>> they made it clear that it was just talk, not actions. >> this is who donald trump really is. >> this is the final battle to drive isis out of iraq. >> the battle to retake mosul now under way. >> well over 1 million civilians still remain. they are expecting the worst. >> this is "new day." >> we do have all of that breaking news we will get to. good morning welcome to your "new day" up first donald trump stepping up his claim that the election is rigged. he does not offer any evidence other than that the media is reporting on sexual assault allegations against him, and conspiring with hillary clinton's campaign he says. what will this mean for the election's process? >> questions also about trump's intentions as once again his running mate tries to clean it up. governor mike pence says he will, quote, absolutely accept the result of the election. so what's going on? we also have a new poll from cnn this morning. this is a poll of polls.

the average of the last major polls. and it shows what you see on your screen. hillary clinton widening her lead over trump eight points right now on average. 47-39. a lot at stake just two days until the final debate. 22 days until election day. those are the numbers to play in any of the lotteries. let's begin with cnn's phil mattingly. >> good morning, chris. it's all rigged. this is not in and of itself a new message from donald trump. but his sharpened focus on the idea that the november 8th election will be rigged the results themselves is a dark turn and one unsettles not just for dechls and his opponents. republicans, the same republicans who support donald trump. >> remember this there's a rigged election. >> reporter: for donald trump there's only one reason he's trailing in the polls. a conspiracy to keep him out of the white house. >> the election is being rigged by corrupt media pushing completely false allegations and

outright lies in an effort to elect her president. >> in rally after rally, tweet after tweet, trump pushing the theory without any evidence or recent historical precedent that the electoral results will be rigged. trump's running mate mike pence trying to tone down the rhetoric. he doesn't mean literal electoral rigging. >> we will absolutely accept the results of the election. the american people are tired of the obvious bias in the national media. that's where the sense of a rigged election goes here. >> reporter: but trump undercutting that very message only minutes later tweeting explicitly that the election is, quote, absolutely being rigged, at quote many polling places. this part of a trump tritter storm that included multiple personal attacks against house speaker paul ryan. ryan pushing back on trump's rigged election theory. a spokeswoman telling cnn the speaker is quote fully confident the election will be carried out with integrity. hillary clinton's running mate tim kaine calling on more

republicans to speak out against trump's allegations. >> he started to make wild claims, scorched earth claims about the election being rigged, et cetera. so we have to keep putting out a message and need to call on everybody to speak out about the fact that we run elections and run them well here. we ask gop leaders also to stand up for the integrity of the electoral process. >> reporter: trump also continuing to fire back at allegations of sexual assault and unwelcomed sexual advances. now, now accused by nine women. trump attacking their veracity, their character and their looks. >> believe me, she would not be my first choice, that i can tell you. >> reporter: and unleashing one new line of attack on hillary clinton, that she's taking performance enhancing drugs. >> we should take a drug test because i don't know what's going on with her. >> reporter: the clinton campaign calling this a shameful attempt to undermine the election.

and chris all eyes now really on that debate on wednesday in las vegas. both candidates actually off the trail. donald trump off the campaign trail doing debate prep at his bed minister golf course. hillary clinton also off the trail repeating what she did, at least her advisers say so successfully before the first debate, two a days practicing. one of the last major opportunities to showcase it all in front of the american people. >> did trump just really defend against an allegation by suggesting the woman's not good-looking enough for him to have done that? i can't -- just when you think you heard it all phil mattingly. just when you think you heard it pull let's discuss trump campaign senior adviser jack kingston and cnn political commentator and hillary clinton supporter hilary rosen. mr. kingston, thank you for joining us this morning. do you add your name to the list of people who say yes, donald trump is right to say that if hillary clinton wins, the election result is illegitimate because it's rigged? >> well, i don't think he was saying the result was

