reporters from certain events and things like that? scott: with polls showing clinton and trump neck and neck, tomorrow's debates are more high-stakes than usual. >> both candidates have such high negatives and so much to prove. scott: how important is it that they just get out clean? >> this summer, wildfires in the west are burning bigger, hotter, and faster, consuming not just only the landscape, but the budget of the agency charged with fighting the fires. >> we need congress to act and we need them to act now. [captioning performed which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] ? sharyl: welcome to "full measure." i'm sharyl attkisson. the first presidential debate is tomorrow night. americans have a lot of will trump keep his cool? the polls are growing tighter and so is the time until the election. with the debate looming, we asked both candidates for an interview. so far, clinton has declined. i caught up with donald trump on the campaign trail in ft. myers, florida and began by asking him about the recent islamic extremist terrorist attacks in new york, new jersey, and minnesota. some of the analysts and some people who are experts, as well as some of the media, seem to go into contortions to try not to say early on it was a possible terrorist event. donald trump: that's true. they want to go in and they just don't wanna say that, because that offends some people, including our president. they don't want to mention the term radical islamic terrorism under any circumstance, including hillary clinton. i laughed this morning when i see her on television saying how she's gonna do this and that. she's been there for 30 years, she hasn't done anything. i mean, she's all talk and no action. but she was saying that she's for a long time, as long as you've known me. and this is radical islamic terrorism. it has to be dealt with sharply. it's the only language that they're gonna understand and this problem that we have now is only going to get worse with weak leadership. sharyl: on the economy, in a recent survey, a majority of business economists said that hillary clinton was the best choice for the economy. and libertarian gary johnson came in a distant second, and you came in third. why do you think that is and how could you change their minds? the most respected economists are on my side, to be honest with you. i think that i've seen tremendous reviews of my tax plan, but they do know, you have to understand, they do know that i'm gonna stop these horrible trade deals. we're gonna have trade, we're gonna have free trade, but we're gonna have real free trade, not free trade, which is a one-way highway out of our country for our jobs and our money. nafta is the worst trade deal ever signed in the history of the world, not only the country. you look at what it's done to our states, and you look at what it's done to, you know, our country, what it's done to us. the jobs are gone, the money's pennsylvania, i go to ohio, i go all over, especially for the primaries, i've never seen devastation like this. we're like a third world country. those factories were vibrant 30 years ago, and today they're empty, they're falling down, they're collapsing from the rain and the snow. so, no, i think that we've had tremendous reviews. i mean, look, i'm gonna lower taxes, hillary clinton is going to raise taxes. i'm going to -- that's what i do, i have thousands and thousands of people that work for me and have, i've created tens of thousands of jobs. but a lot of people are concerned when i say that i'm gonna renegotiate our trade deal, sharyl. and i understand that they're concerned, but there's nothing to be concerned about. we lose right now, we have a deficit, in terms of, of all of the trading we do with other countries. we have a trade deficit almost $800 billion a year. we're losing more than $400 billion a year with china, in what are we doing? what are we doing? i, i often say, who negotiates these deals? so, your establishment people are saying, oh, gee, you know, let things be the way. i don't think we can let them be the way they are, because our country is being devastated and our jobs are being taken. sharyl: i want to hit on a couple of personal controversies for you. new york's attorney general, eric schneiderman, who's already suing you over trump university, which he's called a bait and switch fraud, now says he's opened an inquiry to the trump are you confident that the trump foundation has followed all charitable rules and laws? donald trump: well, i hope so, i mean, my lawyers do it. we give away money, i don't make anything, i take no salaries, i take no costs, i have zero costs, and a lot of money goes through the trump foundation into charities. goes to charities, it doesn't go to me, it goes to charities. sharyl: i'll point out that mr.schneiderman is a hillary clinton supporter and has apparently found nothing worthy of inquiry with the clinton foundation. donald trump: with the hundreds and he said he's not even gonna look at it. but i think my people do a very good job with it. sharyl: nearly every major news organization has remarked during the obama administration years, that this has been a record for obstruction and lack of transparency. but considering your rocky relationship with the press, do they have reason to be concerned that things will continue along that path or even get worse? maybe reporters you don't agree with could get banned, thing like that. donald: well, i think this, that the press has