new patented ensure enlive has hmb plus 20 grams of protein to help rebuild muscle. for the strength and energy to do what you love. new ensure enlive. always be you. this sunda this sunday, the end game.y, does donald trump go scorched earth -- >> all of these lies will be sued after the election is over. >> or does he try to win or simply end his campaign with dignity. >> i'm asking the american people to rise above the noise and the clutter of our broken politics. >> our guest, tim kaine and trump campaign manager kellyanne conway. plus, going big. >> i have spent 4 1/2 hours on stage with donald, proving once again i have the stamina to be president and commander in chief. >> does hillary clinton try to

run up the score to shut down any talk of a rigged election? and clinton hopes to turn a white house win into a big night for democrats down the ballot. >> she's running against someone who refuses to stand up to donald trump. >> joining me for insight and analysis are tom friedman of "the new york times." iliana johnson of the national review. republican strategist stuart stevens and yamiche alcindor of "the new york times." welcome to sunday. it's "meet the press." >> from nbc news in washington, this is "meet the press" with chuck todd. >> good sunday morning. while it's too early to declare this election over, remember my colleague tom brokaw's ufo theory, the unforeseen will occur, it's trending in hillary clinton's direction. what's in store for the next 2 1/2 weeks though, does hillary clinton play it safe and try to lock down 270 electoral votes or does she go for a big win, a landslide? does she try to quell the talk

of a rigged election by pushing hard into red states like utah, georgia and arizona, sensing an opportunity since the last time the clinton was on the ballot. how about donald trump, his tone and his words have been more reserved in the last few days. does he try to win or lose with grace? does he try to save down ballot republicans or does he even care? >> if i lose, if i lose -- >> donald trump is delivering his closing argument, outlining plans for his first 100 days in office. while acknowledging he may never make it to the white house. >> you know, these guys have said, doesn't matter if you win or lose, there's never been a moment like this in the history of the country. it matters to me if we win or lose. >> with the senate an even the house in the balance, republicans are bracing themselves for the scorched earth campaign trump may run over the next 16 days. scrambling to protect vulnerable seats in any way they can.

>> i'll keep you in suspense. >> trump's unprecedented threat that he may not accept election results sent the party into a tailspin. republicans rushed to condemn trump. >> i don't believe in -- that there's a rigged election system. >> senator john mccain said in a statement, in every previous election, the loser congratulates the winner and calls them my president. that's not just the republican way or the democratic way. it's the american way. in a new nbc news surveymonkey online poll shows that 45% of republicans may not accept the results of the election if trump loses. >> the integrity of the electoral process is at risk. >> i think it's already rigged to be perfectly honest. >> red states from arizona to georgia even utah are now in play. the rnc is focusing trump where he can do the least harm, pushing him to schedule campaign appearances in traditional battleground states with competitive senate races even if

trump himself may not win that state. because getting out trump voters still matters. >> we are going to win the state of wisconsin. >> but the debate about the actions is now the main issue in competitive races across the country. >> pat toomey and donald trump, they're just wrong for the women of pennsylvania. >> kelly ayotte stood by him. >> taking a post as a top adviser to donald trump. >> and on saturday, an 11th woman came forward to accuse trump of sexual misconduct. >> the events never happened. never. all of these liars will be sued after the election is over. >> republicans in tough races are trying everything from complete disavowal. >> no matter who the next president is, new hampshire needs a strong voice in the u.s. senate. that senator, kelly ayotte. >> one hillary in washington would be bad enough. reject jason candor. >> to halfhearted acceptance. >> i'm nominated as a change agent. i'm a change agent.

>> and somewhere in between. >> i'm still in the same mode i was monday night which is feeling stuck. >> joining me now is the democratic nominee for vice president, senator tim kaine of virginia. senator, welcome back to "meet the press." >> chuck, good to be with you. thanks. >> let me start with whether you believe this race is over. your running mate, secretary clinton, said yesterday she's done responding to donald trump on anything and then added as we're traveling in these last 17 days we'll be emphasizing the importance of electing democrats down the ballot. do you believe this election is in the bag already? >> no, neither hillary and i do. if you look at the schedules for the next 17 days, you'll know we're not taking anything for granted. it's 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, but we're not taking anything for granted. we'll do everything we can before the polls close on the evening of november 8th. >> i want to go to the hacked e-mails, wikileaks. i know you guys have a blanket statement here. you don't want to respond to