illegitimate. i think he was saying that there is a bias out there that has been against him. and chris i just have to say, as somebody who has been involved in this for many years, i've never seen quite the media onslaught on a particular candidate. but, you know, it's part of the territory. and you know as mike pence says, certainly we are going to accept the results of the election. but the reality is, the media has been overwhelming in their prejudice against donald trump. whether it's good news or bad news. just to give you an example, you just had an excellent piece on the opioid crisis. >> yes. >> on october 15th, donald trump outlined a plan that he has to combat this. now i don't know if hillary clinton has one or not, but that was not covered at all. it was a great, very responsible four-point plan. very positive message. nothing in the media about it. >> but mr. kingston -- whom do you blame for that? if he says an election is rigged is he stealing his own thunder

or are you going to blame the media for ignoring that allegation not reporting on a drug policy when he just undermined the legitimacy of the democracy? >> well, i'm going to give you another statistic. >> okay. >> watching the mainstream news coverage last week, one night, 66 minutes of coverage, one minute, actually 57 seconds devoted to wikileaks, 23 minutes devoted to the sexual misconduct allegations. 23 minutes versus 57 seconds. and that's just typical. actually, sitting in a couple of different green rooms today, looking at "the new york times," "washington post," "wall street journal," and "usa today" not one word about wikileaks. but in -- >> we report on it every hour of this three-hour show. sometimes four hours -- >> and you know what -- >> almost every day. >> i would never pick on your great show and your excellent coverage. and i say that sincerely, by the way. i've been on your show as a candidate and i've always felt

that you've been very bald and i appreciate that. but what i'm saying is here you got four newspapers, four major national newspapers, not one word on the front page about wikileaks. and so, you know, is there a media bias? i think the left would have to be denying reality if they did not see it. statistically, it can be backed up. and so you know, i think that there is absolutely a bias that's going on that i'm just trying to put the outcome of this election. >> hilary many times when we have been off camera you were coming after me for giving trump too much attention that it was too positive and that we were all over hillary about her e-mails. so certainly there's a little bit of this normally and there's some extraordinary factors, as well, going into this election because of what trump presents as a candidate. but these wikileaks, they are a real thing. yes, they were probably procured illegally. but, when we see for instance

the goldman sachs information in there and it does seem hillary clinton was being accommodative of the bankers in this case goldman sachs when she was being paid to talk to them, is that ripe for criticism that she's not going to crack down on that? >> well, let me go back to the first point the congressman made which was do we have policies to deal with these issues? over a year ago hillary clinton put out a policy on the heroin crisis, and was the first person of all the candidates to hold a forum in new hampshire with people focused on heroin addiction. she's done the same thing on financial services reform. she has the toughest plan on wall street, endorsed by elizabeth warren, no softy on wall street, and so i think when you look at the issues, there's no question that hillary clinton has gone deep and wide on policy. on wikileaks, i think there's a legitimate am ambivalence and i see it myself. because we have seen doctored

e-mails over the last few weeks where they have been fabricated and it's hard for the media to know which of these e-mails are actually accurate, and which ones have been thrown in there by -- by you know, espionage and julian assange and the russians and whoever is trying to undermine this election by putting this stuff out there. so i'll just say on the reports that i saw, on her speech on wall street, actually, i'm not sure what the big deal is. you know, for her to suggest that there are legitimate reasons to go after financial reform and to acknowledge what has been a very real politic about wall street reform, seems completely normal to me. >> all right, jack, what did you see in these e-mails? >> i don't think there's anything in these e-mails that really -- >> all riht. >> -- anything other than -- >> all right, all right, i hear your point. jack respond? >> you know the easy way to do that is just to disclose those speeches. but why doesn't she do that?

