The Note: David Muir Marks Final Sprint to Election Day with Exclusive Interviews

— -- NOTABLES

--CLINTON SAYS TRUMP CHOKED IN MEXICO: Hillary Clinton said in an exclusive interview with ABC’s DAVID MUIR yesterday that Donald Trump created a "diplomatic incident" last week with his trip to Mexico. "He came out saying one thing and the Mexican president contradicted him almost immediately," Clinton said, referring to Trump's claim that he did not discuss payment for the border wall, a centerpiece of his presidential campaign. "He didn't raise it, so he did choke. He didn't know how to even communicate effectively with a head of state. And I think that's a pretty clear outcome from that trip," she said. ABC’s JOSH HASKELL has more: http://abcn.ws/2bSKbbF

--TRUMP SAYS HE DIDN’T: Trump responded to  Clinton's remark that he "did choke" by failing to get Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto to say that his country would pay for the building of a wall on its border with the U.S. "I don't choke," Trump told ABC’s DAVID MUIR in the battleground state of Ohio yesterday. "She chokes. ... I've been given A-pluses for the job I did in Mexico." "The fact is Mexico will pay for the wall. It was discussed that it wouldn't be discussed but they know my stance and I know their stance," he said, ABC’s ENJOLI FRANCIS notes. "And until I'm president, I'm not going to press anything very much but they fully know my stance. My stance is we're going to build a wall and Mexico's going to pay for the wall. It's very simple." http://abcn.ws/2c6Sb8s

--TRUMP TALKS IMMIGRATION PLAN: Trump refused to say if undocumented immigrants who don’t necessarily want to become citizens would have to leave the country, admitting the possibility that they could stay. When asked if some of the 11 million undocumented immigrants could stay, Trump told Muir, "It could be but what’s going to happen is if you’re going to be a citizen, you’re going to leave and you're going to have to come back." More from ABC’s CANDACE SMITH: http://abcn.ws/2cvaumU

--ANALYSIS -- ABC’s RICK KLEIN: David Muir’s remarkable Labor Day interviews in Ohio with all four national candidates revealed sharp disagreements that were not unexpected. Hillary Clinton thinks Donald Trump “choked” in Mexico, while Trump says he didn’t. Trump suggested that many undocumented immigrants could stay in the US, while Clinton and Tim Kaine insist he still favors deportation for all. But one thing both tickets can agree on: Nobody is confident moving into the fall stretch. Gone, even from Trump, is much of the bravado that has often attached itself to proclamations about campaign prospects. Both sides are eyeing the other one warily going into the debates. It’s easy to fall back on phrases about how everyone always expected this to be a close race. That may not have been really true before, but now – as the calendar crunches and schedules crisscross – it truly is.

MORE FROM MUIR’S INTERVIEWS:

--TRUMP SAYS 'PEOPLE DON’T CARE' ABOUT TAX RETURNS. Trump said that people don’t care about whether he should release his taxes, while Gov. Mike Pence argued that the calls to release them are a “distraction" from Hillary Clinton. “I think people don't care,” Trump said Monday afternoon in Ohio of his tax returns, which he has not released. “I don't think anybody cares, except some members of the press.” Trump said he’s provided the “most extensive financial review of anybody in the history of politics” and because he’s under a “routine audit,” he’s not able to make his tax returns public. According to ABC’s VERONICA STRACQUALURSI, both Trump and Pence said that their tax returns would be released. http://abcn.ws/2cuN049

--CLINTON SAYS BILL SHOULD NOT RESIGN FROM FOUNDATION POST UNTIL AFTER ELECTION. Hillary Clinton told ABC News' David Muir yesterday that her husband, former President Bill Clinton, should not have to step down before the election from his position at the Clinton Foundation. "I don't think there are conflicts of interest," the Democratic presidential nominee said in a joint interview Monday with running mate Sen. Tim Kaine. "I know that that's what has been alleged and never proven. But nevertheless, I take it seriously." "I'm very proud of the work that the Clinton Foundation has done," Clinton said, ABC’s ENJOLI FRANCIS notes. http://abcn.ws/2bZehsV

--TRUMP 'DISAPPOINTED' IN KASICH FOR NOT ENDORSING. Republican nominee Donald Trump said he was “disappointed” in Ohio Gov. John Kasich for backing out of a pledge all the Republican presidential candidates were required to sign in September of last year. “You know, I'm disappointed that people signed a pledge and they signed it so I would sign it,” said Trump, who along with his running mate Gov. Mike Pence sat down for an exclusive interview with ABC’s DAVID MUIR Monday afternoon in Ohio. “The pledges were signed by everybody so that I would sign it because they didn’t want me to be out there as a free agent so to speak. And most of them came through,” Trump said, pointing to New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and Dr. Ben Carson, both of whom he fought with during the primary season. ABC’s VERONICA STRACQUALURSI has more. http://abcn.ws/2cvdEXK

