cell phone carriers, and a big blow to samsung over fears of exploding phones. "nightly news" begins right now. from nbc news world headquarters in new york, this is "nbc nightly news" with lester holt. good evening. 29 days until election day, and our new poll numbers out tonight speak to the urgent crisis exploding inside the republican party from the top down. with donald trump's fortunes fading over his lewd comments about women, a gop civil war has broken out. loyalty versus self-survival. the crisis underscored by a new nbc news/"wall street journal" poll taken after the controversy broke and before last night's debate. it shows hillary clinton now with an 11-point lead over trump nationally among likely voters. nbc's hallie jackson has late details. >> reporter: tonight, abandonment and astonishment as the country's top republican walks away from the top of his ticket. house speaker paul conference call, he won't defend donald trump anymore, won't campaign for him. essentially conceding trump won't win. sources on the call revealing ryan was forced to reiterate he won't unendorse trump after facing backlash from angry house members. >> i think we came away pretty united. >> how do you talk about unity when the house speaker isn't going to campaign with or defend the party's nominee? >> he's still endorsing him, very unusually and i think paul ryan is trying to make the best of a very difficult situation. >> reporter: ryan's making official what it appears he'd been doing all along. focusing only on gop control of congress. even as trump today tweeted ryan shouldn't waste his time on fighting the republican nominee. senator richard burr, up for re-election in north carolina, won't betting it's better to stick by trump's side. >> if we don't allow somebody to be forgiven, who's going illustrating the gop dilemma. go against trump and risk the wrath of his base, or go against him and hope he loses. now it's not just the senate in danger, but the house too. >> it's time for republicans to hit the panic button, because trump could drag them into the political abyss. >> reporter: the republican national committee, silent so far, but outside its headquarters, a graphic display of the gop divide. at a protest, a reference to trump's 2005 comments about genitals. better to grab one, than be one. >> each candidate is running for him or herself. that may include embracing donald trump or not embracing donald trump. >> reporter: ryan's republicans and trump's, a coalition now crumbling. our new polling shows more voters want democrats to control congress by the widest margin since 2015. -- 2013. but the republican party is still standing by his nominee. late tonight, nbc news of its great relationship with trump. lester? all of this following last night's second presidential debate, perhaps the ugliest we've seen in modern political history. trump unleashed some of his harshest attacks yet to his opponent's face, while clinton continued to try and stay above the fray. we have it all covered, starting with nbc's katy tur. katy, good evening. >> reporter: good evening, lester. the line to get into trump's event is -- in wilkes-barre is supporters willing to stand by trump and against anybody who stands in his way. last night's debate was largely seen as trump's best chance to make amends with the republican party, but he proved he had no interest in that, staging a political stunt that some operatives believe could cost him the election. fueled by a fevered crowd in pennsylvania, donald trump was on the attack. >> special prosecutor, here we come, right? >> reporter: a day after turning the debate stage into a side show, putting hillary clinton face to face with accusers from her past. mine are words, and his was action. hillary clinton attacked those same women. and attacked them viciously, four of them here tonight. >> reporter: the gop nominee was going for a vicious counterpunch, backed into a corner by a 2005 audio leak. >> grab them by the [ bleep ]. >> you bragged that you have sexually assaulted women. do you understand that? >> no, i didn't say that at all. i don't think you understood what was said. this was locker room talk. >> have you ever done those things? and i will tell you -- no, i have not. >> reporter: the candidate hitting new political lows, calling clinton the devil, confirming he did not pay federal taxes, casting conspiracy theories, fighting with the moderators. >> nice, one on three. >> reporter: and throwing red meat to his base. threatening clinton with jail time for her use of a private e-mail server. >> i am going to instruct my attorney general to get a special prosecutor to good that someone with the temperament of donald trump is not in charge of the law in our country. >> because you'd be in jail. >> generally do not have candidates for president threatening to jail or prosecute their opponent. that's the kind of thing that you might expect from a third world country. >> reporter: after a