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Stage Set for First Presidential Debate; Debate Lessons from History: Mondale Vs. Reagan; Debate Could Potentially Change Clinton's Reputation; Candidates Look To Avoid Debate Mistakes; Will Presidential Debate Live Up To Expectations; Exploring "Vintage Vegas". Aired 6-7p ET

Aired September 25, 2016 - 18:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:00:15] POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: Top of the hour, welcome to a special pre-game show. I'm Poppy Harlow in the campus of Hofstra University, where it all goes down tomorrow night. The big debate, you can watch it right here 9:00 Eastern.

I want you to take a look inside at the stage now ready for the historical face-to-face between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. The first presidential debate is tomorrow night, as I said, 9:00 p.m. Eastern.

The talk right now is about frankly, who's going to be sitting in the front row after Donald Trump tweeted he may just invite Gennifer Flowers to the big debate. The Trump campaign saying today Gennifer Flowers was not formally invited and they don't expect her to be there as their guest.

Of course, Flowers is the former Arkansas state employee whose revelations of an affair with then-Governor Bill Clinton shook up his '92 presidential campaign.

As for the debate, Flowers reportedly texted "The New York Times" today, saying, quote, "Yes, I will be there." So, the bottom line, who knows?

This all stems from Clinton and her camp inviting billionaire Mark Cuban to sit in front row. He will be there and he's a -- he's gone after Trump hard. You'll hear what Clinton told CNN in a moment.

But, first, I want to bring in our political reporter Sara Murray, who is outside Trump Tower in New York City and senior Washington correspondent Jeff Zeleny. He's near the Clinton's home in Chappaqua, New York.

Guys, despite all the focus and distraction, I suppose, on who will be in the front row, Trump's campaign manager said, look, I want this debate and we want this debate to be about real substance.

Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) KELLYANNE CONWAY, TRUMP CAMPAIGN MANAGER: We certainly hope that the questions go to policy. Answer the questions that the American people have. They deserve and expect these candidates to be talking about the issues.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: Sara, you're dialed into the Trump camp. What do they hope is asked? What do they hope is not asked?

SARA MURRAY, CNN POLITICS REPORTER: Well, look, I don't think you can come out and say, we don't want to have a debate about issues. We want to have a debate about Bill Clinton's infidelity. That's not what the American public is expecting.

And, look, Poppy, this is going to be a one-on-one debate. It's going to last for 90 minutes. These moderators and these first debate and in the future debates are going to be digging deeper in the issue than Donald Trump had to do when we were talking about more than a dozen candidates on stage. And so, I think they are certainly trying to prepare Donald Trump for that.

And they do believe that on certain substantive issues, whether it is, you know, talking tough on national security, whether it's talking about trade, they believe they can vet Hillary Clinton on the issues front. But make no mistake about it, they are going to be going in, trying to paint Hillary Clinton as someone who is unacceptable to be president of the United States. They're going to try to paint her as your typical politician who will not bring any new ideas in your table, who will not bring change and who frankly is someone you can't trust.

They know that's a high negative for Hillary Clinton. And they're certainly going to be looking to expose that. And, of course, they're very aware that they have to be careful about the tone. Voters have real concern about Donald Trump's temperament and they're looking at those same polling numbers as we are, Poppy.

HARLOW: Sara, thank you so much.

I want to go to Jeff Zeleny now. Let's take a listen, guys, to Robby Mook, Clinton's campaign manager. He talked about where his candidate shines the most, saying it is at the debate podium.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROBBY MOOK, CLINTON CAMPAIGN MANAGER: Every time that Hillary has had an unfiltered opportunity to talk to the American people about not just what she's going to do to make their lives better, the specific plans and policies that she has, but also how her entire life and this campaign is part of a mission to help kids and families. She's done better.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: Here is the thing, Jeff Zeleny -- yes, she's been debating for decades. She's been debating since her high school debate team. In this election, what has become clear is the un -- sort of -- prepared politician, and what I mean by that is someone who hasn't debated their whole life in politics is resonating a lot with the American public. How does she shine through tonight and appeal those voters who are looking for something different than politics as usual?

JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Poppy, that definitely is one of the challenges she has to have. You know, not being the person who has been in the public spotlight for more than a quarter century. But being someone who is new and different.

And one way her advisors say, first and foremost she's different is she's the first woman to stand on the stage at this moment, you know, just about a month before the general election here. So, she does bring change in that respect.

