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Donald Trump Arrives in St. Louis; Fallout from 2005 Tape of Trump's Vulgar Comments on Women; Presidential Candidates to Meet Tonight in Second Debate. Aired 3-4p ET

Aired October 9, 2016 - 15:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:01:08] JOH BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: We have our own music. Hello everyone.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: We have officially made it, John.

BERMAN: I'm John Berman.

BOLDUAN: I'm Kate Bolduan. We are live from Washington University in St. Louis. And it is, John, you get to say it this time.

BERMAN: It is debate day in America, everyone.

BOLDUAN: Once again, Donald Trump's plane is just touched down here in St. Louis. Let the rumble begin as the Republican candidate he is facing what could be the most important 90 minutes in his political campaign. 90 minutes on tonight's debate stage. That might determine if, in fact, he survives the next 30 days of this race.

All of this because of this point you should know of the release of the stunning video from back in 2005. Donald Trump casually talking about what amounts to sexual assault. Bragging about the fact he could grab a woman's genitalia and get away with it because he's famous. This is the video which is, needless to say, quite graphic.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: I better use some Tic Tacs, just in case I start kissing her. You know, I'm automatically attracted to beautiful women. I just start kissing them. It's like a magnet. Just kiss. I don't even wait. And when you're star, they let you do it. You can do anything.

BILLY BUSH, NBC ANCHOR: Whatever you want.

TRUMP: Crab them by the [bleep]. You can do anything

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: All right, Donald Trump did issue an apology on videotape overnight Friday and the Saturday but a lot of people say it doesn't go far enough. This as top leaders of his own party, many senators, many elected officials now jumping shift. His own running mate Mike Pence, he put a little distance between himself and Donald Trump. He issued what -- I think it was pretty astonishing rebuke of Donald Trump and really did not defend him.

Hillary Clinton, for her part, has remained largely silent that is by design. She will break that silence no doubt tonight early in this debate. CNN has learned that at the very beginning both candidates will face questions about that Trump/Billy Bush tape.

Let's get straight to CNN's Jason Carroll. Jason, we just saw the plane arrived. Donald Trump now St. Louis. What happens over the next few hours?

JASON CARROLL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: And he's got supporters by his side. The RNC chair Reince Priebus is there with him along with the campaign chairwoman Kellyanne Conway, Rudy Giuliani there with him, as well as the question is, John and Kate, how is Donald Trump is going to respond when the question is raised about those vulgar comments that he has made.

And, you know, we've already heard from Giuliani saying that Trump in all likelihood will probably apologize. Certainly there are number of folks within the GOP who want to see a more heart felt apology going forward. A lot of support really hinges on how Donald Trump clearly performs tonight.

Donald Trump for his part, though, remaining sort of a deviance. Still lashing out at a number of GOP leaders who have criticized him or condemned him, some of them pulling his support. His been lashing out on Twitter as we've seen him do so many times in the past calling them traitors, also saying "So many self-righteous hypocrites. Watch their poll numbers go down."

You know, you should point out that Donald Trump being defiant is something we have seen in the past in the campaign. I remember back in April attending at a state, a California state GOP convention where Donald Trump told a group of GOP leaders right there in the room, "Look, I can do this with or without you." That was the final -- defiant Donald Trump that we saw. Then that seems to be in the way that defiant Donald Trump that we're seeing now. Kate, John?

BOLDUAN: Yeah. In some way, that seem like it's gone full circle from where this campaign began. Let's turn now, Jason, thank you so much. Let's turn now to Hillary Clinton and her preparations for tonight. We have Jeff Zeleny is with us. Jeff, what do you hearing about Hillary Clinton's preparation, what's changed and how obviously she's getting ready to answer to this?

JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Well, John and Kate, she have courses ready to answer this question. It's all the, you know, has been -- it's consumed the campaign in the last 48 hours or so.

[15:05:07] But after she does that, after she answers this in a way, I am told she is going to pivot immediately. All the people we heard about all week at long who said they can no longer support Donald Trump, the Clinton campaign, Hillary Clinton who self believes that creates an opening for her to create a case for white voters can trust her on the economy, on national security.

So I am told that she is not going to dwell on this as much as you may thinks she otherwise would and she's going to try and go after this opening her and say that, you know, the time is too important to squander this moment and that she is presidential. So she's been actually practicing extensively for the last four days, again, like she did during that first debate.

Yesterday for seven hours alone in New York, near her house, getting ready for this debate her, of course, you know, to answer this question at the beginning, but I'm told much more than that, to try and seize this opportunity to some of the suburban moderate Republican and Independent voters who now simply say they can't vote for Donald Trump. She wants to make the case to them why they should vote for her. So that's honestly, trustworthiness. That is her objective tonight. We'll see if she can pull it off. Kate.

