Mark on the show tonight, bombshell reports about donald trump and the grenades he is rolling back. The republican nominee for president of the United States is in a flood of new accusations of predatory behavior. Since yesterday morning, more than a dozen women come forward with reports in half a dozen media organizations describing encounters with trump that are remarkably similar to each other. Notice is amost story published by the New York Times, which quotes two women who claim that trump made advances on them decades ago. A former People Magazine reporter claims he did the same in 2005. His response has been swift and venomous. His campaign lashed out at the New York Times, we will talk about that in a moment. This afternoon, a to find trump looked visibly raged while addressing crowds in west palm beach, florida. These lies come from people whose past stories have already been discredited. The Media Outlets did not even attempt to confirm the most basic facts, because even a simple investigation would have shown that these were nothing more than false smears. Then there was a a writer from People Magazine, who wrote a story on melania and myself on our first anniversary. The story was beautiful, it was beautiful. It was lovely. But last night we hear that after 12 years, 12 years ago, a new claim that i made inappropriate advances during the interview to this writer. [booing] and i asked a very simple question why wasnt it part of the story that appeared 12 years ago . Why didnt they make it part of the story . I was one of the biggest stars on television with the apprentice, and i would have been one of the biggest stories of the year. Think of it. Shes doing a story on the lumia, on melania, whos pregnant, and she said i made inappropriate advances. And by the way, the area was a public area, people all over the place. Take a look. You take a look. Look at her, look at her words, you tell me what you think. I dont think so. I dont think so. [cheering] but it is amazing. A love story, on how great we are together and by the way, we are stronger today than we ever were before [cheering] its a love story. Its a love story. Our oneyear. And if i did that, she would have added that, it would have been the headline, and who would have done that, if you are doing this in one of the top stories on television . These people are horrible people. They are horrible, horrible liars. And interestingly, it happens to appear 26 days before a very important election, isnt that amazing . [shouting] this invented account has already been debunked by eyewitnesses. They were there. The very witnesses identified by the author have said the story is totally false. Grasped otto has can you believe this . Why wasnt it in the story, biggest story of the year . Mark the Trump Campaign sent out a transcript, where they suspiciously left out the part where he ridiculed the reporter for her looks. He has previously threatened to counter allegations like this by bringing up dirt on bill clintons sexual past and Hillary Clintons complicity in it, as he sees it. It is being championed by stephen bannon. That line of attack was noticeably absent from his speech in florida today. Meanwhile, on the net scandal side, a hole Shows Hillary clinton leading donald trump by a wide margin in pennsylvania, suggests marist poll that the race is still pretty tight in ohio. But those polls have been overshadowed by the crisis raining down on Donald Trumps campaign. Mark halperin, my friend, how do you think, on the basis of this past week four hours, the Trump Campaign is handling this crazy day . Mark we will come back to the polls, but those who said that donald trump would not collapse in the wake of the access Hollywood Tape, there is some evidence they are right. He is way down nationally and in pennsylvania, but if those ohio polls are right, its too easy o to say, well, the race is over. He still has a narrow path, but the poll suggests there is more going on than just a downward trajectory. Now, Donald Trumps playbook right now is a lot like the clinton playbook from the 90s, when they were discrediting women who made accusations about their stories. Forces for status quote wanted to keep things the way they were and that is why they were bringing it up. There are to differences that are fundamental. One is that donald trump is doing a lot of this and self, and that is a danger. Two, he is doing it in an angry way. You wont find many cases where bill clinton personally attacked his accusers. Those are big differences that are potentially big problems for donald trump. John theres another big difference it has never been the case, although he has been accused by various people, and again he is not running this campaign he was accused by various women, but he never faced anything like we saw last night. The number of accusations, a giant wave, all of them remarkably consistent, and remarkably consistent in terms of what trump boasted of in the access Hollywood Tape. Given those realities, it seems to me that the burden of proof is not on these women. The burden of proof is on donald trump. Right now the stories hes not actually disputing them in any detailed way. If he is going to get past this he will have to do better than yelling liar, liar and ridiculing the looks of one of the women. This is not the strategy. Mark he has promised rebuttal evidence; we will wait for that. Every accuser, man or woman, deserves a chance to be heard, and the strength of