But, Poppy, I think we have seen so much of the candidates this cycle and this very long presidential campaign. We see them on the air in advertising and in campaigning, that Americans are familiar with them. But what Hillary Clinton is going to try and do, I'm told, is really remind voters of the full sum of Donald Trump's own words.

[18:05:08] If you look at her paid advertising, virtually all their advertising using a sound track of Donald Trump's own words. That's what she's aiming to do tomorrow. If he's going to present himself as a different kind of candidate, a scripted candidate, she is eager to remind voters and Americans what he said about a variety of things here.

Now, we -- this is a new moment in the campaign. But the reality is both candidates have been practicing if their speeches and in their advertising what this moment is going to be. We know Donald Trump is going to come after her on her email controversy.

She, of course, will be ready for that. She has the added burden, like you said, she is more practiced and polished. Her aides do not want her to become, in their words, a scold or fact checker only. They want her to present an optimistic viewpoint here and not necessarily just be going after Donald Trump at every point. So, that is her challenge here I think, Poppy.

Look, we've seen a lot of these candidates, no presidential candidate in modern history has debated as much as she has. I counted 40 from her Senate race onto her first presidential campaign and now.

HARLOW: Wow.

ZELENY: So, she has a lot of experience under her belt. But tomorrow is the biggest one of them all without question, Poppy.

HARLOW: No question and you've got to do it in way that comes off as authentic and not too scripted. It's going to be fascinating.

Guys, thank you. Jeff and Sara, we appreciate it.

You know, we now know one of the most closely guarded secrets of Clinton's debate preparation, who plays the role of Donald Trump, who is with her as we speak doing these practice rounds in their mock debates. Sources tell CNN it's Philippe Reines, is a long time confidant who once work at the State Department with Clinton. He's known for his combative style and is likely to help Clinton with those one-liners and those zingers and try to knock Trump off his game.

I want to talk about all of it with our chief political analyst, Gloria Borger, in "New York", and CNN senior political analyst Ron Brownstein. He's here with me.

Thank you both for being here. Ron is also the senior editor at "The Atlantic".

What do we know about Philippe Reines? We know she trusts him implicitly, but why she's a good Trump?

RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: He's famously confrontational. I mean, he's almost like a character from Deep at that level of confrontational. So, I mean, if there's anybody who can do the snark and bluster of Donald Trump in the Clinton orbit, it's certainly would be Philippe.

But, you know, it's a little bit of a surprise, and it kind of comes from her past. But when you kind of think about all the characteristics that the Democrats see in Donald Trump, I think he actually is a pretty good stand in in that way.

Let's take a listen, Gloria, to something that Robby Mook, Clinton's campaign manager, said this morning that really struck me when I was listening to him and Jake Tapper.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MOOK: I'm very concerned that Donald Trump will be graded on a curve, just because he doesn't fly off the handle in the middle of this debate does not mean he's prepared to be president of the United States.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: Gloria, they clearly feel like she's being held to a higher bar and if he is more presidential in tone, that's going to be all the headlines Tuesday morning regardless of the content of what's said.

GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: Yes. This is sort of the art of prebuttal or spin before the debate even takes place. And what they're doing is they're saying to journalists and they're saying to viewers, just -- if Donald Trump shows up and he's a little bit different from the Trump you saw in the primary debates and he's not calling Hillary Clinton names or calling her crooked Hillary, that doesn't mean he's qualified to be president.

I think on the flip side of that, what this also means is that Hillary Clinton has got to disqualify him. And she -- this is something that she will obviously try and do. And to talk to those persuadable voters out there who might be thinking about her but don't like her. The reason she can do this is to say, look, I'm qualified to be president.

He's not. What she will do is push him on substance, push him on issues, push him on what do you think about this? What do you think about that? And I think it could be quite effective. But they want to be very clear that just because he shows up and doesn't call her names, doesn't mean he's qualified.

HARLOW: You know, what's interesting, she's talking about, Ron, the expectations game. Here is how it was put in an article about the debate. "Expectations for Clinton's performance are glass ceiling high. For Trump, they are gilded lobby low," talking about Trump tower.

But seriously, you know, what does she do to combat that?

BROWNSTEIN: Well, look, you know, they -- as we said before, they have set the bar they are describing here in terms of grading on a curve, because they have put all their effort into disqualifying him on personal grounds, arguing that he's biased against women and minority, that he doesn't have the qualifications and temperament.

