And you may recall the senator from such events as this one, that would be the white house rose garden event on september 26th, that dr. Anthony fauci described as a super spreader event for Amy Coney Barrett where senator lee was seen hugging people. And here is lee maskless three days later with judge barrett. He is one of at least 12 people who were at that super spreader event diagnosed with covid. And while he wasnt hospitalized he has had and maybe still has a pretty serious case by his own admission. I had fatigue, i had some fevers, and sometimes i felt like it might feel to be 98 years old and in a boxing match. Mike lee is not fully out of the woods. His doctor today released a letter that acknowledged that while lee is improving, he is basically still experiencing symptoms selfreported, and yet there he was the hearing room today, speaking without a mask, so committed to ramming through a justice, to giving trump and conservatives a 63 majority on the court for a generation so they can do things like, i dont know, maybe take away Americans Health care. So committed to that project, while he may have contracted the virus at the last big event for this justice, even though he is still experiencing symptoms, he rushed back into that room to breathe all over his colleagues. He could have done it on zoom. Weve all spent seven months working remotely, but no, no, no, no, no. Why . Well, because they just dont seem to care how many people get sick and how many people die so long as they can push their justice through. Kamala harris who chose to attend the hearing via videoconferencing, smart call, told Committee Members what they were doing was completely irresponsible. This hearing has brought together more than 50 people to sit inside a closed door room for hours while our nation is facing a deadly airborne virus. This committee has ignored common sense requests to keep people safe, including not requiring testing for all members, despite a coronavirus outbreak among senators of this very committee. Shes right. Far Lindsey Graham, you may recall chairs the committee in a tough reelection battle in South Carolina against jaime harrison. Hes been in contact with covidpositive senators and has refused to get a covid test apparently for fear, oh, my word, he might test positive and not be able to ram through the judge before election day. Neither would another Committee Member get tested, senator chuck grassley. Look at this. There is mike lee and Lindsey Graham standing directly above the 87yearold grassley this morning and chatting. Lets hope the masks were on tied. Donald trumps party wants to ram through this judge and no cement the majority for a generation, no matter who gets sick, whether in their own circle or in america at large. They will do whatever it takes. And they get prickly and petulant when you try to get them to be just a little bit responsible on even the most minor things. No one has worked closer with the president while he was shedding viral load as chief of staff mark meadows has and this morning meadows lost his cool when reporters on capitol hill had the nerve to suggest he maybe wear a mask while speaking to them. I tell you what, let me do this, let me pull this away yep, pull away. And then that way i can take this off to talk. Well, im more than ten feet away. Im not going to talk through the mask. Im not going to talk through a mask. You poor guy. Oh, my gosh, what a burden to talk through a mask. Man. I understand where youre coming from. Its not like millions have been doing this for months so that more people dont die. But i understand. That attitude is no surprise coming from someone working for a man who made a point of removing his mask while still infected with covid and then returning to the white house. In ohio today, joe biden said the president s approach to the virus is somehow only getting worse. His reckless personal conduct since his diagnosis has been unconscionable. The longer donald trump is president , the more reckless he seems to get. The behavior on display from this president and from some enablers in the senate today is why we are now in the third wave of coronavirus. It is why we have one of the highest death tolls per capita of rich countries. It is why cases continue to spike. Look at that. You can see the line of the pink chart climbing. Nearly 50,000 new case as day. Next to it, more worrying, hospitalizations in the blue chart and thats ticking up again. There are now 35,000 americans in the hospital right now as i speak to you, with this virus. Thats trending up too. Were still averaging 700 deaths daily. We are entering the third wave three weeks before the election. Those are the numbers. This is what it looks like around the country. The headlines, rolling average of infections hits new high in 13 states. Only 16, 16, icu beds left in north dakota. North dakotas new covid19 cases doubled the number of hospital beds available in the state. A Missouri Health official warning of a concerning rise of hospitalizations in just the st. Louis area while a kansas Health Official starkly seeing kansas is losing the battle on covid19. The white house has already shrugged its shoulders at more than 200,000 americans dead, 215,000. Its like about Anthony Faucis opinion about its response. Fauci had to scold the Trump Campaign for using his comments out of context in a new ad to make it look like he was lauding trump. Fauci is also warning we could have 200,000 more deaths if we dont do the right thing. Here is what