them because you don't believe that they have all been confirmed but there has been out of 25,000 some e-mails released i think there's only been a dispute about two or three. why shouldn't the public look at these wikileaks e-mails and have it be something that informs them about secretary clinton? >> well, you know, chuck, again, these are connected to a russian government propaganda effort to destabilize the election, to affect the outcome of the election. >> does that change what -- but does that change what's in the e-mails? >> the motive for them is very, very important for americans to understand. this is near historic. and then the one that referred to me was flat-out completely incorrect. so i don't know whether it was doctored or whether the person sending it didn't know what they were talking about. but clearly, i think there's a capacity for much of the information in them to be wrong. >> as you know, i want to bring audiotape "politico" story, the

headline is wikileaks poisons hillary's relationship with the left. we were already kind of suspicious of where her instincts were, but now we see she is who we thought she was, said one operative. the honeymoon is going to be tight and small and maybe nonexistent. is it fair for progressives to look at these e-mails and have some doubts about secretary clinton's electioneering switches? >> i don't think so, chuck. i think folks should look at this as a historic election if we win. america, you know, moving one step closer to our equality ideal. making history, which is what we do when we do our best work, and that suld be cause for excitement. look, we all have to come together, democrats, republicans and independents, because the nation has serious challenges that we have to tackle together. i was with hillary at two great rallies today. she laid it on in terms of her own views. but she said at the end of the day, if i am president, i have to be president for everybody and we've got to reach out to everybody to craft an agenda

that will work in all parts of this country. >> you know, it's interesting that you bring that up. i've heard her say that. she's also described half of trump's supporters as deplorable. she's also criticizing, for instance, pat toomey yesterday for supporting donald trump. does that mean -- she wants to pledge to be president of all the people, but are you going to be able to work with republicans who supported trump or when you campaign against republicans who support donald trump, does that mean you don't want to work with them once they come to washington? >> i think the best evidence of that, chuck, is both of our track records. hillary had a super track record working across the aisle. she had that record as first lady. i'm struck as a senator from virginia how many of my republican colleagues talk up their respect for hillary and i know that that's the way she'll approach governing. of course we stand with our teams during an election season. after election day, the public expects us to reach across the

aisle. that's what i have done in virginia and that's hillary's track record too. >> let me go back to wikileaks and one on tpp. this one was allegedly from ron clang and it was about the tpp flip-flop. he says this, she has to be for it. she called it the gold standard of trade agreements. i think opposing that would be a huge flip flop. she can say that as president she would work to change it. she can say it can be better, but i think she should support it. why shouldn't her new position on tpp be referred to as a flip-flop? why isn't it a standard definition of flip flop? >> well, look, i mean, i'll use my own example. i voted to give the president the fasttrack ability to negotiate the best trade deal possible. but at the time i cast that vote in 2015, i said, look, i have a couple of concerns and you've got to address these concerns because i'm not guaranteeing i will vote for it on the merit. the concerns weren't addressed. my concerns were largely around enforcement issues. hillary had the same view, there were a number of things she

liked and other things she didn't. as was the case when she was a senator. remember, hillary voted for some trade deals and voted against others. if they didn't meet her standard of raising the number of jobs, raising wages, and focusing on the enforcement and national security angles, she'd vote against them. and her conclusion about the tpp which is required to be voted on up or down, no amendments, as it falls short of her standards. >> was it a requirement before you joined the ticket you come out against tpp? >> no. >> it wasn't at all? you didn't come out as forcefully until after you joined the ticket. >> well, it was because look, we're months away from a vote. i'll tell you where i was, i was in the middle of meeting with various groups about the final product. but i had put on the record in 2015 deep concerns that i had, especially about the enforcement provisions. those concerns were not addressed. you know, i tell you, trade deals if they are good enough

can be okay. but if you embrace a trade deal that's bad, you deepen people's skepticism about trade in general. it's better to wait and try to find deals that meet your standards and not embrace deals that are substandard. >> after the election, president obama's going to be traveling overseas, probably talking up the idea of tpp and an asian trade agreement. if you guys are elected, will you pursue an asian trade agreement even if it's not the tpp? >> hillary and i haven't talked about that question directly, chuck. but look, we aren't against trade. we want to find export markets for american businesses because they'll be able to add workers the more they export. that's very important. and whether it's in asia or in europe, if we can find deals that meet those goals more jobs, higher wages and good for national security, and good enforcement provisions, we're open to them.

