Creepy. Im poppy harlow live from hofstra university, the site of tomorrow nights first president ial debate. Next on cnn, a special edition of erin burnett out front. It begins right now. Next, a special edition of up front. Debate night in america. What are Hillary Clinton and donald trump doing in the final hours before the big event . Psychological warfare. Trump and clinton are playing mind games on and off the debate stage. Will it work . Plus, one of the hardest things on debating Hillary Clinton. Almost all her opponents have fallen into this trap. Lets go out front. Good evening. Im erin burnett. Welcome to a special edition of out front, debate line in america. The first head to head debate between donald trump and Hillary Clinton on cnn now a little more
than 24 hours away. Well show you the debate hall. Hofstra university in hempstead, new york, where theyll be standing. Trumps top aides are inspecting the stage a short time ago, there on your screen. The trumpclinton faceoff is the most important in the race, no question about that. Comes 43 days before election day. It will be an historic event, no matter what happens. Analysts say it will be the biggest president ial debate audience ever, as many as 100 Million People are expected to tune in. Its a number like the super bowl. Hillary clinton is spending time in a hotel near her home right there, and it is where clinton has been hunkered down the last few days. A longtime aide portraying trump in his prep. Rudy giuliani was helping. Followed by chris christie. Both candidates today heating with benjamin netnetanyahu. We want to begin with sarah murray outside of trump tower in new york. Cl what is a disadvantage going into tomorrows debate. Theyre saying not even on the stage yet, but already blaming the media if trump ends up at a disadvantage tomorrow night. See what Kellyanne Conway said earlier. If mr. Trump has any disadvantage going into tomorrow nights debate, it is that he is not treated fairly. Thats obvious, if you read many of the reports. If you turn on almost any station at any point in the day. The coverage varies from incomplete, meaning its all about him and negative against him, to you know, over thats a clue to how the campaign is going to react if the moderator, lester holt, tries to fact check donald trump. If he has a tough moment in the debate, the campaign can fall back on what has been a useful
strategy, which is to blame the media. Also a very unpopular group in the u. S. , even lower than some politicians. Donald trump has been hunkered down today. He has been prepping for this. His campaign is taking it seriously. We saw Rudy Giuliani and chris christie, rnc krarmchairman rei priebus. Were still not hearing that donald trump has done any mock debates. There is a risk in that. Hes never been in a oneonone debate. This is not a traditional aides are trying to prep them in a way that makes him comfortable. Well see if it pays off tomorrow night. Lets go to jeff zeleny. Hilalary clinton preparing for someone above all else. She is, erin. Shes been preparing in a resort not far from her home, with a small cluster of advicers for the last several days. Last night, she worked until almost midnight preparing for this. One thing they expect and know are coming are questions about her email. She has been answering those questions with varying degrees of success over the last year, year and a half or so. But her aides are trying to convince her to not be a lawyer. She is a lawyer, of course. Sometimes, her answer on this has been somewhat lawyerly. She is going to at least her aides say she will try to sort of be contrite about this. Acknowledge, again, what she did with that private email server was wrong and try and pivot beyond that. But they want to avoid her getting into the weeds in a legal answer that she sometimes has given on that classified email server that has dogged her since her campaign began. And the campaign also, jeff, has been, you know, out there, trying to get everybody to fact check. Something they say, of course, will hurt trump significantly more. That may not happen, right . The moderator may not be doing that. So what will clinton do in
response . Erin, theres never been a president ial campaign, at least in modern times, where the facts have been so disposable, if you will. Fact checkers said that donald trump simply, you know, does not stick to them nearly as much as any other candidate. It is not her burden, necessarily, to fact check him constantly. That might be her instinct. That might be her, you know, first thing she wants to do. Her advisers want her to limit that to two or three big things and not have her, all night, be correcting him. That will not be the right image for her, for the voters out there. Many of whom may be tuning in for the very first time. They want her to have more levity rather than lecturing donald trump. Erin . Jeff, thank you very much. Out front now, our panel, as we are getting ready for the event tomorrow night. David, former president ial adviser for four president s. Mark preston, executive editor for cnn politics. Kierston powers. Co corey lewandowski, former Trump Campaign manager. A Hillary Clinton supporter and her former campaign manager, and a donald trump supporter. Now i get to take a breath. Okay. Corey, you helped prepare donald trump for debates during the primary season, of which there were so many. Whats happening right now . Is he done . Watching football tonight . My recommendation, if i was still part of the campaign, would be take some time, enjoy a football game, relax. Unwind, you know. Think about what youd want to be doing before the night of a big day tomorrow. Im sure hes going to come down from the apartment and go to work. Its what he does. Hell probably spend some more time doing some more debate prep. But the debate prep that donald trump does is more conversational. Its with experts in their respective fields. Whether it is Rudy Giuliani or the generals. He learns by talking to other
