you can find out for yourself. msnbc will have coverage of the alf smith eastern. it would create the fourth conflict for me. sorry, al. go dodgers, go canes, go, pac, go. i'm mark halperin. >> and i'm mike heilemann. it's never a good idea to argue with someone who buys ink or rocket fuel by the barrel. >> i thought what i sent was a humorous tweet, that had #senddonaldtospace. the final thing in the hashtag. and i have a rocket company, so, the capability is there. ♪

our own special heliocentric low-earth orbit tonight, the clinton campaign seeks to reach hyperspeed and we explore an alternate universe. but first, donald trump's super nova of suspense. the republican nominee walked off the debate stage last night having created one megadplak tick problem for himself, when he refused to say he would accept the results of the presidential election. today at a rally in gardelaware ohio, here is how he tried to clean up his self-made mess. >> i would like to promise and pledge to all of my voters and supporters and to all of the people of the united states that i will totally accept the results of this great and historic presidential election if i win.

of course, i would accept a clear election result, but i would also reserve my right to contest or file a legal challenge in the case of a questionable result. >> so, mark, with his efforts today, do you believe that donald trump has put this matter behind him effectively, or not? >> he compounded one unforced error with another. this story will live on now, i think, in the absence of there are no more debates, i don't expect any other big news to occur, in case there's some major wikileaks disclosure or thin something, he's created a second-day problem saying something that's almost as offensive to people. under like seven layers of rhetoric, he's got a point. but it's under seven layers of rhetoric. and the way he has talked about this as offended people across the country and he only compounded his problem today. >> the reality is that, a, we do not have a problem, a widespread problem of voter fraud in this country. there's no evidence of it, it does not exist. the other thing is that we have,

in many states, we have mandatory recount laws. if the vote is really close, there's a mandatory recount. so you don't need to avail yourself of those rights. a, first, it's not a problem. the second thing is it's handled if it's super close. we have recounts and examinations and that's what happened in 2000 in florida. i don't understand why if you wanted to make the second point, which is to say, well, of course, i want to make sure everything's legit here, why he needed to say the first thing. the first thing is, the sound bite that will play forever,ly accept the result if i win, which is if you said in some ways worse than what he said the night before. >> he took a solid debate performance and undermined it by this. i watched a lot of coverage last night and today. it's all anybody's talk about and all anybody's going to talk about into tomorrow. could the story line change tomorrow? maybe. but this will linger in history and linger in the news cycle. >> yes. to be clear, there's a reason why it's lingering. there's a reason why people are focused on it. republicans, elected republicans currently in office, former

republicans, the former chair of the republican party who said it was disqualifying last night on television, it is something that no major party nominee has ever said or done before. which is to suggest that they would not abide by the peaceful transfer of power. it's a huge anborgation of enormou norms. >> lots of americans will care about this. the people who really care about it, the people who drive the coverage and chatter about it for days on end. >> no doubt about that. i know you're saying is they care more about it, but there are lots of normal americans to reinforce the plan. lots of normal americans were upset about this when he said it. >> all right. democrats have no intention of letting this issue go. last night, after debate, hillary clinton paid her press corps a visit on the airplane, and deemed donald trump's remarks horrifying.

today some of trump's top surrogate twisted the knife a little deeper out on the campaign trail. >> if you question, if you assert that a democratic election is fixed, you are attacking the very essence of the notion whether we have a democratic system. >> after a campaign where he has insulted everybody else and now he's going to insult the very central premise of our democratic process. >> when you try to sew the seeds of doubt in people's minds about the legitimacy of our elections, that undermines our democracy. then you're doing the work of our adversaries for them. because our democracy depends on people knowing that their vote matters. >> there are plenty of republicans who also are critical of what trump said last night, including senator john mccain, who once faced a decision about whether to challenge the results of a presidential election, when he was on the losing side. so, john, before the debate last night, we agreed that trump's

