President ial debate. The candidates, sparring over russias involvement in syria, and hacked emails. Is putin pushing for trump to win the election . We want to welcome our viewers in the United States and around the world. Im wolf blitzer. Youre in the situation room. This is cnn breaking news. Were following breaking news in this unprecedented white house race. The first poll showing the impact of that shocking recording of donald trump bragging about groping women. An nbc news wall street journal poll thats just been released shows trump trailing Hillary Clinton by 11 points nationally. It was conducted before the candidates second debate in which trump and clinton sparred. Despite trumps improvement of the first debate, 57 of debate watchers think clinton won. And trumps troubles are continuing today. In a remarkable today, paul ryan told fellow lawmakers he will no longer defend trump or campaign for him between now and election day. Ryan stopped short of pulling his endorsement but said members of Congress Facing reelection are free to do whats best for them. Over the weekend, dozens of gom senators and house members denounced trumps remarks about groping women with many unendorsing the gop nominee. Were following an alarming series of aggressive military actions by russia. The country has moved Nuclear Capable missiles close to the borders of poland and lithuania. And now vladamir putin is announcing plans to build a Permanent Naval base in syria. Were covering all of that with our guests, including senator chris kuhns, a member of the Foreign Relations committee. And our correspondents and expert analysts are standing by. Lets begin with the Trump Campaign. Cnn political reporter sarah murray has the latest. Donald trump had a stronger performance in the second debate, but that didnt end by any means his campaign crisis. Reporter thats right, wolf. You could tell by the way donald trump came out swinging as he was campaigning here in pennsylvania just outside of pittsburgh, relitigating a number of those attacks he went over against Hillary Clinton yesterday on the debate stage, and all of this is happening as the rnc held a Conference Call with Reince Priebus and their members, trying to reassure everybody this is still a united team, that the rnc and Trump Campaign are still working hand in hand to try to assure victory in november. And i gladly stand up reporter tonight, donald trump continuing his no holds barred attacks on Hillary Clinton. If they want to release more tapes, saying inappropriate things, well continue to talk about bill and Hillary Clinton doing inappropriate things. Reporter on the campaign trail and debate stage, trumps trying to pull his campaign out of a tailspin, urging voters to hold clinton accountable for allegations of Sexual Assault and rape against her husband. But bill clinton was abusive to women. Hillary clinton attacked those same women. And attacked them viciously. Four of them here tonight. Hello, how are you . Hi. Reporter as the gop nominee aims to take the focus off the videotape where he spoke approvingly of Sexual Assault. I apologized to my family, i apologize to the American People. Certainly im not proud of it. But this is locker room talk. Reporter but trumps approach wasnt enough to pacify House Speaker paul ryan, who said he would no longer defend trump, and instead focused on preserving republican control of the house. That prompted trump to swipe back on twitter, saying paul ryan should spend more time on balancing the budget, jobs, and illegal immigration, and not waste his time on fighting republican nominees. All as a new poll conducted after the crass comments were revealed but before the debate shows clinton leading by 11 points with 46 of the vote compared to trumps 35 . Today, trumps keeping up his attacks on clinton. Special prosecutor, here we come, right . You ought to be ashamed of yourself. Reporter after using the debate to its awfully good that someone with the temperament of donald trump is not in control of the law of our country. Because you could be in jail. [ laughter ] reporter even referring to her as the devil. I was so surprised to see him sign on with the devil. Reporter trumps apology and ability to pivot is already reassuring trumps running mate, who insists he never considered dropping off the ticket. Thats absolutely false to suggest that at any point in time we considered dropping off. Its the greatest honor of my life to have been nominated by my party to be the next Vice President of the United States of america. Reporter though pence advocated for a muscular approach with russia if it continues to aid syria with air strikes amid a humanitarian crisis, trump says hell do no such thing. He and i havent spoken and i disagree. Reporter now, one thing is clear, the turmoil within the gop is continuing today. There are plenty of candidates, plenty of members of the rnc who are Still Deciding whether they can stick it out with trump until election day. I spoke with the chairman of the Republican Party in ohio today. When he spoke to trump today, he told him youve got to stop attacking candidates who are trying to distance themselves from you. These are your words, and youve got to own it. Wolf . Sara murray in pennsylvania. Also, new reaction from the woman donald trump says he tried to seduce in that now infamous audio recording. Entertainment tonight host nancy addresses the lewd comments