Melania Trump Defends Husband after Lewd Comments; Donald Trump: Election is Rigged against Me; WikiLeaks Releases Stolen Emails from Clinton Camp; Trump Calls for "SNL's" Cancellation After "Hit Job".
SIDNER: The third and final U.S. presidential debate is on Wednesday and both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump will likely face more questions about the biggest issues that are dogging their campaigns. For Trump it's his treatment of women and for Hillary Clinton the investigation of her private email server -- all while new polls give a clearer picture of where things stand in the race right now three weeks before the election. Melania Trump is defending her husband after his lewd comment about women in a 2005 videotape. Several women have accused Trump of sexual misconduct since the audio where Trump talks about grabbing women's genitalia was published. Now, Melania Trump says then "Access: Hollywood" host Billy Bush led her husband into that conversation.</s>MELANIA TRUMP, WIFE OF DONALD TRUMP: I said to my husband that, you know, the language is inappropriate. It's not acceptable. And I was surprised because that is not the man that I know. And as you can see from the tape, the cameras were not on. It was only a mike. And I wonder if they even knew that the mike was on because they were kind of a boy talk. And he was led on like -- egged on -- from the host to say dirty and bad stuff.</s>SIDNER: Now NBC has officially parted ways with that reporter and presenter Billy Bush after his role in that conversation with Donald Trump back in 2005. The company released a statement saying he was leaving the "Today" show on Monday. Meanwhile Donald Trump is ramping up accusations that the media coverage of his accusers is all part of an election rigged against him. At a rally in Wisconsin Monday he claimed that even the polling stations are fixed in his opponent's favor.</s>DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: They even want to try to rig the election at the polling booth. And believe me there's a lot going on. Do you ever hear these people -- they say there is nothing going on. People that have died ten years ago are still voting. Illegal immigrants are voting. I mean where are the street smarts of some of these politicians? They don't have any is right.</s>SIDNER: Despite Donald Trump's claims there has been no evidence of widespread or systematic fraud in this upcoming election. New developments in the FBI investigation of Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server while she was secretary of State. According to newly released FBI interview notes, undersecretary of State Patrick Kennedy tried to pressure the FBI officials into declassifying one of her emails. An FBI official recounts Kennedy offered to help station FBI agents overseas in exchange. But another official says it was the FBI who brought up the personnel issue. The email in question stayed classified. Both the FBI and the State Department deny any favors were exchanged. The Trump campaign and congressional Republicans are calling for Kennedy to resign. With just three weeks to go until the elections, new polls are revealing the current state of the race. The latest CBS News poll shows Hillary Clinton gaining even more ground over Donald Trump with a nine-point lead. Clinton is at 47 percent with Trump at 38 percent in that poll. But new CNN/ORC poll shows tight races in some key swing states. Chief U.S. correspondent John King has the details for you.</s>JOHN KING, CNN CHIEF U.S. CORRESPONDENT: If you look at the national polls, Donald Trump is down and down big. But our three brand new CNN battle ground state polls suggest those races are tight. Trump might still have an opportunity in this race. Let's look first at North Carolina -- always a very close battleground state and it is close to the end. CNN/ORC polling in North Carolina -- 48 percent for Clinton, 47 percent for Donald Trump, Gary Johnson a distant third, so essentially a statistical tie, a dead heat in battleground North Carolina. A very close race both in 2008 and 2012 there -- shapes up that way this year as well. Let's move west. Look at Nevada -- this state won big by Obama twice but look at the numbers right now in Nevada. Hillary Clinton can claim a lead but again within the margin of error, so a virtual dead heat -- Clinton 46, Trump 44 in Nevada. Why is this happening in Nevada? In part because of this -- take a look. Among Latino voters, Gary Johnson is getting 10 percent -- that was critical to both Obama wins, Latino voters going for the Democrat. Hillary Clinton has a big lead but she could use some of these votes to stretch it out a bit heading into the final days. Our third poll in battleground Ohio -- Republicans need Ohio to win the presidency. Trump especially needs it because of his recent troubles and a little optimistic news there for Trump supporters -- 48 percent to 44 percent. Again, still within the margin of error, a very competitive race but a Trump lead in a state he needs to win. Gary