we we just heard from mark preston. i want to get some sound to illustrate what mark was talking about. tim kaine almost sacrificed himself for hillary clinton. he didn't try to win for him. he tried to lose the debate for donald trump. listen to the prepared lines that tim kaine came out firing against mike pence but really against donald trump. >> and donald trump supremacist. your hired president in hillary clinton, or do you want in the fired president in donald trump. >> donald trump can't start a war with miss universe. >> he's got supporters. if you don't know the difference between dictatorship and leadership then deputy go back to a fifth grade civics class. >> had we played the sound bite of mike pence first, tim kaine would have interrupted him because he was doing that a lot. >> whatever happened to mild-mannered dads. we were told this was going to be the boring dad debate. it turned out to be anything but. tim kaine was there to make the case for clinton. he was trinking about the 40 or 50 million viewers

cnn politics executive eder mark preston joining us from the debate site in las vegas. needs to be done, these closing arguments for both candidates, and this the final debate. let's start first with donald trump. >> certainly, wolf. against, the last time we'll see the two candidates together face-to-face, to millions, tens of millions of viewers tomorrow night watching and to see what they have to say. first donald trump. he needs to get back to the basics. p pivot away from the allegations of sexual misconduct and stop talking about vladimir putin and he needs to stop talking about the election getting rigged. to that point, two, needs to explain how he's going to govern. talk about what his policies will be, how he's going to get them done. what are some of his top priorities. how he would work with capitol hill and he needs to emphasize his ethics reform package, which could be a popular item, certainly with so much frustration towards washington, d.c., and thirdly, he needs to highlight the e-mail controversy. >> i want you to stand by. mark, stand by a moment. the

the short answer -- >> you know what the question mark as mark preston said in the last segment, the d trump than maybe even knowing what's in there. >> i think if he puts the information out there, i -- i'm comfortable with it because what congressman sensenbrener was talking about is the fact that there were -- there was more than one server, 13 different devices, the fact now we have five people who have been given immunity. the fact that there were classified e-mails in there, which she said she did not have any classified e-mails. the fact that -- >> come on. >> -- 33,000 had been destroyed. the director is saying none of that is relevant or big enough to reopen, but now something else is, i think it would further damage -- >> okay, first -- >> governor i have to run, i'll give you ten seconds. >> i was going to say it's not reopened. he brought this to congress because he doesn't know what else to do with it, but he needs to tell us whether or not they're duplicates, whether there's any classified information in it, that can be done quickly. he owes it to the american people bec

black with me now, mark mckinnon and mark preston. mr. preston, trump gave a speech to revitalize the inner cities. listen to this. >> we will also police our streets. have to make our streets safe. i want every poor african-american child to be able to walk down the street in peace and not be scared and not be hurt. the problem is not the presence of police, but the absence of police. we need really a great group of people to keep you safe, to keep us all safe. the war on police urged on by my rival is really reckless. what's happening is reckless and dangerous and puts african-american lives at risk and all you have to do is look at the statistics and you see what's happening. we must work with our police not against them. we're going to work together. >> mark, there has been an ongoing debate about what these speeches are really about, who he's targeting when he talks about the inner cities and police like that. who is it? >> you know, i think donald trump thinks he's targeting everybody in those but that's a very difficult speech to g

do we have mark preston? >> hey, victor, good morning. >> we'll get to mark in a moment.et me stay with you, michael. so, let me put that to you. this would have been a damned if you do, damned if you don't situation. if they started to look into these potential e-mails and said nothing until after the election, then of course republicans would have said that fbi was covering up for hillary clinton. >> well, victor, i think you make an interesting point about the role reversal that has just taken place in the last couple weeks with regard to how partisans on the left and the right look at the fbi director because it was the democrats who very recently were looking at comey and saying he might be a republican but he's a man of integrity. he looked at all the facts that pertained to secretary clinton and her private e-mail servers and he determined that while there was some wrong doing it didn't rise to a criminal level. all of a sudden now it's the democrats who are saying how could he possibly have done this? this violates a protocol within the justice department of not d

mark preston thank you.an will have more on this coming up tomorrow morning on his show reliable sources live from washington university. 11:00 a.m. eastern tomorrow morning. quick break, we're back in a moment. ♪ ♪ jon batiste has mastered new ways to play old classics. with chase atms, he can master new ways to deposit checks too. easy to use chase technology for whatever you're trying to master. >>> all right. i'm poppy harlow live from st. louis. sources telling us at cnn that donald trump is still deciding with his team whether or not he will make a speech tonight. regarding the fallout from the voe videotape in him in 2005 making those explicit comments towards women. this as we have learned his running mate mike pence after issuing that statement saying he cannot defend trump's comments. mike pence is headed tonight to providence, rhode island where he'll be attending a private fundraiser. this scandal has led a growing list of republicans to say they cannot stand by and support donald trump. this as

