it is as they say, an otherwise beautiful night on an otherwise beautiful campus. wash u in the beautiful city. the gateway city of st. louis. inside, however, within the basic campus confines of this debate as you see the first guest seats have opened up. we're an hour away now, it has taken a darker turn when donald trump summoned the press corps into the room. >> so watch him debate prep,

which was actually him sitting there with four women who have accused bill and hillary clinton of various kind of sexual misconduct or mistreatment. you know, if the clinton campaign has been saying run his campaign however they want. however he wants to run his campaign and they'll run their campaign the way they want to run it. the question is, how much of this outside circus can be brought on to that formal debate stage tonight? i think the regardless of what happens on the debate though, i think the republican party has to decide what they're going to do with the legacy of donald trump and what he has made their party stand for. just trying to manage mitt romney, had hillary clinton been in nominee or john mccain doing this sort of thing. had hillary clinton been the nominee in 2008. the republican party doesn't think of itself as this party. at least anymore. and now, they are. in fact, in down ballot politics. starting tomorrow morning.

regardless of what happens in the next couple of hours tonight. >> hearts and mind, support, lack of support. chris matthews is standing by in st. louis. with a supporter of hillary clinton. chris? >> thank you. i've got senator claire mccaskill with me. very popular here, obviously. let's, okay. you know how politics works. one thing leads to another. people stop giving money. stop running ads. is this a dynamic that's not going to be stopped, that can't be stopped by trump? >> i think that truch is angry and defiant. anybody who thinks this man is in a mood to make an apology,

doesn't understand what's going on here. this is desperate. it's dark. to quote michelle obama, if you want to know what hillary clinton's going to do tonight, when they go low, we go high. i think she will be poised and strong. she will not allow herself to get drug down into this chaotic, nasty kind of campaign that frankly, i think is the most depressing that i ever remember anybody running in my lifetime. we usually went aspirational politics and presidential policies and this is as bad as it gets. >> you think the fact it's a town meeting, apparently, independent people, nonpolitical people. i would say i'll ask you, would they be squeamish talking about the sex stuff in wouldn't they say that's not what we want to talk about? >> i would say that's correct. they want to talk about affordability of college, whether or not wee going to get the environment to the point we're not worried about agriculture in missouri.

the mod rarts are going to have a role here, too. they're going to ask some of the questions. but i h say this. if donald trump thinks doing this defiant, defensive ugly thing before this debate is going to gain him a lot of women's votes, he is sadly mistaken. >> you were attorney general. you were an attorney general. you know what, i just watched the courtroom drama. they always argue what's relevant. we pick a president of the united states. not just the head of the government, they're head of state. the person of the country. is it relevant, their personal lives, their personal sexual behavior, behavior with other people of other genders. is it relevant? was it relevant under clinton, under donald trump? so it relevant to know about the person's life in way of sex? >> how they handle them in terms of crisis is relevant. when you look at how donald trump has handled himself during this campaign.

he doesn't listen to his advisers. has no int luck eventual curiosity about the policies he has to have a grasp on. he is incapable of showing humility or apologizing to a family who lost their son in the war. this is a guy who time after time fails to rise to the level, the bare minimum you'd have to have to lead the most powerful nation on the planet. this is not someone we want to show off to the world. this is embarrassing. >> can we he win missouri? >> yes, he can, but -- >> after this? >> i don't think after this he can. i think it will be absolutely a 50-50 proposition in a tate he was ahead by ten points just a week ago. >> here, unbelievable. back to you, brian and rachel. >> thank you, chris, thank you, senator. andr andrea mitchell has a statement in reaction to this scene we have just witnessed from the clinton campaign. andrea. >> it's a reaction also of course to the announcement from jason miller. that these women are going to be

here in the debate hall tonight. according to the truch campaign. this is titled the clinton's statement on quote trump's latest act of desperation. we're not surprised to see donald trump continue his destructive race to the bottom. hk understands the opportunity in this town hall is to talk to voters on stage and in the audience about the is that matter to them. and this stunt doesn't change that. she continues if donald trump doesn't see that, that's his loss. as always, she's prepared to handle whatever donald trump throws her way. that is the statement. the reaction now from the communications chief from this campaign. they expected something, they did not expect it to be this visceral, this in their face. i do thot believe they expected him to bring these women, his