cold introduction trump spent 90 minutes stalking the debate floor, at times hovering behind clinton. he didn't take notes. he barely smiled, and at times he ignored the facts. into the clinton campaign e-mails -- >> she doesn't know if it's the russians doing the hacking. maybe there is no hacking. >> reporter: but a senior u.s. intelligence official tells nbc news trump has known about the evidence of russia's hacking since mid august when security officials briefed him on the direct link to putin's government. katy tur, nbc news, wilkes-barre pennsylvania. >> reporter: this is clinton in michigan bolstered by a growing lead in the polls. >> did anybody see that debate last night? >> reporter: and newly confident after that verbal slug fest with donald trump. trump's biggest mistake, the clinton team believes it was not giving a stronger apology for those lewd comments. >> he just doubled down on his excuse, that it's just locker room banter. >> reporter: the debate, stunningly personal, including clinton's decision in the opening moments not to shake trump's hand. a choice she didn't signal to anyone beforehand. clinton's strategy throughout the night, to not be rattled by >> i am reminded of what my friend michelle obama advised us all. when they go low, you go high. >> reporter: even with trump hovering behind her while she answered questions -- >> i would go back and lean up against my stool, but he was very present. >> reporter: in michigan and ohio, clinton is trying to register students before tomorrow's deadline. but a new challenge, what may come out from thousands of hacked clinton's campaign chairman. when clinton was asked last night about a -- one e-mail summary of a paid wall street speech in which she confided that in order to get anything done in washington, you need both a public and a private position. she explained last night she was talk about the steven spielberg movie about abraham lincoln. >> president lincoln was trying to use one argument to convince some people, and another argument to convince other people. >> she got caught in a total li lie on the late great abraham lincoln. >> reporter: tonight the clinton campaign believes they took trump's roughest shot. and their strategy of staying above the fray has worked so far, with one month to go. andrea mitchell. nbc news, detroit, michigan. a lot to digest here, let's bring in our political director, the moderator of "meet the press." chuck, we've never seen anything like the past 72 hours. the civil war in the republican party, a flood of gop lawmakers abandoning their nominee. 29 days until the >> i think the republican party was about to leave trump en masse, with the assumption that last night was going to -- where he would have a meltdown on stage that would have looked like the first debate where even supporters were going to be ready to throw in the towel, and it would have been easy to walk away from trump. the problem is, trump has made it harder for these guys to walk away, because he threw so much red meat at his base, that there will be retributto any republican, say if you're pat toomey, the republican senator struggling in a re-election in pennsylvania, if he wants to unendorse trump, he needs trump supporters, but he needs those folks who don't like trump too. so he's caught in this vice grip. i think a bunch of republicans woke up today, stepped outside and thought it was like stepping outside in the eye of a hurricane. assuming everything's okay, when they don't realize the worst may be yet to come with trump. they may be staring at >> all right, chuck, thanks for your analysis. now to the state of emergency in the aftermath of hurricane matthew. towns left under water and residents left trapped as rivers overflow their banks. the epicenter of the danger is in north carolina. that's where we find our national correspondent miguel almaguer. >> reporter: tonight in north carolina, this is the desperate race to save lives. the town of lumberton, drowning in a deluge. neighbors helpin should do, come together and help one another. >> reporter: who can't wait for rescue teams trying to reach them. 1,500 people trapped by flood waters. >> we was helping whoever needed the chance to get out. >> thank you, thank you. >> and we've been doing this since 9:00 this morning. >> reporter: north carolina is in a state of emergency. 