joining us now mark preston, cnn politics executive director and brian stelter, and host of "reliablees." good morning to both of you. >> good morning. >> mark, when we were talking yesterday, the defections were in the single digits. we have the gallery we can put up. we're talking about a mass exodus from the trump campaign, the supporters in congress. you have condoleezza rice who hasn't said much at all saying, enough. he can't be president. >> 24 hours we were saying how jason chaffitz came out and all of a sudden you're starting to see a mass exodus. you're starting to see more today. specifically, if we see donald trump go there, when i mean go there, go after hillary clinton through bill clinton, then i think you're going to see a huge mass exodus come tomorrow. i do expect democrats to continue to try to hit trump very hard, try to hit your opponents who aowe pope nents -- opponents. >> where is kellyanne conway? we haven't heard from her since this video is out? >> kellyanne conway was booked on morning shows. chris christie was booked on morning shows. they were all cancele

. >> let's get right now to mark mackinnon, the show times, the circus, and mark preston, good evening, gentlemen. a bunch of new national polls out today so what do they show? >> in a month of bad headlines he got some good news for this evening any way in a new fox news poll. right now it shows hillary clinton only has a three point advantage over donald trump. now, with in that poll, it shows that trump has a 14-point advantage with white voters, 5-point advantage with male voters, a 28-point advantage with non-educated whites. now, where does hillary clinton, where does she see her strengths? not surprisingly 77 point advantage with african-americans, a 10-point advantage with women and 18-point advantage with those that are under -- voters under 30. however we can't look at one poll as a solo and say that's the snapshot of the race. let's look at the cnn poll of poles whe polls, that cnn has selected and gives us a better idea of the race it. shows clinton has a six-point lead right now over donald trump. now, of course this is a national poll, and it includes the new fox news pol

mark preston, what do you think?> don, let me just read you this e-mail that i've gotten from a democratic strategist about what jason chaffetz just had to say, my god, forget utah, literally the guy leading the investigations of hillary clinton is pulling his support from trump. that says a lot of things, not only like jason chaffetz, considered a leaders in house of representatives, has taken a lot of rocks against the investigation on hillary clinton, pulling his support is monumental. and if you look at someone like paul ryan, who hesitated and tried to roll out his own apology agenda, he created a way for republicans to not support pinteresting to see what we hea from speaker ryan in the next couple days because you know at this point, speaker ryan has to worry about maintaining control of the house of representatives. that is his political job. his political job isn't to get elected. that's his job. we'll see, as well as the saent leade sae senate leaders. >> and i think it's emblumat tic. donald trump has a le

. >>> let's talk about it with cnn politics executive editor mark preston. mark, we have seen just a continued drum beat of republicans declaring that they will not be voting for donald trump. we just saw here on twitter, if we have it, we can put it up. if not, i'll put it up. from former california governor arnold schwarzenegger, for the first time i've become a citizen i will not vote for the republican candidate. he was a kasich supporter. it reinforces this continued drum beat some calling it a mass exodus from the trump campaign. >> it's not a drip, drip, drip, it's a continuing draw of the water out of the faucet right now. i think we're going to see it tonight. tomorrow morning you could see a lot of people start abandoning donald trump. here's the problem for republicans. you have house republicans, everyone of them on the ballot. you have several republican senators in peril right now and connecting themselves to donald trump right now could be disastrous. they could be dragged down and lose in november. >> where is the defense? we have not seen nor

mark preston, you first.e us through this new poll, which came -- responses came after last week's debate. >> right. so a couple of things. as you see right there, hillary clinton on top 47%, donald trump at 42%. this is actually a seven-point swing. she's up four points over our last poll, she's down three points. put them together, she's up three. right now, with independent voters, she's up seven points. that is significant from our last poll. in addition to that, white voters without college education, that's down to 21%. and the enthusiasm with hillary clinton voters is going up, while we're seeing the trump enthusiasm going down slightly. so if you're in the hillary clinton campaign in brooklyn, you're having a good day. >> he really needs to turn that around, david. this is a trajectory that, for donald trump, cannot continue if he wants a shot at the white house. >> absolutely. i attribute that to the last wing where he's strung out the loss of the debate over the course of a week and it remains a tur

