give yourself some credit." sorry out that. right now on a special sunday edition of "andrea mitchell reports" live from washington university in st. louis, the site of tonight's second presidential debate. no surrender. with republicans in open revolt and a campaign in crisis, a defiant donald trump vows he will not back down after a 2005 video caught him bragging in vulgar terms about groping women. >> it's not about saying it, mr. mayor, it's doing it. he's bragging about making unwanted sexual advances.

>> it's wrong. >> you're saying the words are wrong. how about the actions? >> well, the actions would be even worse if they were actions. talk and actions are two different things. going nuclear, previewing tonight's town hall showdown. donald trump already going there, tweeting about bill clinton's scandals from the '90s. how will hillary clinton respond to trump going after her husband. >> nobody can dispute the fact -- >> that you're a rapist! [ boos ] >> you have to feel sorry for them. they had a bad day yesterday so they're trying to make it up. this is what is the matter with politics. when other people pour poison down your throat, don't drink it. >> and october surprise party, did "saturday night live" get it right on the clinton camp's reaction to the trump tapes?

>> what i am doing is apologizing to all the people who were offended by my statements but, more importantly, to the people who were turned on by them, i hear it's really 50-50. >> since mr. trump's comments were so bad -- >> oh, so, so bad. just horrible, horrible. >> do you think he should drop out? >> no, no, give him a shot. [ laughter ] [ cheers and applause ] good day, everyone, i'm andrea mitchell on a week end in presidential campaign history unlike anything we've ever seen. donald trump hinting at what could be his strategy tonight, tweeting today provocative links to a woman who has accused bill clinton of a 1978 rape. this as the republican party is in meltdown. for dozens of elected officials

who tolerate it had muslim ban and other insults for months, the hot mic tape is a bridge too far. it has elected republicans rebelled and top republican leaders struggling to hold the party together today. >> a bit of an elephant in the room. and it is a troubling situation. i'm serious. it is. >> let's bring in our panel. after crisis meetings inside trump tower, rudy giuliani speaking for trump on "meet the press." >> this is wrong. he realizes that. he understands it now. he's running ing ining for pre. he realizes he's got the weight of the responsibility so all these people on his shoulder and this is something he won't do in the future. >> do you believe hillary clinton says one thing in private and that means what she really is is what she is in private? should we assume what donald trump did in that "access hollywood" bus is what donald trump is like in private? that's what you're implying with hillary clinton. >> you know, chuck, the reality

is that in both cases, both people have things in their personal lives that maybe if they could redo it they would do it differently and the reality is that this is a situation in which neither side should throw stones because both sides have sinned. >> joining me now, nbc's katy tur outside trump tower in new york. nbc's kelly o'donnell in indianapolis covering mike pence. and here with me, nbc's kristen welker who, of course, has been tracking the clinton campaign and joy reid, host of msnbc's "a.m. joy." welcome all. first of all, katy tur, your reporting just now about what reince priebus is telling republican campaign workers. fill us in on that. >> yeah, i've been told by an rnc staffer that reince priebus is telling them to basically go with their conscience, do what's best for them at the moment. there's a real worry inside the republican party that this is

hurting reputations. that that's why you're seeing low-level staffers, i'm told, just not show up for work in some states. there are state directors who are extremely concerned not only about their own party and their own races, places with senators and congressmen, but they're concerned about the state of their party going forward. there is talk that if donald trump does win, if he does win in november and he becomes the president, what happens when more and more of these sorts of tapes come out? then it's not just the republican nominee who's talking lewdly about groping women, some might call that sexual assault, but it's then the president of the united states being caught on a hot mic saying those things. there are larger reputations that are at stake here and that people are worrying about than just their own jobs. but we do know that reince priebus will be flying with donald trump to the debate, the trump campaign is trying to say that everything is well. they're looking forward to tonight's debate. they believe that they are going

to do well. but i'm told by multiple republican operatives right now that basically the rnc's decision has been made and that they believe that tomorrow there will be -- could potentially be some sort of announcement about how money is allocated. they're waiting to find out if any money is going to be redirected to state races and away from donald trump. so far, officially the rnc is saying that that is not happening but state directives -- state directors believe something could change with that as early as tomorrow. one even saying that they believe that this is the end of the donald trump campaign. >> and mike lee was on "meet the press," he's just one of the senators who has reacted and said that he can not tolerate what he heard on that tape. i want to go to kelly o'donnell, but first let's play what mike lee had to say today. >> there is a way here for mr. trump to have a legacy in this election cycle and for his

