the final presidential debate. don't go anywhere. leading up to the main event which you can watch right here on msnbc starting at 9:00 p.m. eastern. "hardball" with chris matthews is next. >> big casino. let's play "hardball." good evening. i'm chris matthews at the university campus, las vegas. tonight is the last chance for hillary clinton and donald trump to reach massive television audience. i figure 80 million at least. trump reeling in recent polls needs a game changer. will he concentrate his fire or

just throw everything he's got against the wall? what does he want the headline to be tomorrow morning and is he disciplined enough to deliver that headline or will he fail? a big showdown. trump seem to be battle on multiple fronts. not a smart move. there's benghazi. and reportedly on the guest list, sarah palin. inexplicably -- that went over well. a half brother of barack obama. i don't know what he responds to, half or full. meanwhile "the new york times" reports mr. trump's aides are preparing him with a sharp escalation of the attacks on mrs. clinton's character and a focus on her health. that should be fascinating. trump previewed it last night. >> when hillary develops the energy to go to events, she has very small crowds. if she is home sleeping and i'm working. that's the way it will be in the

white house, too. she would be sleeping, i would be working. >> taken together, this could be a spectacle. joining me, joy reid to my immediate left. hugh hewitt over there. and the "washington post" great reporter, and heidi. i'm going now with the big newspapers to start with. ron costa. will trump spray hisullets or his shots all over the place tonight or focus on something like that news out of that benghazi e-mail? >> he has steve bannon in his ear. the former head of breitbart news. whispering a lot of advice but most of it is to be aggressive as heck. not just on hillary clinton's health but her e-mails. president clinton's past. >> what is the headline? >> attack, attack, attack. it is not so much building up trump. it is about taking down clinton. >> i'm arguing something right

up front. if you can't think about what happened tonight after it is over, you have to come out with a thought. what did i learn tonight? >> i just got off the phone with the hillary clinton campaign and they said be our guest we couldn't be happy ferry this is his scorched earth effect. the same thing he tried to do in the last debate. what did we see? we saw her numbers start to move a little bit up. and this consolidation in the polls. we saw voter registration numbers start to go up. and all trump will do if he does do this is play right into that temperament argument. that the most recent fox news poll shows that she's been success envelop prosecuting this case against how many judgment and temperament. >> joy, how do you walk away, right, left or center prorks trump, anti-trump, if you see this cavalcade personalities. a half brother from kenya.

a mother of a slain guy pr mrs. smith. fair enough. what are we going to get in materials of the political debate should then one of the survivors. then the lone survivor guy, mark played him in the movies. what are we getting? >> some are sort of inexplicable. the half brother of this barack obama. he won't say how manywise he had. far be it from me, my father and his father from the congo did the same thing. it didn't go well in my family. i'm not sure what the point of that invitation is. but i think a lot of what you're seeing, in term of the man to do the scatter shot attack on the clintons. you have people surrounding donald trump who have waited a quarter century to wage this full bore scorched earth attack. they feel republican party is too weak and too timid. it doesn't even matter if it has

electoral output. they want to wage this attack. they feel republicans should have been doing for 25 years and darn it, they're going to do it. >> what is the smart move? >> open up by declaring, congratulations. the cleveland indians are in the world series for the first time since 1997. and win the state of ohio. we just clinched the pennant. >> go for the one state? >> one state. >> the one state strategy. >> that's boring. totally boring. let me go into this. does anybody have any idea why the half brother from kenya is showing up? >> yes. you have to think of this campaign. it isn't a republican campaign. it is a breitbart campaign. the media organization, a galaxy of websites and figures has up is planted the gop and made their own messaging. a dark false hoods, suggestions about the president, about

secretary clinton. this has now become the republican party nominee. this is campaign. >> what is your emotion supposed to be? >> it feels like entertainment. at what point do we bring up these reports about trump folks going and talking to seed investors in new york about a post trump tv network? to me, this -- >> don't speculate. if you believe, that say so. do you believe the trump campaign is not about winning the presidency but developing a tv net boring? >> even if he wins. he who's. trump wants to survive this. >> trump said it is false. the kind of model, it would have to be subscription based. this thing of an uber conservative network i asked trump about it many times on the record. he said no, no, no. >> not necessarily a tv network. i think you're right. the blaze tv didn't make it.

