Debate Ratings Lower Than First Debate.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: And good morning. I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me. One of the most talked about moments from last night's debate had nothing to do what either of the candidates said but rather how they shared the stage. You know, physically. Donald Trump standing directly, only three to five feet behind Hillary Clinton, for one entire answer. That move on Donald Trump's part went viral. One tweet, "why does he keep lurking behind her?" Another tweet, "this looks like a poster for a 1970s horror movie." And others just took it there. Check out this screen grab from "Halloween." Mrs. Clinton later, though, laughed off the close encounter.</s>HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: I could tell, yes. I could.</s>CLINTON: Well, you know, it was a very small space and I tried to give him space when he was talking to people. I would go back and, you know, lean up against my stool. But, he was very present.</s>COSTELLO: With me now is Fred Malek, the Bush/Quayle campaign manager back in '92. Welcome back, Fred. Thanks for being with me.</s>FRED MALEK, FORMER BUSH/QUAYLE CAMPAIGN MANAGER 1992: A pleasure, Carol. Thank you.</s>COSTELLO: So, Donald -- we'll just start with the optics of this thing. Your take on where Donald Trump stood through most of the debate? He also paced a lot on stage. You could always see him kind of over Hillary Clinton's shoulder. He never sat down when she answered questions.</s>MALEK: Yes.</s>COSTELLO: Your thoughts?</s>MALEK: Well, I think both -- both candidates kind of were a little bit odd. I think Trump's pacing, standing behind her was a little bit off putting, frankly, and I wondered what he was doing. At the same time, though, Hillary continued to kind of laugh and smirk every time Trump talked, like kind of, well, what is the village idiot going to say next? And I thought that was a little bit contrived and off-putting as well. So I think both of them looked a little bit -- a little bit strange on that stage.</s>COSTELLO: And -- and this was a town hall.</s>MALEK: Yes.</s>COSTELLO: This was supposed to be an intimate gathering where -- where voters were supposed to feel closer to the candidates. Sometimes I forgot it was a town hall, frankly.</s>MALEK: I did too. You know -- you know, Carol, if somebody is awoken from a coma of two years and seeing this debate, I think they would wonder, is this the best our great country has to offer? Because neither one of them really looked that great. All the focus was on mistakes, on character flaws and the like and I think our -- our person out of the coma would have said, I -- I really don't think I want either one of them. It was not -- it was not the best moment for either. But by the same token, they scored some real points.</s>COSTELLO: They did. And before we get there, I want to talk a little bit more about the optics because they were so very strange.</s>MALEK: Yes.</s>COSTELLO: So before the debate, the candidates did not shake hands, right?</s>MALEK: Yes.</s>COSTELLO: I think we have pictures of all of this to show our viewers.</s>MALEK: Yes. Yes.</s>COSTELLO: So they didn't shake hands before the debate, but after the debate, they did shake hands. You could see the spouses shaking hands before the debate. And they're going to get these pictures up. So I'll just ask you about the shaking of hands. Why not come out and shake one another's hand?</s>MALEK: I can't imagine why they didn't shake hands. It's clear that they don't like each other. It's clear that there was more fisticuffs to come. But, nevertheless, even in a prize fight, when people are battering each other, they shake hands before the fight. And I kind of expected them to shake hands and I was -- noticed it and wondered why they didn't. Was it deliberate? Was it planned in advance? Did one of them just not approach the other? I don't know. They should have shaken hands in my opinion. It was nice that they did so afterwards, but, of course, they knew that families were coming up and they wanted to, I think, part on a reasonable note.</s>COSTELLO: OK. So we're getting more images in.</s>MALEK: Yes.</s>COSTELLO: These -- I don't know if this really shows it, but I'm going to do my best here. So, Chelsea Clinton had her arm around her mother coming into the debate, and then you could see her sitting in the VIP box with her father, with her hand on her shoulder. There's the image I'm talking about. So you'll see Chelsea Clinton get out and, there, arm around her mom, right? And --</s>MALEK: Carol, you know --</s>COSTELLO: Uh-huh.</s>MALEK: Carol, I've -- I've been involved with a lot of presidential nominees and candidates. I've worked very closely with -- with both Bushs. I've worked very closely with John McCain. And let me -- and Mitt Romney too. And let me tell you, these are real people. They don't -- they're not just caricatures. They're real people and they suffer from this and their families, most of all, have to bear the brunt of it because when you hear your spouse, or your father, being attacked and pilloried in any kind of -- in a way that they are, it's very humiliating and debilitating for these families. It's tough on them. And I think most of them handled themselves very, very well. And I'm glad that they mingled it afterwards and didn't show the effects of it.</s>COSTELLO: Yes. Just watching the Trump family sitting there, especially Melania, you know she wears this shockingly bright pink outfit as if to say, you know, I have nothing to be ashamed of. But she sat stony through the entire debate. And -- but -- but she did shake hands with bill Clinton, which I thought was -- was a fabulous move, because -- because why not?</s>MALEK: Sure. It's a classy thing to do. And I think it was the right thing to do. And I don't think families have an animosity toward one another. They understand the battle that they're in. But it still stings when you hear your father, your wife, your son, your husband attacked in the way that they are. Look, all of this debate was about character flaw. Very little of it was on vision and policies for the country. That was a flaw of the debate in my opinion but it also affected the families.</s>COSTELLO: So what should voters take away from this? Because I reached out to my Facebook followers and asked them who won.</s>MALEK: Yes.</s>COSTELLO: Most of them said Hillary Clinton. But I think many of them felt slightly ill after watching the debate.</s>MALEK: Well, look, that's what I said a little while ago. I mean if somebody came down from Mars or out of a coma they would say, is this the best we have to offer? This is -- it really wasn't so much a debate as it was an attack on each other. My opinion is, Hillary won the debate on points. She was so articulate and well prepared. But at the same time I think Trump won the night because he did what he had to do to deflect and defray despite the disgusting comments on these tapes and he lived to fight another day.</s>COSTELLO: Have you decide who you're going to vote for?</s>MALEK: I haven't. I focused on the governors, with the Republican Governor's Association, on the House of Representatives, through my chairmanship of the Congressional Leadership Fund, and I'm going to do everything I can to protect down ballot races.</s>COSTELLO: Fred Malek, thanks for joining me this morning. Still to come in the NEWSROOM, the debate hadn't even started, but the battle had already begun. Several of Bill Clinton's accusers sitting with Donald Trump hours before the town hall showdown.