right now being constructed is a wall of taco trucks. i'm definitely visiting them. i love tacos. i'm going to see you tomorrow from vegas. here's my friend, craig melvin. i love tacos, and dumplings. >> enjoy your tacos. good tuesday to you. first election day polls open in less than 500 hours. republicans trying yet again to pump the brakes on comments coming from the presidential ticket. donald trump continuing his nearly week long rant claiming the election is fixed and already in the back for hillary clinton now, mike pence is joining in. >> remember, we're competing in a rigged election. >> i have no doubt the national media is trying to rig this election with the biassed coverage. >> people who died 10 years ago are voting. illegal immigrants are voting. where are the street smarts of

some of these politicians? >> while the candidate was bashing the mainstream media for rigging the election, the wife giving interviews to the mainstream media. addressing the 2005 "access hollywood" tape publicly for the very first time. >> wonder if they even knew that the mike was on because they were kind of a boy talk and he was led on, like egg on from the host to say dirty and bad stuff. >> and breaking this morning, releasing new e-mails from inside the clinton campaign. we're getting our first look at just who else secretary clinton was considering for vice president. it's a list of three dozen names including many who have never been in government. nbc's katy tur joins me on the phone now from colorado. nbc's jacob rascon is in colorado springs as well.

we'll get to him in just a moment. katy, let me start with you. this newest awkward spot that donald trump putting republicans in this morning. is he now lashing out at members of his own party for not towing his line of a rigged election? >> reporter: oh, absolutely. you see with paul ryan specifically refusing to say this is a rigged election, not getting in line with donald trump on that. now lashing out at paul ryan repeatedly on twitter yesterday and again last night telling abc news that maybe paul ryan isn't going to support or doesn't want to support donald trump because he wants to run in for years. this is putting a lot of republicans in a very difficult position. surrogates are saying, no, he's just talking about the media and sort of voter fraud happens. but donald trump is very clearly saying that the election is already rigged saying that repeatedly on the stump and also saying that in tweets, saying the polls are rigged.

and also putting people like marco rubio and other down ballot senate races in tough positions. we've been having these down ballot senate debates lately and normally, almost every first question to the republican candidate in the debates is, where do you stand on donald trump? or something of that variance. exactly what happened last night between marco rubio and patrick murphy. murphy trying to hit marco rubio, not only for his absenteeism, but also for his support of donald trump. same thing in pennsylvania when pat toomey and katie mcginnty were debating. refused to say whether he will endorse trump but say he probably would sign legislation that would be constructive things like repealing obamacare and imposing new sanctions on iran. katie mcginty is trying to paint him in a tough corner saying he'll probably support donald trump but not saying so, basically flip-flopping on the issue of his own republican nominee. that being said, craig, most of

the republicans in this race even though they're tight races for senate are still doing relatively well. if you go up to new hampshire, there was the moment in her debate where she said she does think donald trump would have been or is a good role model to children. she has to quickly walk that back and trying to hit her on that, her opponent out there but so far, kelly ayotte doing decently in the polls. there's evidence she'll be able to pull it out even if donald trump loses and in light of that, new nbc news survey monkey poll shows donald trump down 6 points to hillary clinton. >> there's the survey monkey poll you just mentioned. katy tur there in colorado. also mentioned florida senator marco rubio and here's what he said at that debate about the idea this thing could be rigged.

>> this election is not being rigged and i'm going to explain to you why it's not rigged in florida and why i hope he stops saying that. why he should stop saying that. we have 67 counties in this state, each of which conduct their own elections. i promise you, there's not a 67 county conspiracy to rig this election. the governor of the state of florida is a republican who appoints the people who run the division of elections. third, there's no evidence behind any of this. so this should not continue to be said. >> jacob rascon is in colorado springs ahead of donald trump's rally later today. jacob, good to see you, sir. what can we expect from mr. trump on the trail today there in colorado? >> reporter: we can expect what we've seen before the other debates which is he doesn't seem to see the value in taking a bunch of down days to prepare for the debate. instead, he likes to go out and be among the people at his rallies. doing the same thing today. he'll be two stops in colorado, beginning right here in colorado

springs. i would mention, you were talking there with katy about the dance some of these republican candidates and republican leaders are doing. one of those is right here in colorado. senate candidate daryl glen supported trump early on but then after the tape leak, the "access hollywood" tape, said trump would be qualified and write in mike pence and now said he'll vote for donald trump. so this dance, this incredible dance these republican leaders are doing is right here in colorado as well. i would mention here in colorado during the summer, he was down to clinton by double digits in many polls but he got a lot of support in that month before the first debate. he was up in a few polls ahead of clinton or tied, but that sent way down and in the average of polls, he's now again down by 9 points, almost double digits yet again. >> jacob rascon in colorado springs, colorado, for us.

