distraction. >> i'll talk to senator mike lee of utah. finally all of this will play out tonight on the second debate stage during this most surreal moment of the campaign. joining me for insight and analysis are steve schmidt, senior adviser to john mccain's 2008 presidential campaign. ruth marcus, columnist for "washington post." sara fagen white house director for president bush and heather mcghee, president of the think tank. welcome to sunday. it's "meet the press." >> announcer: from nbc news in washington, this is "meet the press" with chuck todd. good sunday morning. this one does feel different. there have been so many times we've said trump can't survive this or can't survive that crisis but the 2005 hot mic recording with billy bush and access hode may be the kind of surprise even donald trump can't survive. >> i moved on her. i was in palm beach. i moved on her and i failed. she was married. i moved on her very heavily. in fact, i took her out furniture shopping. she wanted to get some furniture. i said i'll show you where they have nice furniture. i moved on her like a -- i couldn't get there. she was married. i see her, she's got the big phony -- she's changed her look. i've got to take some tictacs. when you're a star they let you do it. you can do anything. >> anything you want. >> grab them by the -- >> hi, how? >> nice to meet you. >> those were the words of republican nominee donald trump ended up releasing what he said was an apology late saturday night. he said the following, i will never drop out of the race, will never let my supporters down. also trump's wife melania put out a statement calling his words offensive. then she went on saying, i hope people will accept his apology as i have and focus on issues facing our nation and the world. trump is likely to lose. the question now is how much damage will this do to the republican party. already a parade of republicans have either condemned trump's comments, condemned or called on hill to st. patrick's down as the nominee all together. some are worried about their own prospects this fall, others are simply disgusted with trump's words. even maker of tic tac candies said it was reprehensible. 2005 billy bush, then host of "access hollywood" has sent the republican party reeling. reince priebus, no woman should ever be talked about in those terms ever. house speaker paul ryan disinvited trump to a saturday event calling the comments sickening. >> there is a bit of an elephant in the room. it is a troubling situation. >> not leader mitch mcconnell called on trump to apologize to women and girls everywhere. republicans rushed calling them offensive, inappropriate, outrageous, demeaning, disgraceful, indefensible and impossible to justify. >> i think the presidential race is effectively over. the idea he can resurrect his campaign based on this town hall debate is not going to happen. >> republicans in tough races were the first to withdraw support and the dominoes kept on falling. >> i can no longer endorse donald trump for president, just can't do it. >> step aside. step down. >> i think it's degrading to ou% women,ç our daughters,ç our >> what[ñ it means for republi candidates across the boarfç is now they areç going to have to run their individual campaigns without the traditional help from the top of the ticket. >> trump finally did apologize in a facebook video late friday night. >> i said it. i was wrong, and i apologize. >> but trump didn't stop with the apology and instead called the revelation a distraction and attacked the clintons. >> bill clinton has actually abused women and hillary has bullied, attacked, shamed, and intimidated his victims. >> on friday, pence defended trump. >> they will say this time we got him. this time we found -- there's another tweet that's come out. this time we've got another thing, another issue that's come forward. then they turn on the television the next morning and donald trump is still standing stronger than ever before. >> but by saturday pence had released a statement saying, i do not condone his remarks and cannot defend them. >> it's not clear republican officials could dump trump even if they wanted to. republicans are already voting. many ballot certification deadlines have passed and the ballots are already in voters hands. so far trump himself has said he isn't going anywhere. >> see you at the debate on sunday. >> and joining me now is former new york city mayor and donald trump supporter rudy giuliani. mr. mayor, welcome back. >> how are you, chuck? >> back-to-back "meet the press." let me start with this, definitively, is there any circumstance where donald trump would not show up to tonight's debate in st. louis? >> oh, no. he's showing up. he's as prepared as he's ever been and he's all ready for the debate tonight. he's obviously, you know, feels very bad about what he's said. he apologized for it, will probably do it again. what he'd like to do is move onto the issues that are facing the american people. they only have a few more days to kind of think about it. >> let me ask you this, kellyanne conway was supposed to come on this show defending donald trump, reince priebus was supposed to go on other shows. they all pulled out. only you are out defending donald trump. are you the only one in the campaign that was willing to defend him? >> no, absolutely not. i was with kellyanne all day yesterday. she could have just as easily been on as me. the same thing is true with chris. >> okay. >> so i'm the one who was selected for the show but either one of the two of them would probably say pretty much the same thick i was saying. i was with them all day yesterday. >> as you know in the last 24 hours, a slew of republicans from across the country. >> i sure do. >> have said, he needs to reexamine his candidacy. cory gardener, he needs to step aside allow mike pence. thune, donald trump should withdraw, carly fiorina, i ask donald trump to step aside. condoleezza rice, he should withdraw. there is any chance that donald trump is going to listen to these republican party leaders that are begging him to withdraw? >> i think he answered that yesterday by saying he's in the race. he's going to remain in the race. 