think about donald trump's past actions. he used the breaks in opportunity to promote his golf course. he used the supposed -- >> what is his purpose? >> this is about -- >> hold on. no no. this is 60 million people. >> not just about margareting trump. when you talk to the trump advisers, this is about count, they wave of allegations against donald trump. he is facing severe problems with female voters. and part of what he's doing with hillary clinton and the secretary of bill clinton's past is saying, it's not just me. >> here's the problem. they are not stupid people. these people advising donald trump. and they've had this research for months that shows a lot of the moves he's been making. going after hillary clinton on her health. that's the exact wrong thing you want to do in materials of the hunt of thousands of research they put in on this. so why?

>> what should they be doing? >> at this point, i don't know. it is not just that he needs to turn the ship around. the ship is stuck in an iceberg. i don't think there's much he can. do. >> if your goal was to win an election, what would you do. i sfenlt morning watching advertising that's running on local television in nevada. it is ball women. even joe heck's ad. bits women. what donald trump if he were running an actual campaign, he would try to make the case to the small number of women who are undecided. those who want to vote republican but can't vote for him. attack hillary clinton won't get him there. what he's doing won't work. >> energize your base by bringing up project veritas. for misleading the fbi. then have the media follow.

what you have to do is tie your down ballot to the fact clinton needs to be surrounded by an opposition. >> your one point of view is that he should win this election and try on win women back. the other one is he is basically building his anti-establishment co-till-on for the next 20 years. in recent days, trump has warned of a rigged election. of course there is broad voter fraud. >> going to the polls in this country, do you believe there will be widespread voter fraud? >> no. i do not believe that. so absent overwhelming evidence that there is, it would not be for me to say that there is. we know in the past, we know that people who are dead or still in the voter rolls. we know that people are voting a couple different times in places

so you do hear reports here and there. i think donald trump's point is a large everyone. you don't want me to talk about the other stuff. but there is larger conspiracy. larger collusion. >> also criticized the voter fraud. >> to say these votes are stolen, that's like saying we never landed on the moon. i don't think that's good for our country, for democracy. i don't believe we have any massive fraud. >> you know how you watch a football game, college is that pro and there are fouls. and they get penalties. that's not to say the game was thrown. just because you can find examples of fraud, that doesn't mean the election was stolen. there were 300,000 votes for kennedy. >> there have been cases in virginia.

but there is no massive reading. >> the reason to bring it up and it isn't just trump to bring it up. he is trying to undermine the possibility to vote by making it harder. it is a dog whistle to people who want to believe that african-americans are cheating. the dog whistle to the far right. >> you mean when he says st. louis, cleveland, chicago, philadelphia. what do they have many common in. >> it is feeding that black people are stealing our elections. that's all it is. >> let's remember the history here. you go back to the republican party in the 1950s before william f. buckley. you had this old right that would speak with globalists. what we're seeing a revival of the strand that has been part of the republican past. so we still have a division in the jury. basically, is he going tonight? try to win this election by

doing something to at least apologize even or soften the anger against most republican he said about will really hurt him from having any chance to win. or sticking it to the left one more time. we'll see. i would put my money on him having a brain tonight, this whole thing if baeng. people dome like washington. coming up, senator harry reid, rudolph giuliani. and also coming up at the top of the hour, i'll be joining brian williams and rachel maddow as we all get ready for the debate. and then facing off in the feeble big casino debate. at 10:30, we'll have full coverage of the debate and i'll have everything that happens.

i think we have kellyanne conway. this is "hardball" live from the final presidential debate.

as a supervisor at pg&e, it's my job to protect public safety, keeping the power lines clear, while also protecting the environment. the natural world is a beautiful thing, the work that we do helps us protect it. public education is definitely a big part of our job, to teach our customers about the best type of trees to plant around the power lines. we want to keep the power on for our customers. we want to keep our community safe.

