Versus kaine, the lowest numbers, fewer eyeballs than joe biden and paul ryan. Disciplined defense of donald trump. Criticism of Hillary Clinton and her policy. When it comes to debating skills, donald trump may have been upstaged by his number two. It was a narrative mike pence was trying to knock down. He called trump the ultimate winner of last nights faceoff. Trump was in a credittaking mood today in nevada or putting pence on the ticket. Mr. Trump how many of you watched the Vice President ial debate last night . [cheers and applause] mr. Trump mike pence did an incredible job, and i am getting a lot of credit because that as my first socalled choice. My first hire as we would say in las vegas. He was a good one. Phenomenal. He was cool. He was smart. Just take a look at him. He was meant to be doing what he is doing, and we are very proud of governor mike pence. Thank you, mike pence. Speculation and reporting that donald trump did not like the notion he would be called not as good of a debater as mike pence and mike pence was seen as helping him out of the hole. How do you think mike pence is reacting personally . John there is another element. The defense of trump policies. That is much as a cause for donald trump to be upset. Pence did not really defend a lot of donald trump policies. That is one of the things that might have sent him off. Look, he did not tweet in the middle of the night. He may be protesting too much. He is over praising today. On the basis of now, on the basis of reporting, i would think it has been overblown, the notion that trump has taken offense to the way mike pence played it last night. If it is the case that donald trump feels he needs to win on sunday for the debate, one of the smartest things the staff has convinced him to do is to talk about the debate as a win of ideas. Ideas. Lower taxes, smaller government, smarter Foreign Policy. If trump is focused on that in reaction to pence, i think he is doing just fine with this and i agree. It seems to me it is overblown, and donald trump has not the best poker face in the world. He seems content with where mike pence left them. John nominees do not like to be overshadowed by their understudies. However, john mccain being upset about sarah palin. Actually, he looked at the crowds and thought, hey this is helping me. I think donald trump recognizes that he was on a bad run. He now knows the pressure is all on him to perform but i will say i think the framing of it as a battle of ideas, there were a lot of foreignpolicy issues where mike pence effectively took exception to trump and the Clinton Campaign put those out in a long list that mike pence was in a different place and donald trump. Its not like he has not has really adopted his policies. Mark he has on some. This is the best day they have had in a while. Michael pence was not talking about the indiana miracle, he was talking that donald trump. Donald trump might be feeling a little bad, but he is holding it in check. The second president ial debate is this sunday. The gateway to the west, the home of the red birds, just a few miles from here tonight. That is right. We are talking about st. Louis. We have already seen trump practicing new moves on the campaign trail in advance of the debate. There are also some tips he might be able to take from mike pences performance. Unlike donald trump in the first president ial debate, pence often turned the moderators question into opportunities to attack Hillary Clinton. He also spoke directly to the people through the camera. Gov. Pence people in scranton no different. People in fort wayne, indiana, know different. This economy is struggling. He mentioned order security. That is how washington always later. Always plays it. After traveling millions of miles as our secretary of state including being an architect of the Foreign Policy of this administration, america is less safe today than it was the day barack obama became president. That is a good skill. It is always effective. Donald trump did not do a very much. What else could donald trump from that. What else could he learn from . Amazing the way tim kaine layup. He would fight with the moderator, fight with mike pence. He did not know which camera to talk to. Obviously they win over it with them, i dont know why he couldnt do it. Donald trump sees this as optimistic. One thing mike pence has always been good at, despite some quarters of the liberal media calling him dour, he is always been good at reaganesque optimism. Look at this and think about it donald trump talked more like this on sunday. Gov. Pence when you hear donald trump say he wants to make America Great again, when he does that i believe American People will be standing tall. They will see real change can happen after decades of talking about. When that happens, the American People will stand tall, stand together, and we will have the kind of unity that has been missing for way too long. That is the kind of message trump could adapt, im surprised he did not do it before. He got so caught up in negativity with Hillary Clinton. He could do it. The democrats are right. Donald trump spoke says Donald Trumps book says that america is a hellhole. I need to fix it. His messages he wants to improve the country, but his view of where america is now is dark and pessimistic. That came through in the republican convention. It would hard for him to be as sunny as mike pence but he has to try. Another thing about mike pence, he is folksy and plainspoken. Donald trump is not from indiana. I do think donald trump could learn something from the colloquial way in which mike pence talks. Lets take a look. Gov. Pence i am a small boy a small town boy from a place not too different from farmville. I grew up with a cornfield in my back yard. My