BERMAN: All right, Jeff Zeleny, thanks so much. We did see some pictures from this moment ago. Hillary Clinton is here in St. Louis. She has arrived. I think both candidates may very come here in Washington University soon for a walk through at the debate side.

Let's discuss with our panel. Joining us is Ron Brownstein, CNN Senior Political Analyst, Senior Editor for the Atlantic, Gloria Borger, CNN's Chief Political Analyst, Dana Bash, CNN's Chief Political Correspondent, and Philip Rucker, National Political Reporter for "The Washington Post.

Gloria, we just heard some report from Jeff Zeleny on Hillary Clinton's plans. You've got some sources inside the Clinton campaign, tell me more.

GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, a source with knowledge of Clinton's debate prep has told me some of what -- Jeff is hearing but let me expand upon that a little bit. If Trump says this is old, you know, this was 2005, she'll say, well I'm going take issue with what you said 11 days ago about Alicia Mechado, and point out the larger context of this and the pattern that Donald Trump has in terms of dealing with women.

And then broaden it out even further to this question of what kind of commander in chief and world leader that would make him. How would he deal with women in the military? How would he deal with women world leaders? How would he staff his White House, for example.

So I think what we should expect Hillary Clinton to do is, as Jeff is saying, is put it within a broader context. And then if Donald Trump wants to go toe-to-toe on women's issues, Hillary Clinton is, of course, prepared to do that and we'll talk about her what they always called her lifetime of experience in terms of dealing with women's issues.

One other thing I would add is on the Wikileaks which they expect to come up. They will say that they can expand on the context of some of these quotes, you know, these were selectively edited from their own oppo research apparently so they will expand on that and give the full sentence of what some of these things were about. And show that, in fact, one sentence where she was talking about open borders, was in fact talking about a green economy and so they want to be able to provide more context and of course point out that all of these was the result of a Russian hat.

BERMAN: He'll think that by the way, he'll be admitting that the real which they haven't done yet ...

(CROSSTALK)

BOLDUAN: Right. That is something that obviously surrogates have applauding.

BERMAN: Right.

BOLDUAN: Dana, when Donald Trump is post with these questions, obviously, no one knows exactly how he's going to answer. But one thing that you -- the only place we look to this point to his Twitter feed. Advisers, a lot of folks who are saying he needs to show contrition ...

DANA BASH, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Right.

BOLDUAN: He needs to show humble approach to this. But if you look his Twitter it's defiant.

BASH: Incredibly defiant. It is vintage Donald Trump, push back saying that the Republicans who are abandoning him are members of establishment, they were never with him in the first place, let's see where they're poll numbers go.

BOLDUAN: Right.

BASH: And again it's vintage Donald Trump, but that is also just it's defiance but it's also deflection because people tuning in tonight particularly persuadable voters or even voters who are onboard with Trump and are now potentially no because of this tape are going to want to hear a real explanation.

And the open question is whether he is constitutionally capable of giving an explanation that does show, not just contrition, but better says than he did in that tape that we played the other night. That was him before. This is him now. Rudy Giuliani did a little bit of this morning when he was in the Sunday shows and he was on with Jake this morning saying, you know, I'm a different person. I've learned through process. That was the showman. I'm, you know, whatever it is he's going to say, some way that is going to seem earnest and genuine which he did not come across us in that tape.

RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: The only meaning to the term constitutional crisis.

BERMAN: Phil Rucker, it strikes me that I don't think that Donald Trump has lost any other Republican elected officials in the last five hours. I make you joke of it.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That's the measures of success.

BERMAN: No. But yeah, if that's the measure of success it shows you how much trouble he's in. But, you know, did he start he bleeding to some extent or is everyone else just waiting for tonight?

PHILIP RUCKER, NATIONAL POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT AT THE WASHINGTON POST: No. I think people are waiting for tonight. I think Speaker Ryan is waiting for tonight, leader McConnell and the senators are waiting for tonight. I expect unless there's a really dramatic turn- around tonight that more Republicans are going to leave his campaign.

I mean he's really tainted an entire generation of GOP stars here. People who hitched their wagons to Donald Trump who are now in part responsible for this and have to answer for it and it's a lot of a conversation we see underway in the party which is really in crisis at the moment.

BOLDUAN: And it (ph) supposes, Ron, who is then the audience tonight? It seems that -- we expect -- people expect there be more people watching.

BROWNSTEIN: Yes, impossibly more.

BOLDUAN: Who is the audience then for Donald Trump?

