his, you know, staring down and then muttering his responses. it was perfect. and so i don't know who show up my next debate sunday night. >> msnbc's live coverage continues now, brian williams will have the latest on hurricane matthew. the 11th hour with brian williams is live and it is next. breaking tonight, a new forecast for hurricane matthew, predictions of strengthening overnight. millions have been urged to evacuate. millions more in its path. what could be the first major hurricane to make landfall in the u.s. in more than a decade. new tonight, donald trump asked about comments he has made on women's attractiveness and says it was all for entertainment. plus, the one thing you don't want to do wrong in nevada he did. and just four days too go before the next big showdown, new reporting tonight on how the candidates are getting ready and what they learned from last night. "the 11th hour" begins now.

good evening live from our new york headquarters. before we turn to our daily coverage of the presidential campaign we begin instead with a serious unfolding event not far from the united states. this is about hurricane matthew and we need to spend time tonight talking about this storm. it's a category 3. it's got nassau and the bahamas standing between it and the florida coast and it has nothing but a pristine environment, warm water, 86 degrees. that is open clear sailing for a hurricane. that's pure fuel for a hurricane. great for storm development, bad for the people who live on the coast. if this, as predicted, hits the florida coastline as a category 4, 130 mile an hour winds, that will be the first time in decades, really, that this piece of real estate has dealt with a storm this powerful. we're talking about potentially

lauderdale, west palm, even up into orlando, daytona beach, obviously. one estimate says by the time we come on the air 24 hours from now, folks maybe from vero beach to titusville will be having a very sporty, very dangerous time of it and don't forget from there there's the georgia coast. there's hilton head, beaufort in south carolina. this storm is then forecast to take a hard right at cape hatteras, something we rarely see, and go out over the atlantic. some projections have it coming back if on its own path but the warnings for the new england coast, the new jersey and new york shoreline may go away. let's bring in meteorologist bonnie schneider, there's been an 11:00 p.m. update from the national weather service. what have you learned and has the warning area gotten bigger? >> it has, brian.

even though maximum winds are at 115 miles per hour, still classifying this as a category 3 storm, we're seeing evidence it is strengthening. if you watch the loop play you'll see if eye trying to form once again and that's an indication we're looking at an intensifying hurricane. right now it's 325 miles from west palm beach. the movement to the ness faster at 10 miles per hour and wide cloud cover still impacting jamaica, haiti and into cuba. the brunt of the storm battering the bahamas at present. this is brand new, this just came in. unfortunately, it's not good news. what we're looking sat a long duration event where the storm comes so close if not making landfall somewhere near the space coast and then stays as a very strong hurricane working its way parallel, quite close for a long period of time from thursday into friday as a very

strong major hurricane then making that curve, hopefully away from savannah and charleston and then further out into the atlantic. we mentioned the loop we were just talking about. if that does indeed turn out the storm will be weaker if that were to happen but that's days away. focusing on the immediate threat right now, we are looking at it, our hurricane warnings have extended northward, including coastal georgia. we're looking at at least nine million people around hurricane warning. that number has probably gone up due to the most recent advisory but as you can see the storm continues to work its way to the north at about 10 miles per hour. what we're watching for is not only the effect of the wind which is really going to be very, very serious and damaging, but also the water. so when you're looking at the rainfall ahead for south carolina, 10 inches or more. some of the models are showing even more than that which makes sense of why we're seeing that evacuation that we've seen earlier today in and around south carolina. but notice the rain threat does

stretch into the outer banks of north carolina. we'll be watching this storm so closely. it's a slow mover. a major hurricane and it could be catastrophic for a good portion of the coastline. >> and it's been a long while, as we said, that these portions of the coastline have been hit with something potentially this big. bonnie, my friends and yours at the weather channel tonight reminded us to think about the pilots and crews of the hurricane hunter aircraft flying through this thing at 10,000 feet and using their remote radar in midair to capture everything we know about this storm and that eye wall that appears to be developing again overnight. >> that's one of the reasons we've been able to get a better handle on the forecast even though it seems like it keeps changing, because of the missions of the hurricane hunters flying directly into the storm repeatedly to get every detail at different levels of the atmosphere and getting that drop zone information. one of the reason that helps is it gives us a better idea of the