these accounts for the most part is that they have contemporaneous people and corroborating witnesses. But i will say, if the democratic nominee for president had six or seven media organizations on one night coming forward, people would say, that is suspicious three weeks before the election. Rang, which is the reason i think theyll cannot at once they for jumping on it because they wanted to be part of not being last. The timing can be explained by what trump said. John i know the bell has gone off, but donald trump invited these women to come forward when he came out on the debate stage on sunday night and denied ever doing this. For a lot of these women for whom this is a painful experience, most if not all of them have no interest in being in the spotlight. Itsked this, and inexplicable to me, when these women saw him on stage and then came forward. Mark donald trump is waging a war in the media now as part of his fight back. He has mostly targeted the New York Times. Last night after they posted the story, Trumps Campaign called for a retraction, threatening legal action, a warning that trump repeated in west palm beach. Juste slander and libels last night thrown at me by the clinton machine of the New York Times and other Media Outlets, as part of a concerted, coordinated, and vicious attack. Ofse vicious slams about me, Inappropriate Conduct was within, are totally and absolutely false. [cheering] it, andhe clintons know they know it very well. These claims are all fabricated. They are pure fiction, and they are outright lies. These events never, ever happened, and the people that d them fully understand you take a look at these people, you study these people, and you will understand also. Mark the times responded to the Campaign Today with a letter that read in part, nothing in our article has had the slightest effect on the reputation of mr. Trump. s own words and actions created it for himself. We publish newsworthy information about a subject of public concern. If mr. Trump believes americans have no right to hear what they had to say, the law of this country forces us to stay silent or be punished, we welcome the opportunity to have the court set him straight. N, can this fight still escalating between the paper and the Trump Campaign who is going to win . John i will tell you whats not going to happen, its donald trump winning. I think he would face discovery if he filed, and he would lose. We have a lot in this country a libel. To demonstrate knowledgeable falsity or rectal reckless disregard for the truth. There will be no lawsuit, and the times on the level of legality, the New York Times wins this handsdown. Mark every News Organization in the country has to report with care on wikileaks and trump accusations. Everybody has to take care getting it right. The times story seems appropriate they talked to the women, they asked for a response, they talked to other people involved. But it is possible that the womens accounts are not wholly accurate, even possible that they are telling the truth. But the paper gave them a chance to tell their story and gave him a chance to respond. What i object to is the paper is making a big mistake, even if it is the lawyers. Fighting with him, making additional ad hominem accusations, they should be speaking in the paper, in their journalism, and in court if necessary. But to put that letter in public making those accusations, if my News Organizations did that, i would be uncomfortable. We cant take sides and say this is an accurate portrayal of who donald trump is. John they listed things that trump set himself, and then said these are all things that trumps image has been damaged by. They quoted his own words. How is that ad hominem . Mark because ad hominem by not be the right phrase, but they are putting their single on the scale against him more than they need to, and that speaks for itself. The lawyers are trying to run a legal argument, not uphold the standards of the paper. John didnt bother me that much. Up next, how the Clinton Campaign is responding to this moment of hydrometer and of high drama. John donald trump got hit with new accusations of sexual impropriety. Forcommunity director Hillary Clintons campaign responded with a scathing statement, saying the story took everything we know about the way donald trump is treated women. At a fundraiser in san francisco, Hillary Clinton said the campaign was engaging in , buthed earth attacks hasnt engaged in public on the accusations. Instead, the campaign is pointing to one of their most powerful super surrogates, Michelle Obama, who took the stage in New Hampshire today and delivered what is widely being called a remarkable and deeply andional rebuke of trump the behavior that is alleged. This is not something that we can ignore. Its not something we can just sweep under the rug as another disturbing footnote in a sad election season. Because this was not just a lewd conversation, this wasnt just locker room banter. This was a powerful individual discussing freely and openly about sexually predatory behavior, and actually bragging about kissing and groping women, using language so obscene that many of us were worried about our children hearing it when we turn on the tv. To make matters worse, it now seems very clear that this is not an isolated incident. It is one of countless examples of how he has treated women his whole life, and i have to tell you that i listen to all of this and i feel it so personally, and i am