Dinner when all in starts right now. Good evening from new york. Im chris hayes. We are about an hour away from a pretty remarkable and genuinely unpredictable moment in this campaign. Hillary clinton and donald trump set to taking the stage at the Al Smith Charity Dinner at the waldorf astoria in manhattan. Its a highsociety event, candidates of the past come together to crack selfdeprecating jokes, generally offer a reprieve from the acrimony, nastiness of the campaign trail. The candidates are scheduled to speak within the hour. We will bring you their remarks in full when they happen because this year, well, is very different. This time around one of the president ial candidates has transgressed almost every conceivable political norm, been repeatedly accused of sexual assault, vowed to throw his opponent in jail if he wins and just last night would not agree to accept the outcome of the election. This afternoon, trump held a Campaign Rally in ohio and youre never going to guess his take on who won last nights debate. Seriously, the debate last night was amazing and everybody said i won. Including every Single Online poll and some had it at 90 , close to 90 . That one gets a rating of pants on fire. The online polls he mentions are utterly unscientific, basically meaningless click polls. Debate watchers, aka, real polls, clinton was viewed as a winner by a doubledigit margin. The consensus, this cartoon, an iconic image of muhammad ali. Trump, himself, did not appear super thrilled at the end of debate last night as he tore a page out of his note pad. The most memorable and damaging moment for trump who repeatedly claimed the election is rigged came when he said this. Do you make the same commitment that you will, sir, absolutely accept the result of this election . I will look at it at the time. Im not looking at anything now. Ill look at it at the time. That comment elicited audible gasp from the audience and outpouring of condemnation followed most from trumps fellow republicans. The coverage was harsh. Associated press reporting trump was, quote, threatening to upend a basic pillar of democracy. In the spin room, trumps own running mate mike pence and rnc chair Reince Priebus were reduced to insisting trump didnt mean what he, in fact, said, and would, in fact, accept the results of the election. Then today, this. Ladies and gentlemen, i want to make a major announcement today. I would like to promise and pledge to all of my voters and supporters and to all of the people of the United States, that i will totally accept the results of this great and historic president ial election if i win. Cheers. Rim shot. In miami today, president obama mocked trump and once again noted it is impossible to rig a national election. Hes already like, oh, the games rigged, except today he said, of course, its not rigged if i win. I dont know if donald trump has ever been to an actual polling place where you have democrats and republicans who are in charge of taking the votes. But, you know, he doesnt even worry if what he says is true. This is just about him worried that hes losing. Trump did make an effort to attempt to soften his rhetoric somewhat after his if i win comment in ohio today, trump reading off a teleprompter took a couple steps back from the ledge. Of course, i would accept a clear election result but i would also reserve my right to contest or file a legal challenge in the case of a questionable result. That comment went largely unnoticed and did little to reverse the damage. In fact, its starting to feel a little bit like trump just wants this all to be over. This afternoon in ohio, trump walked away from two separate interviews with local news reporters. 19 days out from the election, youve been labeled a racist, youve been called a sexist. How do you respond to that . I am the least racist person youve ever met. Joining me now, msnbc political analyst robert costa, National Political reporter of the washington post, and robert, youve got a piece, i believe, in the paper that talks about the reaction to that moment, particularly, last night, amongst the gop. How would you characterize the fallout from that sort of gaspinducing moment . Chris, phil and i just filed that story for tomorrows paper and its a historic moment for the Republican Party because what trump did on the debate stage has prompted a lot of republicans in tough Senate Reelection races in house races across the country to scramble right now to protect their seats, to protect their places in congress as they think to themselves, theres maybe a landslide on the horizon, and they dont want to get swept up. What is the thinking there about how they protect themselves . Weve been hearing this kind of thinking all throughout and heard it particularly after that the tape came out in which trump is sort of boasting of sexually assaulting women. We saw some people unendorse. I mean, is it basically this same kind of what do i do, im caught between a trump base that likes donald trump and a general electorate that doesnt like him very much . Well, statements today condemning trumps position on the election, questioning the legitimacy of the election, you saw that from kelly ayotte in new hampshire, john mccain in arizona, all these battleground states where suburban voters and moderate voters have their ears up for this kind of issue. The party, youre right, remains very intent in how exactly in the last 20 days to handle trump. You didnt see speaker ryan come out and make a statement nor leader mcconnell in the senate. The unease of how to deal with trump in the final days. Striking, last night, after that moment, it was a moment in the moment as people were watching it, they were watching in the room, they were watching on social media, everyone understood. Chris wallace, Hillary Clinton, everyone who was watching it understood some line had been crossed, right . That you dont have the two most powerful republicans in the country, mitch mcconnell, and paul ryan, saying anything the day after their partys