people. I think its what hell do. Then spend time with his family, drive out to new york and have a big night tomorrow night. What about Hillary Clinton . Is she now done . She had an off site location and is taking this very seriously, in terms of briefings. Is she going to take off from now on is and be done . No. Hillary likes to prepare. She likes to study and be prepared when she goes on the debate stage. Shes spent weeks preparing, going over briefing books, watching videos of donald trump debating. What shes done traditionally the night before is get a good nights sleep. She visited her grandchildren tonight so she can be in a happy place. And tomorrow, shell review, again, possibly do q a and maybe try to squeeze in another mock debate. Wow. Another one on the same day. Talk about two different strategies. You have prepared someone to debate against donald trump, marco rubio. What do you do . What do you advise someone do to
get under Donald Trumps skin torks g, to get him to do something that will come off badly . There is so much unpredictability. You cant say, this is his tendency. When we prepared governor romney, for example, against the president , it was clear what the president was going to try to do and what he had to accomplish. That was an easier debate to prepare for. With donald trump, you have to expect the unexpected. Its difficult to say, prepare for donald trump in all sorts of ways. You have to be on your toes and recognize that anything could come at you. You have to stick to your strategy. Know what you have to accomplish and dont let him throw you off your game. He is unpredictable. He could have a one liner or quip, and it isnt practiced in advance. It came to his mind at that moment. Right off the top of his head. Im in the mindset that he is probably going to be restrained tomorrow. I think hell come out there and people are going to walk away and say, wow, where is the
donald trump that were used to and that we know . I think the Campaign Adviser and Kellyanne Conway and others have really locked him down in many ways. He still occasionally has a popoff moment but i think hell be restrained tomorrow. One of the issues will be the Fact Checking. The executive director of the debates says, moderator, not his job. Lester holt tomorrow. Heres what they said. I think personally, if you start getting into Fact Checking, im not sure what is a big fact, what is a little fact . I dont think it is a good idea to get the moderator into essentially serving as the encycloped encyclopedia. Does that take pressure off donald trump, or is he going to feel the pressure that people are going to be checking every single thing he does, and that he needs to get it right . Mr. Trump has been debating hes had a oneonone debate since he first got into the race with the media, with all his naysayers,
and he did very well against all the people that ran against him in the primary. What mr. Trump is going to do is not focus on lester holt or secretary clinton. Hes going to focus on the American People. Thats what the debate is about. Everyone thinking this debate is about secretary clinton, theyre wrong. Mr. Trump is going to message directly to the American People like he always has. He is a master at really understanding and tapping into what we need to hear. Were all staying here. Next, the first shot in the psych war. Clinton putting mark cuban in a front row seat at the debate. Can trump be rattled . The trap that other clinton opponents have fallen into. Youre likable enough, hillary. Thank you. Excuse me, im talking. Can trump avoid those pitfalls . Jeanne moos on how a weak and a sigh can make a difference. Its a laptop, i take the keyboard off, its a tablet. Macs cant do that. The search for relief often leads. Here. Here. Or here. Today, theres a new option. Introducing drugfree aleve direct therapy. A tens device with high intensity power that uses technology once only available in doctors offices. Its wireless remote lets you control the intensity. And helps you get back to things like. This. This. Or this. And back to being yourself. Introducing new aleve direct therapy. Find yours in the pain relief aisle. Its scary when the lights go out. People get anxious and my office gets flooded with calls. So many things can go wrong. Its my worst nightmare. Every second that power is out, my citys at risk. Siemens digital grid manages and reroutes power, so service can be restored within seconds. Priority number one is keeping those lights on. It takes ingenuity to defeat the monsters that live in the dark. Always has to be who sat your desk . Phone now, with one talk from verizon. Hi, pete. Im glad you called. announcer vo all your phones can Work Together on one number. You can move calls between phones,
so conversations can go where you go. Take your time. Im not going anywhere. announcer vo and when youre not available, one talk helps find the right person who is. Hi, john. announcer vo so wherever work takes you, you can put your customers first. Introducing one talk another way verizon connects your business better. Learn how at onetalk. Com. Welcome back to a special edition of out front. Youre looking at live pictures of hofstra university, the site of the first president ial debate tomorrow night. The psychological warfare raging between the two candidates in anticipation. Clinton promising to bring trumps nemesis, well, he used to be a friend but now is a nem tis, the businessman and reality tv star billionaire mark cuban. Bring him to the debate and sit him in the front row. Trump threatened to bring gennifer flowers, the reporter who revealed her and bill clinton had a longtime affair. Both Campaign Managers addressed this today. I cant believe how easily baited the Clinton Campaign was. We have not invited her formally and we dont expect her to be there as a guest of the trump
