The camera and lighting crews have arrived, the set getting finishing touches as you see right there. Youre looking at the last minute preparations at the Hofstra University debate hall where in just 30 hours Hillary Clinton and donald trump will approach those podiums for their very first debate of the 2016 election. Hello, everyone, thank you so much for joining me. Im Fredericka Whitfield live at Hofstra University in hem psted new york. The countdown is on. As if the stakes werent high enough, a new abc Washington Post poll shows clinton and trump in a virtual dead heat. Clinton with only a 2point lead among likely voters over the next two hows, well talk about the candidates preparedness and the three main topics they will debate. Lester holt will be questioning trump and clinton about quote, americas direction, achieving prosperity and securing america. Both candidates are off the campaign trail today but have separate meetings with israeli Prime Minister benjamin netanyahu. Clinton is hunkered down at a hotel near her home in chappaqua where she was seen working late into the tonight. Sources say clinton has been sparring with multiple standins from trump and multiple briefing books about his policies and personalities. Trump says he doesnt want to overprepare. He held a rally in fact in roanoke, virnlg vrnlg last night. Mostly clintons running mate tim kaine who represents virginia. Its trumps twitter feed that is giving us the most insight into what he may do monday night at the debate. After clinton supporter mark cuban taunted that he would be in the front row as a guest of clinton, trump tweeted this, if dopey mark cuban of failed benefactor fame wants to sit in the row perhaps ill put Gennifer Flowers alongside him, who infamously had an affair with then arkansas governor bill clinton, then told the New York Times she would indeed attend the debate. Trumps Campaign Says she will not be there. My colleague, jake tapper asked Trump Campaign manager if these are the types of head games that clinton can expect from trump. Can you confirm if Gennifer Flowers will be at the debate as a guest of mr. Trump . No, i cannot confirm that and cant believe how easily baited the Clinton Campaign was. Basically mr. Trump was saying, if mark cuban is going to send out texts, the humbling at hofstra, big down fall, then mr. Trump was putting them on notice, we could invite guests that may get into the head of Hillary Clinton. We have not invite her formally and dont expect her to be there as a guest of the Trump Campaign. I did think it was really odd one day after Hillary Clinton was of rebuffed by the mayor of charlotte to not to come to charlotte then they exercised poor judgment the very next day putting out a statement by the Clinton Campaign about Gennifer Flowers, that shows hes easily provoked. No, it was a Clinton Campaign. It was poor judgment. Well talk about the issues that face america. I can understand why Hillary Clinton wants a billionaire in front row, thats another monday night for her. Were taking the case directly to the American People tomorrow night. As a point of fact, both trump and clinton were talking about visiting charlotte and the mayor said they didnt have resources for either one to revisit. Its curious and viewers wondering, you think whats odd is the Clinton Campaigns reaction to donald trump tweeting about somebody that her husband had an affair with decades ago, not the fact that donald trump tweeted something about someone the nominees husband had an affair with decades ago. It seems odd that they would give it life and breath since you said three times in a row that governor clinton had an affair with her. I didnt say it but now a lot of americans but donald trump gave it life, did he not . He basically they could have left it at that. What he said if shes going to do this as way to bait him, perhaps hell invite Gennifer Flowers there or have her sit in the front row. I want to say, jake, the particular president ial debates are incredibly important so that he with can hear the visions of these two candidates, donald trump is on the stump every single day. Roanoke last night or four or five swing states this week giving policy addresses and talking about issues. Hillary clinton is running negative ads against him. You know what should be fact checked . The campaign saying she was going to become more uplifting and optimistic and aspirational. Its negative ad after negative ad and negative pieces of mail, get out the vote programs, were taking our case directly to the American People in this debate and every single day on the stump. But its hard to argue that donald trump hasnt been negative about Hillary Clinton. I want to ask you in fact, is he planning on bringing up bill clintons marital infidelity during the debate himself. This is something he discussed on Fox News Channel and other places an its something hes talked about in speeches. Mr. Trump will answer the questions as they are asked by lester holt the moderator and has a right to defend himself against anything that mrs. Clinton secretary clinton may say in response. So will trump use bill clintons extra Marital Affairs