grandfather emigrated to this country when he was about my sons age. My mom and dad, they built a everything that matters in a small town in indiana, they built a family and a good name. There is a couple things about that. One thing, the colloquialism. The other thing, the biographical nature in human terms. I did not hear a lot about from donald trump on the first debate. He likes fast food and he was born in queens. And he will never be on the same level as mike pence in terms of having an ordinary life because his life has been anything but ordinary. Coming up, the undercard. How is last weeks Tim Kaine Mike pence president ial debate impacting the president ial race. Right after this break. Welcome back. Our next guest tonight fired up and ready to go. Donald Trump Campaign senior adviser, Deputy Campaign manager for Martin Omalleys president ial effort. Regular spots to president obamas reelection campaign. Spicy over there. All right you two, lets start with this question. If you are looking for a data point that would suggest you donald trump was ready to have a stronger second debate that first debate, what would you look at . Liz, you first. Are you looking for a number . Maybe watching mike pence and learning from him. I do not think that is one of Donald Trumps strong suits. Look, mike pence, we were looking at this. He has always had this reputation of being this blowdried, good presentation on tv type of guy and it came through last night and i think donald trump could learn from it. Even if that is your first choice. What is something you have seen or heard that makes you think, he gets it. First of all, i would think we are leading in this race and we will continue into st. Louis and las vegas. I think the visit out west, starting in virginia was great. Great speeches, great crowds, he is energized. He is ready to go. We are excited to talk about the issues. National security, economy. This format lends itself to donald trump. He is authentic, she is robotic, he will do great. Where are you leading in the polls . We have two new polls out today. One puts her up two over trump. And the reuters poll puts her up by six points nationally. Every National Poll and every other poll for the last 56 days has shown her picking up steam. We are up in the upi, were up a new rasmussen. As far as that manifold, the last one in august was down for but that is a poll that has trended toward Hillary Clinton. But other post a very good measure. I didnt know there was still a upi poll. They have been a good measure. Polls are coming out nationally. They are impacted by the media spin after the previous debate. I am not concerned. [crosstalk] im confident in that first performance. I am very excited for the one in st. Louis. I call it reenactment of the hindenburg. Ok. A metaphor. That is fell flat with me, but fair enough. I thought it was a tim kaine line from the debate. You are antitrump, but i want you to try. I hate everybody. Im anticlinton. You have come out as you are for johnson, right . Talk from the standpoint as someone doesnt like either, how do you think it played out . I think given that it was debate that seemed to focus very heavily on the negatives of Hillary Clinton and donald trump, i felt like a great deal of what was said was tremendously accurate. Unfortunately, like most americans i came away from it feeling extraordinarily demoralized about the terrible choices that the two major parties have put forward this cycle and, you know, really hoping a lot of other people who were watching that will hopefully investigate other options, consider writing themselves in or some bills that writing somebody else that they like or skipping out on the president ial voting altogether and focus on down ballot. I thought it was an interesting debate. For once this cycle we saw a debate where people sort of acted the way you would expect them to act in debate which was sort of gratifying and relieving and refreshing. I did not expect tim kaine to act like that. Coming in, i was really surprised. I expected a measured debate with some fireworks but i was shocked by the way tim kaine carried himself [crosstalk] you talk, i will talk now. You should not interrupt all the women all the time, but you are like tim kaine here. Here is what i was going to say before she jumped back in, on style, you are totally right. Governor pence is ready to step into the office of Vice President. Tim kaine had canned lines. Not much beyond it. He did not seem to enjoy himself. I want to switch to send a knife. That is not true. Start with liz smith here and then the other liz. It seems like donald trump doesnt need a good debate performance but a good audience. What is your sense of the trajectory the country is on. Sunday night, will the ratings been anything like a word last time . I do not accept. I dont think so. Look, i am not an expert. I would say 70 , 65 . Liz, what do you think . I have no particular views with regard to ratings or rematch. I suspect that yet again we are going to see debate between two people who have historically high unapproval ratings. More of the best of with all due respect after this word from our sponsors. Some backup from the nations capital. In our washington, d c, bureau, Senior Correspondent who covers the Clinton Campaign. Thank you for joining us. Margaret, how is the Clinton Campaign and Hillary Clinton herself approaching sunday nights debate . Several of us talking earlier today, and they emphasized that donald trump will probably, better repaired to this next debate. Better prepared. It is a low bar. It is not surprising to think that he will surpass that. They dont think that donald trump will go to the personal attacks, presumably on bill clintons past infidelities. He has sort of flirted with it