1,400 rescues in 24 hours. some levies can't hold back all the water and rivers are rising. lost everything. >> i walked through the house and everything we own in there was floating. >> reporter: first responders are still flooding in, pulling children and their parents to safety. >> and i walked through water all the way up to my stomach, with my kids, it was horrific. >> reporter: hurricane matthew dumped over a foot of rain. at least 23 were killed in the u.s., nearly half of those in north carolina. after plowing through haiti, where matthew killed hundreds, there's now fear of a the u.n. says over a million there need help. shredding the coast of florida, knocking out power across much of georgia, in the carolinas, matthew's wrath left roads swamped and buried in debris. the moore family home, hit with five feet of water. amber, an iraq veteran, losing her purple heart in the flood. >> we never thought it would be this bad. never thought. and i don't think anyone else did either. >> reporter: with the to $6 billion, tonight in communities like lumberton, the water continues to rise. the storm gone, but its wrath still being felt. with water rescues still unfolding at this very hour, we are told some rivers could crest 17 feet above flood stage. meantime, the president has declared a disaster in multiple states. and over in florida, a federal judge even extended voter registration because of this slow-motion ongoing crisis. >> all right, miguel almaguer in north carolina tonight. thank you. in california, a man accused of killing two palm springs police officers is expected to be formally charged in court tomorrow. john felix was arrested over the weekend for the short shooting deaths of officers jose gilbert vega and lesley zereb ni in the community. a huge outpouring of emotion for these fallen officers. officer zerebny was only 27 and recently gave birth to a daughter. officer vega was 63 still ahead tonight, more bad news if you own one of those samsung phones recalled over risk of bursting into flames. why even the replacement phones are not considered safe. also, the unlikely critic going on offense against nfl player protests. the big name calling them, quote, dumb and disrespectful. is as simple as possible for you. you can go ahead and stick with that complicated credit card or... you can get the quicksilver card from capital one. quicksilver earns you unlimited 1.5% cash back on ev-e-ry purchase, ev-e-ry-where. i shouldn't have to ask. what's in your wallet? cking up for kyle. here you go. you wouldn't put up with part of a pizza. um. something wrong? so when it comes to pain relievers, yes, yes! live whole. not part. aleve. i had frequent heartburn, but...my doctor recommended prilosec otc 7 years ago, 5 years ago, last week. just 1 pill each morning. 24 hours and zero heartburn, it's been the number 1 doctor recommended brand for 10 straight years, and it's still recommended today. there's major news tonight concerning those new samsung involved in a string of fires and smoke incidents over the past week. tonight the consumer product safety commission and samsung say customers should stop using the replacement phones. this announcement late today as federal investigators are looking into whether the replacement phones may pose the same risk as the originals, which were blamed on more than 100 fires. here's nbc's tom costello. >> reporter: tonight, samsung's problems have gone from bad to worse. at&t, sprint, all telling us they've stopped selling or offering the new replacement galaxy note 7, after a string of new fires involving the very phone meant to replace the model that was recalled last month for catching fire. in minnesota, 13-year-old abbey says her replacement note 7 caught fire on friday while she was at school, burning her thumb. >> it felt like pins and needles, except a lot more intense. it burnt like you were getting burned from hot metal or something. caught fire in a restaurant. last week in louisville, a southwest airlines plane was evacuated after brian green's phone caught fire. >> i kinda looked around to see what was going on, and i had smoke billowing out of my clothes and out of my pocket. >> reporter: tonight, samsung is suspending all sales from the galaxy note 7. and even though there are a limited number of reports, we want to reassure customers we are taking every report seriously. consumer reports said it'sy a replacement model to have the same defect as the original model. >> consumer reports seems to think you should take advantage that the carriers are willing to replace your phones or refund your money. just take the phone in and stop using it. >> reporter: tonight samsung and the consumer product safety commission say customers should stop using the note 7, turn it off, and return it for an exchange or refund. meanwhile, both the cpsc and consumer reports say they're of spontaneous fires. tom costello, nbc news, washington. we are back in a moment with trump's troubles with women. did he predict his own campaign turmoil decades ago? etes can be a daily struggle, even if you're trying your best. along with diet and exercise, once-daily toujeo? may help you control your blood sugar. get into a daily groove. ? let's groove tonight. ? ? share the spice of life. ? ? baby,? from the makers of lantus?, for 24 hours and beyond, ? we're gonna groove tonight. ? proven blood sugar control all day and all night, and significant a1c reduction. toujeo? is used to control high blood sugar in adults with diabetes. it contains 3 times as much insulin in 1 milliliter as standard insulin. don't