jacob, thank you. kelly o'donnell is here with me in new york. always good to see you in the flesh. >> great to see you. >> thank you for stopping by >> not just republicans on the ballot who have a problem with this election rigging talk but apparently some of donald trump's closest advisors as well. >> well, i was able to talk to governor chris christie who was the first establishment figure to endorse donald trump, currently the chairman of his transition, and we had a conversation here on the street in new york before he was attending an event and i asked him about trump talking about a rigged election. he said it has much more to do with the media landscape, but here's how governor christie responded when i asked if donald trump is undermining public confidence. is there a point if he persists saying it's a rigged process that it undermines the voters' confidence in this election? >> no, what will undermine the voters' confidence is evidence, not opinions. and right now, donald is giving his opinion about the process. not the election, because there

hasn't been an election yet. by the process, i heard him specifically talk about the way the media is covering this election. and he's not happy about it. and if i were him, i wouldn't be happy either. it's not just about the things they're saying about him but the things they refuse to cover about secretary clinton. >> reporter: so that's the criticism you often hear from republicans, issues related to hillary clinton that don't the same level of public airing. that's not a new argument but one they're making, especially in the final weeks of the campaign. not even-handed. so that is where mike pence or chris christie said it's not fair but not the apparatus of the election and not about the vote casting and counting. christie would not go that far and said unless there's specific evidence of any misconduct or fraud, the public should accept and he will accept. >> it would be hard for a former u.s. attorney to go that far, one would think. let's talk about this. some new questions over hillary clinton and the e-mails.

one e-mail getting a lot of attention in particular. questions now being raised whether there was an offer of quid pro quo between the state department, between the fbi. i know you're watching this as well. at this point, what do we know? >> well, this is a part of the cris dis cl disclosus of the fbi investigative document known as 30s where there was a description of an fbi agent and a state department official who were closely but underneath hillary clinton. patrick kennedy. talking about some of the process of releasing e-mail to the public which had to be clear and the classification level and the sort of conversation as we get to peer into it suggests that there was an offer being talked about for providing authorization for additional fbi agents in a place like iraq if the fbi would say that a certain document did not have a kind of a high classification level. now, the state department says that there was no such deal. there was no transaction. this did not happen. >> mm-hmm.

>> the trouble is, it looks like there was a conversation of the possibility of making a deal behind the scenes and that's the sort of the thing that undermines people's confidence in how the government functions in a case like this and of course, it brings back hillary clinton's e-mails again. >> before i get out of here, another batch of wikileaks e-mails released last hour and one of the, again, we're still poring over them, but one caught our attention. this insight into who else secretary clinton was considering for her number two spot on the ticket. >> if not tim kaine, this is the might have been list. included there, you have people not in government office. melinda gates. mary barra. bill gates. howard schultz, starbucks, get your caffeine going. and get the since, and tim kaine, of course. looking at a broader sort of stripe of the american public. >> these are folks who have been vetted. they vetted these folks.

>> and these are formidable figures in their own right looking for the outside the box option for clinton, if she wanted someone not an elected official but had a long portfolio of accomplishment. a what might have been moment. >> good to see you. for carly fiorina's campaign. thank you for being with me, sarah. >> morning. >> if donald trump, if he had the capacity to discipline himself and not come out with these claims about there being some grand conspiracy, the election is rigged, how damaging could this latest e-mail story or all of these e-mail stories, how damaging could those be to hillary clinton? >> i know, if only we all got puppies and unicorns, but it would be extraordinarily damaging in any other cycle. the fact the e-mail itself said quid pro quo, this isn't inserted by reporters or

commentators. patrick kennedy from the state department literally suggests a quid pro quo. i can't imagine a stupider thing to put into e-mail and to have come to light. of course, it feeds into the idea that the clintons play by their own rules and people surrounding her that protect her and we've seen that in the other e-mails as well and why the goldman sachs speeches are damning and the public position, the private position is damaging. it's not one thing, but it's overall, this narrative she has of being evasive, secretive, and the people around her protecting that about her. >> we saw this clip with marco rubio a few moments ago. the senator visibly irritated, uncomfortable. if republicans -- >> aren't we all? >> if the republicans next month, if they go full throated against the things that donald trump says, how much trouble could they get in with trump's voters? >> we haven't seen a lot of dropoff in the senate races.