this is our community, this is where we live. we need to make sure that we have a beautiful place for our children to live. together, we're building a better california. started in the senate of the united states, and of course, at the house. mcconnell is one of the people that created donald trump. if that's a legacy that he wants, he will have it whether he wants it or not. >> welcome back to this special edition of "hardball." hive from unlv for the final presidential debate.

that was harry reid earlier today talking about the rise of donald trump. the message to the gop is, you own trump. well, he is no stranger to bare knuckle fights. senator reid, thank you. while i want to give you an opening shot. of all the republican candidates for president, where would you rank trump in quality? >> is that all you can do? >> you can't go below zero. >> i've been watching, as you have, better than anybody, you and schumer, this battle for the united states senate. it looks to be like, your party has a very good chance to get control of the senate. if hillary clinton is elected. i figure you have illinois probably, wisconsin. what are the next best chances to win the senate. >>? number one, what will happen in

nevada. that's ours. >> you'll hold that. >> yeah. we're going to wisconsin. we're good in illinois. we're going to win in indiana. i have no doubt we're going on win in pennsylvania. we have a lot of stuff going on. the numbers out of new hampshire have been really good lately. now, what is happening in missouri is unbelievable. public polls have our candidate ahead. yes. i think he is so good. >> how does your candidate look in north carolina? >> she looks great. >> you're talking about a pick-up of seven or eight seats. >> we feel with trump pulling everybody down, the only thing for the republicans is the koch brothers. they have nothing else other than loads of money. >> let me ask you. do you believe in coat tails? do you believe people vote in

the senate based upon how they're voting for president? >>. no i've never believed in split tickets. some people political tickets but they do it just because they want to do it. it is not anything they think through. >> why do they do it? >> because they vote for the candidate. not the party. >> it could be they're afraid to trust one party with the whole government. >> possible but i don't think that's the case. >> let me ask you about trump and hillary. you're an old boxer. you know how to get ready for a fight. what do you think trump will do? >> this is no way you can predict what donald trump will do. it will be very nice if for once he had a debate. they would talk about the economy and foreign policy. and relations with women. they talked about immigration. they talked about planned parenthood. issues that the american people can identify with.

not the craziness about building a wall, who will pay for it. >> what do you think he can say after all these accusations of women, different forms of groping, material we're not used to saying on television, sexually aggressive ways that don't seem normal and don't seem appropriate. how can he address that issue in one night? >> chris, he has a problem. actions speak louder than words. not only are his words awful but his actions have been even worse than his words. >> do you think he is unfit to be president? >> i don't want to egg you on. >> i'll pretty easy to egg on. no. i think he would be a disaster for the american people. i think he would be a disaster for the world. and the world is standing by. they'll see what will happen in this debate. the world cares. as they should. >> what will you miss in this

business? >> not you. >> thank you, thank you. i don't mind that. thank you, senator harry reid. let's bring in the former mayor rudolph giuliani who will miss me. he supports donald trump. >> so let's bring in, well, mayor, he just took a shot at me. maybe you can be nice. he just said he won't miss me. i can live with that. let me ask but this campaign. the odds now, in london, they have betting odds on this campaign to make $2, you have to bet $11 for hillary. basically, she is the overwhelming favorite. your candidate is the 4-1 underdog. you only get $4 back from $1. how does he overcome those odds in the next three week? >> i'm interested in knowing what brexit was. i have no idea what the numbers were on breflit that turned out to be a big surprise.

