wa trks wataga county. in beautiful boone, north carolina. >> boone is a beautiful place. i'm glad you added that at the end. good to see you, friend. that's going to do it for this hour of "msnbc live." tamron hall is in the house. she joins me now. >> thank you very much, craig. good morning, everyone. i'm tamron hall coming to you live from our msnbc headquarters in new york. the question remains this morning, did donald trump's performance in last night's debate do anything to convince the 50 or so congressional republicans including all five female republican senators who abandoned him after the 2005 tape that was released? will they change course? we may get some answers soon. that's because house republicans are scheduled to begin holding a conference call at this hour. so one of the questions still this morning on msnbc, trump's running mate, governor mike pence, where does he stand?

he's put to rest rumors he may drop out and abandon trump. those started when he said he could not defend trump's lewd remarks and refused to fill in for him saturday at an event with house speaker paul ryan in wisconsin. >> i said on saturday that i was offended by his comments, and urged him to show his heart to the american people sunday night and i think he did that. i'm just proud to standing with him and looking forward to being on the campaign trail today. >> msnbc this morning, trump's campaign manager had a message for republicans who have dropped their support. >> we welcome them back. we would love their support but you know what? we have a lot of the voter support. if they doechn't come around an support the party nominee, that itself is incredible. >> after the debate, who win it? a cnn orc poll shows this morning, 57% believed hillary clinton won.

34% said that of donald trump. the findings not that different from the first debate. now, a newspaper headline as you could see this morning describes it this way. the debate as bitter, personal, and the low road. "new york times" calling it a deeply ugly moment in american politics. it started with no handshake, which obviously set off social media. immediately, trump faced questions about the 2005 tape now the focus of his campaign in crisis. >> you brag that you have sexually assaulted women, do you understand that? >> no, i didn't say that at all. i don't think you understand what was said. this is locker roochl ta eer ro. i apologize to my family and the american people. >> he has said that the video doesn't represent who he is. but i think it's clear to anyone who heard it that it represents exactly who he is. >> watching ith audience, trump's guests, three women who

have accused bill clinton of sexual misconduct over the years. that as trump went on the attack against both clintons. >> bill clinton was abusive to women. hillary clinton attacked those same women, and attacked them viciously. four of them here tonight. >> when i hear something like that, i am reminded of what my friend michelle obama advised us all. when they go low, you go high. >> i didn't think i'd say this but i'm going to say it and i hate to say it. but if i win, i am going to instruct my attorney general to get a special prosecutor to look into your situation because there has never been so many lies, so much deception. there has never been anything like it. >> it's just awfully good that someone with the temperament of donald trump is not in charge of the law in our country. >> because you'd be in jail.

>> so the aftermath this morning, how are the campaigns spinning the performance from the candidates. we heard from top advisors today. >> that was a masterful performance and he took the case right to hillary clinton from the very beginning. >> hillary came to this debate to talk about the issues, to talk about the policies and plans that she has that are going to make a difference in people's lives. donald tru came to try to rescue his spiraling campaign. >> now, we've got all of it covered. nbc's chris jansing at the washington university in st. louis. chris, you were there in the spin room. we talked a lot about what essentially would be the headline. what do you feel came out of that last night in the spin room? >> reporter: wait and see, because i think the next 24 to 48 hours are going to be very telling for donald trump. let's go through some of the things we're going to be looking for. first of all, about 50

republicans jump ship after the 2005 video came to light. what's going to happen now? you mentioned it. paul ryan, members of the caucus. i spoke with a couple of members of the republican caucus. these are usually listening calls but what are the folks on that going to say? one put it to me, we'll be listening especially closely. people are going to be taking their cues from each other and paul ryan, who's incredibly important in this and there have been some reports that he's considered whether he should withdraw his support of donald trump. he's critical to all this too. there's a lot of concern, i can tell you, within the republican party, even among people who told me they thought donald trump did better than they would have expected last night including some trump supporters who were very nervous. they're still very concerned about what all this means for the house and the senate, and the problem really is the overall ne. the continuing tone that seems to be building the negatives for donald trump, including yhe showed the women in the audience there, accusers of bill clinton.