i mean that would put an end to it. here's what i said to wall street. but she's not, because she's -- as we have found out -- >> you know what your problem is with that argument, though, jack -- that's a great argument. more disclosure. more better i'm in the media you're never going to hear me say anything else but where's your high ground when trump will put out his taxes? >> well let me just say this what we're talking about is wikileaks. now we'll go back to it. we see a snide remarks about catholics. calling bill richardson the needy latino, attacking the head of the naacp, open borders, universal health care, a quote that says terrorism is not a threat to our nation, and then this statement by podesta that it would have been better if a terrorist was chris hayes rather than a man named farook which underscores their, i guess, fear of using the term radical islamic terrorists, or jihadist

or whatever the politically correct terminology is. i think there's a lot of things in wikileaks that we have to learn from. but, again, hey, if they think they're all illegal, or they're all wrong, or inaccurate, why aren't they denying it? instead of saying well you know, coming from the russians, or we don't know if they're authentic. why don't they just come out and say, absolutely not. >> well, as you know, jack, the u.s. government says they're coming from the russians, at least this last batch not all of wikileaks things but they're saying these clinton e-mails do come from the russians that is a concern but the authenticity to jack's point, hilary, final point for you, no one has come out and said those aren't my e-mails. how they're used and how they're manipulated is something we have to deal with in vetting there have been some discrepancies but what is your response to jack's allegation? >> i don't -- i still don't see anything in any of these e-mails that go beyond sort of staff strategizing with various speculative issues. and i don't think there's anything that connects any policy change to what hillary clinton has said.

and she has been very clear on the policy, and you know, the debate this week is going to be another opportunity for donald trump not to step on his own story and talk about the issues, but he can't get out of his own way. you just -- and you had a surrogate on this morning just talking about agreeing with him on this election rigging issue. if trump really wanted to talk about the issues, that's what he would be doing at his rallies, instead of creating foaming at the mouth, you know, craziness. >> hilary rosen, jack kingston, thank you very much for sharing each of your perspectives aas always. alisyn? >> all right we'll continue this conversation, chris, because donald trump and his surrogates are intensifying their talk that the presidential election is rigged somehow. is there any truth or historical content to these claims? we're going to ask our presidential historian if the facts back him up.

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it's a rigged system and they take these lies and they put them on front pages. this is a rigged system, folks. >> all right donald trump continuing to make the claim that the presidential case is, quote, rigged. he says if he loses in november it will be because the election was stolen from him. many of his surrogates support that claim. we have two historians on now to give us real context on this unprecedented race and this claim. cnn's presidential historian and wrights university professor

douglas brinkley and a historian and professor from princeton university. thanks so much for being here. professor, i'll start with you. in our 240 year history, have we had rigged presidential elections and how hard would it be to rig a national presidential elections? >> we've had corruption in the 19th century there was a lot of corruption in different states and different cities. there's been controversies when elections were contested and decided in congress, which is in 1824. but it's virtually impossible in 2016 to rig an entire election. it's decentralized. it's praguemented. and there's very little evidence that this could happen. >> douglas what about the history of presidential candidates claiming that an election was stolen from them or rigged? have you seen that? >> well, you know, it's kind of the whole election rigged is very extreme. that's saying democracy utterly doesn't work. but it is true in 1960, that john f. kennedy was able to

squeak out that election beating richard nixon and there was the so-called chicago cemetery vote, meaning people coming out for kennedy that had already been dead, and so people will point to if illinois didn't go kennedy perhaps that election would have been different. and in recent times we all know the problems that happened in 2000 in florida with dangling chads -- >> but that wasn't rigging. that was a mechanical problem. >> exactly. that's the point. i mean most of this is about mechanical problems. on a precinct by precinct basis. >> about what you were talking about i do want to zero in on that what happened in illinois because that's something that two of donald trump's highest level surrogates, newt gingrich, and rudy giuliani, both talked about this weekend as evidence. so let me play those for you. >> okay. >> you rook at philadelphia, you look at st. louis, you look at chicago, i mean, again i'm old enough, i remember when richard nixon had the election stolen in 1960, and no serious historian doubts that illinois and texas

