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good evening. just after 9:00 p.m. here in washington, d.c. crunch time in a state that neither presidential candidate can take for granted and each would love to win. for hillary clinton, north carolina would be icing on a tar heel blue cake. for donald trump, it could open a new path to victory. which is why they are both there tonight, along with cnn's phil mattingly and jim acosta. jim, first, with the trump campaign. >> reporter: it's the election surprise nobody saw coming. donald trump sticking to the script. >> good job, by the fbi. >> reporter: gaining in some key battleground polls across the country, the gop nominee is showing an un-trump-like message discipline, consistently hammering clinton's e-mail mess along with her campaign manager,

john podesta, unearthed by wikileaks. >> she should look at him and say, podesta, you're fired. but she can't do that. she probably needs him as a witness in the criminal case. >> reporter: he's even offering a restrained response to president obama, who's pounding trump every chance he gets. >> why isn't he back in the office? sometimes referred to as the oval office. >> donald trump will turn washington upside down, day one. >> reporter: the trump campaign is staying on point in the ad wars, buying expensive spots during the world series and unveiling the stinging new attack on clinton's ties to disgraced ex-congressman, anthony weiner, whose alleged sexting to a 15-year-old girl sparked the latest fbi inquiry. >> hillary clinton is under fbi investigation again, after her e-mails were found on pervert anthony weiner's laptop. think about that. >> it's not a women's problem, it's a family problem. >> reporter: to improve trump's standing among women, the campaign dispatched daughter, ivanka, to new hampshire.

and trump's media-shy, wife, melania, to pennsylvania. >> we need to teach our youth american values. kindness, honesty, respect, compassion, charity, understanding, cooperation. >> reporter: but not all of trump's surrogates appear fully on board. consider ted cruz, who campaigned with the party's vice presidential candidate in iowa, but neglected to mention the man at the top of the ticket. >> he is someone who today i call my friend, and i very much look forward to calling him mr. vice president. >> reporter: an oversight cruz quickly corrected. >> i'll make a point, i'm getting ready to get on a gigantic airplane that has donald trump's name painted on the side of it. >> jim, what was trump's message tonight in north carolina, and was he still very much

on-message? >> reporter: yeah, anderson, he was on-message. he was focusing on military issues in this speech, national security, foreign policy spectrum of issues. that is very important in the state of north carolina, so no surprise that he hit on that. he had some medal of honor recipients on stage with him tonight. and at one point, he was suggesting that perhaps those dwis distinguished military veterans would not be happy having hillary clinton as their commander in chief because of the investigation she's under right now. but she also talked about the bravery of those veterans and sort of had an odd moment. here's what he had to say. >> they're so much more brave than me. i wouldn't have done what they did. i'm brave in other ways. i'm financially brave. big deal. these are real brave. when i look at these great admirals and these great generals and these great medal of honor recipients behind me, to think of her being their

boss, i don't think so. and you know, they're incredible patriots, they would never say a thing, but i know what they're thinking. it's not -- it's not for them, believe me. >> reporter: and anderson, we'll have to see over these next few days whether or not donald trump can continue to show this un-truun un-trump-like message discipline. his staff is loading up these final days. he has roughly seven events on his schedule. we're expecting that to perhaps double over this weekend. anderson? >> all right. jim acosta, busy couple of days. now, the clinton campaign, she's speaking out in raleigh. cnn's phil mattingly has that. >> it is great to be here. >> reporter: it's the 53,000 square-mile road block to donald trump's white house dreams. >> hello, north carolina! >> thank you, north carolina! wow! >> reporter: hillary clinton and her top surrogates flooding

north carolina, a state that could effectively clinch the race on november 8th. but it's far from a sure thing. a purple state for democrats in 2008, back to the republicans in 2012. remains exceedingly close. the latest cnn poll of polls in the tar heel state puts clinton ahead by just four points. >> this morning in florida, donald stood on a stage and said, and i quote, i'm honored to have the greatest temperament that anyone's ever had. now, he knows we can see and hear him, right? >> reporter: for clinton and her campaign, as polls tighten, it's a moment to focus on the clearest path to victory, and shift the race back into a referendum on trump. >> at another rally yesterday, actually said out loud to himself, stay on point, donald, stay on point.