from the beginning of this general election, the senate candidates have been running from 2 points to 10 points to now, i think, rob portman is running 16 points ahead of donald trump in some of these polls. so voters are differentiating between their senate candidates and the presidential. i do think we'll see quite a bit of split ticket voting. that being said, of course, donald trump isn't running as a republican. that's why he felt more than willing to attack republicans up and down the ballot including paul ryan and marco rubio, including ted cruz, and so of course, i think, there's some of his voters that will follow whatever he says but were they reliable republican voters to begin with? hard to say. i think the senate candidates overall will overperform donald trump by quite a bit. but of course, that tide matters and if donald trump loses catastrophically, he will bring down senate candidates that would have otherwise won. >> headline post saying trump's path to an electoral college victory isn't narrow. it's non-existent.

if that's the case, sarah, what should the rnc or other candidates do right now to save their margins in congress or is it too late? >> well, you know, the time to do that when he was being nominated and a lot of folks said, this guy isn't a republican. he can't beat hillary clinton. we're nominating the one person who can't beat the weakest democratic candidate in history, highest unfavorables, highly untrusted by the american people. with all of these things continuing. >> sounds like you're saying, i told you so. that's what it sounds like. >> yes, that being said, here we are. not a lot to be done about it now. these candidates need to make clear where they stand on issues and not worry about what donald trump is sort of saying as these last ditch efforts to, i don't know, scuttle his campaign. it doesn't look like he's trying to save it or make excuses why he's already lost. >> melania trump doing two interviews saying she believed her husband was egged on in the

"access hollywood" tape and also said this about the women who have come forward accusing her husband of sexual misconduct. take a listen. >> i believe my husband. i believe my husband. this was all organized from the opposition and the details they go. did they ever check background of these women? they don't have any facts. >> never mind that she could have been hillary clinton 25 years ago with that sound bite, but how should women or victims of assault take an answer like that? >> i think it's tough to be the wife. we put these people who are public figures, their husbands are running in this position to have to defend him. i don't think anyone wishes they were melania trump today or this week, so i think she did the best she could in that situation. i don't know what else you could possibly say on behalf of your

husband after hearing that tape. i am a little surprised she did the interview to begin with, but i think she acquitted herself as well as you can. it's a tough position and put there by her husband. >> you raise an interesting point. you do the interview. her husband has spent time mocking the mainstream media and the lame-stream media, whoever we are on that particular day and to sit down with one of the guys he's mocking is, but it's the 2016 election. so. sarah flores. >> #2016. only 22 days left. >> 21, but who's counting? >> can't miss one. >> thank you. and tune in to the third and final debate right here on msnbc tomorrow night, all day coverage live from las vegas. could donald trump's dangerous claims about a rigged election lead to voter intimidation at the polls? we'll look at that next and with the election three weeks from today, we'll take a look at

where the new battleground polls stand and the candidates paths to 270 and we'll look at the fight to retake mosul. a live report from the front lines. >> reporter: here, isis set an oil well on fire. it was a deliberate act of sabotage and many commanders fear that isis may have even worse in store for mosul itself. . we've been hearing so much about how you're a digital company, so you can see our confusion. ge is an industrial company that actually builds world-changing machines. machines that can also communicate digitally. like robots. did you build that robot? that's not a robot, that's my coworker earl. he builds jet engines with his human hands. what about that robot? that is a vending machine, ricky. john, give him a dollar.