as fodder for tomorrow night and is the Clinton Campaign prepared for such a thing. Tapper asked clinton Campaign Manager. In the mock debates, are you preparing for anything . Are you preparing for the Gennifer Flowers of the world to be invoked . Jake, as you would appreciate, nobody knows which donald trump will show up to this debate and his erratic temperament has been a subject of quite a bit of discussion, i would argue why hes not fit and prepared to be president. But look, big picture, this debate is an opportunity for the American People to look at these two candidates and see which one of them is ready to be our next president and commander in chief. And i think the fact that donald trump is spending hours before this debate on the on this sort of thing is indicative of the kind of leader he would be and president he would be. I think its a warning sign before the debate has even started about Donald Trumps lack of fitness and bullying tactics that make him unfit. Former adviser david axe elrod who wants Hillary Clinton to win is concerned if Hillary Clinton spends a lot of tomorrow night attacking trump, that might not be enough for her to win the race. He told the Washington Post, quote, if trump finds a way to normalize himself, it can be a trap door. Going into this debate, do you think its more important for Hillary Clinton to sell her own vision or to paint donald trump as a threat, which could in doing so feed into her issues with likability and trust worthiness and honesty, et cetera . Im glad you asked this question. This is the heart of the matter. Every time that hillary has had an unfiltered opportunity to talk to the American People about not just what shes going to do, to make their lives better, the specific plans and policies that she has but also how her entire life and this campaign is part of a mission to help kids and families. Shes done better. Were really excited to have that opportunity. And to your point, im very concerned that donald trump will be graded on a curve. Just because he doesnt fly off the handle in the middle of this debate does not mean hes prepared to be president of the United States. He needs to have a coherent answers to the questions and needs to demonstrate a command of the issues and needs to roll out specific plans about how hes going to make life better for americans. I was a little surprised to here kelly ann imply that he has those plans. We havent seen them. He has a secret plan to defeat sis s isis, wont tell anybody what it is. Says he knows more than the generals, thats not a specific plan and not being transparent with the American People about what those plans are. We hope that will come out at this debate and want this to be an opportunity for hillary to deliver her message directly so that people can understand shes fighting on their side. Lets talk about all of this now, im joined by Cnns Phil Mattingly and reston and salaly cohen and we have lots to cover, dont we. Youve been covering this forea long time. The Clinton Campaign had to no this would be coming from donald trump . Absolutely. We dont know exactly what Donald Trumps plans are. There are tricky words in there that she wont be a guest of donald trump tomorrow night but perhaps someone else, who knows. I think donald trump likes to pump up the drama. One adviser to Hillary Clinton was saying to me last night, she will be ready for anything. Gennifer flowers in the front row, she will blow her a kiss and not be rattled shes ready for whatever he brings on. Phil, whats the feeling on how Hillary Clinton would steal herself for this . Clearly she enough known this was coming. He inty mated he might unleash this. Theres been preparations about these specific accusations, all of these contingency possibilities have been address add enyou ask how she prepares, by preparing. She hunkers down and spends a lot of time at the briefing books and advisers that makes her comfortable. Hillary clinton debated just about more than anybody on a stage this big in history. All the way back to high school. So theres a level of comfort there with the stage. I think the one concern is that she overprepares and gets into her own head about it. I think they are comfortable on this stage, its a matter of can they land what they need to land when they need to land it to make donald trump has robby mook was trying to point out, that he was not prepared or possibility to sit in the oval office. How could this be to the detriment of Hillary Clinton . I love you, fred, but even that question in this election cycle should strike us all as a little preposterous. Now because im not accusing you uniquely of this as were used to doing, we have to talk about both sides and Say Something about trump and clinton. Ask me a hard question about clinton. The hard question for clinton is she might over apparently donald trump he says he doesnt believe in overpreparing. Its like a mask for in in facing a candidate who is horrifically unprecedentcedenti unprepared to be president. The flip side, is Hillary Clinton too prepared . Its almost laughable reality. She may be too prepared for the debate like she is too prepared to be