his campaign probably put that in the teleprompters. >> reporter: a message magnified by the campaign's latest tv ad, which features what advisers maintain have been one of their most effective weapons, trump in his own words. >> i would look her right in that fat, ugly face of hers. >> he's a war hero because he was captured. >> this all coming as clinton maintains a four-point lead nationally in the latest cnn poll of polls, an advantage, but one that has been unquestionably shrinking, something underscoring the clinton campaign's increasingly targeted efforts to turn the obama coalition into the clinton coalition. to help make it happen, president obama making his case f for clinton today in florida. >> she doesn't whine or complain or blame others or suggest everything's rigged when everything's going here way. she just works harder and comes back better. >> reporter: joining clinton on the trail tonight in north carolina, bernie sanders and musician pharrell williams, a clear play more two crucial elements of a clinton victory. millennials and the

african-american vote. >> so you mentioned in your piece, the president was certainly fired up today, strongly appealing to north carolina voters. >> yeah, that's exactly right. anderson, it's no secret ow the president feels, he's outlined how he's been hammering donald trump every chance he gets. but what we've seen over the course of the last couple of days in north carolina and florida, is a president who is increasingly urgent, increasingly pointed in his attacks, and basically laying out the stakes. take a listen. >> if you disrespected women before you were in office, you will disrespect women as president. if you accept the support of clan sympathizers before you are president, you will accept their support after you're president. if you disrespect the constitution before you're president, and threaten to shut down the press when it says

something you don't like, or threaten to throw your opponent in jail in a live presidential debate without any regard for due process, if you discriminate against people of different faiths before you are president, then that is what you will do in office. except you will have more power to carry out the twisted notions that you had before you were in office! >> reporter: and anderson, we've been talking all day about the importance of the state of north carolina. no democrat has turned out voters in this state like president obama, even though he lost in 2012. that's exactly why he will be back here again tomorrow. the clinton campaign sees him as a major weapon trying to close out this very important state. anderson? >> all right, phil mattingly, thanks very much. new early voting data is yet another reason why both candidates have been wrapping up so much tar heel time. democrats are running about a quarter million voters ahead of

the gop there. not as good as four years ago, but close. elsewhere, good news for the trump side, republicans building their lead in ohio, keeping a slight edge in florida. right now the north carolina clearly a top battleground state. cnn's john king is back this hour to lay it all out by the numbers. there are those who say we should watch north carolina and north carolina alone. why? >> well, the democrats think and the republicans don't argue it's a checkmate state. if hillary clinton can win, it essentially blocks donald trump's math. let's go through some of this math. this is where we have the race right now. clinton at 270, trump at 179. republicans will argue this a bit. but for the sake of this hypothetical, let's say hillary clinton pulls out nevada in the early voting with latino. and let's say trump has a good night, otherwise, winning florida and ohio, look where that gets him, at 243. even if donald trump from this point on, let's say donald trump does crack the blue wall at 243. even if he were to win michigan and wisconsin, it's not enough for him if hillary clinton wins north carolina. it would take her over the top. so one of the other things you

look at here, if donald trump wins pennsylvania and these stay blue -- go back for me, there we go, she gets over the top. so it's 15, it's part of the important map, but also the message. david axelrod lost it in 2012, won it in 2008. democrat can afford to lose it, but the they win it, it's a message, we turned a red state blue. but for donald trump, it's just very hard. can you get him to 270 without north carolina? yes, but near impossible. north carolina tells you a lot, because of the evenly divided partisanship and demographics. if you're wing north carolina if you're donald trump, probably means you're winning other big states too. >> so clinton's there tonight. what are the keys to victory for her there? >> let's switch maps and take a look at that. it's such an evenly divided demographic state. and we know from that early voting data and from reality, her coalition is a little different than his. quinnipiac university has her up three points. that's statistically very close, within the margin of error. a statistical tie, slight advantage, clinton, look at it that way. and when you bring this up and take a look here, you want to

look at this by the numbers. this is 2012 exit policy for the obama performance and this is the quinnipiac poll where clinton is now. she's running a little ahead where the president was among white voters, but a little below the president among white voters. she's running a little below the president with men. that's a warning sign for her, donald trump as well. running about even, slightly ahead of the president with women. here's where this is going to come into play. not just north carolina, but here's when i it's a message state. what about white voters with college degrees? she's running a little ahead of president obama there and specifically among white women with college degrees, ten points ahead of where president obama was in 2012. that is the key here. if hillary clinton runs up these numbers here and keeps it close, the trade-offs, she's plus down here to make up for the minuses down here. she'll probably squeak it out in north carolina and that blocks trump. >> how does trump win north carolina? >> number one, run up the white vote. barack obama won it with 35% of the white vote in 2008.