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hillary is running for president in what looks like to many people a totally rigged election. the theelection is being rigged. all big lies. it's a rigged system. this is a rigged system, folks. but we're not going to let it happen. >> rigged.

donald trump on the trail continuing to question the integrity of the election. i want to bring in attorney ken gross on political and election law and former associate general council at the general elections commission. trump is using these claims in pretty much every speech now and even his campaign surrogates, some of them at least, disputing this. what do you make of these claims? >> it's hard to make any sense of them. i think, virtually, everybody who's come on this air has talked about the fact that it's not true. the elections are not being rigged. the elections in this country could not be more decentralized. they're basically conducted at the county level. there's about 3500 counties in america. frankly, if hillary clinton could figure out a way to rig these elections, that would be a reason to vote for her because i don't know how you could do

that. >> in addition to saying it's rigged, he spent some time calling for his supporters to keep an eye on polling places on election day. this is what he said in altoona, pennsylvania, back in august. let's take a listen. >> and i mean this 100%. if in certain sections of the state, they cheat, okay, so i hope you people can sort of not just vote on the 8th, go around and look and watch other polling places and make sure that it's 100% fine. >> could that lead to voter intimidation? >> absolutely. i'll tell you, that worries me as much as sort of this disenfranchisement that you get disenfranchised if you're into fear with your vote. there is nothing more fundamental than our right and our ability to vote, and if

people are going to be stalking the polls or made uncomfortable for showing up at the polls through sort of this subtle intimidation or whatever you might call it, that's unacceptable conduct. and i really hope something like that does not happen. >> what's behind the rhetoric then, ken? why spend the better part of a few weeks or, that was back in august, why spend so much time claiming that the system is rigged? >> it's hard to tell. i think it's a combination of two things. one, this idea that perhaps people will be intimidated about voting and then also, to basically say, hey, the results of this election were, if he loses, was not sustainable or was not done in a fair way, therefore, i really didn't legitimately lose and not concede a victory by mrs. clinton, if that's what happens. >> delegitimizing hillary clinton ahead of a possible win.

>> exactly. >> ken gross, election law expert. thank you. we always enjoy your insight, sir. >> sure. happy to be here. battleground arizona. high profile clinton supporters including the first lady stumping for the presidential hopeful there this week. will their efforts turn this traditionally red state blue? also, isis fighters putting up fierce opposition against iraq's attempts to reclaim the city of mosul. we are live on the ground in iraq next. it's not uncommon for autistic kids to flap their hands.

and so when i saw that, that was completely disqualifying. i'm a republican, but this election is so much bigger than party. my son max can't live in trump world. so i'm crossing party lines and voting for hillary. i don't always agree with her, but she's reasonable. and she's smart. she can work with people to solve problems. i want to be able to tell my kids that i did the right thing when it really mattered. i'm hillary clinton and i approve this message. for the best deals on electronics, travel, even shoes. so why not loans? visit lendingtree.com today and get up to five free loan offers from competing lenders in under two minutes. then pick the best deal on mortgage loans, auto loans, personal loans, and a whole lot more. if you choose a loan, the lender pays us. that's how lendingtree® is completely free for you. and it's so easy you can do it right from your phone, right now. lendingtree®. when banks compete, you win. we'll play something

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the battle to retake the iraqi city of mosul is in its second day now. iraqi and kurdish troops along with support from u.s. forces are now moving forward in the long awaited offensive to take back that city from isis. nbc's matt bradley is in urbeale, iraq, for us this morning. held by isis for roughly two years. what kind of resistance are the

iraqi forces expecting? what kind of resistance are they getting? >> reporter: thanks, craig. there has been a lot of progress since this offensive was announced yesterday morning. kurdish, iraqi, and iraqi federal police were able to take to the south and east of mosul but haven't made a lot of progress because they've basically been held up by mortar attacks and by suicide car bombings. this is kind of a holding power we have to get used to. this is how previous iraqi attacks on isis-held areas have gone. iraqi forces tend to use a kind of siege approach. they surround an area and try to close it off and wait for it to penetrate isis defenses and move in. it's a very cautious strategy and it's almost a medieval strategy and work to try to preserve the lives of a lot of iraqi troops but can extend the battle by weeks or months and really extend the agony for the 1.2 million civilians who are

still left inside mosul. and that's something that needs to be explained. i mean, we're talking about a situation that's going to get worse. the iraqi military and the u.s. military both said they're ahead of schedule but this is a very modest schedule and we need to put this into perspective. this battle is probably going to extend for quite a while. this is just the first day in the battle probably going to last maybe even into next year, craig. >> matt, the significance of mos mosul. you mentioned the size of the population from a strategic standpoint, why is mosul so important? >> reporter: well, craig, we have to remember that strategy and ideology go part hand in hand with isis. this is such an important city, not only because it's by far the largest city that the islamic state holds in iraq or syria but also just part of their whole ideology. abu announced his caliphate in mosul in the grand mosque at the