were stolen. >> there are a few places, and not many in the swing states, there are a few places where they've been notorious for stealing votes, pennsylvania, chicago, places where a lot of cheating has gone on over the years. i know that from my own knowledge of busing people in from camden. when i ran for mayor of new york city, the first time, some people voted eight and ten times. >> okay. so let's unpack some of that. because that's what they're out on the campaign trail saying. so professor, what about what newt said that no serious historian doubts that illinois and texas were stolen. what's your response? >> well, actually, that's not true. in 1960 in illinois, there's a lot of evidence that republicans stole tickets -- stole votes downstate, so in some ways it would balance out and in texas it's also unclear that it's through the election. there were actually recounts in illinois in 1960. and they didn't find that there was enough fraud to throw the election. so it's an undetermined issue

but historians don't agree that the election was thrown that way. >> douglas, what about what -- what rudy said there that from his own experience, with his own election, that he saw people being bused in to places where they shouldn't have been voting. >> well that's rudy's own experience. i wasn't there what i can tell you is there are voting suppression in irregularities all throughout american history. i mean the whole story of the south was voter suppression, having jim crow laws, voter literacy tests. jimmy carter first ran for senate in georgia on a rigged election. they brought out a cemetery vote when he ran for state senator. he challenged in the court and got it reversed. so history is replete with illegal things going on during elections. but at this point in the 21st century to make the grandiose statement like trump is that the election is rigged is bogus. it's anti-democratic spirited anti-american at its core that there may be problems in some

cities we've got to watch. we're going to have to have more watchdogs out there, yes. but what trump is saying is disingenuous and anti-historical. >> well, it also might be dangerous. because, there are people, voters, who are -- would be so incensed if they thought that the election were stolen from him in fact at a rally this weekend or on thursday, an ohio trump supporter talked about what he would do. so let me play this for you. >> i feel like hillary needs to be taken out. if she gets into government i'll do everything in my power to take her out of power. which if i have to be a patriot, i will. >> what does that mean? >> take it any way you want to take it. >> that sounds like a threat. >> -- patriot -- >> is that a physical threat? >> i don't know, is it. >> he says take it however you want to take my threat. we should also tell you at first he was wearing a mask.

he lifted the mask so he could make that threat. professor can you give some historical context about what would happen if the day after, if one of the presidential nominees says that the election was stolen from him, how would the country respond? >> well, i think given the passion that a lot of trump supporters have for him, these can be dangerous accusations. doug talked earlier about the south. and the place we do have intimidation and violence the biggest record was against african-americans in the south where people physically assaulted african-americans trying to vote and threaten them and if this happens post-election, either to candidates, to supporters of the candidates, it would be horrendous. so the rhetoric is very incendiary, and i think that's what people are worried about. not just the legitimacy, in the minds of voters, but will there actually be some kind of violent response to a hillary clinton victory. >> very quickly what are you worried about with these claims? >> that donald trump is going to

lose, and then he's going to say he didn't really lose that the whole american system stinks and was rigged, and that he should have been president. and he's going to have about 30% of the voting electorate that believes that. >> thanks so much for giving us the historical context on all of this we appreciate it. >> thank you. >> chris? >> all right a pivotal battle unfolding right now in mosul. this battle is being seen as a defining moment by u.s. authorities. what is going on there right now? we'll take you to the front lines. stay with "new day." life and death. 600 dollars. of abuse. prop 61.

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okay we do have breaking news for you now on what could be isis' last stand in iraq. iraqi forces are launching the much-anticipated battle for mosul. that's the last isis stronghold in the country. cnn's senior international correspondent nick paton walsh and his team are on the front lines and they are already coming under fire. they filed this report for us.

