and i will see you tomorrow are you saying you are not -- >> he is talking down our decracy. >> donald trump challenges democracy, itself. setting the stage for post-election crisis. from a secret underground tunnel to the surge of iraqi forces on isis. the battle for mosul heats up. >> ap exclusive investigation into the russian hacking of the u.s. election. >> plus, could cleveland be

"early today" starts right now. >> good morning, everyone. >> this is the final night we will be up late into the morning. >> a lot of people will happen last night. we are not in the sprint after the campaign. after a ranker of presidential politics. the likes people have not seen. the to use a high profile moment to amplify one of the most charges of his campaign a. rigged election. refusing to say he would accept the election results if he loses. >> i want to ask you again on the stage tonight. do you make the same -- sir that you will absolutely accept the results of this election? >>ly look at it at the time. i am fought looking at anything now. i will look at it at the time. what i have seen is so bad. >> sir there is a division in

is the peaceful transition of power and no matter how fought a campaign, at the end of the campaign that the loser concedes to the winner. are you saying you are fought prepared now -- >> i am saying i will tell you at the time. i will keep you if suspense. >> an audible gasp spread through the auditorium during that very moment. clinton made sure to it. >> let's be clear about what he is saying and what that means. he is den gaiting. he is talking down our democracy and i, for one, am appalled that somebody who is the nominee of one of our two major parties would take that kind of position. >> later in the evening, she reacted on trump's company on board her company late last night. >> what he said tonight is a part of his whole effort to blame somebody else for his campaign and for where he stands in this election. as i said, whenever he is

whatever the system is, whether it's, you know, being in court about trump university or losing the iowa caucus and the wisconsin primary or losing emmys, for goodness sakes, he says it's rigged against him. here is what trump's running makeke, mike pence, had to make about the very same headline making moment. >> the reality of voter fraud in polling places and in some jurisdiction around candidate tonight begin those two factors that he'll take a wait and see approach. >> new, pence may be the only elex elected official backing skepticism as law makers, both democrats and republican versus pushed back against him. reince priebus refuting trump's own word. >> when the debate started, it seemed one person spared in this final image.

supreme court. they went off the rails. who was checkpoint comparing her record to trump. >> in the 1980s, i was working to reform the schools in are arkansas. he was borrowing $14 million from his father to start his businesses. in the 1990s, i went to beijing and i said women's rights are human rights. he insulted a former miss universe, ais alissa on the day when i was in the situation room, monitoring the raids that brought osama bin laden to justice, he was hosting the "celebrity apprentice." >> here was trump hitting clinton on foreign policy. >> she has been outsmarted and outplayed worse tan anybody i have ever seen in any government whatsoever. >> and the debate quickly

from everything i see has no respect for this person. >> well, that's because he'd rather have a puppet as president. >> no puppet. your the puppet. >> it's pretty clear. >> no, you are the puppet. >> the elections have engaged in cyber attacks. >> but it was this moment that lit up social meth media when the candidates were discussing entitlem reform. >> i am on the social security trust fund. that's part of my commitment to raise taxes on the wealthy. my social security, payroll contribution will go up as will donald's, assuming he can't physical out how to get out of it. but what we want to do is replenish --

ohio, and wisconsin, meanwhile, mike pence remains on the stump in nevada. president obama and joe biden will head to new hampshire and florida for clinton. while first lady michelle obama guess to the new battlegrounds of arizona, tim kaine soars through north carolina. clinton and trump will meet face-to-peace afen perhaps for the last time as they headline the infamous dinner new york tonight. breaking news overnight, turkish jets striking militia targets in syria. the airstrikes are happening north of aleppo. a news agency says as many as 200 have been killed, kurdish lead, say that number is smaller. the urky plams them for attacks over the past 84. we will keep you posted as we learn more afternoon. a mosul offensive drives isis fighters from the city. now, there are reports that

