sunlen, dan, and doug, stick around. still to come in the "newsroom" tonight the candidates face each other, and over a string of controversies. dogging both their campaigns. how they tackle these issues will be key to winning over the crucial undecided voter. an opening night on broadway is kind of magic. i'm beowulf boritt and i'm a broadway set designer. when i started designing a bronx tale: the musical, i came up... ...with this idea of four towers that were fire escapes... ...essentially. i'll build a little model in photoshop and add these... ...details in with a pen. i could never do that with a mac. i feel like my job is... ...to put out there just enough detail to spur the audiences... ...imagination to fill in all the blanks. this windows pc is amazing, having all of my tools... ...right at my finger tips is incredible. >>> a new headache for clinton just hours before the final presidential debate. an undercover video purporting to show democratic operatives, hired by the dnc, talking about how to incite viole

john and christine. >>> thank you, sunlen. what else is out there? a former "apprentice" propducer tweeted something far worse is out there. creator mark burnett does not have the right to release footage from the show. >>> both bill and hillary clinton will be in florida today. the former president with registration events across the state. secretary clinton with a rally in miami. she will be joined on the trail by former vice president al gore. he has devoted himself to climate change in the past few years. he is not involved in politics, but his presence is intended to send a clear message. remember, it is florida. cnn's jeff zeleny has a preview. >>. >> reporter: john and christine, hillary clinton is in florida today. she will be joined by former president al gore. he will make his first stop for hillary clinton focusing on climate change and focusing on millennial voters who may not be on board with her candidacy. when she was campaigning in michigan and ohio yesterday, she was talking about donald trump and all of his locker room talk. >> last

cnn's sunlen serfaty has the latest. >> reporter: good morning, john and christine. this is another bombshell for donald trump. two women have come forward to say trump accosted them and touched them inappropriately. one from 2005 and the other from more than 30 years ago. cnn has not been able to confirm, but one woman jessica leads goes on air with her account. >> it was over 35 years ago. i was hired by a news print company. i was a sales rep. i was traveling in the midwest. i was coming back to new york city. the stewardess asked if i would like to be moved to first class. i sat down to a young man, blond, tall. he introduced himself as donald trump. i was not aware of the real estate world of donald trump. it wasn't until they cleared the meal that somehow or another the armrest in the seat disappeared and it was a real shock when all of a sudden his hands were all over me. he started encroaching on my space. i hesitate to use this expression, but i will. he was like an octopus. he was all over the place. it's like he had six arms. if he stuck with the upper par

we begin with you, sunlen. donald trump began with unfinished business who accused him of sexual misconduct and spelled out his first day in office and the first 100 days if elected. what seemed to resinate with supporters there? >> reporter: it was, i think rather bizarre at the top of the speech. this was a major policy address by the trump campaign where he would be giving details on pollty specifics. we did get some new details on donald trump's immigration plan, most of this was just a repetition of many policy proposals he has proposed over the course of the campaign. for the first 16 minutes of his speech here, he had somewhat of an airing of grievances, going after hillary clinton saying she shouldn't be allowed to run, going after the establishment saying they are against his campaign, trying to stop him from going forward, bringing up cases of alleged voter fraud. so, certainly, trying to get out all of the things that, you know, his complaints over the course of the campaign first and foremost, then

sunlen used the term predatory.s a word that's going to be heard on the debate stage in a number of hours. that is so beyond damaging for donald trump. i'm not sure -- all the reporting so far indicates he does not realize it. that he is in trump tower, he is relatively isolated from what's going on. that sometimes is a consequence of being a billionaire businessman, of having your own tower, of having your own advisors that you depend on. i would assume he's been watching cable news. maybe it hasn't sunk in for him the consequences of what happened. >> especially what we saw yesterday afternoon. he had scores of supporters there cheering him on. >> soaking it up. >> soaking it up. >> not very presidential for him to do that. >> you have to understand that he feels under siege. the brightest point, he retweeted or tweeted yesterday been an interesting 24 hours. yeah, it has been. >> it certainly has been. >> mark preston, brian stelter. thank you very much. we'll continue tomorrow morning. tonight's debate is sure t