BROWNSTEIN: Well, look, first of all, let's put in context. I think more Republican elected officials yesterday defected from Donald Trump than had abandoned that party's nominee in every any single 24-hour period since June 1912 when Teddy Roosevelt and his supporters walked out in the convention that renominated (ph) William Howard Taft. That has not been a daylight yesterday in over a century. You're up to almost a third of Republican senators saying they will not -- well from Barry Goldwater, who was very controversial nominee. We're talking about handful five or six.

Look, I think, you know, the Donald Trump's problem is what it is always been that he is underperforming any Republican nominee ever among college educated white voters. That's why he is stopped even before the tape in the low 40's at his or at 40 percent. And I think those voters are the ones most likely. Now they will be shaped by the tape, but also the influence by this drum beat of Republican defections, basically sending a message particularly I think the college educated white men who usually vote Republican that this is something different. If you have third of the senators saying they cannot vote for him, I think it makes easier for this voters who all think the Republicans margins of 20 points but now are splitting evenly or even slightly toward Hillary Clinton.

BERMAN: All right, guys, stick around. We got a lot more to discuss, a little bit more time to do it. Coming up next, we're going to talk about debate strategy here. You know, we know Hillary Clinton behind close doors for five days, so that means she has some more, you know, some more tricks prepared and one of the x-factor for when they take that stage. Will they shake hands? CNN's special live coverage, don't go away.

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[15:16:05] BOLDUAN: Welcome back once again to Washington University in St. Louis. We're here for the big second presidential debate between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump just hours from now.

BERMAN: Back now with our panel, Ron Brownstein, Gloria Borger, Dana Bash, and Philip Rucker. Dana Bash, quickly lightning round. What if Donald Trump does come out with a completely object apology and humbled himself before America (inaudible) supporters are also going to do.

BASH: I think that -- I'm not saying that would be a game changer, but that could potentially stop the bleeding and frankly make it harder for Republicans to continue to exodus. And one of the reasons I was told by a Republican source why there wasn't a complete full-out dumping of Donald Trump was because they did get him to say "I'm sorry." Whether he can expand on that could make a difference. But x factor there is, after the "I'm sorry," what is Hillary Clinton going to kind of bait him into saying that could -- make that almost ...

BOLDUAN: And Gloria is surviving the night enough for Donald Trump at this point?

BORGER: Well, it would help. You know, he needs to do no harm. He needs to apologize. And he can't turn his contrition into defiance and attack. Only because I think that would hurt him. And most of all, given the fact that this is a town hall, he and Hillary Clinton need to relay -- start relating to voter and tell them how they as president would charge their lives for the better which is a conversation we have not have.

BERMAN: Yeah, let's stop there. They're actually going do it.

BORGER: Exactly.

BERMAN: Fascinating concept.

BORGER: Exactly.

BERMAN: Ron Brownstein, what is the biggest risk for Hillary Clinton tonight?

BROWNSTEIN: Well I think the biggest risk are both of them and especially for her is that they focus too much on adding more dents to the other one's spender. I mean, I think each of their problems now are much more about repairing their own image. And I think for Hillary Clinton there are lots of doubts. This is big part of the electorate is broken loose from the Republican coalition that is out there for grabs. And you're not going to get it if I just adding more doubts about Donald Trump. You've going to kind of persuade then that you are someone that they could trust in the White House.

BOLDUAN: You know, Phil, it strikes me that Donald Trump last time in the first debate say he didn't got there because Chelsea Clinton was sitting on the audience. He didn't want to get a respect for her. She going to be there tonight, so?

RUCHER: And all signs that they will be is going to go there and go after Bill Clinton over (inaudible) and fidelities and other issues. And the big question for him is can he keep it together for 90 minutes? He was not able to do that in the first debate and we'll see tonight.

BERMAN: Gloria, Juanita Broaddrick, who of course said that Bill Clinton raped her in the '70s accused of it in the later on in the '90s Wright Park, I mean, Steve Bannon was (inaudible) also runs the Trump campaign has been writing about all day Donald Trump are tweeting about all day. Give a sense to the Clinton team is prepared for this?

BORGER: Yeah. I think they're prepared for everything and I think Hillary Clinton will talk generally and not specifically and we'll say this was a difficult time in their marriage and that was something that played out publicly 20 years ago was investigated, you know, 20 years ago and then will pivot and say, I'm more concerned about now. I'm more concerned about now. And so I don't think she's going to sort of get down there and start talking about Juanita Broaddrick in a way shape or form

BROWNSTEIN: The conundrum for Trump that it is overwhelming need is to convince more people that he's capable of being president, that he has some of the temperament ...

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Right.

BROWNSTEIN: ... judgment values attack (ph) the president and going down that road even if you kind of add more doubts about her does not solve his fundamental problem.

BOLDUAN: What's the biggest -- that's the biggest risk for him. What's the biggest risk for her?