. >> mark preston, he was on message in his first speech earlier today in ohio.'t deviate much at all from the teleprompter. he is staying on that message for now, but how long can he do that? >> i am sure that his advisors right now are looking at their watches and wondering the same thing. every time that donald trump seems to have had a good day staying on message, following the teleprompters, not talking about sexual abuse allegations, not talking about a rigged system, not attacking his own party, he has a good day, seems to do well. he doesn't seem to be able to get out of his own way. he clouds his own message, creates a lot of white noise around it. oftentimes when he is trying to put out major policy proposals like we saw this past weekend in gettysburg, pennsylvania, he stepped over his message by the preamble about suing everyone who has been accusing him of sexual misconduct. for now he is doing okay. we'll see what happens by tomorrow. does the spin it off again. >> jackie kucinich. he tweeted about rigged elections. people are not happy, big lines,

mark preston says this is the en. trump says i will never get out. i am in this to the end. >> i think in his head, he can rally. he can turn this around. he reminds me very much of nixon in the closing months. he loved these kind of hard hat responses. he could get that still, even as things were closing in on him. the difference here is that the republican national committee doesn't have the power to remove trump at the top of the ticket. so he can take it all the way through the election. >> i say it's the end of his candidacy in the sense there is no possible way he can win the presidency. i think david is right. he, he's got so much ego at stake in himself he doesn't want to step aside. >> what is interesting, a hillary clinton supporter said to me earlier today, if, indeed, he does not win and she does win, she says, is this how you want to win? >> no one guessed we would have been here right now. i think for hillary clinton, a win is a win. if she does go on to win, but nothing that donald trump has shown in his character, leading up to now, n

errol lewis is back, ron brownstein and mark preston, lynn skweet. mark donald trump actually answered the question. i'm not so sure that hillary clinton did. >> well, it was predictable what she said. it was -- i mean literally when the question was asked, we were sitting around watching, said going right to the children. because the children have been praised throughout the whole campaign, and they do seem like they're very well put together -- >> she didn't say he was a great father and he raised his children to be the respectful adults they are now. >> she didn't. but she walked a fine line and that was the -- that was the good thing she could find in donald trump. now what his answer was caught us all off guard quite frankly, because it really did give us a window into his mind, and his thinking, which is exactly where he is in this campaign. fight, fight, fight. he looked at her and said god she's given me quite a run right now for this and i like the fact that she is a fighter. and that's the way he seems to have conducted himself his entire l

i will bring mark preston into the conversation because we just got word of this new poll out of utahs a credible poll, mark. it shows something amazingly -- i'm just looking at these results. it's so bizarre because utah is usually a reliably republican state, but this poll finds clinton at 26%, trump at 26%, and independent evan mcmullin at 22%. i would say that most voters don't even know who evan mcmullin really is. >> correct. this is something larry and i and you have been talking over for the last couple days. this is a point where donald trump is not adding on to his coalition. he's losing states right now. in a state like utah, shouldn't even be on the board. they shouldn't even be polling in utah right now. it would be a waste of money. the fact of the matter is when you have utah right now, a number like that coming out, you have a state like north carolina that trump needs to win, a state like florida. we have even seen polling out of ohio that has hillary clinton up. that should be a state that donald trump should be winning. this is where you are looking at hillary clint

you could see different outcomes. >> no doubt. >> mark preston, thank you very much.ooking forward to talking to you about austria and we didn't get to do it today. >> technology, how we love it. >>> hillary clinton gaining in the polls with just two weeks until election day. but donald trump says he's winning. members of congress who support each make their case, next. winning shot. that was it for me. that's why i'm quitting with nicorette. only nicorette mini has a patented fast dissolving formula. it starts to relieve sudden cravings fast. every great why needs a great how. >> i've got news for all the people taking advantage of our rigged system. in 17 days, everything is going to change. >> he refused to say that he would respect the results of this election and that is a threat to democracy. >>> just two weeks left until election day. hillary clinton and donald trump. time for them to make closing arguments. the good news is, it will finally be about you. the latest national poll shows clinton with the lead, but there's time to turn around. a lot of questions a

mark preston, do you think that sells? >> i mean, no.l i mean, look, he tried -- he tried to make it sell. but the fact is tim kaine time and time again basically he used that 90 minutes last night to try to bring up every bad thing, every crass statement that donald trump has made. and you know, we showed that poll number at the beginning that showed that mike pence had won the debate. a couple things, one is vice presidential debates, voters don't look at those numbers and say okay i'm voting for the republican ticket on that number. while mike pence had a good night no doubt certainly personally, you got to wonder if it's going to move the needle. but also within that poll, is two things, one is at the end of the night, the poll watchers said that tim kaine, 7 in 10 of those, that tim kaine is qualified to be president of the united states. nearly 8 in 10 said mike pence. but even more importantly, 58% of those poll watchers in that poll said that tim kaine did a better job of defending his running mate's record. only 35% said mike pe