sure that many of you do, too, particularly the women. The shameful comments about our bodies. The disrespect of our ambitions and intellect. The belief that you can do anything you want to, woman. It is cruel. It is frightening. The truth is it hurts. John, thats the most powerful and emotional part of the response how are they handling it overall . John they are staying out of donald trump sway, letting him continue to dig the hole deeper, and referred to Michelle Obama, who has proven to be the best surrogate of the democratic party, including her husband. Mark yeah. She was powerful today. Both sides are being so hypocritical about accusations like this. The first lady reminding everybody, in a political way, but in a powerful way, that people deserve to be heard and not attacked as they come forward. I think the Clinton Campaign is so obviously pleased that the wikileaks thing is getting little attention. But this gives them a break from having to answer detailed questions, although the press is still working. John lets just note, Michelle Obama does not want to be in politics. She hated the idea of her husband running for president. And somehow she has turned out to be a superstar. Mark up next, a People Magazine editor involved in the accusations. We will talk about the story and the reporter who wrote it, after this. John late last night, People Magazine published a firstperson account of a former staff writer at the magazine who claims she was assaulted by donald trump while covering his oneyear anniversary to his wife in 2005. According to that story, trump allegedly pinned her to a wall, forcibly kissed her, and later told the woman you know we are going to have an affair, dont you . With us in a moment to talk about the article, the senior editor. Were getting her on the line momentarily charlotte, with us now. Mark . We are still waiting for charlotte to get what was your reaction when we read this piece . I think its a powerful thing to come from a reporter with contemporaneous specifics and accounts, and no clear motive to do anything but tell the truth. That makes it one of the more difficult ones to respond to. John lets bring in charlotte charlotte, are you there . Thanks for having me. John thinks are being here. Give us a brief back story about how the story came about. What motivated the tauscher to write it, and what brought it out . Natasha worked for us years ago, until 2009. This incident happened in 2005 and it is something she wanted to keep quiet because she didnt want to disrupt her life or face retaliation. She knew it was possible and part of his mo. Once she saw Anderson Cooper asking him at the debate whether he had ever actually acted on the things he said, about groping women, forcibly kissing felt and he said no, she moral obligation to come forward and tell the story and say he is lying. John you guys have said that you carefully vetted the story. Can you tell me what that entails . I cant get into the mechanics of it, but i can say that we took an extremely seriously, and obviously we consulted our legal team and vetted thoroughly. Mark charlotte, you guys write about political figures all the time, but this is about the most politically impactful thing you all have ever done. Was there any questioning within time, inc. . Or at we get some of the best access of any outlets, actually, if you look at our history. We have had great access with all the candidates, and we dont shy away from major issues, particularly something that is going to have such ramifications as this. She wasasha showed us open to discussing this, we were serious about publishing it. Mark how widely known before the debate on sunday was her experience and her account within the magazine . When the tosha came back she, she told us this is not something that ever made its way to upper management. There were a handful of people who were extremely close to her who were aware of it but kept the secret out at her request. Markjohn two things donald trup set related to your story. He said the witness identified by the author said the story is false. I have been trying to figure out what hes referring to do you have any idea . If possible that hes referring to the butler. Natasha describes in walking in on her, but hes not clear, hes not specific. I would also point out that the butler is employed by him. Were not sure who he is referring to. Take it also be the masseuse tasha he had been waiting for her at her massage appointment. He doesnt specify, so were not sure, but we have not gotten specific. John the other thing i wanted to raise was when the campaign put out its the official transcript of the speech, they left one part out, the part where he said, referring to natasha, you take a look at her, her words, you tell me what, i dont think so. Id like to get your remark. That,iously, as we heard we were all disgusted by that remark, and it is secondary. Opinion of physical appearance is secondary and does it matter. That is interesting that anyone on his team might have been compelled to edit that out, and it speaks to the fact that they know it was not the right thing to say. Mark since he published, have you heard from any other women of new accounts . We are continuing to report on this but we dont have anything new yet in terms of additional women. But the tally is up to five now who have come forward, discussing similar expenses. Mark thank you so much for being on the show. When we come back, we will talk to two