forecast of what we can expect with this powerful storm that will produce dangerous storm surge, damaging winds and torrential downpours. we may see tornados come on shore when this storm gets so close to florida, brian. it's something we'll watch as we go through the next few days and into next week. >> meteorologist bonnie schneider, thanks. we realize how busy you'll be. we'll be back on the air tomorrow night and we may well have to devote our broadcast to what will be a breaking news event on the florida coastline for all those concerned. now we take the turn to our normal subject and this is presidential politics. just coming in tonight, donald trump answering questions about his comments about women. our nbc station in las vegas brought this issue up with him during an interview while he was in nevada. >> do you understand the concern from parents of younger girls that some of the wording that you've used to talk about attractiveness or unattractiveness might make it

more difficult for girls who are struggling with their body image and the pressure to be model perfect? >> sure, i do. and a lot of this is done in the entertainment business, i'm being interviewed for "apprentice" long before i ever thought in terms of running for office. a lot of that was done for the purpose of entertainment and, you know, when people hear it, there's nobody -- i can tell you this, there's nobody, nobody that has more respect for women than i do. >> are you trying to tone it down now? not use those -- >> well, it's not a question of trying. it's very easy. but you know you're in the entertainment business, you're doing "the apprentice," you have one of the top shows on television and you say things differently for a reason. now it's a much different world. >> donald trump interviewed by our nbc station tonight. let's bring in nbc's katy tur high above the las vegas strip covering the trump campaign and in our studio, our friend msnbc political analyst, "washington post" national political reporter robert costa. katy, how much new ground is

embedded in his answers there on the subject of women that has dogged their campaign for days? >> almost no new ground. he said he's cherished women over the campaign trail. he also said it's very easy for him to soften his language and he said repeatedly he was an entertainer before trying to excuse that language. but we have heard similar things on the campaign trail. most recently just last week when he was talking about alicia machado saying she was a real problem because she gained a massive amount of weight and then tweeting about an alleged sex tape of hers overnight. so these comments aren't old. they, in fact, are quite recent. >> i also want to air some comments hillary clinton made this evening. i believe the event was a fund-raiser on and about the subject of women. let's listen. >> i feel it's my responsibility not to defend myself against his attacks because really been there, done that.

[ laughter ] i think it's my responsibility to defend everybody else against his attacks. yesterday i was? haverford, pennsylvania, with chelsea to take part in a town hall about families and a 15-year-old girl asked a question. her name was brennan and she said that body image was a really big issue in her school and that she's seen the damage that donald trump's insults can cause. and that we have to help young girls understand they are so much more than what they look like. >> so robert costa, this gets us to debate prepping and preppers love the word "pivot." they tell these candidates no matter what the question pivot into x or y. is this going to be hillary clinton's pivot topic at wash u

in st. louis? >> when you talk to democrats and republicans, they're asking themselves tonight, does trump have an answer for these women? the questions about women? because this election if you look at internal polling i've seen in both parties it's the suburbs of north carolina, in the office parks where you have professional women, educated women who see these kind of comments and they're repulsed by them. whether it's in philadelphia, the research triangle in north carolina, charlotte, in the suburbs of tampa. if these kind of women in such an important voting block turn away from trump the election probably turns towards clinton. >> katy tur, the subject turned almost comical tonight as you know donald trump's critics say he makes his own reality often where he goes. tonight in nevada the subject became how to say nevada before a local crowd and despite people loudly disagreeing with him,

mere's how donald trump put it to nevadans. >> nevada, nevawda. and you know what i said? i said when i came out here, i said nobody says it the other way. it has to be nevawda. right? and if you don't say it correctly -- and it didn't happen to me but it happened to a friend of mine, he was killed. >> um, katy tur, john rawlston is who is kind of the dean of political coverage in nevada put out on twitter tonight his own kind of response to donald trump. many, many? trump says no one says nevada the other way? no one? just any real nevadans. lock him up, lock him up, lock him up. but an incredible parallel universe moment for a lot of the folks at that rally. >> yeah. i'm not so sure.