mark preston "outfront" with me now. tube b. david gergen and tom fuentes former fbi assistant director. mark preston, what do you make of her strategy? this is going on offense. come on fbi. you say you got something. put out there or i have nothing to say. >> and our reporting is telling us in fact it was a shared device that was huma was using with her husband anthony weiner. i suspect they do have an idea of what humaed a forwa ed had f the devices. so a very good defense is a strong offense. and the fact of the matter is this probably, there is a chance this doesn't necessarily touch hillary clinton other than the fact that one of her aides might have done something that was wrong. >> can i just add? we can argue as the clever strategy to take the offense. one thing we know almost for sure is that the fbi is not going to release anymore information for the next 11 days. because this is an issue about classified information. classified information -- >> -- throw them out there then the world could see classified e-mails. >>

bring in mark preston, mark mckinnon, who is the cocreator of show's the circus, inside the greatest political show on earth. and krysta anderson, a columnist for the washington examiner. hopefully we'll get larry to join us in a bit. donald trump is doing everything -- first of all, before we go there, of course they didn't think the microphones were on, right? >> yes i thought, why is she saying it, they never would have said it if they didn't think the microphones were on. he's doing everything he can to convince voters there's collusion between the media and clinton campaign. >> my husband is kind and a gentleman and he would never do that. that -- everything was organization organized and put together to hurt him. to hurt his candidacy. >> organized by -- >> the competition. >> the media, clintons? >> yes. >> you think they're working together? >> yes, of course. >> it's a vast left wing media conspiracy, does that hold water in. >> two problems with that, one is, it wreaks of complaining and it sounds like you're losing. it sounds like a losing team complaining about the refs o

mark preston was reporting on this earlier and they're going to do that until after the debate for lots of reasons, but mostly because they're not sure what to do. it's a holding pattern. >> stand by. we'll have much more of our coverage coming up. right now i want to go to a senior advisor to the trump campaign, former congressman jack kingston. congressman, thanks very much for joining us. tell us why you still stand behind donald trump. >> well, number one, i think the next couple days will be important. i think that his apology last night was very important. melania's statement today was important. and the fact that tomorrow night he's going to have an opportunity to address this in front of the american people and tie it in with why he feels contrition from something that happened ten years ago. so i think one of the messages that i've been saying to fellow republicans is sit tight, give this thing a few days before you jump ship. you know, as you know, politicians are risk adverse and they don't always listen to you. but, wolf, let me say this. as i sit down and make a list of wha

cnn politics executive editor mark preston is here to break it down for us. mark, let's talk about the polls and all of this stuff. there's a whole slew of polls that have come out in the last 48 hours, they tell a pretty clear story. what's the state of this race right now? >> well, don, let's use the polls as the road map for donald trump. quite frankly, for hillary clinton to try to win the nomination. cnn has three polls that have come out today. they are north carolina, nevada and ohio. if you look at these numbers right here, it shows that hillary clinton is up two points in the state of nevada where i stand right now. she is up one point in north carolina, and donald trump is up four points in ohio. now, we know donald trump was talking up the polls today, saying how well he's doing. but it really is a tough road for him ahead. let's take a look at the battleground map right now, the electoral map, to show you how difficult it is for him, don. if you look at this map right now, donald trump would need to winnow high owe, north carolina and florida, and

louis, cnn politics executive editor mark preston. mark, good morning again.ood morning to you for the first time, brianna. >> good morning. jason chaffetz, a top critic of hillary clinton for some time now now retracting his endorsement of donald trump. mark, first to you, put that into context. help people understand the graef gravity of that. >> let's just say this happened very quickly last night around 11:30. jason chaffetz called into cnn and retracted his endorsement. why this is so big? because jason chaffetz has spent the last couple years on capitol hill investigating hillary clinton going after her specifically about benghazi. as the interview was going on, i received an e-mail from a top level democratic official who says to me, oh, my god, i can't believe chaffetz who went after hillary clinton for so long is now disavowing donald trump. what jason chaffetz is doing is created cover for other republicans. and we have seen a few of them to go out and distance themselves as far as they can from donald trump. we're heading into an election that isn't

mark preston, hillary clinton celebrated her 69th birthday and donald trump cut the ribbon on his new hotel in dc. what are the next 13-day strategy? >> we know they're not going to be fundraising in big events. they're going to be on the campaign trail. donald trump took a brief detour, came to washington, d.c., opened up his hotel, and went quickly back to the campaign trail. bottom line they're spending all of their time in the battleground state and those states they think they need for a path to victory. for donald trump, states such as florida, colorado, north carolina. states in order for him to get to 270 he needs to win. >> donald trump needs to expand his base, as you said, that's to win. today he's talking about revitalizing cities. is he adding voters among african americans or minorities? >> we've seen the polls tighten and we're starting to see democrats start to continue to consolidate behind hillary clinton and see that move towards donald trump. the fact of the matter he needs to get more republicans to come out and say they're going to be with him and vote for him on