--CLINTON HITS BACK AT TRUMP'S QUESTIONS ABOUT HER STAMINA. After a month dominated by 35 private fundraisers and few public campaign events, Hillary Clinton fired back at Donald Trump's questions about her stamina in an interview with ABC's DAVID MUIR -- saying her team "came out of that convention with an enormous amount of energy and enthusiasm." "No. Not at all," Clinton said when asked if she were being out-campaigned by her Republican rival, ABC’s JOSH HASKELL writes. "We are now in full campaign mode. All the way to and through Election Day. And I feel very good about the organization we’ve built," Clinton told Muir alongside her running mate, Tim Kaine, in Cleveland, Ohio. http://abcn.ws/2ciql94

YESTERDAY ON THE TRAIL with ABC’s VERONICA STRACQUALURSI

CLINTON: POSSIBLE RUSSIAN INTERFERENCE IN ELECTION 'A CONCERN.' Hillary Clinton took a wide-ranging series of questions from her traveling press corps Monday for the first time in over a month, primarily responding to a report in the Washington Post that U.S. intelligence agencies are investigating potential Russian interference in the U.S. election. "We are facing a very serious concern. We’ve never had a foreign adversarial power be already involved in our electoral process with the DNC hacks. We’ve never had a nominee of one of our major parties urging the Russians to hack more," said Clinton. She continued: "I think it’s quite intriguing that this activity has happened around the time [Donald] Trump became the nominee. And look, he very early on allied himself with [Russian President Vladimir] Putin’s policies." ABC’s JOSH HASKELL and LIZ KREUTZ has more. http://abcn.ws/2cnWWcn

BILL CLINTON 'DUMBFOUNDED' BY DONALD TRUMP'S VISIT TO MEXICO. After a brief hiatus from campaigning, former President Bill Clinton is back on the trail, picking up where he left off: attacking Donald Trump. The former president kicked off his multi-state day of campaigning by marching in the Detroit Labor Day parade and delivering brief remarks at a BBQ picnic, ABC’s MATTHEW CLAIBORNE notes. Addressing union workers from the bed of a pickup truck, Clinton publicly addressed Trump’s recent trip to Mexico for the first time, saying he was “dumbfounded” by the trip and arguing that Trump's visit was damaging to the United States. “I’ve had that job. That damaged America and every serious country in the world,” said the former president. “You cannot be the leader of a country, go down and be nice to people and then come home and dump on them for your own political benefit.” http://abcn.ws/2ci4L4x

BERNIE SANDERS CAMPAIGNS FOR HILLARY CLINTON, BLASTS TRUMP AS ‘PATHOLOGICAL LIAR.’ After almost two months since he endorsed Hillary Clinton in New Hampshire, Bernie Sanders came back to the Granite State Monday in what was his first solo campaign event for the Democratic nominee. In Lebanon, NH, Monday afternoon, standing between two “Stronger Together” signs, Sanders praised Clinton’s policies and positions, touting the former secretary of state as the “superior candidate.” He then turned to Donald Trump, according to ABC’s KATHERINE FAULDERS, and slammed the Republican nominee as a “pathological liar” with a campaign based upon “bigotry.” http://abcn.ws/2cuo61y

TRUMP SAYS HE’LL ATTEND ALL 3 DEBATES. Donald Trump, announced Monday that he would attend all three presidential debates, capping speculation about whether the GOP candidate and real estate mogul would do so. “I look forward to the debates. I mean, I think it is an important element of what we're doing. I think you have an obligation to do the debates,” he said. When asked what could stop him from attending, the Republican nominee joked, "Hurricanes, natural disaster.” ABC’s CANDACE SMITH has more. http://abcn.ws/2cu46fR

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

CLINTON BLAMES COUGHING FIT ON BEING 'ALLERGIC' TO TRUMP. Hillary Clinton blamed a bad coughing fit on opponent Donald Trump during a Labor Day rally in Cleveland, triggering a sharp response from the Trump campaign and a trending hashtag on social media. “Every time I think of Trump, I get allergic,” Clinton croaked in between coughs, after drinking some water and patting her chest. “Boy, we have 63 days to go.” The Democratic presidential nominee, who has suffered coughing attacks on the campaign trail, coughed for nearly two minutes, ABC’s MORGAN WINSOR notes. Trump’s campaign manager, Kellyanne Conway, was quick on the rebound with a jab about Clinton’s lack of face time with the press. “Must be allergic to media. Finally spent a minute [with] them,” Conway posted on Twitter. http://abcn.ws/2c35epq

WHO’S TWEETING?

@anitakumar01: .@HillaryClinton and @timkaine release their official campaign book, “Stronger Together," a 256-page blueprint for America’s future.

@amyewalter: What B. Clinton did post-pres. isn't illegal it's very DC biz as usual. But that biz as usual is what voters hate http://wapo.st/2c1FyJq

@dallasnews: The Dallas Morning News cannot recommend @realdonaldtrump for president | @DMNOpinion http://beta.dallasnews.com/opinion/editorials/2016/09/06/donald-trump-is-no-republican …

@stevenportnoy: There has only been ONE other cycle since 1952 that the Dallas Morning News hasn't endorsed the GOP nominee. That was 1964 -- Goldwater.

@realDonaldTrump: As a tribute to the late, great Phyllis Schlafly, I hope everybody can go out and get her latest book, THE CONSERVATIVE CASE FOR TRUMP.