he says. That models show unless necessary precautions are taken for this fall and winter we could have 300,000 to 400,000 deaths in the use. Necessary precautions. Those people rushing back into the room while they have covid to take their mask off and talk, those people that wont talk through the mask because its such a burden. Do you trust these people, this white house and that party to take those precautions . The stuff is a matter of life and death. There are tens of thousands of people right now who arent sick, who are going to get sick and die if the right precautions arent taken. They dont appear to care how many people die if they can get their Supreme Court justice through or somehow get this president reelected. It sounds almost deranged and hyperbolic to say it but it is absolutely the plain and indisputable truth. Im joined by erin bank of the daily beast who coauthored a new very well reported piece titled trump fans will never wear masks, horrified Covid Task Force admits. Erin, some of whats reported in your piece is publicly intuitable because of what weve seen but the personal petulant animous, i thought this was so remarkable. You saw from meadows today as a reflection of the president himself, i thought this was so remarkable. I want to read this piece and get you to talk about it. If you stepped into a meeting with the president and you wore a mask when he and the rest of the room were not, you would likely hear from the president himself said a Trump Administration official who has been in the room in such cases. Its well known in the building if you want to be taken seriously by the president you should take his lead on the mask thing and not be the guy wearing a mask in a gathering with him as if youre saying youre sticking it to trump. Say more about that. Yes, so this sort of sentiment about do i wear a mask in the white house, do i not wear a mask in the white house, will i get in trouble if i do wear a mask goes back until the early days of the pandemic in the spring during the peak season of covid, the feeling on staff was that they were going to actually get in trouble if they wore masks in the white house because either their bosses had told them something about them perhaps getting in trouble, or the president wasnt wearing a mask so, we have to have a unified look of the white house. And that sort of idea and feeling about masks has persisted throughout this pandemic. Through the summer months it became a symbol for people who are trump supporters, a symbol of not wearing it became a symbol of defying it. You were supporting the president s personal choice not to wear a mask. Meanwhile you have scientists and doctors who work with the Coronavirus Task force in the community telling your everyday average american you have to wear a mask. This is the way were going to stop the spread and yet you have the president and his advisers and his staff choosing not to do so because they say its a personal liberty, its their decision not to wear a mask. We all know the consequences of not social distancing, of not washing your hands and not wearing a mask. It can only lead to more community spread. Theres a moment in your piece when he comes back i think there was some hope in some quarters i did not share this hope because ive been alive for the last seven months, that the president s diagnosis would somehow change the trajectory of how seriously people would take it including the president and you talked to someone in the piece that he talks about the moment that he comes back and sort of thee atcally takes the mask off, out of the hospital. Thats when i realized the time for americans to take all these Health Precautions seriously in order to prevent the spread was totally over, said one senior Health Official who works with the Coronavirus Task force. Think about that quote. Yeah. This was an amazing turning point. Ive been speaking to officials who work with the Coronavirus Task force and the immediate vicinity of the Coronavirus Task force that say that this was a real turning point for them because they realized in that moment with trump sort of whisking away his mask that the public messaging on social distancing and particularly mask wearing had sort of fallen off the radar, right . That this was a turning point in the sense in trying to get all these americans to wear a mask that you now cant, right . Its so far gone that public messaging theres no turning back. I think its just important, i think people who have been following this closely who watch the show have a sense of this but i want to state it as clearly as i can. I think weve often talked about the president bungling the response and incompetence. Whats revealing they are working affirmatively, intentionally to take actions to promote the spread of the coronavirus. Whether thats the intention or not, what they are doing is actively working to have more people get sick. Its not like, oh, we screwed this up. They are actually taking affirmative steps to get more people sick. Yeah, you hear a lot of the president and white house officials quoting cdc guidelines about mask wearing but theyre misinterpreting what the guidelines say and theyre cherry picking guidelines that work for them. At the end of the day mask wearing is essential. If theyre pushing a message that says you dont need to wear a mask or its your personal choice and dont worry about it, everything is under control that is in complete opposition to what people like dr. Birx, dr. Fauci and dr. Redfield are pushing