Johnson and Jill Stein polling out the pack. Why is this happening? It's interesting when you look. One of the dynamics we continue to see in all of our polling is an education gap. Look at these numbers. Among white likely voters who are college graduates in all three of our battleground states, Clinton leads in Nevada, in North Carolina and in Ohio. Relatively close in Ohio and North Carolina but this is critical to Secretary Clinton. Mitt Romney won this constituency four years ago -- white voters with a college degree. But look on the flip side among white voters who do not have a college degree, pull these numbers up -- Donald Trump leads and overwhelmingly so in all three states. Look at that -- 25 points there. Wow, 50 points almost there. A big lead there in Ohio as well. So close races in Nevada, Ohio, and North Carolina. How does that affect the map that matters most? The benefit for Secretary Clinton even though these polls are close is the way we have the map now, she can afford to lose North Carolina, lose Ohio, and lose Nevada and still win the presidency with the states she already has in line. So if you are the Clinton campaign you still think you can win here, you still think you can win here and in fact they think they can still win here. But the benefit of this is Clinton can afford to lose all three of these states and still win. What are the stakes for Donald Trump? He trails right now. Those tight battleground state polls suggest if he can have a strong debate Wednesday night, if he can move North Carolina his way, if he can hold Ohio, build on that very tiny lead, if he can get back into play in Nevada which is very close right now that would put Donald Trump in play. I just have to say this. Right now, the map favors Hillary Clinton heavily. But the closeness of those three battleground states suggest if Trump puts in a strong debate performance, there's a chance he can make the last couple weeks interesting.</s>SIDNER: And that is John King -- the last couple of weeks interesting. I think this whole campaign has been pretty interesting --</s>JOHN THOMAS, REPUBLICAN CONSULTANT: That's the understatement of the year.</s>SIDNER: Joining me now Democratic strategist Dave Jacobson and Republican consultant John Thomas. Thank you, gentlemen, for being here with us.</s>THOMAS: Sure.</s>SIDNER: Always a pleasure to see you.</s>DAVE JACOBSON, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: Likewise.</s>SIDNER: And I love to hash these things out. All right. Let's start with the claims from Donald Trump of a rigged election. He's mentioned a few things going into this that have made a lot of people nervous, frankly. Is he undermining the democratic process by saying these sorts of things? I will start with you -- John?</s>THOMAS: You know, I think he is using too broad of a statement when he calls it rigged. I think what he should say is not rigged in terms of the actual voting booth because we work in elections all the time. It's just simply not the case. But rigged in terms of is the establishment conspiring to make him lose? I think there is some merit to that. The establishment in the Republican Party doesn't want him to win. The main stream media, the establishment arguably doesn't want him to win. In that sense it might be rigged but I think right now he's is giving a broad overstatement.</s>JACOBSON: And that's where you are seeing this sort of civil war within the Republican establishment. You're having the Ohio secretary of state coming out yesterday saying that it was quote, "irresponsible for Donald Trump to make these kinds of comments". And I think he is trying to sort of justify a looming loss. If you're looking at the polling now, like there has never been a candidate in modern presidential electoral politics that has come back from such a devastating deficit. And I also think it underscores the fact that this is a candidate who doesn't have an organization on the ground. I mean for crying out loud, Donald Trump isn't even on the voter -- the candidate statement in the state of Alaska. You have Jill Stein and Hillary Clinton on it but Donald Trump is missing. And I think that really highlights the fact that like he just has no organization on the ground these days.</s>SIDNER: But he has done pretty well, we have to say that. You just mentioned the Ohio secretary of state. Let's hear what he actually said about this. I mean it does give you some insight into what is happening with Republicans and what's happening with this idea of things being rigged especially for those who are already in office. Let's hear what he had to say.</s>JOHN HUSTED, OHIO SECRETARY OF STATE: I can reassure Donald Trump I'm in charge of elections in Ohio and they're not going to be rigged. Our institutions, like our election system is one of the bedrocks of American democracy. We should not question it or the legitimacy of it.</s>SIDNER: We should not question it or the legitimacy of it. Do you agree with that statement?