supporters who are really energetic and who have done a whole lot of good as far as expanding the party, to have a lasting legacy that could mean something here and that is for donald trump to step aside and for the republican party to find a candidate who can bring together all the elements within the republican party and defeat hillary clinton. >> kelly o'donnell in indianapolis, mike pence ducking the press, he was initially supposed to go yesterday to wisconsin where the speaker of the house was having that rally, then didn't go and reportedly told donald trump "you're on your own here for the first 24, 48 hours, i can't defend this." so he's hunkered down. but in a practical sense, there's no way to replace donald trump on the ballot unless he chooses to leave the ballot. the ballots have been printed and early voting as started. >> that makes it very difficult in both a practical and political sense. from my reporting, i'm told that mike pence made the decision that the wisconsin event would turn into "a circus" if he did

attend and by not going it allowed paul ryan to have that moment where he was able to express the struggle within the party and to try to have a more positive event. i'm also told we should expect nothing from mike pence today, that he is going to go about his family sunday, attended church this morning. he's expected to watch the debate at home tonight. may do some other activities with family today. but he has been in touch with donald trump, has been in touch with the campaign. but i'm also told through various campaign sources that mike pence put out a public schedule for the next several days of campaign events and did that without coordinating with trump tower. and that is intended to be a sign that he is in this but it is very important for donald trump to be contrite tonight. i'm told from various sources that there are key people inside sort of the circle of donald trump who really believe it is

on trump now to go further than we have seen in the written statement and in the short video to be perceived as genuinely contrite and gauging how the debate goes before they can make further steps. there's a loyalty issue here for mike pence, he agreed to join this ticket, he was selected by the delegates of the convention. those are very big powerful aspects to this. this is so different than someone who endorses a candidate. so he's in a different situation that way. i am told he's getting a lot of support from people in the party and, as you know, mike lee, the senator who's -- the soundbite we played is a close friend of pence. i'm told when pence attended a rhode island fund-raiser last night he got a lot of support from donors in the room and i'm told everyone who signed up to attend did attend. andrea? >> kelly, now we have to, of course, look at how the democrats are handling all of this. kristen welker, you've been doing a lot of reporting on the clinton campaign.

she's already en route here. we saw her leaving westchester county airport and she is surrounded by her debate prep team which include people have a lot of history with her, jim margolis and philippe rienes who played donald trump and they know the accusations against her husband. >> that's right. she is bracing for an all out assault against her husband and the role she may or may not have signalled he's going to do. the fact that philippe is on the plane with her suggests she is going to do another mock debate. she held a number of knock debates and donald trump didn't. at the same time, andrea, this is going to be significant. it's going to be the first time

we hear from her about these audiotapes from donald trump in 2005 and that's by design. we heard from one of her campaign officials who said on friday this is yet another reason why donald trump is disqualified from being president but secretary clinton has determined that she's not going to talk about it until tonight. i think in order to pack a bigger punch. this allows her, of course, to really capitalize with women voters right now they support her overwhelmingly but in the wake of this, that lead that she has could grow significantly. >> already we have battleground polling. we've seen her pulling into double digit leads in pennsylvania. that will hurt pat toomey, the senate candidate. that's what republicans are looking at. they're looking at their own numbers here and it's been announced al gore is going to be campaigning in florida with her on tuesday this week that's a big play for millennials.