so with that, let's begin with sunlen serfaty here at unlv at the debate site. sunlen, give me a lay of the land and the rules, please. >> brooke, we spent time earlier today out there on the debate floor inside the debate hall to get a sense of the room, it felt like the calm before the storm we wanted to show you the details, the setup and stage where this is going to go down tonight. this here is the stage where donald trump and hillary clinton will make their closing arguments tonight and you'll see this is back to the formal podium-style debate that we saw in the first debate between the two of them. here is donald trump's podium, that over there is hillary clinton's podium. same stage positionings they've had in the previous two debates. you'll hear from hillary clinton first, that was decided by coin toss, she will get the first question. i want to flip this around and show you the view the candidates will be seeing when they're up there behind the podium. about a thousand people here in the audience tonight and here's how this will go down there will be

sunlen, we heard trump strike a different tone this morning. how would you characterize his bottom line message? >> reporter: right. a much different tone, wolf. used much more soaring rhetoric than we typically hear from donald trump. seemed he tried to go out of his way to bring a more optimistic message talking about hope. he talked about dreaming big. at one point he asked americans to dream bold with him. something we typically don't hear from donald trump out on the campaign trail, and one thing that struck a lot of us, at one point he said point blank, america is great. its people are great. that, of course, notable, because that is hillary clinton's retort to her criticism of donald trump's campaign slogan when he says he wants to make america great again. here's more of that optimistic tone he brought here today. >> let's close the history books on the failures in washington, and let's open a new chapter of success and prosperity for all of our people. we have a divided nation. a seriously divided nation. all of our people. that is how

meantime, cnn's sunlen serfaty is traveling with the trump campaign. she joins us from pennsylvania. donald trump is on stage right now. what, if anything, is being said about the debate last night? >> reporter: well, anderson, he seems quite satisfied with his debate performance. he's bringing it up in front of his crowd today saying it was an amazing night and it seems to be that he's trying to bring up the moment that many thought worked better for him last night in which he was very focused, going on the attack on hillary clinton over e-mails. he just brought up a few minutes ago the fact that he said if he were elected president, he would appoint a special prosecutor to investigate hillary clinton. that's certainly throwing out red meat to his crowd. and he is doubling down on bringing up bill clinton's past indiscretions, almost threatening to do more so. he says, look, if they're going to bring out more tapes on me, i'm going to keep brings up inappropriate things that bill clinton has done. this sort of scorched-earth strategy that we've all be

john and christine. >> thank you, sunlen. thanks to you for being there. >>> mike pence put to rest about doubts if he will remain as running mate. he was gushing over donald trump following the disclosure of the "access hollywood" tapes. he issued a statement refusing to defend trump's comments. at a rally in north carolina, he emphasized christian mercy. >> i don't condone what was said. the other part of my faith is i believe in grace. i received it. i believe in it. i believe in forgiveness. we're called to forgive as we have been forgiven. last night, my running mate showed the american people. he showed humility to the american people. then he fought back and turned the focus to the choice that we face and i'm proud to stand with donald trump. >> all right. so what else is out there? a former "apprentice" producer tweeted a far worse video exists. producer mark burnett doesn't have the legal right to release the footage from the show. he is barred from contract. >> both bill and hillary clinton will be in florida today.

sunlen, obviously very full crowd where you are. what do you expect from trump when he takes that stage moments from now? >> reporter: well, i think, erin, to expect to see a very defiant donald trump tonight which is really the tone that he has been taking as he campaigns throughout pennsylvania today. donald trump, of course, is still trying and fighting to keep his campaign off life support, but he continues to dig in further with many republicans. this is still very much a campaign and a party in crisis mode. tonight, donald trump's scorched-earth strategy is threatening to engulf the republican party. >> if they want to release more tapes saying inappropriate things, we'll continue to talk about bill and hillary clinton doing inappropriate things. there are so many of them. >> reporter: house speaker paul ryan today holding a conference call with republican lawmakers telling them according to sources on the call that he will no longer defend trump and will spend the next month focused on preserving the gop's congressional major