chances were somewhere between slim and none. does the prospect of a hail mary come back now after what he'd said last night become even more remote? >> let's put it this way. last night his chances of a comeback were between slim and none and now slim is packing his bags. this is, again, there are many days -- there are still 2 1skp1 weeks before election day, and i don't rule out the possibility of some cataclysmic thing happening. in the absence of that, i think this thing is cooked. and this was his last best chance last night and he's now spent one full day and he's going to spend more days now, again, justifily, answering criticism for this crazy thing he said last the night. >> it's answering criticism. it's keeping him from having anything positive going on in at least two news cycles. and it's keeping him from arguing that he actually won the debate. because he lost the debate on one single remark. i think he probably would have been judged of having lost it narrowly, away, or somewhat. but the reality is that the polling data now has gotten

worse and i think it will get worse in the wake of this debate, because he'll have two days of bad coverage. he's got less time now. he's got no other big events. and the other thing is, the perception is now amongst a lot of republicans, more than ever, is it's done. >> to win the election, he needed to gain some new votes. the thing he said last night did not gain him a single vote and almost certainly lost him some votes, because there are some of the people that he needed to tract who looked at that and said, i don't want that as my president. and now the split in the republican party is even wider, because you have down-ballot republicans who are going to say, you're calling into question if i win, my electoral system is now maybe rigged. i don't want any part of that. >> and when donald trump and their inner circle are angry at the press, angry at the republicans who criticized him, they don't perform well. they're like, this is a 90-minute debate. why is everyone seizing on one thing. >> just point to those three democrats we just saw. we often talk about why hillary clinton has an advantage. she has these big super

surrogates that have big megafunds. they think they have the boot on donald trump's throat and they are pressing down hard. >> they thought the election was over before the debate and trying end to it de facto right now. >> exactly right. how is the conservative media reacting to all of this? their reaction has been mixed. on the one hand, rush limbaugh and "wall street journal" editor defended trump, saying that the mainstream media is overreacting to his comment. others wrote that trump was, quote, headed towards his best debate of the campaign, until those few seconds. radio host laura ingraham, who's been a steadfast defender of trump tweeted, quote, he should have said he would accept the results of election. there's no other option until we're in a recount again, end quote. and all day, there were conservative voices on fox news calling the whole thing at best a distraction. here's how karl rove summed it up on "fox & friends". >> he could have said, of course, i'll accept the results of the election once they're

certified and validated. >> but he thinks the whole thing's rigged. >> this wipes out everything he said last night on trade and immigration and on the clinton foundation, because this is the headline. >> so over on the other side of the ideological chasm, progressive pundits in much of the mainstream media hailed the clinton's performance as nearly flawless, ezra klein wrote that his performance basically put the finishing touch on the most effective series of debate performances in modern political history. so mark, just for the sake of argument, let's pretend we live in an alternative, parallel universe, where donald trump didn't call into the post-election peaceful transfer of power, what would the verdict today be in that circumstance on last night's debate? >> i think people would have had three main takeaways. one, hillary clinton is a masterful debater, masterful at preparing, and had found her voice last night with some emotion and poignancy, as much as she ever has on the national stage. and if trump had performed that well in the first debate and improved into the second and third from that base line,

things might have been different. and the last thing is that he doesn't prepare. even by the third debate. he clearly was nowhere as near as prepared as she was. and when chris wallace asked about substance, he was dancing. >> in the first 30 minutes to have the debate, where trump seemed like he was almost on a tranquilizer, better than he's ever been, but in the back hour, the same thing happened to him that's happened to him in all three of the debates. she not only prepared on policy, but she psychologically prepared a strategy of getting under his skin. and every time she would say something -- like last night, when he said he choked when he we went to mexico. he demeanor changed. the thing where he called her a nasty woman. he said, you're a puppet, you're a puppet. she brought out all of the things she wanted to do, which is to bring out his temperament. and by him baiting that way, i think he lost the debate even without the most egregious -- >> in a parallel universe, no

"access hollywood" tape or women coming into these debates, a big part of the story would have been hillary clinton's evasions. skillful. chris wallace tried to pin her down. >> once we're living in that parallel universe, i want to take away wikileaks. >> we're going to break down some of the other interesting moments from last night's debate after these words from our sponsors. hey, hey, hey, there are no bad suggestions here... no matter how lame they are. well said, ann. i've always admired how you just say what's in your head, without thinking. very brave. good point ted. you're living proof that looks aren't everything. thank you. welcome. so, fedex helped simplify our e-commerce business and this is not a passive aggressive environment. i just wanted to say, you guys are doing a great job. what's that supposed to mean? fedex. helping small business simplify e-commerce.