joining us is mark preston, cnn politics executive editor. hi, mark. >> reporter: hey, carol.ning. how are you? >> do you see those lines in georgia? >> reporter: i'm going to tell you what. it is amazing now that we are seeing this process now finally coming to an end. we're seeing people not only in georgia but several other states right now who are getting out there and early voting. this is very key now to both political parties because the more people you can get to vote early can get them out now, they can then focus on those voters that are a little bit harder, a little bit harder to persuade to get to the polls. the question is who is this really going to benefit, carol. we're not quite sure. we haven't seen the early voting totals. if you are to believe the ground operation that hillary clinton has put in place over the past couple of years, you might have to think that this might actually benefit her, carol. >> traditionally does early voting benefit democrats? >> reporter: well, they certainly have a better ground operation than we've seen from republicans. certainl

david gregory and maeve reston and mark lewis and mark preston. does anything think he did?oes that make you happy? what did you think he did that effectively stopped the bleeding? >> i think it changes the subject. i thought having a debate this soon after the scandal would be bad news for trump. now it is good news. they spent 20 minutes talking about the scandal and then talked about aleppo and benghazi. now we are not talking about billy bush. >> give me one thing he said last night that you were impressed by as to what to do to make the situation better. >> i don't know i can say that about either of them. i thought his answer on the tax question where he says i did not pay taxes, but you know, neither did hillary's donors. in the first debate, she baited him and he fell for it. that didn't happen last night. >> go ahead, david. >> chris, for people for republicans who are now feeling safe enough to politically abandon him, i think they will vote. i don't necessarily said he has mitigated that. i think matt's writing changes a bit. the clinton campaign will have all thi

and mark preston, cnn politics executive editor. to have you with me, i wanted to begin, simone, with you on the race riots monthly statement that trump made last night. fair assessment? >> no, i think it's a gross and overreaching generalization. >> why? >> it just goes to show donald trump is out of touch. these aren't race riots that are happening. in the places that donald trump mentioned, these are unarmed black men who have been essentially gunned down, executed, modern day lynching some people would say, by police officers in these communities, we have to have real conversations about the state of race relations here in america, the disproportionality that exists in our criminal justice system and donald trump's comments last night goes to show he doesn't get it and doesn't understand. that's inflammatory language. it's dog whistle politics. >> would you say, andre, as a trump supporter, he's overstating? we saw the pictures in charlotte and what happened in tulsa and beyond but is that overstating? >> i don't believe so. we

i think agree with mark preston if tim kaine let mike pence make his points he attacks after that. he probably wins his debate. this is what hillary clinton did. he did not interrupt tim kaine. >> one, the split screen is what cnn does. most with the debate didn't have it that way. pence looked at the camera most of the night which was a really smart thing to do especially in the split screen. it was a little weirder in the open format because he wasn't looking at tim kaine. one of the thing that pence missed last night, jackie, coming off so much not donald trump in terms of what he said and what he was. that had to be a balancing point. at one point, i thought he was going to say, look, i would never say anything like that. but the guy is not a politician. that's a lot of what you had to watch last night. >> that whole he's not a politician actually got pence in the middle of the debate. trying to say something about what donald trump said about -- oh, comments about women and abortion if roe versus wade is appealed that women should be punished. and kaine said oh, you're whippin

>> mark preston, thanks very much, as always. our latest poll shows american voters do care what's in donald trump's taxes, which should make saturday's story by the "new york times" should make more disconcerting this report. the numbers made their way to a reporter's mailboxes, and it showed trump reported a near $1 billion loss in 1994, a loss so sizeable that the real estate mogul would have been able to use that loss to avoid paying income taxes for the next 18 years. jason carroll is in loveland, colorado. jason, has the trump campaign given any indication they're going to release more tax returns in response to this "new york times" story? >> no. at least not yet, but i can tell you this. it seems as though donald trump is planning to address the issue at some point today, address the controversy. i can tell you a number of his surrogates, though, have been out defending donald trump, basically saying what he did makes him a financial genius. donald trump is on the defensive after the "new york times" published his 1995 ta