nominee says i would not respect i would not necessarily collaborate in the peaceful transfer of power. Well, i think when you talk to people close to mcconnell and ryan, theyre reluctant to engage in these kind of discussions at this moment because they believe their members in both chambers are out there fighting their own races. The less said, the better seems to be the strategy coming out of washington. And heres another bit of context for paul ryan. Who this is paul ryan and donald trump. Who represents views of the Republican Party, among republicans, donald trump 51 , paul ryan 33 . Paul ryan has seen his favorability plummet among republicans in the past two weeks. If you pick a fight with donald trump among republican voters, donald trump will win. And its not just about the fight right at this moment because if youre mcconnell and ryan, you have to deal with the trump movement, whatever its incarnation is, after the election should trump be defeated. You have a Grievance Movement thats building within the american right. A movement thats populous, nationalist and not so much wrapped up in the cult of personality around trump. Its a movement thats distancing itself from traditional conservatism to Movement Conservatism. If you have Movement Conservatism at the heart of your party in these congressional majorities, you want to preserve that as much as possible. Thats why you see kind of a mute response from capitol hill. Yeah, you do wonder is there anything that he can say that would get a harsh rebuke or an unendorsement from paul ryan at this point . Robert costa, thanks for your time tonight. Appreciate it. Thank you. Joining me now former obama speechwriter who served as speechwriter for Hillary Clinton, her senate office, campaign trail in her 2008 run for president. Well, lets start, i want to talk about the Al Smith Dinner in a second because i dont know if we have that live shot just to let people get a sense of the theatrics around this because its supposed to be this sort of lighthearted evening, gentle ribbing. I want to get your thoughts on that as someone whos written comedy, who worked on the roast of donald trump, that thanks to you probably gave us this election. First, your response to that moment last night in the debate. My response . I mean, you know, look, he is a bashless hamburglar, authoritarian mr. Potato head. Hes such a big baby, such a terrible person. Okay. Is that totally im going to bend over backwards to be fair here. Is that are you whipped up in a moment of sort of partisan concern and if i interviewed you four years ago you would have said the same thing about mitt romney. Thats a great question. First of all, as you know, i am a straight shooter. Respected on both sides. But i went back and looked at my mitt romney language, rhetoric, in hindsight, youre exactly right. But, you know, i wonder how much harm its doing to us as a country to be debating these obvious things. Right. That, these fundamental basic things. Its not partisan to criticize donald trump for saying he should accept the results of an election barring a kind of bush versus gore type situation. He certainly didnt mean that. He was talking about not accepting the results. Be the way, him saying in whatever speech a day later to clean it up, oh, he only means hes leaving himself options for this or that. He doesnt mean that. We know he doesnt mean that, though, because in 2012 when mitt romney lost in a decisive defeat, he went on twitter and started calling for revolution. The guy is literally. Not serious. I want to be clear, that was not hyperbolic, he literally used the word revolution. He wanted a march on washington. Sadly no one showed up to follow donald trump. This is the thing i find sort of psychologically taxing about this whole thing is the the constant revisionist gas lighting. The constant he didnt ight. He sa something, 70 Million People see him Say Something then the people that are his hired flakes, Kellyanne Conway and company drawing whatever paychecks they are working to elect this man to be the most powerful person in the entire world, then look you in the eyes and say he didnt say what you heard him say broadcast live on every Single Network and cable channel to 70 Million People. Yeah, i mean, its despicable. These are people that have sold their souls in a terrible way. Kellyanne conway, it seems to me, she seems quite smart. It seems like shes trying to have it both ways. She makes her little jokes. Its not funny. This is really serious what hes doing. These people who go on television were learning things ive been saying, this election is like a fascist fire drill. Were discovering the exits need to be widened and theres not enough lighting along the hallways. You know, there will be people, terrible people willing to defend anything on television. We have to account for that. Its up to networks to do a better job of deciding whos going to be on television. You know, i sympathize because theyre great tv. Right. I mean, these nut balls going on television will be like donald trump hes 8 foot tall, shoots lightning out of his et cetera. You know, thats great television, i guess, and its pretty people love watching, i guess, these people get beat up. I mean, i watch it. I watch it a lot. And thats part of the theme of this whole campaign is the sort of triumph of spectacle. Weve all sort of been part of that, myself, included. Right. Speaking of triumph and spectacle, if you had advice for Hillary Clinton, you help write that sort of roasting at the white house Correspondents Dinner of donald trump. Shes going second tonight, Hillary Clinton, she could basically take the gloves off. What would be your advice for her tonight . I think the key for these things is be selfdeprecating, give yourself room. Thats what weve done with president obamas speeches. Get up there, make a few jokes on yourself, the harder you are on yourself, the honest you are about your flaw, the more liberty, more degrees of freedom you have to rip someone else to pieces. You