center of the city. it's a symbol not just of how strong isis has been able to be but ideological in a religious seasons. so we're moremoving that would ideological blow and a strategic blow. >> in urbeal iraq, matt bradley, thank you. several new snapshots of where the candidates snap this morning. hillary clinton maintains a solid 6 point lead in the new nbc news survey monkey weekly online tracking poll that's out this morning. let's get a closer look at some of the latest polling from nbc news senior political editor, mark murray. it's a segment we like to call mark at the math. let's start with the new poll, sir. >> there's actually a plethora of new national polls, craig. let's go into the first one you were just talking about where we end up having, let's see, you

end up having, this is the, sorry, we in. this is the survey monkey that you were just talking about has hillary clinton with the 6 point lead. this is our weekly online tracking poll. and it shows you that things are very stable. let's go into that poll and we see the two big gaps that continue to remain. the gender gap or hillary clinton has an 18 point lead with women and then the education gap where hillary clinton is up 26 points among those with college degrees. and, craig, the survey monkey online tracking poll is the sixth recent national poll that's been out there and you see the margins for hillary clinton. she is in the lead everywhere and the average is a plus 8. when you take the six polls that are out, she leads by an average of 8 points. that is pretty significant. one thing worth noting, this is the nbc news "wall street journal" poll from earlier in the week and it shows hillary clinton leading 51-41 in the two way race among likely voters. it's amazing because in january

of 2016 before iowa and new hampshire, where was the race? exactly at 51%-41%. >> so no one changed their minds since january. that's essentially what i'm seeing there. >> you could say that or that the race is kind of returned to where it was back in january. there have been certainly a lot of ups and downs but this has been a stable race. >> how are the battleground states looking there? >> in the battlegrounds, for example, looking at all important florida. hillary clinton has a 4 point lead. it's close, but boy, this is a bigger margin than president obama was able to win the state in 2012. hillary clinton is coming out on top in most of the florida polling out there and i want to take you into ohio. a tied race according to this quinnipiac poll that's out, craig. ohio has been a state where donald trump has been doing very, very well but as you end up seeing, hillary clinton

increasing her national lead. well, she's doing a little bit better in a place like ohio. and let me go into nevada. and that shows, excuse me, in nevada, hillary clinton has a 2 point lead among likely voters in that state. when you look at registered voters, her lead is even bigger. but once again, the new polls have been coming out of nevada showing hillary clinton to lead. almost everything pointing in her direction right now, craig, and that's the takeaway with 3 weeks before election day. >> mark at the map. talk to you soon, my friend. thank you. coming up, republican divide. donald trump lashing out at house speaker paul ryan. in ryan's home state. why trump says ryan isn't supporting his run for the white house. is that ice-t? nope, it's lemonade. is that ice-t? lemonade. ice-t? what's with these people, man? lemonade, read the sign. lemonade. read it. ok.

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another split with prominent republicans notably house speaker paul ryan. >> i don't want to be knocking paul ryan. i think he could be more supportive to the republican nominee. we're doing well. i think we're going to win the election. >> does he want you to win? >> maybe not. maybe he wants to run in four years. >> the arizona republican with josh barro of insider. there are still wavering republicans or perhaps some wavering independents. but what can donald trump say or do tomorrow night that wins them over? >> you know, i don't really know. i think a lot of it is there are a lot of people who ordinarily vote republican, who don't like hillary clinton and just say, i can't bring myself to vote for this man and the weird thing is how malleable those people's perceptions is of him and the period from august into september where he behaved almost like an adult for about a month, and he got a significant improvement in his poll standing. i think there are a lot of

republicans that were looking for any excuse they can find to vote for donald trump saying this is a man who can be trusted. his behavior has been so erratic in the last few weeks, i think he has little hope of restoring that. >> do you think deep down, he thinks he's lost this thing? >> i think he believes he's likely to lose and why he's talking about the election is rigged, paul ryan wants him to lose. he's setting up to have a narrative when he loses about why it wasn't his fault he lost. now, i don't know that he's entirely given up hope. i think what republicans are terrified of is republicans down ballot from him are worried it will be rigged, so why bother even voting? they're worried some hear him say over and over will decide there's no point in even turning out or showing up and cost republicans races down the ballot. so yeah, i don't think he knows he's lost but i definitely think he thinks there's a significant likelihood he'll lose. >> bernie sanders there in arizona today. chelsea clinton there tomorrow.

