[ cheers and applause ] if is "nightline." tonight, hillary versus bernie. a heated first debate but also finding something surprising to agree on. >> the american people are sick and tired about hearing about your damn e-mails. >> thank you. me, too. me, too. >> vice president joe biden absent from the action while donald trump is on the way to insert himself from afar. plus, it's a hollywood romance in the ages. tom hanks and steven spielberg teaming up again in the new cold war thriller" bridge o spies." >> the next mistake our country makes could be the last one. >> 16 oscar nominations between them but you will never guess what spielberg has his eye on next. >> yeah, yeah. and breaking tonight. lamar odom found unconscious. the former l.a. lakers

basketball star and ex-husband of reality star cloe kardashian rushed to the hospital from a nevada breath nevada brothel. but first, the nightline 5. >> it takes a lot to run this business be i really love it. i'm on the move all day long. and sometimes i just don't eat the way i should so i drink boost to get the nutrition that i'm missing. >> boost complete nutritional drink has 26 vitamins and minerals including calcium and vitamin d and ten grams of protein to help maintain muscle. all with a great taste. >> i don't plan on slowing downey time soon.

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what does a presidential debate look like without donald trump? after the republicans pulled no punches in their showdowns, the democrats finally having their moment in the spotlight. front-runners hillary clinton and bernie sanders facing off for the first time. surprising some on lookers with alternating policy attacks and an unexpected truce. >> reporter: right out of the gate the tough questions. >> well, you say anything to get elected. >> reporter: anderson cooper asking hillary clinton about her recent flip-flops, from gay marriage to last week's trade deal. >> well, actually i have been very consistent over the course of my entire life. i have always fought for the same values and principles. but like most human beings, including those of us who run for office, i do absorb new information, i do look at what's happening in the world. >> reporter: but the real sparks flying between the top two contenders, clinton and bernie sanders, going toe to toe for the first time. the first hot button issue, gun control. >> is bernie sanders tough enough on guns? >> no, not at pull. >> reporter: with clinton

>> senator sanders did vote five times against the brady bill. he also did vote, as he said, for this immunity provision. i voted against it. i was in the senate at the same time. it wasn't that complicated to me. it was pretty straightforward to me. that he was going to give immunity to the only industry in america. everybody else has to be accountable but not the gun manufacturers. >> what i can tell secretary clinton that all the shouting in the world is not going to do what i would hope all of us want, and that is keep guns out of the hands of people who should not have those guns and end this horrible violence that we are seeing. >> reporter: but the most dramatic moment came after she was pressed on a private internet server for e-mails. >> what i did say was a mistake. what i did was allowed by the state department but it wasn't the best choice. but let's just take a minute here and point out that this

the republican national committee. it is a partisan vehicle as admitted by the house republican majority leader mr. mccarthy to drive down my poll numbers. big surprise. >> reporter: and that's when sanders surprised the crowd with this. >> let me say something that may not be great politics. but i think the secretary is right. and that is that the american people are sick and tired of hearing about your damn e-mails. >> thank you. me, too. me, too. >> enough of the e-mails. let's talk about the real issues facing america. [ applause ] >> thank you, bernie. thank you. >> reporter: a crowd pleasing moment that won even the approval of their arch enemy, donald trump. he tweeted, good move by bernie s. it was one of many sanders applause lines throwing out progressive red meat throughout the night. >> the planet we're going to leave our kids and grandchildren

may not be habitable. make sure our 350e78 have education and jobs rather than jail cells. take back our government from the handful of billionaires and create the vibrant democracy we know we can and should have. >> well, i thought bernie sanders did very well. of all the folks on the debate stage tonight i thought he did the best. he was the most disciplined on message. he kept returning to the message. he was the most passionate about his message. and i thought if you came in liking bernie sanders, then you loved him after this. and i thought he probably more than anybody probably got a little bit more of a bump from this debate than anybody else. he probably didn't position himself well for general election but i think he did himself well among democratic primary voters. >> reporter: but throughout the debate hillary clinton stayed in in command of the issues and reminding voters that this clinton presidency would make history. >> i think being the first woman president would be quite a change from the presidents we've had up until this point, including president obama. >> reporter: but she also took

care to distance herself from her husband. >> i would not ask anyone to vote for me based on my last name. i would ask them to listen to what i'm proposing, look at what i accomplished. >> reporter: not in the audience tonight, former president bill clinton. he tweeted this photo of himself in front of the tv in his hotel room saying what happens in vegas is i watch hillary clinton prove she's the most qualified candidate for potus. #i'mwithher. judging from the audience and virtual one tweeting from home, political analysts say hillary clinton did more than hold her on. >> i thought he looked as hillary always looks, she's very competent, very composed, very sbel jenlt, and very experienced. i don't think she helped herself because she didn't deal with some fundamental problems that she has related to being genuine and related to being likable. >> reporter: the latest abc/"washington post" poll showing clinton still enjoying an advantage over sanders. despite his recent surge. earlier today, the super pac draft biden put out this

