r way. like their photo claims tool. it helps settle your claim quickly, which saves time, which saves money. and when they save, you save. that's auto and home insurance for the modern world. esurance, an allstate company. click or call. good morning, everyone. i'm alex witt here in new york at msnbc world headquarters. it is 9:00 a.m. in the east, 6:00 a.m. out west. here is what is happening right now, 16 days to go, hillary clinton stumping with tim kaine in battleground states saying she's focused on the race, not her opponent. >> it is not too late to stage an intervention. friends don't let friends vote for trump. >> while donald trump attacks his accusers while making a big new pitch to voters. >> every woman lied when they came forward to hurt my campaign. >> we're going to do so well

with the women, it's crazy. >> all of that, plus saturday night live's final sendup of the presidential debates. we begin with politics in a jam packed day for democrats. president obama returns to the campaign trail this afternoon with a rally in nevada. this as clinton and her running mate tim kaine travel to the battleground states of north carolina and florida. donald trump is also campaigning in the sunshine state where polls show him in a virtual dead heat with clinton. in between campaign stops in pennsylvania last night, clinton slammed trump for airing out his grievances during a speech built to outline his first 100 days in office. here is what she told reporters. >> we're making our closing argument, we're talking about what is at stake in the election, we're drawing contrast, but we're giving people something to vote for, not just against. and i saw where our opponent

donald trump went to gettysburg, one of the most extraordinary places in american history, and basically said if he's president, he'll spend his time suing women who have made charges against him based on his behavior. >> as for trump, he's now escalating his claims of voter fraud by suggesting an up side to it. here is that he told a rally in cleveland last night. >> there are 2.8 million people that are registered in more than one state, we'll vote here, let's ride down the road and vote -- maybe they'll vote for trump, i don't know. maybe i shouldn't be saying it. i may be hurting myself. you may be right. you're right. maybe they're going to vote for trump. all right, let's forget that. it's okay for them to do it. >> nbc's kristen welker joins

me. we have early voting already under way. what does secretary clinton hope to accomplish with today's visits? >> well, alex, secretary clinton has two stops here in north carolina today where the polls are tight. her goal is running up the score, meanwhile, donald trump trying to pull off a major political comeback. surging in the polls, hillary clinton and tim kaine holding a rare late night rally in the heart of philadelphia saturday. >> there is so much at stake in demonstrating unequivocally that the united states is bigger than donald trump. >> the first time the two have campaigned together since labor day. and holding a joint press appearance on board clinton's campaign plane, where clinton all but dismissed the gop nominee. >> i debated him for four and a half hours. i don't even think about responding to it anymore.

>> on this stump, casting the talk of a rigged system as dangerous. >> make no mistake about this, my friends, he is threatening our democracy. >> the democrats want to win big, surrogates including miley cyrus and katy perry in battleground states, courting millennials. >> really excited for hillary, right? >> trump and running mate mike pence also making a frenzied final push, together in ohio late saturday. >> folks, it is a rigged system. and it is a rigged election, believe me. >> trump started the day at gettysburg, pennsylvania, the site of abraham lincoln's legendary civil war address, laying out policy proposals for his first 100 days. >> first, i'll announce my intention to totally renegotiate nafta. >> but his speech quickly turned to retribution for accusing him of unwanted advances. >> all these liars will be sued

once the election is over. >> on sunday, an 11th accuser came forward, jessica drake. >> donald then asked me, what do you want? how much? >> trump has denied all the allegations which haven't been verified by nbc news. tim kaine pouncing. >> here he is saying that in the first 100 day, i'm not changing, i may be president of the united states, but i'm really going to focus on settling scores. >> clinton and kaine also told reporters they will increasingly be focused on helping democrats in down ballot races. when asked about reports that her transition team is amping up, secretary clinton said she's superstitious and mostly just focused on trying to win the race. >> that said, though, she is -- her campaign, at least, with the help of the dnc, they're funneling money to democrats across the ast, from coast to coast. they really are. >> there is no doubt about that. and you have president obama who