and what they say will help prevent not only the spread but future deaths. Really well done. Thank you. Thank you. I want to now bring in dr. Richard besser, forming acting director of the cdc. Nonpartisan, wrote covid in the white house should be americas wakeup call. Also with me lydia troy, former aide to mike pence who served on that Coronavirus Task force. Weve been talking about and now plans to vote for biden because of trumps flatout disregard for human life during the pandemic. Olivia, he will start with you. As someone who worked on the task force, watching the two developments, parallel developments the last two weeks, the white houses response to having birthed a cluster through reckless behaviors inside the facility and the fact that the cases are growing in the country, more important in many ways, and the messaging from republicans, mike lee and all those today what is going through your mind as you watch that . You know, its appalling to me they continue to behave in this manner and it shows their complete disconnect and disregard for people. These are selfish actions by these individuals. These are supposed to be the gop leaders, right, of our country. And watching mark meadows during that interview take his mask off and put it back on and basically throw a tantrum, no different than the president has thrown in the past, just shows how willing and how committed they are to perpetrating this information in support of the president. There is also something so wildly out of touch about these childish tantrums like oh, i cant remotely attend the meeting. I cant talk to you through a mask. Buddy, welcome to the world. What the hell do you think weve been doing for seven months . Im sorry in the white house you get to do everything in person, you dont have to wear a mask. Welcome to the universe we inhabit. Dr. Besser, that relates to where we find ourselves now. Many people have foretold the difficult fall and winter from cdc director dr. Redfield to Anthony Fauci and to many experts who said we start to move indoors, we are seeing a big wave happen in other peer countries, the uk, france and spain, really worrying new cases being posted. Are we in a third wave . What is your assessment of this moment . Yeah, you know, chris, i dont tend to use the phrase third wave because the virus hasnt gone away. Right. The number of cases weve seen in states and cities is a direct reflection on whether the people in those places are following the guidance of Public Health. In many states, red states and blue state, weve seen the cases go down. Weve seen hospitalizations going down. And what were seeing now is in many places where people are not following the guidance, where people arent Wearing Masks and the behaviors is such that it allows the virus to spread. Were seeing the numbers go up. The challenge is everywhere we will be facing the same situation of colder weather, lower monument, more indoor activities where the virus will do well. If were not together as a nation in terms of Wearing Masks and washing hands and social distancing then well be in real trouble and the models predict hundreds of thousands more deaths will be true. Its not a foregone conclusion that they will. We have a choice as a nation to make. If we dont get onboard with Public Health those models will, unfortunately, become a horrible reality. Yeah, i think im pretty confident on the if part of it, if were together as a nation, if were not together it will be bad. I know the answer to the first part of that, unfortunately. We have seen polling suggesting that 75 of the population is complying. But youve got this crazy political season, olivia, where the white house is using dr. Faucis comments praising the task force, praising you and your colleagues work, independent of sabotage by the president. Fauci telling my previous guest erin banco the Trump Campaign is, effect, harassing me because they wont take down the quote. What is it like to watch fauci be used by the campaign as some kind of imprimatur of how well the president has done on this . Its angering. I was furious when i saw that ad. This is trump hypocrisy 101 being displayed headon. To publicly undermine dr. Fauci repeatedly and to try to discredit him when he was out there trying to tell the truth about what was going on, i personally saw them block him from being in the White House Press briefings. I was the one that actually had to sometimes make the call and call him and say, dr. Fauci, youre not going to be needed today, and i would try to figure out the best way or most polite way to do it because i was disrespecting his time when he was already on his way to the white house at times. I mean, this is the level were dealing with here. And so when i saw that ad, i really said how dare you how dare you try to use him now as your political pawn, someone who has served for decades unwaveringly and given everything he has in his career in a nonbiased manner, in a nonpolitical manner, and suddenly now youre trying to use his words out of context to support your political agenda because you know that discrediting and undermining the task force and him hasnt quite worked out in your favor so lets flip the switch and suddenly were dr. Fauci fans again . Im not buying it. Dr. Besser, you talked about behavior and behaviors over population levels in various places. It just strikes me we have this problem which is that it is hard to maintain the kind of vigilance we need, a. B, theres a thermostatic relationship between population