by the thousands. >> meanwhile, the u.s. officials tell nbc news, hundreds of fighters could flee mosul and launch terrorist attacks against the u.s. and its allies. matt, any combination on what advancing forces could reach mosu mosul? >> reporter: we the know this is a good thing right now. we don't know when we will be reaching the counterfrichl terrorism force means the operation is going according to plan him does that mean we know where they will be entering mosul? we know this is a similar pattern for the islamic states over the last year. now, i was with the counterterrorism forces if in january, according to wall street journal. i learned this is a very small force a. lot were actually trained in the united states and

they speak english. they are very well trained. they are only about 500 members. usually this is used for precision strikes. now they are being used as the main point of the sphere against ramadi to fallujah and now in mosul. so they are being very over extended. >> they are there in northern iraq. few details are emerging about a gas explosion th thursday. they have taken critical steps to save lives. >> he went in on his own, pulled the fire alarm, which allowed those individuals to evacuate. had those steps not been taken, we would have been having a different conversation this afternoon. this man single handedly saved a lot of citizens today and

injured in the explosion. this morocco the mayor is asking sids to do nate after the explosion continues. still to come here, an nbc news investigation with hacking and the use wikileaks is having on our election. it's must see tv. >> but, it was a record breaking day on wednesday with over 50,000 registered. we have the weather and more on that historic and across the country. >> it hit 90 degrees. this cold front sending the season. so this morning, it is in st. louis. we'll see showers and thunderstorms. rain throughout the day for ohio and fork and especially this evening. >> that rain will hit closer to the east coast. that's a look at the big weather story today and a closer look at the day ahead.

waive ended. still warm around baugdz and humid still areas of the southeast and much cooler in the northern plains, highs only in the 40s. >> really heavy rain of the next couple of days. it's been a good drought over the last couple months. is america going to pot? a new survey takes that question high. bank crashes on wednesday. what's going on? we will explain all that. "early today" has the details

. test. today's quick hit the cdc says specially transmitted diseases have hit a record high in the u.s.

legislation. three other states welcome medical marijuana. federal officials are now urging all pregnant women who live in or have recently visited miami-dade county to get tested for the zika virus. plane crashes in three states. new details about the air accidents across america. first, though, watch this. look at that landing t. pilot was malfunctioning landing gore right there. on the nose of the plane. it was dragging several feet down the runway t. pilot walked away unharmed. in ft. lauderdale, iwitnesses says this twin engine plane landed after crash landing on a runway. the plane's landing gear is under way. the pilot and a passenger on board were not hurt. a different story for the pilot of this small plane. he and a passenger on board crash landed into the back yard

pilot trapped in the cockpit. it took 20 minutes to free them. all the crashes are being investigated. >> scary. is america about to have a new sports capital? >> intelligence officials say they caught the russian hacker nbc news investigates. next. nbc news investigates. next. free to seize the savings on medicare part d. from one-dollar copays on select plans to rewards points on all prescriptions, ? just stop by walgreens. ? then sit back and enjoy the savings. walgreens. at the corner of happy and healthy. more "sit" per roll. bounty is two times more absorbent. so one roll of bounty can last longer than those bargain brands.

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elise: we couldn't believe it. that poor girl was raped by two football players and their friends. we were sure they would go to jail. so, when i heard state attorney mark ober decided scared for my daughter. none of those young men served a day behind bars. ober said losing a baseball scholarship was punishment enough. if mark ober can't protect our families,

the cleveland indians are going to the world series. >> cleveland fans are either up really early, after the indians and the toronto bluejays end the series. it's been 19 years since the indians played in the world series and 68 sentence they won a championship. lebron james celebrated tonight, world series, here we come. congrats, george. you can imagine the ceat investigation as wikileaks continues to play a major rules in the election in the u.s. intelligence agencies are taking us inside the effort to stop the hack by russia and published by wikileaks. here's senior correspondent. >> reporter: a high level u.s. intelligence source tells nbc news the u.s. is confident it

russians. the u.s. cla imse the kremlin has been behind a wide range of documents, many harmful to the clinton campaign. the highly praised intelligence officials tells nbc news, new defensive measures taken by the u.s. and aliesz are choking off the cyber paths the russians have been using to steal e-mails from high profile democrats and other prominent americans. >> i think it's credible the u.s. government is cyber pleading. >> reporter: u.s. officials sigh they are more confident than ever that the russians have used wikileaks founder julian assange to help distribute the hacked material, telling the u.s. into assange, a "willing participant in the russian scheme. a sange is holed up in the ecuadorian london for more than four years.