BASH: The biggest risk for her is piling on too much. I mean she kind of did it masterfully in the first debate because these topics were not front and center.

BOLDUAN: Yeah.

BASH: But if she overplays her hand, she could potentially harm herself.

BOLDUAN: Interesting. Guys, great to see you. Thank you so much. A lot more to come and the game has changed in the last 48 hours. Much more of our special coverage live from Washington University in St. Louis with the big debate coming up. Let the band play.

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[15:23:45] BODUAN: Welcome back, everyone. We are at Washington University in St. Louis for tonight's big presidential debate. There, the band of all bands, who have been helping us out throughout the morning and keeping up the pep. Thank you so much for joining us. Tonight, though, it comes down to 90 minutes. A 90-minute battle and after this latest crisis for Donald Trump and his campaign, the stakes could not be higher. We've said that every time. This time I mean it.

BERMAN: Really mean it. All right, joining us, Andy Dean, Senior Political Commentator and Donald Trump supporter and former President of Trump Productions, Angela Rye, CNN Political Commentator and the Former Executive Director of the Congressional Black Caucus, Mark Preston is the Executive Editor of CNN Politics. We have a lot of executives joining us right now.

BOLDUAN: You and I are not.

BERMAN: No. We are just staff. All right, Andy Dean right now. Is Donald Trump, you know, he apologized Friday night, you know, as an answer he's totally good now with the American people. Does he have to do anything else tonight when comes to this tape that came up on Friday?

ANDY DEAN, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I think the tape is going to come up and I think he should apologize, not because the media wants him to, but because it's the right thing to do. And I think he does feel sorry that's not who he is. And we all have tough moments in our life that don't represent who we are and doesn't represent what he believes in. He's a strong believer women's right. His campaign is a woman. And then I think he needs to talk about the issues and he needs to be tough. I don't think he should be a doormat. I think he should apologize. He can try but that's it. I mean he needs to move on and talk about the things the American people care about which is if you want change in the economy and you really want to destroy ISIS, Trump is the guy. He's imperfect. Very imperfect messenger but his message is the winning one.

[15:25:16] BOLDUAN: He says be contrite and then move on. I mean what you've heard today, though, is just really a full circle of where Trump began in this campaign defiance, calling out, basically saying good riddance to the Republican Party.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Right.

BOLDUAN: What do you see in that?

MARK PRESTON, EXECUTIVE EDITOR, CNN POLITICS: Listen, as much as what Andy is given is for advice which is very solid advice, I don't think Donald Trump is capable of actually taking the advice. We've seen that time and time again. Look, yesterday, I mean they could have used Andy's help in Trump Productions to put out a video that was compelling and that could get Donald Trump ...

BERMAN: The lighting was bad. Was it just the lighting?

(CROSTALK)

BERMAN: What about the apology? Let's not talk about the ...

(CROSSTALK) BERMAN: But let's talk about the sorry itself. You know, was it -- did he look like he meant at you? Did it seem sincere to you? Matthew Dowd, you know, a political commentator was George Bush's chief strategist and looked at that tape and looked at the tape from the days of our lives, think of the "Access Hollywood." Does Donald Trump look more sincere and Matthew is explaining he thought he look more sincere on the tap that was leaked then he get his own ...

DEAN: OK, I'll answer that question. But in fairness, I'll answer on balance. I agree that it wasn't -- it didn't have the emotional connection in that apology. There was a debate of whether or not to do it and it sounded like the people wanted to do it at one and so he did it. That's the feeling that is on the tape.

But at the same time in Donald Trump's mind, and I think there is a lot to defend here, is that a lot of the stuff that is quote/unquote breaking news every eight minutes across the media landscape, of him being on Howard Stern 15 years ago, was already known by the voters who voted over a year-long process. We know that he's an imperfect man, he can save vulgar things. That was the first question in the August 6th 2015 debate about his language. The American people have priced that in. They know that that is Donald Trump. But his message is much bigger and people believe in that message.

BOLDUAN: I mean, but this is a new stuff. If this wasn't a big deal, then why are we seeing it avalanche in people defect for Donald Trump?

DEAN: I agree that its new and newsworthy. But I think that the concern is unbalanced. There's some new stuff about Hillary Clinton, for instance. We learned in the past couple of week that the laptops that Hillary Clinton and her friends gave to the justice department were actually destroyed by the justice department. That's the first time in human history with the justice department is actively destroying evidence when they could have gotten with the subpoena. So I'm just saying we just want to a little more balance. I agree it's newsworthy and it's vulgar and problematic. But the balance what Hillary Clinton did, I know I feel is worse and I think the American people think so as well.

BERMAN: Angela been waiting patiently.