[18:10:05] They have spent very little efforts so far critiquing his agenda, arguing --

HARLOW: Primary competitors did the same thing and it didn't work.

BROWNSTEIN: It didn't work. So, you know, part of the problem they is that I think tomorrow, they probably do want to pivot to kind of arguing that his tax plan, for example, would benefit the rich at the expense of the middle class. There's no predicate for that. If not -- if Donald Trump can change some of those perceptions that now exist, which 60 percent of the public say he's not qualified, he does have some room to make gains.

HARLOW: But then, Gloria, if he can just jump in and he can say, look, at "The New York Times", you know, story this weekend, tying her very closely to Goldman Sachs, look at the paid speeches on Wall Street, and you're not releasing those speeches. That's a bit of a hard argument, isn't it?

BORGER: Well, the thing about Donald Trump is he's always very general in his attacks or in his policy proposals at these debates. And the challenge for Hillary Clinton is not to be too specific. The challenge for Hillary Clinton is to make her broader points about his disqualifications perhaps by asking him, what would do you in this situation? What would you do in that situation? Why couldn't you answer the question on the nuclear triad --

HARLOW: That's interesting. So, really going at one another --

BORGER: Right. I think that is what they are not talking about because I don't think they want to give their game plan away. But if I had to guess, I think she would be challenging him on substance and also making her case, by the way, that she will help the middle class more than he does, which talks to Ron's point about tax cuts and who they benefit. HARLOW: Which has been fascinating to see throughout this election.

Did the billionaire businessman has resonated so much with the middle class and the populism and the white working class across this -- the white blue collar workers across this country. Let me just ask you this. You can't ignore the general dynamics. This is the first time you have a presidential general election debate between a man and a woman and you wonder if those one liners, if you wonder that the Lying Ted, the low energy, the crooked Hillary, how that will play if he does that?

BROWNSTEIN: Donald Trump is on track to have the worst performance ever for Republican among college-educated white woman for a growing share of the electorate. That's problematic with the blue collar I would --

(CROSSTALK)

BROWNSTEIN: Look, I mean, he has not -- subtlety has not -- nuance has not been his strength so far. We'll see whether he can do that. You know, I think -- you know, go back to the Rick Lazio debate where he con fronted her physically and then it did not play well.

I think, look, both of these candidates come into the debate with a lot of dents on the fender. And I think for each of them, it is important to deal with the doubts that voters have about them than to deepen the doubts about their rival. Their instinct is going to be go out and maul the other but they really need to I think in the end, they might get more benefit out of trying to refurbish their own image before the biggest audience they face.

(CROSSTALK)

HARLOW: That's how voters put it to me last week in Ohio. I'm voting for the lesser of two evils. They said that over and over.

Gloria, very quick.

BORGER: Can I say one thing on gender? If you look at the way Carly Fiorina handled Trump after that debate after he was quoted in an article saying who would elect someone with that face or something else quite as appalling. She said every woman in America knows what that meant. She kind of just took him down a let it be.

I think if he tries to attack Hillary Clinton in any gender way, I think the Carly Fiorina not model is a pretty good model.

HARLOW: Guys, thank you very much. Have to leave it there. Gloria, Ron, thank you.

Coming up, Donald Trump's target is Hillary Clinton on Monday. But he'll have another critic staring him down tomorrow night from a front seat in the debate hall. Mark Cuban, the billionaire, sat down one- on-one with CNN. What he had to say about all that, ahead.

And what will it take for Clinton or Trump to emerge a winner to get the headlines on Tuesday morning? Sometimes, all a candidate needs is a clever one liner. We'll talk about what it takes to create magical moment like this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Senator, I serve with Jack Kennedy. I knew Jack Kennedy. Jack Kennedy was a friend of mine. Senator, you're no Jack Kennedy.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARLOW: Welcome back.

There is no doubt that presidential debates are key in all of this, of course. The biggest night of this entire campaign is tomorrow night. But just because a candidate does well in a debate is no guarantee that he or she will win the others.

Our chief political analyst Gloria Borger explains.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BORGER (voice-over): What the debates giveth, they can also take away. Just ask former Vice President Walter Mondale about his encounters with Ronald Reagan in 1984.

WALTER MONDALE, FORMER VICE PRESIDENT: When I left the dressing room, walked 50 feet to the platform, that's the longest walk I ever took in my life.

