JUDY WOODRUFF, NEWSHOUR ANCHOR: And I’m Judy Woodruff.

And welcome to this PBS NEWSHOUR special: coverage of the second presidential debate

between Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican Donald Trump.

The stage is set at Washington University in St. Louis.

The most unconventional campaign in modern presidential history has reached entirely

new levels.

Friday’s release of the videotape from 2005 of Donald Trump using lewd language and bragging

about making unwanted sexual advances on women has prompted a number of Republicans to withdraw

their support from their party’s nominee.

IFILL: Tonight’s debate will be a town hall format where Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump

will be taking questions from an audience of uncommitted voters, as well as from moderators

Martha Radiate of ABC News and Anderson Cooper of CNN.

Joining us at our table are our regular NEWSHOUR contributors: syndicated columnist Mark Shields,

New York Times columnist David Brooks, and Amy Walter of The Cook Political Report.

And in another unprecedented turn: Donald Trump staged a surprise appearance little

more than an hour ago with four women, three of who whom accused Bill Clinton of sexual

assault or harassment.

In response, the Clinton campaign said, we’re not surprised see Donald Trump continue his

destructive race to the bottom.

Friends, the moral equivalency wars are in full — I don’t know, sway, David?

DAVID BROOKS, THE NEW YORK TIMES: This could be one of the most historic and repulsive

debates to the American political history.

We’ve entered TV — a reality TV show of the bottom level.

And so I’m expecting a traffic accident frankly.

And what trump did tonight I think will backfire on him badly as more Republicans flee from

him.

WOODRUFF: Amy, how much of all this stuff do you think is going to come up tonight?

AMY WALTER, THE COOK POLITICAL REPORT: Well, the fact that I can’t let my fourth-grader

watch a presidential debate I think tells you all you need to know about where we are

in this campaign and what I expect from it.

Look, I think Donald Trump’s — before he had this press conference my thought was

he’s either going to come in do contrition or he’s going to do combative.

And we know obviously which half he chose.

He has decided throughout the course of this campaign to double down, triple down, any

time he’s challenged.

He is only interested in talking to his — the faithful, never interested in reaching beyond

that.

IFILL: And, Mark Shields, are we talking about a policy debate tonight or a personality debate?

MARK SHIELDS, SYNDICATED COLUMNIST: We’re talking about Donald Trump trying to save

his candidacy.

Stop Republicans from fleeing him.

Energizing the base.

Making it a Clinton race again.

I think unsuccessfully.

WOODRUFF: And now here are

the moderators, Martha Radiate and

Anderson Cooper.

[*] RADIATE: Ladies and gentlemen the Republican nominee for president, Donald J. Trump, and

the Democratic nominee for president, Hillary Clinton.

(APPLAUSE)

COOPER: Thank you very much for being here.

We’re going to begin with a question from one of the members in our town hall.

Each of you will have two minutes to respond to this question.

Secretary Clinton, you won the coin toss, so you’ll go first.

Our first question comes from Patrice Brock.

Patrice?

QUESTION: Thank you, and good evening.

The last debate could have been rated as MA, mature audiences, per TV parental guidelines.

Knowing that educators assign viewing the presidential debates as students’ homework,

do you feel you’re modeling appropriate and positive behavior for today’s youth?

CLINTON: Well, thank you.

Are you a teacher?

Yes, I think that that’s a very good question, because I’ve heard from lots of teachers

and parents about some of their concerns about some of the things that are being said and

done in this campaign.

And I think it is very important for us to make clear to our children that our country

really is great because we’re good.

And we are going to respect one another, lift each other up.

We are going to be looking for ways to celebrate our diversity, and we are going to try to

reach out to every boy and girl, as well as every adult, to bring them in to working on

behalf of our country.

I have a very positive and optimistic view about what we can do together.

That’s why the slogan of my campaign is “Stronger Together,” because I think if

we work together, if we overcome the divisiveness that sometimes sets Americans against one

another, and instead we make some big goals — and I’ve set forth some big goals, getting

the economy to work for everyone, not just those at the top, making sure that we have

the best education system from preschool through college and making it affordable, and so much

else.

