was forgetting that we were family. everything you did, you did for me. ? birds flying high, you know how i feel ? you are my guy. ? sun in the sky ? i can't do this, not like this, not alone. ? reeds driftin' on by ? - ? you know how i feel ? - i want you back. that seat on the couch is yours if you want it. ? it's a new life for me ? please. ? it's a new dawn, it's a new day ? ? it's a new life for me ? the job is chief of staff. - ? and i'm feeling good ? - that's the job. elizabeth north is terminated immediately.

- i will keep ethan and red. - ? you know how i feel ? i want new carpet in that office. you will issue a full presidential pardon to me for any and all crimes committed in the time of my service to you. it will be signed. it will be sealed. it will be nonrevocable. ? and i'm feeling good ? and i will keep it secret. ? you know what i mean, don't you know ? ? butterflies all havin' fun ? ? you know what i mean ? ? sleep in peace ? the situation in west angola was an urgent and growing threat to the national security of the united states. your decision to go to war was based solely on a methodical and reasonable assessment of that threat

livia pope. you did not know it existed. you were never aware she was even kidnapped. ? scent of the pine ? ? you know how i feel ? ? oh, freedom is mine ? ? and i know how i feel ? ? it's a new dawn, it's a new day ? - ? it's a new life ? - it's good to have you back, cy. ? for me ? ? and i'm feeling good ? the honor is all mine. ?? - ? and this old world is a new world ? - charlotte. please ask elizabeth north to come to my office. ? and a bold world ? [ door closes ] ? for me ? ? yeah, yeah ?

the welcome back to "face the nation". i am john dickerson. here in the law library at washington university in st. louis. site of tonight's second president column debate. joining us now is cbs this morning anchor norah o'donnell, our friend bob schieffer, who moderated three presidential debates, plus our cbs news correspondents who have been on

a year now, nancy cordes who covers hillary clinton and major garrett who is on the trump campaign. major, i want to start with you. >> sure. >> dickerson: where to begin? how are things going inside the trump campaign? >> there is, there is a tremendous amount of stress, that is quite obvious, trump is getting a request from mike pence's running mate, be more contrite. apologize too the country more emphatically, more believably, more persuasively about what you have done, what you have said, what the country has seen. at the same time, other advisors who are saying, yes doors that but then smash mouth hillary clinton and bill clinton about bill clinton's history and this debate is your only available play, go as hard as you can on that, say what you said matters but what bill clinton did or is alleged to have done matters more, and so donald trump finds himself in this vice like pressure from his running mates who wants him to be contrite and mellow and other advisors who want to bring the two-by-four and take it straight into the debate. >> dickerson: in twitter already today a little bit of

tweets and sends out some of the harder line, nancy, what is the clinton team doing in this, yet another turn in the story? >> well, thought about hillary clinton come out yesterday and then decided why scwander the opportunity to have her first reaction be tonight on the debate stage before millions of people standing right there next to donald trump so we are told she will address it early on in the debate but also decided, you know, why distract from a parade of republicans unendorsing their own nominee? beyond the battleground map a to include kansas and nebraska, they think that the battlegrounds math will stay essentially where it is, which is find fine, because she has a path to 270 just within that map. so strategically, they say they aren't changing much, although obviously this was great news for them. >> dickerson: 270 being a magic number on the electorial college, you have been on the phone dialing around, bob, what have you heard a?

republican, i have talked to probably 1 12 republican senatos yesterday or their representatives. i couldn't find a single one who now thinks they are going to win. they were saying things like look we realized a couple of weeks ago that we were not going to win, but now we may win -- we may lose by historic proportions something that will, one person said to me yesterday that could affect the republican partyor generations to come. i am not sure the republican party is going to survive this. one republican party chair said there was a mushroom cloud outside of the window after this. norah what did you think of rudy giuliani's attempt to defend donald trump? he basically said this is a long time ago and learned a lot on the campaign trail. can you learn something on the campaign trail that undoes the damage of these remarks? >> well, rudy giuliani was on because the chairman of the republican national committee reince priebus decided he would not come on. and i think that is telling as

