captioning sponsored by wnet >> brangham: on this edition for saturday, october 8: just four weeks before election day, will a decade-old recording of donald trump's offensive remarks about women upend the presidential race? and hurricane matthew continues its path of destruction up the east coast. >> we have 10 to 15 inches of rain expected, 10 to 15 inches of rain. that's a lot. >> brangham: next on pbs newshour weekend. >> pbs newshour weekend is made possible by: bernard and irene schwartz. judy and josh weston. the cheryl and philip milstein family. the citi foundation. the john and helen glessner family trust. supporting trustworthy journalism that informs and inspires. sue and edgar wachenheim, iii.

barbara hope zuckerberg. corporate funding is provided by mutual of america-- designing customized individual and group retirement products. that's why we are your retirement company. additional support has been provided by: and by the corporation for public broadcasting, and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. from the tisch wnet studios at lincoln center in new york, william brangham. >> brangham: hello, and thank you for joining us. donald trump's presidential campaign is in full throttle damage control following yesterday's release of an 11- year-old videotape showing him making vulgar sexual remarks demeaning to women. today, trump told the "wall street journal" there is "zero chance i'll quit" the race for the white house, this despite widespread condemnation from republican party leaders. trump also told the "washington post," which first published the video on its web site, "i'd

never withdraw. i've never withdrawn in my life." trump told the newspaper he still has "unbelievable" and" tremendous" support. he began his pushback overnight with this 90-second video. >> i've never said i'm a perfect person nor pretended to be someone that i'm not. i've said and done things i regret, and the words released today on this more than a decade-old video are one of them. anyone who knows me knows these words don't reflect who i am. i said it, i was wrong and i apologize. >> brangham: the recording in question revealed trump, who seemingly didn't know his microphone was on, telling an entertainment reporter how he could easily make sexual advances on women because he was famous. he also boasted of groping women by their genitals and propositioning a married woman. in his apology, trump pledged "" be a better man." but he called the 11-year-old video a "distraction" from the real issues, and then his statement morphed into an attack on bill and hillary clinton.

>> i've said some foolish things, but there is a big difference between words and actions. bill clinton has actually abused women, and hillary has bullied, attacked, shamed and intimidated his victims. >> brangham: trump's running mate, indiana governor mike pence, says was offended by the 2005 recording. in a written statement today, pence said:" i do not condone his remarks and cannot defend them. i am grateful that he has expressed remorse and apologized to the american people." pence was a no-show in wisconsin today at a republican fundraiser hosted by speaker of the house of representatives paul ryan. ryan had announced pence would be there after he disinvited trump, ryan saying he was" sickened" by trump's comments. senate republican majority leader mitch mcconnell called trump's comments "repugnant and unacceptable." the last two republican presidential nominees condemned trump, mitt romney calling his comments "vile" and senator john mccain saying there were "no excuses" for them.

south dakota senator john thune, number three in the senate republican leadership, went further, saying: "donald trump should withdraw, and mike pence should be our nominee effective immediately." illinois republican senator mark kirk, in a tough reelection campaign, agreed that trump should step aside, calling him" a malignant clown." new hampshire republican senator kelly ayotte, also in a very competitive race, said she would write in pence for president. she announced on twitter today"" i cannot and will not support a candidate for president who brags about degrading and assaulting women." utah congressman jason chaffetz is among the growing number of republican members of the house of representatives renouncing their previous support for trump. >> i can't look my 15-year-old daughter in the eye and tell her i endorse this person to become the president of the united states. i just... i just can't do it. finally, democratic presidential nominee hillary clinton said of the lewd trump video: "this is

horrific. we cannot allow this man to become president." for more analysis of these developments and their impact on the election, i am joined from washington by roger simon, the chief columnist for "politico." i'm curious, when you first saw this videotape, this recording, what was your reaction? >> well, i think like 99% of america, i was absolutely stunned. i was floored that, you know, a guy who is 59 years old should be behaving this way and acting this way. it was frat boy culture, but he's no longer a frat boy. >> brangham: in most circumstances, in most businesses, this talk of preying on women like this would get you fired, but trump is in this unusual position where he's somewhat bullet-proof. he's the nominee. he says he's not going anywhere. his wife said i've forgiven him. let's move on.