expresswaccuser, bill clinton'se kuzers to this hall. i have to tell you, they have done lot of focus groups on the issue. clinton manch. from their focus groups, they say at least that most women in their focus groups at least relate to hillary clinton saying she has stayed with her husband. they have worked through their problems. they've been married for 41 years. that was central to both bill and hillary clinton's speeches a t the convention in philadelphia. so, they were fairly confident that they could get past this. as to how hillary clinton is prepared to address this t trump tape, she's expecting that would come up early in the debate from mod rarts, from the audience participants, from trump himself or she would bring it up and she's prepared to say this is a pattern of behavior, that this is thot a surprise that the years of tapes from the howard stern show indicate his kind of language, behavior. a kind of behavior that joe biden says rises to the level of sexual assault.

that was from joe biden, not this campaign. she's prepared to compare it to his treatment of the former miss universe. that's her tactic coming in. >> andrea mitchell in the debate hall. under an hour to go this will this thing starts. steve schmidt was making a point before we had to intersuspect for what we didn't know was going to be videotape of that scene we saw. steve, how corrosive is this both to your mood, to the party you were discussing when last we poke to yund to this just event spectacle? >> look, the republican party's the third older political party in the world. one of this country's great institutions. one of globe's greatest institutions. it's devastating to the republican party, but this is corrosive to our civics. it's krocorrosive to our countr. what we are going to see tonight is a disgrace. if you're a parent who cares

about civics and you want to have informed children, you have a 10, 11, 12, 13-year-old, ideally, you would like them to be able to watch a presidential debate. you'd be advised as a parent to send the kids to the bedroom and turn the tvs off tonight. and that's saying something rather sad. i think also, brian, what this pos is a massive hypocrisy inside the republican party. think about people like jerry fall well jr. people who claim to be leaders in the country who are apoll gists for this behavior. in this fusion of religion to political conservatism is a toxic element in our politics and i think this hypocrisy is on display for all to see. i think mike pence, who is a very conservative, former member of congress, very conservative

governor, but i think a good and decent man. i think sincerely, espouses his beliefs when he says i'm a christian. i'm a conservative. and i'm a republican. in that order. well, if that's true, how does mike pence stay on this ticket? unless, that's the middle of the lineup, a career politician proceeds at all. so, in the next days, republicans who in their heart, believe this is wrong, believe he is unfit, but have taken the root of saying look, he's a misoxygen nis and said racist thinks. football that the military aides carry behind the president, but i support the nominee of their party. i think they're out of runway on this. so, we're going to see here for 90 minutes later tonight is unlike anything that's ever been seen on a debate stage in a presidential election. and you just have to think back

to benjamin franklin's answer to the woman who asked dr. franklin, what have you given us after the constitutional convention and he said a republic, if you can keep it. in the degradation of our civic life ha comes from this campaign, i think it would make the founders roll oaf in their graves. >> thank you. during the next part of our conversation, we've compiled a list of prominent republican defectors who have in the last 48 to 24 hours announced they are leaving, taking their support away from donald trump. it is sizable. there are names on it you will recognize. it matters and it's been heard loud and clear in trump tower and elsewhere. eugene robson has joined our table. pulitzer prize winner with the post. you joined after the tape surfaced. >> i was watch ng the green

room. this is, this is an amazing and disturbing spect cal so far. you know, we should be honest, we don't exactly, we can't predict what the debate will be like, but we think we have an idea. if going there. what does the republican party stand for at this point and at which points, does the paerts draw a line? that could be tomorrow and we'll just have to see how this goes. i think chris matthews is right that trump has decided to go scorch to earth and that if you know he is on this sort of very low plane now taking low by the video that was released on friday and he probably figures the only way he has a chance so

to bring hillary clinton down with him. you know, the obvious problem is there's no allegation against hillary clinton. there is past behavior by bill clinton. no credible allegation that hillary clinton did anything -- i get i think what trump is trying to do, but i cannot imagine it will the lengthening of that list of defectors from the trump campaign. perhaps before the evening is out. >> we are many missing woman formation. nicole wallace has left to -- nicole wallace -- >> doing some reporting. >> yes, she is. ever the gop operative turned

working journalist is on the phone with someone and will be, we'll be back with more including this conversation about what if something forces a change in the republican ballot in top of the ticket? bottom of the ticket? the ticket. can you? will you? how would that work? ben ginsburg is the one guy in the country you would want answering that question. we have him. he's among our guests standing by.