BORGER: He came out swinging.

MONDALE: We've got to deal with this problem.

BORGER: Reagan stumbled badly.

RONALD REAGAN, FORMER PRESIDENT: The system is still where it was with regard to the --

MONDALE: He seemed confused and tired. He was grabbing onto that lectern. I was very worried about him.

BORGER: Even then, there were whispers about Alzheimer's. But Mondale refused to hit Reagan on his memory.

MONDALE: I never did it. I wouldn't do it. That's not my kind of politics.

BORGER: But then, the next debate Reagan rebounded. He was funny. The oldest man ever to run for president hit the age issue out of the park.

REAGAN: I will not make age an issue of this campaign. I am not going to exploit for political purposes my opponents youth and inexperience.

(LAUGHTER)

BORGER (on camera): What are you thinking?

MONDALE: I was laughing while I was crying. I knew he hit home on that.

BORGER (voice-over): And who told Ronald Reagan to have a one liner ready? Roger Ailes. The same man who is informally helping his friend, Donald Trump.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARLOW: Gloria Borger joins me from New York.

Gloria, when I saw that moment just now in your piece, with the two candidates sort of laughing, chuckling to one another, smiling and then presenting themselves to the audience, I can't imagine that happening tomorrow night, could it?

BORGER: No, I don't think so. I think we're kind of living in a different world, an alternate universe.

[18:20:06] And that was a long time ago obviously. I think that Reagan was so good at using humor. You know, he was an old actor. He knew how to do it.

It's really hard for these politicians in these debates to turn to comedy. I don't think it will be easy for either one of these people to do that unless it's a really short quip. I mean, Reagan used, you know, "there you go again" with Jimmy Carter and that kind of helped him out. But Reagan was Reagan. I don't think either of these two candidates are quite as good as that.

HARLOW: And this election is different than any one before.

BORGER: Oh, yes.

HARLOW: Gloria, a fascinating look at the past. You're going to be with us in a little bit with more of that. Stay with me.

BORGER: Sure.

HARLOW: Thank you, Gloria.

Coming up, though, for us -- next, a battle of the billionaires. Mark Cuban taking on Donald Trump.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARK CUBAN, DALLAS MAVERICKS OWNER: I think Donald Trump is an immediate and present danger to the security of this country.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) HARLOW: Welcome back. We are live from Hofstra University, the site of the big showdown, the big debate tomorrow night. A lot of excited folks behind us.

Donald Trump and billionaire Mark Cuban trading fresh insults on Twitter on the run-up to Monday's presidential debate here.

[18:25:05] Cuban, a very high profile supporter of Hillary Clinton started the latest clash with this zinger on Twitter. Quote, "Just got a front row seat to watch Hillary Clinton overwhelm @realDonaldTrump at the humbling at Hofstra on Monday. It is on."

CNN's Alison Kosik is with me because you scored the big interview. You sat down with Mark Cuban a few days ago to talk about all of this and more on the set of "Shark Tank".

But before we get to that let's go over to what's transpired in the last 24 hours because Donald Trump didn't like that tweet so much.

ALISON KOSIK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: No, he didn't like that tweet. In fact, Donald Trump responded with his own zinger. I want to bring up his tweet as well. He said this, he said, "If dopey Mark Cuban, a failed "Benefactor' famed, wants to sit in the front row, perhaps I will put Gennifer flowers right alongside of him." Ouch. Yes.

But here's what's interesting about this. Trump's campaign manager, Kellyanne Conway, she went on Jake Tapper show this morning telling our Jake Tapper that Gennifer Flower has not received a formal invitation from the campaign and she's not expected to be a guest of the campaign either, but adding a twist to this saga, "The New York Times" is reporting that Gennifer flowers said, yes, I will be there. So, bottom line, who knows what's going to happen here?

HARLOW: And this matter so much because, of course, Bill Clinton later admitted to having an affair with Gennifer Flowers. This gets very personal for Hillary Clinton.

KOSIK: It does. It's getting personal between Donald Trump and Mark Cuban as well because they've really been revving up this billionaire battle online, specifically on twitter. When I talked with Mark Cuban last week, we talked about this challenge that he made to Donald Trump on Twitter. What Cuban essentially did was say, "Donald, I'll give you $10 million either I'll write you a check or you can give it to charity if you agree to sit down with me for four hours and talk about your policies and their substance." Donald Trump didn't respond.