trump made about her in the show airing tonight. Listen to this. Welcome, everybody. Before we get going tonight, i feel its very important that i address you all directly. Sit my job to bring you news about others rather than focusing on myself. But by now, im sure that most of you have heard the audiotape, which became National News and part of the president ial race. My name was mentioned and unfortunately the release of it has thrown me in the middle of the political arena. I released a statement on saturday and i mean what i said. There is no room for objecty fieing women. With Hillary Clinton leading trump by double digits, sources tell cnn her campaign is considering expanding operations in some red states, hoping to help Democratic Candidates there. Our senior washington correspondent jeff zeleny joins us. Jeff, whats the latest . Reporter certainly among democrats shes seen as the winner, even among some moderate republicans and independents, suddenly are turning to the Clinton Campaign. They believe there is an opening here. And they said they are voting for the Clinton Campaign. Wolf, this race today suddenly felt from Hillary Clintons perspective like she was taking a victory lap, even if it is still a cautious one. Hillary clinton back on the campaign trail tonight, trying to capitalize on her rising political fortunes. Did anybody see that debate last night . Well, you never saw anything like that before. Reporter a bitter and bruising debate with donald trump behind her. Clinton is all smiles, riding her new momentum to michigan and ohio. Spending his time attacking when he should have been apologizing. Reporter even as she fires up democrats, clinton is turning her attention to the chaos tearing apart the gop. Shes featuring republicans standing against trump, offering a path for other mothers and fathers to join. Ive been a republican all my life. But im the father of three girls. I cant stand hearing donald trump call women pigs, dogs, and bimbos. My son, max, cant live in trump world. So im crossing party lines and voting for hillary. Reporter clinton returned to the campaign trail facing a brighter landscape. A new poll gives her an 11point edge nationally over trump in a fourway race. For the next 29 days, shes pressing her case as she did sunday in st. Louis, starting with trumps temperament. With prior republican nominees for president , i disagreed with them on politics, policies, principles. But i never questioned their fitness to serve. Donald trump is different. Reporter a cnn orc poll of people who watched the debate found 57 say clinton won, 34 say trump did. Among women, clinton with a 34point advantage. The poll and debate watchers skewed slightly more democratic. Wiki leaks released reporter clinton also confronted with her old words, saying politicians often have a public and private position on one issue. She mounted the abe lincoln defense. As i recall, that was something i said about abraham lincoln, after having seen the wonderful Steven Spielberg movie called lincoln. It was a master class watching president lincoln get the congress to approve the 13th amendment. She lied. Now shes blaming the lie on the late great abraham lincoln. Thats one i havent heard. Reporter their acrimonies subsided only once, when one voter asked if they could say anything nice about the other. I respect his children. His children are incredibly able, and devoted. And i think that says a lot about donald. I will say this about hillary, she doesnt quit. She doesnt give up. I respect that. Reporter with the second debate in the books, voting is continuing in many states, including on wednesday early voting here in ohio. Thats why Hillary Clinton is here in the state. Tomorrow is the last day to register people to vote. She was in michigan earlier today to do the same thing. We are getting word tonight, a federal court in florida has extended that Voter Registration voter deadline until wednesday, one extra day because of hurricane matthew. They are trying to seize on this uptick in popularity and momentum, and capture some of those early votes, hoping this race still will not change. And the Florida Governor had resisted that, but hes been overruled. Jeff, thank you very much. Lets get some more on all of this. Senator chris kuhns of delaware is joining us. Senator, thank you very much for joining us. Thank you, wolf. Great to be on again. A lot of folks think Hillary Clinton missed an opportunity to apologize for calling half of Donald Trumps supporters deplorables. Does she need to do more to show she respects people who have legitimate concerns about the current political system and her place in it . I do think that secretary clinton respects those who feel that theyre on the outside and by the outreach that you just mentioned a few minutes ago, new ads featuring republicans who are planning to vote for Hillary Clinton, i think shes implicitly making that point. How can you tamp down concerns that trump voters have when she paints so many of them with the same brush, calling them deplorables, racist, all those other words she used . I think it is important for all of us, democrats and secretary clinton, to build a positive message about how her policies, if she were elected president , would deal with the very real issues that lead to broad grassroots anger in this country. Something that deals with a variety of challenges in terms of the lack of