paula jones is a loser, but the fact is, she may be responsible for bringing down our president and that statement was a bad statement to have been made and it's proven to be false. so -- >> which statement? >> paula jones in the deposition. >> that was donald trump in '98. paula jones, among the women plank flanking him. part of his in quotes debate prep. >> saying at the time that she made, a loser and made false ak sixths against bill clinton, now he's introducing her because that's how he's prepping for the debate by having her attest to why he's a better choice because of these allegations, which he conceded are false. >> james carville standing by to talk to us. often of counsel as part of our coverage. james, this was part, probably the worst component you had to

deal with in running a clinton campaign. the thing about it is, it was a different clinton. that was bill. this is hillary who's going to be on the stage. >> should be talking to tom brokaw, since these allegations have come out to remind people that bill clinton left office with one of the highest approval rayings ever. almost the party's nominee. was confirmed as secretary of state by a huge senate majority. but only thing i find shocking about this is this some were shocked he would do this. this is consistent with everything we know about donald trump. with his entire campaign. not shocked at all. its effectiveness is dpoipg to backfire. >> james, on the question of the effectiveness, i feel like a little bit disconnected from the

story because i feel the political analysis we're working from, a scorched earth tactic, the button that says do not push. what i don't understand is why this works against hillary clinton. why this makes people who might otherwise vote for her not. why it makes people vote for him. just as a political professional, do you see it? >> no, i don't. again, all of this does nothing here. all of this we went through. i feel like i'm on "larry king live" almost. since 1998. everything, we've had rall dating elections. everything that you can imagine. i think what it is, honestly think that trump is tired. he's overweight. he's angry and he's just lashing out and you have to let this guy do that. i think she's going to have a very good debate tonight. remember, there are going to be people in the audience, real people with real questions and real concerns and i think she's going to go to that.

she'll defend her marriage and she should and you know, it's just as all from 1998. it's almost 20, 18 years old. doing my math correctly. and all of this does nothing new here. bill clinton might be one of the most popular people on earth. just find it very difficult to believe that any of this is going to have any positive effect for trump. just an angry guy who's lashing out because he had a horrific last few days. more than that, probably last ten days between the debate and all of the stories, the tax story and now this story. it's just been a very difficult time for the guy. he's exhausted and he's mad and he just flailing away out there. that's all that's going on. >> one of the things we've seen with trump is that he doesn't have a lot of verbal discipline. not a lot of message discipline, even when he has something in mind he wants to say, it often comes out garbled or slightly off target in terms of what he's

aiming at. everybody saying that he's not going to go after hillary clinton for what bill clinton did. in terms of his marriage and other women. he's going to go after hillary clinton for the way she responded to those accusers and everything. i don't see him as a laser guided munition here. i see him as a guy that just throws stuff and sees what happens. if he gets up there tonight like giuliani did today and called bill clinton a rapist and starts making those blunt ak sigss on twirt, that surrogates are making, should hillary clinton defiend him or wait until it's over and a start talking about something else? >> first of all, all of this was exhaustively went into by ken starr, bho took a ga zillion dollars. how does anybody know what donald trump is going to do? do you think trump really knows what he's going to say? of course we don't. he doesn't even know.

he is a tired, overweight old man who's losing. and he will lash out. he doesn't know the questions that are coming or anything like this. the idea that we can predict what he's going to do or come out of his mouth, i think is fallacy. but he's going to do something, they are going to shock people, that's the nature of what he is. i think if she just gets out of this debate and people see her and say she's a nice lady. she knows what he's talking about. i think that's going to be a great, great win. i think she's going to interact with these people very well. but i'm very optimistic. >> james, go to a safe room to watch tonight. don't have anything dang row around you. >> you know, i've been through this. a gazillion times. and i've seen, i've had effective opponents come against us. for some reason, i just can't get very excited about donald trump. the guy is unleashed. he's not disciplined.