cnn's mark preston and "washington post" david swerdlick. this is happening now, the fec federal election commission campaign released their final report before the election. what does it show? >> pretty telling information right here from reports that just got made public. we know right now heading into election day donald trump has $16 million in the bank, $16 million to buy advertising, get out the vote, pay for campaign expenses in closing days. meanwhile, hillary clinton $62 million in the bank. look at the discrepancy right there. of course, donald trump has gotten a lot of earned media, meaning he hasn't had to pay for it, but necessarily that is a big discrepancy. more importantly, we saw the other day our own dana bash interviewed donald trump, asked if he planned to put more money into the campaign. he said he planned to put in over $100 million and he's willing to go more than that. but what we've seen from the reports, don, that he at the time had put in less than $60 million at that time. don, get this, in the last month he only

cnn's mark preston and david swerdlick are both here. a bit of news that's just happening now, mark, the fec federal election commission, campaign just released their final report before the election. what does it show? give us the highlights? >> some pretty telling information from these reports. we know heading into election day, donald trump has $16 million in the bank, $16 million to buy advertising, get out the vote, pay for campaign expenses in these closing days now, meanwhile, hillary clinton, $62 million in the bank. look at that right there now of course donald trump has gotten a lot of earned media, meaning he hasn't had to pay for it but necessarily that is a big discrepancy and more importantly, we saw dana bash interviewed donald trump, and asked him if he planned to put more money into the campaign and he said he planned to put in over $100 million and he's willing to go more than that. what we've seen, he at the time put in less than $60 million at that time, and don get this, in the last month he only put in $31,000, so,

. >> gloria borger and mark preston, good evening. >> maybe the president will really say how he feels about donald trump. but welcome from las vegas. thank you so much, gloria. the debate is less than 24 hours away. donald trump is still talking about this rigged election. i want you to listen to him a short while ago at a rally in colorado. >> they even want to try and rig the election at the polling booths where so many cities are corrupt and vote are fraud is all too common and they say there's no voter fraud in our country. no, no, there's no voter fraud. take a look at st. louis, take a look at philadelphia, take a look at chicago. >> so gloria, he seems to be lumping -- first he said there is widespread voter fraud and critics are saying there is no voter fraud, but there's no evidence of wide scale voter fraud is the truth of it. it's just not true. why is he continuing to push this story and as the president is saying he's crying before he even finishes the game? >> well, you know, the rig the election has two-parts. first part is the media, which he says the media supports hi

mark preston, thanks so much. donald trump not just laying into republicans, trump seizing on hacked e-mails released by wikileaks saying the department of justice helped hillary clinton's campaign, in his words, cover up her crimes. >> this is collusion and corruption of the highest order. and is one more reason why i ask my attorney general, i will ask, to appoint a special prosecutor. we have to investigate hillary clinton and we have to investigate the investigation. this was a disgrace. >> we'll get to the e-mail mr. trump was talking about in just a minute. but first, clinton's campaign is firing back, alluding that the trump team and russia are actually in cahoots. >> so i think it's a reasonable assumption to -- or at least a reasonable conclusion that mr. stone had advanced warning and the trump campaign had advanced warning about what assange was going to do. >> really? suzanne malveaux has more on this. good morning. >> good morning, carol. hillary clinton and her team continue to be dogged by the drip,

so there is big concern about it. >> we heard, mark preston, the first lady in arizona. do they really think that's doable, arizona right now? it hasn't gone for a republican presidential candidate in, what, 20 years? >> bill clinton was the last person to win it. before that it was harry truman. which tells you the state of the electorate out there. it's an electorate that's changing. a lot of hispanics are moving into that state. state republican officials will say they're afraid of losing arizona. the problem in arizona is, could john mccain get caught into the donald trump slide. as jamie said. negative coattails. john mccain who, by the way. criticized donald trump for his comments today about saying he might not accept the election results. but they're going in with money. we saw chelsea clinton out there. we've seen bernie sanders out there as well. they think they can make a play. >> you know, it's interesting. you cover donald trump. it seemed that hillary clinton had a strategy to get under his skin and see what happens. for example, the debate was -- seemed to

cnn's mark preston and david swerdlick are both here. a bit o

mark preston and jackie kucinich. let's first go to the national poll that's come out. interesting because it is post-tape. it's after voters saw the tape, but it's before the debate. this is an nbc poll. she has a double-digit lead here. 46% to his 35% in a four-way race. can you give us some context. 28 days before past elections, has there ever been a candidate who's made it back from that kind of deficit? >> i don't think so. in fact, what we're seeing right now is obviously she's going in the right direction, he's going in the wrong direction. if you look at those numbers, 35%, i don't think we've ever seen him drop that low. he usually hovers around 40%, 41%, which means after that tape, assuming that poll captured it correctly, that not only, you know -- not only did he not gain any support, obviously, but he lost core support. that's critical right now. he needed to build on. now he's starting to erode underneath his foundation a little bit. that's a bad place to be. >> do you want to ask the fly from the debate a question? >> chris booked him. >> or i say that

