i'm tamron hall. thanks for watching. good morning. anch. i'm alex witt in new york, the place for politics. 14 hours and counting, the second presidential debate looms with history on the line. a live look here at washington university in st. louis. gop turmoil. republicans abandoning donald trump by the dozens. the big question, what can he say at tonight's debate to change the narrative or is his fate sealed? >> the day's other big story, record breaking floods. a new look at rising waters chasing thousands from their homes. at the top of the hour, politics first here. new details this morning outlining what was going on inside trump tower in the 24

hours since the "washington post" published that 2005 interview which caught lewd comments from donald trump on a hot mike before an interview with access hollywood. the revelation came friday about 48 hours before the critical second debate with hillary clinton. the "washington post" inside look including trump ally william jay bennett saying, quote, it's a shame, a crying shame, but he can't win. he should step down. bept told the post it's over. i hate to say it, but it's over. now the list of republicans denouncing trump's comments and some his candidacy has grown to 75. more than 20 say they will no longer vote for him. ohio senator rob portman the latest to recontract an endorsement, some calling for trump to drop out. here is rudy giuliani as he left trump tower last night. >> there's nothing going to cause him to drop out. that's wishful thinking of the clinton campaign.

and those people who were opposed to him the whole time. he's in the race to win. >> well, let's bring in our hallie jackson ahead of tonight's debate. an early good morning to you. it's quite a challenge to keep up with trump news developments in the last 24 to 48 hours. what are the highlights and the lowlights here. >> we're going to tick through them. first, looking ahead to tonight's debate, i think it's going to be key for whether you see more republicans, particularly republicans in congress, come out now and revoke their support of donald trump. what we have seen over the last 24 hours has been his team of advisers huddling at trump tower in new york. that's where trump is before he heads to st. louis for the debate. we expect he'll go after bill clinton's indiscretions. he will have to address the audio, the hot mike audio and other audio that has come out as this deluge begins. you see top level republicans, row have the rob potmans, kelly

ayotte, saying they will back mike pence instead. he was at a fund-raiser, but notably, he did not attend the festival in wisconsin he had been scheduled to go to and said in a statement he cannot condone his running mate's remarks and he will be watching to see how donald trump does tonight. a bit of a subtle warning shot, if you will. rudy giuliani came outside trump tower, as did trump, coming out and first bumping in front of supporters in this moment nobody sort of expected to see. giuliani then addressed reporters. here's what he had to say. >> it's not so much a surprise. if you look at it, they were all republicans who were opposed to him and didn't support him in the past. and this is basically the insiders against the outsiders anyway. donald trump is the populist candidate. most of the people who have turned on him are members of the

establishment. i would see this as if you want change in washington, you vote for donald trump. if you want to keep things the same, you vote for hillary clinton. >> so that's rudy giuliani there, addressing really the defections that you have seen from establishment republicans, elected officials, people like senator john thune who is now the highest member of gop membership to revoke support of the party's nommy. >> i'm curious, from a campaign insider perspective, do they believe he can salvage the campaign tonight? do you think he's capable of it if. >> that's a good question. i think there's a sense when you talk to people in and around the campaign, publicly, there's a brave face uton, as you have seen over the last 18 hours or so, of people saying donald trump will be fine, he'll be able to recover, but there are question marks about his performance onstage and what that will mean. there was a sense that the first debate mattered a lot. the second one tonight may not so much, but now, given what we

have seen, there seems to be a lot of pressure on donald trump's performance. >> hallie jackson in st. louis, very early for you. thank you for getting up. she has a long day ahead. >> joining me now, jay newton small, and josh barrow, msnbc krib kribtder and senior editor at business insider. how much more can trump withstand. all the republicans abandoning, reputeiating their party's n nomin nominee. how do you see this ending? >> donald trump is going to lose this election. right now, the question is by what margin is he going to lose this election. when you saw this deluge of republicans through the day announcing withdrawals of their support, spread all the way throughout the day until ohio senator rob portman, one of the best positioned republicans seeking re-election, who had been with trump all along, saying he can no longer vote with him. you're going to see republicans, waiting, hoping to see if he can