If we set those goals and we go together to try to achieve them, there’s nothing in

my opinion that America can’t do.

So that’s why I hope that we will come together in this campaign.

Obviously, I’m hoping to earn your vote, I’m hoping to be elected in November, and

I can promise you, I will work with every American.

I want to be the president for all Americans, regardless of your political beliefs, where

you come from, what you look like, your religion.

I want us to heal our country and bring it together because that’s, I think, the best

way for us to get the future that our children and our grandchildren deserve.

COOPER: Secretary Clinton, thank you.

Mr. Trump, you have two minutes.

TRUMP: Well, I actually agree with that.

I agree with everything she said.

I began this campaign because I was so tired of seeing such foolish things happen to our

country.

This is a great country.

This is a great land.

I’ve gotten to know the people of the country over the last year-and-a-half that I’ve

been doing this as a politician.

I cannot believe I’m saying that about myself, but I guess I have been a politician.

TRUMP: And my whole concept was to make America great again.

When I watch the deals being made, when I watch what’s happening with some horrible

things like Obamacare, where your health insurance and health care is going up by numbers that

are astronomical, 68 percent, 59 percent, 71 percent, when I look at the Iran deal and

how bad a deal it is for us, it’s a one-sided transaction where we’re giving back $150

billion to a terrorist state, really, the number one terror state, we’ve made them

a strong country from really a very weak country just three years ago.

When I look at all of the things that I see and all of the potential that our country

has, we have such tremendous potential, whether it’s in business and trade, where we’re

doing so badly.

Last year, we had almost $800 billion trade deficit.

In other words, trading with other countries.

We had an $800 billion deficit.

It’s hard to believe.

Inconceivable.

You say who’s making these deals?

We’re going the make great deals.

We’re going to have a strong border.

We’re going to bring back law and order.

Just today, policemen was shot, two killed.

And this is happening on a weekly basis.

We have to bring back respect to law enforcement.

At the same time, we have to take care of people on all sides.

We need justice.

But I want to do things that haven’t been done, including fixing and making our inner

cities better for the African-American citizens that are so great, and for the Latinos, Hispanics,

and I look forward to doing it.

It’s called make America great again.

COOPER: Thank you, Mr. Trump.

The question from Patrice was about are you both modeling positive and appropriate behavior

for today’s youth?

We received a lot of questions online, Mr. Trump, about the tape that was released on

Friday, as you can imagine.

You called what you said locker room banter.

You described kissing women without consent, grabbing their genitals.

That is sexual assault.

You bragged that you have sexually assaulted women.

Do you understand that?

TRUMP: No, I didn’t say that at all.

I don’t think you understood what was — this was locker room talk.

I’m not proud of it.

I apologize to my family.

I apologize to the American people.

Certainly I’m not proud of it.

But this is locker room talk.

You know, when we have a world where you have ISIS chopping off heads, where you have — and,

frankly, drowning people in steel cages, where you have wars and horrible, horrible sights

all over, where you have so many bad things happening, this is like medieval times.

We haven’t seen anything like this, the carnage all over the world.

And they look and they see.

Can you imagine the people that are, frankly, doing so well against us with ISIS?

And they look at our country and they see what’s going on.

Yes, I’m very embarrassed by it.

I hate it.

But it’s locker room talk, and it’s one of those things.

I will knock the hell out of ISIS.

We’re going to defeat ISIS.

ISIS happened a number of years ago in a vacuum that was left because of bad judgment.

And I will tell you, I will take care of ISIS.

COOPER: So, Mr. Trump…

TRUMP: And we should get on to much more important things and much bigger things.

COOPER: Just for the record, though, are you saying that what you said on that bus 11 years

ago that you did not actually kiss women without consent or grope women without consent?

TRUMP: I have great respect for women.

Nobody has more respect for women than I do.

COOPER: So, for the record, you’re saying you never did that?

TRUMP: I’ve said things that, frankly, you hear these things I said.

And I was embarrassed by it.

But I have tremendous respect for women