he got 31% of the white vote in 2012 and just barely lost. that's important for donald trump. let me switch the map back to 2012 and do it this way. donald trump must run it up here -- doesn't want to work for me here. must run it up here, must run it up out here in the rural areas. but to that suburban point, i want to pop up the raleigh-durham area, wake county. a lot of african-american votes, but not just african-americans. you have a lot of whites in the suburbs. he can't afford to lose by 10 or 11 points. he has to get closer where you have african-american voters, the suburbs, he cannot lose by that margin in mecklenburg county. he has to -- if he makes inroads with african-americans, great, but this is more about the suburbs outside of charlotte. he's got to keep that close and run it up in the rural areas. >> john, i want to take a closer look at the focus. yesterday in chapel hill, president obama went to attention to the controversy over voting laws there. today lick highlighted another hot-button issue. listen. >> just a few days ago, i want

you to hear this, because this has never happened to a major -- to a nominee of a major party. just a few days ago, donald trump was endorsed by the official newspaper of the ku klux klan. they wrote their endorsement under the stloegan of his campaign, make america great again. they said it's about preserving white identity and they've placed their faith and hope in him. >> a quick reminder, the trump campaign has disavowed that endorsement. back with the panel again. jeffrey lord, does that worry you, that hillary clinton is -- >> no. first of all, that's a flat-out, if i may say this, lie. i mean, the ku klux klan was formed as the military arm of the democratic party. >> oh -- >> i'm sorry, i'm sorry. >> we're talking about 2016.

>> i'm sorry, but it exists in the first place because of your party. which has never apologized for this. >> who did they endorse? >> they endorsed woodrow wilson. >> beyond the -- >> and we protected it. >> i'm still waiting for you -- >> beyond the history, just right now, in 2016, does it matter in this election for donald trump? >> it matters -- >> it matters -- >> it matters to reject racism and anti-semitism, which they stand for. and that should apply not just to the klan, but to all sorts of people like al sharpton. but here's what -- >> whoa, whoa, whoa. >> i'll let you go first. >> the ku klux klan literally lynched people, terrorized people. >> let him respond -- >> it's just unfair. to whatever you may think about al sharpton, i think that's unfair. second, let's look at this throughout the week. what we've had this week is david duke on the united states senate stage, saying that hillary clinton deserved to have the electric chair. you had a church that was -- a black church that was bombed in

mississippi. and you have the kkk to come out in their newspaper and endorse donald trump. so when you think of these things and look at it in the ttality like that, then there is this element. and true, it may not be donald trump, but there is this element that many people believe he represents. so there's a young lady who -- miss wiggins. miss wiggins attempted to get housing from donald trump in new york city and she was discriminated against, because of the color of her skin. the central park five. they've been terrorized by donald trump since they were found innocent in the first place. and now over and over and over again, and so these are real people going out there telling real stories about zr discriminatory practices of donald trump. >> anderson, there's nothing new under the sun here. we're in the home stretch. hillary clinton's numbers are cratering because she's lied to the fbi. she's under criminal investigation. wikileaks is an embarrassment to the democrat party. and obamacare in north carolina is going up 40%. so what do the democrats do? the tried and true method. they play the race card. they did it against mitt

romney -- they did it against mitt romney, they did it against -- >> let me bring up -- >> this is certainly not what the democrats talked about doing in the final days of this election. i mean, it was supposed to be kind of, going high. she is clearly running -- >> well, she -- >> running scared and going after donald trump's character. >> she's not running scared. she is making sure that the contrast is real. because there's no question that the -- >> but the whole idea of going high -- >> so the fbi news on friday certainly, you know, it was a huge stink bomb that left a putrid smell, that hopefully is dissipating now. but what she needs to do right now, frankly, it is the example of -- the perfect example of darwinian methodology in politics. you have to adapt to your situation. so, yes, she is adapting to her situation. and what is that? you have to contrast at the end of a campaign, if you have something like the fbi news come at you, you have to go hard on the contrast.

and that's exactly what she's doin doing. >> one thing my friend, jack kingston, my friend stated, is that they are playing the race card. because congressman, you don't want to deal with race. >> let me finish -- >> you don't want to deal with race. >> just let him -- ask and then congressman -- >> as the member of congress who authored the bill for the civil rights museum, located five blocks from here, and now you're saying, i don't want to deal with race, that -- >> apologize to the central park five. why don't you apologize to miss may wiggins. >> the central park five -- >> getting around to apologizing for slavery? i'm still waiting for that. >> are we supposed to be shocked that in the last days of the campaign, the campaigns are going negative? they're going negative? >> hillary's is.