i think he has to do a little like harry reid, actually said, although for a different purpose. he has to stick to the issues. he has to point out yes would be a better president than hillary clinton. jobs, putting people back to work, fixing schools which she can't do because the teacher's union prevents her from doing it. he has to talk about the iran agreement. people get a chance to make an up or down vote. do we agree with making iran nuclear in ten years? so i would think the best thing for him would be a highly issued debate. on the majority of the issues he comes out ahead. and so far in this campaign, the issues have been buried under e-mails on the one side. >> did you think the democrats on hillary clinton -- they have

deflect from the issues that made him an exciting candidate. trade, immigration and what he called stupid wars. foreign policy he didn't like. he had those issues in hand to get about 40% and he's been struggling to hold that 40%. who is responsible for shifting away from the issues? >> talking about the eight or nine women that came forward. >> yeah. the whole mess. >> i don't believe the coincidences. i have to believe it was orchestrated. the tremendously horrible revelations that come from wikileaks about their feelings toward catholics and evangelicals about, the fact they were paying people to protest and some of them led to violence. about having a public and private position on different things. about how she kind of played up to all the bankers on the one hand and then gave a totally different impression when she debated between bernie sanders. all of that would have been very

damaging if the she didn't have the eight women to come in on top of and the press paid a lot more attention to that. >> what did you make of the speeches that came from wikileaks? let's assume they're accurate. when she came out for open borders when she came out for free trade. she said she never said she was for open borders in public. >> i think it confirmed for me what i've always thought about hillary clinton. that she doesn't tell us the truth. that she does have two or they have positions on everything. after all, she was against gay marriage. now she's for gay marriage. >> a lot of people were though. mr. mayor, a lot of people were involved in that issue. >> before the war and then against it. she calculates her position for political impact. or tpp. i know she is for it. but she's pretending she is against it. we know that. >> he know that.

i agree. what do you think? trump should focus his attack on the e-mail thing connected to benghazi where you have this kerfuffle? or do you go all over the place? he is bringing in half brothers and fiances and mothers. it is a whole cavalcade. how are you supposed to absorb all of that in one night? >> none of that will have to do with the debate. i would think the situation with the fbi is relevant. it looks like bribe to me. he is telling the guy he wants to bury a document and he is offering eight or nine agents. >> let's be fair. he didn't take bribe. >> a bribe doesn't have to be taken. it just needs to be offered. the crime of bribery is committed by offering. he offered it. and he offered a quid pro quo. that's bribery. >> i'll getting squeezed, mr. mayor. always good to have you on. i am getting squeezed. so many people. >> and i will miss you when i finish politics. >> you're not going to miss me,

sir. up next, meg whitman. the kroflt of hewlett-packard.

donald trump with the daunting task of turning the election around. everybody sees hillary clinton gaining among women voters. currently among the most recent nbc news "wall street journal" poll. hillary clinton with 20 points. meg whitman, the one time chris christie supporter said that he is a dishonest demagogue. thank you. i want to ask you about, what is the key reason that would stop you from voting for donald trump? if there was one thing that said, no matter what else changed, this is the thing would stop me. >> well, as you know, a lifelong

republican voting across party lines to vote for hillary clinton is a challenge. i think he has exploited our worst fears around xenophobia, racism. and he has lowered the level have discourse in this country which i think is really, really under fortunate. so i'm for hillary all the way. >> i'm asking you, what is the one issue that bugs you? do you like that he says he's against trade, against tpp, nafta. does that bother you? >> you know, i think it is his character that is the most problematic for me. i think we need to look up to the president of the united states. i think he needs to be a role model for our children. i think it is traunl character that bothers me the most. yes, i don't agree with his trade policies, with his immigration policies. there's lots i don't agree with. what i will say is i think bits the character of the person.

>> what about the fact that over 60% of the american people don't like, don't trust either hillary clinton or donald trump. we've seen these numbers every day. you see them. what do you make of them? both candidates not being trustworthy. >> it is an unprecedented election. i've never seen anything like in it my entire career. one of these would individuals will be president of the united states and i think hillary has the temperament, the global experience, i think she has the economic man that will make the economy work for everybody. and i really like that she is going to pull this country together. we are going to be stronger together. divided we fall, united we stand and i think she will do a great job after the election when she wins of pulling this country together which i think is really important. >> you were backing chris christie will he has gotten involved in this whole bridgegate problem. do you trust hillary clinton and chris christie both to this day?