do you make the same commitment that you absolutely -- sir, that you will absolutely accept the result of this election? >> i will look at it at the time. i'm not looking at anything now. i'll look at it at the time. >> one of the prides of this country is the peaceful transition of power and that no matter how hard-fought a campaign is, that at the end of the campaign, that the loser concedes to the winner. y are you saying that you're not prepared now to follow that principle? >> what i'm saying is that i'll tell you at the time. i'll keep you in suspense. >> that is the big moment in last night's debate that

everybody's talking about and will for years. but there were other moments that should get their due. for instance, there were times when donald trump showed a rare calmness, exposure, and policy-focused presence, that offered a stark contrast to his more typical, off-message remarks throughout the evening. >> we need a supreme court that, in my opinion, is going to uphold the second amendment, and all amendments, but the second amendment. the justices that i'moing to appoint will be pro-life. they will have a conservative bent. they will be protecting the second amendment. they are great scholars, in all cases. and they're people of tremendous respect. they will interpret the constitution the way the founders wanted it interpreted. it's all about the constitution. the d.c. versus heller decision was very strongly and she was extremely angry about it. i watched. i mean, she was very, very angry when upheld. and justice scalia was so

involved. zp and it was a well-crafted decision. >> i'm not saying if he had done that for 270 minutes over the three debates he would have won, but it would have a much different set of contests, i thi think. >> you're right. if he would have tried to do that -- i was surprised he cited a case, that he cited heller. he had no depth of actually understanding, if you asked him to explain, what does heller say, i'm not sure he would have known. but just tonally, it's a very different world than what we live. >> and the exact tone many said going into the first debate that shuler he'll adopt. >> and the clinton campaign tried to get him to adopt. let's actually look at an example of that right now. hillary clinton, as "the new york times" pointed out in a story today, was a little out of character last night, as she tried some trumpian maneuvers on the debate stage, interrupting, mocking, and needling her opponent repeatedly. >> we had a meeting with the

mexican president. didn't even raise it. he choked -- >> from everything i see has no respect for this person. >> well, that's because he'd rather have a puppet as president. this is a person who has been very cavalier, even casual about the use of nuclear weapons. ten people who have had that awesome responsibility have come out and in an unprecedented way said they would not trust donald trump with the nuclear codes or to have his finger on the nuclear button. there's only one of us on this stage who's actually shipped jobs to mexico, because that's donald. so he goes around with crocodile tears about how terrible it is, but he has given jobs to chinese steel workers. he was borrowing $14 million from his father to start his businesses. and i'd be happy to compare what we do with the trump foundation, which took money from other people and bought a 6-foot portrait of donald. i mean, who does that? >> in my apartment today, on a very beautiful hotel down the street, nobody as --

>> made with chinese steel. he didn't get an emmy for his tv program three years in a row, and he start ed tweeting that te emmys were rigged. you're whining before the game is even finished. it just shows, you're not up to doing the job. just like we went after bin laden, while you were doing "celebrity apprentice." he was criticizing president reagan, social security, payroll, contribution there go up, as will donald's, assuming that he can't figure out how to get out of it. but what we want to do is replenish -- >> such a nasty woman. >> and there it was. right there. the barb fest. there were a lot of those barbs. some trump responded to, some he did not, but that last one, in a sort of crystalized moments, that's the kind of thing she did for three debates, but that is it, in a nutshell. >> i praise hillary clinton's debate prep team, to feed her things that shein her heart, her gut would feel criticism of