is also increasingly been doing radio and television ads for democrats in down ballot races. and it underscores the fact they're feeling pretty good about secretary clinton's prospects of winning and they want to focus on trying to take back the senate and gaining a lot of ground in the house. >> looking at what it would be like to help govern there. okay. thank you so much. appreciate that. kristen welker. let's bring in hallie jackson in studio here, and covering the trump campaign for us. donald trump boasting about his support from the femafemale vot knight. is he turning a blind eye to the challenges that the campaign is really facing? >> what you're seeing from donald trump is consistent what he's been doing his entire campaign. he struggled with the women vote since going to into the race. remember the very first question in the very first debate to him was about his comments about women. this is not a new problem for him. what is new, of course, are the controversies that come up, these allegations of sexual misconduct against him from the women, allegations that the trump campaign has denied and trump himself said are fabricated as you heard in

kristen's piece there. allegations that nbc news has not verified. this isn't new behavior for donald trump. he and his campaign have consistently looked beyond the numbers and insisting they do have support from women, even though a polling shows us the -- it contradicts that. >> would it be helpful if he switched up the lines he's always using. saying nobody has more respect for women than i do. it got a chuckle. >> you heard some in the audience gasp or ralaugh, if yo will. these lines work with his base. you go and -- women -- you see women there, who support him in a way that is, you know, frankly unconditional for some. and so these lines that he's delivering, yes, we hear them again and again and again, but they're doing exactly what his campaign wants to do. the strategy is not necessarily to broaden the tent, it is to fire up in a big way the

supporters he already has, they turn out november 8th. >> is that what the plan is for today? >> he'll be out 6:00 tonight, see him at a rally, battleground florida, that's where he'll be for much of the week as he focuses on that state. florida, ohio will be so important to him in addition to north carolina. that's where his campaign is focused on for the next 16, 15 days. >> about 16, right? good to have you for the nanosecond you're in studio and not out on the trail. thank you so much. well, let's bring in betsy woodruff and raul reyes. good morning to you. we'll go ladies first here. donald trump, he has already put his base on his side. but you heard hallie talking about this just now, who is he, first of all, talking to when he threatens to sue these accusers? >> he's still talking to his base more than ever. this strategic problem with that is that it is not going to help him flip some of these states that he really neds to win.

he spent much of yesterday in pennsylvania and the focus of his entire messaging approach is getting these folks who go to rallies who already love him really excited. however, you can't win pennsylvania just by exciting working class white voters from the central and southwest parts of the state. about one fifth of pennsylvania voters live in four counties that surround the city of philadelphia. the philadelphiauburbs are key. i talked to the top -- one of the top pollsters, terry madonna, he said that trump is not tailoring his message to court those voters and that's why his poll numbers in pennsylvania are sagging even though for him, it is a state that can change the game. >> raul, with your hat on as an attorney here, what would the charges be that he would bring against these now 11 women that would come forward and what was your reaction when he heard i'm going to sue them after the election? >> well, for him to have to throw away in a sense this opportunity he has, he's giving this potentially very serious

address, he, by my calculation, he used about a third of the time to nurse these basically personal grievances against these women who have come forward. legally, i think going forward what he would probably -- depending what the claims of the various women he could possibly attempt to sue them on, say, defamation of character, some type of slander, but the problem for him here, what you're talking about moving forward with a countersuit against the women, is that would open himself up to having to give depositions in these cases that would open himself up to having to submit to all kinds of discovery for himself and for his businesses, which could potentially lead to him having to release some of his tax information. so if he were to pursue that, which would be unprecedented given his stature as a national -- as a presidential nominee for president, if he were to pursue that, it would be a minefield for him. and the thing that is strange, what we look at the broader picture here, he's spending time in pennsylvania, he has not led in pennsylvania in the polls since july. for hillary clinton, what she's

trying to do basically, and within her grasp, she's going for the holy grail of potentially winning in all of these swing states. she has healthy margins in all of them, except iowa. trump is ahead by two points and tied in ohio and florida. so she's really looking as you mentioned to run up the turn up for the congressional races and just to drive home the fact that she going to win potentially with a mandate for her administration, to govern. >> yeah. so, all right, betsy, considering all the blowback that donald trump has gotten from his own party at this point, 16 days to go, what are the implications of this speech at this point in the election? >> it is interesting because a lot of the point of his quote/unquote gettysburg address was criticizing washington and d.c. culture. and that's sort of a funny approach for him given that republicans have controlled the house for years now. and that there is so much of the way the republican party operates is in tandem and based on close relationships with