>> oh, come on! donald trump is, too. >> they're going negative. but the truth of the matter is, and bakari, you know these numbers, that the black vote is down in north carolina 22.7% early voting now. we cannot compare hillary clinton to barack obama, obviously, it's going to be lower. but it is a number that concerns democrats and what the president was trying to do and what hillary clinton is trying to do is to outline the stakes of this campaign to people of color in a very important wait. >> david, you know north carolina very well. president obama won in 2008, did not win in 2012, right? >> i wanted -- >> he won it and i lost. >> okay. >> that's how -- i'm sure that's how he remembered it. >> so what is happening there now. what needs to happen for either campaign? >> look, i think it is a marginal race. and it will be a turnout electi election.

and the reason that brarack obaa is spending so much time there, he can galvanize those constituencies that are lagging behind. young voters, african-american voters. he's going to marcus in florida where the same is true and the visit to philadelphia is a turnout visit we are now in that phase of the campaign, where we're talking about turnout. but let me make a point about where i think this campaign is and how we got here. a lot has been put on the fbi tape, and i think really what's happened is, that as we get a distance from the release of that "access hollywood" tape and the debates, and trump has settled down and is reading off of teleprompters and isn't acting up, republicans are coming home to him. and this is becoming more of a traditional national election and turnout is going to be in these battleground states, a big deal. >> you made an interesting point last night, which i've been thinking about, which is that states return to their dna. >> most states do. >> explain what that mean?

>> michigan has voted democrat for president since 1998. therefore, we should assume, its dna is to vote democrat for president, unless something changes. donald trump is an interesting candidate, because of his trade message, because of his crossover appeal, he certainly has more -- you look at michigan, you're going to say, donald trump has a better chance than john mccain. john mccain was running against the first obama campaign. they ran a great campaign, but i'm sorry, that was a democratic year. they are going to win and turned a whole bunch of red states blue, to their credit. you can look at the states, but donald trump has not cracked through anywhere yet. so you're looking at, that doesn't mean he won't. but it's late, we have time. but most states, look, california is going to vote democrat for president. anybody disagree? new york is going to vote democrat for president? texas might be a little closer this time. it's going to vote democrat for president. there are only six, eight, sometimes ten states that are really in play, and that's what we got when we look at ohio, north carolina, and florida, are going to decide this election. >> a lot more to talk about, including dana bash, that's reporting on something the panel argues about every single night, the ground game. more on that, ahead.

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i don't know what that means. never said any of those things. the only ground game i actually kind of do know a little bit about and the unwith that's already underway, wherever the presidential campaign, is a game of inches and feet, as in feet on the pavement. anyway, more on how the two campaigns are doing from cnn's dana bash. >> reporter: on the ground -- >> i'll mark you down at 12:00 on saturday for phone banking. >> reporter: on the stump. >> if we vote, we win. >> get oit and vote! >> reporter: it's all now about getting out the vote. for republicans, that means learning from their mistakes. after their lagging 2012 operation failed, the republican national committee began working three years ago to step up their game. >> how is what you're doing in 2016 different from what you did in 2012? >> we are 100 miles away from where we are in 2012. >> the biggest difference, activists now use this phone app to get out the vote. >> it will show you their party affiliation, how reliable they are as a voter, their age, stuff like that. just click that voter.

take a survey. boom, right there. >> and it gives volunteers what's called dynamic scripting, prompting different pitches to voters, depending on their answers. information instantly sent back to rnc headquarters. >> we need to make sure they know when the election and figure out who they're going to support so we can drive them out. >> now in the final push, thousands of staffers and volunteers are using that app in battleground states across the country, the rnc leading trump's ground operation, says they will complete 17 million door knocks the by election day, up from 11.5 million in 2012. it's all very ambitious, but it's been done before, by the democrats. >> i'm doing great. what's your name? >> republican strategists admit they're trying to emulate the obama machine that crushed the gop for two cycles. armies of democratic activists are spread out over the same key states as republicans. clinton campaign aides say