behaviors and perception of risks so that people, so if the virus and Community Transmission have gone down, people tend to be more lenient and they take more liberties. Understandably they do things like i havent gotten a haircut in a few months. Let me do that now. Then what you see is those rate the conditions for a spike. Rinse and repeat. Rinse and repeat. Is there any way out of that cycle . I think there is. The narrative you just laid out when the numbers go way down and hospitalizations go way down, that is the time to slowly, carefully follow Public Health advice, try and get people back to more activity. So that is the time where you can go get your haircut if its at a barbershop or salon following the cdc guidance and has barriers up and decreased numbers of people. The goal is to use Public Health not as a barrier to Economic Activity but as the road map. The big challenge right now, chris, is that Public Health is being put forward as the enemy of economic recovery instead of the way to sustained Economic Activity. If we can get past that then what well see is we will be able to do more activities than we currently do because if people are following all the guidance were going to see less transmission. Dr. Richard besser and olivia troye, thank you for speaking with me tonight. Thanks, chris. Up next confirming the Supreme Court justice in the middle of a pandemic with the president ial election under way. Senator cory booker on the reckless push by republicans to get Amy Coney Barrett on the bench, after this. T on the bench, after this. In business you have to be able to shiftpivotadapt. Then do it all over again. Comcast business gives you fast, reliable internet on the nations largest gigspeed network. And now for a limited time, you can also get fast shipping with amazon business prime essentials. So no matter what comes next, youll always be ready to bounce forward. Get started with powerful internet and voice for 64. 90 a month, and ask how you can get one free year of amazon busines prime essentials on us. Call or go online today. Comcast business. Today began the Senate Confirmation hearings, the first ever Supreme Court nominee of an impeached president , interesting historical note, also the closest hearings held to an election in over a century. Democrats say republicans are forcing the process forward at rush speeds and against the will of a majority of americans who believe it should wait for the election. Democrats on the Judiciary Committee made day one about the fate of the Affordable Care act, arguing that putting Amy Coney Barrett on the court will put the health care of millions upon millions of people at risk during a pandemic. Barrett has previously criticized obamacares constitutionality in a previous case on different grounds. And just one week after the election the Supreme Court will hear yet another lawsuit to dismantle the aca, a lawsuit the president himself and his Justice Department and republican attorneys general around the country all support, each though the majority of americans do not, which is why republicans made incredibly insanely disingenuous arguments like this today. The left is also suggesting judge barretts confirmation would be the demise of the Affordable Care act and the protection for preexisting conditions. Thats outrageous. As a mother of seven judge barrett clearly understands the importance of health care. Outrageous he calls that. Think about this for a minute. Chuck grassley is saying, look, this person sitting before me is not a monster. She has seven children. For gods sake. There is no way she would strike down the Affordable Care act. You would have to be a psycho sadist to do that. But again, thats exactly what the Trump Administration is asking the court to do. Senator cory booker of new jersey serves on the Judiciary Committee and joins me now. Senator, its good to have you and i want to talk about some of the things you said today. I want to start on the aca. It was something that came up in a Judiciary Committee. I think theres reasons to think the case is very weak before it gets to the court, but theres something headspinning about being told that your concern about this lawsuit is unfounded and preposterous when it is the Republican Party and the republican president who are pursuing it. Its part of the republican platform to get rid of the Affordable Care act. President trump explicitly said that he would not put someone on the court unless they were willing to do the right thing and get rid of the Affordable Care act, his words. So this is not something were pulling out of thin air. This is what theyve told us time and time again. Not only have they told us, its their actions. They came at the Affordable Care act, one of the first things out of the gate when donald trump was elected. If it wasnt for three republicans getting morally swayed by all those americans, 130 million americans with preexisting conditions, 20 million americans that would lose their Health Insurance from the Affordable Care act immediately and more, if it wasnt for the three republicans, we would have lost it. But theyve continued to work it and now they are rushing this through in order to get Amy Coney Barrett seated by the time the oral arguments are heard, i think november 10th, is the day they want her seated by so she can rule against the Affordable Care act. So this was the biggest theme, i think, of the day today. I have to say i was sort of of two minds about it. One i understand why that was the focus because