lehrer: okay. next question goes to president bush for a two minute answer, and it will be asked by sandy vanocur. sander vanocur: mr. president, this past week your secretary of the army, michael stone, said he had no plans to abide by a congressional mandate to cut us forces in europe from 150 to 100 thousand by the end of september 1996. now, why, almost 50 years after the end of world war ii, and with the total collapse of the soviet union, should american taxpayers be taxed to support armies in europe when the europeans have plenty of money to do it for themselves? bush: well, sander, that's a good question, and the answer is for 40-some years we kept the peace. if you look at the cost of not keeping the peace in europe, it would be exorbitant. we have reduced the number of troops that are deployed and going to be deployed. i have cut defense spending. and the reason we could do that is because of our fantastic success in winning the cold war. we never would have got there if we had gone for t

lehrer: new question. how would you go about as president deciding when it was in the national interest to use u.s. force, generally? mr. bush: well, if it's in our vital national interests, and that means whether our territory is threatened or people could be harmed, whether or not the alliances are -- our defense alliances are threatened, whether or not our friends in the middle east are threatened. that would be a time to seriously consider the use of force. secondly, whether or not the mission was clear. whether or not it was a clear understanding as to what the mission would be. thirdly, whether or not we were prepared and trained to win. whether or not our forces were of high morale and high standing and well-equipped. and finally, whether or not there was an exit strategy. i would take the use of force very seriously. i would be guarded in my approach. i don't think we can be all things to all people in the world. i think we've got to be very careful when we commit our troops. the vice president and

mark: our thanks to the great jim lehrer.paign reporters give us the scoop on how the senate it's have prepared. yet another word from our sponsor. ♪ >> i think mr. nixon is an effective date -- leader of his party. the question before us is what's point of view and which party do we want to lead the united states? mr. next and, would you like to comment question mark -- mr. nix on, would you like to comment? us now at the site of the first presidential margaret [indiscernible] and jennifer jacobs. you have a lot of reporting on 270.iew of their path to they still claim they could do well in pennsylvania but they are talking less about pennsylvania now than they ever have. it starts with florida, ohio, north carolina but where are they looking to get them the rest of the way? >> you can tell where they are focused and it is ohio, florida, nevada, new hampshire. you can tell what they are looking at. they say they are campaigning for governor in these concentrated states. that is where they are concentrating. they are starting

i am jim lehrer of the macneil-lehrer news hour on pbs, and i will be the moderator for this 90-minute event, which is taking place before an audience in the athletic compon

let me pick up on what jim lehrer said. moments in a debate, especially in today's youtube generation, have such a significant impact in how voters perceive the candidate. >> i think this is particularly true in the primary debates which is what i did in 2008 and helped prepare in 2008. i do think the whole debate itself is going to be important because you're going to have tens of millions of people who are going to watch the whole ol debate which is not usually the case. but what's going to happen is after those tens of millions of people watch, probably hundreds of millions of people will be exposed to two or three things that happened over the course of a couple of hours that resonate in some way. it was either a good moment or a bad moment, someone was caught saying something that wasn't true, someone was caught in an awkward place or saying something that paints them in a bad light, reinforces an existing narrative. those can have a real impact on the course of the narrative that continues after the debate ends. he's:

if you talk to someone like jim lehrer, who has done more presidential debates as a moderator than anyonee. yourself, it about give both sides an opportunity to fact check each other. mark: joining us is a man who tweets a fair amount, and you love politics. tell us what is different than the conventions in iowa and new hampshire. >> i think the lack of partisanship here. i'm wondering if donald trump is going to articulate. there has been various reporting on the debate prep. what is your sense of where his head is at and what he has done in the final hours to get ready? >> he had a lot of family coming in. four cousins come by? debate.ck he is not nervous. he likes the fight, he likes the spotlight. john: we have an ongoing discussion about the weight of the world being on hillary clinton's shoulders. donald trump doesn't have the weight of the world on his shoulders. butants to be president, it's always been, if i lose, i will go back to being a rich guy. >> he doesn't need to win, he .ust needs to seem plausible they just needed excuse to vote for him, give them an excuse. mark: expla

presidential debates moderated by veteran journalist and 12-time presidential debate moderator jim lehrerauthor of "tension city, inside the presidential debates." jim joins me now. thank you very much for bringing your experience to the table. >> thank you. >> a lot of talk about what the moderator should do. everybody trying to work it. what's the ideal role? how much to get involved, how little? what do you think? >> well, first of all, when it is all said and done, 90 minutes later, tonight and every other night when there is a presidential debate, the number one goal of the moderator is to take sure when it is over it is not only seen as fair but it is fair for the two candidates or the three candidates. tonight it's two. that's the number one goal. whatever else happens, people on both sides, not so much handlers and aides but the public sees this as a fair exchange to both candidates and what they believe, et cetera. the other number one goal of a moderator and keep in mind, for instance, you showed the clip where i was trying to get president obama to talk directly to john mccain.