>> reporter: behind me now has just gone in what must surely be a substantial explosion. we haven't been hearing aircraft, so that may be one of a number of car bombs that isis has been employing in their bid to keep the peshmerga off this road. it is a volatile situation, and it is also one in which peshmerga at this stage appear to be prevailing. they've taken this five or six kilometer stretch of the roads here. but the villages around it do still remain volatile. and that is a question, what kind of resistance will they continue to face. the military, too, at some point will have to push down here towards mosul. but this has been an effort with much international support. a lot of coalition planning. american air power -- [ gunshots ]

>> one came right at me. what are they shooting at? let's move. >> okay, obviously very frightening situation there. nick paton walsh is on the front lines bringing us exactly how the battle is already unfolding. why is mosul so important when it comes to the fight against isis? here this morning with us to talk about it is cnn terrorism analyst and editor in chief of ctc sentinel paul cruickshank and cnn contributing analyzer kimberly dozier. you've reported obviously in war zones like this. what do you see already from nick paton walsh's reporting there? >> well, you're seeing the villages around mosul, they haven't reached the outskirts of the city itself. they've got a number of villages to take, and in every single one, you've got isil fighters, daesh fighters, who are going to be the holdouts. now u.s. officials think a lot

of the leaders have already fled, moved back to raqqah, leaving a force behind that will likely fight to the death. so while the iraqi army has been leafletting mosul and telling people to get out of the way, daesh, isis, doesn't want them to escape because as in other cities that they've held they're likely going to use these civilians like human shields. >> gosh. paul, why is mosul so important? >> it's absolutely key to the pretensions of being a state, so a caliphate, that keeps the legitimacy in the eyes of their followers all around the world. so if they lose mosul they're likely to be significantly deflated as a terrorist group, an entity controlling territory in iraq and syria. but also as a terrorist threat against the west in the medium to long-term. but of course in the short-term, there's real concern there could be a surge in isis terrorism against the west, and notably against europe because their

external operations unit is based in raqqah, not in mosul, so they're not likely to see their operations disrupted by this offensive. >> kimberly, as we've all learned, there's no way of predicts, obviously, what will happen once the, you know, bullets start flying, and who's going to win. but, in terms of mosul, how difficult do people think it will be to retake that city? >> it will probably take weeks, maybe months, because the isis fighters have known for some time that this offensive was headed their way. so they've had time to build car bombs, turn houses into explosive-laden ieds when troops enter them they can blow them up or can be triggered to blow up. they've dug in trempls, they've dug tunnels so they're going to make this as hard as possible for iraqi and coalition forces to take. and that means possibly a lot of civilian casualties. also, a great rush of people to escape the city, but you can see why they're fighting so hard.

this is the second largest city in iraq. when it falls, and probably going to fall by the end of the year, as coalition forces are able to encircle it and cut off all supplies, that's going to lead isis with basically raqqah as its capital inside syria, and the last holdout. so, big win for the obama administration and the iraqi administration, but syria still looking rather grim. >> absolutely. so paul if it goes the way the coalition forces hope, and if they're able to retake mosul away from isis, then what? i mean we've talked this morning already with the pentagon about the day after strategy and the pentagon has said don't worry we've thought of this. we know that there's lots of warring factions there who would all want to move in on mosul but it's really going to be up to the iraqi people to decide what happens. >> it's going to be extraordinarily difficult to secure and stabilize mosul, isis is likely to pivot towards guerrilla warfare towards terrorism. they're likely to target shia across the country in iraq to

try and blow the country up into another civil war which they'll hope to take advantage of. this does not end even if they manage to take back mosul. it's going to be very, very difficult. there's really no political plan for that region. there are different factions within iraq, with very, very different agendas for the future of iraq, notably the kurds, and then baghdad, the iraqi army is a shia dominated institution, 75% shia. they're going in to a majority sunni arab town up to 90% of the population, sunni arabs so there's a lot of potential for sectarian bloodshed, even between some of the factions fighting isis in the months ahead. but this may take months before they're able to take back the city. it may be days by the time they get to the outskirts. but very fierce fighting expected with isis. knivers lying in wait, they've built tunnels, booby traps, yooids and so on and so forth. this may be the most fierce