that's where the al gore race was decide bid a third party vote. his message is don't be ralph nader, don't go for the third party, this is too important. >> >> here's the bigger problem for the republican party right now. even a week ago you could foresee a scenario where hillary clinton wins the white house but most of the senators that are in jeopardized states, those 2010 states that are now up for reelection could survive. even pat toomey theoretically could survive because of split-ticket voting but the bigger hillary clinton's margin is, the higher margin she runs up in a state like pennsylvania, the more that jeopardizes pat toomey. mcginty has not been the strongest opponent, she is now leading in our battleground poll. florida, marco rubio all the way up to 48 hours ago was seen to be the favorite in that senate race if hillary clinton takes that margin from 3% to 4% suddenly marco rubio's reelect is jeopardized so now you have

the competing interest of the republican party. the party wants donald trump to be contrite, stop the leading among suburban white women. stop the leading so their senate candidates could survive but all of these down-ballot republicans are abandoning donald trump. what incentive does he have to protect the party rather than defend himself. so donald trump's personal interest and his id seems to want to go after clinton which seems to only exacerbate his problems, which no one thinks he can recover from, but he could destroy the republican opportunity to hold on to the united states senate. this is code red for the republican party tonight. >> and john mccain's actions are instructive. he tolerated attacks on himself, on muslim americans. >> on a gold star family. on a gold star family. >> absolutely. >> and finally last night said this was too much. >> i think he sees the writing on the wall. you look at the western states. the governors of utah, new

mexico, susana martinez, people said she got sweet revenge when she was able to say "i told you so all along." now you have republican governors in the western state turning against donald trump that means they'll do as the governor of ohio is doing, withhold the apparatus that elects republicans a t the statewide level. you don't have a infrastructure in the donald trump campaign. it exists only in these senate campaigns and the party. that won't be used for him. >> and i think what's instructive is when you listen to donald trump's tone today. he hasn't been contrite today. in fact, he's painting this as a fight between the establishment and an outsider campaign. he's trying to get back to his roots. what launched this campaign in the beginning and yet, andrea, this is so different. this moment, i think, a lot of republicans would argue this, has nothing do with the battle between outsider versus insider. this is something that's very troubling to folks who would consider themselves to be outsiders as well. and so i think that that is going to be really important to see how he proceeds tonight if he continues that fight against his own party.

>> kristen and joy here, katy and kelly, thanks to all. coming up, prep for battle. how will hillary clinton address the trump tape when she comes out on that debate stage? after the break, i'm joined by clinton campaign manager robbie mook. you're watching "andrea mitchell reports" live on sunday on msnbc, the face for politics at washu. ♪ using 60,000 points from my chase ink card i bought all the framework... wire... and plants needed to give my shop... a face... no one will forget. see what the per of points cado for your business. learn more at che.com/ink

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>> i said foolish things but there are differences between the words and actions of other people. bill clinton has abused women and hillary has bullied, attacked, shamed and intimidated his victims. >> during that early saturday-morning video response, donald trump hitting hillary clinton on her husband's infidelity. this morning trump is tweeting a

breitbart video with jaunita broderick who has accused bill clinton of rape in 1978 when she was a campaign volunteer in arkans arkansas. he's denied the allegations but trump is signaling thing that he would take the gloves off tonight. and rudy giuliani on "meet the press" said trump would focus on bill clinton's infidelities in the debate tonight. joining me now, robbie mook. what is her strategy is she going to initiate a conversation tonight about the trump debate -- the trump tape in the debate tonight or will she wait for someone else to bring it up? >> she is going to address this issue tonight and we'll let her do that. this is what's great about a town hall format.

the discussion can go in a number of different directions, we're excited about that. >> the format itself, you have 40 people, 20 people on each side. it's a very small gathering, very intimate and then the two moderators, martha raddatz, anderson cooper. they're also supposed to present social media questions, not questions per se but issues that have arisen in social media which could take them in any direction they want, not quoting a tweet but raising an issue. so this is a free-for-all. >> and we like that. any time hillary has had an unfiltered opportunity to speak directly to the voters about the plan she is has to make a difference in their lives whether it's the biggest investment in jobs since world war ii, affordable college -- >> but even on her listening tour those are people brought together who are supporters. i've traveled for a year and a half now all over the country with her and it's mostly when she's with small groups there are people inclined to support her. she never had to face hostile questions.