obama with trump with pre-written lines that she was comfortable delivering in her own voice, in her tone attitude. >> and almost last night, with a sense of almost joy. she was enjoying herself doing that. >> she prepared hard and they gave her a lot of good options and she pickeded the right ones clearly. and clinton also sidestepped some issues from moderator chris wallace, and did it in a way that a lot of people have noticed. >> we've learned that from wikileaks, you said this, i want to quote, my dream is a hemispheric common market with open trade and open borders. >> well, if you went on to read the rest of the sentence, i was talking about energy. an electric grid, an energy system that crosses borders. i actually think the most important question of this evening, chris, is finally, will donald trump admit and condemn that the russians are doing this? >> why isn't what happened and what went on between you and the clinton foundation, why isn't it

what mr. trump calls "pay to play." >> everything i did as secretary of state was in furtherance of our country's interests and our values. the state department has said that. i think that's been proven. but i am happy -- in fact, i am thrilled to talk about the clinton foundation, because it is a world-renowned charity. the clinton foundation made it possible for 11 million people around the world with hiv/aids to afford treatment. and that's about half of all the people in the world who are getting treatment. in partnership with the american -- >> secretary -- >> -- health association, we have made environments in schools healthier for -- >> secretary clinton, respectfully, this is an open discussion -- >> well, it is an open discussion and -- >> -- the specific question went to pay for play, do you want to -- >> look, but there is no evidence -- >> i think it's been very -- >> there is a lot of evidence -- >> it's been very well studied -- >> about the very good work -- >> mr. trump -- >> so -- >> that was not her at her most

evasive, but if she did not enter this debate on a roll, i think people would have focused on, she was pretty evasive there, but handled it much better than some of the other tougher topics she's had. >> and think about the contrast with her and trump. i agree she is evasive. but this is what we talk about when we talk about someone doing well in a debate. pivoting is what you're supposed to do, quick answer, get out, don't seem defensive, and get on the attack again. another way in which her preparation helped her and did not hurter. >> another reason why republicans are frustrated. up next, it's a schlapp attack. we'll talk to the american conservative union's matt schlapp after this. something new has arrived. uniquely designed for the driven. introducing the first-ever infiniti qx30 crossover. visit your local infiniti retailer today. infiniti. empower the drive.

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and now it's time for us to have our weekly dose of fun with our favorite social media happen, schlapp chat. with us now from washington, d.c. is american conservative union chair, matt schlapp, who's also a big donald trump supporter. although, we'll ask him whether he still is after last night. so, matt, there's a big split in the republican party right now, over what donald trump did last night, unprecedentedly saying he wasn't sure if he would uphold or accept the election results. where do you stand with those conservatives who are hitting him hard today or with those conservatives who are making excuses for him? >> i don't know. maybe somewhere in the middle. you know, i wouldn't have answered the question that way, john. and, you know, i think i would like to see these two get to a point -- one of them's going to get elected in 19 days. and i would like to see these two to be able to do something simple like shake hands on the stage. i think it was ridiculous that

the clinton administration or the clinton campaign, you know, negotiated that they didn't have to shake each other's hand. if you don't even have enough respect to look each other in the eye and shake each other's hand, we're in a pretty bad place. and we know the country is as well. and on election day, i'm confident if donald trump does not win, that he will -- >> hey, matt, matt, let me ask you this directly, what was wrong with his answer? >> i think the only thing that was wrong with the answer is that it overshadowed what i thought was a really good debate performance. >> what was wrong with that particular answer. you said you wouldn't have done it that way. what were the negative implications or costs of him answering that way? >> i think that the negative -- i think it's bad -- i just think it looks more magnanimous to say, look, it to beat my opponent's brains in, but if she wins, i'm going to support that. and i think it -- and so i think that makes him look like the better man. i can understand, with everything we've learned on wikileaks and the way the clintons roll, that he's

frustrated. and he -- i thought the answer that made that the clearest is when he said, you shouldn't even be able to run because of all the legal problems we're all reading about, and brought up the example of the four-star general. so there's a certain degree of frustration for those of us that are not clinton fans, that she has seemed to find a way out of every one of these legal concerns she's gotten in, when othersn similar positions have not. >>att, you agree that america is an exemplar of democracy for people around the world, right? >> absolutely. >> you don't have any lack of faith in our ability to conduct a free and fair election? >> i think we have the best elections on the globe. >> don't you think that all the ways trump is talking about this, from the things he said last night to the way she's tryi he's trying to fix it today, that he's skeptical of that. that he has doubts about integrity of the american elections. is that something a presidential nominee should be expressing