will see the fastest cut and run in american political history. and, bob, alluded to that. look at the state of ohio no republican has won the presidency without ohio, donald trump may have won ohio on the coattails of rob portman the senator who has done great organizing, he has unendorsed him in that state but republican national committee says pause or stop its operations to help donald trump. donald trump department have much of a ground game anywhere. >> dickerson: no ground game. >> he was relying on the >> dickerson: entirely. a governor all of that disgusting language, you now have a party that has abandoned the presidential nominee and that is historic, and it could lead to a landslide election. >> dickerson: and the ground game being those people who knock on the doors, get the people to the polls, that kind of thing. >> and the disconnect between the grass roots trump supporters who are not all republicans and not always been regular participants in presidential election and the fund raisers for the party and the party leadership is again cracked wide

because they are -- the grass root trump supporters largely, anecdotal conversations i had all weekend are going to ride this out because they still believe that trump is their best option to change the system and attack what bothers them most about politics, but the fund raisers, the donors, and the republicans who have to be on the ballot themselves all walking away. >> we know that republican candidates like portman and kelly ayotte in new hampshire are in a terrible position, because on one hand they have angered all of those trump true believers who might say, you know, i am not going to vote for you. they decided to let some republicans just stay home because they told them now, i can't support the nominee, maybe you shouldn't either, and the deposition are going to hit them over the head between now and election day on, okay, so this is what made you decide to abandon donald trump? it wasn't what he said about members cans, it wasn't what he said about women in in campaign, it is something he said 11 years ago, this is political ex-peed expedience.

refused to campaign for him on the eve of this debate and with less than a month to go. >> >> dickerson: norah, another, perhaps there are players out there who still haven't, he was disinvited from paul ryan's wisconsin, unity event that major talked about that was put together by reince priebus, the republican chairman of the party. disinvited by the house speaker be 2 house speaker has not moved to the problem portman position or the kelly ayotte position which is i am not going to voee is he the -- i mean, there is a conference call for the house republicans on monday, wh what o you think paul ryan, what do you think he does? >> well, this isn't just a, this is a conscience call for many people and seeing an emerging split in the republican party not just denouncing but what does it do or take a stronger stand and say we can't elect this person, let's write in some of the other people, such as rob portman as i mentioned earlier has said. i think it is a real struggle for the speaker of the house,

that appearance yesterday by trump supporters but the leadership of the party, that has to look beyond this election to the future of the party, i think it is essential in american democracy you have two strong political parties. they are a check on one another and at this point we don't have two strong political parties. and th that is necessary for a strong government a in a democracy. >> dickerson: bob, you moderated these debates so what if you were on the deck tonight and about come up with questions on these candidates, what would you ask? >> , you know, i think i would ask about the elephant in the room and i think, i guess what i would say would be this. mr. trump, if some man did to your daughters what you were talking about in that debate -- in that tape, would you think that was cool? would you be okay with that?

>> and the question is, this is a town hall debate. would there be a question like this in? and there probably will be. >> yes. because this language goes beyond boys being boys. this is pigs being pigs. and i think that it is not a distraction. it is an issue. >> but there are some democrats that hillary clinton will overplay her hand and go after him too hard. they say look he is digging a hole by himself. stay out of the way. they say that tim kaine was more aggressive that he needed to be last week and so they are a little bit worried that the clinton campaign will see this as such a huge opportunity that it will go further than it needs to. >> there are two unknowns one we will get the answer to tonight and one we may never get an answer to. many republicans bailed out yesterday because they got the sense there is more coming on donald trump that this is not the only revelation that will

changing .. bit possess explosiveness and they don't want to be a part of it and round 2 of that. that's the unknown we don't know about that. the other is tonight. the conference call with house republicans tomorrow, because speaker ryan was persuaded by those in the rank and file, give him a chance in debate number 2, let's all assess after that. so what trump does or doesn't do tonight will have a great deal to say about how resilient the elected republican house support for him, rank andil leadership remains. >> dickerson: a lot riding on the debate tonight. >> an enormous riding on the debate and of course the format, along with these charges, i mean, charges a of what some are calling sexual assault, biden says this the amounts to sexual assault at the time you have a male nominee and a female nominee on the stage, they are, with podiums, chairs where they can sit down and where they can approach audience members, it adds, body language becomes important in this type of debate.

looking at the past ones, in 1992 with bill clinton who first proposed this type of debate, a town hall debate and his advisors were chopped george h.w. bush agreed to it because he thought he could emote better and the capture audience members attention better. >> dickerson: quickly what happens if donald trump goes the second route and brings up bill clinton and his character flaws and we get into that kind of a fight? what is hillary -- >> the, you know, hillary has been planning and preparing forr first debate he might go there, he told us, the clinton campaign says that would be disastrous for donald trump. hillary clinton is the one running, not bill clinton that is like blaming they lan i can't trump for what donald trump said in the leaked audio, so they don't think that is going to be persuasive and they think it might actually engender for sympathy for hillary clinton and you have to know she has got a pretty well planned response. >> dickerson: all right. so great to be with you. thanks for being here.

panel, join us at 9:00 p.m. eastern, 6:00 p.m. pacific.