its so tangible and substantive and material and pending, and there is an election. But it also felt like it conceded a certain normalcy to the entire undertaking that was not due, and you were outspoken. What was it like to be there . Did it feel as surreal as it looked . And, second of all, what is the tension between the meat and potatoes arguments on aca and process arguments about how insane this entire undertaking is . Well, i mean, to say this is surreal is an understatement. Were in the middle of a global pandemic. You were talking about cases on the rise. Mitch mcconnell decided it was not safe enough for the senate to return, so he left the senate in recess for a while while he is still going ahead with a hearing in which two republicans have already, because after super spreader event, already gotten covid19. And so youre sitting there in a mask in a closed room for hours on end with a lot of staffers, a lot of support staff going through something we know is ahistoric. Its never happened before. The only time a Supreme Court justice has died this close to an election was when lincoln was president of the United States. And what did he do . Nothing. He did not put someone up. So the whole process is broken especially as Lindsey Graham sits there and it wasnt that many months ago he said he would not be doing this and to use his words against him. So the whole thing has the air of absolute illegitimacy. There is a perilousness people have already voted. Were in the midst of an election where millions of people have already voted. This is wrong and not normal. What is the conversation amongst democrats about what the goal is of these hearings . Theres this weird kind of fait accompli feeling to it and theres a madness and frustration that people sort of expressed through doing what they can on the senate races. And someone on the committee, whats your goal for this undertaking . I just want to have more of a feeling of dread the first time they came after the aca. I was very surprised by john mccain. I did not think he would be swayed but, remember, there were thousands of americans speaking out that morally swayed three republicans to stop him from tearing down the aca in the first place. Im not going to give up the hope that only one of the Committee Members on the republican side changes their mind and it doesnt get out of committee, two on the senate floor and it doesnt pass to join the other two senators who have already republican senators who have already spoken out against this. Thats number one. Number two is i also want the American People to know plainly what is at stake and i think thats what you will hear over the next couple of days is, number one, obviously the Affordable Care act. We know roe v. Wade, how do we know that to she will overturn roe v. Wade . Because donald trump has said that, that he would not nominate a justice that would do anything but overturn it. My ruin colleagues said they wouldnt vote for somebody unless they overturned roe v. Wade which means potential criminalization of abortion. It means really that states could pass laws that cause the investigation of miscarriages to see if they were abortions if they are declared illegal. This is a dramatic shift in American Culture in that way. And this doesnt even begin to get to the other issues this will touch on which is the rolling back of union rights, of Voting Rights, of civil rights, lbgtq equality and more. Senator cory booker who is in person at that Senate Judiciary hearings as they continue for judge Amy Coney Barrett who has been nominated to the Supreme Court. Thank you for talking to us tonight. Thank you for having me. Thank you. Up next the alleged right wing terror plot to kidnap michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer. Dont go anywhere because the governor is here herself to react to the charges and the president s continued attacks, after this. Inued attacks, after this what if i sleep hot . Or cold . No problem, with temperature balancing, you can sleep Better Together can it help keep me asleep . Absolutely, it intelligently senses your movements and automatically adjusts to keep you both effortlessly comfortable. Will it help me keep up with mom . You got this. So you can really promise better sleep . Not promise. Prove. Dont miss the final days to save up to 700 on select new sleep number 360 smart beds. Plus, 0 interest for 36 months free premium delivery when you add a base. Ends monday a livcustomizeper iquickbooks for me. Okay, youre all set up. Thanks that was my business gi, this ones casual. Get set up right with a live bookkeeper with intuit quickbooks. These are high stakes, and i got to tell you, ive had a heck of a 24 hours. And if i can show up here, we all can every single day between now and this election. Governor of the state of michigan Gretchen Whitmer was out on the campaign trail just one day after the fbi says it broke up a plot by right wing extremists to kidnap her. Six men charged in the plot and seven more men charged by the state on related terrorism charges. Some of the suspects have been seen armed at protests inside the state house in april after President Trump called for people to liberate michigan from governor whitmers covid restrictions. Im pleased to be joined by the governor of michigan, Gretchen Whitmer. Governor, its great to have you. First, i want to sort of get a sense of where things stand for you in terms of your state and your security situation and how youre feeling. Chris, obviously i dont think this should be a part of any bargain in Public Service that we have to sustain and deal with threats to our physical wellbeing. This was ugly. Theres no question. 