so no, you never close the door, if you can get a deal that's going to be good for american workers and our economy. >> so she could pursue a version of tpp? >> again, we haven't talked about that in particular. we are not sure what the process going to be for whether the tpp will be brought up for a vote. we don't know what mitch mcconnell and paul ryan will do. if i'm in the senate i'll vote against it. we have to wait and see what they'll do. again, hillary has laid out the standard. a deal has to be three pillars. if it doesn't meet three pillars we can't support it and tpp doesn't. >> do you think it will be appropriate or inappropriate for you as vice president elect to serve in the lame duck senate? >> well, it's pretty common to serve at least during part of it. one of issues that would be practical -- again, we're not getting ahead of our selves. i'm not assuming i'm going to win. but if i do, then the governor of virginia would have to make a decision about who to appoint to replace me and that decision isn't necessarily automatic. so rather than leave a gap,

where virginia would have only one senator, i would want to serve until a replacement is named. >> i'm curious as if as a catholic you were offended by one of the wikileaks that came out. an e-mail exchange that included the campaign spokesperson jennifer palmieri. one person wrote referring to rupert murdoch, for instance, that they are both catholic. they are attracted to the faith because of the systematic thought and severely backward gender relations. palmieri said i think they think it's the most politically conservative religion. their rich friends wouldn't understand if they became evangelicals. did that bother you as a catholic, senator? >> you know, first, again, i don't know if those folks wrote those e-mails or not. i can't comment on -- >> but a lot of catholic americans have heard that, and some are offended by it. what do you say to them? >> here's what i say to them. hillary clinton's feeling about faith and about catholicism in

particular is most demonstrated by the fact that she asked me to be her running mate. she described one of the reasons that she felt a connection with me was because of the my own faith background, my missionary service in honduras and my jesuit education which she felt was a close match with her methodist upbringing. that's the most direct evidence about what hillary thinks about catholics. >> one final question here. last week, i asked vice president biden why -- why the obama administration wasn't implementing a no fly zone over aleppo. i know secretary clinton endorsed the idea of a no-fly zone over syria. here is what the vice president said to me and i want to ask you about it on the other side. >> first things first, we must defeat isil. dod told us from the beginning, the assets we need to be able to do that would be to be diverted. we could not do both. >> the obama administration says

both can't be done. secretary clinton believes they can. why do you think the obama administration is wrong? >> well, look, the -- i'm a strong supporter of the president. strong supporter of the president, but since february of 2014, i have suggested that the united states and other nations should help implement the u.n. security council resolution passed during that month to allow for the cross border delivery of humanitarian aid into safe spaces in northern syria. i don't think it would be easy or automatic. in that sense, i agree with vice president biden. back then i felt like if we didn't do it, we would see what we have, in fact, seen, which is is a mass exodus of refugees from syria that are dangerous to the refugees themselves and destabilize other countries. my concern if we don't do that, we'll continue the see the exodus that will cause a security concern. >> very quickly, i meant to ask you this. there's a report over the weekend at&t is going to buy time-warner. already some democrats including al franken skeptical of the merger, including donald trump

as well. he said i'm skeptical of huge media mergers because they can lead to higher costs and worse service for consumers. are you a skeptic of the merger as well? >> i share those concerns and questions. we have to get to the bottom of them. generally pro competition and less concentration i think is generally helpful. especially in the media. but this is just has been announced. i haven't had a chance to dig into the details. but those are the kinds of questions that we need to be asking. >> senator tim kaine democrat. thanks for comg . >> you bet. when we come back, we'll hear from the other side. trump campaign manager kellyanne conway joins us. i'll ask her some of the poll numbers that just came out. as we go to break, a light moment here with "snl's" take on the election last night. >> in the first debate, i set the table. in the second debate i fired up the grill. and tonight, i feast. these goofy glasses.

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welcome back. just out this morning, abc tracking poll. tough news for donald trump. the poll has hillary clinton up by double digit, 12 points, 50-38, four-way race. this is according to them likely voters. last week, by the way, abc's poll had clinton up by just four.

joining me is the campaign manager for trump, kellyanne conway. welcome back to the show. >> hi, chuck. >> let me ask you, most of polls have shown a large lead for secretary clinton. there are a couple that have different methodology that have shown a tighter race. where do you see this race right now? do you acknowledge that you're behind? >> we are behind. she has some advantages like $66 million in ad buys just in the month of september. thereby doubling her ad buys from august. most are negative against donald trump. classic politics of personal destruction, cesspool kind of ads. she has a former president campaigning for her, her husband, and she's -- she's seen as the incumbent. our advantage going in, we were behind one, three, four points in some of the swing states that mitt romney lost to president obama. our advantage is that donald trump is going to continue to take the case directly to the people. he doesn't expect to cut through the noise or the silence. and the way we're treated by