use toujeo? to treat 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candidate. our senior investigative correspondent cynthia mcfadden explains. >> reporter: for decades donald trump has flaunted his life with beautiful women. >> for an older person, he's very attractive. >> reporter: in fact, he himself predicted his history with women could be a problem if he ran for office. chris matthews asked him about it in 1998. >> can you imagine how controversial i would be? you think about him with the women. how about me with the women? can you imagine? although last night he made a point of saying his own bad behavior paled against clinton's. >> if you look at bill clinton, far worse. mine are words, and his was action. >> clearly donald trump has recognized for decades that his comments to women are inappropriate and wrong. it's a lot more self-awareness in the past than he's shown in the present. and i think it's telling that she -- he thinks he can get away with these voters aren't letting him get away with it. >> i'm automatically attracted to beautiful -- i just start kissing them. it's lake a magnet. and when you're a star, they let you do it. you can do anything. >> reporter: back in 1992 it happened to faith daniels. then an anchor and talk show host at nbc. she told us today, she expected a kiss on the cheek. >> i saw you at the lips in front of the paparazzi and i said, that will cost you, i'm booking you on the show. daniels asked trump whether he would ever consider running for president. >> i don't necessarily think so. i'm so controversial. i love women in general and people would say that's a horrible thing. >> reporter: but as of now, trump's version of loving women doesn't seem so lovely to a majority of female voters. his own prophecy perhaps coming true. cynthia mcfadden, nbc news, new york. national anthem, one member of the supreme court is not a fan. in an interview with yahoo, justice ruth baden ginsburg weighed in on colin kaepernick and others protesting racial injustice by refusing to stand for the anthem. >> i 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[tv debate chatter] alexa, ask kayak how much is a one-way ticket to canada. when would you like to fly? now. [toy robot noises] roboboy 3000 to the rescue! alexa, order more aa batteries. okay. [crash] okay. dangerous. the columbine memorial needs a little help. truly just a little. and proof that beer might just save the world after all. finally tonight, it's a love letter of sorts, written by a husband with a touching expression of gratitude towards those who don't often hear the words "thank you." here's kristen dahlgren. >> reporter: when 34-year-old laura levis died from a massive asthma attack, husband peter demarco could have easily melted into grief. what he did instead is inspiring. a simple act, a thank you letter sent to t everyone who helped care for his wife. so extraordinary it was published in "the new york times." he writes, how many times did you hug me and console me when i fell to pieces? or asked about laura's life, and the person she was. amanda morris was their social worker. >> despite such tragedy, i think that there was a lot of beauty in that room. >> reporter: like the time hospital staff looked the other way when peter smuggled in their beloved cat for one final lick. the physical support you give, it's about that emotional support. >> reporter: or when this nurse helped peter climb into his wife's bed to spend one last hour at her side. he called it a gift beyond gifts. but what he's now given them is a public expression of his appreciation, so powerful it hangs in the intensive care unit at cha cambridge hospital. >> we all needed to be able to walk by it and look at laura's picture and remember, even in the difficult moments, that this is why we do what sentiment struck a nerve online. stories like this make me remember why i practice intensive care medicine. sometimes you need a letter to restore your faith in humanity. gratitude from a grieving husband, now teaching the power of saying "thank you." kristen dahlgren, nbc news, new york. and that will do it for us on a monday night. i'm lester holt. for all of us at nbc news, thank you for watching and about grabbing women's genitals without their consent. you can decide he that it doesn't matter. you can decide his error is outweighed by hillary clinton's decades of scandals and you can decide it doesn't matter. you can decide that his error is outweighed by hillary clinton's decades of scandals and secrecy. that's fine that's your call. but whatever you do, please reject the idea that bragging about sexual assault is just what men do behind closed doors. say, in locker rooms. it's not true. assault -- of sexual assault is dangerous to women and insulting to men. >> i've been playing sports since i've been 7 years old. i've been in locker rooms for 39 years. i've never heard of anyone who would approve of someone bragging about sexual assault.