ANGELA RYE, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yes, I am waiting patiently. So, I want to start with something my dad said to me. No, he was never a Donald Trump supporter, but what he said was, it is clear now, not only through Donald Trump's rhetoric or his actions, that he's too sick to be president. And I think that it's more than the fact that he's just disgusting. As someone who is a daddy's girl, I'm more troubled by the things that he said and allowed to be said about Ivanka Trump. Absolutely the voters knew about it. And shame on the voters who supported him in spite of knowing this.

This is very problematic at this point because we are so far down the road. And yes, just like Ted Cruz said I wish that these tapes should have come out sooner. But my frustration now as someone who was eager to see the fallout from the Central Park five footage that came out this week, it's frustrating because you don't even know where to start or stop with this guy. There's always a problem.

I don't care about whether or not he apologized. I care about the fact that at the end of the apology he still found a way to blame Bill Clinton. It's one of those thing where you learn in elementary school, right. It's like your friend jumps over a bridge, are you going to follow them? You can't continue to blame your actions, your words on someone else and say, they did it first or they did it worst or whatever.

BOLDUAN: If things are so bad for Donald Trump tonight and the stakes are so high for him. What is the goal? I mean , I asked this previously, but is it just to survive? Is that good enough for Donald Trump? We're 30 days out from the election.

PRESTON: Well, a couple things. One, there is an incredible amount of emotion around this and it certainly has divided the country even more than already has. The bottom line, Donald Trump is going to have supporters are going to stay with him.

BOLDUAN: Yes.

PRESTON: I mean that is the bottom line. But for Donald Trump right now, the path to victory is very hard if not absolutely impossible. He's going to have to win states right now where he is starting to alienate voters that he needed to win. Pennsylvania being one of them. He needs to win Pennsylvania. Talking to people in the state the other day, they said, listen, we had a chance there, there was a shot to win Pennsylvania. It's gone now. Same thing in Florida. I had the same conversation in Florida. Donald Trump had a good shot at Florida. And right now from what we've seen, he doesn't have a shot there.

So to your point, Kate, what is his goal tonight? We don't know. But we do know that Donald Trump has an incredible ego and he's going to do what he think in his mind is the right thing to do. And quite frankly, we don't know if he's taking the advice of his staff. And that is a problem.

[15:30:07] BERMAN: Guys stick around. A lot more to discuss. We are now less than six hours away from this crucial debate. Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, they are both now here in St. Louis. They could soon be headed really here in Washington University in St. Louis to do a walk through of the debate. We will bring that to you when it happens. Go no nowhere.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BOLDUAN: Welcome back, everyone. We are live in St. Louis on a beautiful day here at Washington University for tonight's second presidential debate. With just hours to go, there is a whole lot to discuss.

BERMAN: All right. I want to bring in our panel right now to discuss. Ed Martin is a Donald Trump supporter and the former head of the Missouri Republican Party. Hilary Rosen is a CNN Political Commentator and Hillary Clinton supporter and Democratic Strategist. Michael Nutter is a CNN Political Contributor, a Clinton and the former Mayor of Philadelphia. And Gina Loudon is a Trump supporter and the host of American Trends with Dr. Gina.

Ed Martin, Jonathan Martin, no relation, I assume.

ED MARTIN, TRUMP SUPPORTER: Right.

BERMAN: The New York Times is reporting that there's a memo going out to Trump surrogates, essentially saying, "Attack those Republican who have cut and run from Donald Trump over the last 24 hours." Now, I don't know if you have got that memo.

MARTIN: I haven't gotten the memo, don't know why.

BERMAN: But I believe it exists because I think Jonathan Martin is a terrific reporter here. So, what is your message then to these Republicans like John McCain, like Kelly Ayotte, like Rob Portman, and I can go on down the list ...

MARTIN: Sure.

BERMAN: ... and it's a long list, who said they will not vote for Donald Trump. What's your message to them?

MARTIN: Well, the first message actually is to the voters. I mean the people that are against Trump now were against him before. They begrudgingly came along.

[13:35:03] I think we're seeing now the shape of this election. It's really an underdog now. It's Trump against the people who want to keep power the way it is. Paul Ryan, for example, has been for something similar to what Hillary wanted, which is open borders and ...

BOLDUAN: But Paul Ryan hasn't come out against him yet, do you have news for us?

MARTIN: No, no. But Paul Ryan, these people have been saying, Paul Ryan, it took him a long time -- took a long time for Paul Ryan to come along.

BERMAN: So you run against Paul Ryan now?

MARTIN: No. I'm saying -- what I'm saying is the vision of America is very -- it's a contrast. It's Hillary and the powers to be -- are in status quo and Trump and the people, and that's what we're going to see. So, McCain was never really for Trump. He's not going to come again back and forth, Kelly Ayotte as a lot of voters in New Hampshire that are for Trump. She's going to find a way to say she's for his policies.