they've signed up some 1 million volunteer shifts for the last 96 hours alone. in some ways, team clinton is old school, using paper and clipboards, putting iniallies at the end of each day. still, the clinton system is very high-tech, using social media to build on that vaunted obama operation. >> text plan to 27246. it's now going to walk me through making my entire voting plan. >> a personalized plan for where to vote, when to vote, and even how to get there. >> forcing people to get specific and make a commitment. >> exactly. i'm taking public transit, voting in the morning and i know my polling location. >> so we're just focused on the turnout right now. >> reporter: translation, team clinton knows exactly who her voters are. now it's all about making sure

those voters actually cast their ballots. >> dana's back with us. the campaign is also focusing on voter turnout in some campaign ads. >> absolutely. there's the ground war, the air war, and the air war we've been talking about, the fact that there's a barrage of new ads even this week. and on that note, hillary clinton is outspending donald trump, big-time. as of now, the clinton campaign is poised to spend $20 million more, just this week, than donald trump. >> david, i mean, you know this stuff firsthand. i mean, how do the two ground games stack up and how important is the advantage to hillary clinton? >> the difference between them is that the clinton campaign is in control of its open ground game. and they're focused on hillary clinton. the republican operation is focused on bringing republicans out. but they're not trump focused and they're not coordinated to t degree that perhaps they should be, with the trump campaign. so it's unclear to me what the -- there could be places

where they're bringing out voters for republican candidates who aren't necessarily trump voters. >> let me just add a little bit to that. the rnc and the trump campaign is more coordinated than i think people realize. they are -- just for example, i was in iowa at that republican center, and the iowa state director, eric branstad, is literally next door to the rnc director and the governor's son. they're actually working in the same offices in many places in these battleground states. and they have constant -- it's not the same as being under the same roof, but -- >> part of the benefit that the clinton folks have had is that they've had a long run-up to this. they've been accumulating data for a long time. they've been focused on this program for a long time. so, i mean, it should be -- i think it should be an advantage to them. >> my question is, number one, i think -- they have -- his people now, she got rid of her 2008 team in large part and hired the obama team, which is unique. so it's the third time for a lot of these people or the people who are teaching the new people

how to experience that. my question is, i don't mean this in a bad way at all, 2008 -- >>, generally when people say that, they mean it in a bad way. >> 2008 was a -- you know, was a breakthrough campaign or a democratic year. 2012, you had a race much like this. so in the sense of that, you know, are they tested for this week? last week they were thinking about, let's win -- >> look, i think technology has set such a pace. if we had done in 2012 what we had done in 2008, we would have been much less successful. you have to grow. >> which is why you saw, the democrats are doing that unbelievably. but so are republicans. >> isn't it true -- >> combine the technology you're talking about with the extra money that hillary has with the late edge. she has $171 million extra total on hand, excluding super pac. she can match him wherever he is running late ads. >> she has to check him in those states. >> she can check him and -- >> corey lewandowski last night

was saying that this whole notion of ground game is sort of antiquated and old school and they're seeing a kind of enthusiasm that has not been seen before. >> i think that's true. >> field of dreams theory. >> not all voters react the same way to the same stimulus, whether it's a tv ad or somebody knocking on the door. it is my understanding, though, over the years that democrats have a better ground game, but get more out of it because their voters react better to it than republicans who -- john spicer, you know, from the rnc, has really started working on this. in 2013, we had 7,000 paid staffers. the 13 million doors that they knocked on, those aren't fake numbers. those are real. he's spent a lot of time in and i think we feel good about where we are. >> i think it's common knowledge that democrats do this better. all we have to do is point to the last two elections. but i kind of feel like we're in the same place as we were in 2012. at that time, the republicans bet on, i believe it was called orka. they bet on orka. and i remember late at night,

everybody thought orka was going to work and the reason it didn't is because the first time they tested orka was on election night. and then it failed. >> they've learned from that mistake. >> yeah. they have a much better system this time. i think the question is, to dana's point, here in iowa, a state where you have a republican governor who's rebuilt the party and has done a very nice job rebuilding the party who very early on said, whatever reservations, i'm with trump. in other places, you have dissidence, ohio, for example. so you wonder if it gets that close in one or two states, is there a little bit -- >> i was thinking about orca, a bad movie -- >> my only other point in that orka is you build this machine and that machine is built to go out and get a voter for you. it's still yet to be seen whether this lost white voter that donald trump is trying to bring back, that didn't vote for john mccain, that didn't vote -- >> you remember that day -- >> that's not what this new rnc -- >> at the end of the day, what technology should do is allow you to identify those voters that are high-propensity voters for you, who are high-propensity