</s>THOMAS: I completely agree. Yes. No, he's right. Trump is overreaching on this. And for the sake of our democracy, as a Republican, I either hope that Donald Trump wins or he loses by a big margin. Because if it is close, the way he's talking, the Republicans and the Republican Party may burn the system down because they may think that he got robbed.</s>SIDNER: What happens if Trump wins? I have to ask you both this -- what happens if he wins. Is the system still rigged? Do you think he will still go with that line?</s>THOMAS: Great point. I mean if he wins by a wide margin, he may say it was rigged but he overcame it. He made that argument in the primary -- that the establishment wanted to rig it in favor of Bush or Rubio. But he overcame that because he won with such sweeping mandates. I think he also would say the Democratic primary was rigged and look, it's not incredibly wrong.</s>JACOBSON: But doesn't it make him look somewhat hypocritical though if he is saying like the electoral process, like the institutions that like propel candidates to office are rigged. Like this is a guy who like won through that process of the Republican nomination. So like, was that process rigged? Like I get the politics, like the establishment, the endorsements like on the Democratic side. Like some would say the super delegates -- that's a rigged process like I get that. But like the electoral like ballot box politics like that process is not rigged. And I think that's the fine line --</s>THOMAS: The question is, is Trump using this language or rhetoric as a turnout tool for his base? And perhaps he is. I think it's a dangerous line to walk down but maybe he is trying to use it to turn out those voters to fight against a rigged system that every vote is going to matter in a fight against a rigged system. Maybe that's what he's doing.</s>SIDNER: Well, generally every vote does matter. We have seen that in past elections where people lose by small margins and you go, well, if you had just come out, you know, maybe it would have been different. Let's talk a little about what Melania Trump said. She's making news. She's talked for the first time. We haven't heard from her very much ever since we've heard from these comments of Donald Trump back in 2005 and these women coming out one by one. She talked about something very specific and when asked about whether or not he had said this sort of thing around her she said I've never heard it before. It's boy's talk. I'm going to let you respond to that because that is something that Donald Trump himself said, well, it's locker room talk. It's not real. It's just, you know.</s>JACOBSON: If that's locker room talk then everything that Donald Trump has said throughout the course of this election, is locker room talk. Megyn Kelly, the host at Fox News has blood coming out of her eyes. He made horrible statements about Heidi Cruz, Senator Ted Cruz, his once rival's wife. I mean this is a guy who called women "pigs" and "dogs". I mean this is the kind of rhetoric. It's no different from what we've seen throughout the course of this campaign and I think it really underscores why he is doing so poorly with women who make up the majority of the electorate.</s>SIDNER: John -- your response?</s>THOMAS: Yes. It's no surprise that Donald Trump uses crude language. He has been consistent throughout the primary in that. I particularly like from the interview where she said she has two boys at home. One child and, you know, one named Donald Trump because this is consistent with his personality. But, look, Melania did say he apologized and she forgave him.</s>SIDNER: Ok. I do want to lastly ask you about Hillary Clinton. He has this point that is made. And to be fair, what have we been talking about this whole? Donald Trump and his comments and Melania Trump and her comments. But Hillary Clinton is under the microscope right now because of her emails. Is the media sort of not covering that as much because the other stuff is so salacious and people keep talking about it?</s>THOMAS: And that's the problem. I think that feeds into Trump feeling that he is getting the bad end of the stick here. It's the classic adage -- if it bleeds it leads. And in any other environment, the WikiLeaks story would be dominant --</s>SIDNER: Yes.</s>THOMAS: -- but in this case, the sex allegations are more salacious and there are human stories to it that they keep bringing out.</s>SIDNER: Right. Right.</s>THOMAS: But look, if Trump can keep himself in control this drip, drip, drip of the WikiLeaks there are a lot of questions that have no answers yet from the Clinton Foundation or Clinton.</s>SIDNER: Both of you -- thank you so much for being here. We will continue this argument in the next hour. Thank you so much.</s>JACOBSON: Thank you so much.</s>THOMAS: Thank you.</s>SIDNER: Ahead the battle to liberate Mosul from ISIS. More than a million civilians in the city could be in danger. We're going to go there live. We're going to show you what is going on now and we're also going to talk to our Michael Holmes who is in Erbil, not very far away.