damage if leaking classified information. >> reporter: multiple intelligence sources tell us the u.s. quietly pressured ecuador to shut off julian assange's access,ese lateing him. the state department next which door denied there were any pressure. reverb racings of the cyber assault was felt across the spectrum. marco rubio came up >> we want to be a country where foreign leaders and intelligence agencies can blackmail elected officials. straight ahead the most tweeted moments to the presidential debate. that's next. idential debate. that's next. what? is he gone?? finally, i thought he'd never leave...

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>> chris wallace asked donald trump if he would accept the results of the election on november 8th. trump had this to say. >> are you saying you are not >> what i said,ly tell you at the time. i will keep you in suspense. >> oh, oh, suspense. he will end with a cliff hangar. his campaign manager kelly anne conway, i am told we have footage of her taking questions from reporters about it in the spin room. >> this campaign, this whole election has been like. >> i know the moments, there

people were tweeting during the debate. the moment when donald trump and hillary clinton discussed treatment of women. when trump refused to say if he will accept the election results and when trump called putin his puppet. clinton gained 13,000 in followers compared to trump's 6,000. overall, trump has 12.6 million compared to clinton's 9.9 social media played in this election. from people online. we saw facebook helping out registration. that's within the next positive if you will. >> not only are you watching the debate. you have to sit there. exactly. they are putting in their two cents. dozens weighed in. including josh gad who tweeted this -- "snl" at this point is literally -- point is

trending for many, though, bill maher was concerned about the lack of questions of climate change especially when it comes to a lot of heavy celebrity weighing in on that. >> that's kind of disappointing. moving on, the boss is also weighing in, he's taking on the donald. when bruce spring steen take a listen. >> when donald trump was talking about a rigged election and he's not -- he has a ceiling he will lose now, of course, he is going to lose. he's such a flagrant toxic narcissist that he wants to take down the entire democratic system with him if he goes. wit. o clean better than a manual...

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here on the "early today" forecast, wednesday pennsylvania, western new york, a storm coming into the northwest. still record highs in the southeast. but that's coming to an the white house is winding down with 19 days to go until election day. >> the new question popping up this morning is whether donald trump will accept the election results if he loses. that's one of the third and final presidential debates. for more, we are joined by tracy potts in las vegas, it seems. >> reporter: yeah, good morning, we have been watching overnight trending, nasty woman, that

was talking about immigrants. nothing has gotten more of a reaction than trump's long hard followed reaction might not be settled on november 8th. >> trump repeatedly called this election rigged declined twice to accept the results if he loses. >> i will tell you at the time. i will keep you in suspense. >> that is horrifying. >> are you serious? do you think that someone that is regardless? >> his team insists this will be a long drawn out fight. >> do you remember al gore if 2000? >> it started as the most substantive debate yet on guns and abortion overturning roe vs. wade. >> that will ha happen automatically, i am putting pro-life justices on the supreme court. >> i do not think the united states government should be stepping in.

>> reporter: on russia's president. >> that's because he'd rather have a puppet as a president. >> no puppet, no puppet. are you the puppet. >> reporter: death, immigration, they get sensitive subjects like leaked e-mails. >> the russian government has engaged in espionage against americans. >> reporter: and sexual assault allegations. >> i didn't do anything. i think they want either fame or her campaign -- >> reporter: trump claims the latest offensive against isis is political. >> the only reasohe office of president. because they want to look tough. >> reporter: clinton brought up trump's still unreleased tax returns. >> we have undocumented immigrants in america who are paying more federal income tax than a billionaire. >> reporter: final arguments less than three weeks left. >> thank you for that. thanks, so much for be with

great thursday. see you guys tomorrow. ursday.

the final presidential debate is over but still has millions of people talking. registration fraud right here in the bay area. we ask election leaders about puerto ricans possibly coming here to florida to vote illegally. extract an inmate accused of escaping and taking a deputy hostage is in court this morning. good morning, welcome to