if the g.o.p. leadership wanted to do something and get him off the ticket is there any practical way they could do that? >> i think they could. i think it would be legally messy. i think it would be difficult. i think the only thing worse than doing it might be not doing it. but one of the problems is is that millions of americans have already voted, using early ballots. so they've marked ballots for him, and for hillary clinton, and so what do you do with those ballots? but, you know, if you really-- if the republican party really decided that he must g go, then you can just hope that it would be like richard nixon, where the elders of the party go to him and say, "mr. president, you gotta step down, "or "mr. trump, you've just got to step down for the good of the party." >> brangham: well, in the

currently current political landscape. who are those elders? ( laughter ). >> that's a good question. you know, it would have to be the republican leaders of congress, and it would have to be-- i think it would have to be his-- pence, his vice presidential nominee, who has done support for him, but i wouldn't call it unlimited support. it was hedged a little bit. and i think pence was leaving the door open for saying, you know, if anything more comes out, i'm just going to step away from this ticket. and the republican party can find a new vice presidential nominee. displae i mean, you have, obviously, covered a lot of elections. and i'm just curious, we are weeks away from an election. we have a can can be in another day. you have ever seen anything like this? does this strike you as an unprecedented moment? i know we've had a lot in this

campaign. >> it strikes me as an unprecedented moment. you know, i've been asked that a lot about past crieses in this campaign. i don't use the word loosely, but i've been doing this since 1976, and i have never seen a presidential campaign like this. >> brangham: i mean, obviously, one of the things that this has it to put a lot of pressure on is down-ballot republicans. and it seems like in the next days, many of them have already come out, and some of them are trying to walk that line between decrying his comment and-- but yet not saying that they're not going to support him. doesn't this put pressure on every single down-ballot republican who is in a can close race to reckon with these awful comment? >> it does put pressure on them. and that's why some are stepping away from him. they're deserting him in the sense that they're not going to go out and campaign for him or

with him. what they're saying is he's running his race. i'm running mine. just forget about him. concentrate on me. but if there's one other group i can mention in here, it's the women of the united states. they're the ones who have really been victimized here-- not the guys in congress who have nice jobs and might be re-elected or not re-elected. but when you examine mr. trump's statements, he-- it is a statement of a serial sexual predator, and we realize that our mothers and sisters and family members are treated this way every day, and it's important, i think, that we keep that in mind when we're thinking about how we move forward from this moment. >> brangham: all right, roger simon from politico.

thank you very much. >> thank >> brangham: see more of how republican elected officials and leaders are reacting to donald trump's comments about women. visit www.pbs.org/newshour. >> brangham: hurricane matthew has weakened to a category one storm but still remains a threat to the coasts of georgia and the carolinas as it continues to crawl up the eastern seaboard. tonight, the storm's center is along north carolina's coast. early today, ttorm battered the coast of south carolina with winds up to 85 miles an hour. high winds and heavy rain battered myrtle beach, the south carolina vacation spot. matthew's storm surge left another south carolina city, historic charleston, under six feet of flood waters. in georgia, savannah shared the same fate, with high winds toppling many of the city's towering trees. at least two people in georgia died from the storm. north carolina governor pat mccrory says the storm has killed at least three people in his state and warned residents in the storm's path to evacuate.

>> we have 10 to 15 inches of rain expected. 10 to 15 inches of rain that's a lot in the southeastern north carolina. and if you are in a low-lying area-- and you know you are in a low-lying area that's flooded with a lot less rain than that-- it's time to get out of there. >> brangham: after leaving its mark on southern north carolina, remnants of the storm are expected to loop back down south where they came from in the caribbean. the storm is also blamed for at least five deaths in florida. the storm's 120-mile-an-hour winds also downed power lines along the state's atlantic coast, leaving 800,000 of florida's 20 million residents without electricity today. in florida's largest city, jacksonville, 500,000 people remain under evacuation orders. matthew's storm surge caused massive flooding there yesterday, which got worse today. newshour weekend anchor hari sreenivasan is 40 miles south of jacksonville, in st. augustine, and has been following the path

of the storm. orida, we met dave floyd who rode out hurricane matthew with his family and pets in a hotel. floyd is a landlord, and after the storm passed yesterday, he headed to titusville, about 40 miles east, near the atlantic coast. a tenant had told him about massive leaks in one of the townhouses he owns. floyd arrived to find the storm had ripped up part of the flat roof, and water was pouring into the house. star preston lived in the house with her husband and three kids. >> we're out of the house. what am i going to do? ( sobs ) >> sreenivasan: floyd has already submitted an insurance claim on the house, but he thinks it will likely be weeks before the house is habitable again. in the meantime, he's trying to arrange temporary housing for his tenant through fema or the red cross. >> my first concern was to find these people a place to stay. and that's my obligation as a landlord, to provide them with