some. and so he's taking the case, he's going to visit all of the swing states many times as his running mate governor pence. we feel with hillary clinton under 50% in some of these places even though she's run a very traditional and expensive campaign, we have a shot of getting undecide voters who says i don't want to vote for hillary clinton, and we need to bring them aboard over the next couple of weeks. >> yesterday it made a lot of sense that you guys had a reset speech. donald trump going to gettysburg to -- he quoted lincoln at the top. talk about healing divisions but before he got to the first 100 day agenda items it was as substantive as a speech as he's given, he talked about threatening to sue all of the accusers who have come out a littling sexual misconduct. is that a way to reset the last 16 days of this campaign? >> it's a way to defend himself and remind everybody what he has said many times which is none of this is true. they're fabrications, all lies. he dispensed with that in a sentence or two. but he talked about the rigged,

corrupt system. it did, unfortunately, include some in the media, not most, not all. 96% of the donations went to hillary clinton by working journalists. 96%. there's no arguing -- >> there was no political journalists in there. i get where you're going with that, but that includes people who cover sports or entertainment. i mean, i'm just saying. let's give it some nuance here. >> okay, let's give it nuance. we'll get it down a couple points from 96%. there's no nuance, chuck. you have a print reporter from a major outlet saying, hey, i'm just a hack, john podesta, so do -- here, hillary clinton campaign chairman, do you like what i'm saying in my article? here's some editorial latitude if you want to change anything. this should not be. so when he talks about the rigged, corrupt system, remember, he's standing up for the forgotten man and the forgotten woman. thiss not about him. this is about the people. this is about folks who are

white knuckled at the end of each month trying to pay bills. this is about people pressing their notices against the glass of rigged system and can't get in. they're watching everybody else benefit. he speaking for them. he has legitimacy because he was once an insider. he said that yesterday. >> i understand that. he instead focused on himself. he instead talked about the allegations and he instead brought it up. i mean, this is campaign -- >> it was a small piece of a 42-minute speech. a small piece. >> threatening a lawsuit though to all of the women. let me ask you this. if they're all -- why not sue them now? why wait till after the election? >> because we're busy winning the presidency. we're little bit busy over here doing that. and he's i think putting people on notice that they just -- they can't just falsely accuse him. he's said none of this has happened. they're all fabrications and lies. then he went on to give i thought a really muscular, robust, very substantive outline of what he would do. i worked on the first contract with america and this reminded me of that, chuck, in that there

are specific solutions. he said hold us act. there's no actability in washington. drain the swamp. >> given the various tweets, maybe subtle tweets you have done this week when people have said, hey, somebody shouted i wish he would focus on message more. or boy, bad hombres, that's a trump being trump answer, not a conwayesque answer. you responded with a wink and a nod. then i want to get you to react to something a trump supporter said to mike pens yesterday. take a listen. >> please tell donald trump to stick to the issues and he'll beat hillary. i'm tired of the crap. >> good luck. >> that voter, he said, dell trump this is what -- tell trump to stick to the issues. if he does, he can win. do you wish he wouldn't have brought up the lawsuit threat yesterday? >> i think donald trump is at his best when he sticks to the issues. it's how he started, how he propelled his campaign and how he'll pete hillary clinton.

it's what's propelled his candidacy. but the issue sets benefits the pence -- the trump/pence ticket in this way. people believe that radical islamic terrorism has not been defeated. they think that obamacare is a bad deal for many americans and everyday affordability is elusive to them and bringing back manufacturing the jobs, that's the issue set, building the wall and securing the border that propelled donald trump. when he talks about it like he did yesterday in gettysburg, he's at his finest. just on those tweets, i have a sense of humor that some are lacking. earlier in the debate, as does my client here, donald trump, said that's all good. we're having a great time here. on the bob costa, bad hombre, i only retweeted for a simple reason, i was gleeful and a bit emotional, which is not really my style, on just hearing at last a republican presidential candidate before tens of millions of people giving the best messaging the best impassioned defense of life, the

sanctity of life i've her and it took a manhattan billionaire. and he talked about being pro-life and he took the case to hillary clinton. you're the one who's a extreme, abortion, any time, anywhere. rip the baby out of the womb. been working on that for decades, it took donald trump to do it. >> let me ask you this final question here. the election rigging criticism, voter fraud fears and this and that. donald trump appears to have walked it back a bit. you walk it back a lot. everybody that works for donald trump has walked it back a lot. but our new nbc surveymonkey poll showed nearly half of trump supporters will believe the election is rigged if he doesn't win. do you accept some responsibility or does the campaign accept some responsibility for that number being so high with so little evidence to prove it? >> no. people already think that the entire system is rigged against them and they're right. meaning the corrupt, rigged system. the elections every four years are just part of that to them. they feel like they can't get a fair shake. it's the essence of the