major corporate interests in the u.s. the republican party is in many ways the party that is supposed to be business friendly. free market friendly. so when trump went up in gettysburg yesterday, and made the case that we need to drain the swamp, there is a lot of implicit criticism of his own fellow republicans there. that's something that makes people uncomfortable. couple that with with the fact that he spent so much time criticizing paul ryan, so suggesting paul ryan is an essential part of the problem and he's really presenting himself as sort of a candidate in unto himself rather than a team player or the leader of a group of people working together to get things done. of course, the problem is for down ballot republicans is impossible to deny, look at pat toomey in pennsylvania, look at republicans running in states like nevada, even marco rubio in florida is a race he was in a month ago. trump isn't doing favors for other republicans and that's an issue for his party. >> why we can't even gettysburg address in quotes.

let's talk about the president who is out in nevada today, he returns to florida friday. he's going to be stumping there for clinton as he did three days ago. when you think about the president, first lady, the vice president, hitting the ground pretty hard for second clinton, why do you think she doesn't have a much wider lead in these battleground states, specifically ohio and north carolina. >> i think she doesn't have as much of a lead, for example, in ohio, because clinton has really struggled throughout her campaign to connect with the low -- with the lower to middle income white voters and she struggled to connect with certain segments as well in north carolina. i think deploying -- she had joe biden out there. this is a challenge throughout her campaign. i think it is wise for her to focus on -- at a broader level on independents overall, moderates. there is polling to suggest that a number of women plan to vote for hillary clinton, yet maybe

potentially not being very vocal about it within their families because maybe their husbands or other people in their families are supporting trump. so clinton still has the challenge in ohio, but the fact is, she does not need ohio in the way that donald trump does because she is doing well in so many other places. and i think one thing that the clinton campaign is increasingly mindful of is donald trump is pursuing this new message that it is all rigged, that the system -- that somehow the media is a giant conspiracy against him, voters think the election could be stolen, but that figure is 73% among republicans. that's very worrisome when you have a significant segment of the electorate, possibly thinking that our democracy is not fair, or that it is very -- very system is somehow not working. so i think that's worrisome to the clinton campaign and needs to keep the surrogates out there and needs to stay on message. that's one thing donald trump has had trouble doing himself. >> worrisome for so many reasons. betsy and raul, thank you.

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during the speech which was build as a preview of his first 100 days in office, donald trump promised vengeance yesterday against the now 11 women who are accusing him of sexual misconduct. >> every woman lied when they came forward to hurt my campaign. total fabrication. the events never happened. never. all of these liars will be sued after the election is over. >> joining me now is steven

cortez, trump campaign surrogate and member of trump's national hispanic advisory council. good to see you. thank you for joining me. >> good morning. >> we had donald trump delivering this address in gettysburg, places considered hallowed ground given the address there. the tone of trump's speech relative to seeking revenge on his accusers, you think that was the wrong tone to strike in this place? >> i think if you watch the totality of the speech, that's not what the speech was really about. was it part of it, yes, of course. i think unfortunately because the media won't let go of this narrative, he does have to vociferously defend himself. >> because the media won't let go of the narrative or because on this date an 11th woman came forward and it was rather shocking again the tone in this place. he lays out his speech in advance as being the first 100 days in office, and then throws this as if he's throwing red meat to his followers. >> no, you know, i don't think it is throwing red meat. you have unsubstantiated

allegations and there is a lot of those on both sides. if we want to wallow in the gutter, we can talk about the clintons past. i don't think that's relevant. i don't care what happened in arkansas in the 1980s, what hillary and bill did that was inappropriate. i don't care about allegations of new york nightclubs or wherever the 1990s, i do care a ton about 2016 and the state that our country is in and what donald trump did yesterday after he denied those allegations again is he laid out an incredibly detailed plan, 28 point plan for what we'll do first 100 days to retake washington for the people, and to restart the economy for the american worker. i would love for the press to focus half as much on that as they are on hising to sue peopl. what is important is what he going to do for america that 28 point plan, the contract with the american voter, i think that is optimistic forward looking. and incredibly detailed.

