barbara hope zuckerberg. corporate funding is provided by mutual of america-- designing customized individual and group retirement products. that's why we are your retirement company. additional support has been provided by: and by the corporation for public broadcasting, and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. from the tisch wnet studios at lincoln center in new york, hari sreenivasan. this is pbs newshour weekend. >> brangham: good evening and thanks for joining us. as the hours count down to the second debate between hillary clinton and donald trump tonight, the number of republicans publicly withdrawing support for trump continues to grow. in the past two days, since the release of an 11-year-old videotape showing trump talking in sexually aggressive and crude terms about women, more than 40 governors, senators, and members of the house of representatives, have announced they've joined the list of current and former republican officials who will not vote for their party's nominee. the chairman of the house ethics committee, representative charlie dent of pennsylvania, told "abc news" today that a year's worth of inflammatory comments by trump is enough. >> from diminishing john mccain's service as a p.o.w., to mocking the disabled, to the ethnic smears against mexicans and muslims, the david duke debacle, the indiana judge, the khan family, miss universe and her weight, and now this. look, will donald trump withdraw from the race? no. should he? yes. >> brangham: trump has continued to say he won't quit the race, and one of his top advisers, former new york city mayor rudy giuliani, told "nbc news" today, he shouldn't. >> he was selected by more republican voters than anyone has ever been selected in a republican primary. he owes them the duty to run. it is true that he said something and said a group of things during that interview that are reprehensible and terrible and awful, and he feels terrible about it. >> brangham: in an attempt to change the conversation, the conservative news website breitbart news, which had been run for the last four years by trump campaign chairman stephen bannon, today posted interviews with three women who have accused bill clinton of sexually aggressive behavior in the past. trump quickly called attention to the interviews on twitter. one of the women, juanita broaddrick, alleges clinton raped her in 1978, when he was then attorney general of arkansas. it's a charge he denies, one which has never been proven, and was dismissed 15 years ago in a civil suit brought by broaddrick. when clinton and trump meet tonight for the second of their three debates, it will be at washington university in st. louis. the newshour's john yang is there, outside the debate hall, and he joins me now for a preview. so john, tonight was going to be an important debate even before friday's revelations came out. and we've seen over the last two days trump getting really beaten up for these comments. but we've also seen late today that trump is hinting very strongly that he might bring up some old allegations against bill clinton. is this a sign of things to come? >> william, we don't really know. the only person who does know is donald trump. we've seen rudy giuliani, mayor giuliani on the talk shows this morning saying he didn't think it would come up. that may have been his advice to donald trump but the only person who really knows whether it's going to come up in the debate is donald trump. this could be a shot across a warning shot as it were, to hillary clinton and the clinton campaign that if she brings up on her own the tape that came out on friday, this is what will come in response. but you know, it's interesting. i have been talking to people who have been prepping other candidates in the past, other nominees for townhall events. they're not talking to a moderator. they're not talking to a reporter. so making a term like that, and going after your opponent is going to be a tricky thing. so it's going to be interesting to see what does happen tonight. >> we've been seeing over the last couple of days this rash of defekses, of gop officials saying enough is enough. we're going to abandon trump. i'm curious, right now, in your mind how much of this is about principle, that they just can't abide by what was revealed on this tape. and how much of this is just about political survival? >> the question is going into next week, after this performance tonight, again, depending on what kind of performance donald trump has tonight, will this spread wider. will other politicians, house candidates, members of the house join in? i think this is, we don't know yet. there are a lot of shoes yet to fall and the final shoes may not fall until sometime mid week. >> just quickly, i wonder if the the gop elders whoever those actually may be, decide they do want to get trump off the ballot. do they have a way, a mechanism to do that? >> they can't do it on their own, william. they would have to-- trump would have to withdraw. but even then it's tricky because you've got 50 state laws, 50 state rules about ballots. ballots have already been printed and you know, williams, ballots have already gone out. people are already voting in a lot of states, either in person or absentee ballots. this whole thing is unchartered waters, no one foas where this could go. >> the newshour's john yang, thank you so much. we'll see you later tontd. >> thanks, william. as john yang mentioned, tonight's debate will be a town hall format, with voters joining the moderators in asking questions. newshour weekend special correspondent jeff greenfield reports, that format has tripped up many candidates in the past. >> reporter: this is what most debates look like-the candidates at a lectern. and many recent presidential debates have featured the candidates and the moderator sitting down at a table. but tomorrow's debate features a very different format: a "town hall" meeting, in which undecided voters-selected by the gallup organization-put questions directly to the candidates. it's a format that offers special opportunities-and pitfalls. for instance, a question can sometimes be unclear, as in this example from 1992. >> how has the national debt personally affected each of your lives? and if it hasn't, how can you honestly find a cure for the economic problems of the