But I did ask Mark Cuban why he's stepping up the pressure on Donald Trump on Twitter. And listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CUBAN: And one of the things I love more than anything about "Shark Tank", it sends the message that the American dream is alive and well. So, when Donald Trump talks about this is wrong with the country, that's wrong with the country, we can't do this. We can't do that. (EXPLETIVE DELETED), right? We are a nation at our heart, there's an entrepreneurial spirit in it.

We don't have to start businesses. It may be serving others and helping others, and starting or developing, or working at charities. We have that spirit to accomplish things. "Shark Tank" just reinforces that every single week.

KOSIK: You support Hillary Clinton, clearly.

CUBAN: Uh-huh.

KOSIK: She has a huge trust issue with the public. You know, what we're seeing now with this election, is it's all about the mood. And the mood is people want to see change. They don't want to see the same politician.

CUBAN: Yes. The trust issue really, in a lot of respect it comes down to marketing. Donald does a good job of marketing himself, and that's what -- he's always done that.

Hillary Clinton doesn't. She's not a good marketer. She's kind of boring. She doesn't come across as being charismatic. But that's OK.

I rather have somebody who understands the issues, understands what's involved to accomplish the goals of this country. And I'll trade off charisma and she admits she's not a politician at heart.

KOSIK: The question then is, do you plan on ever throwing your hat into the ring to run for president?

CUBAN: No. It's not even worth talking about.

KOSIK: Why isn't it worth talking about?

CUBAN: The reason I'm having this conversation, the reason I've gotten involved is because I think Donald Trump is an immediate and present danger to the security of this country. His inability to control the things he says, his inability to understand the impact of what he says, his inability to have situational awareness creates risk for my country and for my kids, for my family and for everybody I know.

When the president of the United States speaks, every word matters. If there's a misperception of those words, something he just blurted out, that can have serious economic and security consequences, that we're not on an island just where everybody can say whatever they want.

As a candidate, great. But he's yet to demonstrate he can keep his mouth shut at the right time.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KOSIK: Some really strong words from Mark Cuban. Also interesting to go back to his point about -- he's not, you know, interested in being in government. I asked him again about that. And he said, I just have no interest in it. I don't see it changing. So, I asked him, I said, did you close the door on that forever? He

said, hmm, I guess never say never.

(LAUGHTER)

HARLOW: They always keep us guessing, right? We have to go back and ask again and again.

Alison, great interview.

You can see a lot more of his candid conversation with Alison on CNNMoney.com.

All right. Coming up, tomorrow night, can Donald Trump come out on top even if he doesn't win? We'll talk about the expectation games for these two candidates and whether the bar is higher for Hillary Clinton. We're live from Hofstra University, the site of tomorrow's presidential debate.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:33:07] HARLOW: You're looking at live pictures inside the debate hall where it all goes down tomorrow night. There is also soon to be a little clock on your screen that says -- there you go -- it is just over 24 hours until Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump meet on this stage right here on campus at Hofstra University.

And it goes without saying that the stakes are incredibly high for both of these candidates. That is why about a hundred million people are expected to tune in by some estimate.

Let's talk about it all with our CNN Senior Political Correspondent Brianna Keilar. Also with us, National Political Reporter Maeve Reston and CNN Correspondent Phil Mattingly. I'm excited. I said it feels like ESPN game day.

(LAUGHTER)

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Clearly.

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: All this crowd behind where everything's going to go.

HARLOW: Yes, but the crowd behind us is a political one. Yes, exactly. Phil Mattingly, let me start with you. Trump is not a polished politician.

MATTINGLY: Right.

HARLOW: That's been a big part of his appeal this entire time. He's not an experienced debater. She's been debating literally since high school, right? So if, at the end of the night, it looks like a tie, does Trump win because they're at different bars?

MATTINGLY: I think that's the concern of the Clinton campaign, right? It's that you can't grade them on a curve. He said this repeatedly, if Donald Trump goes out and doesn't trip over himself or makes some massive headline grabbing gaffe, that he ends up winning. He ends up looking presidential.

I think the issue here that is most striking to me is that we look at what he did during the Republican primary debates. Seventeen people, it's a very different scenario, a very different circumstance than one-on-one, 90 minutes with an opponent that is deliberately going to try repeatedly to draw him out on policy. But I do think that that's a big concern in the Clinton campaign, and I do think that it's a very real concern.