candidacy, chuck. >> but do you believe the elections are rigged in this country? >> i believe -- well, i don't like a lot of the information, the objective information about the dead people on the rolls -- >> all of that has been debunked. people die -- 2.5 million people die every year on the voter rolls so it takes time to get dead people off the voter rolls. >> it takes our government an awful lot of time to do most things competently. that's part of the problem here. he's talking about the entire corrupt system. but when it comes to the ed elections, i think if you went through every single hypothetical possible with my colleague robby mook or his client, hillary clinton, they would walk back we're going to accept the election results. if you said, if you lost by half a point in this state or if it came down to 500 some votes in that state, we just don't know. so of course we respect the principles of american democracy and if we're so high mindedly concerned about american democracy as so many chest

beaters were, chuck, ask hillary clinton why she takes tens of millions of dollars from countries that hate women and disrespect women and throw gays of off of building. that's using the state department as a concierge for foreign donations not really respecting our american democracy. >> kellyanne conway, i will leave it there. thanks for coming on the show. >> thank you. coming up, we're going to look at some early clues about how the vote may be going from absentee ballots that have been returned in two key states. florida and north carolina. stay with us. guests connected at work, and at play. or the it platform that powers millions of ecards every day for one of the largest greeting card companies. businesses count on communication, and communication counts on centurylink.

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welcome back. the panel is here. stuart stevens, first time joining us mitt romney in 2012. eliana johnson, welcome to the table, editor for washington review. and tom friedman. all right. tim kaine, kellyanne conway. stuart, you've been in her role

before. interpret what she said when it came to donald trump's 100 day speech. >> look, your job she has is to spin whatever happens. i think going out with those accusations that you are going to sue ever body is a crazy way to start a substantive speech. a groom showing up at the rehearsal dinner with a stripper and thinking the wedding is going to okay. thinking you're going to be talking about anything other than this. was this scripted? does he just do it? rely have no idea. it stops you from being able to deliver a clear message. >> she was trying to say that, yes, he should stay on the issues and the ideas she didn't want to say -- she didn't want to go behind him and say he should not have brought up these women. but that's what happened. in the debate -- you could tell he was kind of sticking to the issues. he was at his best when he was talking about abortion, talking about guns. conservatives like that. then he started saying he might not accept the results of the election. that turned the whole headline into that. when he sticks on his issues, he is at his best.

everybody that's working for him is trying to get him to do that. trump is going to do down the way he wants to. >> i laid out this morning the coverage of his speech yesterday. only "the wall street journal" did the headline as the agenda and subhead as the lawsuits. everybody else was the lawsuits was the headline, the agenda was subhead. that's a problem right there. >> you know, people always ask, are these things scripted? does he plan it? are his aides in on that? no. when trump goes out and acts like trump and says these unscripted things, he puts his aides in this horrible position to have to go out and defend what he says. you just saw kellyanne conway do it. very, very uncomfortable for the people that work for him. that's kind of the position you put yourself in when you work for a guy like that. >> i want to move to tim kaine. you spent a lot of time traveling the world. this tpp issue, nobody has er truly believed -- if you covered hillary clinton long enough,

nobody ever truly believed that her switch on this was anything other than political. did anything tim kaine said convince you otherwise? >> not in the least. if i were an oil company and i had a huge spill on the coast of california, i'm hiring her. i have never seen anybody able to talk her way out of a bad client. the real truth i think chuck, when be look back at this election, it will be the election that both parties blew up. donald trump blew up the republican party. i think bernie sanders kind of blew up the democratic party. it was patched over because of the urgency of defeating donald trump who was a greater threat. trade will be a central part of what will see that fracture. it's the first place it will appear after the election. >> we will see it right away. as you know, right after -- it's the november trip, being a white house correspondent, i hated it. it's the long trip. president obama will be talking up tpp the whole time. immediately, the president and potentially the president-elect -- no matter who wins the presidency -- are going to be at odds over a huge deal

around the world. >> i actually think that that's exactly right. because of the crisis in the republican party is garnering all the headlines, the democrats are overlooking the looming crisis in their party because i think the primary between bernie sanders and hillary clinton really showed that hillary clinton is where the head of the democratic party is. but the people really are with bernie sanders, particularly on trade. you saw tim kaine say, well, we're not for tpp. an asian trade agreement, yeah, probably for that. the democratic party -- their heart is against that. that's going to be a bloody fight. the same is true in the republican party. >> i've been talking to progressives all week hotel me they are already organizing against hillary clinton, like she's already president. they are saying, we will have to push her every step of the way. we don't trust her. this idea about tpp, they're not going to like tim kaine's answer. i watched him and listened to him. they are thinking that, i don't trust these people. i don't know what they're going to do when they t in there. >> tpp represents the single greatest liberal achievement on trade since we have negotiated trade agreements.