to come out and vote or who can be motivated to vote, so you can target them like a laser and bring them out. >> they have come to my door in pennsylvania just the other day, were knocking me on the door handing me stuff for donald trump. >> did they not know who you were? >> no, they were working the neighborhood there. and i have to say, again, and we've talked about this again, the trump signs are everywhere. everywhere. and i've seen literally two. and i've been to the headquarters and see what's up. they're handing these things out -- >> we talked about pennsylvania on the side a moment ago. one of the things -- i'm having sort of flashbacks to 2012, when there was this big rush at tepid, you'll remember, i was assaulted on television by some folks saying, you're falling behind in pennsylvania, in michigan, in minnesota, and you're going to lose those states. and the fact is that the polls at that time were probably no better and in some cases worse for barack obama than they are for hillary. >> i'm going to agree with you

in 2008. >> the transit strike affect anything in philadelphia? i mean, could that have a -- >> yes. >> it would appear to me that would keep symptom democraome d >> maria? >> first of all, signs don't vote. but it's the same argument that you make about enthusiasm. enthusiasm doesn't automatically mean that all of those people at trump rallies are going to go out and vote. to david's point, i do think that hillary clinton's ground game, because she has invest ed in this so much over a year and a half, in this infrastructure, and it is hers. the campaign gets to design it, gets to say what every volunteer is going to do. i think that will add at least two points to a lot of these polls we're seeing right now. >> david, because obama's enthusiasm higher than hillary clinton's? >> yes, and particularly among younger voters and american voters. and that's why they're deploying him, michelle, to try and -- >> and bernie. >> in these key states to --

>> remember this, obamacare in north carolina is going up 40%. obamacare nationally does not have a good brand, if you will. it's going up in other states. but in philadelphia, 53%. so -- >> i think it's 2% in ohio. so do you think hillary clinton will win ohio? >> let's take a quick break. we've got a lot more with the panel, including the battle on utah, where independent evan mcmullin is doing his best to rye to throw a race into the race. his goal, to block hillary clinton and donald trump from getting to 270. advil pm combines the number one pain reliever with the number one sleep aid. gentle, non-habit forming advil pm. for a healing night's sleep.

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- i was diagnosed with parin early 2013.lly it took awhile to sink in. we had to think a little more seriously about saving money for the future and for the kids. - the income of airbnb really helped to mitigate the stress. - but we have that flexibility of knowing that if you know things get worse, we have this to help keep us afloat. - so that's very, very important for us. in most presidential elections, utah is a lot for republicans, but this is not most elections. in a new monmouth university

poll, donald trump has a lead over hillary clinton. independent candidate evan mcmullin is at 24%. gary johnson and jill stein in the single digits. mcmullin is only one on the ballot in 11 states. he's registered as a write-in in others. his goal is to block both major party candidates to gets to 270 electoral votes needed to win. here's what he said earlier on cnn. >> people in utah are very uncomfortable with donald trump and opposed to him, but they also don't like hillary clinton, due to her corruption and big government policies. so, our job, my job, in this campaign, is to convince utahns that they should come onboard with our strategy, which is, in this case that the election is so tight, if they vote with us, if they stay with us, and we can win a state or two, we can block both hillary clinton and donald trump. >> that's what he hopes to do. does he have a chance? stephanie elam reports. >> reporter: never hillary and turned off by trump, voters like rhett fix are turning deeply red utah into a battleground state.

>> i'm a conservative. >> reporter: the difference in the beehive state this election is evan mcmullin. the 40-year-old mormon says he's advocating true conservative values. fix, a mormon who votes republican, choose mcmullin for president. >> looking at the two main party candidates, neither one of them really have the values that i feel and the character that this country needs to represent the united states of america. >> of the republicans in utah, about 85% are mormon. >> it's pretty surreal, this year, to see electoral maps that have utah painted a as a battleground state. >> reporter: he says never before has a republican nominee been so out of sync with traditional mormon values. >> you have mormons that are siding with trump, many of whom are doing so reluctantly, and another group who have been waiting all year for some alternative that they could

live, because they couldn't go and vote for hillary clinton. you add on top of that his own personal morality, the reaction to the tape, the way he treats women, the way he just lashes out at people. >> reporter: this has made mcmullin appealing to many members of the church of ladder day saints in utah. on top of that, there are more than 515,000 active registered voters unaffiliated with any party in the state. that may also bode well for the independent candidate. but for some, a mcmullin victory is ultimately a clinton victory. lds member maureen anderson voted for trump. >> you weren't swayed to perhaps vote for evan mcmullin? >> no. >> why not? what was it about him that didn't appeal to you? >> i just think that right now -- it's a two-party system and voting for a third party candidate is not the way the system works. and just because he's lds isn't a reason why i would pick someone to vote for. >> i think you need to vote your

