we have to make america great again. mr. trump, think of your children. america is great partly because everyone accepts the results of elections. for decades in the past and hopefully for decades to come. inventing a conspiracy theory is no way to make america great again. coming up here on "reliable sources," the immant departure of billy bush. his handling of the infamous trump tape. new reporting after the break. who says i shouldn't have a soda everyday?

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welcome back to "reliable sources." dwch developing this morning, nbc negotiating billy bush's exit from the network. it could be announced as early as monday. that's all a result of the

leaked "access hollywood" tape that came out nine days ago showing bush and donald trump making lewd and sexually aggressive comments about women. because it leaked before nbc broadcast it, "washington post" media columnist says nbc's explanations about what happened still don't add up. margaret, one of the unsolved mysteries of this tape and its release. >> the whole thing still seems rather strange that the nbc now says they were planning to let their entertainment side "access hollywood" actually break that story and the news division would follow. they're not really clear on when that was going to happen. they were sitting on a huge story and understandably, they had lawyers looking at it. that's completely understandable. the legal implications were bigger for nbc than they would be for the "washington post." it was their material. but once the lawyers signed off, it seems as though you would want to get that on the air very

fast, and that didn't happen. >> it seems like nbc has had a tortured relationship with trump. they had that matt lauer interview that was pretty easy on him. they had fallon playing with trump's hair on the entertainment side. trump said the head of nbc was out to get him by leaking this tape. do we have any evidence of who might have leaked it to the "washington post"? >> i have no idea, brian. i'm not hiding anything, i just don't know. >> let me also ask you about a big development this week. they issued a statement saying donald trump is a threat to press freedom. does it start to prove trump supporters right when they say the media is out to get this candidate? >> that was a big thing for them to make that statement. it's the subject of my column i'll publish tonight into tomorrow. i talked to the chairwoman sandy row about it. they don't get into politics

nationally or internationally. but they felt so strong that trump is a threat to the first amendment and to press freedom and to journalists that they just had to say something. they made a very strong statement. >> we'll look for your column tonight. margaret, thank you for being here. we'll be rite back with our panel of trump biographers. stay tuned. we'll be right back.

let's end where we began this morning. bringing back our roundtable of trump biographers. timothy o'brien. michael deantonio, the author of "never enough." and brad thomas, author of "the trump factor." brad, let me start with you. the debate on wednesday. the final debate. do you think it will be the highest rated debate yet or are people sick and tired of this stuff by now? >> i'm predicting this will be a

record turnout. i think we're really getting closer and closer. and i really think three weeks away. we've seen all the media. you covered it great on the show today. and i think what we're going to see is, you know, voters really wanting to focus on the most important elements of this election. we're hearing all the media on both sides of the ticket. i think what voters really want to see from this debate are the most important things. the security of this country and financial security of this country. those are the two most important things. i hope that's what we'll see this upcoming week. >> i in the back of my mind thought that trump might bring out clinton's accusers at the third and final debate. since he did that at the success deba -- second debate, are you expecting something else, something lower? >> i wouldn't want to predict. i think they are looking for

something to pull off. this is the last ditch for him, the last stand. and i don't think he has anything to say in terms of policy or politics that are going to matter. this is a personality driven affair. it always has been. so if there's something, he's going to use it. >> does it matter that it's a fox news moderator, chris wall athis time? >> i think fox has done a good job throughout the debates. chris wallace and megyn kelly were inquisitive in the first debate. it's a tough job, as everybody knows. the issue is, you have a candidate who is essentially a flame thrower. he's really ready to burn it down with the media, the political process. i do hope if he continues with the media that the courts step in and bounce any of these frivolous lawsuits he files because it -- we're at a moment where institutions have to stand up for themselves. the media, the courts, the political process and say we

have someone on our hands here who is willing to blow it up to serve himself. and it's a dangerous thing. >> he is acting like an arsonist. we shouldn't shy away from saying that. what do you think the media should do on an institutional baseis? one thing for the media to say it. are there things the media should be doing without playing into his hands and acting like they're colluding? >> i think doing what the media has always done. the media isn't the most favored institution in the minds of the gop, but what the media should do is report the facts, stay on the trail with donald trump. stay on the trail with hillary clinton. report it through. and really do a continued service to the american voter who is to analyze donald trump for what he is, not what he says he is. >> i think the facts also include the attempted intimidation of the reporters at these rallies. i think it's time for the cameras to be turned on these

people who are snarling at reporters who are threatening them physically. >> there was a sign at one of the rallies with a swastika and the word media on it. they say the vitriol does seem to be increasing. when trump attacked the media, that's when the crowd would boo. now the crowd boos the media before trump arrives. >> i think it's a matter of safety. >> brad, you were at one of these rallies on friday. what was your sense of . of the rally? did it make you uncomfortable? >> i'm a business analyst. >> when you are watching the crowd boo and chant cnn sucks. they are allowed to say whatever they want. that's what i love about it. when you hear the vitriol, does it worry you about violence? >> i would not consider myself harmed or be compromised if i

were sitting back there with some of the media. i don't really think -- i would not feel harmed in that way. i have been to a number of rallies. i feel secure in the rallies. i attended 20 or 30 rallies in the past year. i do not feel insecure at all. >> you are more concerned for violence at the rallies? >> if you are not in the so-called press pen and you don't have the faces spitting and angry faces turned toward you with fists raised, you will not feel concerned. these are young and vulnerable and walking into the events, the reporters i know covering them, they hear stuff you would not hear in a locker room to use a donald trump expression. >> thank you for being here this morning. that is all for "reliable

sources." our media coverage continues at cnnmoney.com. i have a new article up. you can sign up for our news letter delivered to your inbox every afternoon. subscribe and i'll see you next week. donald trump lashing out. claiming the media is rigging the election as a new poll is putting hillary clinton on top by 12 points. will the team accept the results? and breaking news. iraqi ground forces with u.s. support launches an offensive to retake mosul. we are live on the ground for what could be a defining moment in the battle against isis. good morning. welcome to "early start." i'm john berman. >> i'm christine romans. it is