fighting we've seen so far. >> kimberly beyond all of those complications of course there's the humanitarian crisis that's unfolding. >> and u.n. and other humanitarian bodies have tried to prepare for this. they've prepared for a flood of say 400,000 people. that's one of the estimates. but it could be a much larger amount of people displaced. and in the past, they've had difficulties getting enough water and food to the area. they've also had difficulty with iraqi forces unfairly, they thought, vetting people who were trying to leave. now the iraqi army has said it would give amnesty to isis fighters. but as people leave they're probably going to be questioned, and we don't know how many jailed. the iraqi government is trying to look like the merciful force here but they also don't want to let any senior isis fighters escape in the process. >> oh, my gosh kimberly dozier, paul cruickshank thank you for spelling out how complicated all of this is. >> donald trump and his

supporters are pushing unsubstantiated claims that the election will be rigged. will this affect voters' trust of the system? we get the bottom line from our political director, next.

if trump loses, that's because the election was rigged. that's what he seems to be suggesting. donald trump himself and his supporters, that the election is rigged but where's the proof? just moments ago trump himself tweeted, quote, of course there's large-scale voter fraud

happening on and before election day. why do republican leaders deny what is going on? so naive! so, what of the basis of these claims? and how can this affect voters? let's get the bottom line from cnn political director david chalian. he has no proof. congressman steve king has no problems. are there problems with the system? of course there are. is there any proof of an election being changed by fraud no matter who you look at you can google to your heart's content there is zero steve king brought up florida as an example. doesn't really go anywhere. we have a little piece of sound from that interview. >> i would look like back at the 2000 election and the fiasco with florida and the 537 votes that decided the presidency, and say that if al gore had not accepted the decision of the supreme court, we would have had discredited elections -- i point to virginia and see where terry

mcauliffe has essentially by executive edict legalized tens of thousands of felons that by law can't be allowed to vote in virginia. there's piece after piece of this around this country that i say don't follow the law and do lean this thing in the wrong direction. we should look at those. we should abide by the law. we should be squared away with that and make sure we don't have illegals voting or registered. >> fact. what they do in virginia with former convicts many states do. the 538 votes in florida, there was never any proof of fraud. and, for him to say the democrats rig it, that was no democrat system down there in what happened in florida. steve king said i don't want to undermine people's confidence in the system. but, and then he said all that stuff. >> well, listen i think the best example from florida is to look at al gore's concession speech after the supreme court ruling because that was a reaffirmation of the fundamental small "v" democratic principle that our whole system thrives on which is

that when somebody wins the losers of the election believe that to be the legitimate winner. al gore expressed his opposition to the supreme court ruling but accepted the results. those are really important signal to his supporters, that's why i think what donald trump is going is so potentially dangerous. because, what is going to happen if, indeed, he loses this election and his supporters do not believe that that is a legitimate loss? >> we've already heard from one of them at a trump rally on thursday. he said i'm going to take her out. and the reporter said that sounds like a threat. and he said take it however you want i'm a patriot. we pride ourselves on the peaceful transfer of power. that is one of our sterling traditions in this country. when he says there's large scale voter fraud by any definition. yes there's voter fraud. there are isolated incidents. everybody knows them. there have been studies that have looked for decades and occasionally something sneaks through. but there's not large-scale voter fraud. >> not large-scale voter fraud. and in fact, yes, you're right there is voter friday we've seen

it. we've seen dead people vote like that exists. but the whole reason the system has been able to work is because actually it's how decentralized our system is. it's all these localities, counties, precinct levels -- >> bipartisan. >> bipartisan no doubt. or nonpartisan. but across the country, it's so decentralized to avoid large-scale voter fraud. that's actually how it's designed. >> it's one of the reasons that it's so antiquated and we don't have voting online. so the polls. we have the poll of poll out this morning the aggregate sampling the average of the last four biggest polls and you see 47-39 what do you think is driving it? >> what's driving it is obviously donald trump has suffered a really bad couple weeks here. ten day stretch now there's no doubt about that. and but if you look and this is why i think the poll of polls is so important to look at. yesterday "the wall street journal" poll and "the washington post" abc poll very different results. an eleven point lead in "wall street journal," four point lead