. >> sunlen, thank you. the other woman quoted by the times, rachel crooks says she met trump waiting for an elevator in 2005 when she was a 22 year old receptionist. they shook hands and he would not let go. she told the times it was inappropriate, i was so upset. neither took legal action, but the times spoke to family and friends whom they told about the encounters. the women chose to their tell stories after anderson cooper asked mr. donald trump in the debate. >>> and the lawyers demanded the lawyers demand a retraction or face a possible lawsuit. in the letter, the lawyers call it defamatory and libelous. it is apparent the timing of the article it is nothing more than a politically motivated effort to defeat his candidacy. clearly the times is willing to provide a platform for anyone wishing to smear his reputation. now, the letter does not offer facts refuting the times story and in and of itself is not a lawsuit and a lot of lawyers are saying taking a look at the draft letter, if in fact trump did

. >> let's begin with sunlen serfaty just outside the debate hall. sunlen, beginning with how are each of the candidates preparing ahead of the big debate? >> brooke, i think when both candidates take the stage it will be very clear that they are very well prepared. by all accounts both candidates have approached their debate prep in a very serious, consistent and disciplined way. they've both been running through question and answers with aides for months and the last few weeks, certainly at a higher intensity. and both have had these full-fledged mock debate sod they're getting a sense of how tonights may go. on the spot tonight will be mike pence after donald trump's no good very bad week. certainly he will be facing a lot of questions and will be on the defense about his own running mate, now, pence has signalled the direction that he would like the debate to go in tonight. he has said he is readying an attack obtain's record but while the center of the political universe feels like it's here in longwood, there is a lot of action away from farmvi

sunlen, what we saw from donald trump yesterday was fist pumping defiance. he's not going anywhere. >> that's right. he is not. this is unchartered territory we're entering. we have a republican nominee 30 days out who is facing some serious head winds here. republicans within his own party are revoking their endorsement. many are calling for him to drop out. donald trump is going into tonight's debate one of the most critical nights of his political life with his back against the wall. a defiant and fist pumping donald trump emerging from trump tower to chants of support. despite the chaos of the republican party, trump says he's not going anywhere. >> are you staying in the race? >> 100%. >> trump tweeting this, quote, the media and establishment want me out of the race so badly. i will never drop out of the race. will never let my supporters down. >> when you're a star, they let you do it. do anything you want. grab them by the [ bleep ]. do anything. >> after a 2005 video of donald trump making lewd and sexually predatory comments about women trump was f

sunlen, you were there in the room. we could hear a number of supporters were there and excited about what he was saying. closing arguments, while it may mean everything and the kitchen sink, it's a sum ryization of what he can do. do people have a better understanding of what a trump white house would look like? >>reporter: i think there was a lot to digest. what we did see from donald trump as you have been talking is he really did lay out the policy proposals he has over the course of the campaign, a restructuring, like a cliff notes version of everything he's proposed in one place. it seemed there was a lot of response, i have to say, fred, from the audience when he talked about immigration reform and talked about building a wall with mexico. wrinkles and additioned to that policy there, which is crowd seemed to like. again, this was a major policy speech. his 100 days, what he would do in office and certainly his closing message going forward. it did seem that the message was somewhat muddled with the way he approa

. >> all right, frank, sunlen, manu, stick around. the next hour begins now. >>> hello again and thank you so much for joining me. i'm fredricka whitfield live from washington university in st. louis, missouri the site of tomorrow night's presidential debate here on cnn. we begin with what everyone is talking about. can donald trump survive the fallout from that 2005 video where he made lewd and sexually illicit comments about women? trump says, yes, telling the wall street journal, there is zero chance i will quit. we'll talk to the reporter who spoke to trump in a moment. a source telling cnn there is growing pressure on the rnc to dump trump. a top rnc official tells cnn, it's unrealistic and risky to besiege 50 simpbt secretaries of state to change ballots or pursue write-in efforts. we are stuck and so is pence. calls for dumping trump coming hours after trump was caught on video making sexually explicit and vulgar comments toward women. his microphone was on during an unaired taping of ""access hollywoo hollywood", in 2005. it i

we've got sunlen serfaty at the trump rally in las vegas. phil mattingly is in milton manors. phil, we hear hillary clinton trying to stick with her commitment to the lgbt community. at the same time, did she address the elephant in the room, this fbi investigation review of e-mails? >> reporter: fred, don't think you'll see it in her stump speech going forward and here is why. she was rallying her supporters, her die-hard supporters. the coalition that she needs to come out. the clinton campaign find of figures it this way. if you had a problem with her e-mail practices or these investigations before this letter from jim comey went to capitol hill, you weren't going to vote for her anyway. they believe this is already baked in. while the campaign advisers will be out and we've seen them out repeatedly attacking director comey for this, what hillary clinton's role going forward will be to campaign, talk about their issues and what they want to do. essentially, act like this didn't happen. keep on with their strategy and bring out that coalition that they thought they had in pl