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 he said something -- said a group of things during that interview that are reprehensible and terrible and awful and he feels terrible about it. it was 10 or 12 years ago. he wasn't at that time running for office. he wasn't thinking of office. he's gone through i think a very, very intensive process, as you know, in running for president. the last 14 months he's been all over the country. he understands the responsibilities on his shoulders now which weren't there back then of all these people who believe in him, believe he can reduce taxes, make us stronger against islamic terrorism, deal with this tremendous rising crime. last year -- >> mr. mayor, let me -- understand -- >> last year crime went up more than in 41 years. that's extraordinary. >> let me go back to this tape. he didn't apologize for attacking a gold star family. he didn't apologize to questioning the nature of a federal judge just because of his ethnicity. why did he choose to apologize for this? >> well, i think in this case he realized it was -- we're talking about his personal behavior and his statements that were absolutely wrong. i think when he heard them he was shocked. i'm not sure -- i'm not going to say he didn't remember them but they probably weren't at the top of his mind. when he was confronted with it, he was pretty darn shocked he said such terrible things. he feels terrible about it. he feels terrible for his family and how embarrassing it is for them. he feels terrible from his own point of view. he also realizes he has a responsibility. i think the last 14 months have driven that into him. >> there seems to be a pattern. let me play for you. this isn't the first time he's talked this way. here he was with howard stern. take a listen. >> i'll tell you the funniest is that i'll go back stage before a show. >> yes. >> of is getting dressed and ready and everything else. no menwv areç anywhere. and i'm allowed to go in because i'm the owner of the pageant and i'm inspecting it. >> you're like a doctor. >> is everyone okay? they are standing there with no clothes. is everyone okay? you see these incredible women. you sort of get away with things like that. >> that wasn't 11 years ago, that was 2008. >> he wasn't running for president. he was on a shock jock show. howard stern is a friend of mine. >> why is this idea -- let me ask you this, mr. mayor, why is the idea he's not running for president so it's okay to be a misogynist, it's okay to make unwanted sexual advances. >> chuck, chuck, chuck, i'm not saying it's the right thing to do. i'm saying, for example, when i was mayor of new york and i went on howard stern show, i made sure we didn't fool around, didn't tell jokes, didn't say things that would shock people. on that show a lot of things that are said aren't true. you just say them because they are funny. i'm a good friend of howard stern and i really like him a lot. every time i was on his show, my people, my mayor's people, handled it so we never talked about things like that. it's not right to say it whether you're a politician or not. >> it's not about saying it, mr. mayor, it's doing it. he's bragging about making unwanted sexual advances. >> it is wrong. >> you're saying the words are wrong. how about the actions. >> well, the actions would be even worse if we were actions. talk and actions are two different things. >> wait a minute. "new york times," temple tagart was 21-year-old beauty contestant when she was a pageant event. an unwanted advance. turned it over in her head for years. watching the video made me feel a lot better. it was like, thank you, now no one can say i made this up. you're implying this stuff was made up. >> i'm not saying it was made up. i'm saying we're talking about things he was talking about. i don't know how much is exaggerating. i don't know how much is true. i don't know the details of it. i do know this is unfortunately the kind of talk that goes on among a lot of people and they shouldn't talk about this. this is wrong. he realizes that. he understands it now. he's running for president. he realizes that he's0l got th weight of the responsibility of all these people on his shoulder and this something he's not going to do in the future.lp he's very apologetic about it and wants to move onto what's going to be really important 30 days from now. he is going to lower taxes. she's going to raise taxes. he's going to add to our military, she's going to decrease our military will he's going to support the police at a time when we've had the biggest increase in crime in the last 41 years. he's going to take on radical islamic terrorism. he's not -- one?; thing he's n is what came across in wikileaks, that is two people. hillary clinton actually specifically described she's two different people. to the financial people who are giving millions of dollars, she's on their side and wants to be a big part of theroh governm but she tells them she has to pretend to everybody she isn't. >> if you believe hillary clinton says one thing in private and that means what she really is is what she is in private, should we assume what donald trump did in that "access hollywood" bus is really what ÷ in private? that's what you're implying here with hillary clinton. ñ know, chuck, the reality is that in both cases, both people have things in their