the first deal that has real labor protection and real environmental protection. that's exactly what obama will be selling the morning after. >> ironically, stu, i have had democrats say this to me, especially in this issue, if you are hillary clinton, secretly you may hope paul ryan is still the speaker of the house. you need one republican majority to basically tell progressives, this is as far as i can go. >> what's extraordinary about this debate on trade is the republican is really to the left of the democrat. he is up there saying bernie sanders is right. he wants 45% tariffs. i don't -- i think it would be good to have someone like paul ryan there who can argue a more conservative viewpoint of why we need this. >> let's go into numbers. stuart, i really want to get your reaction to this. we got early voting numbers here. over 4 million people have cast their ballot in this election so far. we know the partisan breakdown of the voters from years past. you can see how the candidates are stacking up to years past. with data provided by a democratic firm called target

smart, florida's vote, republicans and democrats are polling about the same, 42-42, 39-40. about the same. look at these north carolina numbers. republicans accounted for 50% of all absentee vote in 2012. democrats accounted for 38%. now it's 42-45. it's proof that it looks like the democrats have the mechanic advantage. >> all of our modelling in presidential politics, two equal campaigns. we have never had a situation where the trump campaign doesn't have much of an organization. it's more of a concert tour. what are the implications of that? some have argued as trump did in the primary, it doesn't matter. we're going to see the first test of that because say what you will about the clinton campaign, they have designed a very effective machine with top people. and i think that republicans are greatly disadvantaged in these states because we never went through the presidential campaign of raising money and giving it to the states to build

this. we will see how it plays out in the early numbers. >> how much panic do you hear from senate candidates? if you're richard burr, that's got to freak you out. >> absolutely. i would add one note of caution about the early voting numbers. we don't know how any of these people went into the ballot box and pulled the lever. this is based on the party somebody is affiliated with. one of the things people have speculated about are democrats going to vote like traditional democrats? union voters during toward trump. are republicans going to vote like traditional republicans? just a note of caution on that. to stu's point, this is like a political science experiment in whether ground game matters. what i have heard from senate candidates are they have had to build out presidential-type ground games in each and every state. that's tremendously difficult. >> i will wrap this up. we will know on election day if her lead increases from what the national polls say. then it will tell us that ground games do matter. when we come back, it was the beach boys sang "catch a wave."

if the democrats catch a wave, could they sit on top of the senate and house? that's next. first, more from last night's "snl." >> so you are just never going to answer a question about your e-mail? >> no. but it was very cute to watch you try. using 60,000 points from my chase ink card i bought all the fruit... veggies... and herbs needed to create a pop-up pick-your-own juice bar in the middle of the city, so now everyone knows... we have some of the freshest juice in town. see what the power of points can do for your business. learn more at chase.com/ink daddy! lets play! see what the power of points can do for your business. sorry kids. feeling dead on your feet? i've been on my feet all day. dr. scholl's massaging gel insoles have a unique gel wave design for outrageous comfort that helps you feel more energized. dr. scholl's. feel the energy!

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your business becomes our business. that's why we make more ecommerce deliveries to homes than anyone else in the country. the united states postal service. priority: you we are back. data download time. hillary clinton is holding on to a solid lead in the presidential race.

so democrats are looking to run up the score down the ballot. their chances to take back the senate already look pretty good. what would turn 2016 into an actual wave election that could help democrats get the 30 seats they would need to win a house majority? our pal dave wasserman at the cook political report rated these 19 house districts across the country as pure toss up races. 17 are held by republicans. just two by democrats. if this does become a wave election, democrats would probably win the lion share of those races. throw those in. add in several seats that democrats are likely to win largely because of redistricting that took place in florida and virginia and the democrats could net 21 seats just in those two categories. however, for this truly to be a wave election, democrats are going to have to score upsets in places republicans normally win. so these are the 12 lean republican races across the country. there are three that i'm going to pay special attention to on election night.

they are canary's in the coal mine. kansas city, des moines and indiana's ninth district which includes bloomington. the suburbs around louisville, kentucky. these are the races to watch to see. if democrats win two of these three or all three of them, then it will tell you a lot about moderate republican turnout. it may have not been there which could, in turn, mean a bad night for the republicans across the board. we did see big waves in 2006 when the democrats took back the house and senate and in 2010 when republicans flipped the house back by a huge margin. despite all this, history may not be on the democrat's side. the last time the house of representatives changed hands in a presidential election year, 1952. ask yourself, is this an eisenhower wave that's coming? when we come back, we will talk about whether there is a real possibility to rig a general election in the united states. as we go to break, here is another light moment from last night's "snl." >> all of the newscasters are