first lady there on thursday. talk of hillary clinton getting there later this week or into the weekend. it's a state, as you know, not gone blue in 20 years. what are hillary clinton's actual chances there in arizona or is she just forcing trump to stay on defense? >> i mean, i think she does have a good chance of winning, but, you know, even if she doesn't win and forces mike pence or donald trump to come back here again, that obviously helps her in other parts of the country by forcing him to spend resources in arizona, which as you mentioned, should be locked up by the republican at this point. 20 years ago, her husband, bill clinton, was the last democrat to carry arizona. before that, you have to go back to 1948 with president harry truman. but definitely kind of, to follow up on some of the previous remarks, i think trump's problems in arizona are largely of his own making.

he's certainly driven away a lot of republican support. i think he's basically concentrating now on just turning out the base here in arizona. his last trip up here was in prescott valley, one of the very reddest of the red parts of the state. blood red. he's basically not reaching out to independents or even moderate republicans anymore. he's just trying to turn out the base. >> you wrote a piece in "business insider." we were talking about it here a few moments ago during the commercial break where you said you were leaving the republican party, so which i said, i did not know you were part of the republican party. but you wrote something and then i wanted to share, the most important thing we have learned this year is that when the republican party was hijacked by a dangerous fascist who threatens to destroy the institutions that make america great and free, most americans stood behind him. who are those republicans and

what are their motivations? >> people like marco rubio who had said that donald trump could not be trusted with nuclear weapons, a con artist and then endorsed him without retracting the the statements and never said he trusted him but ought to be president. ted cruz called him pathological liar, gave a big speech at the republican convention making it clear his conscience could not allow him to vote for donald trump. and then turned around under pressure from his donors. what we've seen are the people in the party who know better, who know he's too dangerous to be president, have decided for reasons of careerism or coward d ice that they have to have it on record. you can see the pain in his beautiful blue eyes. he looks so sad. he knows what he's doing is wrong but he believes he has to be there in some way. and it's been gross for me and a lot of republicans. my mother is a lifelong republican. she's voted republican in every presidential election since richard nixon in 1968.

she's voting for hillary this time even though she doesn't like it, because she sees the party being irresponsible and unacceptable. they've lined up with him anyway. >> thank you to both of you. the third and final debate between hillary clinton and donald trump happening tomorrow night in vegas. where will the candidates come down on foreign policy? i'll talk to former congresswoman jane harriman about that. first, president obama less than 100 days left in his term. so it's about time he started thinking about life after 1600 pennsylvania. he did a practice job interview with stephen colbert. >> where were you born? >> here. >> is this the longest form of the certificate available? >> why don't we move on. >> awards or commendations? >> almost 30 honorary degrees and i did get the nobel peace

prize. >> what was that for? >> to be honest, i still don't know.

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>> iraqi led forces continue the offensive to take the city of mosul which is held by isis for roughly two years now and also been a symbol of iraqi and u.s. failure to halt the spread of isis in that part of the world. i want to bring in jane harmon. former democratic congresswoman from new york and also sits on the commission on presidential debates. thank you for being with me. >> headed to vegas. >> i would imagine so. let's talk about the debate in a moment but start with what's happening right now in iraq right now. iraqi troops along with american air support. second day of this offensive to retake mosul. u.s. forces currently providing support on the ground and in the air as advisors.

what's the likelihood that we see an expanded u.s. role there? >> well, i think it's not great. incrementally, yes, but i don't think we're going to have boots on the ground as everyone has said, there's no public support for that. there could be u.s. casualties. i mean, one of the good things the obama white house just did was to try to prepare the american public for the fact that out of the 2500 or so folks there, something could happen. but this is our new strategy. this is the obama doctrine. i think we're late to this, so i wish it had happened two or three years ago before isil gained this much strength but this is enabling people where they live to take responsibility for their own countries and in theory, it makes a lot of sense. >> these advisors, roughly 2500 that you mentioned, jane. correct me if i'm wrong, you're the expert here, but my understanding is that if they come under fire, they're obviously allowed to defend themselves. they are armed.

