are you saying you are not -- >> he is denigrating. he is talking down our democracy. >> 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 headed for another world title in the same year? "early today" starts right now.

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 the country. one of the pride of this country

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 losing, he says the system, whatever the system is, whether

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 make, 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 the country. i think he as the presidential candidate tonight begin those two factors that >> 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. they watched as the candidates squared off from isis to the supreme court.

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 machado, called her an eating machine. on the day when i was in the situation room, 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 evolved into a war of word. here is one notable exchange over russian vladimir putin. >> look.

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 record as saying that we need to put more money into the social security trust fund. 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 -- >> cnn poll has clinton boating trump. one place? ohio, and wisconsin, meanwhile,

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 mili 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 refugees have been fleeing mosul by the thousands. >> meanwhile, the u.s. officials

fighters could flee mosul and launch terrorist attacks against the u.s. and its allies. matt, any combination on what advancing forces could reach mosul? >> reporter: we the know this is a good thing right now. we don't know when we will be reaching isis t. engagement of the counterfrichl terrorism force means 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 these people learn a lot when they speak english.

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 that rocked portland, oregon, 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 firefighters. >> he is one of three firefighters, and three sids

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 brazing day across the country. 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. for today, you can see the heat

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. and there were a rash of bank crashes on wednesday. what's going on? we will "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. >> a new gallup poll finds 56%

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 forced to land with malfunctioning landing gore right there. on the nose of th 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 of a house. this is in southern new jersey.

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 hackers. 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, it's easy to save big at 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. so you get more "life" per roll.

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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 celebration. >> now, to an nbc news exclusive investigation as 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 has cut off the flow of election material being hacked by the

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 doing everything moble to stop the cyber pleading. 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. >> they're frustrated because wick key leaks has done a lot of

>> 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 swinging against wikileaks. >> we want to be a country where foreign 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... tv character: why are you texting my man at 2 a.m.? no... if you want someone to leave you alone, you pretend like you're sleeping.

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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 prepared. >> what i said,ly tell you at the time. i will keep 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 were a lot of people. people were tweeting during the

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 million. it's amazing to see how much social media played in t 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 was asked about his rise. take a 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... he said sure, but don't just get any one.

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will you say you will absolutely accept the result of this election? >> i will look at it at the time. i'm not looking at anything now. i'll look at it at the time. >> let me respond to that because that is >> look. from everything i see has no respect for this person. >> that is because he would rather have a puppet as a president of the united states. >> no puppet. >> it is pretty clear -- >> you're the puppet. >> now on news4 today. final face-off. it was the last debate before you vote. as we sorted through the jabs and drama to get you what you need to know. >> from checking the facts to

and why the candidates will be back together in a few hours. it is 4:27 right now. i'm aaron gilchrist. >> i'm eun yang. let's get you ready for the day ahead. storm team4 meteorologist tom kierein is in with a look at the weather headlines. >> we have clouds around but it is a mild and muggy start again setting the stage for another unautumn like day. here is a live view from the we have areas, some of the roadways are a little damp this morning as we've seen a few sprinkles of rain coming through. storm team4 radar is hardly picking up anything now. for the most part, we're drying out. watch auto for wet spots on the pavement. got showers in the upper midwest, it will stay well to the north today. melissa is checking in on new traffics. >> southbound 28 at manassas

there, just west of 123, police are pushing traffic past that crash. you can get by that one here this morning so no big worries but maybe a little bit of a delay. southbound 259 at south capitol street. car into a ravine. we have a tow truck at the scene and 270 at montgomery village avenue. we don't have any worries. we'll look at prince george's county coming up in a minute. the third and final was full of personal attacks but the candidates also focused on issues ranging from immigration to abortion. >> we have it all covered for you this morning. we'll fact check both candidates and have analysis from the reaction from both campaigns. a look at where the candidates head today as we enter the final stretch. the headline of the night was donald trump's refusal to say he would accept the outcome of the election. it was perhaps not talked about moment of the night.

the last several days insisting the system was, quote, rigged. he was questioned twice by moderator chris wallace. >> are you make the same commitment that you will absolutely accept the results of this election. >> i will look at it at the time. i'm not looking at anything now. i'll look at it at the time. >> hillary clinton jumped in and called trump's answer horrifying. after the debate, kellyanne conway said that absent of any evidence of widespread ab urge trump to accept the results of the election. the moment led to a lot of the discussion on msnbc after the debate. nicolle wallace, part of the bush administration, had tough words for trump. listen. >> he basically, tonight, laid in the coffin with a hammer and nail and pounded in the lid. lights out in american politics when you say something like that. that single comment will define the rest of the election, all 20

it is a disqualifying comment to say you will not accept the results of the beacon of democracy, the world over. >> wallace said trump had nice moments but the single moments will now define the rest of the race, she says. turning now to hillary clinton's performance, msnbc's chris matthews says clinton was in airplane mode but managed to come out ahead of trump because she focused on key voters. hillary won the following reason. the real battle ground are women in the suburbs who tend to vote republican because of the tax bracket largely, not for big city issues, not on public education. she talked about guns and gun control to protect toddlers, she talked about her work with children and families, ever since wright adelman. she was talking about abortion rights. >> the instant post debate poll