implicitly? >> it doesn't look like this race is a one or two-point race, but there are polls that say it is. and let's say this race is tight at the end. as you all know, subjectivity does come into play. i spent a month in florida during the recount and bunch of al gore democrats do the same, because we know it often comes down to a room where someone has to make a decision if a hanging chad results in a vote for one person or another person. all election night into the early morning the next day, and after several recounts and several lawsuits, all of a sudden they didn't win the race. there is subjectivity to close races. >> matt, we've got less than a minute. you're probably seeing a lot of the same private republican polling data that we are, that shows donald trump standing in some of the key battleground states that media leaks don't think he's going to win? >> i think the states that will tighten that he has to win. i think he has to get that electoral vote in maine. i think he has to win new

hampshire. obviously, virginia doesn't look like it improves, you have to get to michigan or wisconsin. he's got to win nevada and he's got to win iowa. and i think several of those states i just walked through are states that will tight, up dramatically over the next two weeks. i think the demographics look good for him. and i think, i agree with that investor business daily poll that shows about a two-point race for hillary. that was the closest we know. and i think these polls are tighter than a lot of these indicate. >> all right, matt. come back again soon. we'll be right back with union chief randi weingarten after this quick break. (war drums beating)

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welcome back. with us now, the president of the american federation of teachers, a big hillary clinton supporter, randi weingarten. thank you for joining us. >> it's always great to be with you, even viually. >> how would you write hillary clinton's chances of being

elected to president in november? >> well, with you know, i'm one of these people who it's not over until it's over. but, you know, i think, i think she has a pretty good chance now. and, you know, i'm not -- you know, you look at the different upshot and nate silver and you see all the chances, and how the arc has changed, but i think what's happening is her trajectory is going higher and higher, with a greater and greater percentage of showing that she's going to win. and donald trump trajectory is in the opposite direction. and so, normally, at this point, things actually start showing which way the electorate is going. and i think people are confident in her competence. so you're seeing not just the people who would ordinarily support a democrat, but you're seeing more and more people saying, when they look at these two candidates, there's only one

of them that actually has the judgment, the temperament, even if you disagree with some of their positions. >> randi, one of the things the clinton campaign has made clear for a long time now is that the key to her winning this race would be to disqualify donald trump. and with his help, they have done a pretty good job of that, or at least making it pretty toxic. as we turn this corner into the home stretch, what does hillary clinton need to do now as she prepares, perhaps, to get ready to govern? should she continue to just basically trash trump or should she start doing something else? >> so i, look, i think we have a november 9th problem. and i'm a big believer that you lean towards people's aspirations, not people's fears. and i think what she tried to do last night, when she had the time to talk and to really debate, was she actually lifted up aspirations. she talked about what her plans are going forward, not how to --

and she did more of that than spar with donald trump. now,onald trump, on debate stage, is so reckless, it's hard to ignore a lot of the things that he says. but i think that he, himself, disqualified himself so much yesterday that her path right now is to connect to people's aspirations, like jfk did, like fdr did, like reagan did, and to show, as she said in her closing, that regardless of whether you vote for her or not, her responsibility is to be the president for everyone. and to lift everyone and to actually make those words stronger together means something to people. >> randi, you think about your friends and your family. of the people you're closest to,

who's someone who supports donald trump and what's your understanding of why they support donald trump? >> so, you know, there are a couple of people i know who support donald trump. and their view is that washington is broken and you need somebody to shake this whole thing up. it's like the people who say, i need to change that house, so i'm just going to burn it all down. it's a level of frustration that suggests that no rationale thinking would pierce it. it's a level of anger that is really connected to a frustration about what has happened in washington. and i think that that's -- it gets rooted to the point that what's scary about this is that when you see donald trump, basically, not distinguishing between fact and fiction and

