call for homeowners everywhere. nightly news begins right now. from nbc news world headquarters in new york, this is nbc nightly news with lester holt. good evening. donald trump who has repeatedly decried negative media coverage of him, as part of a rigged system, has once again made himself the top of the news cycle for going where no presidential candidate has gone before. at aeral ne ohi mocking and then trying to qualify his jaw-dropping response from last night s debate, about whether he would accept the outcome of the election. his refusal to say managed to irk even some of his most ardent supporters, while shifting the focus from what many believe was his best debate performance. nbc s katy tur leads off our coverage. ladies and gentlemen, i want to make a major announcement. reporter: donald trump is refusing to play by the rules. totally accept the results of this great and historic presidential election, if i win. reporter: making it clear the only ou
night s debate. do you make the same commitment that you will sir, that you will absolutely accept the result of this election? i will look at it at the time. i m not looking at anything now. are you saying you re not prepared to stick to that principle? what i m saying is, i ll tell you at the time. reporter: trump reversing a vow he made just last month. will you accept the outcome of the election? reporter: trump supporters all in, but outside of trump s orbit, a flood of condemnation. when you try to sew the seeds the legitimacy of our elections, that undermines our democracy. i don t believe that there s a rigged election system. reporter: and the north carolina gop, which said it was not aware election results were optional. what donald trump is doing right now is damaging that system, hopefully not beyond repair. reporter: the campaign s new spin, al gore did it too. but back in 2000, gore never questioned the integrity of the process before th
from nbc news world headquarters in new york, this is nbc nightly news with lester holt. good evening. donald trump who has repeatedly decried negative media coverage of him, as part of a rigged system, has once again made himself the top of the news cycle for going where no presidential candidate has gone before. at a rally in ohio today, trump first mocking and then trying to qualify his jaw-dropping night s debate, about whether he would accept the outcome of the election. his refusal to say managed to irk even some of his most ardent supporters, while shifting the focus from what many believe was his best debate performance. nbc s katy tur leads off our coverage. ladies and gentlemen, i want to make a major announcement. reporter: donald trump is refusing to play by the rules. that i will totally accept the results of this great and if i win. reporter: making it clear the only outcome he will accept is the one that puts him in the white house. i would also
automatically triggered by state law, given how close the race was. trump s campaign staking its candidacy on easily refuted claims, from the rigged election, trump s iraq war stance, and russian hacking. she has no idea. it s time for you to stake a stand. whether it s russia, china, or anybody else. reporter: today the intelligence community pushing back hard. director of national intense reasserting russia was behind the wikileaks hack. when we say we re think it s speaks for itself. reporter: nbc news has learned from government sources trump was even briefed on russia s involvement with the hack in his national security briefings, three weeks after he openly asked putin s government to find clinton s missing e-mails. russia, if you re listening, i hope you re able to find the 30,000 e-mails that are missing. reporter: less than 24 hours after that contentious debate, both donald trump and alfred e. smith charity dinner, where the only thing separating the
into the snl caricature of himself really sets in as a terrible image for donald trump among the kinds of voters he needs to sway. but think about the first 30 minutes of the debate. a much more subdued donald trump, and getting substantive issues, supreme court, very important to voters. yeah. at that point, did you think he could turn this around? well, it was his best performance. it was his best debate, but as he said last night, it was also her best debate. so she s almost in another league, in terms of her ability defend her own ideas. so i think she did a better idea. she has vulnerabilities too. these are the two most unpopular candidates weech seen on either side, as chuck todd keeps reminding us. while we got off to a solid start for him, he just didn t close the deal with anybody who s undecided at this point. nicole, thank you very much. turning now overseas where a u.s. service member was the first american to die in the u.s.-backed offensive to dri