strategists about the state of the race and the environment inflicting the Trump Campaign. Anchor what was last friday like for you and your family as you processed what you were hearing from the access Hollywood Tape . There was the reality of the situation and how the media portrays it. Most people probably said, i have said those things myself. I think it means he is a human being, a regular person like everyone else. Donald trump junior speaking to a local North CarolinaRadio Station earlier today. Never seen anything like this race for president , but we did bring in to bring political strategist who have thing strategists who have seen a thing or two. And advisor to, rudylinton and susan over giuliani. Is me ask you, what risks donald trump taking to fight back against the allegations . He is urging people to find other women that she has basically dared people to find other women from some 60 years of interacting with women to discover whether or not he has done anything else inappropriate. He has put a giant bullseye on his back. That is probably a violation of 16 different rules of crisis management. It screens are to me in terms of his own strategy. You are a republican. Who are you supporting for president . Im not supporting either the democratic or republican nominee this year. Within the Trump Campaign, do the advisors he have, around him now, do they have any idea what the facts are not just in these allegations but in what else might be coming. Susan donald Trump Campaign or donald trump himself that he did a border ability study done. They did not go in themselves to find out where he was more honorable and find the people. Since he has never done that, of course the Campaign Staff does not know. Donald trump interprets events as he chooses. Mark when you were working for , small eruptions and rumors, none of it came out in a fullblown way, but when those things were occurring, did your boss ever say, i want to hit the media, attack the media, and you had to talk him off that lead . Ledge . Not even close. Not a chance. He understood that what were trying to do here, putting aside the rumors about him, was to stop coverage. He was notonathan picking fights. Susan just to add onto that, you do not say i am going to prove this to you and create another story. All reporters are going to say, you said you are going to offer proof, where is the proof . What triggered it is Anderson Cooper says to him after the access Hollywood Tape, have you actually ever done anything . If you could free time and worked for donald trump, what would you say, here is the right answer to that question, anderson. It is a tough lesson. You cannot say, cannot they yes. Cannot say yes. Was nothing that was going to happen that wasnt going to trigger these women. Yes the Anderson Cooper debate added to it, but we started to see a slow drip. Another is now just having multiple people out there. Women can come forward because they are not afraid of being sued by donald trump. It is the bill cosby effect. Imuch different charge, but am not the only one or he is not going to sue me or take me to court. I think they feel comfortable Going Forward now. John step back further than the debate to win the access hollywood take aim out. You have your boss on tape saying these things, condoning and bragging about sexual assault. There was appened, lot of discussion in the trump world on how to deal with it. Should he apologize, the contractor marked he decided not to do it apologize . He decided not to do any of those things. Jonathan i am a Hillary Clinton supporter. Democrats have gotten in pretty bad trouble before, right . Jonathan usually, there is some level of remorse. Voters have a great nose for sincerity. Apologies only work if they did something wrong. You tell me how you advise donald trump, who probably does not think anything he said on that tape was bad, how you get him to give a sincere apology . He is not capable of it. It possible that all of the 15 other republicans who ran for president committed malpractice by not susan at the end of the day, some of them did not want to spend the money on the Opposition Research you needed to do. It was political malpractice not going after him, looking at it today. At the time, none of the republicans wanted to go after trump directly because they knew he would take them down and talk them off at the knees. That being said, there are a lot of donors who played it wrong, saying donald trump going to back out. They could have done a super pac is to take him down, which would have been historically the right way to go. Mark are you surprised at these new nbc polls which show both North Carolina and ohio still quite competitive after the relatively rough week from has had . Jonathan i am never surprised that american president ial politics when competitive states are competitive. There are so many issues that do not have to do with the candidates. I wish to some extent that the character issues were taking more into consideration, but they are not. Trump has been attacking the Republican Party, the clintons all the time, there is now a theory that they should make these last three weeks in order to get through this crisis, just drag the clintons as deep into the mud as they can, go after bill clinton on his personal life, Kelly Clintons complicity. Hillary copeland clintons complicity. The only way to do this is to squirt the earth and leave them both in the dust, drive down turnout and hope for the