On the stage, even refusing to shake hands. Moments in, watch, look at this. Just the nod. Talk turned to that tape of donald trump. That surfaced just over 48 hours ago in which he and billy bush of access hollywood formerly spoke about women in lewd terms. Heres what mr. Trump had to say about that tape. We received a lot of questions online about the tape that was released on friday. You called what you said locker room banter. You described kissing women without consent, grabbing their genitals. That is Sexual Assault. You bragged that you have sexually assaulted women. Do you understand that . No, i didnt say that at all. I dont think you understood. This was locker room talk. Im not proud of it. I apologize to my family, i apologize to the American People. Certainly im not proud of it, but this is locker room talk. When we have a world where you have isis chopping off heads, where you have and frankly drowning people in steel cages, where you have wars and horrible, horrible sights all over, where you have so many bad things happening, this is like medieval times. Just for the record, though, are you saying that what you said on the bus that you did not actually kiss women without consent . I have Great Respect for women. Nobody has more respect for women than i do. For the record, youre saying you never did that. That frankly, you hear these things, theyre said. I was embarrassed by it. But i have tremendous respect for women. Have you ever done those things. Have respect for me. And i will tell you, no, i have not. This is supposed to be a debate focused on the issues. Fix his mistakes from the first debate and focus on hurricane hbss short comings. Instead the opening half hour was spent focusing on personal attacks and that trump tape. Heres a quick reminder of what he said that caused the controversy back in 2005. I will use some tic tacs just in case i start kissing her. Im automatically attracted to beautiful i just start kissing them. Like a magnet. I dont even and when youre a star, they let you do it. You can do anything. Whatever you want. Grab them by the [ bleep ]. Do anything. Hillary clinton was not out of the woods herself. Remember, on the same day the trump tape dropped wikileaks dropped a bunch of documents that it says shows excerpts of her paid speeches that hes refused to release. It appears to suggest that she says one thing in public and Something Else in private. Well get to all of this and ask the questions of our lineup. Right after that, well hear from campaign insiders including Kellyanne Conway and katrina pearson. We begin the night with Chris Steigerwald and howie kurtz. What did you think . Well, donald trump its funny. If you imagine that the sex tape thing hadnt happened or the hot mike thing hadnt happened, we would be telling a whole different story about donald trump today. Wed be saying he was more disciplined, better prepared, the comeback for donald trump. But because he fail to move the inventory on that, because it batted it away instead of showing a contrite heart and because he brought the people in who were bill clintons accusers and made that the headlines tomorrow and the story coming out of this will be all about that. It will be all about that stuff and overshadow his improved performance. I thought they were more aggressive with donald trump than with Hillary Clinton, Martha Martha radatz started with the foreign policy. He got off to this strange exchange. I thought he had tough moments in that personal first half hour when he strangely pivoted from just locker room talk to beheading of isis and then by the way, hillary ought to be in jail. Like i want be strong. He maintains that his attacks on people prove how strong he is. Right, but after that, megyn, he seemed to find his rhythm. Hillary was a little bit more on the defensive as the conversation turned more to her record. In the end he battled back to a draw. When you consider the sheer media hell hes been through, that has to be a moral victory. I dont know that he considers this hell. Its called life. Things happen. Its called life. Which is actually kind of a nice 30,000foot perspective from somebody under fire handling it pretty gracefully. But that ignores then ko tent of what we saw and how repulsive how Many Americans found it. How will anyone get past the first 30 minutes tomorrow. This is a debate for his base. He turned in a performance that his base wanted. He attacked on the sex stuff as opposed to showing contrition. But i want to tell you that right near where we are here in suburban st. Louis, the voters who he needs are right here. Theyre suburban white people with College Degrees who have been reticent to support trump. He didnt give them anything tonight. He gave his base a nice happy feeling. If you like donald trump this was a primary debate performance, not so much a general election debate. To that point heres just a little bit of the anger that we captured on tape tonight. Watch. Its just not threw. And so please allow her to respond, please. Personal emails. 33,000 . Well, we turned over 35,000. Oh, yeah. What about the other 15,000 . Please allow her to respond. She didnt talk when you talked. Thats true. I didnt. Because you had nothing to say. Okay, donald, i know youre into big diversion tonight, anything to avoid talking about your campaign and the way its exploding and the way republicans are leaving you. Lets see what happens allow her to respond. I like to know anderson, why arent you bringing up the emails . I brought up the emails. No, it hasnt. And it hasnt been finished at all. A question. Nice. One on three. What did you make of that. It was trump attacking hillary, hillary deflecting and youve been attacking blacks, muslims, latinos all of which helps her base. He was much more aggressive. Heres the thing. Many Top Republicans have been bailing on this guy. He needed to convey a sense that hes stabilizing his campaign. He might have done that since he did gain in the last hour. People stayed up for the whole thing. Thats