for hillary clinton all among likely voters. i don't think you can ever look at just one poll and hang your hat on it. the poll of polls which averages all the recent polls gives you a sense of where the race is overall and that's why i think it's important we do that. >> let's look at the phenomenon known as the access hollywood effect because that's been captured now in polls about how whether or not what they heard on that audio tape of donald trump saying what he likes to do to women if that changes how they will vote. voting for trump after the access hollywood tape. more likely 1%. hmm. less likely, 35%. no difference at all, 64%. >> i look at that and i say, okay, damaging, but not devastating perhaps. and when you're the trump campaign and you look at 64% no difference, these are die-hard partisans who have already made up their mind -- >> 88% it was reported of people say that they are locked in to their choice. >> exactly. so people are locked in. there's a very narrow persuadable universe. but that works to trump's benefit here. listen what happens is, as soon as something like that happened he loses republicans. not die-hard trump republicans

but republicans who wear the republican jersey no matter what every four years may not be so comfortable with him but are putting that jersey on and they don't like hillary clinton. they go away first. and then as he rehabilitates is able to take the fight to hillary clinton the republicans come back. and that -- if he's just losing republicans and bringing republicans back, he's still not adding what he needs to add. >> biggest thing you saw in the polls? >> well, in the nbc/"wall street journal" poll that 20-point lead for hillary clinton among women voters, that's huge. barack obama won female voters in 2012 by 11 points so that's a really important statistic. >> david chalian thank you for the bottom line. all right donald trump is ramping up his attacks on the media. he of course is warning of this rigged election because of the media. even tweeting thatsen should be canceled. >> what? >> yes. we're going to break it down with hour media experts, next. what do doctors from

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in speech, tweets and interviews, donald trump, and his representatives are claiming the media is an extension of the clinton campaign and rigging the election for the democratic nominee. here is newt gingrich on that. >> this is a coup d'etat. he said 14 million citizens in private ballots picked donald trump. 20 tv executives decided to destroy him. i think that without the unending one-sided assault from the news media trump would be beating hillary by 15 points.

>> let's bring in our cnn senior media correspondent host of cnn's reliable sources brian stelter, contributing editor at vanity fair and author of war at the "wall street journal," sarah ellison. great to have both of you here. who are these 20 top media executives who have declared a war on donald trump? >> if i knew i promise i would tell you. it's hard to disprove a negative of course when trump claims there's this massive conspiracy but the reality is, even if the media wanted to all get into cahoots together it's not possible. journalists are competitive. and the media is market driven. this doesn't even pass the smell test. but it does smell of desperation on the part of donald trump. everything we're seeing from the past few days and weeks is desperation. talking about a rigged election. claiming widespread voter fraud. all of this is coming from a man who knows he's losing. >> and people who know him, some of them have kind of had this prediction for some time, he's going to go down in the ugliest

way possible. one of the things that's ignored by newt gingrich and others is they're ignoring all these accusers who have come out. >> mm-hmm. >> what would it mean if the media ignored these women who came out because without basis because we didn't want to interrupt the election? then what would the story be? >> well that would be a huge scandal, as well. >> right f >> i mean obviously this is something -- i think the idea that trump has always been somebody who's been a winner. he talked about himself as a winner. he talked about himself when he was up in the polls that's all he wanted to talk about. so when the polls go against him, then he does have to have this sort of excuse. and of course you couldn't not -- these women who are coming forward are not being unearthed by the hillary clinton campaign. like it just doesn't -- it doesn't work that way. >> they don't know each other -- >> you would have -- >> they didn't know -- >> sooner -- >> so this is -- the reason -- things aren't as coordinated. i just had a conversation with someone who said well "the washington post" reporting on trump has osama bin laden really