there have been reports that they were going to sit up front and one box, the clintons in the other. the trump campaign wanted to put those accusers. here's what kelly ann conway had to say about that this morning. >> i had to correct the reporting. there was not a family box that was called vip and four seats, a lot to each of the two candidates. that's why you saw the clinton family in three of the four seats. they apparently had invited senator clara mccaskill and she was a vip for them. so members of our campaign decided that four vips for us would be the four women. >> reporter: there are also other things republicans i've talked to are worried about. even people still supporting donald trump and people who believe that he did a good job of diversion yesterday, that their strategy as they put it to me is kind of, yeah, maybe he's bad, but she's worse. the clinltons are worse and he pounded home her 30 years of service saying she hasn't

accomplished anything but there are also concerns about some of the things, the way he's apologizing including his comments saying it was just locker room talk. there's a lot of push back, interestingly enough, from professional athletes. i'm sure you've seecn the tweet from chris conway. he said, just for reference, i work in the locker room every day and that is not locker talk. i'm offended as an athlete that donald trump keeps using his locker room talk as an excuse. sean dolittle as an athlete. i've been in locker rooms my entire adult life. that's not locker room talk. jacob tammy, please stop saying locker room talk. you see it a lot for them and i can tell you, anecdotally, the number of men who walked up to me and said, just so you know, as a woman, that's not how men talk and how it is in the locker room. which is why, again, as i've been talking to republicans and texting with them this morning, they think the next 24 to 48

hours, will there be more defections? will we see any plans for donald trump and mike pence to come out together in spite of what mike pech pence said this morning on msnbc? a lot of questions still to be answered, tamron. >> chris, thank you. kelly o'donnell from charlotte, north carolina, where governor pence will hold a rally this afternoon. governor pence's schedule, if there's a joint event with he and donald trump? >> reporter: we don't have that on the books yet but one of the signs of confidence that the wing of the trump/pence campaign belonging to mike pence tried to show is that by putting out a four-day schedule includes travel here to battleground north carolina, there will be stops in iowa, virginia, nebraska trying to get mike pence out on the campaign trail, meeting voters, talking about a lot of the ideas in the campaign and trying to sort of turn the page from the kind of white hot controversy they've been endu enduri

enduring. mike pence also out today talking to reporters and doing tv appearances and that, of course, was new because he had taken a quiet sunday and put out a paper statement where the revelations with the lewd comments made by donald trump came out. mike pence took a bit of a break from the public stage and counselled donald trump in personal phone calls and hoped to see contrition on the debate stage. he said that donald trump did show that by apologizing to the american people, to his family, also, talking about his embarrassment over this controversy and pence has described that as a vulnerability rarely seen in donald trump that is the kind of thing that the american voters often will look to and offer forgiveness. will it make a difference now? can mike pence try to stem the metaphor cal bleeding?

but we see clear signs mike pech pence is keeping his commitment to be on the campaign trail and the ticket. that's an important development because there were people who thought that there might be a calculation for pence to really withdraw and we are not seeing that now getting back on the campaign trail and trying to be supportive of donald trump, not condoning what he did but trying to find a way to bring about some unity in the party that is so deeply fractured. >> the tweet last night, congrats to my running mate donald trump on a big debate win. proud to stand with you. make america great again. and hear from governor pence alert today. kristen welker live from st. louis. kristen, tell me more about how the campaign feels she handled what was an unprecedented and extraordinary move from donald trump, that pre-news conference with these women who have

accused of bill clinton of misconduct and having them in that very room? >> reporter: it was extraordinary, tamron. and the strategy to get under secretary clinton's skin to try to rattle her campaign, saying that donald trump failed at that. secretary clinton kept her cool despite the fact that those clinton accusers were in the debate hall and the fact that donald trump accused her of being an enabler to her husband's bad behavior. earlier today on "the today show" asked robbie mook on that. look at how he responded. >> he's lobbying some serious allegations not only against her husband, not on the ticket, but against her for enabling or further victimizing some of the accusers. >> because voters don't want this to be what we're talking about. they want to talk about the issues. and the campaign is not about bill clinton. it's about hillary clinton. she's the one on the ballot with donald trump and what the voters are looking for is a president

to work hard on their behalf and make a difference in their lives. >> reporter: the clinton campaign stressing that secretary clinton kecht her cool last night and quoted michelle obama saying when they go low, we go high. they think that this strategy on donald trump's part is going to backfire, that it's not going to win him over anymore women voters. the very voters he needs in order to win the white house, time will tell in regards to that. but of course, secretary clinton was on defense at one point, when she was asked about those speeches that we are getting a glimpse of that she gave to wall street. it was part of a hacking. not verifying the voracity of the transcripts but talks about the fact that sometimes politicians are different in public than they are in private. she explained that away to say even lincoln talked about the necessity for that when he was trying to get the 13th amendment passed. i can tell you, there's new leaks. this is by wickileaks of john