>> well, she's been in some pretty tough back-and-forth during the primary. iowa and new hampshire there are a lot of skeptical voters who come in there and really want to hear what the candidates have to say so she's experienced in this format but again when she has the opportunity to speak in an unfiltered way directly to voters about the issues, she does well and that's what we want this debate ultimately to be about. we think that's what the voters care about are these issues and what the candidates will do to make a difference in their lives. >> here's rudy giuliani on "meet the press" today. >> i believe he will not bring up bill clinton's personal life. i do believe there's a possibility he'll talk about hillary clinton's situation if it gets to that. i don't think he prefers to that but he will in trying to show -- >> what does that mean? what situation? >> what i'm talking about are the things she has said and that have been reported in various books and magazines and other places about the women that bill

clinton raped, sexually abused and attacked. >> what about the way she responded to the women who have accused bill clinton of these activities including rape? >> andrea, this has been reported many times. the clintons had a tough time in their marriage to 220 years ago. this was litigated a lot. i don't think voters are interested in litigating it again. in this debate they want to hear candidates talk about the issue. >> isn't it a character question of her in the way she, who is a life long feminist, avowed feminist, the allegation is she went after these women. >> if donald trump wants to have a discussion about hillary clinton's record of standing up for women, we welcome that. this is the woman who went to beijing in the early '90s when everybody said she shouldn't and said women's rights are human rights. this is the woman who has secretary of state brought attention on the world stage to sex trafficking and human trafficking of women around the world. at every point in her career she has been a champion for women. we would love to have that conversation at this debate

tonight. [ cheers and applause ] >> what's also happened and what has been largely overshadowed by the video and audio of donald trump is that very day there was a wikileaks leak of -- a hack into john podesta's gmail account which included summaries of the speeches that bernie sanders had long sought. goldman sachs and other banks. what what did hillary clinton tell these high-paying speech clients, $250,000 a speech, you have to be one person in private and another person in public to get things done. what about her advocating open borders which conflicts with her current policy on tpp and trade deals? >> well, let's nut in context. that leak that took place, and we can't verify the documents yet, we're not able to comment on that. but the leak itself was perpetrated by the russian government. the partment of homeland security took the extraordinary measure this week, unprecedented measure of saying this was the russians, that beyond a shadow

of a doubt and that this leak was perpetrate for the purpose of influencing this campaign and helping donald trump and donald trump has encouraged the russians to do more and we -- it's reported he was briefed on this breach and he continued to deny that it was the russians in the debate. he said it was some person in their basement so that should be the major concern to american voters that the russians are actively trying to influence this election. as it related to your question about the content there, look, hillary clinton went to the floor of the nasdaq in 2008 and called out the financial industry in very clear terms for the swaps and derivatives, saying they should crash the economy. they did. she's been against the carried interest loophole for a long time now, she's been consistent on that. so the russians can try to mix things up and distract and create diversions in this election for the purpose of helping donald trump. hillary clinton's going to keep talking about the things she's talked about for many years now and how we have to reform wall street.

>> there are a lot of calls now in republican circles for mike pence to replace donald trump. you don't want that to happen for a lot of reasons. >> well -- >> you want her to run against donald trump. >> i'm going to leave it to the republicans to figure out how to clean up their mess. we're staying focused on what hillary clinton is doing and how she'll make a difference in people's lives. [ cheers and applause ] >> what about mike pence's record? >> look i think mikpence's record hasn't gotten scrutiny. this is one of the most divisive governors in the history of indiana. the things he did to discriminate against the lgbt community lost jobs, people pulled out their conventions and business in the state of indiana. he was struggling to get reelected. i think that's one of the reasons he decided to join the ticket but we're running against donald trump and donald trump will be on the stage tonight, his record will be on the stage, he's unfit to be the next president and people will see hillary clinton as the best prepared person to be president. >> you've announced al gore is going to campaign tuesday with

hillary clinton in florida. dare i ask why florida? why is florida relevant to al gore? >> obviously al gore understands the importance of getting out the vote in florida so he's going to -- they'll both talk about that but we saw with the recent hurricane there's enormous amount of infrastructure work to prepare for the changes coming with climate change and hurricanes like the ones we just saw so they'll talk about that. >> is there a message to those millennials who might be interested in a third party vote that in a close race could be determinative. >> we encourage everybody to get out there and support hillary clinton. if you vote for anybody else, it's a vote for donald trump we have to get behind hillary and people will be proud of how the job she does as. >> robbie mook, thanks so much. >> thanks. >> good luck to you and all of the candidates tonight. coming up, collateral damage, concern trump's crude remarks could hurt those down-ballot republicans who find themselves in their own close races.