best. Jonathan it depends on what you define as winning. Susan to win the presidency, this is a horrible way to go. To make Hillary Clinton the weakest president ever to step into the oval office, and then to create some kind of news network and say, i told you so, it is probably a good strategy. Jonathan i agree with that. There is no circumstance under which that try to gls someone to the United States. Susan if it goes as far as they say they are going to go, it also, he may be able to do something Hillary Clinton not been able to do, is motivate voters there. Far and women vote for Hillary Clinton because they are so disgusted with him. Jonathan he become such a character of himself, that he delegitimize his the history of attacks against the clintons. Delegitimizes the history of attacks against clintons. Calledill clinton has Michelle Obamas speech the best speech given by anybody. We will talk about bill weld right up to this, and if youre watching is an, you can listen to us on bloomberg 99. 1 fm. We will be] with bill weld, right after this. Anchor to my right over here, former governor of massachusetts and now the libertarian candidate for Vice President , bill weld. What are your thoughts as an intelligent, educated, and civil events of the past when four hours in president ial politics . Bill i am somewhat stirred by the last two days because i think gary johnson and i can do a service to the United States and the Republican Party by putting ourselves forward as a fiscally responsible and free trade promoting ticket, which neither of the other two tickets is, and i would help the country by giving voters an alternative. It might even help the Republican Party by giving Republican Voters a place to go on the president ial ballot, and they could stay and vote for the down ballot republicans. John that was a good on message answer. I want to ask you a more humanlike, have you ever seen anything like this . This whole campaign has had a lot of crazy stuff. This seems like particularly 30 and just like everybody feels like, that i talked to, feel like they need to take a shower right now. Bill i am not believing what mr. Trump says about how i did not really do all the things, i just do not believe it. I spent a lot of time in the courtroom and seen what and circumstantial evidence, there is 1, 2, 3, 11. If that liked him of it, so i do not believe it. He is staking everything on what appears to be a lie, but it is not the first time, you know . So, thats so, i think he is obviously lying. To know the guy is to know that he loves women, he loves hitting on women. So why he would deny it, i will tell you why. He is trying to make this issue, the New York Times, and not him. He has spent an hour and a half talking about the New York Times i that joe the ragman can say do not like the New York Times, they are in new york, so i am going to be with donald. Hes trying to associate himself with the opposite of the New York Times. Mark i want to ask you about a complicated debate not being had by the country because theres all this other stuff going on. It involves National Security and espionage and First Amendment and privacy. Should News Organizations be reporting on these documents which are allegedly, according the emails, they have not been authenticated. Should News Organizations be reporting on them or not . Bill i am again sound. John guys, i was a question. K is asking a question about wikileaks. There are a lot of News Organizations trying to figure out whether they should be reporting on purloined material, essentially, things that have been broken in by the computer, taking things out of the Clinton Campaign, taking things out of the dnc files. Bill that does not slow me down. Government. The the Fourth Estate is not the government. I think they can report it and they we do not know whether this is authentic or not and give the campaign in question a chance to deny it, but i do not see not using the stuff. It is important stuff. The stuff that snowden dead on anhis snowden did on essay was important. The Goldman Sachs speeches were important to have them out there, that mrs. Clinton did. Thinking . Is your of all the things reported inside the campaign, which do you think rise to the level of genuine it important . Bill i think not turning over the habit in emails the abdeen emails. Maybe the people who really understand what regulations would be best in the Financial Sector are those who work in the Financial Sector are. Those are ouches. The second to rpr ouches are pr ouches. Nobody is going to jail. She is not going close to jail. Governor, what does the weld johnson ticket have . Bill in view of recent events, it does occur to us that we could be a place for Republican Voters to come who just feel now that they cannot vote for mr. Trump, so we are emphasizing that we are an experienced ticket, we were twoterm republican governors. We not only had two terms of experience, but by definition, we worked across the aisle because we had democratic states. We are a place they can go. It is ongoing to be a hard sell you have to do it, but hey, us . D you consider that is when to go down best in red state, where there are more Republican Voters. That may be a little bit of a shift from, i had a lot of blue states on my calendar until recently, and i am beginning to rethink that a little bit. John tell us about your campaign activities. The plan to do tv interviews, rallies, how do you plan to close this out . Bill