conscience. vote for what you feel is best for us as a country. >> reporter: stephanie elam, cnn, salt lake city, utah. >> andi ioio iojohn king is bac some numbers. what is the electoral significance of utah? >> normally, anderson, not much. it's just six and we've put them in the republican column. but let's just take a look, pop this out, take a look at this poll stephanie was just talking about. 24, so compared to polls a week or two ago, donald trump looks like he's in better shape. let's go back in time a little bit. mitt romney got 73% of the vote in utah, four years ago. what does that say about conservative support for donald trump. let's go back again, 2008, john mccain got 63%. even in a big democratic year, john mccain got 63%. what's that say about donald trump's conservative support? it's a warning sign in utah, and the question is, what's the trickle effect on other states. i want to go back to one, it's not normally -- we don't worry about utah. let me go back to 2000. see this race? remember this race. al gore won the popular vote. george w. bush won the white

house with 271 electoral votes. one extra, one to spare. most people think if donald trump can pull this off, that's what we'll end, donald trump winning with 271, 272, 273. not a blowout. well, then you might have six, goes to evan mcmullin, he doesn't get there. is that a dream scenario? maybe. but donald trump is trying to mount what would be an epic historical comeback. he can't afford to lose those six. just can't. >> john, thanks very much. rejoining the panel, does utah worry you? >> no. no, now that i so ethethese pol no. i think republicans are coming home. they're coming home in pennsylvania, they're coming home everywhere, i think. >> we're see vrg public republicans who abandoned him in the wake of the "access hollywood" tape, chaffetz and others. >> again, this whole fbi thing, the culture of corruption. this is just being pounded away on conservative talk radio and conservative outlets. and that message is clearly getting through, aided, i have to say, by hillary clinton

herself and her conduct. when you have people like tom friedman from "the new york times" saying she was unbelievably stupid to be doing this, i mean, that message gets out there. and it is resonating with people. >> bakari? >> one of the things i think we can see in utah, and i'll leave this up to john and deploskand have to look at the mormon republican vote in utah, because that doesn't just affect utah, but that also translates into nevada. so when we're starting to look at maybe not a close race where he wins in utah, it may be a close race in nevada, where if he doesn't get and consolidate all of those gop base, which include mormon republicans, he could be in trouble. >> if we see this happen, that's a big thing to watch. there's been a mormon and a conservative revolt against trump out there. governor romney spends a lot of time in utah now, and he was telling friends just a few weeks ago, a few days ago, actually, he thought evan mcmullin had a chance to win. that poll would suggest otherwise. i would guess based on what we've seen in our other polling out west, there seems to be this

consolidation that donald trump wins utah. the story of utah will be after the election. evan mcmullin and other conservatives are saying, this is not done. the fights in the republican party, trump wins or loses are not ending on election night. >> i agree. >> and romney is front and center. romney was the first never-trumper. and romney areas a lot of weight in the state of utah. and so i think that matters. i think in the end, utah will still be republican. >> romney's popularity is confined to utah. >> he did run for president once. i'm talking 2016, in the republican party, romney is not one of our heros anymore. he was a moderate, not a tough campaigner. he apologized for being a conservative. he did not, embrace his grandfather, which would have been a great idea for trying to get -- >> but congress -- >> the reality is that romney is

part of the establishment that donald trump has run against and done so -- >> and his running mate, paul ryan, this is the conversation that's going to go on -- >> and to that point -- >> ryan is a young man and he's -- >> congressman, i covered you and your former colleagues for a long time in politics. and romney aside, to john's point, there is a very, very deep split, that is getting deeper and deeper with each election within the republican party. and if there is a president trump, it's going to be fascinating to see how he works with lindsey graham and ben sasse and even mitch mcconnell, people who are not even close to being donald trump -- >> i think that party split is going to turn out to be a good thing. it's going to take a while for us to figure out, what do you do with the tea party folks who put vote parody often over philosophy or getting something done. because sometimes you just have