personal lives that maybe if they could redo it, they would do it differently. the reality is that this is a situation in which neither side should throw stones because both sides have sinned. so how about weçueñ that behind us and start talking about who is going to lowe] taxes, who i going to say the word radical islamic terrorism so we can finally defeat them, and who is going to best be able to support the police so the largest increase in crimeqñ in 41 years isn't going to become a trend. is it donald trump and his policies or hillary clinton who has had a chance -- she's been part of our political fabric 30 years and 70% of the country thinks we're mooching in the wrong direction. she's one of the reasons for it. >> mr. mayor, last question. has he ruled out bringing up bill clinton'li personal life a tonight's debate? >> i believe he will not bring up bill clinton's personal life. i do believe there's a possibility he'll talk about hillary clinton's situation if it gets to 2x]÷that. i don't think he prefers ñ to that. but i think he will. >> what does that mean? what situation? >> what i'm talking about are the things that she has said and that have been reported in various books and magazines and other places about the women that bill clinton raped, sexually abused and attacked. not bill clinton's role but her role as the attacker. >> well, i've run out of time because i know you have to do another television interview, but those allegations have not been true. >> we'd rather not get into that. >> all right. mr. mayor, i'll leave it there. we'll watch tonight's debate. thank you for sharing your views. joining me now is the first republican senator to call on trump to step down, mike lee of utah. the democratic party has chosen to be party of personality cult during presidential election cycle. i don't think we have to follow that path. the path i would suggest is a path that would bring republicans together, bring together those grassroots activists who have made donald trump so successful, who have had this successful argument washington establishment of both a new leader, a republican leader who can win, who can defeat hillary clinton. that's what unites us more than everything else as republicans, the fact washington political establishment is broken and hillary clinton needs to be defeated. we need al that. i would like to see%qñ the republican party identify such a party andb5át that change. >> you identified flaws with # a lot of people are now joining you over the last 48 hours. a lot of democrats and even some voters in the middle are going to say why now? why did you wait until, there was some like me who had raised questions in light of warning signs early on. there were a lot of others who wanted to be persuaded, who hoped they might be persuaded between now and november. what was released less than 48 hours ago was less than persuasive. in fact, it turned a lot of people off to the point that i have serious doubts now about mr. trump's ability to defeat hillary clinton. in fact, i don't think he can. there is aoháe here for mr. trump to have a legacy in this election cycle and for his supporters, who are really energetic and have done a whole lot of good as far as expanding the party, to have a lasting legacy that could mean something here. that is for donald trump to step aside and for the republican party to find a candidate who can bring together all the elements within the republican party and defeat hillary clinton in november. that's what we want to do. that's what we need to do now. >> if mitch mcconnell and paul ryan jointly made that plea that you just made, it would probably send a powerful message. i know you've been urging others to join your cause. what would you like to hear speaker ryan and senator mcconnell have denounced donald trump, so far they are sticking by him. they are the current leaders of your party. do they need to step up? >> look, i would always encourage any other republicans, whether they are leaders, whether they are in congress or not, to step up and make their opinions known. the fact is, once again, chuck, we don't want to see hillary clinton elected president and we've got lots of other people who can do this. our party is not a personality cult, our party is about ideas. it's about ideas that will reinvigorate america's middle class, help the poor get out of poverty and end this washington centric mind-set that has been crippling the american economy. we can do that. we've got candidates that can do it. there's still time to do it and we have to actually do it. >> that candidate for you, is it mike pence? >> i'm agnostic at this point about who it might be. there's still time to decide who it should be. the point is mr. trump, in order for any of this to happen, needs to step aside. i need to make very clear we cannot win this election without donald trump supporters, but we also can't win this election at the top of the ballot and in manyp cases down ballot withoua different presidential candidate. that's why the time to act really is now. >> mike lee, republican from utah. appreciate you coming on this morning, getting up early out there. >> thank you, chuck. >> always appreciate it. thanks for sharing your views. when we come back, can republicans do what mike lee is pleading to do, bump donald trump off the ticket? what happens if he does decide to step down, could they get another name on state ballots. democrats, could donald trump democrats, could donald trump return nancy pelosi to the you can fly across welcome town in minutes16, or across the globe in under an hour. whole communities are living on mars and solar satellites provide earth with unlimited clean power. in less than a century, boeing took the world from seaplanes to space planes, across the