BROOKE BALDWIN (HOST): Here we are, members of the media, journalists. The way he was attacking, saying it's just a political arm, and yes, there are some, Sean Hannity. But by and large, can we just call this BS?
BRIAN STELTER: It is BS, and it's dangerous. For a long time, people treated Donald Trump like he was a joke. Right now, it's a very serious drama. That speech was paranoid and that speech was dangerous. It was a speech dripping with hatred, a speech dripping with contempt, railing against bankers and corporations and the media and this grand conspiracy that somehow he has only been able to connect the dots of. It sounded like a dog whistle to a lot of people, that he was somehow connecting all of these dots that do, in fact, not connect. The WikiLeaks documents he was citing do not prove what he thinks they prove. But I don't want to bother fact-checking every statement he said just now. Trump said this is a moment of reckoning for our society, and he's right about that. If there's violence and unrest after election day, I think we now know why based on the hatred that was dripping out of that man's mouth.
BALDWIN: When he said, Abby, when he was talking about these women -- and listen, fact, these are accusations and Donald Trump says they're absolutely false.
STELTER: Innocent until proven guilty, yes.
BADLWIN: Innocent until proven guilty. But when he said whether or not these women are telling the truth or not, what jumped out at me, when Donald Trump said -- he was talking specifically about the People magazine reporter with her story, he said, “You think these allegations are true? Just look at her.” “Look at her.”
ABBY PHILLIP: It's the sort of thing that makes women gasp when they hear things like that. I can't overstate how the juxtaposition of Michelle Obama's speech and Donald Trump's speech, basically back to back today, really highlights where we are in this election. You had Michelle Obama talking directly to women, saying, “you know that this is not normal,” and Donald Trump then, going on television and saying, “nothing that these women are saying is true because look at them.” That is, I think, basically a nightmare scenario for Republicans. It proves, once again, that we're at a stage in this election where Donald Trump is looking to his base and he's saying, “what can I give them to keep them behind me,” and he's giving them this. I don't think he's expanding. It's hard to know if he's even really contesting this anymore, because this is not the way to do that and it's certainly not the way to run any kind of election, and the sort of ammunition on the Democratic side, especially Michelle Obama going so hard in this speech today, is really remarkable, and it really, I think, can punctuate in a way that Donald Trump cannot. He can not counterpunch on Michelle Obama in this way.