HARLOW: So, Maeve, how do they deal with that? How do they counter that? Do they show the public more of her personal side, who she is? What do they do that can help tip the balance in her favor if that is the scenario?

MAEVE RESTON, CNN NATIONAL POLITICAL REPORTER: Well, I certainly think that, you know, there is certainly a very low bar for Donald Trump, but I think that, clearly, tomorrow night, she is going to have to try to show more of that personal side.

[18:35:01] But she is also going to have to try to demolish him on policy in a way that, you know, doesn't turn off voters and that's a very tricky balance that she's going to have. But, you know, she has been preparing for this. She's been looking at, you know, some of the factual inaccuracies that he's talked about on the campaign trial. She's ready to go after those, and we could see a very polished performance.

HARLOW: There's an interesting piece, Brianna, in "The Atlantic" this week. James Fallows writes, "In only a minority of cases have politicians gained or lost ground based on what they said rather than how they looked while they were saying it." They're not talking about physical appearance. They're talking about gestures, looks that are made, motions that are made. I mean those --

RESTON: Just like Al Gore's time.

HARLOW: -- the tone and the demeanor.

KEILAR: The tone.

HARLOW: Right, the tone. And, Clinton, you've covered her more than anyone. I mean, you had the first interview with her after she announced her candidacy. Does she show us more of who she is?

KEILAR: I think she's trying to but I think it's really hard to change that. It's so baked in with Hillary Clinton. She's been in the public eye for decades now. You don't really reinvent yourself in a debate.

HARLOW: Right.

KEILAR: You can't reinvent yourself that quickly unless maybe you're, I don't know, Madonna or something, right?

(LAUGHTER)

KEILAR: But I think she's going to try to have a mastery of the issues. And this is what's so difficult for her. She wants to show that she knows more than him.

HARLOW: Right.

KEILAR: But she also wants to show that she's not too wonky and she doesn't get in the weeds and people get lost, you know, the more they feel like, OK, this is someone who's going to take care of things that I'm worried about.

HARLOW: Did she ever do that in her past Presidential Debates, back in 2008? Was there a moment she did it well?

KEILAR: You know, I mean, even earlier in the primary season. She's a pretty good debater.

HARLOW: Yes.

KEILAR: That's the thing and that's what's tricky for her. I mean, she generally did the best, I think, in most of those debates. That was pretty clear, especially the one out of the gate.

HARLOW: Right.

KEILAR: I think it was pretty clear to people who sort of looked at the performances that she had kind of done the best there. But it's such a different -- that's like apples to watermelons, right?

(LAUGHTER)

KEILAR: Because this is Donald Trump. He's very different than Bernie Sanders.

HARLOW: Yes.

KEILAR: She can go a little harder after Donald Trump. Bernie Sanders, she didn't want the turn off people who supported him too much, right?

RESTON: She needs them right now.

HARLOW: Right.

KEILAR: And what she's going to try to do is get under Donald Trump's skin --

HARLOW: Poke him.

KEILAR: -- without getting ruffled herself. That's the goal.

RESTON: Exactly.

HARLOW: Ala Mark Cuban. Ala Mark Cuban.

KEILAR: Right.

RESTON: Right.

HARLOW: Before I go -- I've got 30 seconds -- I want your headlines. Phil, start with you, headline Tuesday morning.

MATTINGLY: Oh, man, in 30 seconds? Decisive moment in the campaign.

HARLOW: Maeve?

MATTINGLY: I don't know which way.

RESTON: Clinton crushes Trump. I don't know. Well, we'll see.

HARLOW: What do you think, Brianna?

KEILAR: I want to see what happens with the birther issue, you know.

HARLOW: All right. We'll give that to the headline desk. We'll see if that will be Tuesday's headline.

MATTINGLY: Mark Cuban rushes stage.

KEILAR: I've got a headline but I have a poor headline letter.

RESTON: Mark Cuban rushes stage, I like that.

(CROSSTALK)

RESTON: Just gambling here, right?

HARLOW: But it could happen.

MATTINGLY: You never know.

HARLOW: Stranger things have happened in this election. Maeve Reston, Phil Mattingly, Brianna Keilar, thank you very much. Tomorrow night, I don't know if Mark Cuban's going to rush it, but we'll all be watching this debate stage. Even the smallest slip up can cost the candidate not just style points but crucial votes on election.