universe and beyond. and if you thought that was amazing, you just wait. ♪ oh, it's actually...s your sfx: (short balloon squeal) it's ver... sfx: (balloon squeals) ok can we... sfx: (balloon squeals) i'm being so serious right now... i really want to know how your coffee is. it's... sfx: (balloon squeals) hahahaha, i had a 2nd balloon goodbye! oof, that milk in your coffee was messing with you, wasn't it? yeah. happens to more people than you think. try lactaid, it's real milk, without that annoying lactose. mmm. good right? yeah. lactaid. it's the milk that doesn't mess with you. welcome back. steve schmidt is here with us, senior adviser to john mccain and heather mcgee, ruth marcus, and sara fagen who is a political director during george w. bush's administration. i want to start with what mike lee is pleading to do. he said there's still time. you both dealt with ballot deadlines, is there time? >> there functionally isn't it. people have been voting in florida and north carolina. 18 states will have started early voting so you can do it symbolically. it may be useful for the senate candidates to have a different face of thelogistically. >> what happens tonight? >> well, you will see someone who is manifestly unprepared for the duties of the office of the president of the united states who has no idea what he's talking about what a policy perspective. who lacks the requisite dignity required of someone who wishes to be the head of state of the government of the united states. and someone who lacks the capacity to be the commander in chief of the most powerful military and the world's most potent nuclear arsenal. >> i would suggest there's another way, in which that donald trump will come in sounding contrite. we will is or not, he will do his best to exhibit contrition, but it will only last for so long. and these tweets and everything else we're seeing suggesting he'll go after bill clinton, he just -- he showed us last time around he can't keep it together for 90 minutes. >> heather, i don't mean to interrupt, but literally, so rudy giuliani says no he's not going to bring up bill clinton's past allegations. donald trump has tweeted a video interview with juanita broaddrick. that's what he tweeted a few minutes ago. i think we know where his head is at. >> and suddenly that conservatives can create this last minute face-lift is real folly. the idea that mike pence will somehow rise as the man who can return the republican ticket to the fold of few mail voters, women haven't gone for the republican presidential nominee in decades. mike pence is someone who was the initial sponsor of the bill to cut off funding for planned parenthood. he cut off funding for planned parenthood in indiana which led to the public health crisis. he signed a bill to give women services for the fetal tissue -- this is a party -- >> okay. we know who you're running against the nominee, mike pence. >> they can sort of push trump aside. >> the republicans did very well with women. >> let me throw out the women numbers by the way. this was before all this among women in our last nbc news poll, hillary clinton was ahead by 51%. he was actually, sarah overperforming his favorable rating with women by 13 points. is it possible he could actually go lower with women? >> i think it's entirely possible he could go lower with women. we saw friday indicates that he will go lower and what we also don't know is what else is still out there. there's a month left in this campaign. you know, you think about the tax bombshell a week ago. now this. it's hard for me to believe that we'll go a month without some other significant news here. >> by the way -- >> you can always go lower. >> by the way, central park 5. >> right. >> in the middle of nowhere, he's saying -- they were acquitted. >> paid money. >> paid money for the false acquisition of murder. >> and they found the perpetrator. >> but he was throwing it out there. >> the presidential race is effectively over. hillary rodham clinton will be the 45th president of the united states. chuck schumer will be the majority leader of the united states. and the only question is how close the democrats will come to retaking the house majority. what this exposes is much deeper and goes to the republican party's institution. this candidacy. the magnitude of its disgrace to the country is almost impossible i think to articulate. but it is exposed the intellectual rot in the republican party. it has exposed in a massive level the hypocrisy, the modern day money changers in the temple like jerry falwell jr. and so this party to go forward and to represent a conservative vision for america has great soul searching to do. and what we have seen in the -- and the danger for all of the candidates is over the course the last year. the candidates who have put their party ahead of their country, denying what is so obviously clear to anybody who's watching about his complete and total manifest unfitness for this office. >> well, steve, i will let that be the last word of this segment. pretty power statement from you. you guys are coming back in a little bit. right now she's the house minority leader nancy pelosi. but could donald trump give her back the speakership? back the speakership? as we go to break, "snl" had safety doesn't come in a box. it's not a banner that goes on a wall. it's not something you do now and then. or when it's convenient. it's using state-of-the-art simulators to better prepare for any situation. it's giving offshore teams onshore support. and it's empowering anyone to stop a job if something doesn't seem right. at bp, safety is never being satisfied. and always working to be better. at bp, safety is never being satisfied. this man creates software, to protect this customer, who lives here and