podesta's e-mails. 4,000 in total. we're still reviewing them currently but ticat this point, doesn't appear to be any new transcripts and the clinton campaign not verifying the voracity of those leaked e-mails. one more point i will make, secretary clinton is out with a new tough ad against donald trump today hitting him for what the campaign is trying to cast as a non-apology last night and so that's going to be the strategy moving forward, tavm ro tamron? >> the one clear winner of the debate, social media with new debate records for tweets and posts. there were 17 million tweets. that's a record. and on facebook. 19.8 million people in the u.s. alone were liking, posting, commenting, and sharing more than 92 million times. the top topics on facebook. isis, the trump tapes, and

taxes. stay with us for a breakdown of the debate and we have some fact checking to do, of course, for you and also, new reaction from north carolina voters. >> i don't really trust either one of them. it's difficult for me to choose a candidate. i still have no idea who i'm going to vote for and this hasn't really changed my mind at all. ist ice-t? ishat emone. lenade. ic what with these opleman? lemode.ederead t sign. ret. ok.cis. wh n spr lone stand? surpring homuon marinaved by g yo, ice-t!one stand? surpring fiftn mis uld you fifteepercen me.

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if i win, i am going to instruct my attorney general to get a special prosecutor to look into your situation. >> everything he just said is absolutely false, but i'm not surprised. it's just awfully good that someone with the temperament of donald trump is not in charge of the law in our country. >> because you'd be in jail.

>> and that was one of the most talked about moments from the debate last night. joining me now, white house correspondent, washington bureau chief for american urban radio networks, a former ted cruz spokesperson and msnbc contributor, nick kapa sesori. saying he would put her in jail to the applause of what was supposed to be an audience that played a more neutral role as far as audio. what do you think of him going through? >> well, tamron, honestly, i think this campaign is shifted from a winning presidential campaign because it's not to a winning business proposition. what i mean by that is they're now not organizing to win in november, but for a post-election anti-hillary coalition that's a lucrative business proposition and an attempt to take over the republican party to the town

committee level. winning candidates don't threaten their opponents with jail time. >> and that's the extraordinary thing. the immediate after-debate, much like with pence and kaine saying mike pence won the next morning. there was a laundry list of misstatements, untruths, whatever, these days "new york times" calling them lies but after, looking at donald trump's performance, yes, he stayed calm but in reality, it was really all about his base. there was nothing said last night by, i think, a general consensus that would draw in women who are undecided especially. >> that's right. he had a better debate than last night. no question about that. he was improved on in the mechanics of being a debater but nothing he did that's going to add voters to his column. and the campaign right now is all about addition and subtraction. he is basically playing to his

base. he is not giving, you know, a broader coalition of voters a reason to vote for him or change minds about him. >> but nick, you have kelly ann, who was this pollster of great reputation, she had to know that going in as well. the strategy, if he discussed it with her and assume so, she's tweeting from the plane, was to do exactly what he did. the scorch earth strategy of improving his standing with a certain group of people who, for many years, wanted the clintons to be treated this way on a public stage. >> look, i think there is a big kind of boiling under the surface, a resentment over these older issues with the clintons. it's fair game to discuss in an election but not sure it's going to help him and not sure kelly ann has a lot of control over this candidate. it's always about who the candidate is and what he or she wants to do.

i think this is a pure exre expression thinks what bought him to the nomination. >> obviously, trump had promised very long ago to his supporters and remember after he secured the nomination, wait until i get myhan hands on hillary clinton. or lines he said at one of his rallies. he starts just hours before this debate with this press conference with these women. i heard someone describe them as human shields, using them to protect himself from what he knew was coming which were questions about that 2005 tape. here's what donald trump said about paula jones in 1998, the woman he had sitting there with him last night as an invited guest inside the debate. here's what he said in 1998. >> paula joechbs nes is a loser may be responsible for bringing down a president indirectly and that statement was a bad statement to have been made and