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try these licious phillips' fiber good gummies, a good source of fiber to help support regularity. mmmm. these are great. my work here is done. phillips'. the tasty side of fiber. the nominee chosen by the people for president because i would like our country to move in a fundamentally friend direction. but the tapes that were released on friday, the statements talked about in those tapes and the actions talked about in those tapes are fundamentally different. it's talking about assault of women and i thought about years from now when my daughter kate is old enough to know what is in those tapes and understand what he is talking about i want her

to know where i stood. i cannot vote for donald trump based on what he has said and done and the actions he talked about in those tapes. >> new hampshire senator kelly ayotte, one of many republicans she is running against a woman, governor maggie hassan, a very tight race calling for donald trump to drop out of the race. joining me, a top advisor to mitt romney and the republican campaign manager for carly fiorina, welcome both. sara, first to you how difficult for down ballot candidates and women candidates like kelly ayotte in tight races? >> personally it's an easy situation. a lot of time people forget these candidates are people too. people are deeply disturbed by what he was talking about. it's an impossible decision to

make donald trump has so deeply damaged these down ballot races there's little they can do. i think these candidates will have to follow their consciences. >> and kelly ayotte said she would vote for pence but can't vote for donald trump. she's trying to walk a line here. what should the party do now? >> the party should do what they should have done in august which is what sara said, they should divert all possible resources to the congressional and senatorial candidates and other down ballot candidates that many of us urged them to start doing last summer. it is a difficult process because it's not as easy as simply buying ads. it's talking about get out the vote and who are you going to turn the vote out but they should do this as quickly as they can and they should focus

on separating congressional and senatorial candidates from donald trump. the only place i disagree with sara is i'm more optimistic about our ability to see ticket-splitting in this campaign. the presidency is likely lost, but we don't have to lose the congress. >> i totally agree with that and -- we've seen our senate candidates running for ahead of donald trump in many states and hopefully he will continue to do that. the question is how many points can they realistically run ahead of trump? >> fair point. fair point. and the good news is these are really good senators and i'm a republican, i'm biased but kelly ayotte is an outstanding person, pat toomey in pennsylvania, we're not running a bunch of weak incumbents. these are strong incumbents with strong relationships with their state. they ought to be able to separate themselves from trump and it's not too late to start the process if they haven't done it already. >> let me ask you what happened with paul ryan, though. he got heckled in wisconsin when he made even a glancing illusion

to the elephant in the room. what about the trump base within the republican party? is there a risk for some of these? >> sure. nobody suggests that this is easy. i've gotten a lot of flak from my trump-supporting friends for the things that i've said. but it's been very clear for a long time that donald trump has a strategy that can't win for the republican party. put aside the vile comments that we're talking about him having made 11 years ago. he's alienated the fastest-growing ethnic groups in the country, one poll shows him getting less than 20% of the votes of people under the age of 30, he's had no success in building support among women. this is not a strategy that can win for the republican party, it should have clear a long time ago. i'm glad that paul ryan has taken the approach he's taken. it's not easy for him and won't be easy for these other republican candidates but this is a situation we're in. we can't give away the whole future of the party for fear of alienating trump supporters. >> and there's a picture they've

released of trump on the plane calling pence, he's surround by rudy giuliani and other top advisors, sara, should he go after bill and hillary clinton tonight on sexual personal issues? >> i think a lot of the complaints that you hear from republicans across the country today is that initial apology if you were offended, his second video didn't seem sincere. if he addresses this in a sincere way, he can move on to other issues. i'm not sure he's capable of doing that. on the other hand, though, what i think you see a lack of willingness, a lack of courage on democrats' part to acknowledge hillary clinton's flaws. republicans across the country right now are acknowledging that donald trump is an incredibly flawed candidate and yet you see democrats standing by hillary clinton when these speeches have come out where she basically says she lies to voters and only tells the truth behind closed

doors. so i think it would be wise for donald trump to point out that hypocrisy on the left but he's got to thread that needle and he's not a great sewer so far. >> sara flores, vin weber, thanks so much. up next, what to expect at tonight's debate. an unusual format as well. a town hall format with questions coming not just from the moderators but from audience members. 40 people selected by gallop, undecided voters. more next on "andrea mitchell reports" on msnbc, the place for politics. ♪ across new york state, from long island to buffalo, from rochester to the hudson valley, froom albany to utica,ffalo, creative business incentives, infrastructure investment, university partnerships, and the lowest taxes in decades are creating a stronger economy and the right environment in new york state for business to thrive. let us help grow your company's tomorrow- today