flies to hong kong, to visit this company that makes smart phones, used by this vice president, this little kid, oops, and this obstetrician, who works across the street from this man, who creates software. they all have insurance crafted personally for them. not just coverage, craftsmanship. not just insured. chubb insured. millions of women worldwide trust tena with their bladder matters. thanks to its triple protections from leaks, odor and moisture. tena lets you be you ♪ seconds can mean the difference between life and death. for partners in health, time is life. we have 18,000 people around the world. the microsoft cloud helps our entire staff stay connected and work together in real time to help those that need it. the ability to collaborate changes how we work. what we do together changes how we live. welcome back. we've heard from a number of republicans this morning reacting to donald trump's comments on the "access hollywood" tapes. we're fortunate enough to have a democrat join us, not just any democrat, house minority leader nancy pelosi. >> good morning. >> let's start with the mess donald trump finds himself in. what would you advise secretary clinton to do if he does bring up bill clinton's past. >> i don't think secretary clinton needs advice from anyone. she's such a talented debater. when she goes into the oval office and she will in january, she'll be the best prepared -- one of the best prepared people in the history of our country to do so by her knowledge, experience, judgment, her connection to the american people and what they need. so i think she will talk about the issues. >> do you think that stuff is fair game that he brings up. >> no. you know why, elections are about the future. he's talking about something about bill clinton. he's not on the ballot. what's really important to note about all of this is that there's not a dime's worth of difference between donald trump and the republicans in congress when it comes to issues that really affect people's lives. disrespect for women, whether it's a disrespect by saying it will pay for equal work, respecting a woman's decision to make decisions about size and timing of her family, whether it's about medicare, social security. pence voted to privatize social security when president bush was president and three times for the ryan budget to voucherize medicare, to take away the guarantee. so issues that relate to the well-being are more important than locker room talk. >> it's interesting you want to tie house republicans to donald trump. i understand a lot of republicans say donald trump doesn't represent the republican party. it wasn't just republicans who said that. a pretty prominent democrat said this at the democratic convention. let me play the sound. >> look, we democrats have always had plenty of differences with the republican party, and there's nothing wrong with that. it's precisely this contest of idea that pushes our country forward. but what we heard in cleveland last week wasn't particularly republican, and it sure wasn't sieve. >> did the president inoculate rank and file republicans from donald trump with that comment? >> no, no. i completely agree with what the president said. the republican party is the grand old party. it's done great things for our country. what we've been saying to them is take back your party. it's been hijacked by a radical wing of -- i don't know even know of what, of our country, not even of your party. and when president bush was president, we treated him with respect. we got a lot done working together, opposed the war in iraq, privatizing social security but he was one of the best presidents on that. we had one of the biggest energy bills in the country. this goes on. we need a strong republican party. i don't paint everybody with the same brush, but the republicans in the house of representatives i do. >> okay. let me ask you about something that came out in these leaks, some leaks of hacking, john podes podesta, speech excerpts. one from hillary clinton that implied -- let's take a look at it. implies she says one thing, everybody watching, back room discussions and deals you know people get a little nervous. so you need both a public and private position. it sounds like what she's saying is i'm going to tell you one thing here in this private speech and i'm going to have a public position another way. trade, for instance, seems to be one topic where she seems to say one thing behind the scenes and one thing publicly. how do we trust her trade position? >> i trust her trade position. what she's saying is we are a global economy. we have to face that reality. we don't have to accept tpp and that we should recognize -- sit down start with workers growing paychecks and put trade policy together that way rather than starting with investment. >> take you her at her word she will never support tpp. >> absolutely. >> you're there, too. you will never support tpp. >> i want to have a trade agreement. i say to my members, i don't want to give anybody fasttrack. we didn't give it to bill clinton, president bush or barack obama. we're indiscriminate democrats and republicans in terms of saying congress should have the prerogative to have more saying and how these trade agreements affect american workers. we're against tpp, overwhelmingly the democrats. >> you take her at her word she's not somehow saying two things an not just doing -- some progressives, some bernie sanders supporters see that and say, you know what, this is why i don't trust her. >> i think what ear hearing -- this the first time i'm hearing that. what you're hearing is we should have a trade agreement. it isn't tpp because that isn't what grows america. it doesn't start with the american worker. it rejects any discussion of climate and