it's proven to be false. >> which statement was that? >> paula jones in the deposition. >> but denied it. >> from 1998, the loser to the woman he's using as part of a shield yesterday. how does this play with the electorates? >> well, how does it play? if you watch twitter and facebook and snapchat all last night, people were talking about it, but there were many people who were very upset. many people, women that i've talked to, i even talked to congresswoman marcia fudge who said she was so upset, she woke up in the middle of the night and had to really think about what happened. and she used to be the national head of a women's organization, a greek letter organization, delta sigma theta and any woman who votes for donald trump, something is wrong. there's a lot wrong on a lot of different levels. i remember 20 years ago, i was here 20 years ago. we dealt with this back then. he wants to rehash it because, again, and i'm looking at it as

damage control and trying to find the wind beneath his wing to walk into one of the most sacred of places, politics, into a detestage, and that's what he needed to boost himself up to be able to face hillary clinton, who he's asking or saying that he wants her to go to jail if he becomes president and also, tamron, i talked to congressman elijah cummings before going on the air who sat on the benghazi committee. he said, what donald trump did last night was reckless, and he has no grounds. he said there's no evidence to come up to put anything against hillary clinton, particularly when the fbi director james comey who was, who used to be up until the time he became fbi director, a republican, this is what cummings said, he's well respected. there is nothing that would put hillary clinton in jail for this. >> but did hillary clinton do enough? she had a role to play yesterday, it seems, to stay calm, not take the bait. she said the line which we knew michelle obama when they go low, we go high but was that enough

yesterday to seal this deal? it wasn't a knockout punch and we know that but was it enough to at least boost those undecideds still out there? >> no, it's not enough to seal the deal. she has to keep on trying. she has to get the millennials, the women, the minorities. she has to get a lot of people. going back to marcia fudge. you know, ohio -- >> let me get this in. hold on, real quick. got to get a reaction. speaker ryan tells republicans he won't defend donald trump and will focus the next 29 days on keeping the house majority. april, your reaction? >> i'm not surprised. what happened was the lowest of lows last night. this is something, again, we dealt with 20 years ago. hillary clinton is on the stage. hillary clinton is running for president. not her husband. this makes sense. this is politically incorrect what donald trump did. this is bringing a whole other

level of gutter into this entire presidential election that is supposed to be raised above anything else, above the fray and now it's down in the gutter because of donald trump. >> let me get you in on this and speaker ryan said in the past, i'm not going to defend or talk about every little comment donald trump makes. that was several months ago. we're 29 days out and he's telling republicans he won't defend donald trump. he's focused for the next 29 days keeping the house majority. your reaction? >> i think there were only a few rafts left on this titanic and wants the house republicans to be on the rafts. i think what we see is the party is disent graintegrating around trump and the assembly don't believe he can win and his failure, his loss could imperil the house majority. can you imagine that? it was very safe until about a year ago and now paul ryan is concerned that perhaps it might not be.

that is titanic. >> it is. and rick, now we wake up to governor pence. he is going to campaign today. we don't know when he will campaign with donald trump but the initial reaction from pence last night, great job, you won the debate, you took to twitter. now you have someone close to pence coming out. the house speaker saying i'm not going to defend this guy. what is hatchippening in the pa this morning, donald trump was supposed to bring him back into the fold with the didn't performance. that's not what's happening if the statement is right. >> i think nick's image is apt. there are very few rafts left on the republican party and what you're watching in realtime, and it's historic, the gop is splitting in half. you have on the one side, all the republicans who are now shifting away, taking away their endorsements to donald trump or being vocal about him getting out of the race altogether and then the brooeitbart and lookin

at the post-election strategy and i think that's a business strategy. would be a very lucrative strategy to set up an organization that would be just purely anti-clinton for the next four years. >> a potential of him having a youtube channel, maybe teaming up with breitbart with subscriptions and going back to this with speaker ryan, does this mean now he says i'm not going to vote for donald trump? that's where we are again for this party or country. if you don't subscribe to what this person says and believes, do you take a larger step against them? where are we with the republicans saying more, or do they need to? >> listen, i'm not sure there are many tools in the tool box for hurting trump within the party except simply not supporting him. but what you may see as the senate and house committees and