let's talk about this with cnn politics editor mark preston and david swerdlick. all right. you know, athena was talking about premiums, right? well, mark, deductibles are enormous for some of these voters, and i mean enormous. when i was reporting in ohio last week i talked to a lot of people who were on obamacare. some people say their deducti e deductibles are $7,000. they can't afford to go to the doctor even though they have health insurance through obamacare. so voters do care deeply about this issue, especially those voters affected by it. >> yeah. this is what you would call when we talk about pocketbook issues, guess what, this is a pocketbook issue because it affects people across the board, specifically those, as you said, that are having trouble actually paying for them. you know, this would be -- jay carney's right, this would be a very politically potent issue if there was a different candidate i would argue with jay that was running right now that wasn't muddling his message, that was really hammering this home. specifically in states, as you said, in ohio wher

susan paige is with me, the washington bureau chief for "usa today" and mark preston is the executive director for cnn politics. welcome to all of you. so, mark, you saw randi kaye showing pictures of tim kaine and mike pence around and most people don't know who they are. >> no, they don't. according to our cnn/orc poll, 1/3 of american voters don't know who either of them are. think about where we are in this campaign. you have two larger than life personalities, hillary clinton, donald trump who are sucking up all the oxygen. this isn't back in 2008 when sarah palin came onto the stage and everybody knew who she was. look, the focus has been on those two candidates. as you said tonight, their big job is not to make any mistakes and really try to do their best to promote their running mates. it's going to be a difficult task. it will be interesting to see how they handle it. >> errol, i wanted to ask you. what is the purpose of this particular vice presidential debate as it applies to this year's election? >> the way i think of it, carol, you have candidates who are trying to, of co

i have listened to what mark preston has been saying the last couple days. he's absolutely correct. this election, i'm not going to say it's cooked and done but i smell it cooking. >> okay. so we are going to talk much more about that after a break. you guys will stick around with the exception of manu, who has to get back to work and talk with his sources. >>> still to come in the "newsroom" they clashed but did they convince undecided voters to change their minds? ♪ ♪ ♪ don't just eat. mangia! bertolli. perfect driving record. until one of you clips a food truck. then your rates go through the roof. perfect. ♪ for drivers with accident forgiveness, liberty mutual won't raise your rates due to your first accident. and if you do have an accident, our claims centers are available to assist you twenty-four seven. call for a free quote today. liberty stands with you™. liberty mutual insurance. >>> last night's debate was tense, at times even uncomfortable. donald trump's main goal, try and stop the current crisis inside his campaign after a lewd and sexually aggressive video surfaced.

let's discuss the political bottom line with mark preston.the premise, do you think that's what that tweet is about, the blame game? >> oh, no doubt. he's been laying this, quite frankly, let's go back to the primary. i mean, he was laying this groundwork that if he didn't win the primary he was going to blame the establishment. now we're into the general election. if he doesn't win on the second tuesday in november he is going to blame not only the establishment, he's going to blame everybody and say that it was rigged. if you heard him last night in pennsylvania, he was saying it again. >> because he can't lose. that's what people have said, that donald trump is known as a winner. his identity is wrapped up in being a winner. so paul ryan is really out on a limb because paul ryan now trying to distance himself from donald trump, if he doesn't deliver the house, paul ryan, i mean, this is a big risk what paul ryan did yesterday. >> i think so, but i've got to tell you yesterday. politically i think paul ryan took the right route. personally,

louis, cnn politics executive editor mark preston. glad to see you both of you today., at the heart of what might be some of the most difficult language here for her to overcome, is it on the trade issue? >> the trade issue is really tough. i will tell you that. so her stance on trade is an issue. she's talking about there should be basically open borders and that she's a trade supporter. now, that's something that i think a lot of bernie sanders supporters had suspected and had known she has a background of supporting nafta, of supporting the transpacific partnership even though she totally flip-flopped on that and is now against it as a candidate. just some of the subject lines of these e-mails. clinton admits she is out of touch. she's talking to in a speech about how she basically grew up humbly because of the economic fortunes she and her husband have that she is kind of far removed from it. that is actually a quote. and then she also talks about needing a private and public position on policy. she talks about holding wall street accountable only for political rea

so they are taking issue, mark preston with three things. saying the reporter never bumped into melania trump outside trump tower after the incident. that the little exchange reported in the magazine between melania and this reporter where she gave the baby baron a squeeze on the foot never happened. but what i find fascinating is it doesn't dispute any of the actual events that were sexual assault. >> well because how can melania trump say that they occurred. they didn't occur when she wasn't there. here is the problem rite now for donald trump. this is the second time we've seen his wife have to put a statement out in less than a week defending her husband against charges of in this case sexual misconduct on saturday afternoon on the basis that he was a good man and that he didn't mean anything by the comments that we heard on that "access hollywood" tape. when we see donald trump out there on the campaign trail having to open up all of his rallies trying to defend himself from multiple allegations, it just shows you his whole campaign is