relationship to commerce. so hillary clinton, the fact is, she has such great knowledge. she has a vision about her country and it's about strengthening the middle class. that is the biggest difference between democrats and republicans classically. trickle down economics. tax breaks for the rich. middle income economy. growing the middle class and those who aspire to it and having consumer confidence to spend and inject them into the economy to grow the economy. >> how damaging were bill clinton's comments about obama care when call it the craziest thing talking about folks getting squeezed in the middle, folks that are not eligible for subsidies. not clarifying it circles what he believes -- what he circled was essentially the issue republicans are bringing up on the campaign trail. >> not damaging at all. >> not damaging at all. >> affordable care act, 20 million more people have access to affordable quality health care. not only that, many -- tens of millions more are no longer subjected to pre-existing conditions, eliminating -- >> do you acknowledge this problem with premiums and acknowledge the problem in the middle. >> i wanted a single payer -- i'd love a single payer but we're not there. i wanted a public option which would address that. but we've never done anything, whether it's social security, medicare and the rest, where we haven't said, let's see how it works and let's improve it. no, i wouldn't worry about that. what i do think is affordable care act stands there with social s7security, medicare, acs a pillar of health and economic security for american families. i think it's really important to know republicans have voted over 65 times to eliminate it, and they have voted more than one time to dismantle medicare by taking away the guarantee. ñ budget takes away the guarantee. pence voted for that three times. >> final question, how confident are you you will get the speaker's gavel? >> oh, it's not about me. it's about democrats winning as many seats. i want the american people to win in this election so we can take this to a place where we really are talking about thashs affect them in their daily lives. we can try to find some consensus. the other difference between democrats and republicans, we really do come forward to work in a bipartisan way. president obama certainly did that. we did that very respectfully of president bush. i hope that we can take this debate to a place where the american people are not disgusted and turned off by what's happening in the campaign but instead inspired by it. >> all right. nancy pelosi -- >> go giants. >> no comments. i will leave it there as a dodger fan. when we come back, how big a role will the trump tape play tonight and in the next week. stay with us. >> now, mr. trump, many republicans have stood by you through a lot of other scandals but are now pulling their support. people like senator john mccain. >> coward. >> carly fiorina. >> she's a four. this car is traveling over 200 miles per hour. to win, every millisecond matters. both on the track and thousands of miles away. with the help of at&t, red bull racing can share critical information about every inch of the car from virtually anywhere. brakes are getting warm. confirmed, daniel you need to cool your brakes. understood, brake bias back 2 clicks. giving them the agility to have speed & precision. because no one knows & like at&t. millions of women worldwide trust tena with their bladder matters. thanks to its triple protections from leaks, odor and moisture. tena lets you be you ♪ my advice for looking get your beauty sleep. and use aveeno® absolutely ageless® night cream with active naturals® blackberry complex. younger looking skin can start today. absolutely ageless® from aveeno®. welcome back. time now for data download. even before the trump tape was released, donald trump was starting to sink in state and national polls. we have two brand-new maris polls taken earlier in the week. in the four-way race in florida, hillary clinton leads donald trump by six among all registered voters. 45-39. the race does get tighter when you cut it down for likely voters, here clinton leads by three, 45-42. three points is a big lead in presidential politics. trump doesn't have a path to president without florida. a so-called firewall of pennsylvania. it looks like one. pretty solid among registered voters she has a double digit lead in the four-way race, 48-36. guess what, when you cut it down for likely voters, that double digit lead is there, 45-37. 12-point lead for clinton in pennsylvania could mean she's likely gaining next door ohio as a couple of recent polls have suggested. remember, all of these polls are in the field before the news of trump's "access hollywood" tapes broke. coming up, we'll tee up tonight's unusual presidential debate in st. louis. and later, seth meyers on comedy in politics. >> we don't think of it in terms, well, we'll tell jokes about donald trump because they be the you who doesn't cover your moderate to severe plaque psoriasis. be the you who shows up in that dress. who hugs a friend. who is done with treatments that don't give you clearer skin. be the you who controls your psoriasis with stelara® just 4 doses a year after 2 starter doses. stelara® may lower your ability to fight infections and may increase your risk of infections and cancer. some serious infections require hospitalization. before treatment, get tested for tuberculosis. before starting stelara® tell your doctor if you think you have an infection or have symptoms such as: fever, sweats, chills, muscle aches or cough. always tell your doctor if you have any signs of infection, have had cancer, if you develop any new skin growths or if anyone in your house needs or has recently received a vaccine. alert your doctor