to a lot of folks, these are troops by a different name. >> yes. they're special forces. it's not the u.s. military in its traditional role, but these are enablers. can't argue that. they're flying planes, targeting drones, and coaching other folks to lead the fight. >> why are we calling them troops and play this little game, call them special advisors when you and i both know if they come under fire, they fire back. if they're killed, then their loved ones are certainly going to consider their service the same as we would consider a troop service. >> i think you have to think about our role there. i have said for years that the u.s. is no longer the indispensable nation in some of these places where the indispensable partner. we're trying to help locals gain the capacity to defend

themselves. this is going to be very tricky in iraq. let's understand. even if this mosul campaign succeeds and it's important it succeeds, what does the day after look like? the iraqi government isn't strong. shia militias that have been forbidden to be in this fight could come back in if the government doesn't really take control and hold the ground, and engage in ethnic cleansing. there could be a vacuum. iran moves in, et cetera. so this whole region is still enormously, enormously shaky and how we, the u.s., and with public support for our actions is going to operate in the future is going to be a big test of our next president. >> the third and final presidential debate happening tomorrow. you indicated you're about to hop on a plane to head to the strip. what do you see as the sides erupt? what should donald trump and

hillary clinton be talking about in regard to foreign policy at the debate? >> talk about issues. talk about their visions going forward, not what's wrong with the other guy, not some huge conspiracy about a rigged election which is not going to happen. there may be hacking. there may be problems. but this election will be a fair election, i predict, and so do many others in both parties. but we hear much too little about the fragile world in which we live and the steady hand we're going to need on america going forward. >> do we think it's more subdued tomorrow in terms of tone and tenor? >> i have absolutely no idea. maybe not, it's vegas. you know, think prize fights. but i think it's an opportunity for both candidates to look forward and to talk about what they offer, not how bad the other guy is. >> jane harman.

the struggle for evangelical voters in this election. our chris jansing joins us from a place called jesus junction. it's down in georgia. this is me, using a wrench to build a jet engine. well we thought ge programmed machines to talk. ge is an industrial company that actually builds world-changing machines. machines that can talk to each other digitally. hello? they don't talk to each other like that, ricky. shhhh, you'll anger it. he looks a little ticked off now.

i know for sure there are people in my congregation that are struggling with how to pull that lever. >> faith leaders in georgia talking about the dilemma for some members of the congregation as they head to the voting booth in the peach state where early in-person voting in the second day. our chris jansing continuing her battleground america tour and she joins us from atlanta this morning and you're at a place called jesus junction. is that right? >> reporter: yeah, craig. that's what the locals call it because it's the crossroads of three big churches. but it's the folks in here. second ponce deleon baptist church part of the evangelical community at a crossroads.

they have been largely faithful republican voters. this year, something very different. let me read to you from a letter that was written by women christian leaders. quote. the sin of misogyny has caused us to experience sexually abusive language that threatened our safety, dignity, and christians cannot condone this kind of language or as an innocent attempt to be macho. spearheaded the letter. welcome. >> thank you. >> reporter: 1200 christian leaders signed that. what's behind what looks like at least a mini-movement. >> christian clergywomen have been at the front lines of addressing sexual assault throughout their ministries and deeply concerned to see donald trump boasting about sexual assault. i think what we see as a revolt of christian voters moving away from the republican nominee.

>> reporter: enough to make a difference in november? >> donald trump only getting 60%. that's 20 percentage points less than mitt romney and that's a lot of voters in the state of georgia. >> reporter: thank you very much, reverend jennifer butler. john polled 80% in a state like georgia where 55% of all voters identify as evangelical. you can see what a difference that can make and why this is now considered a potential battleground state. craig? >> chris jansing from jesus junction there in atlanta, georgia, chris, thanks as always and we will be right back after a quick break.

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wife said there are lies in the "people" magazine story alleging trump forced himself on to a writer. that writer said she did not tell her story for political gain. she said she's telling it for women. plus, newly released notes raise new questions about hillary clinton's e-mails. did a top state department official try to make a deal with the fbi? to make one of the e-mails marked unclassified. happening now, president obama set to hold a joint news with the italian prime minister. we'll bring you their joint comments live. good morning, i'm tamron hall coming to you live from the msnbc headquarters in new york. exactly three weeks now until the election and here's the state of the presidential race this morning. our brand new nbc news "wall street journal" survey monkey poll weekly online tracking poll, i just added a whole other element to that one, is out today. and hillary clinton is now with a 6 point lead over donald trump among likely voters.