. >> why did he fight a benghazi survivor, a man named mark geist, to sit in one of the front seats? 's sending a message to hillary clinton who invited mark cuban. >> sure. but mark geist is someone who spoke at our convention. he served his country honorably, he's come out and been very supportive of our party and mr. trump in particular, and i think mr. trump wanted him to come. >> basically, you see this high level or low level tonight? how do you see it unfolding? >> in terms of what? >> are they going to policy issues or substance, or will it be name calling? >> the style and the substance are going to be both really important tonight. it's not just -- i think that's what people are looking for. they know what they're getting with hillary clinton, they know that. they want to come out and see is this somebody who could be the president of the united states? is this an acceptable alternative to hillary clinton? i don't like her. i want to reasonably vote for donald trump and i think tonight he'll give them one. >> thank you for being here. >> i like "the situation room" and what

liz: mark geist, benghazi survivor, thank you for your time. appreciate it. >> thank you.host matt lauer accused of sexism for repeatedly interrupting hillary last night. i'll show you which liberal groups are crying foul. >>the clinton campaign warning the media to think carefully when covering hillary's coughing fits and health issues, if they're there. that's the controversy. i'm going to tell you all about that. that's next, don't go away. >> excuse me. i'm sorry. allergy season. hurricane. the rest of the time, they're asleep. then one day, hr schedules a meeting with you out of the blue. and it's the worst 19 minutes of your career. but you don't sweat it because you and your advisor have prepared for this. and when the best offer means you're moving to the middle of nowhere, the boys say they hate the idea. but you pretend it's not so bad. and years later at thanksgiving, when one of them says what he's thankful for most, is this house, you realize you didn't plan for any of this you wouldn't have done it any other way. with the right financial partner, progress is

mark geist joins us along with retired lt. gen. mike flynn.er tonight. >> the african-american community has been let down by our politicians. they talk good around election time like right now, and after the election they said, see you later, i'll see you in four years. >>> donald trump continued his outreach to the african-american community last night. larry elder, niger innis will weigh in as we continue, straight ahead. what's it like to be in good hands? like finding new ways to be taken care of. home, car, life insurance obviously, ohhh... but with added touches you can't get everywhere else, like claim free rewards... or safe driving bonus checks. even a claim satisfaction guaranteeeeeeeeeee! in means protection plus unique extras only from an expert allstate agent. it's good to be in, good hands. sprint? i'm hearing good things about the network. all the networks are great now. we're talking within a 1% difference in reliability of each other. and, sprint saves you 50% on most current national carrier rates. save money on your phone b

you know, mark geist is an american hero. neil: no, that would be a different kind of -- they denied -- right. they denied in the beginning they were even thinking of jennifer flowers or paula jones -- >> well, it was donald who said it. [laughter] neil: right. but we should be clear here that there are roughly 1100 seats in that room. >> right. stuart: a third go to hillary clinton's supporters, she can pick who she wants, a third go to his supporters, they can pick who they want, and a third are some of the students at the school, those who volunteer and those who are participating in a lottery. i think 7500 or 8000 students are participating in a lotry for those few seats remaining. >> right. neil: having said that, does the debate commission have any kind of a say if it gets to be, you know, deemed -- >> a circus? neil: yeah, a circus, yeah. >> i don't -- listen, from what i understand, and i'm not an expert at this, but i've made a few calls, you get to invite who you want. you don't -- i mean, you know, i guess if donal

one of our guests last night was mark geist, not mark cuban, who's a benghazi hero and survivor. you know, he was within several feet or yards of them. i think it's a good reminder to be americans of what her record is on that particular issue. >> was there -- since you were prepared for the birther question and you knew that would come up, was there any talk in the week leading up to this debate of getting mr. trump to apologize for that? >> well, i won't reveal internal debate preparation, but -- >> would you have liked to have seen him apologize and truly put it to bed? >> you know, apologies are so personal. what he has said in the past, very recent past, is if he's offended anyone, that reregrets that, particularly if it's caused personal pain. i think apologies should be received by people who feel that regret is meant to be felt by people who feel like they have been caused personal pain. so he put that out there for those who feel like they have been aggrieved. >> but not with the birther issue. we just heard donna brazile here, who was emotional talking about it. for her

noting that she had testified before congress for 11 hours, donald trump had benghazi survivor mark geist sitting in the audience. he could have used that as an example. when he -- when he could have went after her for the foundation, at least to draw some concern and talk about the ties between her private charity and her work at the state department, he just didn't do it. and then when she accused him of his racist lies, regarding his pursuit of birtherism, she could have went after him for the idea about, you know, the deplorables that are supporting her candidacy. he attacked her a lot last night but not smartly. >> what were, rebecca, some of trump's most effective arguments of the night? >> i watched the debate with a focus group of undecided pennsylvania voters. throughout the debate they were rating each exchange by the candidates, minute by minute. and a few of the exchanges that rated really highly by trump were when he was talking about trade, when he was talking about the iran deal, attacking the iran deal, even when he was talking about his hotel in washington, d.c., being un