he got mixed up, frankly. and if new this state you're sensitive to to how you pronounce this state and often times visitors come in and mispronounce it so the fact that donald trump tried to school nevadans on how to say nevada, not nevawda is interesting. but he's had a problem with pronunciation a bit. he calls angela merkel, the chancellor of germ that, angel-a merkel. the other day he pronounced acumen ack-you-men. it's embarrassing, though, when you're in a state to go on stage and try to school the people of this state in how to pronounce it. >> robert costa, what's he doing politically in the state of nevada? >> it's not just nevada. he's been in colorado this week, he's been in nevada, he's been in arizona because we often -- we talk about the mid-atlantic, we talk about the south.

this part of the country, the west, it matters to trump and he's struggling not only with female voters but mormon voters, heavy populations of mortons and with hispanic voters. you look at a state like colorado, significant latino population, he's been struggling with them and he needs to convince these suburbanites, hispanic voters, women voters that he can turn it around in the west. >> otherwise, despite last night's vice presidential debate going into the second presidential do do you concur with what became the view of this studio last night the race is settling? >> there's a sense that the race is settling but democrats behind the scenes today aren't getting too confident because they know clinton is ahead in the polls but they think this could still change and they're wondering is trump going to do the preparations necessary for town hall? he hates doing mock debates. he has chris christie behind the scenes, new jersey governor, popping him with questions but he hasn't held a run-through yet. we have to see if he does one thursday or friday. >> he apparently has a town hall

event tomorrow and there have been concerns about the things he can't control, physicality, the height differential between the two, the fact that they're different in how they relate to people. neither one of them is bill clinton famously talking about when something bad happens in my state there's a good chance i'll know their name. >> and he's not the kind of politician who loves roaming warned a microphone. politicians like christie like roaming around with a microphone. trump has gestures, he's at a lecturn, it's a performance, it's somewhat studied even as it's extemporaneous. the town hall will be different for trump. it's made a lot of candidates stumble. we think of george h.w. bush in '92 looking at his watch. >> like he had something better to. do robert costa, thank you so much as always. katy tur on the vegas strip, that you can. we know it's been a long trip already. coming up for us, the man who crafted some of the most powerful words in recent presidential politics tells the us message clinton and trump must deliver for their own selves on sunday.

plus donald trump in a room full of first graders. what could go wrong? when the 11th hour continues.

mike pence did an incredible job and i'm getting a lot of credit because that's really my first so-called choice that was my first hire, as we would say in las vegas. and i'll tell you, he's a good one. >> maybe first hire is a vegas term. donald trump today in nevada

taking a little credit for mike pence's debate performance last night. but donald trump has another debate of his own just over four days now. here to talk about that and more, former speech writer for president obama john favreau and former chair of the rnc, forrer lieutenant governor of the great state of maryland michael steele. welcome to you both. michael, if you're in charge of debate prep for donald trump or hillary clinton, this is vastly different. >> very much. >> town hall format, two moderators to help it along. donald trump has had a habit of taking a question from the public but answering it to the moderator. there's a whole bunch of things they're trying to coach. >> there is there and the dynamic has to be between him and the people so he has to stay focused on the person who asked the question, don't worry about the moderators they're facilitators. the reality is this is a conversation you'll have with the american people through this one person. so their question could be an out-of-the-box question that throws you off a bit. that's okay.

just roll with it. don't let your emotions get in front of you and don't worry so much about hillary clinton. i think you'll see hillary clinton won't worry so much about donald trump even as she jabs him. she'll be jabbing him through the person in front of him. he's got to learn to do the exact same thing the exact same way. >> and, john, both of these candidates are baked as human beings, they are what they're going to be. >> right. >> you worked for a terrific communicator who was also a fully formed adult. so how do you coach people who are fully formed into the kind of techniques that are jermaine -- germane to just this? >> you can't do too much is the truth. remember, obama lost the first debate in 2012 and all we did for the second debate was more practice. you can't start from scratch. you have to practice for every question, every moment. and one thing obama learned is you can't win the second debate by trying to win the first again. you can't go back and try to rewin the first.