living in his own reality of life or whatever it is -- >> randi, i -- >> -- basically, supporters believe him. >> i don't want to put words in your mouth, but are you saying that the 40 million or so people who will vote for donald trump are all irrational? >> no, i'm not saying that. i'm saying that there is a sense of loss that -- and -- that is emotionally moving people to feeling like he is going to be the savior. and that's very scary. but it does come underlying it -- i'm actually saying, underlying it is a sense of loss of their lives. so i'm very sympathetic to that. that's what the labor movement has fought for all our life. it's a sense that they -- that people felt like their lives should be better going forward and they're not. >> randi, there's a lot of people on the left in the democratic party, particularly brrnds supporters, who have been

reading some of the things that have come out the wikileaks e-mails that feel like all of their suspicion s about hillary clinton have been borne out by those e-mails. that she's different in private than she is in public, that she's a phony, basically. do you have any sympathy with that view, with the progressive wing of your party that's frustrated with what they've seen in the wikileaks e-mails, in that way? >> there's two things about the wikileaks e-mails and i want to separate them. one is the watergate-type interference in elections this time done by a foreign government. so let's put that aside. but that is a problem in and of itself. i think what you're seeing here is, you know, people are embarrassed. but this is what ends up happening in elections. it's what ends up happening in organizations. there was a really heated debate between bernie and hillary.

and you see a lot of, you know, heated language. even, there was one from many where i called somebody sanctimonious. and in retrospect, you wonder why you would do that. but you see that kind of -- you see that in campaigns. the real issue is, i think, what we did at the plamp. which was after all all of these leaks, post date all of these leaks, and what we try to do together, hillary's people and bernie's paem to create the most progressive platform the dems have ever had. and the accountability is what she said at the convention, which is when she looked at the bernie people and said, look, we did this platform together, we ran, ultimately, together in the last month or so, and let's actually, let's actually implement this. let's actually do this. and i think that a lot of us on the progressive camp or the progressive side are going to

have to try and make sure that we get to rewrite the rules of the economy, which is what most of us are talking about. and what the big difference was between where bernie initially was and where hillary initially was. >> randi weingarten, thank you very much. going to hold a bipartisan strategy session right here, right next. if you're listening to us in washington, d.c., you can listen to this program on the radio every day at bloomberg 99.1 f.m. we'll be right back. i'm not a customer, but i'm calling about that credit scorecard. (to dog)give it. sure! it's free for everyone. oh! well that's nice! and checking your score won't hurt your credit.

oh! (to dog)i'm so proud of you. well thank you. get your free credit scorecard at discover.com. even if you're not a customer. 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.

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you might have heard that last week in new hampshire, i gave a speech. and let me just say that since then, my office is has been flooded with thousands of letters and e-mails from folks all across the country. speaking out for the values of decency and respect that we all hold the dear. men of all backgrounds and walks of life agreeing that decent men do not demean women. and we shouldn't tolerate this behavior from any man, let alone a man who wants to be the president. >> that was first lady michelle obama, criticizing donald trump at a rally for hillary clinton in phoenix, arizona, not that long ago. the first lady was one of several powerhouse democratic surrogates out on the trail today, hammering donald trump. with us from the city of brotherly love, that would be philadelphia, is republican strategist, kim alfono, and here

in our studio is democratic strategist, mike feldman. mike, i want to start with you, one of the things that's been happening since last night, when donald trump made his comment about not necessarily accepting the results of the election, is that people in his camp and people out there in the country have been saying, what's so bad about that? al gore contested the election in 2000, given your closeness to vice president gore and that you were part of that story, explain to us whether they have a point or not? >> they have a point, but it's the wrong point. this has been pretty well litigated today, but, look, 2000 was a disput election, as you both know, florida was under recount by law. i think nobody would doubt that it was good to go through every legal process they could to determine that the will of the voter was actually honored by the process. but, again, when the highest

court in the land weighed in and stopped the recount, al gore -- and there were plenty of people encouraging vice president gore to pursue it further, he not only graciously conceded the election, but he told everybody look, don't trash the court. and there's a fine line here between anarchy, essentially, and a disputed supreme court decision. and it was a good motel and what concerned me about last night were people that were going out and using that example, when, in fact, what mr. trump did last night was the very opposite of that kind of graciousness. >> kim, remind everybody, briefly, where you stand on your party's nominee. are you voting for him? >> um, i'll keep you in suspense. >> okay. very funny. i'll tell you at the time. >> let's say that this program ends and your phone rings and it's steve bannon and kellyanne conway on speaker and they say, trump wants something new to put this behind us. what would you tell them to do?