jim lehrer has moderated 12 presidential debates and the former news anchor for the pbs "newshour." and ann compton served in 1998 and in 1992 and a retired white house correspondent for abc news. thank you both for being here this morning. >> thank you, brian. >> delighted to be here. >> jim, i know that lester is busy preparing, but he is taking a little bit of time off, and if he is watching right now, what is your advice for lest er holt? >> well, two things. first of all, he must remind himself that it is not about him or the mod rayer or the. and second thing, he should remember that no matter what he does on monday night, he is going to be criticized for it. that is because the rules have changed. the rules are much more wide open than they have been in the previous years and in previous election cycles meaning that the candidates can speak directly to each other, and can question each other, and there is more time to be devoted to each subject, and each question, and the moderator's job is to keep the flow going, and to make sure that everything is maintained and fairness is

i think jim lehrer was right who moderated many of these debates saying this isn't an interview, because are you moderatek a debate, what you need to do if you think that donald trump has stepped way over the line on factual matters which i think as a matter of fact he has, that to his opponent say what is your reaction to that secretary clinton. it is not his job to correct because then you wind up completely you know, unsettling the whole framework of the debate. >> sreenivasan: newshour special correspondent jeff greenfield joining us from santa barbara, thank you very much. >> pleasure you can watch every presidential debate since 1960 at www.watchthedebates.org. you'll also see how past general election candidates addressed issues like the economy, healthcare, and gun control. visit www.watchthedebates.org. >> sreenivasan: the attorney for the family of keith scott says police videos released last night prove scott was not acting aggressively when police shot him last week in the parking lot of his charlotte, north carolina, apartment complex. police car dashboard camera video shows

jim lehrer of pbs moderates. this is just over 90 minutes. >> 30 seconds.

. >> i noticed that bob schieffer and jim lehrer, they both say the role is not to intrude and to get out of the way. i think i heard mike mccurry you say in your opening answer that you think donald trump is trying to work the refs a little bit. what do you mean by that? >> i think sometimes you sort of say if i say that i expect to get howled at by our first moderator who happens to be lester holt from nbc, maybe that will tone him down a little bit. and who knows, i don't want to try to get into donald trump's head. that would not be a useful exercise, but the candidates do this. we see this every four years and there are comments back and forth about the moderators but the important thing i think is both secretary clinton and mr. trump who were invited, by the way, to the commission on presidential debates to participate on september 26 have both indicated they plan to be there and both have accepted the moderators have we have pithat . i think we picked excellent moderators to help guide that discussion. >> am i right in saying your job is to make a studied determination as to wh

. >> when you think about the best of moderator you think about jim lehrer and you wonder how jim lairave handled it. he asked donald trump six follow-up questions and asked donald trump 15 specific question to him and his issue into to hillary. it was also an attitude framework almost like he was the third debater. he was like a debate between lester holt and donald trump. this is the challenge for mr. trump is to be able to handle datamart how to handle that because the next you are going to be an easier but i ran york made a point of twitter earlier, lester holt is not some kind of conspiracy with the campaign. that's the groupthink and media in general. that's all it is to your point, all about them i would interest them and we know that they are liberals whether you are registered as a republican doesn't matter. this is what will make donald trump a better president because if this is allowed to go on their better president because they are currently under attack like this. it's unfair but it's true. charles: jessica there is a point to this. matt lauer hit her with some hard ques

the last thing you want to do as a moderator, the jim lehrer format is the best.t-checking you turn to the other opponent and say what do you make of that, and that's the easiest way? >> give them an opportunity to do that. robbie mook is saying they don't want her in that position, that they expect the moderator to also be the fact checker because that's too much to ask. >> as i will recall that was at the end. debate and candy crowley was looking to move on to another topic and when she jumped in as going forward. >> remember it being rather contentious between those two at that night. >> that was a debate that arguably romney did not do as well. in the first debate he knocked it out of park, according to most. >> you look great. >> fun to be here. >> welcome to long island. >> great to see you. >> certainly some foreign policy being injected into the presidential race this sunday. hillary clinton expected to take time away from her debate prep to meet with israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu. her rival donald trump met with him earlier today in new york.