politically, i don't know if he's business smart. politically, he's very, very stupid. and i think my candidate is going to do very well. i'm very optimistic for her. >> to our audience, you should hear james on the subject of lsu football, but we'll hold that conversation for another time. >> appreciate it. >> talk to you at the other end if we all make it through this. chris matthews in st. louis. chris? >> thank you. i've got joy reed, our colleague here. the former rnc chair. i think i agree with everything. especially what james just said. calling him an old man, overweight, all the other -- he threw at him. he's angry and he's going to show it. almost like he's coming in with a suicide vest tonight. ready to blow the whole house down. sxwl. >> when the war is lost, it matters who's in the bunker. it matters who's who this bunk we are the general who's losing.

in virginia not far from an mamt is courthouse. there's something in way you lose. and donald trump is losing. angry and the people in the bunker with him are people like david bossy. u bannon. people like giuliani. even kelly anne conway. they've decided to lose ugly, fight ugly and not just fighting the clintons. they've decided to strap the vest on and torch the republican party. >> all income has exploded. they'll defend her. remember how he defenned her on the rose lawn? bill will say something. you don't deserve to be on the same stage with my wife. they make the attacker look bad. i think it's going to be joseph welsh moment when she will say tonight until this moment, i did not know how low you would go.

have you no decency. i think we're going watch something like that tonight. you very well may see that, but what the calculation of the trump campaign is making in talking to some of the folks around the campaign is that fine, you go there. and we can take it low. and still have the responses they think they need to keep this campaign going. i don't get the logic behind that. i don't why they think tht the appropriate path, but they really believe that there's a larger audience for what he's doing, having this press conference before this debate. whatever may transpire in the hall tonight, there's an audience for that and they'll vote in november. we're looking top line. they've gone way deep. >> i can tell you why i think they're doing it. just talking to people in the orbit of the trump world is that they know there's more out there. and they have decided they're going to bring more, too.

this is more this is mott the end of what trump world has decided to do to the clintons. they've decided to run out of the playbook of the people who are veterans of those '90s clinton wars. they want to go to the women, bill clinton, they want to destroy the clintons. this is rage politics. >> they don't have tlg there, they'll have the release of more documents that raises good, fresh questions about the whole hillary clinton narrative. >> they're not doing this as a campaign. they're not doing that. >> it's not a campaign. >> back the you. >> a quick break as we near the final half hour before start time and the audience. senator mccaskill kill among them starts filters in. >> get iting a good seat here.

quickly becoming the night that was. in the strangest presidential race in memory. you see members of the press have filtered in. members of the audience filtering in. hallie jackson has news for us in st. louis. >> hi there, brian. yeah, we are -- it's burning up here. the telephone at least. getting some information now from a source close to the campaign. this is somebody who supports donald trump and the early reaction upon hearing the developments tonight were in just a phrase, what the hell are we doing?

this person called it dismaying, not understanding why this is happen ng the strategy here. particularly when as this person said, the backs are up against the wall as donald trump's back is tonight. clearly, the campaign is leaning this this strategy. you are seeing these tweets. i don't know if we have them from kellyanne conway, a series, which is she is tweeting at hillary clinton. talking about the women we expect to see at some point in the hall here tonight. looking around, this is a small room. we know that the family members will be in the front closer to where this town hall is is happening. we expect the guests almost all of whom have arrived an looking around are here. i'm looking at maybe eight empty seats behind me to the side of where we are. we have not seen the women in the hall yet, but that is the expectation. so it's sort of a remarkable moment here, getting reaction from others in the republican party. top operatives. some not repeatable on

television. i guess in a couple of word, buckle up. >> you're talking to people who are trump supporters who were blind sided by this, are having a very negative reaction to it. negative to the point of pro feign. so it seems like this is coming, this is what just happened came from a very small subset of trump world. >> so, let me clarify just a couple of that sourcing because tha a good question. the reaction so coming from one source that i have talked to close to the campaign outside of the campaign. any trump loyalist, somebody who does vehemently back very, very v vocally back trump. it is somebody spothing the nominee, but not this decision at this point. >> thanks for the clarification. absolutely stunning. >> thank you. let's bring in ben jins berg, all you need to know is he is

former general counsel to the republican national committee. also held every other prominent legal job with every other major campaign in the last few years. these days, he is with jones day in washington. ben, i'm not going to ask you about what you think is happening to the party of your political lifetime. i am ging to ask you what if what is left of the party structure decides there has to be b a change in this ticket. what if mike pence decides what have donald trump trump is, how do you change a ticket this close to the election. >> the republican national committee is empowered to name a nominee. there's a process where the number of votes that each rnc member will cast is weighed. the committee would have to convene. and whoever it is would have to