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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. male teacher: andthe the largest planet? someone we haven't heard from. female teacher: anyone else? through internet essentials, comcast has connected more than 3 million people in need to low-cost, high speed internet at home, helping to make sure that every hand in the classroom goes up. male teacher: okay, veronica. amphibian. male teacher: excellent. welcome to a brighter future. comcast. back now with our panel. before we get to the election rigging stuff, i want to talk about what i just did on the data download, the house. it's a long shot. not since 1952 has the house changed hands in a presidential election year. if it does, who leads the

republican party? tom. >> i find myself with two minds when i think of that. one is you would like to have republicans have skin in the game. both for the reasons you talk about, to discipline the left wing of the democratic party but also that we can't get anything big done without that. but i have another mind. maybe this party just needs to crash and burn. this version of the republican party needs to die so out of the ashes, just as a new democratic party came out of the post-mcgovern era, that we will get a democratic leadership council movement, a sane republican party. >> there you go. >> that's going to happen regardless whether republicans lose the house -- >> will there be 75% of the party are trump voters. it's 25% that think the way you think. >> what i think is going to happen is the party is crashing and burning right now. donald trump, i think, will preach to the converted after the election. but the party is going to have to -- trump supporters i think haven't gotten the attention that they deserve from the party. the party is going to grapple

with how to incorporate trump supporters and parts of trumpism on trade and immigration in particular. that needs to happen. i think both parties have neglected the voters. many of them are former democrats. >> what's best for the republican party, total collapse or keep paul ryan there to be the guy that sort of -- >> where theepublican party goes is totally up in the air. it's got to be reality based. i just keep going back to this, 1980, ronald reagan won 44 states with 56% of the white vote. mitt romney got 59% in 2012 and lost. a lot of these conversations about the republican party, on the interstate you have to drive 100 miles and only 75 miles worth of gas. you debate whether to stop and get gas. the car doesn't care, it will stop. republicans have to decide we can reach out to more non-white voters and win elections or not.

there's no alternative. >> when i go to these rallies for pence and for donald trump and i talk to people, they don't feel as though the republican party really stuck with them. they feel like the party just doesn't understand the anxiety they are feeling about the economy and also about health care and what they're going to take care of their families. in some ways they sound like people who voted for obama. i was talking to people about whether they voted for obama. people were like, even with him, they thought there was going to be change. the republican party, 75% of them don't sound like the people that the establishment says they are. >> it's interesting you bring that up. iowa and ohio are the two states that have sort of -- where hillary clinton hasn't taken off during this spell. that means, there are obama voters from '12 who they painted mitt romney as the guy that fired you, those people are with trump, because he is talking the way obama talked about romney. >> there's not an enormous segment but a significant segment of the electorate that feels, when trump talks about a rigged election, that doesn't feel necessarily that the election is going to be rigged but that the system is rigged against them.

they haven't gotten the attention from either party that they deserve. i think that's scorned by elites in both parties. i don't think to stu's point that the debate is over whether or not the republican party needs to reach out to minority voters or to these voters, but it's how to do that. immigration reform, the magic bullet? does moderating the party stance on entitlement reform or welfare state, is that more constructive way to do it. >> tom, it does seem as if -- i thought one of your com patriots on op-ed page was interesting, the risk with hillary clinton is this group think about globalization. it was among the risks. this is what some skeptical trump people who still may vote for him are thinking about. you know what, maybe she's not going to rethink how globalism works. >> i would take it one step deeper, if i could. i think we're in the middle of the single greatest technological inflection point.

since the inventing of the printing press. the workplace is being fundamentally transformed. what bill clinton said in 1992 just doesn't apply anymore. what did he say at that convention? if you work hard and play by the rules, you should be in the middle class. good luck with that. you have to work harder, reengineer, retool. ileana went to college with my daughter, which shows how old i am. and i used to say, when i graduated from college, i got to find a job. my daughters have to invent a job. that's what's new. you may get your first job but you have to reinvent and nobody wants to trust the people with that truth. it's really scary. >> does the clinton campaign get this? >> it's hard to say that they get this. if you hear them talking about the economy or you hear -- if you hear them talking about giving people opportunities, they still believe that if you go to college or if you do this, it sounds like they are saying, you can -- >> sounds like bill clinton. >> yeah. this is the america you can have. there's this american dream. when you talk to people who have four degrees or master's programs and they can't find jobs or they're living in the basement of their parents'

house, those are people who voted for bernie sanders or are people who are solid trump supporters. those people overlap in their life experiences. >> let me take a quick pause here. 45 seconds with our end game segment, including something that hasn't happened since harry truman's first year in office. >> coming up, "meet the press" end game, brought to you by boeing, building the future one century at a time. hold on...you only got double miles on stuff you bought from that airline? let me show you something better. the capital one venture card. with venture, you earn unlimited double miles on every purchase... not just...(dismissively) airline purchases. every purchase. everywhere. every day. no really! double miles on all of them! what's in your wallet? but my back pain was making it hard to sleep and open up on time. then i found aleve pm. the only one to combine a sleep aid