louis, missouri, i'm jim lehrer. thank you, and good night. [applause] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2016] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] >> the smithsonian past national museum of african american history and culture opens its doors to the public for the september 24. live from 8:00 a.m. eastern with sights and sounds leading up to the opening ceremony and we will be live from the dedication which includes remarks from president obama and founding director of the museum, lonnie bunch. this is american history tv, only on c-span3. >> c-span, created by america's cable television companies and brought to you as a public service by your cable or satellite provider. >> each week, american history " visitserican artifacts historic museums and places. next, we travel to pennsylvania to visit the flight 93 national memorial and take a tour of the visitor center, which details the events of september 11, 2001. the memorial is

talked to jim lehrer, he was watching the candidates and he had no idea that al gore was doing that andhter after the debate dad you realized al gore lost the debate. what your talking about? those body language issues are big signals to the audience and people will be watching temperament and body language. >> another key thing to watch for tomorrow night are one liners. they can win or lose a debate. back in '84 running for re-election ronald reagan was facing questions about his advanced age. he was 73 at the time. this course is the famous way he handled it. >> i want you know that also i will not make age an issue of this campaign. i am not going to exploit for political purposes my opponent's youth and inexperience. [ laughter ] >> david roger ailes the head of fox news has had a hand in donald trump's debate prep. they were having sunday chats testing out zingers. can you plan something like this? >> yeah. roger ailes was involved in that debate prep with reagan in 1984. he's very well versed in this. these debates come down moments. you don't get graded for 90 minutes. they come

i was reading an article earlier today, jim lehrer who has done his fair share of these presidential look yourself in the mirror and repeat three times it's not about me, it's not about me, it's not about me. if you live by that rule i think you're as a moderator once it's over you'll be viewed in a better light. >> but it's difficult because as a journalist when there's something glaringly inaccurate there's that need to clarify it for the people at home who are watching on tv. so he's obviously a very experienced journalist and reporter. so that's the line you have to walk. can it be walked well by people who do it well and i expect lester holt will do that. >> is it different when you're doing a primary debate and there are ten candidates on the stage you have more leeway to say well you said that mr. trump, governor bush, you know and so forth but here's what you said six months ago. here we have two nominees who frankly ought to fact check each other if they think falsehoods have been uttered. >> i agree with that. >> exactly. i expect they will. they have been practicing. donal

used to be jim lehrer, bob schieffer, they were -- candidates are the stars.ne of them will be president. it ain't going to be lesser holt -- lester holt. david: that gets to the point of all this. this is debate above any i've ever seen in my lifetime more about style than substance. is it not? >> it potentially is. i will wait for the actual debate. that is the way media score these things. who had the best one-liner, zinger, eye rolling. hillary clinton has not went after moderator. that donald trump is skewed by the press. if he doesn't mangle any names of foreign leaders, you will all say he iwinner. there is a lot of pressure on the moderators. i don't believe experienced anchors are going to try to bend one side or other. they will have 100 million people watching. they want to protect their reputations. david: pull back, look at whole substance of this debate, if there is any substance. everybody says it is all reality tv. america changed so much. 1960, you and i don't remember that, thank goodness, we're not that old, but 1960 everybody said that rich

most of the moderators have been sort of like jim lehrer, ask good, serious questions and then get out of the way and -- trish: well, you know, and typically the way it works is you also are budgeted a certain amount of time, and if you go back, i know this having moderated, when you go back, you, therefore, give up another, say, minute of the time, and so you have to constantly calculate in your head is it worth it or do we move on, or maybe the candidate is the one that needs to come out and pick some of their arguments apart. you know, for lester tonight, i mean,, this bc, frankly -- nbc, frankly, they've gotten really criticized. you think about the cnbc debate, my goodness, and john harwood comparing donald trump to a caricature of a cartoon like campaign and all the heat that they took for that and then, of course, the matt lauer situation. does that mean, basically, lester holt has to be able to deliver in order to really keep nbc news' reputation strong? >> there's that extra layer of pressure. fortunately, holt has a good, solid reputation as an even-handed newsman without an

it's not jim lehrer, the first time since '88 or '84 he hasn't been involved.t's the list right there. this also underscores, this is a week donald trump made a lot of news on the immigration front. it's labor day. he's still behind in this race. we're getting to the point if he needs a big moment, it's going to have to come in these debates. >> the first debate in particular, it's traditionally the most watched of all three. that's the time really he can create a new sense of himself because one of the big problems for trump has been this question of whether he is really ready to be president. that's one of the polling questions he scores worst on. if he can change that in the first debate, that could really change the dynamics of the race. >> immigration was the subject of the week here. some of those liabilities that trump faces in the polls talking about, do you look at this week so far. he'll make news in detroit tomorrow. holiday weekend. we'll see who notices. on immigration in terms of the trip to mexico, the speech, any of the challenges donald trump f