>> sunlen serfaty reporting live for us this morning. thank you. perhaps the biggest challenge for mike pence and tim kaine making sure voters know who they are as cnn's randi kaye hill, both candidates have a long way to go. >> reporter: who's this? long pause. >> i have no idea. >>. >> reporter: who's that? >> i have no idea. >> reporter: you're not starting out well. >> i know. i have no idea who that is. >> reporter: who's that guy. that's tim pence or john pence. >> reporter: pence, does that sound familiar, mike pence? >> that's a big ouch, right? so let's talk about that and more. errol lewis is here and cnn contributor. 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

let's turn to sunlen suerfaty. an extraordinary address. >> reporter: you could see clearly that michelle obama wanted this to be a very personal speech, talking about her personal pain and her personal anger that she felt in hearing these allegations against donald trump. in fact, she basically admitted that she threw out her normal campaign speech because all this had disturbed her so much and challenged all voters from both sides to confront this head on. >> i have to tell you that i -- i can't stop thinking about this. it has shaken me to my core in a way that i couldn't have predicted. >> reporter: michelle obama giving a personal and emotional indictment of donald trump. rebuking the gop nominee for his comments, bragging about sexual assault. >> it's not something we can just sweep under the rug as just another disturbing footnote in a sad election season. because this was not just a lewd conversation. this wasn't just locker room banter. this was a powerful individual, speaking freely and openly about sexua

sunlen put it right, we are in unchartered territory.ou have a republican nominee having to talk about his words from 11 years ago, now you have his own running mate who is saying he is praying for him. his own running mate who no longer is appearing with the house speaker, paul ryan in wisconsin today at an event donald trump was originally invited to attend. how do you see this one day as the clock ticks to the presidential debate? >> it's breathtaking, positively breathtaking. what we have heard is the ground opening up under the republican party. a parade of people, they mentioned hugely influential, joe heck's comments were interesting. he was trying to be as he could be, but he was heckled by others in the crowd. donald trump continues to have a strong following, people inclined to not shrug it off, but put it in context with other things. the republican party has to wrestle with it. one thing heck said that was very correct and is going to come back is not just the tape that surfaced, but a pattern of behavio behavior. i looked th

sunlen serfaty is "outfront" in virginia. what are you seeing in these polls? >> reporter: it's interesting here, erin, hillary clinton seems to be drawing a majority of her support from female voters, although that support has largely stayed in tact. stayed the same over the last month. donald trump gaining about a few points, but still very behind hillary clinton in terms of the women vote. but the good news for here for team clinton, within these poll numbers, is really if you look at the male vote, that's where she really does seem to be expanding her support and drawing her biggest boost in the last month. if you look at the numbers from early september, she was so far behind donald trump in terms of support from men. only about 32% support there. that has jumped 8 percentage points to 40% in just the last month, and it's important to see these side-by-side comparisons to this big jump by team clinton in the past month in terms of men. really shows that she's really closing that divide, really catching up to him in terms of support from men. she's now only

sunlen serfaty has the fallout. phil, let's start with you. >> carol, remember at one point this was supposed to be the boring debate between as one person said dull versus duller. not so much. look the candidates had very clea goals and objectives going into this debate. they just took a rather combative pathway to get there. >> i must have hit a nerve here. >> hotly contentious from the start. >> i can't imagine how governor pence can defend the insult-driven, selfish me style of donald trump. >> reporter: the vice presidential debate becoming a night of whose candidate is more insulting. >> you and hillary clinton would know a lot about an insult-driven campaign. >> reporter: tim kaine repeatedly putting mike pence on the defensive, using donald trump's own words. >> he's called women's slobs, pigs, dogs, disgusting. he went after john mccain a p.o.w. and said he wasn't a hero. >> reporter: words pence didn't directly defend. >> when donald trump says women should be punished or mexicans are rapists and criminals