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is brought to you by boeing, building the future one century at a time. >> back now with e >> back now with end game, despite the talk about hillary clinton wanting to work across the aisle, should paul ryan stay or go, it's clear clinton and obama are looking for a wave. look how much president obama is suddenly appearing in down ballot tv ads. here is a montage. >> terry is running for congress. we need more people like her in washington. vote for brad snyder and the democrats so we can keep america's promise to our seniors. [ speaking spanish ] charlie needs your vote. please stand with him. i know he will always stand with you. >> this reminds me of mitt romney 2014. he became popular enough to use in all these down ballot ads. barack obama sitting anywhere 5 3 to 57 approval rating, he's

suddenly popular in swing state ads. >> it's a huge advantage for any party to have a popular incumbent president. if you are a clinton advance person, it's a sweet spot to be in for the next few weeks. you can call and say, do you want the president, do you want the first lady, do you want bernie sanders, do you want bill clinton? how about joe biden? you can build a rally with those people. they each have constituencies. it's really starkly different when you see what's happening with the trump campaign and who he is traveling with. it limits the audience appeal. >> how do the senate candidates handle this that president obama is playing -- he called out marco rubio. she's calling out pat toomey. this has to make that vice grip tighter. >> republican candidates are constrained not only by democratic strengths but by trump's weaknesses. a lot of polls show republican voters and democratic voters want a check on clinton presidency but republican candidates can't say that. there's a segment trump voters who will vote against them,

threaten to vote against them if they say that. they cannot go out and campaign on essentially conceding the election to hillary clinton. the nrsc is now running ads on republican senate candidates being a check. i don't think that's going to be enough. i think if they are going to do that, they would have to say it forthrightly and they cannot do that. >> nevada senate, tom, the republican nominee, he came out against when trump and the sexual assault language came out, he said -- he said it was personal for him. his wife had been a victim of sexual assault. he just couldn't do it. apparently, he hasn't led in a poll since. the trump voters are punishing him. that's a vice grip. >> i think what is scarier is what happens if trump loses after the election? which donald trump -- people say he will start his own media company and be constantly terrorizing the republican party from the right. this will be very interesting. you see a tension between trump ink and trump inc. the united states golf association next year is holding

the women's u.s. open at a trump golf course? >> will they? >> that's going to get real interesting. you can see a real tension between trump ink and trump inc. after this election. >> the people punishing the down ballot candidates, they are pushing back against trump, they are buying into the idea the election is rigged. if you say i want a check on hillary clinton, you are conceding, in their minds, that you are buying into this system, that you are somehow part of this system that is denying trump his rightful win. that's a problem. i should say to add, i covered bernie sanders for a long time. he would say the economy is rigged. he never said the election was rigged. this idea is that it was -- seeds that grew into what we see now. because it's not a far leap for some people. >> stuart, why does your party struggle with its most conservative movement being satisfied with incrementalism while the progressive wing of the democratic party accepts it? >> i think it has to do with the base of the republican party being a base that always assumed that the next generation would be better. they really bought into this

idea that if you could work hard, that this is sort of like a birthright of being an american. that basic compact with the government and with society feels threatened. i think that's very frightening. >> well, we will leave it there. by the way, i should note, i'm a dodgers fan. my staff is making me do this. last night the cubs clinched -- i will say this with clenched teeth, a trip to the world series after beating my dodgers. the cubs will be facing the indians tuesday. the cubs haven't been in a world series since 1945. harry truman's first year in office. they haven't won since a roosevelt was president, teddy. that was in 1908. they have only won when teddy of course velt was -- roosevelt was president. that is an omen? here is hillary clinton, a one-time chicago native, celebrating the -- watching the cubs post-game celebration. she did not don a yankees cap. that's all we have for this week. two more sundays until election day. we will be back next week, because if it is sunday, it's

"meet the press." week, because if it is sunday, it's "meet the press." 9:00 eastern time. there's a bunch of poll closings ready. this could be a real turning point. >> nbc news has projected al gore the winner in florida. >> cable news, the presidential election is your super bowl, so we knew it was going to be big. >> florida has been prematurely called. >> we realized this story is getting bigger. >> nbc news is now taking florida out of vice president gore's column. >> there were so many headlines that could have come out of november 7th. >> thank you, new york. >> hillary clinton, she put her hat in the ring to run for senate from new york. >> there's a new senator from the state of new york.