their candidates peel away from donald trump is essentially that his field organization is kind of on their own. traditionally, you have the party field organization working at every level together. what you can see is a senate and house campaign essentially kind of going their own way in this whole election and leaving trump by himself at the rnc. >> so the report earlier in the weekend that they would divert money from his campaign, obviously, kelly ann and others deny that. that appears to, there may be more truth to this possibly? >> it's possible the rnc, i guess, could choose to take some of its own money and ship it over to the congressional committees. trump controls the joint fund raising with the rnc. they can take that money and donors can choose not to give much more money but the campaign is over, fund raising is basically over. >> that's the truth of the matter. thank you so much for joining us, rick. i did want to ask you about ted cruz. talk about timing. he decides to go in and

everybody else is going out. you can't make it up for him. thank you so much, april. we appreciate it. a lot going on. as i mentioned, the breaking news just coming in. speaker ryan is saying he will not defend trump but what does that mean? is he no longer going to vote for donald trump? up next, we'll have much more on that and we'll hear from voters in north carolina. that key battleground state. polls show hillary clinton slightly ahead there. but folks in a panel that we say se in an assembly last night digesting what they heard from both candidates last night. >> i've said that the united states, the people of america have selected these two candidates as our only choices for president because they're probably the two worst candidates we could have as president.

we are following more developments in this statement from house speaker paul ryan on a phone call with house

republicans. we're getting more details on what he said. paul ryan told house republicans that if hillary clinton wins the white house, republicans can't let her have a blank check in congress. indicating he is worried that hillary clinton will win and now he's focused on trying to protect the house. other bit of information coming from this call. the speaker told other house republicans he not only will not defend donald trump rn, not campaign for the next 29 days. the clinton campaign responding via twitter a short time ago saying but paul ryan still endorses donald trump. ryan is still endorsing donald trump. here we are again with this moment of truth for republican leadership. paul ryan saying, he will not defend donald trump. he won't campaign with donald trump. but he has yet to take back the endorsement. so the reaction to the debate also still all over the place at this point. many of the headlines capture, i think, what some of you felt at

home watching it. politico, for example, this morning, called it ugliest debate ever. "the washington post" called it an unusually darng, bittk, bitt face-off. they got ugly and then uglier. joining me from the town of boone, north carolina, jacob soboroff joins me. these headlines say ugliest debate ever and unusually dark bitter face-off. there was one candidate on the stage who brought in these accusers, who brought up some of these things. the moderators asked donald trump about the 2005 but some see it as something that has foll fell on the shoulders. >> reporter: the negativity did affect some of the folks i talked to and in particular, we heard donald trump yet again make an appeal to the young bavn bernie sanders. appalachian state university in the town of boone and of course, there are a lot of bernie sanders supporters, former

bernie sanders supporters that go to that university. i talked to one last night as the debate was going on to see if donald trump was winning her over and this is what she said. >> hillary clinton is talking about her history right now, basically her biographical message, talking about working with african-americans and latinos. she's speaking to people who are already with her. you think she's winning over any new voters tonight? >> i think she definitely is. at the beginning of thection season, i was a bernie supporter. and very recently, i've been confident in voting for clinton because of her debates and because of how she's connecting to viewers in the way she presents herself in these debates against trump. she keeps her cool, answers the question unlike he does and is very direct in the things she believes in. >> reporter: tamron, watauga

county has more unaffiliated voters in republicans or democrats. it's crucial to win over some of the voters like that young woman i talked to last night. it was a big one on that front, at least with her. >> thank you very much and please stay with us. more on last night's debates and new statements from governor's pence about the moment where donald trump disagreed with him or appeared to disagree with his running mate. it involves syria and now pence saying his comments were mischaracterized. we'll be back with more on the fallout. and a partlyunny mode. an oside, le inside mode. nohave ce. mang so le can ok morean vid d vibrant.ig. why settleorens with just one mode? experupgrade your lenses to ansitions® signature. visit your vion sourceoctor and start livingife well lit®ith trantions lenses.