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the only person i need is my running mate mike pence. i love mike pence. i respect pence. i'll always have pence. >> well, actually, today he said

he can't condone your remarks and then he canceled his campaign events. >> mike pence is a loser. [ laughter ] i hate his guts. i call him puny pence. >> "saturday night live's" take on the presidential race. joining me, "usa today's" bureau chief susan page and "washington post" correspondent dan balz. susan, this is an extraordinary weekend. already "usa today's" front-page endorsement, that neverappened before, of hillary clinton but the reaction of not just women voters but women and men voters. i'm finding in the last 48 hours people are stopping me in airports, on the street in stores, running errands in a way they have not responded. this has become a touchstone moment. >> disendorsed, unendorsed, said

you shouldn't vote for donald trump. we didn't say you should vote for hillary clinton. >> thank you for that. >> this latest bombshell is going to exacerbate the gender gap. in 1996 it was 11 points. i wouldn't be surprised if it wasn't bigger than that. >> the "washington post" has led the way so much of this reporting with david farenthold. >> extraordinary reporting. >> the trump foundation and now unearthing this "access hollywood" video. tell us, the role of the media has been just -- it's controversial and instructive. essential in this campaign? >> we have come under more criticism than we've ever come under during this campaign from all sides. we've been criticized for making trump trump. we've been criticized for not holding trump accountable. we've been criticized for being soft on clinton and hard on clinton. i think most of us and most of the news organizations have tried to do what we've always done but in a much more

difficult environment which is tough reporting, follow leads as they come in, keep continuing to pursue things and take it where it leads us and that's certainly what david has done with the trump foundation and with the access hollywood video. >> the format tonight, you've got 40 people, that's not very many people. these are gallop selected undecided voters sitting on stage with the candidates. she's had more experience with voters on that listening tour so she may get hostile questions tonight as well. >> they'll both get tough questions but as you say it's an intimate setting so it penalizes in some ways a candidate who comes across as too harsh and slashing. that isn't what voters like to hear even when they raise questions about personal behavior and i personally don't see how they avoid questions about personal behavior at tonight's format. >> there's some television choreography here. tim kaine criticized for the way in a split screen he appeared to

be looking away. he was really looking towards the moderator, not looking towards mike pence but tonight it's harder to get the candidates in a split screen because they can be roving around. so you don't know exactly how to play the camera. >> i think one challenge for donald trump, put aside anything he says, donald trump has a face that is exsuppressive and he wears his attitude. if somebody was saying someth g something. he has to be more disciplined. he needs a performance unlike anything he's been able to do and at the same time there is this instinct on his part, one, never to let an insult get by him. he wants to take it away from

his behavior towards bill clinton's behavior and perhaps what hillary clinton did enormously difficult political skill. >> i'm reminded of a previous town hall when anderson cooper asked him "why did you go after heidi cruz?" and he said "they started it. i'm a counterpuncher." he didn't -- and anderson says "that's what a five-year-old would say." i'm paraphrasing, but he doesn't have any monitor and what he showed in that video was hardly con constitution. >> he's very combative. you cannot do that when a citizen is standing up at a town hall forum and asking you a question no matter how much you don't like it. you need to be respectful and you're rewarded for being

empathetic and low key the way bill clinton was in that 1992 town hall format, the first time you saw that format used in a presidential dete. can donald trump do that? >> dan, just one final note. you mentioned that donald trump's face is a road map and not always the road he wants to communicate or his advisors want. hillary clinton at times has seemed so defensive any time she's asked about e-mails but she was so carefully modulated, i think, in that first debate against trump that practice has really improved her retail candidate. >> she's going to have to be that way tonight. so she has things to answer for quite apart from what's happening to donald trump. >> thanks so much, dan balz and susan page, two of the best in the profession. coming up, while some republicans are calling for mike pence to move to the top of the tickets, democrats are highlighting what they say is pence's controversial record as governor of indiana.