but they do not expect him to do that. I would be shocked if she was not preparing for that anyhow just in case. But for her, the real challenge is the different format. It is a town hall format. She is really strong when it comes to kind of i was going to say mantoman combat, oneonone combat. That venue where she is emotionally connected to strangers she is never met as tougher for her and something she is working on for the next few days. On the republican side, donald trump will do more prep. Will he do anything like a normal candidate would do in terms of the mock debate. Building the set, stopping it with that stopping stocking it with questioners and etc. Yes and no. He refuses to do a scripted debate. He says it is not for him. He is doing a dress rehearsal in New Hampshire. He has a public event, townhall meeting. I believe he will be there with governor Chris Christie who has taken the lead in preparing him for the debate. It will be a chance for him to work on how to interact with the voters, with body language, how to build a connection with people when they are asking a question and to talk about some of his answers. He is trying to work on better this time than the first debate is taking advantage of opportunities to get Hillary Clinton. If Cyber Security comes up, talk about emails. And so forth. We will see if it works. I want to switch to the storm. I am sure the Washington Post newsroom has turned its attention. Donald trump needs a lot of attention on this debate. He needs people to watch it. What is your sense that your newsroom in general on thursday to sunday will be on politics as opposed to the storm . I think right now we at the storm and politics of taken a backseat although sunday is three days from now. A lot will depend on what the impact of the devastation is in florida and georgia. We will see. Millions of people being evacuated. Clearly it is a big story, a bigger story if there are casualties. Of course our thoughts are with all of the people in florida. A huge storm and one where Public Officials are doing their best to try to prepare but the devastation cannot be controlled by human beings. Look at the politics, we talked about it earlier. You have two battleground states in florida and North Carolina that can be affected in a significant way. Talk about the ways you think it could be affected, the efforts to rally the base in both parties, etc. Absolutely. One thing that robby mook said was they were expecting as many as 40 of the votes altogether could be cast before election day. Three states he emphasized were florida, North Carolina, and nevada in terms of state that could be decided before election day. Two of those dates are directly in the path of the storm and so that becomes a very important proposition for the Clinton Campaign. We saw the controversy over them being halfway done placing an ad through the Weather Channel and pulling it back. They are obviously concerned with not being seen as politicizing the storm and distracting from Public Safety issues. It is going to affect the continuity of turnout effort, doorknocking efforts, that sort of thing. The infrastructure of a campaign has built in. They are saying there communicating directly with volunteers and staff. Theyre saying, listen, your First Priority is to lead follow instructions about evacuation and that sort of thing. The intensity of the storm, what actually happens and how it affects people will matter on a couple fronts. Number one, and obviously weeks between now and election days will people get home to vote. Another issue is public response, both of a republican governor in a republican state and the democratic president who remains so popular. Will minority areas so affected by the storm affect turnout and believe of what a Democratic Administration could do versus a republican administration. Then looking at it both as hillary trump Hillary Clinton and donald trump. Will they visit sites and how they do in those real and delicate situations. That may matter. The storm will have a huge impact potentially in terms of this. As we head toward sunday night, the first debate usually has the highest audience. Do you get the sense between the storm and the fact it is the second debate, football on sunday, people will be tuned in on this in any numbers like the first one . I cannot imagine it will reach the numbers of the first one, but i think it will probably reach more people than the Vice President ial debate, which had fairly low viewership a couple nights ago. Somewhere in between. As important as people watching the debate, people tuning into the 4278 hours following and seeing the clips online and adding a sense of how trump performed, whether he improved, whether he scored enough points against hillary or not. The Clinton Campaign, following recent history, being super aggressive on social media, press releases, seems to be out doing the donald Trump Campaign to somerset. Will the rnc gear up to become better at winning the debate after the debate . I assume they are trying. Although one thing that is striking, as prolific as donald trump is on twitter, his advisers really are not. It is not like the Clinton Campaign where there is an army of operatives and strategy constantly trying to drag the twitter media conversation. Yes, i dont know if they dont realize it or not. Political reporters are heavily influenced by following twitter, during the debate, the aftermath. Whether or not it matters is much as the reporters think or not, it certainly is one place where the Clinton Campaign outdoes the Trump Campaign. Exactly right. Margaret, one more question for you, bill clinton came to the first debate. Do we expect him in st. Louis . Do you know . Or is it less likely given he stirred up a little controversy