campaign. It is a warning sign before the debate has started about Donald Trumps lack of fitness, his bullying tactics, that make him unfit to be president. Phil mattingly is out front from the debate hall tonight. Hours away and a lot of drama about people and who is going to be sitting in the front row, trying to psych out the debaters. Erin, obviously, a lot of attention now being paid on what the candidates are doing to prepare themselves for monday night. Also, no shortage of interest in who is actually going to be in the audience. If you look behind me, you have the candidates themselves who will be at the two podiums. Two people in the audience they care about. The Clinton Family will be here. The trump family will be here. Donald trumps running mate, mike pence, will be in the audience, something not very usual. All eyes have been focused on twitter over the course of the last 48 hours. Because the clinton team invited mark cuban, the billionaire who has been sparring back and forth with donald trump over the
course of the last several months. One that Hillary Clinton used as a top surrogate. The clinton team has given him a front row ticket, something cuben has becub cuban has been happy to point out to trump. Donald trump responding on twitter to the news that mark cuban would be here, saying he might bring gennifer flowers. Flowers, obviously, the woman bill clinton had an affair with decades ago. Its something that republican officials backed off in horror. Its the last thing they want donald trump to be talking about. When you talk to the Trump Campaign, theyre saying, look, this is donald trump the counter punchers. The clintons were trying to draw this out of donald trump. Gennifer flowers, according to the Trump Campaign, will not be attending on monday night with a trump team ticket. Whether or not she comes, well, she said she was going to show up. It wont be because of the trump on ratio operation. Not only whats happening on the stage, but its a big deal on whats happening in the audience, as well. Yes, for sure. When you put it that way. Thank you, phil. My panel back with me. All right, Trump Campaign, the issue of mark cuban, gennifer flowers, sort of made for reality tv. How appropriate. Created a psychological profile of Hillary Clinton to try to exploit her. What could this be, the profile . Im not sure i believe they did that. May just be saying that to freak her out. A lot of what he does in terms of his psychological warfare is all the way up to the moment of going on to the debate stage. If you watch what he did in the primary with the little marco and low energy jab, and the lying ted, all this stuff, he didnt tend to do it on the debate stage unless somebody came after him. Its not something he necessarily uses. With hillary, weve seen him do it with her health. She coughs on the stage, itll be like, is she sick or weak . He called her weak. He doesnt need to say or do anything in that moment. Reince priebus complained that she didnt smile enough last time. Is she going to smile enough . I think he sets it up all the way up to the debate stage. Unless she strikes him, he probably wont strike her back. David . I think that there are certain times where candidates are defensive about issues. With donald trump, we know that if you go after his success as a business person, he gets defensive. He cares more about that than almost anything else, as far as we can tell. There are certain aspects of Hillary Clinton that are that way, too. It amazes me if they spend a lot of time preparing on her psychological profile and not on preparing him to stand out at a podium, as he should do. Id go back to the reagan debate. Helping to prepare reagan in 1980. What we found the first time we got him up at a podium and you have two minutes to answer, he had a 40second answer. He didnt live with a two minute answer. He needed to practice that. He doesnt that he needed to learn a lot of things. He needed to learn how to put together a compact answer that
filled out the space that dominated the debate. After two or three times up, he was doing it. By the third time around, it was terrific and won the debate and the presidency. Thats what im amazed about with the trump responses, dismissive of traditions that served others so well. So Hillary Clintons loyalty attack dog, with a journalist once, he said, why do you bother to ask questions you already decided you know the answers to . Have a good day. By good day, i mean, f off. He didnt say f off. He spelled it out. The guy has no shame. This is who he is. This is who they picked. Could be smart. Is that the right person to pick him . Is he going to be able to go after her . I dont think anybody will portray donald trump the way hell come off on the stage. I think hell be sedated. But you have to have someone who can be very sharp with hilalary clinton and go places many others in her circle cannot go. He can do that without any rensn or reservations because thats who he is. The fact is, to piggy back on what david said over there, you know, this is a very large moment. Donald trump has never in his life stood on a stage of this magnitude and had to debate someone oneonone and have to debate someone with a greater sense of policy depth and be the underdog going into it. So this is something extremely new for him. He has to hope he doesnt get consumed by the moment. One thing for sure, Hillary Clinton has been there and done that. The debate prep shows shes taking it seriously. Has he been practicining this like the 90 seconds . Sure, he knows television, but youre fired is one second. Has he been practicing . I know he stood at the podium for five hours. What you have to remember is the expectation when donald trump first debated, walked on to the stage in cleveland, was expert debaters. The future of the republican
party. You have a princeton debate champion standing up there and donald trump, who never debated. He responded back to the moderator with the response that was both funny and comical and, look, thats what everyone talked about. Thats what you expect . I think what you will find is donald trump does things differently. What has worked so very well is making everyone else think about what donald trump is going to do and watching him do s