>> i'm going to tell you, i was sitting at home, on a couch, i had a note pad and i was taking notes on the points he was making. but then you drop your pen or your jaw depending when he uses the platform to advance the message the vote is going to be rigged. and let's listen to what he said about that. >> there are 1.8 million dead people that are registered right now to vote. and, folks, folks, some of them vote. i wonder why. i wonder how that happened. they woke up from the dead and went and voted. there are 2.8 million people that are registered in more than one state. so we'll vote here. let's ride down the road, let's vote -- maybe they'll vote for trump. i don't know. maybe i shouldn't be saying that. >> look, that was yesterday. that was cleveland. but the same tone was there in

gettysburg as well. so is he saying that his issue with voter fraud applies just to votes for hillary? >> look, we don't want voter fraud in any form. and i think it is most frequent when it does happen. thankfully i don't think it is deciding elections. i don't think it is going to decide this election. i wouldn't be emphasizing quite as much as my candidate is, but to quote my favorite politician of all time, ronald reagan, i think we need to trust but verify. i trust that the results will be on the up and up. i trust that fraud won't sway this election one way or the other. but we have to verify as we always have done in this country. that's why we have poll watchers from both countries, excuse me, from both parties, and that's why we need to be very careful about our voting systems. for instance, some voting systems we know have been hacked right now. that is a potential danger out there that we need to be wary of on election day. but, again, trust but verify. i trust the election result, i trust it will come in her favor, but even if it doesn't, that it will be clear and there will be a mandate from the people and there is no chicanery which

pushed it one way or the other. but we need to verify. >> you said virtually the same thing on friday when you were here on msnbc. why is there a disconnect between his message about vote rigging and those of the surrogates like yourself, who insist that these concerns are not necessarily about polling place rigging. he's the one who is telling his followers and supporters, get out there, watch what happens at the polling places, make sure it is up and up. >> sure. listen, of course we should be watching, just as the other side, the clinton campaign, democrats should be watching. most of the time when there is cheating, it does happen, we can't put our heads in the sand, most of the time when cheating happens, in polling areas controlled by one party, democrat or republican. so those are probably the places to pay most attention to. but in terms of -- >> you know -- >> look -- he's often brought up to criticize us, he had no role in our campaign for a very long time. he did, i think, over a year ago, now, he's a trump supporter to be sure, but no official role

at all in our campaign. sometimes he says things that do us some harm. but to answer your question, regarding those surrogates and mr. trump, i am not the candidate. i wouldn't be emphasizing this as much as he is, but i do understand that we have to be vigilant. >> okay. let's look at battleground states on the map. we suggest that trump could be on track to receive less electoral votes than mitt rmny d did. would you advise to donald trump, be careful making statements because they could be used to describe him if he loses. >> he could. we're going to fight hard for the next two weeks. when it comes to polls too, i think the press has been a bit unfair in general to our campaign. because there are polls all over the place. we can find credible polls where we're leading, credible polls where we are down digit nationally.

this is going to be a horse race. it is going to be very close. i think a lot of folks on the other side are already -- it is football season, i think they're dancing in the end zone and they should be careful about that. because i believe that we're getting into the red zone and we're going to score. i think all of these states, ohio, florida, nevada, pennsylvania, i believe all of them are going to be incredibly close and we need to fight hard in the next two weeks, that's why i'm very proud of my candidate of donald trump for putting forth such a substantive and forward looking and optimistic plan for how we revitalize america because the status quo is not okay, the economy is crawling and terror is on the march, we need to reverse both of those trends. >> steven cortez, let's try to get you back next sunday as well. thank you so much. happening now in iraq, the fight for mosul, the push by coalition forces right now on the dangerous civilian face inside. hey, it's the phillips' lady!

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this week donald trump and hillary clinton squared off for last time on the debate stage, meaning it was the last time for the "snl" gang as well. alec baldwin and kate mackinnon were joined by tom hanks. >> welcome to the third and final presidential debate. tonight is going to be a lot like the third lord of the rings movie. you don't really want to watch, but, hey, you've come this far. >> people are just pouring into this country from mexico and a lot of them a very, bad hombres. >> bingo, bingo. i got bingo. sorry, sorry, i've been playing all year and i got it. i have bad hombres, rapists, miss piggy, they're all living in hell and if she wasn't my daughter -- >> political strategy, the states tonld trump must win to