common people if you have no experience in what's ailing them? >> reporter: president george h.w. bush was clearly confused by what she was asking. >> well, i think the national debt affects everybody. >> you, on a personal basis-- how has it affected you? >> has it affected you personally? >> i'm not sure i get-- help me with the question and i'll try to answer it. >> well, i've had friends that have been laid off from jobs. >> tell me how it's affected you, again. you know people who've lost their jobs and lost their homes? >> reporter: bill clinton, by contrast, quickly reached out for a personal connection. >> when a factory closes, i know the people who ran it. when the businesses go bankrupt, i know them. >> reporter: the format, unhinged from lecterns and tables, allow the candidates much more movement. but this can be a double-edged sword. in 2000, vice president al gore decided to move into governor bush's personal space, perhaps to create a sense of dominance. but watch: that non-verbal gesture proved to be the most memorable moment of the entire debate. >> reporter: in the 2012 town hall, mitt romney and president obama were on their feet so much, it felt at times more like a duel than a debate. >> mr. president, have you looked at your pension? >> i don't look at my pension; it's not as big as yours, so it doesn't take as long. >> if i could have you sit down, governor romney. thank you. >> reporter: it is moments like these that make the town hall meeting, the most unpredictable, and for the candidates, the riskiest format of all. and a reminder for this evening, stay with "pbs newshour" for coverage of the second presidential debate from st. louis between donald trump and hillary clinton, live across the country at 9 p.m. eastern, right here on pbs. >> brangham: hurricane matthew has been downgraded to a post- tropical cyclone and has now moved out over the atlantic ocean. but it carved a trail of damage and flooding from florida to north carolina and caused at least 19 deaths. at the height of the storm, almost three million people in the southeast were without power. north carolina was the last and hardest state to be hit...with some areas experiencing record floodwaters the city of wilmington saw 18 inches of rain. governor pat mccrory said emergency responders rescued close to 900 hundred residents from their homes and cars. in fayetteville, firefighters from new york city rescued occupants of a car that was almost completely submerged in floodwater. and in haiti, there were funerals today for some of the estimated 900 people killed by the hurricane, and doctors try to contain a cholera outbreak. matthew first hit the u.s. thursday night, in florida. the worst flooding there occurred in the jacksonville metro area. a half hour's drive south of jacksonville, newshour weekend's hari sreenivasan visited residents of one of america's oldest cities, st. augustine to assess the damage. >> that's the waterline right there, three feet. >> reporter: tamara wilhelm of vilano beach, florida, thought placing her valuables a foot off the floor would keep them safe. but the storm surge from hurricane matthew became much higher. you can see the water line right across your fireplace. >> yes you can, yes you can. >> reporter: so this smell is going to turn into mold? >> yes, it will, >> reporter: your couches, your carpets, your rugs, everything? >> yes. >> reporter: it's got to be replaced? >> yes, yes it does. >> reporter: in her home of 18 years, the carpets are squishy beneath her feet, and the sunken sun room was submerged by water. wilhelm says she even found dead fish that had made their way in from the atlantic ocean. the inlet came into your house? >> yes, it did, it did. i'm trying not to cry. >> reporter: it's a gorgeous place. >> yes it is. and we will rebuild. and we will brush it off and it will work. >> it's going to take a lot of time to clean everything up. >> reporter: a few miles away, matthias herzog is already in full recovery mode at his house, which faces the matanzas river. >> that's the view i decided to live here, taking the risk of hurricanes. they say it's not going to happen, every hundred years it happens. >> reporter: that view now includes a boat that did not survive the storm unscathed. was it up online? >> oh, yeah. i tied it up with these super tight. you know, i looked it up, it was this height. >> reporter: his boat fared better than one two blocks away that the hurricane picked up and dumped on a dead end street. at "cap's on the water" restaurant, leah attebery's customers used to be able to sail in from the tolomato river. but now the dock is now gone. the storm surge caused heavy kitchen equipment to float all over and snapped lights bolted into the ground. attebery says she used to be able serve more than 1,000 people a night. how many people does this place employ? >> i'd say over a hundred. >> reporter: so, for a couple of weeks, a hundred people aren't getting a paycheck? what about all the food that you get in? >> we'll either have to postpone our orders. >> reporter: that means all the people that supply you they don't have business for two weeks? >> no. >> reporter: how the region moves forward is on the mind of mike wanchick. >> you're looking at a county that is one of the top ten fastest growing counties in the united states. >> reporter: we met wanchick at the emergency operations center that coordinated the local response to the hurricane. how do you build resilience and capacity for a region to handle things like this in the future? >> ironically, storms like this do exactly that. they make people have a greater understanding of building codes and governmental procedures, and regulations and why they're in place. >> reporter: the rebuilding due to matthew's devastation, county by county, state by state, could take years. >> brangham: of all the republican defectors from donald trump's candidacy in the past two days, utah has led the way. the state's governor and former governor, one of its u.s. senators, and three of its four members of the house of representatives-- all have now denounced trump and said they will not vote for him. among that group is first-term congresswoman mia love, who happens to be the only woman in utah's congressional delegation, she's only the fourth woman to ever represent utah