president. What a shame. John, this brings out it boils down to insulting, that theres a different standard. Why is it that Hillary Clinton would be overprepared an he could be under prepared and thats okay . They have different goals. What Hillary Clinton needs to do tomorrow, she needs to motivate the Obama Coalition to go out and vote. She needs minorities and liberals and needs people that went out and voted in 2008 and 201220 go out and vote for her. So far we dont know if thats going to happen. What trump has to do, he has to be the guy in mexico and look president ial and look like he belongs up there. He has to bring back some of those College Educated white women that voted for mitt romney that have reservations about him this time around. Hes already done that with men and needs to close the deal with women. What does looking president ial look like when youre on the debate stage . You need to be in command of the facts and look like the type of guy who would have a sober take on a world event that happened at 3 00 in the morning and you would have the countrys best interest taken care of. You make me laugh, these expressions kill me. Im trying to hard to tone them down. Politico just did a report, looked at donald trump for five straight hours. He told a lie, a lie an average of every three minutes and 15 seconds. So i do think part of this is a question for lester holt, is he going to do a good job treat the candidates fairly. If he lies more, hold him accountable more. Looking president ial isnt being able to show up and say a few names of stand president s without tripping over yourselves but being able to show the American People that youre ready, that you have the temperament and the expertise and experience of this job. I dont know how donald trump can show up and do that because that isnt who he is, he is fundamentally unqualified. So much of the on us will be on Hillary Clinton to be doing this real time fact checking. Weve been covering donald trump for a long time youre saying its more incumbent on her to do that to correct as opposed to the moderator. If she wants to win the debate she better be prepared to do that. A lot of times at Donald Trumps rallies when he said things that are inaccurate, theres no one there to call him out. Thats why she has been preparing so carefully for each of those things to call him out on the facts and thats the way in which they think they can sort of expose what they see as why does that potentially undermine Hillary Clinton that people will say shes being too wonky, if shes coming across too studied by correcting him, that that could potentially cost her support. I think this is the primary frustration in the Clinton Campaign. Sally hits at it to a t. That could be problematic. Her fluency on the issues, the preparation involved, a lot of go tos he says over and over on the campaign trail that weve repeated stated are completely incorrect or a lie. Theyve been preparing for her to have counters to those as they come. The concern you hear rolling around a little bit, will that make her look unlikeable . Does that hurt her numbers . The Clinton Campaign scoffs at that idea, her ability to command issues, command a response to donald trump when he tries to put out things that arent true will only serve to benefit her. There are people in the party concerned about absolutely everything. One of those is the fallout for that. Were going to talk more about this. Appreciate all of your points of view. I know theres more. Well get to that and of course you can see the first president ial debate here on cnn tomorrow night, 9 00 eastern, our coverage begins 4 00 eastern. Dont miss any of it. At safelite, we know how busy life can be. 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Org [ rear alert sounds ], [ music stops ]on ] on the road again just cant wait to get on the road again [ front assist sounds ] [ music stops ] [ girl laughs ] on the road again like a band of gypsies we go down the highway [ beetle horn honks ] no matter which passat you choose, you get more standard features, for less than you expected. Hurry in and lease the 2017 passat s for just 199 a month. Welcome back to Hofstra University, site of tomorrow nights first president ial debate. Im joined again now by Cnns Phil Mattingly and sally kohn, a clinton supporter and phillips, a trump supporter. We have a nice excited crowd back there. This is the prelude to what well be experiencing tomorrow. Mave, you first, were talking about the measuring sticks are different for Hillary Clinton and donald trump, weve seen it on the campaign trail. Some anticipating the same will be said for the debate stage. Clintons Campaign Manager robby mook says nobody wants to see donald trump graded on a curve. Right. That is one of the biggest concerns in the Clinton Campaign right now and among allies, theres such a low bar for donald trump that they are very worried that if he is calm and cool and collected up there and there arent those Gennifer Flowers antics hell come away with good headlines on next day. There are so many voters still undecided and we have to remember that. Many more than were undecided at