been very dishonest with me, to a large you, by the way. but the press has been very, very dishonest and when i see it, i'm just amazed. at the same time, i will certainly be open to dealing with the press and reporters. sharyl: do you see yourself banning, banning reporters from certain events and things like that? donald trump: no, i don't see that, but a lot of people have done it, and a lot of people, a lot of different businesses have done it. the press has been very, very dishonest. i mean, even recently when i said yesterday, the bombing, and bombing, but not hers and they cut it out, and, i mean, many other things, even over the last couple of days. so, the relationship with the press, it's not a question of good, all i want is honesty. and if there's something wrong or something bad, i can handle that, but when you do something great, and they try to make it as negative as possible, constantly, it's really not a fair situation. sharyl: you and i first spoke about a ar something like 16 other republicans in the race and you had a long haul. going back to a year ago, did you really think you had a good chance at being here today? donald trump: well, i don't think i would've been doing it if i didn't. you know, my question is, is do you really think this was going to happen? and i guess the answer is, i wouldn't have done it if i didn't, you know, i'm not looking to lose. and traditionally, i do well, and i win, and i, i, you know, i do a nice job. this has become a very big situation, it's amazing. what's happened is amazing. you see outside, you see the outside, because it's true, the press is an example. they never show the size of the crowd, ever. the only time they show it is, is a little bit of protest someplace within the crowd, then all of a sudden they show, and then people say, wow, what a big crowd that is. i think the answer is, i would assume that i thought this was going to happen, because i wouldn't have done it if i didn't. sharyl: how has the past year changed you? from the time you started this race to where you are today, with all you've learned, the turn the success that you've had. donald trump: well, i think it's probably changed me, but i haven't had a lot of time to think about it, because every day i'm campaigning, i'll make three or four major speeches, sometimes in one day, where you have massive crowds and you know that, you see it. it's been an amazing experience. what has been, is that the people of this country are incredible. they're looking for hope, they're looking for change, they're looking for success, they're looking for victory. we don't win anymore, our military. we have the greatest people in the world in our military, but it's depleted. we don't take care of our vets, it looks like the second amendment's in big trouble. certain if i, if i don't win, the second amendment is in big, big trouble. healthcare is a disaster. we don't win anymore, and i will tell you that i think the reason it's caught on so much is, we're gonna win again, we're gonna start winning again. and people understand that and people see it. program, i'll ask trump a few questons posed by some of our viewers. next, tomorrow night's debate could be a history making event. scott thuman takes a look at the history of presidential debates to see how they could make or whatcha' doin? just checking my free credit score at credit karma. what the??? you're welcome. i just helped you dodge a bullet. but i was just checking my... shhh... don't you know that checking your credit score lowers it! just be cool. actually, checking your credit score with credit karma doesn't affect it at all. are you sure? positive. oooh "check out credit karma today. credit karma. give yourself some credit." sharyl: 73% of all registered voters in the u.s. say they plan to tune into the debate tomorrow night. and that doesn't include a big number of non-voters who will watch in fascination from the sidelines. of debat, win them, but you darn sure can lose them." this time who wins and who loses may prove pivotal. scott thuman reports on the history of must-see political tv. >> good evening. scott: on september 26, 1960, more than 70 million americans tuned in to see senator john kennedy go toe-to-toe with vice president richard nixon. >> this is a great country. scott: the optics were everything, kennedy was tanned prof. lichtman: while i don't think the debates moved the needle very much, they ended the narrative that kennedy wasn't prepared. scott: allan lichtman is a political historian and professor at american university in washington, d.c. prof. lichtman: he was so factual. he was so on point. he was so knowledgeable. scott: kennedy's knock-out performance not only helped seal his candidacy, but also cemented the role of tv in making or breaking the candidates. pres. ford: there is no soviet domination of eastern europe. scott: the gaffes. pres. bush: before we go to deployment on the midgetman missile or on the minuteman, whatever it is -- we're going to have to -- the mx -- mx -- we're going to have to do that. [laughter] pres. bush: it's christmas. it's christmas. [laughter] scott: and the one liners. mr. perot: there will be a giant sucking sound going south. pres. reagan: i am not going to exploit, for political purposes, my opponent's youth and inxperience. [laughter] scott: while reagan's zinger ended what lichtman calls the "negative narrative" about his age, he says al gore's performance in 2000 only enhanced his. prof. lichtman: "you're too overwroughou overblown, you exaggerate things," and with all his incredibly deep sighing in a debate. [heavy sighing] prof. lichtman: with his standing up and trying to intimidate george w. bush. >> but can you get things done? prof. lichtman: all he did was advance the negative narrative that was already in place. scott: lichtman says with polls showing clinton and trump neck and neck, tomorrow's debates are more high stakes than usual. prof. lichtman: both candidates have such high negatives and so much to prove. scott: how important is it that they just get out clean? prof. lichtman: it shouldn't be the big problems with media coverage is that they cover it like nascar, they're looking for the accident. everyone makes mistakes, but that's not critically what candidates should be judged on. what candidates should be judged on is their knowledge, their vision, their values, their experience, their truthfulness. scott: but in a campaign where truthfulness has been a constant casualty -- or send any material that was marked or designated classified. scott: lichtman says that standard seems unlikely. mr. trump: hillary clinton and her campaign of 2008 started the birther controversy. prof. lichtman: we have in donald trump a completely unprecedented candidate, who has become known for making things up, for playing hard and fast with the truth. people wonder what she stands for and people wonder if she's too secretive, and not being honest enough with the american people. so you've got some pretty negative narratives going for both candidates, that they've gotta make sure don't become a tidal wave after the debates. scott: we've seen a lot of show business in the election so far, haven't we? is this going to be a continuation of that? prof. lichtman: donald trump is the master of showbiz, but the question is will that play in debates? everyone that you interview says, we are looking for substance, we don't care about the flash, that's what the voters tell you. well, these debates will be the test of how much they really mean that. sharyl: we set about three quarters of registered voters, more people who are not scott: there are about that's approaching super bowl status. some on the conservative side are talking about at least 80 million people watching. sharyl: thanks, scott. appreciate it. still ahead on "full measure" -- wildfires burning out west are an ongoing natural disaster. both the fires and cost of fighting them are spinning out of control. sharyl: a wildfire that's been burning for more than two months on california's coastline known as big sur has just become the single costliest fire the u.s. forest service has ever battled. have been spent fighting it so far and it's only two-thirds contained. "full measure" contributor lisa fletcher reports on the natural disaster that's burning a hole in the federal budget. lisa: the picture postcard views around big sur vanished this summer. record wildfires closed the highways and hotels, keeping tourists away from one of the everyone but the firefighters. >> this actually crossed the creek the night before last. lisa: bob baird is the supervisor of the los padres national forest, his job is to put the fires out. bob: the terrain is incredibly complex. it's rugged california with some of the steepest terrain in the lower 48. lisa: summer wildfires in the west have been burning bigger, hotter, and faster over the last several years, consuming not only the landscape, but the with fighting the fires. robert: we need congress to act and we need them to act now. lisa: robert bonnie is the head of the u.s. forest service. he has spent the last four years trying to get congress to treat fires more like natural disasters. that would shift the cost off the forest service ledgers and tornadoes, and floods. robert: if you look back about 20 years, the forest service spent about one sixth of its budget on fire and fire fighting. last year, in a bad year, we spent north of 60% on fire-related expenses. lisa: what is that in dollars and cents? robert: it was close to $3 billion last year, out of an agency budget that's about $5 billion, so you can see that the agency is being more and more less a forest service and more a fire service. lisa: the los padres national forest is ground zero for one of the summer's worst fires, now surpassing 120,000 acres. >> so, this is a drip torch. we intentionally put fire on the ground, so that way we can create a buffer from the main fire and something that we're trying to protect. lisa: thousands of firefighters are using fire to fight fire, not to mention the helicopters, bulldozers, and fleets of water trucks -- at a cost of $210 with extreme fires consuming so much of the forest service's budget, programs designed to prevent fires are in jeopardy. in fact, in 2015, the forest service had to take $700 million from prevention programs and put it into firefighting. these flammable landscapes become far more volatile when the money isn't there to manage pests like the tree killing bark beetle. capt. lindberry: they will burrow around the tree in the layer that actually carries the water up to the top of the tree. lisa: fire captain mike lindbery works on some of the biggest fires across the country. estimating 60 million trees are dead standing right now all over the state. lisa: and what is the translation for a firefighter? capt. lindberry: the translation for a firefighter is, one, faster moving more deadly fires and the fact even while they're