from the last democratic convention to push him to run. >> it's about being able to look your child in the eye and saying, honey, it's going to be okay. >> reporter: but the veep staying quiet tonight choosing to watch the action from home. winning favor in nevada is key since it's the party's third nominating state after iowa and new hampshire. but the candidates didn't play dirty. it's clear clinton and sanders took great pains to play nice. the rules of civility didn't extend to the republican rivals. clinton here taking a thinly veiled dig at the anti-immigration trump. >> there is such a. difference between everything you're hearing here on this stage and what we hear from the republicans who have demonized hardworking immigrants, who have insulted them. and that means saying no to donald trump. >> reporter: this after she took a jab at him yesterday when speaking at a union protest outside a trump hotel in las vegas. >> some people think mr. trump

but i don't think it's entertaining when somebody insults immigrants, insults women. >> reporter: clinton's focus on the issues, a move to turn the conversation away from her congressional investigations, into her conduct related to the benghazi attack. investigations which may affect her poll numbers, which, in turn, may factor in to biden's decision to run. >> i think when you take a look at the context of this whole debate the one clear winner that i saw was joe biden who wasn't there which is, if he was watching this debate or other democrats were watching this debate it would actually encourage him to get in because what you saw in that debate is still people not ready to take on a general election fight. so i thought the clear winner was joe biden. >> reporter: last month she addressed a possible biden presidency when she sat down with by colleague david muir. >> you would often have breakfast with the vice president. would he make a good president? >> well, i like joe biden a lot. and i think he is a great vice president. if he gets into this election, there will be lots of time to

talk about, you know, what he wants to do. >> would he make a good president? >> well, you know, i think he could be a good president. there's no doubt about that. but i think he -- you know, we shouldn't get into the politics of this back and forth because i don't think it's fair to him. he's testing the waters. he deserves to test the waters. >> reporter: but a biden run is considered bad news for clinton since polls suggest his candidacy would likely eat into her support. and abc news/"washington post" poll asked democratic voters who they would vote for. clinton led sanders 42-24 with biden in the race. without biden her lead jumps to 56% to sanders 28%. political junkies won't have to wait long. biden is expected to announce his decision as early as tomorrow. up next, bridge of spies director steven spielberg and star tom hanks, and me. plus, lamar odom in a las vegas hospital.

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and steven spielberg, a match made in hollywood heaven, right? as i found out when i sat down with them, they're also just really good buddies. tonight the two pals unguarded at their most clever and playful. a far cry from the high-brow drama of their new movie" bridge of spies." when you sit down to a tom hanks movie, you can count on a riveting adventure with the fascinating hero. >> you're asking me to violate the constitution. >> reporter: and "bridge of

hanks plays a relatively ordinary man plopped into extraordinary circumstances as a high-stakes negotiator. >> i'm an insurance lawyer. i haven't done criminal work in years. >> he was a bad ass. he was a brawler when it came down to the finer points of the law. >> reporter: it's the kind of meaty role built his now legendary hollywood career with, earning two oscars along the way as the loveable underdog in "forest gump." >> can you believe it? i got to go to college, too. >> reporter: in all his roles he plays the ever likable every man, as in "a league of their own." >> there's no crying in baseball. >> did you choreograph your career? >> dear god, no. no. i don't know how to do that. you don't know what the great roles are. this is art. the art of being an actor is -- is based in recreating a behavior that is not your own. now, granted, i usually sound luke i do in movies and i

usually have more or less the same hair cut and the most you can do is put me in some other clothes. i don't look to jobs in order to put a bigger window in to some aspect of myself. i do put on clothes that are not mine and pretend to be somebody i'm not. >> reporter: yet when i first sit down with the larger than life actor and the equally i'll husband strauss director steven spielberg, they're oohing and awing over a typewriter, vintage, of course. >> this is an old -- >> i know, right. typing 101. >> i learned typing in high school. >> i did, too, yes. >> i used to be fast. >> space, space, space. >> well, it sounds good. >> i'm impressed, none the less. >> these things happen. that is a damn good typewriter, my friend. >> reporter: these two self-described geeks combined boast 16 oscar nominations. spielberg is the rare faker who can take on serious, historical narratives like