get 1,237 votes just as if we were in cleveland. >> so, the early vote would be in and cooked and counted. that wouldn't be affected, but folks still use paper ballot, perhaps they would make stickers to replace the old name and programs, you would hope that electronic ballots could be kreked in time. >> yes. and brian, interestingly enough, most state, people are voting for members of the electoral college ant not the candidates. at least from a majority of states, but not all. the electors are pledged to vote for the party's nominee, so if the republican national committee took the action of naming a new nominee, then actually, the electors when they meet on december 19th, could con dpirm that person. >> in terms of your experience here, you're not just a tactician. and a tech atechnicrat.

given what you know, do you think there is any reasonable chance that mike pence won't be the vice presidential nominee or that donald trump won't be the presidential nominee of the republican party on election day? >> well, no, i don't. but with all the caveats that everyone gives about this year, you never show. but coming, trying to come up with a new nominee 30 day out and have that nominee be successful is not on precedents is really, really difficult. >> as we've seen the nominee, the suburban with secret services wife melania, ben, thank you, please remain of counsel to us. >> yeah. >> one of the two candidates is in the building. we're within a half hour of the start. another break, we'll be right back.

welcome back. that's wash u in st. louis. a multiple holster of multiple debates. few are going to have the audience. this one's going to end up having at least initially until we figure out what we've got

here. >> we can see the stool, the highchairs there that each of candidates will be on. can't tell if they're different heights, but you also see those regular folks in those prime seat on stage. very close to the two candidates. this format is to a certain extent a test of empathy and capacity of display of human emotion and having those people so close to where the candidates are sitting will be a really important dynamic from terms of whether they succeed tonight. >> left podium there will be donald trump on the right, hillary clinton. anderson cooper from cnn. martha raddatz from abc. pentagon and foreign apairs correspondent will be our moderators tonight. hugh hewitt has been one of the people we've turned to throughout our political season and i've got to tell you, i reacted with surprise when i heard the news that you had decided over this past weekend, that you needed to part company with the nominee of your party

after this video came out. talk about that decision. >> well, i think it's evidence now that donald trump isn't going to win and it would be in the best spres of the country, the party himself and his family, to step aside. perhaps that will turn around tonight. i don't think so. the display tonight, i don't want to fool myself. there are millions of americans applauding, but i suspect there are tens of millions who are more dismayed. i also anticipate donald trump will unleash a pliserring attack on the media's double standard and that would include a full throat t condemnation of years of surprise attacks on republicans, but not on democrats. i think it's all going to get his dwindling base and i think it is diminishing by the hour. more and more excited so that false positives will be registered within trump tower. i will say though, if you go back to victorian england, there was a particular train of men who would go and take bodies and sell them to medical schools. called resurrection men. this is kind of resurrecting the

'90s. they did not enjoy a great reputation and this, i don't think is going to play well in america when bill clinton was asked to impeached, repentant in a vague way, but enough for most of america to move on. i just, i tell you, i, the general reanchor among the media people is dismay and can't possibly help him, but i wonder, i know millions of his supporters are cheering tonight for what they think is going full gone dor, but i think it could be as mor dor. >> i would love to go back to victorian england right about now. with the state of our discourse. >> especially if they don't get the next -- >> hugh, i wanted to give you a chance to talk about your weighty decision because i know you love your politics and

party. that this was not inconsequential to you and i know we'll be talking to you after this event. to your viewers yourks may have seen two men approach the terror of the circle. by now, they are almost household names. we've seep them do this enough times. on the left is former clinton white house press secretary, mike mccurry and on the right, long time republican, hang on. oh. we're not going to list nn yet. frank farncough. >> what they're going to do here is have i they're going to lead the same sort soft standard set of rules they usually do. they'll likely go to the university president. we'll have the introduction of fam members ch mod rarts will address the audience. then awkward few u minutes where nobody knows what to do then the debate will start. >> what he went through --