both of them? >> well, listen, i was a support he of chris christie. i thought he had done a lot of very good things many his career. i was disappointed around his endorsement of donald trump and obviously, the bridgegate thing has been problematic. but listen. what i really think that hillary brings to the party is the economic policy. if the president could only work on one thing. and the president needs to do a lot of things. it would be to fix economy for average working people. >> this is tricky. one last question. we're hearing that hillary clinton, thanks to wikileaks, has come out for open trade, open borders, free trade in the hemisphere. but her public position has been, i'm against tpp. i'm questioning nafta. which is she? a free trader or a protectionist? we're getting different messages from her and which do you like? >> well, i think smart trade deals are important. it is very important for the economy of the united states to twratd other countries. isolationism will not be the right answer for this country.

so we have to be smart. i think hillary is for smart trade deals. >> that doesn't say whether she is a free trader or a protectionist. which is he? which do you like? >> usually these things aren't black and white. you're a free trader if the deal is smart. you're against trade if the deals are not smart. >> meg whitman work all due respect. you have to be for tpp or against it. are you for tpp? >> i am for tpp. yes, i am. >> where is hillary on tpp? >> so she is against it. and not that i agree with every single thing. >> tumd most important thing is the economy. you said the most important issue is the economy and you disagree with our role in the world economically. so where do you agree with her on economics? >> so first of all, i agree on her infrastructure program. we need to rebuild the infrastructure in this country. not only it provides jobs -- >> trump is for that, too. >> for people and services to move around this country. the second is her innovation

agenda. we have to own the next generation of industries in the world. whether that's 3d printing or immune therapy or artificial intelligence or big data and analytics. we need to make sure that we are the leader in those categories. that we create jobs for every kind of american with all kinds of educational back grounds and we can do that if we set our mind to it and we decide as a country, we want to lead in these brand new industries that over time will create a lot of jobs for this country. >> thank you so much. an honor having you on the show. meg whitman tonight from hewlett-packard. let's bring this james carville in new orleans. the try to do this. give us there, it will be very pugnacious. what do you think it will look like? >> normally, if the normal person were doing it, you would say trump is falling behind. he has to solidify republican as little bit. he has to appear to be a little

less scary than he is. that's what i would. do anybody else would do. that's what you would do. i think ron costa made the money point tonight. it is all a breitbart thing. international bankers and you know, obama's half brother and every kind of thing he can think of. so i have no idea. in terms of secretary clinton, i hope she comes across as answering the questions. straightforward. policy oriented. likable and gets those numbers up that you keep referring to. gets her favorability up. i think she has a good position the run away with this thing right now. >> she once said to a crowd, i'm sure the crowd enjoyed it. whelmed somebody is coming ought, deck them. deck them. you're suggesting a kind of, rope a dope -- that's not right. make a fool of himself and fall back and laugh at him. is that a smart strategy to laugh at the guy? >> i think what she has to do is take it seriously. she has to take the questions

seriously. i don't think she has to take trump seriously. and she is fond of repeating michelle obama, when they go low, we go high. so two different sides here. i mean, she clearly decked him in the first debate. i think the guy has been decked. he's on his way to losing and i think tonight if she comes across as i know she can, a very knowledgeable person that has a good grasp on the country, i think she'll put him away pretty good here. >> i have to ask you something you know more about. pennsylvania races for senate. you've run a bunch of them. is there a woman problem in pennsylvania? i've always thought it has a tough guys, gun owner mentality of the state. and away from the big cities. do you think katie is facing a ceiling of some kind? >> i think that's a legitimate thing. in the west, to some extent. you have to realize. in the philadelphia suburbs have

become such a big part of the vote in pennsylvania. and it has become so much more democratic. in 1986, we got 36% in the suburbs, a democrat could win the state. they'll get better than 60 in the suburbs the state has changed. it is a little different than the state you worked in. >> you're right twooxt% of the state in the suburbs. >> we'll get clocked in west moreland and beaver and a lot of countries like that that we're used to carrying. but delaware, montgomery, those counties. that's where the population growth has been. >> some night we'll do all 67 counties. thank you, james carville. up next, the "hardball" roundtable and what we can expect tonight. should she deck him or laugh?