some kind of housing or short term accommodations until my insurance company can get out here and assess the damage. >> sreenivasan: last night, preston and her family were able to stay with her sister who lives nearby. but now, she doesn't know where they'll go next. from titusville, we headed about an hour up the florida coast to ormond beach, where wind more than water was the biggest threat to property. people probably moved here for this nice tree-lined street, and now this canopy of beautiful trees is a liability. we found debbie mohn, a nurse who just came back from a three- day shift at the hospital to find the oak tree that had stood on her property for decades split in two-- half in the street, the other half leaning now on her roof. >> you like my tree house? >> sreenivasan: you've got a sense of humor about it. what went through your mind when you saw it? >> i didn't want to look at this. i parked over there and then went over to see if i could see daylight through my roof because my husband didn't want to tell me everything.

but we're okay. so, wind instead of water. i'll take that because water, we could be louisiana. >> sreenivasan: her husband rode out the storm in their house with their two dogs. the couple plans to stay there while they wait for the power and water to come back on. >> brangham: and hari joins me now from st. augustine. hari, we saw the people in your piece starting to reckon with the damage to their homes and their property. what's it like where you are now? >> sreenivasan: we went to one section of st. augustine where we saw some people that were trying to dry out their houses. they probably had 10, 14 inches of water. that is not compared to another section just about two miles away called velanno beach. that area is still closed off because there's probably three to four feet of standing water, according to some of the reads who tried to ride out the storm. that area has been declared cass strosk. there are homes that have kind of collapsed on to each other. the island was sort of surrounded by water, so the

inlet actually created a back-slog, if you will. this is an area that is to have to take several days to try to literally pump the water out t out of their homes and dry out. >> brangham: and are you seeing any evidence of rescue efforts? are you seeing fema or the red cross? what does the recovery effort look like where you are? >> sreenivasan: so, there hav been red cross shelters that have been set up, up and down the coast. one of the ironies is today, glorious sunny day, tomorrow is also going to be the same. so the peep staying in these shelters during the day, they're just anxious to try to get back into their homes, especially if it was in those areas that has been sealed off. so they want to get there. and, of course, the authorities tonight want to let them back in. right now there's no power. there are still power lines down. there's no water. that has been turned off. so basic infrastructure is not there to let these people back in. it's a long, slow phase-back. the recovery efforts, this is how long it takes to get through. but i don't think anybody expected as much of the coastline to be hit by one

single hurricane. >> brangham: i mean, obviously, as you're describe it, agz the pictures we've been seeing, they're showing incredible damage and there's been some loss of life there, but this was predicted to be much worse. is there any sense from people you have been talking to that they might have dodged a much bigger bullet? >> sreenivasan: yeah. you know, everybody around here was watching all the local news channels and when that 11:00 forecast came in and they said, "the eye of this storm is about nine to 15 miles further away from the coast, "that was a huge sigh of relief because if in those nine or 10 miles you had 120- 130-mile-per-hour wibdz and if that was even closer to the coast, that means everywhere i'm standing now would have been under serious hurricane category three-type winds. fortunately, for this area, even as bad as it was tcould have been much worse, and most of the people coming back to their homes right now, they're thankful that they have their health. they're thankful that they have their families and they do think they doblged a bullet as difficult as it may be to recover from this.

>> brangham: already, hari sreenivasan from st. augustine, florida. thanks very much. >> thanks, william. >> brangham: the most severe damage from hurricane matthew has occurred in the caribbean, particularly on the island nation of haiti, which is the poorest country in the western hemisphere. authorities there say they believe the storm caused hundreds of deaths and has displaced thousands more. the united nations says 750,000 haitians need humanitarian aid immediately. for more on the situation there, i am joined via skype by journalist ingrid arneson. she's in the capital, port-au- prince. ingrid, thank you very very much for being here. can you give us a sense of what you've been seeing? how bad is it right now? >> william, the full impact of hurricane matthew is only emerging now. the hardest hit area, in the southern peninsula, was hit catastrophically. in terms of port-au-prince, port-au-prince is resuming natural actively. there's been two days of sunshine. the waters are receding, but the worst hit, catastrophically for the country on an economic,

ecological, humanitarian scale is the southern region, can which comprises haiti. >> brangham: and going forward today, tomorrow, early next week, what are the biggest challenges facing rescuers and aid agencies? >> the biggest challenge ises are getting to the area. i spoke to the world food program yesterday, and they said that as of now, they still don't know how to get supplies to the area, although they did have some prepositioned beforehand. but, of course, not enough for the hundreds of thousands of people that are stranded that were victims of the hurricane. the people are needing water, are needing food, are needing medical supplies, are needing shelters. from early reports that came in yesterday, the whole area was flattened completely. >> brangham: i understand that tomorrow is going to be the presidential election in haiti.

