Clinton and donald trump starts at 9 00 tonight live from Hofstra University moderated by lester holt. Msnbc will of course i can understand why the clinton camp is very nervous. Newt gingrich put it best. He said donald trump is the best debater hes ever seen. The babe ruth of debating. Shows up and swings and does a great job. Good morning. Its monday, september 26th. Debate night. Everybody ready for the big debate. Welcome to morning joe. We have the managing editor of Bloomberg Politics and host of with all due respect mark
halperin. In washington, columnist for Bloomberg View al hunt along with willie, joe and me. A lot of people want to know how your son, andrew, is doing. Its been overwhelming. Hes doing well. He had a terrible fall last thursday. Some steps that ive slipped on a few times. Were big guys, you know. But. Hopefully he gets out this week. Fractured his skull. A little bleeding there that they have to monitor closely. Hes doing much, much better. Up and about. Walking. Willie, i tweeted this early on that the first test the next morning. Really dark moments for us. Doctor asked a lot of questions. Whats the date . Whats this . Where are you . Whats your name and then the last question. Whats your Favorite Team . He goes the red sox. Theyre on an eightgame winning streak. Hes going to be okay. They also asked him who the president was. Mika liked this one. He grimaces. President obama. He comes to my mom seas side of the family there. Thats always sort of a safety question when she doesnt remember much of anything. We ask her that. She remembers. That one cuts through. Thanks to the hospital. Bellevue has been extraordinary. Thanks to so many friends that have called and so many prayers from people we dont even know. We just cant thank you enough. Well revisit later. Lets get to the big debate tonight between Hillary Clinton and donald trump. Its expected to be the most watched president ial debate in history. Perhaps thats because of the stakes. The race heading into tonights
showdown, a dead heat, with donald trump gaining more traction. The nut poll shows Hillary Clinton and trump died in a twoway race. Both candidates at 46 nationally. A big factor in clintons decline, a drop among young Voters Falling from a 21point lead in august to a 10point lead today. In a fourway matchup. Clinton has fallen slightly behind trump who leads 3341 . Another National Poll from the Washington Post abc news has the race in a statistical tie. Can you believe this . Giving clinton the slight edge. 46 to trumps 44 . Johnson at five points in that poll. Have we ever seen anything like this before . Weve seen things going back and forth. Nothing like this election
before. Mark halperin, if you had to create a script for a bond fire of vanities election and you wanted to have it move in a certain dramatic way going up to the first debate, this is exactly how you do it. The numbers here are surprising enough. The state polls that we saw on friday and that we see this morning just stunning. The race is up in the air. Donald Trump Supporters have every reason to believe hes going to win this election. I spent several days in florida last week talking to voters. The young voter thing that shows up in our poll is a really big deal. A lot of young people said they were for bernie sanders. Theyre for Hillary Clinton. If they vote. She has to convince people to be inspired. Theres a thought in some democratic circles that trump may have the public mood on his side in a way that a lot more states will come into play. You see all of the battleground
states tightening. She still has an edge. Tonight the stakes are huge because of how close it is. Lets go through the battleground states really quickly. New polls shows tightening in pennsylvania. The poll shows clinton and trump tied. Gary johnson at 8 . Jill stein at 3 . New cbs tracker polls show colorado a dead heat. Thats a state right there. That if more than any state. Even more than a dead heat, al hunt, in pennsylvania, which is shocking enough. A dead heat in colorado after hillary was up 15 points earlier and demographic makeup of that state is enough to send chills through all of brooklyn. It is. Colorado has a High Percentage of College Educated whites. They have a sizable percentage
of latinos. That was a state that the democrats had put in the blue column along with pennsylvania. Both look very close. Now, this race couldnt be even tighter. If you look at our poll, its not only virtually dead even but its striking how parallel they are. They both have very high negatives. 42 positive. 56 negative. People think that hes healthier and shes smarter and neither one is very truthful. They are absolutely consistent there. Negatives are as high as one another at this stage. You know, joe, i look at a lot of polls and if you look at all of the polls, the bloomberg pull and nbc poll happen to be the best. A lot arent very good. You look at all of them. You probably conclude she has a very small lead. Two or three points. Thirdparty candidates are taking more from her than they are from him. You know, you can look at the state polls and we have more