the place is "hardball." actually the place is las vegas. unlv.

welcome back to ball beautiful hillary clinton wants to expand her lead. her campaign said she is expecting trump to take a scorched earth position. this is the last chance for both candidates to reach 70 or 80 million people tonight. and i tell people, everybody knows that watching now, 90% of the peel don't watch programs like this every night. they don't keep up with politics. they show up for the biggies. so they're watching tonight. so trump has a chance, hillary has a chance to talk to them.

let's bring in our panel. let's go right now to you, megan. let's say you're hillary clinton. do you deck him or smile? >> you have to smile. >> don't deck him. >> no. take the shots if you go get shot. whether he will walk into it, whether it will be a mohammed ali. she has such a huge lead shelf just needs to protect her advantage. don't make that mistake. >> a little, it is not her style to go hard. >> you don't think she is a tough person? >> i think he is tough as nails. i think she's been very disciplined about not taking it. >> i think she will take punches. >> she'll take them subtly. like in the first debate where she referenced getting the money from your daddy. that approach. the subtle sfuf will get under donald trump's skin a little

bit. so she is very good at that. she doesn't have to come out swinging. there is no need. she has the lead. he can counter punch. she can lead with a couple of soft punches knowing that donald trump will probably get excited about that. and then sit back and let him go off the rails. >> also, she can shift the conversation to where he may not want it. he has to win tonight. if he doesn't get to his sweet spots, he doesn't win. >> i'm not sure. she is trained as a lawyer. what lawyers know how to do, know which arguments matter and which are fluff. so if they've done debate training, right in and they've done a lot of debate training. it has been very, very good. she will have certain things to respond to and certain pivots. and then certain sort of deck him lines. if she gets opening, she'll take. >> they have benghazi mother, mrs. smith. the mother of sean smith, he was killed there. they have a survivor, i believe,

from benghazi. also, the lone survivor guy from the movie. and so we have a lot of focus on benghazi. should hillary clinton, i've always wondered why she didn't do something like, unlike you, i knew mr. stevens and i really cared about what happened and i did my level best to save him. it was just too darn late. something like that. >> the other thing is why would benghazi come up in the normal course of this debate. >> these people, so related to that issue. >> well, yeah. there may be an opportunity for donald trump to use them as a reference point, say, i had with me tonight -- >> in the audience tonight. and then try to draw hillary out that way. i don't think she bites at that. i think she sits back. and just takes and it says, okay, fine. you make your point and she'll move. on she has the lead. no incentive to get into it. >> and benghazi won't be a game

changer for her. >> not for her. >> winning among men interesting less educate voters. she now has 20 points for women. >> her biggest weakness is trust and below that, a subset of that, e-mail, a subset of that, benghazi. and then the latest, the big news story about the so-called quid pro quo. >> one of the topics tonight, and they are awfully broad subjects. >> okay. why don't we take drug tests? this gets so embarrassing. >> so she goes back to sub tanls. >> he wants to do saliva test on the air. >> great entertainment. >> i think one of the questions for me, it should be for the trump camp is, doing all of that. going high profile ballistic on hillary. who are you convincing to now come to you and see you as a presidential candidate? what upside is there?

>> okay, michael. and i'll go to you because you're a woman and this is for women. >> i am a woman. >> how do you get to the number he is really being killed. on republican women. you have to start with that. you start. >> two ways. first of all, you have a personality change and that you are humbler and apologetic and truly polyjet bik the incredibly offensive comments you made. and you say i made a mistake also in the path after that video was released. i was not as contrite as i should have been. i should have come forward and totally acknowledged and admitted how offensive those comments were. >> instead of blaming billy bush? >> and then go back to the issue republican women really care about. the economy and their children's future. throws the two points that have always shown him in that segment of voters. and the two issues that he's been least effective. >> but his defenses have been so complete. blame it on billy bush.