sunlen serfaty is there. joining me now, donald trump did seize on the investigation but what else? >> reporter: that's right. he did, fred. it seems as if donald trump is campaigning with a new spring in his step and capitalizing on the e-mail server scandal. he's been relentless and today is no exception. he almost joked to this crowd, i never thought we'd be thanking anthony weiner nine days out. here's what he had to say. >> her cell action was willful, deliberate, intentional and purposeful. hillary set up an illegal server for the obvious purpose of shielding her criminal conduct from public disclosure and exposure. she set up this illegal server knowing full well that her actions put our national security at risk and put the safety and security of your children at risk. >> now, trump campaign officials feel this is an opening that they've been given in this final nine days. also, something else from donald trump, going after obamacare premiums, raising -- potentially going up next week, that's something he's been talking about on the campaign trail and will continue to stay o

sunlen, cnn, washington. >> sunlen, thank you. >>> coming up, we'll talk more about this with a woman knows trump well. she co-authored donald trump's book "the art of the comeback." we'll get her reaction to trump's possible threat to bring up hillary clinton's husband, bill clinton and his infidelities in the next presidential debate. does she think that's a smart move? diabetes can be a daily struggle, even if you're trying your best. along with diet and exercise, once-daily toujeo® may help you control your blood sugar. get into a daily groove. ♪ let's groove tonight. ♪ share the spice of life. ♪ baby, from the makers of lantus®, ♪ slice it right. toujeo® provides blood sugar-lowering activity for 24 hours and beyond, ♪ we're gonna groove tonight. proven blood sugar control all day and all night, and significant a1c reduction. toujeo® is used to control high blood sugar in adults with diabetes. it contains 3 times as much insulin in 1 milliliter as standard insulin. don't use toujeo® to treat diabetic ketoacidosis, during episodes of low blood sugar or if you're allergic to insuli

sunlen serfaty is live in philadelphia with more reaction from team clinton. what are you hearing? >> reporter: well, certainly it assumes that hillary clinton is pleased with her running mate's performance last night. aides say she sent tim kaine an e-mail congratulating him on his debate performance. just a few minutes ago as hillary clinton was boarding her campaign plane, reporters wanted to know how she thought tim kaine did. she didn't answer but just gave two big thumbs up. but certainly as the clinton campaign is trying to spin last night's debate and the results of last night's debate, they are really focusing in on and trying to make a big issue of the fact that mike pence at times did seem to dodge opportunities where he could have defended his running mate, donald trump. this is something that we saw from a top clinton surrogate this morning on "new day." terry mcauliffe, the governor of virginia. >> i know governor pence very well. i serve as chairman of the national governors association. i work with governor pence. we have a good relationship. michael pence was in a

what's at stake when they take the stage at longwood university, cnn's sunlen serfaty is live for us. good morning. >> reporter: good morning, alisyn. both candidates taking a much more consistent, disciplined approach as they prepare for tonight's debate. certainly that's notable for mike pence who contrary to his own running mate, donald trump at the top of the ticket, seems to have engaged in a traditional, for formal debate prep. they have been studying up, hitting the books. they've been running through full-fledged mock debates using stand-ins for the other opponent. team pence going into tonight top on their mind do they have to play cleanup. mike pence will be facing questions over donald trump's tax returns. team kaine hoping to cash in on a little home field advantage here in virginia tonight. we know they are looking to draw some ideological contrasts with mike pence up there on stage. alisyn, each and every moment so important for both men tonight being this is their first and only debate. >> sunlen, thank you very we'll all be watching obviously very closely. joined now b

>> sunlen serfaty live from philadelphia this morning. so the vp debate is history. the next round, sunday. trump and clinton battle it out again, this time in a much more intimate setting. let's talk about that. with me is larry sabado from the university of virginia center for politics, rebecca burg from real clear politics and mark preston, cnn politics executive editor. welcome, to all of you. thanks for being here. mark, sunday's presidential debate is critical for donald trump. if he does not do well, is he toast? >> in this campaign i think making declarations has proven to be really a stupid thing to do. until we actually see the votes in november, who knows what's going to happen. look, this is where we are at in the campaign. we have seen hillary clinton come roaring back after her debate. even though mike pence according to our poll last night, our snap poll of watchers of the debate, he won the debate, but how much is that really going to factor quite frankly into people's votes heading into november. donald trump needs a strong performance. donald trump