state polls well show . Just one minute. Take what we showed last week and this week. If you told me going into the first debate that the republican would be tied in pennsylvania, tied statistically in wisconsin, up eight in iowa, tied in colorado, tied or a little ahead in nevada, i would say, well, that sounds like a race that the republicans are going to win going away. Ahead in florida. Ahead in the state of ohio. To go back to that colorado poll for just a second, remember thats a state just a few weeks ago the Clinton Campaign pulled their ads out of because they said we can chalk this up. Im glad you brought that up. State by state. Look at how much Hillary Clinton has spent in each of these states. Hundreds of millions of dollars. Donald trump zero in most of them. Look at numbers like in colorado where shes at 40. Shes not at 45 or 46. When shes doing badly, when trump is doing better, shes more in the low 40s. If shes in the low 40s, shes not going to win. Theyve known her for 35, 40 years. Again, i remember going around the table in washington, you werent there but going around the table in washington, i think this race is a tossup. Everyone else said its over for hillary. Its over for hillary. That was three weeks ago. That could change. Its a different race today than it was a month ago. You look at state by state polls, thats why democrats are getting tight and pressure is on Hillary Clinton. I had one big democratic supporter say this debate tonight is save the republic stuff. When i walked into work this morning sort of groggy, i thought i stumbled over somebody. It was heilemann. He just walked in. Good morning. Lets look at other states. Thanks. Good for you to show up. Clinton holding to an eightpoint lead in virginia. 45 to 37. Shes down four points in that state poll since august. As willie mentioned, the Clinton Campaign and theyre super pac pulled ads earlier this morning and in maine gives clinton a threepoint lead 4037 with gary johnson taking 12 points. You know this state very well. Youve been there every year of your life. And since 1988, no republican has won maine. Donald trump is going to at least move ahead with one electoral vote. The state is poised to split its electoral votes with trump ahead in the northern second district. Clinton up in the first. I understand that Hillary Clinton had a tough couple
weeks. She had the pneumonia scare. They didnt handle that forthrightly. I know theyre is still this residue from the comey situation but in poll after poll after poll you see minus 4, minus 6, minus 8, has she performed so badly over the last week and a half to show that kind of precipitous decline or bigger than what people see situationally on the ground. You have two factors that have come together at the same time. Trump has performed in a more discipline and less controversial way. He continues to say various things that arent true and say various things that are not normal nominee would say but not a khan level controversy. Hes not done anything that caused a major blowup and a couple weeks, bad couple weeks
as you suggested. Last week people at this table and elsewhere suspect that she stabilized. To me one of the biggest questions now remaining that draws something that al pointed out, what happens to the gary johnson vote . Hes at 8, 10, 12 points in a bu bunch of places. If gary johnson is not on the debate stage, that vote going to stay home or drift to clinton . Thats a big chunk of vote out there. Its hard to say. You dont have big enough samples. We see his numbers are going down and Donald Trumps are going up at the same time. Donald trump has a ceiling in
a lot of states below 50 . For his chances of winning its vitally important that the two other candidates draw 6 between them. The more it goes up and the Millennial Vote is so important, as long as they stay alive i wouldnt be surprised for her campaign to go after johnson and Trumps Campaign trying to build him up below the radar. Its vital that johnson draw votes from her. What do you think kellyanne everybody always downplays the debates. Kellyanne came out yesterday and said donald trump was going to be the babe ruth of debaters. Hes a brilliant debater. Newt gingrich if somebody said that about me before the debate i could say thank you for your service. Youre fired. I want to get al hunt in here. Tonights huge debate. More voters are forecasting a clinton win tonight in theWashington Post abc news poll. 44 expect clinton to beat and 34 expect trump to be big. And tonights debate will be moderated by lester holt has Hofstra University at 9 00 eastern and will last 90 minutes. Divided into six sections lasting approximately 15 minutes each with a twominute response and followed by ten minutes of debate. I like that frame work. Last night the Debate Commission announced the first question will go to clinton whose sparring partner in debate preparations was revealed this week. In the role of donald trump, phill phillip rines. I can always trust him to speak his mind. Hes very outspoken. Al, this makeup, the way theyve laid out the debate and the way it will be conducted, do you thank that leans toward one candidates strengths or another . I really dont. I also say ive known phillip for a long time. Ive talked to him many times. Hes no donald trump. I have no idea what they were thinking there. Whats hyped more, this or the jolie pitt breakup . My guess is that were going to be in a similar position tomorrow. I dont think that these debates have the impact that most people do. Sometimes the first does and then it sort of evens out. I think the country is so and electorate is so polarized a teeny group of persuadables. The task is simple. Trump has to prove hes capable of being commander in chief. She has to prove shes an okay