you have mark geist sitting there. the benghazi, he might say why didn't you apologize to him?rles: that's where this gets crazy. here's the thing though the mainstream media has a a war on donald trump they laid it on thick. here are some of the headlines coming in today. donald trump suite of misrepresentation and exaggerations and half-truths and "politico" the scope of trump's falsehoods unprecedented "l.a. times." trumps weak reveal is dubious statement an alternative universe. these are just headlines from today joe. lester holt, everyone respects but everyone respected james comey to a point so how much pressure is he under from his own colleagues to live up to this kind of stuff? >> a basically believed in shaming matt lauer. he didn't follow up with donald trump on one question and he was eviscerated. that's what we see. even jimmy fallon last week got killed because he actually treated trump like he treats every other guest to entertain. charles: you look -- he may trump would great. played very well and i'm sure a lot in his circle didn't want that to happen but to y

at trump tower and he'll have a gold star mother, karen vaughn, as well as a benghazi survivor, mark geist. so that gives you how they want to play up veteran support for trump and how he's going to try to bore into hillary clinton's failures from the perception of the trump campaign, potentially going into benghazi and her e-mails and how that has put national security at risk. these guests give you a clue to what we might hear from donald trump tonight. >> sarah, thank you. so with the primary debates, if they were any indication, there's no telling what could happen on the stage tonight, but it won't be a free for all, there are specific rules in place. joining us with that, reporter dilan buyers. you have some new information about the rules for tonight's debate. what are you learning? >> reporter: here's what we know. the lights will come on, the candidate also come out. the first question of the night will go to hillary clinton. that is the result of a coin toss. from there, you have six 15-minute segments. these segments will proceed as follows. the first candidate will get two minu

first on the list there is mark geist, survivor of benghazi.s is the second name a gold star mom named karen vaughn. gold star mom, given what happened in the campaign. you pay attention to that a couple of generals given trump certainly has been courting the support of the military and polling pretty well there. generals mike flynn and keith kellogg will be here. debate taking place what is normally hofstra's basketball arena behind me will be 90 minutes. no commercial breaks. lester holt, two moderators and lick turns. that is way it happens. , they break it down into six, 15 minute segments. you get two minutes if you're the candidates to answer opening the question of each segment. after that it is ten minutes where there will be open debate and discussion that follows. so, that will be a interesting to see how lester holt handles that. the first question of the evening will go by wait to hillary clinton. that sets you up for tonight. could be one of the most watched television events we've ever seen. i heard you talking about that earlier.

that died. 8:46 marking the moment the first plane hit the north tower, 17 minutes later american airlines flight 175 hit the south tower. terror attacks of september 11th. i'm willie geist in new york. "sunday today" will continue in a moment. for others, we'll now continue to your regularly scheduled program. >> we're back with "sunday today," coming up next, harry smith with a remembrance, where hmmmmmm..... ck ] hmmmmm... the turbocharged dream machine. the volkswagen golf gti. named one of car and driver's 10best, if your sneezes are a force to be reckoned with... you may be muddling through allergies. try zyrtec? for powerful allergy relief. and zyrtec? is different than claritin?. because it starts working faster on the first day you take it. of the morning of tuesday, september 11th, 2001, are as fresh as if they happened yesterday. we all know exactly where we were, who we were with, and how we felt. but 15 years is a long time. the country and the world changed. harry smith on the road we've traveled since 9/11. >> 9/11, on a crystal clear morning 15 years ago, we woke up to images we will never forget. how is it an incident so sered in our memory can seem to h

mark connolly. >> pauley: this is a 1940 maytag washer. also an antique. much admired by a small but determined group of collectors. and for them, as our bill geist discovered, this gem is anything but all washed up. >> you consider wash days as nothing more than a chore? attitude. try to be more positive, more enthusiastic. >> want to go do laundry. >> like these guys. >> bring your dirty. there we go. >> they love laundry. they can't wait to wash. >> what is best for colored -- you want to do this one? >> get your laundry. >> they're members of the washing machine collectors really. this is your treasure trove. >> yes, it is. >> come on in, bill. >> this is a top loader. this is '57 speed queen. it's a washer-drier. this is 1958. >> john charles was a founder of the group back in 1984. how many members at that point? >> about six i think. now up about 3,000 members. collectors. a staggering, some might say alarming figure. >> we have a collector in madagascar. our first russian member. people in australia. everywhere. >> members gather regularly. >> put more dirty clothes in here. >> for what are called wash-ins like this one at john's house ne

mark halperin. his team is here too. and on capitol hill, former ted cruz campaign communications director and now an msnbc political contributor rick tyler. >> and ageing teenage sensation willie geist. right? >> teen heartthrob. >> you know when you walk in new kids on the block are, like, 48 years old. fanny pack. smoking cigars. not the same thing. >> the newish kids on the block. >> the polls are proving me wrong so far. we don't have national or swing states. a new poll found 52% feel that hillary clinton won the debate. 26% said neither. 21% said donald trump was the winner. there's some good legitimate polling on the debate. >> mark halperin, what impact does that have? at the end of the day, do you think the first debate is a wash? or do you think hillary is going to pick up a few? >> everyone said she won in a big way. >> i go back to good gets better and bad gets worse. she's got confidence now. she's raising money. her team is confident. they're getting volunteers out. easier to get surrogates out on the road for her. i don't think trump as mika suggested on tuesday, i don't think this will cause him to collapse in the polls. i think trump supporters are finding ways to r