great, quite aggressive and that's because jeff bezoes has a real vendetta against donald trump which to my understanding is just not true. but trump does like to talk about whether it's carlos slim at the new york "times" who owns "the new york times" or has a large take in "the new york times" or jeff bezos who owns "the washington post" i mean it is like six oligarchs working to the to kind of try to sway the election which brings me to my point that trump really is talking like a strongman in a kind of banana republic. i mean he's somebody who when he gets angry at something like this, a "saturday night live" skit. >> are we going to see trump tv? is that what the culmination will be? assuming he is now president of the united states there is now a little smoke there that suggestion. >> there is. sarah reporting months ago i think that there was talk within trump's inner circle about this possibility. this morning there's a financial "times" report that jared kushner, trump's son-in-law made a phone call to an investment banker to have a conversation about this possibility. it does make a lot of sense.

it's a logical next step for trump if he loses. it's also very, very hard to launch a television network or a streaming service. >> sarah, what's your reporting on how serious he is about trump tv? >> i think that it's sort of -- my reporting awhile ago was that he had identified that he has this huge audience of supporters that no one else had identified. not even fox news had figured it out. so they had figured something out and he was boosting the ratings of cnn and fox and abc and why weren't they monetizing any of that themselves. well, as everybody who works for these places knows, it's really hard to actually make money in television or in you know any kind of like an over-the-top streaming service. and so i think i mean he obviously has been sort of busy trying to be elected president. so that might be one of the reasons why we haven't really seen anything on this front but i also think the closer you get to actually executing on something like this the more the reality of it is daunting even oprah winfrey -- >> so added to the list -- >> it was very, very hard. >> yeah. >> and it still is added to the list of people who have to go

part of the rigging, "snl" they had a clip this weekend of course they're all over trump. watch this. >> please help us welcome the candidates, republican nominee, donald trump. and can we say this yet? >> probably fine. >> president hillary clinton. >> martha, she is trying to silence these women but they need to be respected. they need their voices heard. >> what about all the women accusing you of sexual assault? >> they need to shut the hell up. >> now, he used to love "snl" when he was a guest -- >> rumor is he was supposed to be on this coming weekend -- >> oh. >> is that going to happen now? >>s there a new episode this weekend and an episode right before election day. >> he says it should be taken off the air is, "snl" nobody's watching it, it's not funny. >> this is -- this is sort of a side point but someone has made the point that trump needs a thesaurus to expand on the like insults that he's throwing at the various people but i do think that of course "snl" no

politician loves the way they're mocked on "snl" but one thing hillary clinton has learned to do is laugh at herself a little bit. she got it just as good in this skate. the moment where they were making how she had to walk towards the audience member who was asking her a question. left, right, left, right. >> and she doesn't know her granddaughter's name. chelsea junior. >> comedy. right? >> that's right. >> thank you. great to see you guys. thanks so much for being here. >> thank you. >> well, i want to see what they do with the p.e.d. stuff that trump is alleging now can't wait to watch next week. after all that election stuff we need some good stuff next. whatcha' doin?

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all right. let's get some good stuff going here. the fuller cut barber shop outside ann arbor, michigan. promotes literacy by encouraging boys to read books featuring black characters and black history while they are in the chair. >> the kid can read. but what the kid did was put a book in his hand. that's the important part. >> isn't that great? barber's alex fuller and ryan griffin give parents a discount

shaving $2 off the price of hair cuts when kids try to read the books. >> i like your plan. >> barber shops. >> how cute was that little boy? that little boy is azorable. thank you. >> he did have a nice, fresh cut. >> all right. on that note time for "newsroom" with carol costello. hi, carol. >> hi. have a great day. "newsroom" starts right now. and good morning i'm carol costello. thank you so much for joining me. donald trump ramping up his claims that the election is a scam, and the results can't be trusted. >> the election is being rigged, the process is rigged. this whole election is being rigged. remember this, it's a rigged election. >> and while his surrogates are backing him up, many republicans are backing away, including his own running mate. trump's claims adding to dangerously high tensions simmering across the