you work at ge? ye, i . u ys are worng on somerettbistuff er there, rit? like aew language u ysfor azy-g, on wod-anging machine wellnot me scificai workn e ind. so i build therld-change get it. you t talk because it's sup hh-leve , i acally do build the mach. blk if what you're doing involvesncryed daransfer. wawhat? involvesncryed wowwww...r. wow? what wow there is no wow. welcome back. we have our daily briefing on politics. a lot get to. political editor kerry dan. paul ryan not campaigning, defending donald trump. that's what he just told house republicans the strategy. >> this is a clear sign that paul ryan is more concerned about the united states house than the presidency at this point. he's very concerned clearly that they are going to perhaps be

jeopardizing their control of the house. this is a situation that a few months ago, it looked like even because of so few swing districts left, democrats were saying they were optimistic but not so much to regain control of the house. clearly, paul ryan is looking at the map and saying, this might be dicey. i need my members to be in power to do what they need to do to keep their seats. >> reince priebus was on the plane with donald trump and rudy giuliani. sessions had no idea this prenews conference with women was going to take place. any idea if that's part of his line in the sand now? they have to deal with the fallout. >> here's one reason why bringing up bill clinton's accusers is so dangerous. if you loot the polling for hillary clinton, over h long career, one of the most popular times she had with the american public was in 1998 during impeachment. she was a sympathetic figure, a warning that a lot of republicans were trying to make saying if we make hillary clinton who generally struggles with being a sympathetic

character into a more sympathetic one by bringing up these women, it's something that endangers our chances of the presidency. clearly donald trump decided this was the route to go. >> it's clear and he brought them in and wanted them to sit in the family or vip section as kelly ann conway described it. the debate commission had to get involved and said, security could be involved if they tried to put these women in. but going back to 1998, donald trump is again on tape saying something different. he called paula jones a loser. >> and said hi commemy commentsn are more controversial. there's a wealth on tape but donald trump is reaching out to sort of the breitbart audience and for hard core fans, it was a big victory. they were galvanized about these women and bill clinton. >> more on what paul ryan is saying. msnbc's kelly o'donnell has reporting for us. what can you tell us happened on that call? >> reporter: i've not heard what

you already discussed but let me bring the analysis that i have about this. what paul ryan is trying to do is to say to members of the house republican conference, do what is right for you to hold your seat. and remember, we know that our districts around the country are often jerry gerrymandered. so they've deeply red districts where donald trump has voters also going to have to consider who they want to be the next congressperson. what is distinct is paul ryan is not publicly withdrawing his endorsement. what he is saying is he is putting his energy and resources as the speaker of the house and the highest ranking republican office holder in america to trying to hold the house and senate. obviously, after the most recent disclosures regarding donald trump, there's grave concern in the republican party about a down ballot disaster that if republicans stay home because they're disheartened or because of that small group of swing

voters chooses hillary clinton and might otherwise have voted for a republican but chooses not to now, all different permutations. they want to protect the majorities. if there is a clinton white house, they want to have the check within the republican party. they won't even go so far to say they're presuming she will win. so what we've got now is one of the most unusual situations where republicans who feel an obligation by their job title and by their place in the party to try to make the best of this and at the same time acknowledging those people who found this has comments and donald trump's conduct a bridge too far, that they are free to do what they must do and that is a difference. >> speaker ryan said vote your conscience. how many weeks ago? i mean, this was before ted cruz went down. >> reporter: this strategy has not changed. mitch mcconnell's strategy has not changed. >> well, listen.

>> reporter: no, it hasn't, tamron. it has not changed. >> paul ryan was going to campaign with donald trump this weekend. he cancelled. his new statement is he's not going to campaign. is that not a change? >> reporter: what i'm saying is that event is a reince priebus event that happened over the weekend. priebus wanted donald trump there with mike pence. paul ryan was never into that. that is a hometown event. now, obviously, that did not hatch. what i'm talking about is strategically, paul ryan's view all along has been do what is best for the house majority and to the extent that they can help senate candidates. mitch mcconnell is in the same position. they have made it clear, both mcconnell and ryan, their disagreements, their disat a ti time, distaste for the donald trump candidacy but with the crisis, they have to check in

with members, check in with their donors, talk about their ground game. so strategically, things have not changed. tactically, they are changing by trying to offer this reassura e reassurance, trying to assess the damage and that's what i'm saying. we know that paul ryan was never a fan of donald trump. let's be honest. but what he's trying to do today after the debate, after the disclosures, to have this sort of phone meeting which is a regular thing they do with the house republican conference to share ideas. this is not a good time in the republican party. >> that's an understatement. >> reporter: yes, what we know is that they're trying to do what they have to do with races in just 30 days, form lots of members of congress and senate candidates and the future of the party. that's where their focus is right now. tamron? >> i think you made the point of strategic and tactics. it makes sense. it means nothing to people at home who heard the house speaker