do something to fix the course, but my guess is the debate is going to be a disaster for him. he's clearly angry. he's been telegraphing his strategy such as it is is to bring up all sorts of things about bill clinton's past at the debate. i'm sure he'll attack hillary clinton in a way that will be aggressive and make him look ridiculous. furthermore, he issued an apology, but he was reading from a teleprompter, he didn't look apologetic. when he's pressed are you sorry, what you sorry for, he's not going to be able to offer an answer that is a convincing apology, and i suspect he will communicate he's not sorry at all. i'm going to have my popcorn to watch this debate, but i doubt he's going to stop the bleeding. >> the apology, he then turned the tables back on the clinton. it wasn't just a pure apology. i'm curious, jay, trump supporters not withstanding, can

donald trump say anything that puts to rest all of these controversies and convince the undecideds that he's worthy of the presidency? >> that's really tough. he has an uphill battle. the voters he has been going after in foous months is women voters, especially white women voters, and when he has his instincts to bring up the clinton controversies or bring gennifer flowers to the last debate, his campaign manager, kellyanne conway, has course corrected him, saying, now, you can't do that. you have to appeal to women. that's only your path to victory. row have to appeal to these women, and i think going full bore on this controversies from the 1990s is not going to help him with the few undecided suburban white women who still exist in america today. it's very difficult to figure out what he's going to say and how he's going to make this up,

especially when so many states are already voting right now in the early vote. and every day that these controversies dominate the news are days that more and more people vote for hillary clinton. >> you know, josh, you wrote in business insider, these three scenarios you think voters will be facing when they head to the polls on november 8th. give me an idea what they are, the pro-trumpers, thhow they ma feel. >> what i was writing about is the risk republicans run, the triple undervote. which is basically you have a party in civil war right now, and there are three ways this will repress the republican vote. the first is fans of donald trump upset other party leaders are not standing by them. you heard some of them heckling paul ryan yesterday at this wisconsin event he disinvited donald trump from. some of the voters may vote for trump at the top of the ballot and may not vote in senate and congressional races to punish a republican party they seeads throwing their candidate under

the bus. on the flip side, you're going to have a lot of republicans, especially college educated whitewomen, withholding their support from donald trump because of his unaccept blabili on various dimensions, even if they vote for republicans down the ticket, and third, you'll have some people who are disgusted with the process and disgusted with the republican party and it way it's broken up and the way they're fighting with each other and they won't turn out at all. what that means is even in places where the electorate leans republican, the combination of republicans not showing up and republicans not voting in every race in the ballot means democrats can come out ahead in those races. i think that the gop's in grave risk because of this. not just at the presidential level, losing in a landslide, but of losing a lot of house seats they didn't think were in play, and some senate seats, like marco rubio, who had a pretty solid single-digit lead in his race in florida. you have to question, is republican turnout going to fall

off enough that some of those seats are in play. >> which would be quite extraordinary given the lead that the republicans have in the house right now. jay, how about clinton? will she have to answer to her controversies. will we hear about the new wicky leak revelations that got covered up by the trump scandal? will those overshadow everything? >> if there's ever a time for wikileaks and those russian hackers to have done any ammunition on hillary clinton, now would be it to turn the conversation from donald trump, but the wikileaks revelations of the drafts she had for her goldman speeches saying she was okay with trade. saying she was okay with essentially cutting social security, seem to have gone completely unnoticed because of the controversies over donald trump that have dominated everything. i'm not sure there's anything that can come out at this point that would actually be such of a sort of smoking gun that it could harm her given the comparison with donald trump which is such a train wreck