. >>> let's begin our coverage with cnn's sunlen who is in gettysburg. . . so we know anything more about what might unfold today? >> well, fred, trump campaign officials are billing this as donald trump's closing message, his closing argument of this long-fought campaign. as you can see behind me this is not a typical setting for a donald trump campaign event. this is a more intimate setting. not a big booming campaign rally. clearly the trump campaign trying to put him out in a more formal policy focused speech. perhaps trying to project a little bit of presidential tone as he works to really turn this race around for himself in the last 17 days. now, we do know that the trump campaign says he will be outlinesing what his priorities would be in the first 100 days if he were to goen and win the white house. he gave a similar speech this summer back in june. outlined about eight policy proposals talking about immigration reform, talking about repealing, replacing obamacare. it's not clear if he will be releasing additional policy specifics or if this will ju

>> all right, sunlen, thank you so much.an mcmanus is here in tampa, a political science professor at the university of south florida. gloria borger is back, our chief political analyst at cnn and with us our legal voice paul call callan. paul, let me begin with you, we know that this news from the fbi director came from a letter sending to members of congress letting them know he would be reviewing or his investigators would be reviewing these e-mails from this device that they hadn't had previously and we know these e-mails are not hillary clinton's e-mails. that said is it unusual for the fbi to be public with an announcement la like this? >> it's highly unusual. there have been unusual developments in this investigation all along. when comey cleared, essentially, hillary clinton in the announcement a few weeks back that was probably the first time in american history an fbi director revealed publicly his recommendation to the justice department? a high-profile investigation. usually that's not done. so here now to say th

sunlen serfaty for us inside the debate hall, great to have you with us. behind us, our panel of undecided voters. onstage with us, cnn political commentators mary katherine hamm, senior writer for the federalist and conservative blogger, kirseten power and bakari sellers, former south carolina state rep and hillary clinton supporter. mary katherine, we are going to start with you. finish this sentence for me. >> you love these. >> for tonight -- excuse me. for donald trump tonight will be? >> an attempt to marshal all of the late-breaking scandals about hillary and some of this confirming narrative information from wikileaks. i think he has a lot of opportunities here. some people said is he going to punch low. he may. he has a lot of opportunity to actually take real issues and go at her with them. wikileackileaks reveals a lot o things voters already feel about her. the question is whether he can do that. it's always been that when he does it's a little clumsy. if he can land some punches, not a bad idea. >> finish this sentence. for hillary clinton ton

>> good questions sunlen. very interesting tweet from donald trump last night. he said, mike pence did his homework to take on tim kaine. i wonder if -- >> note to self. >> yeah, maybe read a little bit before you go into one of these things. who knows what happens. donald trump thought that mike pence won the debate. he was saying it well before the debate was over last night. but, is he going to follow the lead of what he saw last night? the trump campaign responds. next. hashtag "stuffy nose." hashtag "no sleep." hashtag "mouthbreather." just put on a breathe right strip. it instantly opens your nose up to 38% more than cold medicine alone. shut your mouth and say goodnight mouthbreathers. breathe right. and it's got the spring and bounce of a traditional mattress. you sink into it, but you can still move around. and now that i have a tempur-flex, i can finally get a good night's sleep. buy the most highly recommended bed in america for as low as $25 per month and a 90 night free trial. i have to tell you something. dad, one second i was driving and then the

sunlen serfaty, thank you very much. >>> one snare dwroe being played out by insiders is keeping theice president as an anchor here in this situation. let's bring in errol lewis, cnn commentator to talk about this what mike pence's role will be moving forward. let's talk about what we're hearing from pence and of course that stunning statement from his running mate, donald trump's running mate, criticizing what trump said, that he cannot defend those comments. people for more than a day have been waiting for mike pence to weigh in. >> yeah. i don't think we'll hear much different. in mike pence, you have somebody who consistently describes himself as christian and a conservative and a republican in that order. you know, the tape is just not something that squares with that. he has the choice of either shredding his entire political identity. he's a political professional who wants a future in this business or trying to sort of defend the indefensible. he's clearly looking out for himself a little bit there. it's the last thing the trump campaign needs at this point. for somebody who