But I wouldn't worry about the people need a champion and I think we're going to see that tonight from Donald Trump.

HILARY ROSEN, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Running back against the Republican mainstream, maybe Donald Trump's only to pivot tonight, but it's also a blow-up strategy.

BOLDUAN: Why?

ROSEN: Because what you -- what he needs to do is grow his voters, not narrow his base. And if you start -- if he starts running against the Republican establishment, then he has no hope of getting those centrists and others who are actually concerned about where the country is going, because that's where they see Paul Ryan and others focusing.

MICHAEL NUTTER, CNN POLITICAL CONTRIBUTOR: But he's been running against them for a while. I mean, this is now the Republican hunger games. I mean, they are imploding and fighting amongst themselves in a relatively small pool of folks as compared to the national electorate.

They're their own election battle within themselves, ignoring the rest of the country, because they're so busy in-fighting. They can't figure this out. They put -- started some things out.

MARTIN: You're right, it's a hunger games but its people against the capitol. And the capitol is filled with Hillary and the power, the status quo. And people are saying we want...

(Crosstalk)

MARTIN: No, it's not. Look at our voters. The votes will come at the front door and the votings are Republicans for the first time.

NUTTER: Your folks are running away, they're running away.

(CROSSTALK)

GINA LOUDON, HOST, "AMERICA TRENDS WITH DR. GINA": This is really just not the way I think that those of us on the inside who do this everyday and think about it and talk about all day long. I don't think we're having the same election experience. This is a different year. And I think that moms sitting in Florida, for example, right now, she's tired of labels. She doesn't want to be labeled in the first place. But she's really care, maybe she doesn't know who Paul Ryan is or care.

And so, I don't think that these little insights are what really matters. I think what matters is that mom in Florida sitting and thinking, "I want to know that we that we're not going to have open border, that my children will be safe and they're going to have a job. That someone in the White House is going to be there who is a strong leader. And she feels independent.

The average ...

BOLDUAN: I totally agree.

(CROSSTALK)

BERMAN: I want to show you a picture -- hang on there. NUTTER: Sure.

BERMAN: I want to show you a picture right now. This is tweeted by Jason Miller who does communications for Donald Trump. Donald Trump has now done his walk through here at Washington University in St. Louis. You can see Donald Trump there, you know, on the debate stage getting ready for tonight's event.

And again, this is a town hall event tonight which means that it won't just the moderators, Anderson Cooper and Martha Raddatz. There will be voters sitting there that Donald Trump will have to face when he's on the stool. And Gina, do you think he's ready for it?

LOUDON: Well, I absolutely think he's ready for it. Let's not forget, he is the person that wrote "Art of the Comeback". And just mean that he's in his sweet spot win but chips are stacked against him. Look, how many times we thought he was done in primary, how many times that all of us sit on television and say, "He's done and this is where he always manages to comeback stronger than ever." So I would look for that tonight.

BOLDUAN: When you talk about format, Hillary Clinton, just in the primary, she took part in a lot of town halls herself. Who is the -- let's do the expectations game. This is where you can tell me she's not great at town halls. And if she comes out and killed it, it's going to be amazing.

(CROSSTALK)

ROSEN: I'm not going to say that. I will say that I think that the expectations for Trump are a little lower in terms of the emotional connection issue. Look, Hillary Clinton is very emotionally tactile in these kinds of events. I think she will do well.

I do think that it is a good format for her. So, I don't think that the campaign and certainly I have any interest in lowering those expectations. But here, I think is where the conflict will be, which is if Donald Trump comes out and acts a little contrite tonight about the tape, that's not going to be enough. And Democrats and Hillary Clinton are not going to let him just end with that being sort of a trick.

BOLDUAN: Hillary then, that's opening it up to. You guys can -- I can ...

MARTIN: I was ready to jump there.

(CROSSTALK)

ROSEN: I'll tell you right, he's never -- there's never going to be enough.

MARTIN: There's never enough.

ROSEN: There's never going to be enough.

MARTIN: Never enough for Hillary.

ROSEN: Because it's not ...

MARTIN: Donald Trump is never going to get Hilary Rosen's vote ...

ROSEN: But here's my point.

MARTIN: But he doesn't vote.

ROSEN: Hillary and this Hilary are not the audience. The audience is, who is he going to vote growth his vote with now? Because everybody else that can see, he's actually losing in keep places. What he needs to do is find new voters that will come over to the Trump bandwagon. And if he starts in with attacking the Republicans and attacking Hillary or Bill, you know, for pass transgressions, none of those this grow the pot. But Hillary is going to ...

MARTIN: How about Donald Trump comes out and attacks a system that is stacked against Democrats and Republicans alike that are working. They are trying to make a difference.