all about addition. Guys, great to see you both. So tonight the kelly file is polling its own focus group made up of undecided missouri voters. Three different colored lines that correspond to each of the three groups. The yellow line are those still undecided, the green line leans clinton. Joining me now is frank lutz. Its been a great group here in st. Louis. They walked in here undecided but how many of you just before this began, how many of you lind towards donald trump, raise your hands. Only a few of you. How many leaned towards Hillary Clinton before the start . Now tell me which candidate had the biggest impact on your vote tonight . Who says Hillary Clinton . Who says donald trump . Wow. I want a phrase to describe Donald Trumps performance. Skirting the issues. I feel he was much improved. Calm and strong. He had practice. He seemed more president ial. Much improved. Much improved. The bar set so low for him. More researched. Explain to me Hillary Clintons performance tonight. Inclusive. Still think she sounds disingenuous. Frustrated. Not worthy of my vote. Same old, same old. Typical. Not a single new idea. Shes educated and shes got a plan. Frustrated. Experience based. Nothing new and she didnt apologize to any of those women that she bashed. Now, this is significant. I want to play for you one of the most important moments at the very beginning of the debate. Its donald trump explaining the language that he used thats been so controversial over the last 48 hour. One him explaining it and then him at his worse. Lets play the tape. I apologized to my family, i apologized to the American People. Certainly im not proud of it, but this is locker room talk. You know, when we have a world where you have isis chopping off heads, where you and frankly drowning people in steel cages where you have wars and horrible, horrible sights all over just for the record, though, are you saying that what you said on that bus 11 years ago that you did not actually kiss women without consent or grope women without consent . I have Great Respect for women. No one has more respect for women than i do. You say you didnt do these things. Frankly, you hear these things. Theyre said. Heres my question, has he finally put it behind him . Did this debate serve as a pivot, yes or no . It should be because what somebody says alongside what somebody does is different. No, i dont think this should be put behind him. This is an issue of character. I have daughters. I cannot believe my thing is because trump, its like he said, locker room talk. Ive been around some great buddies who have never done anything at all. I would like to think that men do not say things like that in locker rooms. And if they do, we should have women running things. We do not regulate morality but make sure the person who is leading our country is a person that will be respectful. W with a little more information from our group, but megyn, this is the first time of the three debates that theres been any genuine movement. I have to acknowledge something here. I thought it was all over for donald trump. And when these walked in here, i was pretty sure of it. Based on their response, and i hope to bring more of it to you later in the show, i have to change my mind. I actually think tonight was so significant that he is back in this race. Frank luntz, thank you, sir. We showed you how donald trump handled the question about the 2005 comment. Heres how mrs. Clinton then responded. You know, with prior republican nominees for president , i disagreed with them. Politics, policies, principles. But i never questioned their fitness to serve. Donald trump is different. I said starting back in june that he was not fit to be president and commander in chief and many republicans and independents have said the same thing. What we all saw and heard on friday was donald talking about women, what he thinks about women, what he does to women, and he has said that the video doesnt represent who he is. But i think its clear to anyone who heard it that it represents exactly who he is. Katrina pearson is the Trump Campaign national spokesperson. Great to be here, thank you. What of that . Because shes trying to expand it beyond the tape. Yes, the women is a big issue for him. But where was his apology for the khan family, for judge curiel and all others you heard her list. Mr. Trump did give a statement early on saying that he said some things that he regretted. It was generic. There were a number of things hes done in fighting because hes been fighting against both sides of the establishment, against the media. And he says when you have those contentious debates you do say things and he did. But it wasnt a debate when he attacked judge curiel saying he cant decide his case. Thats mainly because of his position on the border. He was saying because he has hispanic parents, and trump wants to build this wall, he make make a good decision. But thats why he made the statement. No, he was asked repeatedly. He said hes a mexican, which he wasnt. Hes from india. But her point is its not just women. Hes said so many controversial things. On the women front, let me ask you because you come on the show all the time. You obviously love trump and youre a great defender of his. But when you saw that tape, what was your reaction . Look, i have two brothers, i was in sports, so i was around a lot of athletes. This truly was two men who had what they thought was a private conversation talking about an attractive woman. Your brothers talk about grabbing women by the genitals . I dont know what i talk about specifically because when i walk in the room they stop those conversations. They talk about grabbing women by the genitals and doing whatever they want with them. And thats the entertainment culture. This was two guys having a discussion. Nothing actually took place. They were 11 years ago. The bigger point here. He was 59 years old then, not like he was 20. No, but two men having a private discussion. We can have private discussions. Women have