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aleve, live whole not part. painter: you want this color over the whole house? welcome back. i'm alex witt in new york. at 53 past -- 33 past the hour, here is what we're monitoring for you. the bat until mosul under way. ash carter arrived in the northern iraqi city of erbil today to get an update on how the fight is going. to matt bradley, also there monitoring the situation for us. matt, good day to you. what are you hearing about the defense secretary's visit and the state of the current fighting? >> thanks, alex. what we're hearing now is that secretary carter is meeting with the troops, he's had lunch with them today, he's doing the rounds, and he's trying to reassure them after the death of a u.s. serviceman just a couple of days ago that this is indeed a battle worth fighting. that this is a solemn moment and a historic battle and they're really fighting got fight in

trying to retake mosul. we're hearing about the battle itself and just today, we're hearing that peshmerga and troops from the iraqi military have moved into bashika, a town north of mosul. this is a continuation of the shaping operations going on since the battle began early last week. and really since the shaping operations for the battle began weeks and weeks ago, earlier this month. so really what we're talking about is a major movement around. we're talking about to the north and some of the christian villages to the east and some operations to the south are moving in and creating a siege around mosul, which, again, is the second largest city in this country. now, secretary of defense ash carter's business here is in the just about reassuring the troops. it is also about making sure that all of these different pieces that i just described are going to be working. he has a very, very difficult, very tense job in negotiating among all the different ethnic and religious minority groups

who are representing the different constituent parts of this battle. and that's the real issue here. he's trying to reassure american troops after the death of this serviceman, but also playing the political and diplomatic game of making sure that everybody in this battle is getting along. alex? >> okay, iraqi military leaders going -- saying the push for mosul is going as expected. that's good news as well. thank you, matt, for that. to a new poll, out just minutes ago showing hillary clinton taking a commanding lead with just 16 days to go now. clinton leads donald trump by 12 points in today's abc news washington post poll. numbers 50 to 38%, an eight-point surge in less than a month. most of that polling coming after wednesday's debate. aside from that poll, the latest real clear politics average of national polls gives clinton a lead of more than 5 points. joining us now is patrick murray, director of the polling institute at monmouth university in new jersey. nice to see you, patrick. thank you for joining me. >> my pleasure. >> your reaction to the big

increase in today's poll. how do you read it? >> particularly since just a week ago, the abc washington post poll had a four-point lead. it grew by eight points. i think one thing i was looking at about the polling in this poll and other polls, my own poll had a 12-point lead last week, is that they're moving in that -- seemed to be moving in that direction. but there is still a very wide gap. right now, all the polls that are going into the averages range from trump 2-point lead to a lead we saw today, so it is a 14-point gap. when i looked back four years ago, eight years ago, eight years ago, there was also about a seven-point average in the end between obama and mccain, the range there was only about six or seven points. just four years ago, the range in the polls at the very end was about four to five points. so we're looking at a much bigger range. we're looking at a lot more volatility in the polling. and the question is, is it because of different likely voter models, different

assumptions or are voters really all over the place from day to day? we don't know that right now. >> yeah, and that trump up too, that's the atlanta journal constitution poll you talk about, which has him in the lead by the most at that -- with that poll versus the other ones. how do you rate overall trump's standing in the national polling, given all this controversy dogging him. >> well, again, i think we have to go back to the average. the average right now is about seven points. clinton lead. and so that suggests that everything that we're seeing in the polls is that what he said about the -- the women coming out, after the tape that said he did these things and the women saying, yeah, he did it to me, really has seemed to undermine that support. what we have seen in the past couple of weeks is a swing in support in key groups. some groups haven't changed at all. he hasn't actually picked up more support among women with a college degree, for example, white women with a college degree. hillary clinton was leading with

that group. might have ticked up a couple more points, but already leading. more solidified it. the groups that actually have been starting to swing are groups that have in the past voted democratic, like latino voters, african-american voters, young millennial males, for example, and they start -- are starting to swing into clinton's camp right now. >> okay. battleground states, look at a couple of those key ones. i want your thoughts. let's talk about ohio. the suffolk university poll taken and the quinnipiac poll within the last couple of weeks, both showing clinton and trump virtually tied there. others show them very close. so what is your take on where that race will go and how decisive ohio will be when all is said and done. >> right now doesn't look like ohio will be decisive. you had other guests on this morning who basically said the same thing. what is odd about this race is that we would have said, if we're looking at close races and places like georgia and indiana and even texas and utah, then