take out the knife, gently nick yourself and go around the entire room stabbing everyone in the chest basically youre saying. Look, if thats the violent metaphor youd like for a couple of barbs, sure, fine. But, yeah, im more fascinated by what trumps going to do. I know. When he gets up there. What is this guy hes not exactly going to i dont know. I have one little theory, you saw earlier today that some, you know, some incompetent goon put out a press release that accidentally included the language he wasnt going to use. Right. Right. The alternate. Yeah. I have this feeling that those are jokes that he stuck in his speech that he took out from his al smith. So i think we may hear those jokes. Who are these people . I want to know what good comedy writer is going to help donald trump write a bunch of yuck yucks. Guy is out of his mind. I think donald trump could be particularly gross tonight. Thats fair. Jon lovett. Appreciate it. Less than a day after a contentious debate, both candidates are taking the stage in whats meant to be a lighthearted affair. In meantime, Donald Trumps disastrous appeals to women voters continues its downward spiral. His efforts becoming literally laughable. Well play that after this twominute break. Earlier today yet another woman went public with a story of unwanted physical contact we donald trump. Carina virginia, that is the tenth woman to come forward since last debate, says trump humiliated and groped her in 1998 after a u. S. Open tennis match. Trump was asked about her today during a local news interview in ohio. Another woman came out today about the u. S. Open saying you groped her today. Can you answer allegations about that . I know nothing about that. Not the u. S. Open allegations . Trump was asked about the growing number of allegations against him at last nights third and final debate. This was how he defended himself. Note the audience reaction. Mr. Trump nobody has more respect for women than i do. Nobody. Nobody has more respect please, everybody. According to gop pollster frank luntz who holds debate focus groups with voters registering the reactions in realtime with those dials which lord knows if they mean anything, lets pretend they do for a moment. That line was trumps worst of the whole evening. Everyone dialed it down, even his own supporters. Minutes later trump reminded us all just how much he respects women especially the one who could be the first woman elected president. Came during an exchange on clintons plan to pay for Social Security by raising taxes on the wealthy. My Social Security payroll contribution will go up as will donalds assuming he cant figure out how to get out of it. But what we want to do such a nasty woman. Such a nasty woman. That almost certainly would have been the big headline of the night had trump not followed it by knocking down a pillar of american democracy. By a marcher of 13, debate watchers close Hillary Clinton as the clear winner according to an instant poll from cnn urc. Ugov poll showed similar results by a margin of ten points. Men and women agreed only clintons victory, men giving her the win by a margin of five points compared to 16 points among women. Clinton doesnt have trumps performance to thank. He skillfully had his feet to the fire over his conduct toward women and offered one of the strongest arguments to reproductive rights weve seen on a National Debate stage. I dont think the United States government should be stepping in and making those most personal of decisions. You can take the baby and rip the baby out of the womb in the ninth month, on the final day, and thats not acceptable. Well, that is not what happens in these cases, and using that kind of scare rhetoric is just terribly unfortunate. You should meet with some of the women that ive met with. Women ive known over the course of my life. Ive been to countries where governments either forced women to have abortions, like they used to do in china, or forced women to bear children like they used to do in romania, and i can tell you the government has no business in the decisions that women make with their families in accordance with their faith, with medical advice, and i will stand up for that right. Im joined by erin ryan, Senior Editor for the daily beast where shes been writing on all of this. That moment struck me as a really amazing moment. Partly because it was such a comprehensive defense of abortion rights as opposed to safe, legal and rare. It was no business in the decision whatsoever. Right. It was actually it was nice it was a relief as somebody who cares about reproductive rights after two debates that we didnt hear anything, wallace got that out there right away. It was a great answer. Especially if youre a proponent of prochoice issues. It was also a great answer if youre a prolife person because she really laid it out. She did not make any illusions about what she believes. Thats right. Its clarifying. Right. Also, you know, theres been this dynamic i think thats happened, its been particularly true in the second and third debate more than the first in which it was sort of unanimously a wipeout, right, emulated, ive seen a lot of men afterwards be like, oh, sort of even then women be like it was not even at all. Like, he was terrible and she was great. Right. Well, its sort of analogous to remember in the second debate when donald trump and hillary turned out to have, like, almost exactly the same amount of time speaking . Donald trump was like, unfair, i have less time to talk than she does. I think that not to paint people with too broad a brush, but i think men are accustom to getting more so when things are even, you tend to perceive it as being unfair. And maybe this is an unfair thing for me to say. Thats been my experience and sort of something, studies that have been conducted about how much women talk versus how much men talk. Right. Men think women talk a lot more than they actually do. I think last nights debate especially, you know, on issues that really matter to women, it was a la