>> this is hugh hewitt. >> but i noted when he put out his tweet, sort of resending, it's a huge deal what he thinks inside of republicans. yoef state his importance within the party. he withdrew his support over the weekend ch that's what's going on. that's why my phone's exploding. this is what's happen ng the republican party. this is the bottom dropping out. that is what it looks like. people like hugh pull their support. >> there he is. >> people that i know from the bush campaigns. who were never behind trump. i remember jeb bush saying to me, that trump had basically scammed the gop. he felt sad for everybody including folks like you u, who fell for it. i wonder what you foal about the people who never took the step you took. >> i was never never trump, but i was very supportive of him

after he got the nomination. i know wayne gruden tonight, one of the american evangelical luminaries, great, great scholastic academic teacher. withdrawals or call on leaving, their gradations here. saying i'll never vote. 50 tomorrow and might be 100 if this settles the way i think it will settle. i think you might even see paul ryan do a cromwell to the long parliament. you've done enough damage, go. he go, but the damage is amiss. >> all right. these as i've said at the top, no ordinary time. later by doris kearns goodwin. another break for us. our final break. when we come back, we'll stretch over the top of the hour and be underway in st. louis.

there is the democratic nominee with her husband and daughter, hillary clinton arriving in the vip entrance now and coming in to the debate venue, second to arrive, frank, the republican member, the senior partner of the republican presidential commission on debates continues to lay out the ground rules. our historian, michael beschloss is always with us during moment of high drama in politics and for this country. and michael, my first question to you is about your country. it is krocorrosive enough when number one and two least liked candidates are running against each other in opinion polling and now, this. and now, this weekend and now, the event tonight and now, what we're about to witness. >> well, as you know, brian, we

live in a country that is enormously resilient and will be resilient once again, but we are see i seeing things tonight we have never seen before. certainly not a debate on a debate night. donald trump's press conference in the conference room. what it is said, he is about to say in this debate, if it's true, this is going to be the first tv debate in american history in the fall where parents will not want their children to watch what used to be thought of as this great exercise in dmok issy and you know, one irony brian is that when tv debates began, presidential debates in 1960, one hope was that this would elevate presidential campaigns and what people said then was that it will reduce mud slinging because no candidate would dare to say nasty things to the other to his face. in a setting like this and that was said even more ironically about this town hall format when that was developed later on.

>> did decorum die first? which came first? >> i think it's the chicken or the egg. i think they both dieded essentially at the same time. what we're seeing is probably the cull min nation of that. tonight. i hope that's not true. >> one of the things we've been talking about here tonight, both on camera and off and all the breaks, is this phenomenon that we're seeing of republican elected officials and leerd rs dropping their support for donald trump and the various explo pla nations. for so many pushing against their own? >> nothing like this. feels as if i'm just a broken record, but i'm one more occasion saying we've never seen anything like this. this is a month bf a presidential election. you have the spectacle of all these republican leaders bailing

on donald trump. the party apparatus reports at the rnc, there are people saying we're not going to work for the presidential candidate. only for the house and senate and governorships and for this all to happen just on the eve of a crucial debate. if you read about this, you would throw it against the wall because it would seem too improbable. >> thank you very much. i know you're going to watch with us. we're going to need your advice and counsel when it's over. look at the scene on the right hand side of your screen. this is the trump family taking their seats. those women are the women that were flanking donald trump at the event. then dick durbin and then jack danforth. dean of public servants in missouri. certainly for the republican party. it was jack who became an early

fan of youns thomas, who he encountered in life an politics. any way, the people you see at a debate. >> let's bring in lawrence o'donnell. just as we're just getting twartds the top of the hour and the start of this evening's contest. lawrence, what's your take on this late strategy by donald trump to bring out all of these accusers of bill clinton's and put them with his family there in the front row and also, what's going to happen in terms of that tape from friday bleeding into tonight's contest? >> it seems he's going through with that his strategy was, he's basically announce ed twitter, which is he's now apparently no longer running if for president. he is running for a position in history and the position he's fighting for is political sexual scandals, he is the one who's