obviously, that's not going to happen at this point. but does this power vacuum eye don't know if that's the right term for it-- does this have any bearing on how the rescue efforts are going forward? >> i don't believe so because all the international humanitarian agencies that were here for the earthquake in january 2010 are here and pretty much taking over the humanitarian effort for the southern side of the island. but, however, it's another storm for haiti, a political storm. the much-awaited elections have been postponed, and this is after two failed attempts to elect a president since former president left office in april of 2015. you know, institutions cannot evening. function. the finistries will have to be reelected. it's handicap governance. >> brangham: you have been covering haitis since the mid-1980s, and obviously the country is still dealing with

the after-effects of the terrible earthquake in 2010. what is your sense of the long-term ability of haiti to recover from that blow and now this blow? >> well, the 2010 january earthquake left haiti basically 50 years back economically and in terms of reconstruction since the capital was flattened. moving forward to today, hurricane matthew has carved yet another disastrous dent into haiti's efforts to recover from the earthquake. with the election being postponed, that means that there is there isn't really a-- the solid institutions that are needed t to deal with these kins of disasters are not really formed, and they won't be formed until there's a formal president elected, and that takes office. for now, they've been floating along. however, i just want to add, in terms of hurricane matthew's damage, what's emerging is an

ecological disaster. the trees were ripped out in this area, which is the agricultural basket of haiti. all their agricultural exports-- mango, rice, corn, papayas-- everything else. and as we know already, haiti suffers from deforestation, 90% of the country. this was possibly the only region that was as rich in soil and in vegetation. so it's a huge, huge, huge impact economically. >> brangham: all right, journalist ingrid arneson, thank you very, very much for being here. >> thank you, pleasure. >> brangham: some newly-leaked emails have revealed the details of what hillary clinton said in paid speeches, mostly to banks, that she gave before launching her presidential campaign. in hacked emails between clinton campaign chairman john podesta and staff members posted

yesterday by wikileaks, clinton is quoted telling bankers that wall street is best qualified to reform the financial sector. clinton is also quoted as saying she favored "open trade and open borders" of a common market between north and south america. in an excerpt from another speech, clinton said she was" kind of far removed" from the concerns of the middle class. during the presidential primaries, clinton refused calls by rival bernie sanders to release transcripts of those speeches. russia is denying accusations that it's trying to interfere with the u.s. election or that it's responsible for hacking emails of the democratic party. the russian foreign ministry today called the accusations made yesterday by the obama administration and top u.s. national security officials as" anti-russian hysteria." the administration said there was clear evidence russia hacked democratic party organizations earlier this year and funneled them to wikileaks and other web sites. but the foreign ministry said" there is no proof whatsoever for such grave accusations."

and officials in yemen say at least 82 people were killed today when warplanes from the saudi-led coalition bombed a funeral hall in the rebel-held capital. more than 500 other people were injured. the funeral hall was crowded with officials and others who'd gathered to mourn the father of the interior minister in the shiite rebel government the saudi coalition backs the internationally-recognized government of president hadi, who fled the country last year amidst yemen's ongoing civil war. >> senator, you're no jack kennedy. >> i most resent president bush. >> whole binders full of women. >> i opposed the death penalty all of my life. >> interact with all the general election debates on our web site, watchthedebate.org. updating our lead story, longtime arizona senator john mccain who is in a close race

is withdrawing his support for donald trump. mccain said late today: republican congressman joe hecht, also running for a closa race for nevada's open senate seat said he could not vote for trump because my wife, my daughters, my mother, my sisters all deserve better. one oand nebraska's fisher saidt would be wise for trump to step aside. that's if their this edition of newshour weekend. i'm william brangham, good night. captioning sponsored by wnet captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org

>> pbs newshour weekend is made possible by: bernard and irene schwartz. judy and josh weston. the cheryl and philip milstein family. the john and helen glessner family trust. supporting trustworthy journalism that informs and inspires. sue and edgar wachenheim, iii. barbara hope zuckerberg. corporate funding is provided by mutual of america-- designing customized individual and group retirement products. that's why we are your retirement company. additional support has been provided by: and by the corporation for public broadcasting, and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you.

[ monks singing ] >> i remember hearing the story about somebody who had a concern that if they joined the monastery, then they would lose their personality, their individuality. and somebody said, "no, take a look around at the characters around here [laughs] and see if