>> stop trying to be so clever. i think he gets himself in trouble, where he has the meat of people who are supporting him, and people who are disgruntled with washington and the system want to hear and then he takes it too far. i think that happened to him a couple of times in the debate last night. east got good gut instincts about what's going on in the hearts and minds of people who are tired of politics as usual, but then he tries to be too clever and put on a show, instead of just laying that out there. and i think that's just because that's who he is. >> kim, whenou were watching that debate last night, one of the things we discussed in the show is the moment when hillary clinton made a comment about him not paying taxes, and sort of not under his breath, he stnappd at her and called hear nasty woman. i've heard from women all day who read into that, not just snappiness, but a kind of misogyny that upset them. both as a woman and a republican

woman, when you heard that, did you groan? what was your reaction to that comment by there trump? >> actually, a suburban pennsylvania voter. >> right, there you go. >> woman. so, look, i think that -- you know, i don't like the guy. i really don't. i don't want to hang out with him. but i think that people are getting their panties in a bunch a lot over a lot of stuff. he says things in an incendiary way. he shouldn't, but he treated her like on any other guy who might be on the stage with her. if you're a woman in a business like i have been for a long time where there were no women, i would have taken that as a compliment, not that i would want anyone to talk to me that way, but i would haven't gotten so upset over that. and i think that, you know, the bulk of everything that he's been talking about for the last several days, it does turn him into a really big jerk. but, actions, as well, are important. and if you look back over

history, there are some whose actions have been pretty gross, too. >> so hillary clinton calls you after the show and says, mike, everyone around me says things are going really well. i want to interview everyone on the staff and make sure we're doing everything we need to do. who would you talk to, what would you ask him? >> i think they're doing a pretty good. i think she did it last night, but it was overshadowed by these comments that mr. trump made. she's got to start and randi alluded to it earlier, she's got to start laying claim to the outcome this election, which at this point, i think, if the election were tomorrow, people would view as a total repudiation of her opponent and not necessarily a mandate for her. and i think you saw her starting to do that last night. you saw her starting to try to talk to independents, moderate republicans, and others, and try to lay out a vision, and nobody heard very much of it, just because of the outcome of the debate. that's one thing, because they immediate to start thinking about how they're going to govern in addition to how they're going to turn out this vote and win their election. >> i agree with what you said on

the substance, but the debates -- and it's been said often, and it's true. debates do matter, and preparation for debates matter. and i think what this debate showed and what all three debate have shown in totality is a lack of preparation and discipline which is troubling in a potential president of the united states. it's not like mr. trump was going to know there was going to be a question about his comments about a rigged election. everyone was giving him a trail of bread crumbs for that question, yet he still dominated the news the day after by making a comment that was clearly out of the view of his own party. >> michelle obama is down in arizona. we just played that sound. they're trying to win arizona. the polls in texas are pretty close. missouri, there are a lot of places, suddenly, that the clinton campaign is playing. right now, today, if you had to project, you think hillary clinton would win by whattish? >> i don't know. >> is this starting to look like

a landslide, or do you think it's going to be tight? >> it feels like she's going to have a very good night. it depends on turnout, her campaign has been methodically communicating to her viewers. i would guess the trump campaign and the gop has less certainty around who's going to turnout. but what you saw today is an example of what the clinton campaign is going to do. surrogates, principles, let people know -- >> couple, if you're a dispassionate analyst there in pennsylvania, are you starting to feel a landslide or does this still feel like a tight election to you? >> i am loathe the to predict anything in this election, ever. because i was on your show about six months ago and got everything wrong. so first, i'll lead with that caveat. i think that we can't really predict a landslide, though to start, in any election, the -- it's kind of -- it is sort of

rigged, not in the way that elections don't work, but it is rigged -- the electoral college kind of leans democrat to begin with. but i don't think that this is a left/right split anymore. i think this is a top/bottom split. and how that place out on election day will be new and different for all of us to look at. >> all right. kim, you think there's any chance that donald trump can win pennsylvania where he's sitting right now? >> i will, you know, keep you and suspense. >> man, kim's taking a pass on all questions today. so -- but we always love having her here. kim, you're awesome. mike, you're adequate. thank you, both. we'll talk ticket splitting and a little bit more when we come right back. it's not just a car, it's your daily retreat. the es and es hybrid. get up to $5,000 customer cash on select 2016 models. see your lexus dealer.