of new or worsening problems, including headaches, seizures, confusion and vision problems these may be signs of a rare, potentially fatal brain condition. some serious allergic reactions can occur. do not take stelara® if you are allergic to stelara® or any of its ingredients. most people using stelara® saw 75% clearer skin and the majority were rated as cleared or minimal at 12 weeks. be the you who talks to your dermatologist about stelara®. back now with our panel. guys, before the "access hollywood" tapes, there was some question about the idea of a town hall format, how donald trump would interact. we did a little numbers crunching here. he doesn't do a lot of town halls. hrk does a lot of small events in town halls interacting with so-called -- what you guys call in the business, real people. she has done 65 to trump's 33. we're being generous calling that 33. interacting with every day people. that is a unique challenge. >> he did it the other night but it wasn't practicing for the debate up in new hampshire. sure, because real people can ask you rude questions or questions that you perceive, if you're donald trump, to be hostile. what does donald trump tell us about how he deals with hostile, nasty questions, he's a counter puncher. you can counter punch hillary clinton, you can counter punch a network anchor but you cannot counter punch somebody in a town hall and that's going to be a hard thing for him. >> this isn't a particularly great format for her either. she's been so incredibly scripted through this campaign. even a lot of evidence that the town hall she does do, she prescreens the questions. so to the degree that she gets asked a question that's uncomfortable about bill clinton's past or the way she handled bill clinton's past, it could end up not being a great night for her either. >> it's also true, though, with the trump tapes, this has broken through from the political roundtable through to culture, right. as soon as the trump tapes went live you had women going on social media to do something extremely brave, which is share their own stories of sexual assault. >> i'm sorry to interrupt you. but what happens when a woman says, you know, i've been touched against my will and here is how i felt about it, mr. trump. how does he deal with that? that's a tough one. >> we're having a style discussion, how is he going to present. think back to the first debate. it's not that he had a bad debate in the way george w. bush did or barack obama did, for the first time in history you saw a candidate for president of the united states who was absolutely incoherent talking about nuclear weapons in one breath and then attacking rosie o'donnell in the next breath. it was unprecedented how bizarre it was. i think tonight he's going to get questions. has he no policy depth. he doesn't know anything on these public policy issues. he's incoherent object national security issues. i think you'll see in this debate what happened in the last debate, just an inability to make it through 90 minutes. >> the best news would be for donald trump if the debate shifted away from talking about these tapes and onto policy where he is as bad as you said. >> arguably that's the case. the other thing we've spent little time talking about is that hillary clinton's e-mail -- more e-mail from the clinton campaign was released. in it she is talking to wall street one way and talking to regular voters another. this is getting almost no news, because, once again, we're talking about donald trump. >> blocks out the sun. >> he blocks out the sun, that's a great way to put it. >> heather, she is going to have to answer that question tonight, the personal -- the public and the private. you know what's interesting about both leaks is it made everybody -- it reinforced a stereotype. with trump it reinforce add grotesque stereotype. with clinton it reinforced this politician stereotype. >> we elect politicians to office. >> how dare you. >> this is a different mom. trust me, i'm as progressive as anyone. my organization has been strug licks to reign in wall street. >> do you trust her. >> someone who goes to the center of the political moment has made it easier for progressives to know how to organize. i'm serious. in january we know that actually as opposed to what happened when barack obama came into office, this is what progressives talk about right now. nobody wanted to organize against him and hush him to the left. >> that's not going be the case. that's very interesting. >> i think it's deeply comforting for republicans that behind closed doors that she thinks bernie sanders is nuts. for a lot of republicans that cannot vote for donald trump, i think it's comforting. >> by the way, let me put up our new battleground map. we put it up friday and now it feels obsolete. essentially we have, as you see, very few toss-up states, florida, north carolina, iowa, nevada, and new hampshire at this point. we don't have pennsylvania in there. we made this decision before we knew our pennsylvania numbers and it was reinforced there. where does this map go from here, steve? after this, what do you expect? >> it goes blue. yes, the bottom is falling out. >> what next? arizona, georgia, utah. >> let's step outside of the revelations on friday from the tape, and let's just look from the debate performance through the attacks on miss universe, the midnight tweeting. it's the worst week a presidential candidate has ever had in october in a presidential election ever. period. >> there are going to be a lot more swing states come wednesday. >> swing states we've never seen before. kansas, watch out. who knows? >> there's been a lot of talk about senate republicans distancing themselves. john mccain is the only one that's really publicly done that in advertising. i think the question is, is it going to be tuesday, wednesday, thursday before the rest of those ads show up. >> and is it too late? >> let me pause there.