melania did that. she's taking it for the team. >> and then howard stern saying it. >> in third debates, candidates don't change their personalities. if they dorgs it doesn't look genuine. so i think you may see doubling down on what has happened before. the theme he's gotten away from, the income inequality populist divide. >> why doesn't everything after hillary saying in public and private speeches when you're paid $250,000, you're big a free trard. you get out in front of a group, you're miss protection of the union guy. >> he needs to go back to, i'm the disrupt overrule has gotten away from that and defending personal things. >> what about talking about open borders. >> the round table is sticking with us. up next, these people tell me more that i don't know anything about. this is "hardball." hive from unlv.

we're back from unlv. with just over an hour to go before the final presidential debate right here at unlv. ben, tell me something i don't know. >> what you don't know is as donald trump goes along, he's relying more and more on low propensity voters. up to the republican national committee to turn them out. this election is turning into a referendum on whether the national party committees can do

everything, on whether they're about to become extinct creatures. bad cycle for the dnc, bad cycle for the rnc unless they can show -- >> reince priebus has to bring out the vote for trump. he's stuck with him, it's interesting. >> talk about a rigged election, whether there will be voter fraud. three-quarters of donald trump's supporters believe the debates have been rigged. >> debates have been rigged. what's that mean? >> unfairly tilted toward s clinton. >> how do you rig a debate? >> good question. 60% of voters think chris wallace will be fair tonight. >> is tonight rigged? >> does he have the questions? >> you said 40% already said it is rigged. >> i can say anything's rigged. >> efforts are already under way to rebuild post november 8 inside the gop. meetings are starting to take place. >> you coming back? >> no. >> your record was pretty good,

in terms of numbers. >> biggest historic -- >> let's move the previous question here. >> we'll move the previous question back to the future. >> so here we go. thank you, the crowd out here has been great. there they are, there they are. we're getting serious now. thank you all, michael steele, as my friend always here, my new friend ben begin -- ben ginsberg, my old friend. you're watching "hardball," the place for politics. egin -- ben , my old friend. you're watching "hardball," the place for politics. gin -- ben g my old friend. you're watching "hardball," the place for politics. in -- ben gi my old friend. you're watching "hardball," the place for politics.

election diary wednesday, october 19, 2016. as i said, tonight's big casino, the betting odds are so bad for donald trump that he has to bet big and hope it's i had night. right now you bet a dollar on donald trump this election, you win four. that means he's got one chance in five chances to come out on top on election night. what would you do? would you throw everything you have at his rival secretary clinton or concentrate your attack on one key target, this murky deal with the e-mail

dealing with benghazi and the former fbi agent who said he saw a quid pro quo to cover it all up? i'm going to get on the benghazi e-mail. i'll double down, triple down on it because it gets to clinton's chief problem, which is trust. it gets back to benghazi and puts clinton in the role of having to defend the bureaucracy, that easily targeted word -- washington. so mr. trump, if he's listening now or listens to anyone any time, he should stick to the smart shot. trying to hit hillary on everything is trying to go to a 21st century media war with a blunderbuss. like elmer fudd going to war with bugs bunny. as you recall, he never did catch that wabbit. that's "hardball" for now. stick around. i'll be joining brian williams and rachel maddow for our complete coverage of the third and final debate. it's going to be a huge night. as i said before and will say again, big casino here in las

vegas. what a night it's going to be. who do you bet's going to make the big shot, who will be calm and laugh at the other guy? i still don't know and neither do you. stick around. the final showdown, trump -- >> the clintons are criminals. remember that. she's the most corrupt person ever to seek the presidency. >> clinton -- >> we all heard what he thinks of women. he's an equal opportunity insulter. >> the election is being rigged by corrupt media pushing outright lies. >> he is temperamentally unfit to be president and commander in chief. >> from msnbc, the place for politics, the third and final presidential debate. >> university of nevada las vegas the setting for tonight's final debate between hillary clinton and donald trump. when they take the stage in one hour's time, donald trump will