[15:40:04] I mean the system right now is stacked in favor of the power ...

LOUDON: Right. And that's ...

NUTTER: You know, the ones that like -- people like him have taken advantage of the system.

MARTIN: No, no.

BERMAN: Hang on. Hang on.

(CROSSTALK)

BOLDUAN: But for the strategy perspective, I think the campaign would agree they would like that ...

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yeah.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Right.

BOLDUAN: ... if he would come out and -- but that is not what Donald Trump did I the last debate ...

ROSEN: That is not what he's signaling today.

BOLDUAN: ... keeping on that message and that's not what you've seen in the last 48 hours.

NUTTER: And I think things been changed since the last debate.

BOLDUAN: ... do you think he's capable.

MARTIN: Oh course.

BUTTER: No.

MARTIN: Oh course, he's incredibly capable and he's going to talk about those issues. And then, American people going to say, "Yes, he was vulgar. I'm glad he apologized. But that guy is on our side and she's on the side of Wall Street." Haven't ...

(CROSSTALK)

BERMAN: Let me bring that out -- let me talk about Wall Street. Mayor Nutter ...

NUTTER: Yeah.

BERMAN: ... because WikiLeaks thing has come out, which involves, you know, some clips of speeches that Hillary may have given, Hillary Clinton may have given to some Wall Street firms right there.

NUTTER: They've talked hacked documents.

BERMAN: Well, but apparently, look, you know, before Gloria Borger was saying that some Clinton insiders were telling here, she's going to add context to these things which she hasn't yet admitted exist. So I'm going to go with there, probably accurate ...

NUTTER: Right.

BERMAN: ... at this point right now. She talks about free trade, being more supportive of it than she did on the stump. She talks in more supportive terms about Wall Street bankers than she does on the stump. Does she need to address this tonight and how?

NUTTER: I would expect because she wants to talk about issues, in the first place, that she will make her position, which is already clear, crystal clear, now based on new information, leaked documents, whatever the case may be. I can't imagine ...

MARTIN: Will she apologize? Will she apologize?

NUTTER: I can't imagine that it won't come up. I don't know what she has to apologize for.

MARTIN: For saying one being with Wall Street and saying no to the people?

Female: Like literally admitting that she ...

(CROSSTALK)

NUTTER: You don't have the whole speech, OK? So listen tonight and you'll hear the whole thing.

BOLDUAN: Well, this also bring from there ...

NUTTER: Let's go to the website.

BOLDUAN: We brought it up earlier and I do -- do you want, do you hope that Donald Trump is someone different in private than he is in public? Because if he is the same person, then the tape that were just came out, then that's a challenging picture.

LOUDON: Well, I can tell you that I really do hope that Hillary Clinton is ...

BOLDUAN: But I (inaudible) by Donald Trump.

LOUDON: Well, this is the thing. I think that obviously was not intended from public consumption. But I think we're beyond that now. He's apologized of -- I would, you know, nothing Donald Trump has done has cost American lives. We can't say that for Hillary Clinton. Look at the girls in Boko Haram, look at the women -- the women that she -- she's never come up to them. Look at the women she hasn't ...

(CROSSTALK)

LOUDAN: ... the women she have to defend to their husband assaulted. And this is not missing. This is reported widely. And so, why doesn't she come out in defense of those women?

BERMAN: You know, I got to get Hilary a quick response there. Take a listen.

ROSEN: Well, first of all, I don't even know Boko Haram, there's no greater fighter finding -- trying to find those girls than Hillary Clinton was when she was Secretary of State. But secondly, here is the key issue I think for tonight, and maybe for both of them, which is unlike past debates, this is going to be about what those 40 people in the room say to these two candidates. And Hillary Clinton, I think, is going to focus on what they say.

So, for instance, if they raise Bill Clinton's past, Hillary Clinton will likely address it. Not if Donald Trump raises it. She doesn't care what Donald Trump thinks of her marriage, but she does care what the people think. If those people talk about whether or not she's on their side on the economy, she'll talk about that.

BERMAN: OK.

ROSEN: So that's really the key for tonight for both candidates.

BERMAN: All right, guys, thanks so much for being here. A lot going on today, that's for sure.

BOLDUAN: To say the least. Coming up, it's one of the big things that we'll be watching for tonight, how will Hillary Clinton respond to this scandal surrounding Donald Trump right now? The communications director for the Democratic Party will weigh in after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:46:24] BERMAN: All right. We have a picture -- we want to show you right now. That is Donald Trump just moments ago. This was tweeted by his communications director for his campaign as he was getting a tour of the debate hall. We are now, you know, five hours, 12 minutes and 32 seconds away from the big debate.