to compromise. >> i think that -- >> but i think it will happen. and i think it will be -- >> it could be that you'll have a president trump and that will be interesting. the odds are right now that you'll have a president clinton, and it seems to me given the deep fissures in the republican party, that the only thing that unites republicans is anti-clintonism, as it's the only thing that's united some factions of the party, has been anti-obamaism. so what it does portend is an environment that is going to be a great deal of -- >> except for i do think, and i mentioned this earlier, that you know, maybe not a huge percentage, but there are republicans out there who will not vote for trump. and i think what this fight for utah does is that it underscores the issues, as much as the fbi is now in the news and as much as trump is going to continue to bring it up and there's a reason why hillary clinton is contrasting, is because the issues that donald trump faces, the negative issues, the 12 women who have accused him, the upcoming trial for trump university and the fraud, the

upcoming rape trial that he has on december 16th. these are issues that he continues to face. none of that has changed. and i think it benefits voters to remind people of the contrast and the issue at hand. >> let me put this in context of what we saw today with plamelan trmp. if the republican party were a unit, donald trump would be a stronger candidate for president. instead of having melania trump who gave a good speech today about bullying, you would have joni ernst and nikki haley out there and george w. bush, who is literally the best candidate and campaigner that the party has and you would have mitt romney. >> hillary has been in politics for 30 years. barack obama had has the presidency now for eight. they're not talking about what they did for health care. they're not talking about what they did for national security. they're not talking about jobs. that's the difference between hillary clinton -- >> nobody is. >> no, donald trump -- >> actually, obama talked about health care quite a lot today. >> donald trump and president obama drew big crowds when they

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florida's long before a pivotal swing state, and the biggest with 29 electoral votes. hillary clinton and donald trump are locked in a dead heat in the sunshine tied at 45%. both campaigns making a final push across the state. today they targeted the same city and we talked to supporters on each side. >> reporter: one day in jackson day florida, two political rallies with different allegiansallegian

allegianc allegiances. donald trump speaking to his supporters. >> wow, great crowd. >> president obama speaking to his and hillary clinton supporters. >> it is good to be in jacksonville. >> in a state where the polls are deadlocked. so how to break that deadlock? >> what advice would you give hillary clinton about how to win florida and how to win this election if she asked yourself advice? >> she has to continue staying positive. i like the whole they go low, we go high and stay above the fray. >> reporter: if donald trump says give me some advice, what do i need to focus on, what do you say? >> just keep his calm, like he said yesterday, coast along. he's doing fine. >> at both rallies, many to stay positive, but that's definitely not a unanimous recommendation for the final days of campaigning. >> i think you should talk about hillary clinton and the things that she's said and she's called us -- we voters, half the

country, deplorables. >> we need to focus on creating a proper women's legacy. >> what does that mean? >> meaning hillary is not the proper legacy for my daughters, for me, and for every woman in america. >> at the obama rally for clinton. >> i'm not a woman, i'm never going to have the correct perspective, but in my view, i don't understand how you can't be a woman and be offended by the things trump has said. >> do you think she should be talking about donald trump? >> somewhat. he's the most dangerous candidate in my lifetime. >> notable at both these rallies, the utter lack of faith that compromise or being conciliatory could lead to someone switching to trump, or someone who favors trump, switching to clinton. >> reporter: what do you think of the trump supporters? >> there's something underline, devotion to this man. >> the people voting for hillary, are just like hillary. you're not going to switch them. >> gary, did you talk to any trump or hillary clinton supporters that want him to stay

off the attack on the election? >> reporter: i talked to clinton and trump supporters who want their candidates to stay completely positive until election day, no attacks at all. but that comes with a huge caveat for most of those people and that is if their candidate is attacked then they want their candidate to attack. anderson. >> all right. gary, thank you very much. we'll be right back. i love my shop, but my back pain was making it hard to sleep and open up on time. then i found aleve pm. the only one to combine a safe sleep aid plus the 12 hour pain relieving strength of aleve. now i'm back. aleve pm for a better am.

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before we go, a quick programming noted it tuesday, we'll be on wall to wall, tuesday election day, right here on cnn. that does it for us, "cnn tonight" with don lemon starts now. if y if you thought the world series was a nail biter, you ain't seen nothing yet. this is "cnn tonight," i'm don lemon. hillary clinton and donald trump hold dueling rallies in north carolina and that is no coinciden coincidence, my friends. she has a slim lead but he couldn't afford to lose it. trump speaking on the military and getting in a dig on hillary clinton. >> under the failed leadership of hillary -- talk about leadership. what leadership? i don't want to use the word in the same sense. >> while clinton says