won an oscar but he can also produce box office gold just as steadily with hits like "jaws," "raiders of the lost ark," and "e.t.." >> i'll be right here. >> reporter: together they are quite the team. their most ambitious project, "saving private ryan." their latest film distributed by our parent company disney is their sixth collaboration, a real life spy thriller, trading a convicted soviet spy in exchange for a captured american u-2 pilot. did it take a lot of convincing to take this? >> dear heaven, no, no. i was on page 2, you know. i'm like at his call anyway. the only -- "catch me if you can" that was the only time i

called up and put my hat in the ring. >> that's true. >> i said i know this is leo's movie but you need a guy chasing him. i think i'm your man. >> you've done world war ii, cold war. >> what else do we have? >> what's coming up? >> well, you know, the thing that i haven't done with tom yet is -- one of the films that i just think is one of the best things tom has ever done is "sleepless in seattle." >> have you ever made a movie like that before? i would love to do a movie like that with this guy. >> reporter: onset hank says spielberg's creative process is full of surprises. >> steven does one of two things on the set. he either comes in and tells you exactly where you're going to stand and exactly what you're going to do. and then you do that. and it ends up being one of the most powerful moments in the motion picture. the other way is you come to work with steven and you have 17 pages of dialogue and there are six people and steven shows up and he might have his little dog turd of a cigar that he pretends to smoke. he looks at you.

guys, we've got a lot of work to do today. >> reporter: both hanks and spielberg are known as dedicated married men, married for decades and grown children. even their spouses are friends. >> is it true that you're like entering this incredibly productive time now that you're empty nestors? >> yeah, yeah. i think we both are. >> man, oh, man. >> you're both family men. >> we are. >> i'm looking forward to having some time off because, you know, i got grandkids stacking up now. >> right. >> do you really? >> oh, yeah. >> the best time you can spend as a grand dad is with a $3 wading pool and garden hose. that's 7 1/2 hours of baby sitting time there. >> awesome. >> reporter: family time is especially precious with his wife rita wilson who h he fell in love with on the set of "volunteers." >> we've been married 27 years. >> amazing. >> two kids, grandkids. >> reporter: she recently wrapped up a role with larry david after she was fighting

breast cancer. >> i know she's had some health challenges. >> yeah, she was very open about that, very smart about it. look, people take our pictures went we walk in the restaurants. she's not one to shy away authenticity and the truth. so she came out with it and we were able to take the time out of, you know, busy schedules in order to deal with it. but she is a formidable woman. broadway. >> that alone, she played larry david's wife, a harder gig than the real one she has. >> what makes us both americans? just one thing, one, one, one. the rule book. we call it the constitution and we agree to the rules and that's what makes us americans. >> reporter: already hailed as the must see movie of the year hanks garnering early oscar buzz for yet another tour deforce portrayal portrayal. >> rate this guy's performance.

just give me a b plus and i'll will be happy. >> i'll give him the same score than "saving private ryan," a plus. you know why? it's because the character he plays in this movie actually manages to intimidate me. i was intimidated around his character on the stage, on the set every day, because he's so smart and he's got so much gravitas. he just nailed it. >> mr. gravitas' new movie "bridge of spice" ises" is in movie theaters now. up next, lamar odom is in the hospital. in multivitamin history. a moment when something so familiar... becomes something so...new. introducing new centrum vitamints.

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finally tonight, the late breaking details. as former l.a. laker lamar odom is rushed to the hospital. tonight lamar odom is reportedly fighting for his life. according to the county sheriff's department the former nba star was found unconscious and unresponsive earlier this afternoon at a legalized breath tell in nevada, theove ranch. odom was taken to the hospital, stabilized before being transported by ambulance to sun rise hospital in las vegas. authorities originally planned to airlift him but they said at 6'10" owed some was too tall to be transported by helicopter. off the court odom so known for his many appearances of "keeping up with the kardasasans." a whirlwind romance with cloely kardashian. >> each day of my life i will be faithful to you.

>> reporter: the pair wed i 2009 and even had their own spinoff show, "khloe and lamar." but it showed a dark side of their relationship as well. odom was arrested for dui in the summer of 2014. tab bloweds ran rampant with drug over bus and failing marriage. then at the end of 2013 khloe filed for divorce. his basketball career started to disintegrate. lamar was waved from the team. tonight former teammates sending their support. new orleans pelican eric gordon tweeting, prayers up for lamar odom. hoping he keeps fighting and making it through. and dwyane wade writing, prayers all of the way up for my brother lamar odom. in a sneak peek of "keeping up with the kardashians," khloe

>> why do you have lamar's number? >> to keep up on him. i want to make sure he's okay. can't i do that? >> reporter: and tonight so many people are hoping to hear he's okay. of course we'll have more details on "good morning erica" tomorrow. thanks for watching abc news. as always we're online 24/7 on our "nightline" facebook page