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i'm not a customer, but i'm calling about that credit scorecard. (to dog)give it. sure! it's free for everne. oh! well thas nice! and checki your score won't hurt your credit. oh! (to 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. even a though it's almost impossible because ballots are already printed, early voting has already started, a growing number of republicans calling for mike pence to replace donald trump at the top of the ticket. but the clinton campaign is now going after pence's record on women's issues and gay issues. joining me now is chad griffin, president of the human rights campaign, former white house aide to bill clinton. chad, great to see you. let's talk about mike pence in indiana. what is your issue? what are your issues with mike pence as a governor? >> i think what you're seeing right now is the republican party truly unravel.

what donald trump has done is disgusting and disturbing and dangerous. but what's also important to remember is this is nothing unique. the decisions a nominee makes as to who will be their number two, donald trump chose mike pence as his number two. it was disappointing that he was not asked about the issue that defined his career more than any other issue and that's his treatment of lgbtq country in this country. everyone knows most recently where he attacked lgbtq citizens in the state of indiana by putting forward a license to discriminate bill. it cost the state tens of millions of dollars, hurt the state's reputation and made him a very unpopular governor but what a lot of people don't know about smens whmike pence is wha in congress. what he voted time and time

again on. mike pence voted against the matth matthew sheppard hate crime act. mike pence voted against that common sense law that had bipartisan support in this country. he called it an experiment it was outrageous and he stood alone in doing that. perhaps most outrageous of all, andrea, is mike pence supports something that is very dangerous called conversion therapy. he believes millions of lgbtq children across this country should go to state funded and federally funded conversion therapy. it's outrageous. >> let me ask you about your ground game also because even before this happened you announced a ground game on behalf of the clinton campaign what are you trying to do here? >> andrea, we are organizing

across this country. i'm headed to pennsylvania later this afternoon, i was in florida and will be in ohio later this week. there are ten million lgbtq voters in this country today. in many states it's larger than the margin of victory. more than half a million lgbtq voters in the state of florida. nearly 300,000 in the state of pennsylvania. lgbt people are motivated and working hard to ensure they turn out not only for hillary clinton but for pro-equality candidates up and down that ballot. >> thank you so much, chad griffin, good to see you again. >> good to see you. coming up here, brand new polling from those key battleground states, florida and pennsylvania. we'll break down the numbers next on "andrea mitchell reports." stay with us. ess, then give you an unrealistic timeline. i'll nod in agreement so my wife thinks i understand what you're saying. i look forward to questioning your every move. okay, well i'll leave your house in shambles

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and we have brand new nbc/"wall street journal"/marist polling data for pennsylvania and florida today, although

taken before this weekend's big developments. nbc's senior political editor mark murray joins me to break it down. let's look at florida first. >> hillary clinton has a three-point lead 0045% to 42%. >> in a four-way race. >> in a four-way race. in pennsylvania it's even larger where hillary clinton has 12-point lead. again, andrea, as you mentioned, this was conducted before friday's bombshell news and it does show you the state of the race and how perilous donald trump's position already was before friday and certainly heading into this debate. >> the registration deadline was not extended in florida, but the cleanup, at least in south florida, is certainly proceeding. that could impact the counties where democrats have traditionally been ahead of republicans. >> andrea, we know every vote counts in a place like florida. it will be close, everyone says it. but donald trump has to win both florida and pennsylvania and he's trailing in both according to polls. >> and nothing could be more important than his performance tonight. thank you so much, great to see you. we'll be right back, stay

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that does it for this very special sunday edition of "andrea mitchell reports." hallie jackson is up next. stay with us live from washington university here in st. louis and follow our show on line @mitchellreports. i'm live on campus in front of a killer crowd. they are hyped because we have a big show ahead for you. i want to walk and talk. donald trump on his way to st. louis right now fighting for his political life and just within the last 25 minutes or so, we're getting a new look inside his plane surrounded by party head reince priebus. there's rudy giuliani in there, he's on the phone with mike pence, that picture snapped by his campaign manager. within the last hour, new reaction from one of the republicans calling on trump to drop out