fighting these fires, there's the danger of the trees dropping on them at any point. lisa: and you already had one firefighter killed with a tree dropping on them. capt. lindberry: there was a firefighter killed last week from a tree dropping on him, that's correct. lisa: forest fires produce a double jeopardy. after crews extinguish the and poisoning local water. robert: we don't have the resources we need to invest in reforestation and we have a substantial backlog. i think it might be as much as 5 million acres of areas where we'd like to plant trees post-fire and we essentially can't. lisa: like here, high above big sur, where mark gerwe's been on the front line for months. is this a disaster? mark: absolutely it's a disaster. and for congress and washington not to recognize tan giving us what we need to do our job, i think they need to take a hard look at that and understand that this is, this is what's going on. lisa: for years, the house and senate have been at an impasse over how to pay for putting out the biggest wildfires. people out there are tired of hearing about so many committees and so many people involved that can't come to an agreement. robert: that's exactly right. this is an issue where there is broad agreement and we need to fix it. i think this is becoming more and more an issue that many americans see every day and think the anger is for not getting on top of this faster, for congress not acting, is growing. lisa: and so are the fires. more than 14 million acres have burned in the last two years. lisa fletcher, big sur, california. sharyl: still ahead, a few of your questions that we posed to "credit karma, why are you checking your credit score!" "you don't want to drive old blue forever, do you?" "turn it off." "i did." "credit karma huh?" "yea, it's free." "that was easy." responded to a few of my questions. now, it's your turn. we asked the republican presidential nominee some of questions you suggested. what does it mean to be an american? donald trump: to me, being an american is the ultimate, you have to be so lucky to be born into this country. it's the ultimate jackpot. if you're born in america, boy, what an advantage. sharyl: will you keep tweeting, yourself, if you become president? donald trump: probably not, although it is a great way of communicating. sharyl: it can be. this is a more complex question, but maybe you can just touch on it. what would you do if russia were to invade estonia? donald trump: well, i don't want to say, because i don't like saying, i don't like telling people what i'm going to do. upset. we're gonna this, we're gonna send troops here, we're gonna send troops there, they're gonna arrive at a certain time of the day. i don't like saying that. i, i think it's a very bad policy to be discussing. sharyl: is your tax philosophy more that it takes a certain amount of money to run the government and you get it however you need to get it? or that we should only take a limited amount from the people and spend that? donald trump: no, i think it takes a certain amount of money and you want to take care of your people and we end up getting it, but taxes are too high in this country. i'm giving a massive tax reduction and i'm also getting rid of regulation, we have so much regulation. the tax reduction i'm giving is, is tremendous, but you know what, people are more excited about the regulation cutting. we have regulations on regulations, and honestly, it's gotten out of control, and it's really killing our businesses, that i can tell you. sharyl: and if you could go back a year and tell yourself, a year ago, something that you've learned today, how to be, how to change, how to act, would there be something? donald trump: well, i think the main thing, and i would've known this, maybe without having to go sharyl: a program note -- you can see tomorrow night's big debate right here on this sinclair station. a follow-up to many of our "follow the money" stories on wasted tax money -- the afghanistan reconstruction project. the inspector general released a scathing report saying that the u.s. effort to help rebuild the country actually contributed to corruption in afghanistan by injecting tens of billions of dollars into the economy. the money was actually going to insurgents by the way of officials. to date, congress has appropriated $115 billion for reconstruction in afghanistan. coming up next week on "full measure" -- almost a decade ago, the mortgage crisis nearly collapsed the economy and sent many families into bankruptcy. we'll hear from a group of businesswomen who tell the incredible story of how they saw it coming and tried to stop it. >> greed is what happened. it is the almighty dollar. once that comes into play, people lose all consciousness sharyl: some say it could happen again. that is next week on "full measure." that's all for this week. thanks for watching. i'm sharyl attkisson. until next time, we will be searching for more stories that hold powers accountable. i'm hillary clinton and i approve this message. i know more about isis then the generals do. john mccain, a war hero. he's not a war hero, he's a war hero because he was captured. donald trump compared his sacrifices to the sacrifices of two parents who lost their son in war. how would you answer that father? what sacrifice have you made for your country? i think i've made a lot of sacrifices, built great structures. i've had tremendous success, i think...

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