in washington since it became a state in 1896. utah also has a very small number of women in its state legislature. in tonight's signature segment, newshour weekend's christopher booker reports how this affects policy in utah, and what's being done to encourage more women candidates. >> okay, alright sister. >> reporter: for sophia dicaro, political campaigns are a family affair. >> well i can't thank you enough for your support. >> reporter: throughout the fall, dicaro, her husband robert, and their three kids, caravan through utah's state house district 31. >> thank you so much we appreciate it. >> reporter: for dicaro, who previously worked for four governors, the family's full- court press is designed to hold the seat she won two years ago. >> you know, these campaign politics world. it's one of those things that you can't really describe unless you experience it for yourself. >> reporter: as a republican in utah, dicaro is part of the state's majority in the house of representatives, but as a women in utah politics, she's a rarity. nationally, about a quarter of all state legislators are women. with six senators in its 29 member senate and just ten representatives in its 75 member house, utah has one of the lowest percentages of female legislators in the country. yet this low percentage lags behind what's happening in the workforce-- 60% of utah's women are participating in the labor market. why do you think so few women are involved in state legislature here in utah? >> i think there's a number of factors that play into that question. we have a part-time legislature. it is full time intensity for a 45-day period. so your family situation has to be such that you're able to accommodate that kind of schedule. you have to have the availability of time and you have to have the financial ability to make it work, you're not paid very much as a legislator. >> reporter: dicaro says her ability to make the arrangement work for the family is largely due to the support she receives from her husband. do you ever find yourself contemplating the gender questions that surround campaigns? does that come into your world at all? >> you know, initially when i ran for office, you know, that did come up in our caucus meetings, "are you going to be able to manage your family?" >> reporter: do you think if you were a man they would have asked you those questions? >> no. i don't. >> reporter: you can't discuss women in utah politics without addressing the role of the state's dominant religion-- the mormon church. the majority of the population identifies as a member of the church of jesus christ of latter-day saints. at the same time, utah has one of the lowest percentages of women in state legislature. is it fair to ask if there's a correlation between the two? >> i think it's a fair question to ask how the culture impacts the greater community. >> reporter: ally isom is the church's director of family and community relations. >> we're having the conversations within the church, as an employer, but we're also having the conversation within the church as a faith-based group. >> reporter: although the mormon church currently does not allow women to become priests, she believes the state would benefit with more women in politics. >> we're looking at, what are the cultural barriers that might inhibit women from stepping up? and, do they need a little encouragement? do they need to know that they make a difference? we need women to recognize the value they add to public policy conversations. the questions they ask are so important. and to understand they make an-- a meaningful difference when they step up and engage. but cultural change sometimes takes some time. >> reporter: with permission from the church, isom sits on the executive committee of utah's women's leadership institute-- a coalition formed by the salt lake city business community working to train utah women for senior leadership positions both in business and politics. >> there will be people when you run for office that will ask you how you feel about certain things. >> reporter: today is the first day of their political development series-- designed to train women of any party affiliation how to run for office. the six month program is led by the institute's c.e.o., patricia jones. >> women make up more than half of the population, and yet we have such a small percentage of women who are making policy decisions. you know, i think it was oprah winfrey, once said that politics is social work with power. >> reporter: first elected in the year 2000, jones spent 14 years as a democratic state representative and state senator. >> the first race that i had, i didn't know what i was doing. ( laughter ) you know, i knew that i had to walk door to door, because i was a democrat. i ran as a democrat in a republican area. understanding how the system works is really important to you, personally. >> reporter: jones spent much of her time in office fighting for increased funding for public education. she says while she was warmly received by her male colleagues, collaboration was often easier with women. >> i saw that personally. you saw women, you know, working together on both sides of the aisle when i was in the legislature. >> reporter: utah, like many states, does not require companies to provide paid family medical leave for the arrival of a new baby or to care for a sick relative. utah workers benefit only from the federal law which allows for 12 weeks of unpaid leave from their jobs. what's the causation or correlation between the lack of women within state legislature and a lack of family policies within the state of utah? is there a correlation between the two? >> yes, absolutely, there has to be. i mean, i could give you countless stories about my own personal experience. you're often either the only woman, or one of very few women in a committee, and that is really where the work goes on is and these are committees that are discussing issues that are of primary importance to women. > reporter: advancing women's issues through the legislature is a goal of the utah women's coalition run by stephanie pitcher. >> if we don't have women up there speaking and lending that perspective to the issue, then we're not going to have a policy that is representative and comprehensive to the entirety of utah's population. >> reporter: last year, pitcher worked with a republican senator to pass a bill requiring employers to provide reasonable accommodations for pregnancy and breastfeeding in the workplace. this year, she's working with democratic state representative angela romero to resurrect a bill granting six weeks of paid parental leave for state and university employees. >> i think states like utah want to show that they're fiscally conservative, but i flip that and say, ¡well, if we really invest in our employees, and we provide them with these incentives, then they're gonna be happy in their jobs.' they're gonna have happier families, and we're gonna have a healthier economy, long-term. >> reporter: two prior attempts to pass a paid family leave bill in utah have failed. today in this interim session, the bill is once again under economic scrutiny. >> has anyone taken a look at that and the cost of that versus a first benefit? >> that's my concern as well, that we look at the fiscal side of this very carefully. >> reporter: despite those questions, there was one receptive republican-- representative sophia dicaro. >> i'm a little bit more interested in the mechanics, because i would like to see something like this work and would hate for it to get hung up due to mechanics. maybe i can help take a look. and it's not about necessarily accommodating the woman, it's about accommodating the family. because the husband's impacted just as much. it's a family affair so if we have a welcoming environment for family, i think that would only help this state. >> women tend to migrate towards certain issues, whether it's public ed or health, it's issues where you know, child care, you know, family leave, and that sort of thing. because those are the lives that they've lived. but to have the power to actually make change is really what's important-- that women understand the power that you can have. and there's nothing wrong with the word power. suzanne's running for, you are running for the house aren't you? >> reporter: suzanne harrison is one of 40 women in jones' political development series this year. >> thank you all for coming! >> reporter: an anesthesiologist and member of the mormon church, the first time candidate is running as a democrat for state house district 32, just outside salt lake city. so you are running for office for the first time. why? >> mostly 'cause i'm a mom. and this is a priority for our family. we have some of the largest class sizes in the whole country and we have the lowest in per pupil spending in the whole country and i feel like that's wrong. that's not where my values are. that's not my priority as a mom and as a doctor. i value public education and i want that to be a priority in this state. >> reporter: this november women are competing for 35 seats in the utah house and senate. if, in the unlikely event they win all 35, this would more than double the percentage of women in state government, but women would still only occupy a third of the utah state legislature. >> i'm an anesthesiologist. i'm a physician. my first priorities are to families and to my patients. and we could use some more of those kind of viewpoints in the legislature. there's a lot of people in real estate. a lot of people that are developers. there are not very many physicians, and there's not a lot of moms. and those perspectives really matter. >> learn why new york city tripled the number of languages on voter registration forms. visit pbs.org/newshour. >> >> brangham: in south korea today, samantha power, the us ambassador to the united nations visited the de-militarized zone bordering north korea. her visit comes barely a month after the north carried out its fifth nuclear weapons test. later, in seoul, power said the u.s. will use economic sanctions and military deterrence to isolate the north. >> we are committed to using all the tools in our toolkit to address the serious threat, including diplomatic pressure that we are mobilizing around the world to convince other nations to isolate the regime. the white house is reviewing america's support for the saudi- led coalition that's battling shiite rebels in yemen this following yesterday's air attack on a funeral in the rebel-held capital. the white house said backing the saudi campaign does not constitute a "blank check." today, thousands of yemenis demonstrated outside the united nations headquarters in yemen and called for an investigation. the u.n. says the bombing killed at least 140 people and wounded 525 more. it was one of the most lethal incidents in yemen's 18-month- long civil war. at the vatican today, pope francis named his first american cardinals. all are considered to be moderates, and they are chicago archbishop blase cupich, indianapolis archbishop joseph tobin, and kevin farrell, the outgoing bishop of dallas. in all, francis named 17 new cardinals from five continents. 13 of whom are under the age of 80, which means they would be eligible to vote for or become the next pope. >> finally, another remind tore join us later this evening for coverage of the second presidential debate from st. louis between hillary clinton and donald trump live at 9 p.m. eastern right here on pb, is. that's all for pbs newshour weekend. thanks for watching. i'm william brangham. good night. captioning sponsored by wnet captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org >> pbs newshour weekend is made possible by: judy and josh weston. the cheryl and philip milstein family. the john and helen glessner family trust. supporting trustworthy journalism that informs and inspires. sue and edgar wachenheim, iii. barbara hope zuckerberg. corporate funding is provided by mutual of america-- designing customized individual and group retirement products. that's why we are your retirement company. additional support has been provided by: and by the corporation for public broadcasting, and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> i know about isis than the generals do. >> i have sat at that table in the situation room. >> nobody knows the system better than me. i alone can fix it. >> i'm going to close my campaign focused on opportunities for kids and fairness for families. >> hillary failed on the economy. everything she touched didn't work out. >> even if you're totally opposed to you may still have some questions about me.