not as bad as bill clinton. that is the only status he seems to be trying to achieve here and one of the iron any of these women choosing to appear with donald trump tonight, no matter how credible their stories may be, is that they have chosen to sit beside someone who on friday, was revealed to be an admitted sexual assaulter, that is an admit ted sexual criminal. and it is one thing for them to oppose hillary clinton based on their own experiences. that's one thing. it is a completely different decision to say i'm going to sit beside donald trump and anounts to the world i'm voting for him and to do that, two days after donald trump revealed himself to the world to be an admitted sexual criminal. >> we've also got the awkwardness and i think we've got a clip of this. which is that donald trump like all of us, was around for the first round of bill clinton sex scandals and accusations there in in the late '90s and as this happened during the middle of

the clints presidency, he was one of the people who commented on it at the time in particularly sympathetic terms toward hillary clinton. watch this. >> i think she's gone through terrible times. i think she's been through more than any woman should have to bear. everything public. i mean, women go through this on a private basis and cant take it. she's on the front page of every newspaper every week. i think she's a wonderful woman. >> donald trump speaking in 1999 about hillary clinton and how she bore up under the strain of her husband's behavior. now, he's turn, into her chief prosecutor on that subject. i just wonder if that sofrt thing is something that, if trump's own past on this subject getting drug with him tonight. >> yeah an we'll be seeing a lot of that tame. bill clinton made a lot of mistakes and one was the decision to befriend trump when he moved to new york because

donald trump said the other day in his excuse that bill clinton said worse things to him on the golf course. imagine, any other democrat standing on that stage tonight would not have a spouse who played golf with donald trump and had the answer for that possibility. >> as you're speaking there, we're seeing bill clinton. arrive. along with melania trump and i believe three of the trump children. they're all shaking hands. everybody looking pretty sober and serious this evening. we have previously seen warm interactions. that is not what is happening here this evening. >> chelsea clinton, the clinton son-in-law. you see ivanka and eric and donald trump trump jr., the executive director of the presidential commission is speaking. again, rules for the people who have shown, there's two kind of people at tonight's debate.

spectators and the people who the gallup polling organization has identified in the st. louis metropolitian area as being genuinely undecided. here's martha raddatz and anderson cooper. >> thank you very much. we're honored tor here. also the commission on presidential debates for sponsoring this. this is obviously a town hall format tonight. a chance for the americans on this stage and thousands of people who have sent in questions online to ask questions directly to the candidates. >> after they've asked their questions, they've promised to remain silent and i know you've heard this before this evening, but no outbursts of any kind. we want to keep this focused on the candidates an the people who are asking the questions here. we appreciate your cooperation and we'll start shortly. great to see you all. >> raddatz and anderson cooper,

both experienced with presidential debates. both have moderated at least primary debates in the case of and anderson cooper and a general election vice presidential debate in the case of martha radda raddatz. i'm not friends with all that many people in our business. not a person that has a ton of contacts in our business, but i know martha and anderson a little bit. i have a tremendous amount of admiration for them an they're both very good at this kind of work. i also do not envy them. their position this evening. this is going to be just an incredibly difficult thing. to do. the pressure here is palpable and it's always true with something this important, but particularly tonight with the emotional nature of the stakes here. having been raised on both sides. >> i, too, know them both a little bit. i, too, concur with what you said. both have one thing in common. that is they are awfully proud of their work in dangerous place, war zones ash the world.

they will need the situational awareness and cool and calm tonight. we're a minute and a half away from the top of the hour. inside the official moment of awkward silence, where the mod rarts are preparing, their backs to the audience. chris matthews down in st. louis. chris, your last thoughts. >> the characters, courtroom drama, may well be that donald trump will point the finger at the former president. point to juan ta broderick and say you ra p ped her. this could get very raw. you can say the same about kathleen, you groped her. paid paula jones a million dollars to settle a suit over sexual misbehave. this could get really raw. i'm telling you, as you said, these moderators are going to have one rough time tonight keeping it minimally civilized. >> we'll be watching from the sight in st. louis.

and immediately after this is over, we're coming up on the top of the 9:00 hour in the east. if you've been with us before, you know that's kus marly the time the other networks come on the air and start their coverage an their analysis. and then it's usually a matter of minutes from the top of the hour. when we're underway. and our coverage officially is underway. 9:00 eastern time. it's 8:00 p.m. on the campus of washington university in st. louis, missouri. if there's ever been this much tension, genuine tension, with a dark tinge before a presidential level debate, we can't recall it. this is the first town hall style of this political season. mr. trump has the lekturn and high stool on the left. secretary clinton on the right. we believe there