ohio would obviously be an easy win for hillary clinton or whoever the democrat was. we're not seeing that. we're seeing a very odd map, a map that doesn't correspond to anything we have seen in the past. ohio is a special case. there are a lot of white working class voters there, who just simply have -- are unhappy with hillary clinton, don't like her, and donald trump as the alternate. what we know about ohio looking back four years ago, when all the polls were clustered around one area, is that barack obama outperformed the polls by getting unlikely voters to show up and since ohio has early voting, it is easier to do that, you got many days to get these people out to the polls. so i'm thinking that the polls are right in showing that right now based who is laikely to vot, it is a close race. i think that ground game is n being calculated into the polls. very difficult to do that. so it is close, but i would give a slight edge to clinton because

of that field operation. >> okay. patrick, always good to see you. i'm sure we'll see you again the next 16 days. thank you much. >> my pleasure. the future of the republican party who republicans think of first when they imagine their party and it is not donald trump. and coming up at the top of the hour on a.m. joy, the future plans, what the billionaire might do in the news world if he loses next month. that and more with joy reid. hing tough choices. jim! you're in! but when you have high blood pressure and need cold medicine that works fast, the choice is simple. coricidin hbp is the only brand that gives powerful cold symptom relief without raising your blood pressure. coricidin hbp.

new reaction from trump campaign manager kellyanne conway about at approach donald trump took in gettysburg yesterday. he rammed ramped up accusationt the media. here is what conway said moments ago. >> did you know he was going to start with this list of grievances that might undercut the message? >> well, he delivers his own speeches. this is his candidacy. he's the guy who is running for the white house and he has the

privilege to say what he wants. at the same time, i will tell you having worked on the messaging in and around the actual contact with america, 20 some years ago, there was plenty of talk then about how we as republicans could not get a fair shake from the media. >> as they focus their efforts on battleground state s -- >> look at our schedules for the next 17 days, you'll know we're not taking anything for granted. it has been a season of surprises. we like what we see now. we like the early voting activity and the absentee ballot requests coming in in other states. we're not taking anything for granted. >> there is a special opportunity that popped up late in arizona, where donald trump's divisive rhetoric about latinos, his shameful remark about senator john mccain and p.o.w.s has put that state into play. it is possible to win it. but it is going to be razor thin there, tough, uphill climb and we have got to stay focused on

the other states. >> joining me now, msnbc political analyst jonathan altar, daily beast columnist and in washington, jennifer rubin, opinion writer for "the washington post." jonathan, this is my show. i'm an la.a. dodger fan. >> i'll take the cap off in one second, alex. but i grew up a few blocks from wrigley field and i've been waiting for more than 50 years, praying for this. i spent my childhood at wrigley field. >> okay, i'm happy for you. >> you have to give me this. >> i'll give you that, just because i like you so much as a friend as well. during donald trump's so-called closing arguments, he ran through this list of top priorities. less's take a listen to that. >> a constitutional amendment to impose term limits on all members of congress. the hiring freeze on all federal employees to reduce federal

workforce through attrition. to totally renegotiate nafta. we will begin removing the more than 2 million criminal illegal immigrants from the country. >> okay. there was that, jonathan. after that, the straight talk, you know, trump delves into attacks on clinton, the attacks of the woman accusing him of sexual misconduct, calling them liars. do you think the original message got lost or he gained some ground yesterday? totally lost. kellyanne conway admitted all the work they did with this new contract with america was all for nothing because he went off script. what we're forgetting here, alex, with all of the talk about, you know, which i contributed to a lot of trump being a menace to our country, we have forgotten he's a bad candidate. doesn't have good candidate skills. his lack of discipline, his unwillingness to ever, ever just concede the point and move on is really hampering his campaign.

and why this could turn into a landslide. >> and, jennifer, i know you panned trump's performance thursday night, alfred e. smith dinner, trump booed by the high society crowd there. he went to an all out attack against hillary clinton who went right there next to him. you wrote that trump got booed at the al smith dinner. like a kid getting booed in a school play. trump on thursday didn't or couldn't control himself and apparently couldn't find anyone willing to write good joke for h him. his base seems to love him as an outsider. they have proven to love the attacks. doesn't even matter if the high society crowd in new york boos him. >> the problem is the base isn't big enough to win the election, isn't big enough to make it close. by the way, alex, i'm a dodger fan too. >> yes. i'll give you more time. i'm just kidding. >> we won. >> that's a good thing. we would need more time in the