said i will not defend the person who is the nominee for my party. i will not campaign, whatever the nuances of that event on the weekend, absolutely. but a house speaker saying i will not defend him, and basically won't be seen on the stage with him. >> reporter: the muslim ban. and so that is the point i'm making about it. i don't think we're in a dramatically new place. we have new examples reinforcing the same awful positions that republicans are in. and it's worthy of them having their meetings and talking to their donors and doing all of that because there's more on the ballot than just the white house as significant as that is. >> kerry is with us as well. >> reporter: trying to figure it out. >> i agree with you but 29 days out and we can, i don't read the tea leaves. i hear what people say. and what you have the speaker say i won't defend this person after these 2005 tapes, we know

there's been no love between them. we know that donald trump has said things about speaker ryan holding out his endorsement, even though ryan went on to win that primary. we can kid ourselves here all day long but i don't think people at home, average people who watch that debate and heard this see it in this wonky way that we can. >> it's been problematic not only because of friday's disclosure but then donald trump's debate performance. it had not been a repeat of his first debate performance, totally unprepared, not aggressive and not taking on hillary clinton. it may have further empowered the republicans to finally walk away from donald trump. instead, he really galvanized his base. there were plenty of republicans on the right that he won, did a great job. that was a big improvement for them. so if you're a john mccain or a kelly ayotte or a pat toomey or somebody trying to distance

yourselves from donald trump, now you're dealing with both trying to appeal to those people that you were reaching out to saying, i can't endorse donald trump but also to his base who are even more fired up and may punish you at the polls. >> kerry, people are saying donald trump had a great performance. he didn't study. he came out armed with information that had been on every breitbart site or far right about clinton and these allegations. he did his homework against bill clinton. >> this was an expectation as well. >> he studied up, prepared for one battle. >> and he was more aggressive. he took more opportunities to go after, for example, in the first debate, he didn't bring up benghazi, to talk more about the e-mails. >> he didn't train in the first debate. >> he went back and had at least a more sort of coherent and focused arguments at some point which is why republicans said, this is a better performance for

him and galvanized the people who think hillary clinton is completely unacceptable. >> i think it's an incredible day-after analysis and when you put in the speaker ryan comment, to kelly o.'s point, not new but 29 days out, did we think he'd be saying them again? >> it's an extraordinary moment. >> it is. that was my point. up next, becker trending on twitter. the man who brought what some said the final bit of class to the debate last night. his closing question resonated with a lot of you. >> my question to both of you is, regardless of the current rhetoric, would either of you name one positive thing that you respect in one another? ♪ across new york state, fromonisland tal from rochester to the hudson valy, from albany to utica, creative business incentives,

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way. and that's an individual's opinion. i just have been unable to figure out which one of those two candidates has the lip qualities that will take us through the next four or even eight years. >> what made you decide to ask the question that you posed to

both of them. >> i ran it by my kids, just to -- my daughter is 18, my son will not vote. he is 15. i asked my kids, shane and darcy, what they thought of the question. at first, they didn't like it, but as they began to understand it better, they kind of gave me the thumbs up and i went with that question, along with another question, but that was ultimately the question that i asked last night. >> what did you think of the answer, and what did they say to you after the debate? >> the answers were pretty good on both parts for me surprising them, which wasn't my intent. it was to bring some civility to a campaign that has been full of mud slinging, again, my opinion.

and afterwards, they were both very gracious. they're very nice people. you know, perhaps they've done something, you know, one side says the other has done something, and vice-versa. >> well, you know, you got your moment. you were trending last night, carl becker for president. given you're not happy with both of the candidates, maybe we'll see you on the debate stage in some future form. >> perhaps you'll be my running mate. >> too many things in the past. i really appreciate it. congratulations to your kids with helping with the question. very awesome. beautiful city of st. louis. thank you for accommodating yesterday as well. >> thanks, tamron. ♪

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mitchell reports."" right now on "andrea mitchell reports," breaking news, conducted after the "access hollywood" showing hillary clinton nearly doubling her lead among likely voters and a negative reaction to trump's comments on the tape. now, with a steep mountain to climb, trump hardly contrite. >> this was locker room talk. i'm not proud of it. >> he has said that the video doesn't represent who he is. but i think it is clear to anyone who heard it that it represents exactly who he is. >> it is just words, folks. is just words. >> up close and personal, how will voters respond to trump's stunt, bringing bill clinton's