rallies and retail out west, and National Media as well. Showing thishere, in the west and the east, and trying to raise our name recognition so the fact that governor johnson does not have a high negative like the other two candidates, can pay dividends. If we get his name recognition to 70, his poll position would probably go to 25 , and if we 25 points anytime in the month of october, we are dangerous because we have momentum. No, what to do about aleppo . Bill yes. I would have had an answer. I am so pessimistic, i have almost given up. Putin is willing to bomb everything. What other who knows poetic, the number two man on the ticket, governor bill weld is, the what aleppo number two man on the ticket, weld. Nor bill dwel anchor brandnew Bloomberg Politics poll. Not great news for donald trump. Survey shows that Hillary Clinton in the keystone state, 51 to 42 . Areas, clintonhe expands to 28 point, 59 to 31 , much better than barack obama did against mitt romney. Joining us now to break it down, our poster in des moines, iowa, who is in our washington, d. C. Bureau. Why did we look at those four counties . What is your main take away from our survey overall . Those counties were too tempting tonight take a dive if we have got the chance. Is geography of elections urban areas are going to tilt more democratic than the state as a whole. Rural areas are going to tilt more republican than the state as a whole. Suburbs in every state depends on the state, depending which way they are going to tilt. In pennsylvania, a swing states, you have these four counties that are so populated, that they truly can be the difference in how the states goes. We decided to take a look at those four been counties. Four counties. It shows just how down in a ditch donald trump happens to be right now. Anchor if you look at Hillary Clintons lead in those four counties around philadelphia, it is not just better than how barack obama did, but a lot better, if you took those results and projected them on a lot of other suburbs and battleground states, is that not basically like, game over, for donald trump . Isif you are the rnc, this the scenario that should keep you up at night, long past this coming november because you know what you are also seeing . You can project that to the suburbs in charlotte, North Carolina, and what you are seeing in Northern Virginia and around the tidewater area in virginia where you have these once reliably red betterthat are growing with more College Educated voters, they are slipping away from the Republican Party. If you have the Trump Campaign pulling out of virginia right now and North Carolina moving toward democrat, it is time to hit the panic button at the rnc. Newor if you look at our pennsylvania poll, anything you can say about donald trump standing today with women as compared to a month ago . In these four counties, 67 are backing Hillary Clinton, so the best donald trump can be is a 21 loss there. There is so much to make up. 76 of women in those counties are unfavorable toward donald trump. Ofre is really a lot to sort begin to do to fight back. We asked a question about that video thatlywood people have been talking about nonstop, and people are bothered by it. It is not something that appears to be going away. While we were in the field for five days, we did not really see all thatbout it grow much. There was normal variation from daytoday. Once we finished the pulling tuesday night, this has continued to be a big part of the conversation, and when an issue like that have legs like that, we can expect to see people who are already bothered, bothered even more. Anchor the flipside today in the polling news is that youre sitting in the truck campaign, pennsylvania, we are screwed there, but you look at the polling we see out of North Carolina where it is relatively close and in ohio, where trump is ahead, it would seem to me if i were the Trump Campaign and i had the week debate, those were pretty good polls for us. How would you respond to that . The North Carolina poll is interesting because i have clinton up and ohio is a tossup. Because it had clinton up and ohio is a tossup. You look at what is happening in states like arizona, it is problematic longterm. Ohio right now is a tossup. I would argue that ohio, from an electoral standpoint looks a lot , a lector of the future. Electoral of the past than electoral of the future. It looks like what is happening in places like arizona and georgia where republicans are struggling and they should not be. Anchor cornell belcher, thank you very much. We are going to be back with afterall due respect these quick words from our sponsors. Anchor check out Bloomberg Politics. , and that great piece by josh green on what is going to come up. A playstation. Until tomorrow, sayonara. Mark i am Mark Crumpton here you are watching bloomberg technology. Donald trump is denying allegations of sexual assault. At a rally in florida, he says the media and the Clinton Campaign are engaged in a coordinated attack against him. Vicious slights about me of Inappropriate Conduct with women are totally and absolutely false. Mr. Trump says he has evidence to disprove the claims and will release it at the appropriate time. Campaigning in New Hampshire, Michelle Obama said the audio from 2005 left her shaken. Mrs. Obama it is on tolerable, untolerable, and it does not matter what party you belong to democratic, republican, independent no woman deserves to be treated like this. Nigeriasf