-9 back in 45 seconds. end game and what seth meyers had to say about donald trump. >> announcer: coming up,ñi-9 " >> announcer: coming up,ñi-9 " the press" end make sure you're keeping up with your kids' online accounts and the social media they're using. talk with them about appropriate online behavior. being proactive and involved is the best way to protect your kids from predators and bullies. the more you know. to protect your kids from predators and bullies. >> announcer: coming up, "meet the press" end game brought to you by boeing, building the future one century at a time. >> let me finish the discussion. i cut you off. we wanted to do that. can democrats turn this htmome heather, into a wave moment? >> it needs to be, because the actual problems in our country are actually really urgent. one thing, if you step back from all the mess, all the unfitness of him as a candidate, this election has shown that the donor class has broken away from working and middle class majorities of both parties. both sanders and trump have shown that. can we continue that into policy i think is the qñawáion. i democrats take back the house. if you look at polls you put up from pennsylvania and florida earlier, there's a question there. only 4 and 5% respectively are willing to change their votes. yes, that was before "access hollywood" tapes. people are really dug in. it's hard for me to imagine that while donald trump may lose a few points here that it's going to be quite as wide as we think it is sitting here today. se pennsylvania and florida, 12 se point lead for hillary, 4 point over toomey, meant a lead from a candidate democrats are walking away from. >> inside party, hit the emergency button. we're at that hour now. chairman priebus has some enormously difficult deciding toss make monday morning to see what he can save and begin the prospect of rebuilding the party after what's in be an armageddon moment on election day. >> i think we need to -- we don't know about the wave yet because we don't know about knowns, unknowns. what happens when more things -- if and when things come out as we've been told. what happens if it turns out donald trump wasn't all talk and no action but women come forward and say he grabbed me there. and.áhe question of how quickl and how soon republicans renounce 'ctrump, i think the e boats are getting awfully full. >> i do think in tonight's debate and donald trump is the wrong person to do this, but hillary clinton has never been asked about)/p the way she described the women who accused bill clinton, all alleged, but near 20. i do. i think there's no way in the world donald trump doesn't bring that up and it doesn't become a shouting match pretty quickly. w always wondered i has to have an!u answer that'st a deflection. >> her answer is my husband is not on the ballot. i am. >> but4g5át is and she handled that in a way -- >> my husband cheated on me and i stayed with him. you cheated on your wives and left them. >> interesting statement. all right. let's lighten the mood here a little bit. our buddy seth meyers is bringing his late night show to d.c. all this week and i sat down with him on friday. we talked about donald trump and this specific joke he made the last time he had a big deal time in this town. >> donald trump has been saying that he will run for president as a korepublican, which isewç he was running as a joke. >> obviously at that moment you didn'tc÷ know his expression th night. >> i do now. >> everybody else -- i'm sure you've seen this clip. there's been reporting and speculation that said the ridicule he receivedúú gave him more drive to prove everybody wrong and run. >> i -- sincerest apologies to everyone if that's the case. >> do you feel like there's a duty about this election? >> i don't feel -- i also don't think i could fulfill it if there was a duty. i don't think we have as much influence as every now and then people will write or claim taos have. yeah, i don't feel it's a duty. i genuinely enjoy doing it, though. >> that was about seth meyers and whether comedians in this last month have a duty to denounce trump more so than ever, or whether you just be funny. >> at least we found somebody who is enjoying this campaign. >> it is hard. >> they are not journalists, they are entertainers, and their job is to entertain. it's not to, you know, put in the minds of the public, you know, thingd/d about candidates which they are not qualified to be putting forward. >> but they do reveal an essential truth about these candidates. so from a political adviser perspective, we try to mitigate their weaknesses. they reveal who they are. that's part of this process. it's a full reveal. >> they are the mri technicians of american politics. programming note, msnbc will have live coverage of a town hall-style face-off between donald trump and hillary clinton, the most surreal debate in amerqun history, i can promise you that. s)=9ì(lc% that's all we have today. be back next week. because if it's sunday, it's it's rounds two for clinton and trump. we discuss how the candidates prepare to go at it a second time. will this mirror the last one or could we see a sunday surprise? and head count, an organization that reaches out to young voters at concerts. the band disco biscuit is here to talk about how the perfect pitch to promote democracy may be through music. not just philly fans who are crazy for the new eagles quarterback. he's such a big deal, he's changing the economy in his hometown. john clark joins us with what the folks of fargo have to say with the new found love affair with the eagles. >> good morning, i'm rosemary con