BOLDUAN: Absolutely, right. Joining us now right now to discuss is Adam Hodges who's the Communications Director for the Democratic National Committee. Adam, thank you for being here.

ADAM HODGES, COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR, DNC: Good to see you.

BOLDUAN: Good to see you too.

HODGES: Thanks for having me on.

BOLDUAN: We saw Donald Trump. You saw the picture of him doing his walk through, how much of this debate do you want to be about the tape?

HODGES: Look, I think the most important thing about tonight is Hillary Clinton is going to lay out her vision, talk directly to voters about the solutions that she has. And we'll leave the video. I think it speaks enough for itself.

BOLDUAN: You would be OK if the video did not come up at all in this debate?

HODGES: I'm sure that it will come up but, again, the most important thing is to continue talking about the vision and solutions for the challenges that, you know, the country faces, to continue the president's legacy, continue to creating jobs, investing in that things like infrastructure, child care, healthcare. That's what the people -- American people want to hear about, that's the solutions that I think that's why you've seen her do pretty well in the last couple of weeks.

BERMAN: How would she prepare to respond to attacks that could come from Donald Trump about Bill Clinton in his past on Breitbart today and Donald Trump's been tweeting it. Juanita Broaddrick who says that Bill Clinton raped her in the 1970s and she maybe charged on the late 90s, how does Hillary Clinton plan to respond to that?

HODGE: I think a lot of those have come from some of the people in the highest levels of the Trump campaign for decades, right? I think, again, the -- if he wants to continue keeping his campaign in the gutter, that's up to him. I think what the American people want to hear is solutions. They don't want to get bogged down, re-litigating what happened in the 1990s. They want to know how you going to solve the problem, how you're actually going to keep things moving forward.

BOLDUAN: One thing that is also come out is WikiLeaks' put out another document dump, e-mails reported to be hacked transcripts of speeches that Hillary Clinton gave offering a different picture of how she speaks in the tone she carries in private versus public on things like trade, on things like Wall Street. How big of a problem is this for you guys? What do you want to hear from her tonight?

HODGES: Well, let's -- the first thing, let's not forget, this was a crime committed, that the U.S. Intelligence Committee unprecedentedly came out and said that Russia is trying to interfere with our elections. And now that should offend anybody regardless of your politics, regardless of your party, and I think, you know, the biggest thing, you know, is she -- what she's talked about in public and private is the same. She's talked about ending the carried interest loophole. She talked about what we need to do on shadow banking. She's talked about income inequality and the need to address that to Wall Street.

[15:50:06] That, she said that publicly, she said that privately. And I think that's why what you saw from Senator Sanders yesterday, he actually thought that what she said was fine. She agrees that we need to be tougher and continue defending Dodd-Frank and just do more to keep the country moving in the right direction.

BERMAN: Adam Hodges, great to have you with us. Thank you so much.

HODGES: Always a pleasure.

BOLDUAN: Thanks for coming in.

We want to take a moment really quick, to get you catch up on the deadly storm that's weakening off the East Coast. Matthew is no longer a hurricane, but the potential for more flooding makes it just as dangerous. The Coast Guard just rescued eight people from rooftops in Pinetops, North Carolina.

BERMAN: So far, Matthew has produced record-breaking floods and claimed at least 17 lives in four states. Nearly 900 people had to be rescued from the storm in North Carolina alone.

For ways, you can help support those affected by hurricane Matthew, head over to CNN.com/impact. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BERMAN: All right. Everyone, I mean, everyone watching the debate tonight, including Wall Street, recently we've seen the Mexican Peso, gold and broader stock market all moved in tandem with Donald Trump's polling numbers. CNNMoney, Cristina Alesci has more.

[15:55:10] CRISTINA ALESCI, CNNMONEY: Kate and John, tonight's debate could have repercussions on the financial markets this week. Remember that after the first debate, we saw a relief rally the next day. The Dow jumps 134 points after Hillary Clinton was widely perceived to be the winner.

Now, you might think, Donald Trump, a Republican billionaire businessman would be Wall Street's dream candidate, but the market appears to favor Clinton for one key reason, uncertainty. And it's what Wall Street fears the most.

The general consensus is this, investors know what they're getting if Hillary Clinton wins the White House. Trump has seen as more of a wild card and investors worry that his tough talk to could lead to a trade war or even a recession. So, if he emerges the victor tonight, we very well could see a sell-off tomorrow when stocks open for trading. BOLDUAN: Christina, thank you so much. For more on what's moving the markets go to CNNMoney to sign up for the -- before the bell newsletter.

BERMAN: All right. Thanks, everyone, for watching. I'm John Berman.

BOLDUAN: I'm Kate Bolduan. CNN's Special Live Coverage continues right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)