. >>> news just in from capitol hill, let's bring in mark preston, cnn politics executive editor. been listening to different republicans coming forward, will they, won't they support donald trump in the wake of this video? what are you hearing about senator marco rubio. >> we're hearing from our capitol hill producer, senator rubio has put out a statement, senator rubio is up for reelection in florida. >> yes, he is. >> it was a lengthy statement but to put it down to a bite sizable understanding. "i disagree with him on many things but i disagree with his opponent on virtually everything." this is marco rubio talking about donald trump. "i wish we had a better choice for president but i do not want hillary clinton to be our next president therefore my position has not changed. that means marco rubio is not withdrawing his endorsement or his support right now for donald trump for president even though he doesn't necessarily agree with him on every issue. >> so that's senator rubio. let's get to glenn beck. glenn beck after years, decades of slamming hillary clinton, equating her

let's discuss with cnn editor mark preston. look at the early data. 5.1 million votes have been cast in 35 states. those numbers are going to change in a couple hours. so far there's no way to tell how it's going, right? >> no, what we can tell is the demographic of the voter and the party registration of the voter. >> okay. let's look at some of that. we know that 1.4 million basically, democrats, have already voted. 1.1 republicamillion republican. but they might have crossed party lines. >> particularly in this election where donald trump has been able to draw some democrats to his side. >> let's look at florida. here's what we know about what's going on in florida. for comparison, let's look at 2008. half a million people voted early that year. look at these spread. many more republicans. this year a million people have already voted. and it's half and half. >> a couple things about this. the republican party has had a historic advantage when it comes to mail-in votes. florida, big military state. military tends to be more

. >> mark preston is getting ready to cover the second presidential debate. rk, you're getting new information. what are you learning? >> reporter: i've been on the phone with republicans in florida, in iowa, in new hampshire, trying to get quick reaction. as gloria was saying, apalling what they're saying. but getting a mixed reaction to this. one is, hey, listen, everybody knows he's a playboy, his supporters will stand by him and he's just going to harden the positions of those supporting him. however, they concede this, though, that middle vote that they need, the vote that's going to matter, that's going to win the election for hillary clinton or donald trump is gone. there's one republican in florida i spoke to, very well known republican asked not to be named, he said to me, it's over. it is over. at this point, wolf, you have to wonder how many straws are piling on the back of the camel. it appears this could be the one that breaks it. our colleague has some reporting from inside the campaign. she's telling us now, m.j. is telling us a close adviser to

with me now, mark preston, the executive editor for cnn's politics and abby philip is a reporter for "the washington post." welcome to both of you. so, mark, clinton leads trump by 12 points in that new abc poll, and by nine points in a new cnn poll of polls. isn't it premature, though, to say this race is over? >> yeah, look, carol, i mean the bottom line is, is that it's the race, the election were to be held today, donald trump would lose and we've seen that in this electoral maps not only cnn's but just about every other news organization shows that she would surpass the 270 electoral votes needed. but you know, there's still some time for donald trump to make up some ground. i think it would be very difficult right now for him to actually win this election. but who knows. i think this has been a campaign of surprises and who knows what's in store over the next few weeks. >> it certainly has been a campaign of surprises. so abby, kellyanne conway, who is trump's main woman, right? she's his campaign manager, she said over the weekend that trump is behind. she admitted that. but di

mark preston, what are we talking about in terms of the state of play here? why do democrats all of a sudden think there's a shot here? >> well, a lot has to do with the fact that she is doing so well right now, and when you are looking at the states that they are playing in right now, for instance, she's in new hampshire right now where you have kelly ayotte in big trouble, high numbers right now from -- >> uh-oh. here we go. >> let's put it on the board here. when you talk about the u.s. senate right now, let's just talk about new hampshire. you have kelly ayotte running against a popular governor, maggie hassan. hillary clinton is doing very well and kelly ayotte has gone back and forth about donald trump. the problem with that for her, she's alienating some of her trump supporters. she needs that base, at the same time trying to reach out now to the independents who are very very important in new hampshire. so she's very much in trouble. look at illinois right now. this race is pretty much off the board at this point. mark kirk right now, the incumbent re