>> ♪ i saw her today at the reception a glass of wine in her hand ♪ [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2016] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] >> >> the time magazine cover story out today, total meltdown, and a caricature of donald trump co-written by philip elliot, washington or correspondent for time magazine. thank you for being with us. we appreciate it. philip elliott: of course. host: so much to talk about, but let's begin with your piece in which you mentioned donald trump is, quote, consumed by petty grudges, angry over leaked recordings and now free of the republican party's shackles. what has been going on? philip elliott: wow, it has been nothing short of an epic meltdown inside trump tower. we've talked at length with several people trying to advise mr. trump off his ledge to get him back into a more traditional mode. he is just not going there. he is going to leave everything on the field, to use a tortured sports analogy, and just use

this in the last remaining days of his campaign to settle scores and to, basically, relitigate every wrong that he feels he has been suffering. this is a candidate who has, as we quote one official, just taken the party and has forced them to the darkest places possible. , nurturing the worst instincts of some of the conservative members of his party and torturing -- and that is not an exaggeration -- torturing the establishment-minded republicans who have devoted their entire lives to building up a conservative party in this country that can debate ideas and can talk about its history. this is about as far as from the party of george h.w. bush as you can imagine. host: so where does that put house speaker paul ryan, the

senate republican leader mitch mcconnell, and the so-called mainstream republicans as they try to maintain control of the house and the senate and figure out where the gop is going next? philip elliott: paul ryan is an interesting character here. he, he always had an uncomfortable and uneasy marriage with mr. trump that, ok, this is the guy who is the nominee of the party. it behooves the republican brand to not have to not lose a third , consecutive presidential race. it would be good for down-ballot candidates if mr. trump's supporters decided to show up and vote for republican candidates for senate and house. that is no longer the mindset inside speaker ryan's orbit or leader mcconnell's. that, they see mr. trump as a toxic figure inside the party that is, that could very much drag down candidates like kelly

ayotte in new hampshire, one of perhaps the most endangered republican senators facing re-election. democrats only need to capture four more seats and the vice presidency to flip, to capture the majority for the first time since -- and it's a very real thing. republicans are defending 24 seats on the map. that's a very large vulnerability for them. paul ryan over the weekend said that enough had been enough. he uninvited mr. trump to appear in mr. ryan's own congressional district. instead invited mike pence, the running mate, to fill the spot. mike pence said, no, i'm good. just take -- he took the weekend off the trail to figure out where this race goes, appearing with mr. trump has now become, it will become a liability for republican candidates because they will be forced to defend the indefensible that mr. trump

has said about women and the accusations he is facing on a nearly daily basis of past wrong action, not just words. host: and yet, donald trump is turning his attention to the media, "the new york times," saying that based on these wikileaks, the clinton campaign in collusion with the mainstream media -- how effective do you think that strategy has been or will be for donald trump? philip elliott: well, mr. trump's most loyal supporters of have never been a fan of what we would call the mainstream media. attacking has always been the most effective, but he is not running against "the new york times," he is running against hillary clinton. every hour he spends trying to fight with reporters and journalists, and anyone in that orbit is a minute he is not litigating his case against mrs. clinton. the clinton campaign says, you

trump wants to spend the next three weeks talking about the media, only about what the media is reporting on him, which are very damning stories about mister trump's previous actions and words. host: as you point out this is , going to force the republican party to rethink its own identity for the first time since the 1960s in the height of the civil rights movement. based on that, why are some republicans including the chairman of the party reince preiebus still with donald trump in light of everything that has happened over the last week and a half? philip elliott: it is survival at this point where paul ryan says this is a bridge too far, reince priebus is in a difficult position that this is a party he has overseen, long serving chairman relatively in a job that is not known for durability. but this is a party that he has overseen. this is a party he has

shepherded to where it is, and at no point did they step in and say, donald trump is not reflective of what it means to be a republican, and i think that is a true statement. reince priebus is now -- no one in his party stepped in and said no to mister trump. they allowed this to happen, they have to own it. at this there is no remaking the point, republican party in the little time we have left. there is only a managed collapse of mr. trump in the hopes he does not take down everyone r after theirn name. post it is worth remembering a : lot of americans don't like hillary clinton and can't bring themselves to vote for her. they might find mr. trump's behavior abhorrent, but they still hate hillary clinton, a decades long indoctrination of

conservatives to hate, hate is the right word here, hate hillary clinton and everything she stands for. that, the polling shows mister trump is heading towards a loss, there is still a part of this country that can never bring themselves to vote for that woman in particular. and finally philip elliott the , cover story, what we talked about in august, the cover story of time magazine, explain your approach. we, inelliott: well, august, it was a moment trump was coming out of the convention and having a very bad stretch. he was attacked muslim american parents of veterans. things were going off the rails at that point. this is more damaging for mr. trump that he is quickly approaching a point of no return , and he is not going to take just down his own campaign. he may take down the entire

republican party. host: the time magazine cover story on newsstands today and available online at time.com. philip elliott, washington correspondent, thank you for being with us. philip elliott: of course not thank you. trump is: donald campaigning in charlotte, north carolina at 7:00 eastern on c-span two. c-span, a look at economic policy proposal from hillary clinton and donald trump. then first lady michelle obama campaigning in manchester, new hampshire, and another chance to see remarks by donald trump speaking to voters in west palm beach, florida. tomorrow, president obama delivers remarks at a campaign rally for hillary clinton in cleveland, ohio. we will cover that live on c-span at 11:15 a.m. eastern.

and paul ryan visits republicans in madison, wisconsin at 1:00 eastern. livencer: watch c-span's coverage of the third debate wednesday night. the preview from the university of nevada las vegas starts at 7:30 p.m. eastern. the brief of the audience is that 8:30, and the debate is at 9:00 eastern. stay with us for viewer reaction. watch the debate live or on-demand using your desktop, phone or tablet at c-span.org. you can watch it or listen with the free radio app from the app store or google play. , the bloomberg politics managing editor mark halperin leads a panel on the state of the current presidential campaign and issues facing the

trump campaign in the last week. this is an hour and 20 minutes. >> so, welcome everybody. , it's great to see everybody again at the amazing at the table breakfast politics. sponsored of course by the pete peterson foundation. we're thrilled to have your and people live streaming on bloomberg.com. we are really thrilled to be talking about the economy. i know that over the past week, we really want to focus on issues that matter. i am really looking forward to hearing substantive talk today about both candidates and their economic policies and not some of the other things people in my profession at the been sent talking about the past week. mark halperin has great guests lined up, and it will be fantastic. i will bring up the executive vice president of the peter peterson foundation. thank you guys so much. have a great event. [applause]