confidence about the future for their children, that makes a lot of folks turned off to modern politics and a lot of them concerned about issues that have been raised in this campaign, what its trade deals or law and order or racial justice. I do think secretary clinton has spoken to those issues, but to your point, after her previous comment, perhaps she needs to step that up and be clear that she welcomes former Trump Supporters who have been turned off by his taped comments from 11 years ago. You would support a more robust, sincere apology on her part to those Trump Supporters she branded as deplorable . Well, wolf, as you just reported earlier, the civil war within the Republican Party, which is only continuing to exacerbate creates tremendous opportunities for those who would like to work across the aisle. Secretary clinton, when she was a senator, worked across the aisle with republicans. So i think stepping up that outreach makes a lot of sense. She sort of punted when she was asked about the leaked comments that a politician has public and private positions and she invoked abraham lincoln, basically saying the ends justify the means. Doesnt that xechly fie the issue so many voters have with her honesty and trustworthiness . I think these are two quite different issues. The very direct challenges that trump leveled last night in st. Louis about honesty and trustworthiness with his threats to jail her, the sort of thing you only here a dictator talk about. There are questions how you best achieve political ends. The reason she cited lincoln is that in that movie, we admire president s using different arguments with different members of congress to achieve a positive goal. I think it is the case that folks in leadership, whether in business or civil society, or in politics, make slightly different arguments, nuanced arguments to different audiences, when theyre pursuing a laudable public goal. But its important to stick to the same principle, even when making different arguments. Lets say the context of those comments would clarify things from her perspective. Why doesnt she release the full transcripts from those wall street speeches . Thats a fair question. I dont know where these transcripts have been coming from. As i think was mentioned last night in the debate in st. Louis. Theres a real question about the origin of everything thats being leaked at the moment. The leaders of our Intelligence Community have suggested that the russians, who have hacked into a variety of different systems, are selectively leaking them to influence our own election. So you agree, go ahead, just release the full transcripts so the selective leaks wont be the final word . Well, it would seem to me that its in everyones best interest for us to reach across the aisle, to engage those who feel theyre on the outside, to build some confidence in i think the strongest candidate for president and secretary clinton, and to release things that are now only known in portion. Trump came into last nights debate, reeling from that 2005 tape, a lot of Party Leaders abandoning him left and right. Did Hillary Clinton miss an opportunity to land what some people believe could have been the knockout punch . While i was in st. Louis for the debate last night, i didnt watch it on television, i was actually in the hall, and i got to tell you, it was a stunning setting. His hostility, his not contrition but aggression, and hes accusing her of all sorts of things, he struck me as nearly unhinged at a number of points in the debate last night. I think secretary clinton reassured the American People that shes balanced, steady. Earlier in the show, you were talking about threatening behavior by north korea and russia. Whether on the debate stage or in the weeks ahead, having the steady hand of somebody with great experience in International Affairs like secretary clinton is what americans want and need. Were going to talk about how these candidates are dealing with russia right now. Much more with senator chris kuhns right after this. Farm fresh ingredients, stepbystep recipes, delivered to your door for less than 9 a meal. Get 30 off your first delivery blueapron. Com cook. Remember when you said men are supeyeah. Ivers . Yeah, then howd i get this. Allstate safe driving bonus check . 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Hillary clinton leading donald trump by 11 points in a new National Poll by nbc news and the wall street journal. Were back with democratic senator chris kuhns of delaware. The Clinton Campaign is now considering expanding efforts in states like arizona, georgia, indiana, missouri to help with socalled down ballot races. Do you think theres a chance trump is giving democrats the opportunity to potentially take back control of the senate and maybe even the house . Absolutely, wolf. I think we now have a strong chance to not just take back the senate, but take back the senate with a several vote margin. For those that support secretary clinton, its important to remember that having control of the white house and not having control of the senate makes it exceptionally hard for any president to advance his or her agenda. The house is a much bigger margin in terms of republicans and democrats right now. But there are more than a dozen seats that are now in play that were not in play even a few weeks ago. So the revelations about donald trump bragging about a Sexual Assault and the