it's with people, you have to have human connections with the people, it's a different format, you can't attack your opponent as easily so all these things go into it. >> your job was to supply words in your dice a wordsmith, someone who enjoyed the process of writing as much as you did. other folks get to work for politicians who just spew out what they write. do you envy them? >> i do, i do. we learned that for the second debate, too. we didn't -- giving him zingers and one liners that were overly prepared was not going to work because he wasn't going to memorize those so he had to take answers he was giving during prep that he felt comfortable with and polish those answers for him but they had to be authentic to him. >> michael, as they say in the airline business, in the unlikely event of a water landing, if the republican party does not prevail, if donald trump -- >> oh, you're looking for a flotation device right now? >> well, you can use your seat cushion. i've been fascinated because i associate you with the republican party of those lazy

hazy crazy days pre-donald trump. is there a reformation in is there a lessons learned period or are we back to the future? >> we're going to be a lot of that. there's a great deal of frustration you'll have. if trump loses you'll have the trump supporters who feel he wasn't supported enough by the mainstream or elite or that class of republicans. if he wins you'll have the policy tension between the neocons who want to move the country in a certain direction on matters of foreign policy, certainly issues like trade where donald trump is outside the mainstream of the gop on trade. so a win or loss doesn't solve the underlying problems that the party has to deal with. as national chairman i tried to confront those early on. we worked with the tea party groups as they began to emerge around the country. and sort of incorporated them into the body politic and i remember saying to a group of them "you have to stop taking

out my incumbents, we have to work together here." that's now lost and everyone is kind of in their own territory is which is going to be a problem going forward. >> you thought that was tap dancing and ad-libbing, think of what reince priebus has been through. since you were a speech writer, let's talk about a different speech of a different kind. the "washington post" had a piece on the crowds we're starting to see. no matter who wins, we'll have folks who feel their view point didn't win, they will feel disenfranchised, it has been said, especially among the kind of tougher fringe at trump rallies. does this what we've seen around the country trouble you? >> oh, definitely. it troubles me a lot. we first saw this -- i remember seeing this sitting in the campaign headquarters in chicago in 2008 at some of these palin rallies and i remember one of the more courageous things john mccain did is when someone at a town hall said to him "obama's a muslim," he said "no." and he tamped it down and i think if hillary clinton wins -- which i think she will -- it's

on hillary clinton and the republican leaders to kind of work together to sort of tamp this speech down. >> michael, with his words, even with the beauty of his writing, rhetorically you can't put a country back together again. abraham lincoln tried beautifully rhetorically and had to back it up with policy and deed. how do you do this? because one half of us is going to feel like we didn't get our message heard. >> it's drastic work. to your point about policy inn deed, you had abraham lincoln suspending habeas corpus. despite the flowery words he had to take harsh actions. the next president will have a tough time. if it's hillary dealing with a republican congress especially that's not going to be as warp and fuzzy for her and if it's donald trump, he's got it on both fronts. he's going to have a republican party that will be suspicious of him and a democrat party that will be looking at him through that hairy eyeball saying oh, no, here we go.

so beneath that is the american people and i really think that this may be an opportunity for those voices to emerge around this country to say enough. we hear now why the landscape politically is the way it is. we'll feed more of that but it will take work. >> michael steele, john favreau, thanks for coming to our table tonight. appreciate it very much. we'll take a break. coming up, what one little girl had to say about donald trump's hair when he visited a classroom in nevada today. "the 11th hour" on msnbc will continue. you wanna e something intense?

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last thing before we go here tonight happened in a classroom at the international christian academy in las vegas. if you have kids, if you've been around them for more than ten minutes you know you can't tell kids what to say, you have no idea what's going to come out and these first graders today were no exception. listen carefully to what some of the students say when the gop nominee walked into their class. >> anna lost a bet about the nice man's hair being orange. that does it for this edition of "the 11th hour" tonight. all the news from nevada and elsewhere.

when we come on the air tomorrow, remember, we'll have an update on the storm off the coast of florida and the day's political news as well. "hardball" with chris matthews begins right now. pensive. let's play "hardball." good evening, i'm chris matthew withes back in washington. it's an interesting challenge to decide in realtime who's won a political debate. but if you accept the challenge, as i have, you better do it straight, don't pretend to be a judge if you're not willing to accept the responsibility of judging. well, last night i called it for pence off the bat. he acted like a grown-up, kaine seemed overwrought, emotionally upset at what pence was saying. it's as if kaine couldn't stand hearing anything said well about donald trump, couldn't stand