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as donald trump struggles in some of the key battleground states, republican senate candidates are increasingly on

the hunt for what is now an endangered species in america. the voter called the ticket splitter. those voters are the focus of the latest piece in tour bafa bloomberg politics eight-week series we call battleground 2016. here to talk to us about the latest installment, our colleague, steve yaccino. why do these down-ballot candidates think they can change that and get a lot of ticket splitting and run ahead of donald trump in some of these contested placed? >> it is more common now. about 11% in 2012, 11% of the electorate voted for one party for president, another party for down-ballot. this year's different, partially because of donald trump's unpopularity. partially because he has less of an operation, a ground game operation than past presidential candidates do. and he's more reliant on party operations, party ground games. the problem is is that they have different goals than donald trump does, especially in an election like this, where he's

so unpopular. i talked to a party chairman in arizona, who was for trump, totally supported him, but he said, we're working in the same direction, but we have different goals. my goals are to turn out all republicans and at this point in the race, not all republicans are for donald trump. >> so how are campaigns, in terms of methodology or mechanics, how are they trying to find ticket splitters? >> we tried to recreate this with me and my colleague, sasha issenberg. we took two different sets of data. we took the data that shows a voter's likelihood to be republican or a democrat, their partisanship, and also data, their likelihood to be a trump supporter. and in cases where we had republicans, voters who looked like they were going to be republicans, that number was higher than voters who looked like they were going to be trump supporters. so we said, the difference between those two numbers, those are the vulnerable targets that the clinton campaign might want to target, and we mapped them around a couple of the key swing

states and found that new hampshire, not surprised, an independent streak there, but also indiana and also ohio. and things are so close, any kind of movement could move the needle in that state. >> arizona a huge focus, because you've got a lot of republicans there. we've seen hillary clinton move up, a lot of republicans there who would be mccain voters, but not necessarily be trump voters. >> that's right. >> so how important is it -- in other words, does jm neohn mcca need clinton voters to get re-elected? >> no, clinton needs john mccain voter ifs she wants to win that state. the clinton campaign has been clear they're making a play there. there are two senators, john mccain and jeff flake have been anti-trump. the chairman of their party has been one of the most vocal trump supporters in the last few days. and so if you're republican in that state, it's not clear what you're supposed to do on election day.

>> and the governor is a big supporter of trump, too. maricopa county, a very key county, you looked at that. what'd you find? >> most of the voters in the state are from maricopa county, about 65%. >> around phoenix. >> yeah, so it's key to any sort of turnout in the state. but we found a huge percentage of these ticket splitters were there. and a lot of them, we found, were mormon, which is one group. we also found a lot of them follow the same sort of trends that trump has had problems with. women, high-education voters, young people, things like that. >> so, steve yaccino, thank you very much, and we'll be right back. ♪ ♪

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so we'll each have a new podcast up with david axelrod. we talk about politics, but also the cubs and dodgers now split. who you got? >> cubs. >> cubs must win.

>> he's a cubs man. i'm from l.a., and i'm actually sort of rooting for the cubs. we have new from our bloomberg national politics poll also on the website, bloombergpolitics.com. until tomorrow, for me and mark, we say to you, we're glad we're out of vegas and we say sayonara. >> coming up, "hardball" with chris matthews. no honeymoon in vegas. let's play "hardball." good evening. i'm chris matthews up in new york city. after the dust settled, it was clear the most stunning moment of last night's debate was donald trump's refusal to say whether he'd respect the outcome of this year's american presidential election. >> do you make the same commitment that you absolutely -- sir, that you will absolutely accept the result of this election? >> i will look at it, at the time. i'm not looking at anything now. i will look at i