egg. Uphill task for both of them. One person that will not win the debate tonight and i can predict this right now is lester holt. Trump and republicans have been working him saying hes biassed despite the fact that hes a registered new york republican. And theyre saying theyre all democrats. And then the democrats and you saw it all weekend on twitter, if lester holt doesnt do a, b, c and d, he failed the public. He must fact check. So no matter what he does, hes going to get hammered so, of course, ricky nelsons greatest line, cant please everybody. Have to please yourself. Seems to me he just has to shut off all of the noise. Nobody is going to be happy no matter what he does. Not saying this because hes our friend and works here but can you think of a more down the middle guy than lester holt . A guy that will be more fair . I cannot think of anyone at any network. Other than you and me. Its an impossible position is what joe is saying. Impossible position. Youre right. Clinton campaign all weekend has been using the word lie. If lester holt doesnt call donald trump a liar, maybe not using that word, but when donald trump says a and they come back and say b is true and then hes let down the country is their argument. Hes going to have to decide. I think hell pick his spots. If theres an outright lie, no, you were for the war in iraq. There are places i think hell do that. Hell be as fair as he can be. Thankless task. If you hear something its not true. Secretary clinton, donald trump just said the sky is red. Its very simple. It seems like everybody wants him to be a fact checker. Youre exactly right. Secretary clinton, donald trump
said he was against the war in iraq. Was he . By the way really quickly, cnn just a couple more bits of news that should scare people in brooklyn. Colorado, 4241, trump clinton and then pennsylvania 4544, trump clinton. Just to go back as you always say, theyre tied in colorado. Theyre tied in pennsylvania. Thats a massive shock when you look at the arc of the last four weeks. Its directional. This is something we talk about all of the time. Forget about the individual polls but look at what trend lines are. Trend lines are for the last three weeks basically its tightening everywhere. Tightening at the National Level and tightening in every battleground state. Not a place where thats not happening. That tells you about the
direction of the race. Ill say about the moderatomode. A lot of people have come to the conclusion that our job is to stop the other person from becoming president. If youre not stopping donald trump from becoming president , youre not doing your job. If youre not stopping Hillary Clinton from becoming president , youre not doing your job. In the context of moderator thing, i talked to mike mccurry and he said, you know, if Hillary Clinton isnt prepared to take donald trump apart piece by piece, shes committed political malpractice. All of the moderators have that view that you candidates, its your job to dismember your opponent if he lies on stage. What i dont understand is
why is it that everything everybody has said is wrong when it comes to demographics. There arent enough white people to elect donald trump. If hes getting 20 among hispanics and 5 among black voters. That ends up not being true. There are enough white voters to elect donald trump. Why is it the old adage that republicans need to unite. Where are did the martians ship down into america while we werent looking . I tell you one factor, like, in colorado. Evangelical vote. The consolidation of republicans
against Hillary Clinton and can make a big difference if electorates look more like 2004 than when president obama got elected and reelected. Thats the challenge for Hillary Clinton tonight is to build a coalition of enthusiasm nationally because trump has surged nationally. No doubt about it. Youre seeing it in every one of these state polls. Weve got to start well get to much more about this because we have ted cruz in the news, which is fantastic stuff. Still ahead on morning joe listen, i have had more than a few disagreements with donald. I havent been shy about those. As many disagreements as ive had with donald, in my view in any measure Hillary Clinton is manifestly unfit to be president. The democratic process has given us effectively a choice. You can say hes fit to be president if you chose to, right . Youre doing such a fine job
saying that. Is that bad lip reading. This weekend seemed like one prolonged bad lip reading session. Even without an apology from his partys nominee. How do you go from i cant support this guy because he insulted my wife to im for him. Well talk to former Obama Campaign manager David Plouffe but Kellyanne Conway joins us and look at the most memorable moments including the first one to be televised which took place exactly 56 years ago between senator john kennedy and Vice President richard nixon. I think mr. Nixon is an effective leader of his party. I hope he would grant me the same. The question before us which point of view and which party do we want to lead the United States . Mr. Nixon, would you like to
comment on that statement . I have no comment. Ion. Like centurylinks Broadband Network that gives 35,000 fans a cutting edge game experience. Or the network that keeps a leading hotel chains guests connected at work, and at play. Or the it platform that powers millions of ecards every day for one of the largest greeting card companies. Businesses count on communication, and communication counts on centurylink. Announcer get caught buzzed driving, and you could do some hard time. Woman craig. Knock it off sorry, mom. Announcer it could cost you around 10,000 in fines, legal fees, and increased insurance rates, and that could set you back a few years. Buzzed, busted, and broke because buzzed driving is drunk driving. I tell you. I know this about Hillary Clinton. When the lights are bright like they are right now, she brings the a plus game to the table. Shes going to be very, very good tomorrow night. All right. Joining us now, Donald TrumpsCampaign ManagerKellyanne Conway. I dont understand, mika. The babe ruth thing, i was just saying if somebody said that before a debate that would freak me. Arent you supposed to say, you know what, maybe if he hits. 150 and hopefully he wont drool down his left cheek. It would lower expectations for donald trump in a big way. Thats a Newt Gingrich quote. No problem with the guy saying he is the greatest ever. Donald trump started in the middle in august and he never moved. What do you worry for your candida