You've heard it before, they say you can't win an election in a debate but you certainly can lose one, something as simple as checking a watch becoming quite a moment in the first President Bush in that debate. Something he wishes he could have taken back. It made him appear distracted and not engaged with every day Americans. We'll look at these unforced errors in the past. Thanks guys.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:42:03] HARLOW: At a Presidential Debate, attacking your opponent is one thing but avoiding your own mistakes is a huge, huge part of these debates. And sometimes, as history shows, candidates can become their own worst enemy.

By the time the debates rolled around in 2008, Republican John McCain really needed a strong debate performance to try to turn his campaign around. Gloria Borger takes us back.

GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: For John McCain in 2008, the debate was supposed to be salvage operation, but it didn't work out that way.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOHN McCAIN, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: My old buddy Joe, Joe the plumber, is out there. If you don't get a health care plan that Senator Obama mandates, he's going to fine you.

BARACK OBAMA, (D) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I'm happy to talk to you, too, Joe, if you're out there. Here's your fine, zero. You won't pay a fine because --

McCAIN: Zero?

OBAMA: Zero, because as I said in our last debate and I'll repeat, John, I exempt small businesses.

McCAIN: I was not on my game and I have to admit that and I have no real excuse for it. It was doubly inexcusable because I had been through so many debates before.

BORGER: And do you know when you mess up?

McCAIN: Oh, yes.

BORGER: Like, you get in the car and your staff is like --

McCAIN: Mm-hmm, yes.

BORGER: -- oh, my god. And do you sort of sit around blaming yourself?

McCAIN: Unfortunately, that's one of my character flaws, is that I do sometimes sit around and say, oh, my god. Why did I do that?

BORGER (voice-over): Maybe Al Gore was asking himself the same question after this debate with George W. Bush for whom expectations were really low.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, everybody thought Al Gore's the best debater on the planet.

BORGER (voice-over): And so did Al Gore who couldn't resist sighing in exasperation at Bush's answers or using the word, "lock box."

AL GORE, (D) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I will put Medicare and Social Security in a lock box and protect lock box, lock box, lock box.

BORGER (voice-over): Over and over again.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That was partly my fault.

BORGER: It was? UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I said we got do make sure that you get the lock

box thing in there. Now, I didn't think we would do it five or six times and I didn't think Saturday Night Live would satirize it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I would put it in what I call a lock box, the lock box, the lock box, lock box.

(LAUGHTER)

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARLOW: Our Chief Political Analyst Gloria Borger joins me now. Gloria, your take, what are the lessons learned from that for tomorrow night? Will Trump's hands off debate prep cost him, or do you think it sort of helps keep him loose and go with the flow?

BORGER: Well, I think there is a danger in over preparing and over complicating your answers. And I think, you know, that's what happened to Reagan and you could argue maybe that's what happened to Al Gore when he kept repeating lock box, lock box, lock box.

[18:45:07] I think that sometimes you have to be sure you are actually listening to what the other person is saying, so you can respond and be careful about falling into traps because your people had gamed this out way in advance. If you say this, the opponent will say this. If the opponent says this, you say that. But you have to listen and be in the moment.

And again, I think this is where experience really will help Hillary Clinton. I mean, it was a very different situation for Donald Trump when he was there on the stage with 16 other candidates, and things could sort of go over his head and he didn't have to participate every minute. So, you know, this is --

HARLOW: Yes, and now he does.

BORGER: This is very, very different. And when she goes on the attack, you have to be ready for an answer and not to let it get under your skin.

HARLOW: And no commercial breaks to sort of recollect your thoughts.

BORGER: None.

HARLOW: I'd love to take the blood pressure of all the advisers for both of the candidates during the 90 minutes tomorrow night.

BORGER: Right, right.

HARLOW: Gloria, thank you so much. Fascinating look back in history for us.

Still to come, Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton squaring off right here tomorrow night in that first Presidential Debate. Our John King answers the question that is on a lot of our minds. JOHN KING, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Can a debate change a

race? Can one candidate come in behind and pull out ahead? Well, let's go back and study some history.

HARLOW: We'll know in just over 24 hours. You're live in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:50:31] HARLOW: All right. Just into CNN from moments ago, Democratic Presidential Nominee Hillary Clinton and her motorcade arriving for a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Donald Trump met with Mr. Netanyahu earlier today. The leader of Israel meeting with the two people fighting to follow President Obama into the White House next January.