happening. >> jay newton small and josh barrow, thank you. joining me now is denise galvez, welcome back to the broadcast. >> good morning. >> i just have to ask you after all these revelations, do you still support donald trump or would you prefer he step aside, and whatever answer, why? >> i definitely still support him. i had this conversation all day long, 24 hours a day, with a lot of people who have been supporting him and are still supporting him. >> did you have this conversation more often suns friday afternoon? >> of course. that was the topic of conversation all night last night when i was out at a wedding. >> why do you still support him? >> the majority of us don't condone what he said. let's get that clear. we don't want people talking about that in front of our daughters, but we also acknowledge that he said it in private, he said it amongst men. it's just talk, banter. it's not reflective of his actions and hao he is. and we would rather focus on policy, ideology, and for those

reasons, things like the supreme court justice. you know, choosing that person. that's more important to us. and that's where we focus our ener energy. >> would it bother you at all, denise, the concept of donald trump sitting there in the oval auf office behind the magnificent desk there and having the power afforded that particular street, if he still talked like this? would that bother you? >> if he's not saying it in front of women and not acting on it, it does not bother me. many presidents before him, we don't have to name them, have acted this same way. the problem is there's social media now. so the things he says daeshz. >> don't you think that is a problem? >> not only potential voters but the entire world has heard donald trump speak this way now. and that includes foreign leaders with whom he had would potentially have to do business and try to use influence or talk about the prowess of the united states and what we need and the dignity afforded to that office. you don't think that's been compromised irevokably?

>> no, i don't. i think people know the difference between what you say behind closed doors and what you say in a meeting with a dignitary. >> you're clearly in the trump and remain so, but what about the people who are not, the undecideds. what would you recommend he say at tonight's debate to attract the voters he needs to have a chance on november 8th? >> number one, he apologized for what he said, and number two, he needs to focus on policy and ideology. protecting our country. a lot of undecided voters are going to make the decision once they walk into the ballot and take a vote. he still can influence those people. i absolutely think he needs to stop talking about all this other stuff and focus on what is important to people, americans. immigration was a policy that was winning people over. he should stick to that, talk about the economy, bringing back jobs. all those things. the undecided voters still care about that more than all this other side bar. >> do you think when people listen to him, though, they're going to be able to focus out or

filter out that which we have all heard from the microphone? do you really think in your heart of hearts that he has a chance at winning on november 8th? >> absolutely do. i was just last night with a woman, an attorney, a very good friend of mine who was supporting hillary for a long time, and i have turned him on to a lot of things hillary has done, to women, and said to women, and she's now leaning towards trump. it's obvious that smart people can make a choice based on things that are important to them and not focus on all this dirt slinging. >> well, denise, i do appreciate you coming on the broadcast. i can tell you have been talking the last 48 hours. >> spent all night talking about this. >> hot tea with lemon would be good. thong so much. >> msnbc will have a full slate of political coverage all day. our extended programming includes "meet the press" daily with chuck todd at 5:00, and it debate at 9:00 eastern, followed

by late night coverage. in light of donald trump's recent troubles, what does that do to the battleground map? live from st. louis, the site of the second presidential debate, right here on msnbc, the place for politics. what are you doing? getting your quarter back. fountains don't earn interest, david. you know i work at ally. i was being romantic. you know what i find romantic? a robust annual percentage yield that's what i find romantic. this is literally throwing your money away. i thinit's over there. that way? yeah, a little further up. what year was that quarter? what year is that one? '98 that's thone. you got it! nothing stops us fm doing right by our customers. ally. do it right. let's get out of that water. ally. do it right. like their photo claims tool. it helps settle youclaim quickly,

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will unfold in st. louis, less than 14 hours until the second presidential debate. embattled republican donald trump facing democrat hillary clinton. it comes on the heels of one of the most explosive days of thecome pain. let's bring in senior editor mark murray with a good sunday morning to you, mark. it seems like you cannot overstate how important tonight's debate is, not just for the election cycle, but for history. can you put this in context for us? >> you know, alex, i'll go back to the last presidential cycle