private discussions even at my age. Ive never had a discussion like that in my life. But we do have discussions in private that would embarrass us in public. Yes. When we think we are alone, thats exactly what this was. You think he can recover with women . Tonight he said, i respect women and the audience erupted in laughter. No, i absolutely do think he can. Because there are women who already supported mr. Trump. In the primaries he won with women overwhelmingly. Those were republicans. We do see several form democrat women who are working on the campaign in support of mr. Trump because a lot of these women theyre not wanting to elect a father figure or even a role model. They knew that he wasnt an altar boy. They need someone who can break up the monopolies and stop career politicians. Have you ever heard him use terms like that . He does not talk like that to people. This was a private discussion between two men. How about mike pence . Is there any chance that mike pence is not saying on as the Vice President ial nominee. Thats not true at ul. Theyre united. They are united. And to those republicans who are abandoning trump and being highly critical of him including reince priebus, what say you . I say there are republicans who are looking out for themselves. They wanted to have some say. Theyre running their own races. This is the problem weve had and those republicans really need to think about why the primary voters supported trump. Democrats rallied behind president clinton as he was engaging in explicit activity in the observal office. These are words mr. Trump used. Theres a reason people support mr. Trump. Hillary clinton tonight had to answer for a document dump from wikileaks. The Group Released what it is calling transcripts of mrs. Clintons paid private speeches, the ones he didnt want to disclose for months in the primary including remarks like politics is like sausage being made. Its unsavory, and its always been that way but we usually end up where we need to be. If everybody is watching you know, all the back room discussions and the deals, then people get a little nervous, to say the least. So you need both a public and a private position. Heres how that played out tonight. This question involves wikileak, one line in particular in which you, secretary clinton, reportedly say you need both a public and private position on certain issues. So, two, from virginia asked is it okay for politicians to be twofaced . Is it acceptable for a politician to have a private stance on issues . Right. As i recall, that was something i said about Abraham Lincoln after having seen the wonderful Steven Spielberg movie called lincoln. President lincoln was trying to convince some people, he used some arguments, convincing other people, he used other arguments. That was a great i thought, a great display of president ial leadership. Now shes blaming the lie on the late great Abraham Lincoln. Thats one that i db honest abe never lied. Thats the big difference between Abraham Lincoln and you. Thats a big, big difference. Joining us to respond robert zimmerman. You got to give him that. It was a good line, a quick retort. Any time donald trump quotes Abraham Lincoln, its funny. Hes more inclined to quote andrew dice clay. But it doesnt change the reality that whatever the issue of wikileaks come up and lets be clear theyre not authenticated by this network or any other network shes denying the content. But the point is that Vladimir Putin and the russians are trying to change the dialogue in this conversation to help donald trump is the bigger issue. And the fact that donald trump keeps calling Vladimir Putin a leader. This man was a dictator and a murderer and he keeps praising him as a leader. Thats the issue. Donald trump made very few references to wikileaks. One of the discussions was over syria and he accused hillary of failing. She said she was not in the office. Thats not true. August of 2012 is when obama drew the red line, she didnt leave office until 2013. She was there. You tell me why she should not be held accountable for that policy. Donald trump supported the invasion into syria. This is about her. He supported the hypocrisy of his position, where he lied about his position about iraq and he said he didnt support the war and he did. Youre dodging. She was there when president obama drew the red line. Lets be clear about this, megyn. She was making reference to the point where he had the press conference and backed off from the red line. She felt very strongly about pursuing an aggressive policy in syria. Its a very tough situation because there were no easy options. I got it. But let me ask you about the women. Because trump brought out the four women, these accusers of bill clinton. And he is painting hillary as their enabler. In particular he points to well, Juanita Broderick who claims she was raped by bill clinton and threatened by hillary thereafter. Paula jones who claims she was sexually assaulted by him. He paid her money to settle the case. And Kathleen Willy who said she was assaulted by bill clinton in the oval office and hillary made her life a living hel after that. And then later was caught on tape laughing about the case in what sounded like a very callous way. Why shouldnt the American People who are offended by trumps comments about women be equally offended by hillary and bills treatment of these women . First of all, lets be factual about this. She was not laughing about the rapist at all. She was laughing about the polygraph test and she was a lawyer assigned to that case regarding the rapist. The bigger point here is the fact that donald trump brought these allegations into the debate just as a means of his own candidacy and credentials. If he thinks he can blame women just diminishes his credibility entirely. This tactic fails because the idea that he was trying to blame Hillary Clinton is a failed strategy and lose even more support amongst women. Great to see good to be with in august you may recall yours truly asked mr. Trump a q