Meantime, here at Hofstra, stakes are higher than ever going into tomorrow night's face-off between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, but how much of a difference will their performance on the stage make when it comes to winning the election? Our John King explains.

KING: Monday night, Clinton versus Trump, the first big debate could be the most highly watched debate in American presidential campaign history. But what does history tell us? Can a debate change a race? Can one candidate come in behind and pull out ahead? Well, let's go back and study some history.

It's a tough question, how much do the polls move before and after a debate. In part, it depends on how close is the race? Is the race already baked? Is somebody already on the path to victory? Then they move less.

And also, it depends on performance. Let's be clear. It's a debate. Let's see who shows up and how they do.

What was interesting about the third debate is that Obama was -- in the instant polls, Obama was scored the winner, but this the debate, if we go back and think about it, where we met Joe the plumber. John McCain tried to make the case to Senator Obama --

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

McCAIN: What you want to do to Joe the plumber and men more like him is have their taxes increased.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: So was it a good moment for John McCain? You see he benefitted by a point after that debate. A very good debate moment, good reviews for Senator McCain after that debate. But, again, the race was pretty much baked. If the voters have already decided which way they're most likely going, even a strong debate sometimes doesn't get you much.

2012 is a different case and that's why every campaign is a little different. 2012, like 2016, was a more competitive race. So let's take a look at some of the things coming in. In the first debate in 2012, the big headline was, where was this guy?

The incumbent President of the United States didn't seem like he wanted to be at the first debate. If you go back and look at the clips, he seemed disinterested. He seemed a little bored, like he wanted to be somewhere else. Like he didn't think that guy, Governor Romney, belongs on the same stage as the President of the United States.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. MITT ROMNEY, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I just don't know how the President could have come into office, facing 23 million people out of work, rising unemployment, an economic crisis at the kitchen table, and spend his energy and passion for two years fighting for Obamacare instead of fighting for jobs for the American people.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: Guess what? Debate performance matters. Mitt Romney came up six points, the President went down six points after that first debate. A lot of conservatives came into the first debate thinking we're going to lose. They came out of the first debate thinking, hey, we got a shot.

This is not 2008. This race is not baked. It is unpredictable as it gets. So what are we going to look at after this debate? Sure, we'll look at the instant polls, who was great at that night as the winner.

One of the things we're going to look at is this. If you look at the state of the race right now, Secretary Clinton is favored but just slightly. So we're going to look at the battleground states. Clinton's advantage is in Virginia, in Michigan and in Pennsylvania. If she comes out of the first debate and she still has a reasonably healthy leads in those states, then she goes into debate two and debate three as the front runner.

This is Donald Trump's big chance. Coming into the debate, things have been trending his way, especially in the toss-up battleground states. If he can move a couple of these blue states into the toss-up category, Donald Trump would have had a good first debate. That is his big challenge. He is the unknown here. He is the candidate Hillary Clinton has said is dangerous. If he can come out with the first debate with a little momentum and change these numbers, we got a brand-new race.

[18:54:10] HARLOW: Maybe we will have a brand-new race. This campaign has been like no other. So will this first debate live up to all the expectations? Find out tomorrow night, 9:00 p.m. Eastern on CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:58:43:] HARLOW: All right. As we leave you tonight, let's take you to Sin City, a side of Las Vegas that most visitors never see. It is this week's OFF THE CLOCK.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The part about Vegas that I love the most is vintage Vegas. In contrast to the strips on East Fremont Street, you can come in contact with vintage relics, such as the Ruby Slipper and the El Cortez Hotel and Casino.

We're here at the Mob Museum that's housed an original courthouse from the 1930s where some of these mobsters were actually tried.

This is the Choice of Weapons wall, where we can see a variety of weapons that mobsters may have used to knock each other off, get back for revenge or just because they were angry.

When my friends come to Vegas, I always bring them to the Pinball Museum. It's the largest collection of pinball machines in the nation. Instead of going to the casino and spending their entire paycheck on the casino floor, they can come to the Pinball Museum and spend 25 cents per game to have some kitschy fun. The nostalgia of these vintage machines is what I like the most, the colors, this magician with his card trick and his assistant pulling a rabbit out of his hat. I really like this one because it's so creepy.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[18:59:56] HARLOW: I'm Poppy Harlow live tonight from Hofstra University, the site of tomorrow night's first Presidential Debate. Next on CNN, a special edition of "ERIN BURNETT OUT FRONT." It begins right now.