>> dickerson: and th at the debate haul here in washington university here this morning, the site of today's main event.

washington bureau chief of u.s.a. today, jamelle bouie who is the chief political correspondent for slate mag a seen and cbs news political analyst, peggy noonan, columnist for the washington journal and cbs contribute for and john heilemann, comanaging editor of bloomberg politics. peggy, i will start with you. so rudy giuliani said donald trump could have a saint augustine moment, change radically after this event and be a tot >> after this trauma of the release of the 11-year-old tape. well, i know you spoke to him of the city of god and the city of man, in this world all miracles are possible. people do change their nature and change their character. i am not sure what rudy giuliani was referring to as the reason there might be a change of nature or character. it seems to me mr. trump might

and what all of that stuff is this evening. >> dickerson: yes. that's a tall order. >> yes. >> dickerson: john, what could donald trump have learned over the last year that taught him that saying, sort of in a lighthearted way it was fun to assault women. i am not sure how the two things are connected. >> i think if we are speaking in hypotheticals now, there is a hypothetical miracle that could occur, st. augustine, the more probable hypothetical on the basis of everything we have seen from donald trump's firstat performances, the interviews he has given, the last debate performance, and how he reacted after the debate performance and continuing to attack machado, i think the more plausible hypothetical is he learned nothing and that his performance tonight will be much less st. augustine than something coarser to the things that got him into so much trouble so far on the basis of history there is no reason to think that we will see a new donald trump, none. there is no reason. i am not saying we won't but there is no reason to think we will.

departures in the republican party that started to happen yesterday that seemed to be kind of rolling. again people who aren't just saying it ising,tsk, we have never seen anything like this in modern republican. the republican party chairman reince priebus released a statement, the highest paul ryan disinvited to ka share a stage wisconsin, are withdrawing their endorsement of him. this is a political apocalypse and it is sort of -- we have had october surprises before, we have never had something like this in which a candidate survived and went on to win the election. >> dickerson: there have been a lot of people say, well there have been a lot of these moments donald trump has had and people thought he was in trouble and nothing happens. is this the same situation or -- >> i don't think this is the same precisely because so many

camp. i think this is a signal to voters this is very different and i think there is a real possibility that republicans are courting a kind of triple undervote, that demoralized republicans, republicans who don't vote down ballot because they are angry at the party, most republicans still think, still want trump at the top of the ticket and then also, you know, just, that is a double undervote. i think what is interesting about all of this is t is the moment which is driving so many republicans away. you know, we have witness ford past year a campaign whose central message no the country was if you elect me i will use the power to suppress mexican immigrants, and muslim americans and stop and frisk. it is not flattering about the republican party it is beginning to leave trump when the comment

that actually they rely on to win elections. >> dickerson: peggy, i was talking to a senior republican yesterday who kind of brought up this point, with i have, they were thinking about whether to leave donald trump, the worry was, if i leave now, why didn't i leave when his announcement speech was about members cans being rapists and on down the line? they had trouble explaining why this was the thing that was the straw that broke the camel's back and previous ones haven't been. >> yes. maybe. it just seems to me this overmi susan so much. this is a devastating moment for trump. it is not just -- it is not as if he was going up, up, up and something bad happens and he plummets he had been going down and down, now something bad happens. we are a 47, 47 country, more or less. the trump voters in your focus group, more or less said, this isn't going to change anything for us, in a funny way, nobody is as until lucianed about their

supporters. they had no illusions about him so it is not as if this tells them anything they didn't know but it will hurt trump with a few of them because nobody likes proof that your fundamental nature is low. i think the proof part of it was hurtful, but still at the end of the day, this doesn't help trump. it hurts him very seriously and every republican i have talked to in the last few days does think it is over. answer is in the form of your question, and your opening comment about this, donald trump is engaged in the racist company phobic but he never condoned and in fact practiced a crime. sexual assault is the phrase you used and appropriately used and think for a lot of republicans and a lot of people, that is the thing that is going on. not to excuse him of his previous rhetoric but the thing you can't argue for for many