in 2012 and after barack obama's very subpar debate performance against mitt romney, he was able to utilize the second debate as a way to kind of bounce back and i think the polls are already moving back in president obama's favor in that cycle, but certainly after you struggle and come back and do well, that can help, and that's really donald trump's goal going into this debate. that was the situation certainly before friday's explosive news regarding his lewd comments that were caught on a hot microphone, but alex, i will end up saying that donald trump is facing an almost make or break moment going into the debate before the news. it's even bigger now. >> the electoral map, what does it look like after the recent trump trouble. does it take states away from him? >> i'm not sure. we have to see where the polling goes after this, but our own nbc battleground map showed hillary clinton with the advantage. she was north of 260 electoral votes in her column. really just one state away from

being able to beat 270. and the reality about the battleground map is that she has so many more opportunities than donald trump has. he has to essentially run the table in places like pennsylvania, in florida, in ohio, and north carolina. has to win almost all of them. hillary clinton just needs to either win one or maybe get a nevada or a new hampshire to be able to cross 270 electoral votes. the math is very daunting for donald trump. >> what about the strategy in terms of what we're hearing from donald trump's camp going into the debate. is there a consensus on the best approach to pull off what barack obama did in the last election cycle and turn things around in the second debate? >> that consensess really doesn't exist right now. all the reporting suggests donald trump and his advisers are kind of stuck between do they end up trying to be apologetic and nice and stick to the issues of the economy and trade, or do they go full after bill clinton, after donald trump's lewd comments. and all the handwriting on the

wall seems to suggest it's the latter approach, alex. so in donald trump's statement on facebook late friday night, apologizing for his lewd comments, he brought up bill clinton. twitter suggests that that is where his counterpunch is going to come from. i think we're all waiting for what is going to be a highly charged debate tonight in st. louis. >> quickly, does hillary clinton need to go after donald trump? >> you know, i think for her, she needs to just kind of stay ahead. and still keep donald trump in the news. but this is going to be her first comment since friday's big news. she would end up being the first female president, running to be the country's first female president. how she responds to that comment that was caught on microphone in 2005 i think is actually going to be the must-see tv. everybody is kind of anticipating a big clashover this, and we'll find out what happened tonight. >> we will. and as with your day ahead, thank you for getting up early

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georgia, and south carolina, what was once hurricane matthew is causing record-breaking flooding in north carolina in parts of the east coast. blamed for at least 11 deaths in the u.s. widespread power outages and mass evacuations. it's expected to veer off into the atlantic and lose steam. let's go to blake mccoy, one of the hardest hit areas. what's it like out there today. >> alex, good morning. the problem here in north carolina was the rain came down so hard and so fast, it just had nowhere to go. keep in mind, hurricane matthew made landfall in south carolina, so by the time it reached north carolina, a lot of the storm had moved inland. that's why we weren't just seeing coastal flooding. we were seeing flooding much

further inland. here's the cape fear river. this is low tide, keep in mind. it didn't take much to breach this roveserve overnight, and t parking lot, which had been flooded out, many of us have seen the dramatic rescue of mother and child. that's cumberland county there. we were told that's one of 141 swift water rescues. nor than 500 people were rescued in that county alone. up there, they're waiting for people to dry out. there are four people still missing. we're told a dam did breach overnight, but the impact has been minimal. now that the remnants here of hurricane matthew are headed back out to sea, it's a post-tropical cyclone right now, we're waiting for the sun to break and that way in thes can start to dry out. there's a lot of cleanup work to be done and four people still missing. the search will be on for them this morning. >> thank you so much from wilmington. that's a wrap of our live coverage for now. up next, "your business,"

followed by "politics nation" with reverend al sharpton. we invite you to watch our political programming all day leading up to tonight's debate at 9:00 p.m. eastern. i'm alex witt. you're watching msnbc, the place for politics. have a good day. i'll see you back here tomorrow morning on "morning joe" first look. i'm not a customer, but i'm calling about that credit scorecard. (to dog)give it. sure! it's free for everyone. oh! well that's nice! and checking your score won't hurt your credit. oh! o dog)i'm so proud of you. well thank you. get your free credit scorecard at discover.com. even if you're not a customer.

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