LESTER HOLT(HOST): Chuck, we've never seen anything quite like the last 72 hours. The civil war now breaking wide open in the Republican Party, a flood of GOP lawmakers abandoning their nominee. 29 days till the election to save themselves. What happens now? 

CHUCK TODD: Well I think what happened --  I think the Republican party was about to leave Trump en masse, with the assumption that last night was going to -- where he would have a meltdown on stage that would have looked like the first debate where even supporters would be ready to throw in the towel, and it would have quote unquote been easy to walk away from Trump. The problem is, Trump has made it harder for these guys to walk away, because he threw so much red meat at his base, that there will be retribution to any Republican, say if you're Pat Toomey, the Republican senator struggling in a re-election in Pennsylvania, if he wants to unendorse Trump, he needs Trump supporters, but he needs those folks that don't like Trump too. So he's caught in this vice grip, and I think a bunch of these Republicans woke up today, stepped outside and thought it was like stepping outside in the eye of a hurricane, Lester, assuming everything's okay, when they don't realize the worst may be yet to come with Trump. They may be staring at a total collapse of the party by election day. 

Previously: 

NBC's Nicolle Wallace On Trump: “This Is What's Happening In The Republican Party. This Is The Bottom Dropping Out”

Sean Hannity: After Abandoning Trump, Paul Ryan And Others Like Him Are “Done”

Sean Hannity Declares Paul Ryan’s Republican Party “Dead”