seems to be saying, sexual assault is okay and i have been involved in it myself and sort of boastful about it. that is a different -- that that is a rubicon that has been crossed. i do think it is striking the same morning this came out on friday, donald trump also said, in a statement that he believed central -- were guilty and presumably thinks they should have been executed and that to me is also at a level beyond the pail pale. >> the only thing that said amount that is jo john mechanic kaine a. >> dickerson: because they were held innocent. we will take a short break and

. >> dickerson: and we are back with our panel, susan, you were where do you think he is on all of this? >> i spent the day with him as he was on a bus tour across pennsylvania. he denounced hillary clinton, you might expect that and i said, you know, there are questions about donald trump's integrity too and he defended donald trump to the little, a goodman, a family man. and i just wonder what trump's running mate would say today if he was sit down for that interview. >> dickerson: yes, he says he has the highest integrity. john, what do you think about the fantasies about there about trump disappearing from the

>> is any of this being discussed? >> i think it is being discussed actively and major made the point earlier we will have to wait to see what happens in the debate performance tonight, not that i think it will change the ultimate electorial dynamics of where trump is relative to the better, what happens on monday, depending on how he performs. i think the party leaders, elected, everyone has no influence whether he stays in the race. i think there is one set of people who have influence over him, his family, d turns into a total catabolism as it seems to be, the trump brand, the family name, the financial implications of that, those kids, ivanka and jarrod, her husband jarrod, and eric trump, tiffany all of them have a lot just talking pure dollars and cents here they have a lot at stake in what happens to donald trump and the family name. i think they are the only ones who may be able to influence him to get out, the only ones i am not sure they will, but the only

for trump in part because there is no sense that he has been practicing working on what he is going to do. i mean all the reports are, he has been resisting all of that. this is going to be a hard a night for him. it is in the round. some questioner will properly bring up the mess of the past few days, but as for fantasies about removing him from the top of the ticket, i have to tell you, 11 states are already voting in early sticks ballots, eight more join that number by this wednesday. >> dickerson: right. >> when you have 19 states that are already voting, i don't see how you change your nominee. >> i would add to that fact, again, most republican voters want trump at the top of the i cannot. i think the idea that republican leaders could somehow get trump off the top of the ticket, while essentially sticking their fingers in, fingers in the eyes of half of the voters, if they y are trying to avoid a disaster

>> dickerson: let's switch to hillary clinton quickly, these excerpts of her speeches, the ones they have been trying to keep under lock and key finally got out. there is a difference between hillary clinton in public and private. isn't that her underlying challenge? >> it is. and you heard in your focus group how little affection even some of the clinton voters had for her. so this -- and you think we would be talking about that tonight or today and you think we would be talking about bill clinton, the is a situation saying the affordable care act is crazy but we are not because she had this donald trump. >> dickerson: i am struck how much more passion has in the focus group. in is people of all position. more passion when they talked a about hillary clinton and her down side and donald trump they were letting off the hook saying this is locker room behavior. >> i think this gets to what is true, not just the voters but a cross of how we as a country, versus donald trump is that i think we look, people look at hillary clinton and say, she could be a president until we approach her and talk about her and criticize her as if she

people don't really believe that donald trump could ever have won. and as a result, there is a willingness to kind of look past, look past things that are, you know, plainly disqualifying and plainly offensive because, again, this is just a con. >> dickerson: john, how damage is the clinton excerpts that are now out. >> ? the context they have been released not that damaging damaging, one thing we are looking past on both that there are going to be worst donald trump tapes between now and election day and probably worse hillary clinton e-mails between now and election day. i don't know what electoral results it will be but there will be a hailstorm before we get to november 8th and i think four weeks out and these are the things being leaked, just imagine what happens next week and the week after and the week after that, because you don't drop your heaviest shoes a month away from election day. >> and once again the debate is

not about voters and their life, the entirely about the character a of the candidates and their lives a. >> dickerson: we will have a hailstorm of shoes from john heilemann. i want to thank our panel. we will be right back in a moment. >> it's not something you do now and then.