sunlen serfaty, cnn, washington. >> let's talk more about all of this.ack tim neptali and political commentator errol louis. that underscores what donald trump's pattern has been. for somebody who said in the new york times, he has the ability to get nastier. he has real vulnerabilities. how is it an opponent would not take advantage of that? >> i think the hillary clinton team will try to exploit this weakness and make no mistake. it is a political weakness. rosie o'donnell is not on the ballot in 50 states. rosie is not running for president. the calendar is not his friend. it is a distraction and a way for him to put his foot in his mouth and alienate voters. >> tim, it can potentially back fire for her opponent in hillary clinton if she seizes on it. >> we saw this in the debate. that hillary clinton and her people choreographed a slow ever increasing effort to push his buttons. like water following on a stone. the first time they went after him about his father. he responded. he wasn't that angry. she kept at it. increasing pressure and he lost cont

sunlen serfaty, washington. >> the release of the tape, let's discuss this with paul. good to see you. paul, you first, we heard that the trump camp didn't want it released, but is that in violation of any court order? >> probably not in violation of any kind of court 0rorder but b custom and tradition, this stuff is usually done behind closed doors and kept secret. the reason for that, fred, is that usually lots of embarrassing things come out at depositions. the kind of stuff that you couldn't get into evidence at trial. so the parties usually both sides really don't want it released, and then it is quietly settled and the public never hears about it. but hey, we're in the middle of a presidential campaign. >> so danny, this case is still ongoing, that the deposition, his deposition was released. how potentially damaging is it to the case as it moves forward? >> someone who has done a ton of depositions, and paul too, the very idea of depositions being released is terrifying for any litigant, because as paul said, the scope of discoverable information in a deposition

>> sunlen serfaty, thanks very much. >>> hillary clinton is working to get the vote in key battleground states. joe is joining us live from detroit. hillary clinton has some fresh momentum right now. what's the latest? >> reporter: well, she had a noisy crowd here at wayne state university in the detroit area. the clinton campaign says the candidate is happy with her performance, happy with the polls that show her up, and also hopeful that she was able to get through some of her key campaign messages at that debate last night despite what the campaign communications director, jim palmeri, calls distractions and even an attempt by donald trump to, quote, intimidate the former secretary of state. fresh off the contentious second debate, hillary clinton takes her campaign to the motor city to woo blue-collar michigan voters. >> donald trump spent his time attacking when he should have been apologizing! >> i'm a republican, but this election is so much bigger than the party. >> her election is appealing not only to lowly democratics but republicans. some are supporting her bid. >> by puttin

. >> sunlen, thank you very much.ow hillary clinton has driven pantsuits sales through the roof. yes people. you heard me correctly. and sir richard branson "outfront" on donald trump. >> i think, you know, one day it will be wonderful to van entrepreneur running the white house. but not this entrepreneur. with my moderate to severe crohn's disease,... ...i was always searching for ways to manage my symptoms. i thought i had it covered. then i realized managing was all i was doing. when i finally told my doctor, he said humira was for people like me who have tried other medications,... but still experience the symptoms of moderate to severe crohn's disease. in clinical studies, the majority of patients on humira saw significant symptom relief... ...and many achieved remission. humira can lower your ability to fight infections... ...including tuberculosis. serious, sometimes fatal infections and cancers,... including lymphoma, have happened; as have blood, liver, and nervous system problems, serious allergic reactions,

sunlen, thank you very much. we're joined now by congressman shawn duffy. thank you very much for joining us. >> good to be back with you, wolf. >> let's talk about these new polls that came out today showing donald trump losing his lead, get this, in states he had been doing very well in. in georgia, for example, right now he's only behind by -- she's only behind by one point, 44% for trump, 43% for hillary clinton. look at iowa right now. in iowa, he had been doing really well, 44%, 44%. a month ago, trump was up by seven points. why is he slipping? >> well, first off, i think georgia is not going to be a problem for donald trump. that's a republican state. as voters go to the polls, they'll break donald trump's way. we'll win georgia. but obviously some of the trouble that donald trump has had over the last month has caused him to slip not just in iowa but all these states and the national polls across the country. what's interesting, wolf, he's come back in dramatic fashion. in florida, north carolina, in iowa, ohio, nevada, and i'll tell you, wisconsin