game too. donald trump has made a starve himself catering to a very select strip of americans. your previous guests were talking about women, latinos, just about everybody else in america except for less educated, lower and middle class white males. you can't win an election in america with a demographic like that. and i think jonathan's right. not only does he not have candidate skills, but he is emotionally, i think, royaled by this. he's going to lose and he knows he's going to lose to a girl of all people and he's all fit for vengeance, for, you know, attacks on these women who have come forward, this is a guy who is ready for president of the united states and first thing about being elected would be that he would use the opportunity to go after these women, to sue the media. it is a little pathetic, actually, as we wind down. >> you know, jonathan, in the wake of the widening lead, hillary clinton seems to be shifting some of her focus, lending a hand to democrats

running for senate. let's listen to what she said yesterday in pennsylvania. >> pat toomey heard donald attack a grieving gold star family who lost their son in iraq. he heard donald call mexican immigrants rapists. he heard him say terrible things about women. if he doesn't have the courage to stand up to donald trump after all this, then can you be sure he'll stand up for you when it counts against powerful interests? >> is she no longer look for a win, jonathan? >> she's going to need as many democratic senators as she can get, and they have got the republican candidates now and to use a baseball metaphor, trap pd between first and second,

they're trapped. they don't know which way to go, the republicans. that's a bad position for a base runner and it is a really bad position for somebody who is on the ballot. so the democrats are going for the burn now. they're really hoping that they can convert this antipathy toward trump to more wins down ballot. a lot of times presidential candidates have ignored the down ballot candidates because they're so interested in just saving their own skin, getting elected themselves. this time might be different. she does have a couple of weeks to try to pull some others over the finish line. >> do you think conversely to what jonathan is saying is a rsky sategy for senate hopefuls in those states to bring trump into their argument? >> i don't think anybody on the republican side is actively courting trump support. it is an interesting thing.

in some sense trump helping these folks because he's so awful, no one thinks that kelly ayotte is donald trump. so far running so far above the ticket. the question is does the gap welcome so wide that it becomes ask a candidate in a blue or purple state if you're a republican to run 10, 15 points above the top of the ticket. that's a very tall order, but the ones who have been successful so far, portman, marco rubio, have been able to carve out a separate identity and play it local. it's the tip o'neill adage, all politics is local. talked about opiate abuse and zika virus for marco rubio, trying to differentiate themselves simply on the issues. the question is do people really buy that pat toomey is donald trump? do they really buy that he doesn't have their interests at heart simply because he won't tell this guy off definitively.

pat toomey has not endorsed donald trump. it's a harder stretch for her to make. she's also been doing something that's interesting that's in her self-interest and that is saying to republicans i know you don't favor donald trump. come with me. i get it. you're disappointed in your own party. she has a fleet of republican supporters so that muddies the waters with supporters >> real quick because we want to get to chicago. >> if you're marco rubio and believe that donald trump is a con man to say we should put a con man in charge of our constitution and country, knowingly do that, that's putting party ahead of the country. it's not patriotic and that's going to be a problem. >> that's exactly what president obama was calling him out on earlier this week in florida. jonathan, stay tune. because we're about to show you your neighborhood. there it is, wrigley field. ron mott has a report from there, because there's a lot to talk about from chicago next.

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left side. out. out! the cubs have won the pennant. >> first pennant victory since 1945. a look at what it's like there in chicago this morning. >> well, chicago is still partying, as you can imagine, alex. the party went all night long. we've been serenaded by car horns throughout the morning. take a look at the marquee. people streaming in front of wrigley all morning long to get their keep sake because it may not be there for a long time after waiting for those three words to come back up on the board, national league champions. the cubs are going to cleveland, another city hungry for a world series championship. the indians have not brought home a championship since 1948. of course, the cubs last won the world series in 1908. this just in. here's the front page of "the

trib." one for the angst. let's sent it back to you, alex. >> exciting times there. i think they have the nation behind them to be perfectly honest. thanks very much. ron mott. i'm alex witt. coming up on "a.m. joy." the impacts "saturday night live" has had on this election cycle.

they woke up from the dead and they went and voted. there are 2.8 million people that are registered in more than one state, so we'll vote here and let's right down the road let's vote. maybe they will vote for trump, i don't know. maybe i should be saying it. i may be hurting myself, you're right. you're right. maybe they are going to vote for trump. all right. let's forget that. it's okay for them to do it. >> vote early and vote often as long as you're voting for