with me now to talk about it mark preston, ron brownstein sunlen surfaty. >> one is, it took at least six hours last night for him to put out his apology by video and some would say it's not an apology. he used it as a wiay to attack hillary clinton. it's taken him this long to have melania trump to put out a statement. that might have stemmed it a little bit. listen, it's obviously, a big development in the campaign. but donald trump, i think, is harmed from what he said. we're seeing this statement after statement, minute after minute coming out from congressional republicans, republican leaders who are withdrawing their support. >> what does it say that melania trump is issuing what is a short two sentences on paper. they're not doing this live. they're not holding a press conference at this point in time. his statement was taped and it tooks hours and hours. >> you know, this is uncharted territory for a campaign. you know, this is breaking in realtime each minute. we have a drip drip from republican leaders who are backing away from his campaign. it's remarkable you have the wife

. >> let's go to sunlen serfaty in washington on the news of the rise of the premiums. it puts pressure on president obama. >> hillary clinton has not responded to the new report. we suspect at some point she'll have to face questions over this. put simply, without a doubt, this is not the headline hillary clinton or down-ballot wants to face. it hands republicans fodder for their arguments against the law, against democrats and we've seen that reflected on the campaign trail today as you mentioned, now, hillary clinton in the past as said there that there are some fixes that she believes need to be made but the repeal and replace as republicans want is the wrong way to go but, yes, there are tweaks that need to be made and it was the second town hall debate where she faced a questioner who was complaining about the cost of premium increase and she said yes, premiums have gotten too high, she said i'm going to fix it because i agree with you. i think when we hear from hillary clinton, we'll hear a similar refrain. we've heard a bit from democrats about that. debbie wass

. >> sunlen, thank you so much. back with the panel. david, what are you looking for tonight?th mike pence how he handles a campaign that right now is on defense and how he tries to turn it to his advantage. from tim kaine i am looking to see if he injects spanish in a significant way into this debate. because he is fluent in it. i would be curious to see that. i fear that we're not going to get any of the great moments that we just saw from either of these guys tonight. >> you never know. >> manu. >> i think we'll see from tim kaine the trying to get mike pence to own all the controversial things donald trump said. robby mook foreshadowed this is the strategy going forward. the question is how will mike pence deal with it. in covering him through the years, watch for him to side-step it try to get back on message. hillary clinton prosecuted the case in a more effective way than donald trump has done during the last debate. >> former radio broadcaster and a skilled politician on message. angela. >> one of the things i am hoping for is that the moderator will call mike pence on

sunlen, has the trump campaign responded to this report? >> reporter: they haven't yet responded, pam, specifically to that report but trump advisors openly admit that this is going to be an uphill climb for them in the fight ahead. that said, they are looking in those battleground state state polls, the new polls that have shown a tightening race and they say they believe now this race is less of an uphill climb than it was at this point last week. that effort for the trump campaign starts right here in ohio, a state that is a must-win for donald trump. donald trump blanketing the battleground state of ohio today. >> in 12 days we're going to win ohio, and we are going to win back the white house. the state and its 18 electoral votes critical to trump's path to the white house. >> hillary clinton wants to double-down on obamacare and make it even worse. >> reporter: with less than two weeks left in the campaign, trump is staying on the attack against clinton and seizing on the steady drip of hacked e-mails from clinton's campaign chairman

that's where we find cnn's sunlen serfaty. she's live with a preview. >> reporter: good morning. both candidates really seem to be taking a much more disciplined, much more consistent approach as they prepare for this debate. that's certainly notable for mike pence because he's preparing in a much different way than his own running mate, donald trump. engaging in more traditional debate prep. we know both candidates, mike pence and tim kaine, are running through these full-fledged mock debates, practicing with their aides and using stand-ins to play their opponent. certainly for team pence, first and foremost, top on their mind going into tonight is that they know that they're going to get questions and likely have to address the continued fallout over donald trump's tax returns. now, meantime, tim kaine certainly trying to cash in on homefield advantage, this being hometown of the former virginia governor, where aides say he'll likely be trying to draw a distinct contrast as far as ideological differences between him and mike pence tonight. certainly this being their first and o