2020 has been a tough year. I know lots of people have made a lot of sacrifice and were stressed out and worried. And i think thats why its so important that yes, we hold people accountable, and im so grateful for the fbi and Michigan State police. They did a phenomenal job and put themselves at risk to keep me and my family safe. We have 22 days until an election. Thats why im still out on the campaign trail, still governing, trying to keep people safe in michigan. People need leaders who will put them first. I want to ask about politics in your state and covid. I wanted to get your response to something the sheriff in your state said, an individual who had been to several protest, protesting some of the Public Health restrictions the state put in place. He had been seen on stage with several of the men subsequently arrested. He was asked by a local News Reporter about the charges about the plan to kidnap you and his answer was a real doozy. This is what he had to say. Well, its just a charge and they say a plot to kidnap. You have to remember are they trying to kidnap because a lot of people are angry with the governor and they want her arrested so are they trying to arrest or was it a kidnap attempt . You can still in michigan, if its a felony, you can make a felony arns. I think its mco 764 pessimistic 4, Something Like that,. 5, Something Like that. It doesnt say if youre in office youre exempt from that arrest. I have to look at it from that angle and im hoping thats more what it is. These guys are innocent until proven guilty. Im not sure if they had any part of it. Thats barrett county sheriff leaf. Whats your response to that . I have no response to that, chris. The fact of the matter is he shared a stage with people accused of and have been arrested for attempting to plotting to kidnap and try me and murder me. Thats something that sounds like isis, right . Thats not acceptable. What we need are people of goodwill on both sides of the aisle who are willing to stand up and take on the hate that has overcome our country. I was out knocking doors today. I talked to some people who for the first time put political yard signs on their lawns. They want leaders who can bring us together, leaders who can chart a better path, leaders who can speak to our aspirations and the aspirations of this deemly, not people that are going to feed into or excuse or incite this dangerous, unlawful behavior that these domestic terrorists were engaged in. You said you were new yorking on doors. Obviously michigan a crucial state for a whole bunch of reasons. And your victory there in 2018 a real bright spot in a state that obviously went for donald trump in 2016. A New York Times poll hood has joe biden winning by 8 points in that state, 48 to 40. But a real interesting result is the senate race where incumbent gary peters is facing a challenge from john james who is a secondtime candidate. He ran two years ago as well and thats a very close race. What is your assessment where that race is, where the states politics are with three weeks until the election . Well we know that michiganders are practical people. We work hard. We are a good people. We expect our government to be good and work as hard. Gary has been a phenomenal senator for the state of michigan. We are fortunate to have someone who is a Public Servant in every sense of the word in gary. The person running against him ran two years ago against debbie stabenow. She beat him handily. He is running a campaign. He built a name id. This will be a competitive race. I really believe that because of garys record and because of his dedication to the people of michigan i think he will be successful. Were not taking anything for granted. Were going to keep our foot on the gas all the way through election day. You know, one thing that is striking about your tenure as govern over the past year, i remember watching the protests back in april. There was a very concerted attempt by National Conservative media and the president and others to really target you politically, right . This was the boot of tyranny and it seemed to be an open question about what it would mean for you politically in your state. Its a swing state and its hard to stay at home for a long time and everyone is frustrated. And it is striking to me that your approval right now is 5141 that the political and policy incentives in your state seem to align, which is to say it seems youve been politically rewarded by folks in your state for taking the measures you have and taking the virus seriously. Is that your sense . Well, ive been following the science. People in the state by and large have doing the right thing. In the early days we have the third highest number of covids and deaths. If you look at where we are now were like 33rd in the country. Weve pushed our rates down. Weve saved thousands of lives and our economy is one of the top ten recoveries in the nation. We have a lot to be proud of. When you take this pandemic seriously it benefits your economy but to the health of our people which centers all the work weve been doing. Thats why i think joe biden will win the election. People understand an administration that doesnt get their arms around covid19 costs us all. It costs us in terms of 220,000 lives that have been lost, tens of millions of people who are without work, people who are in food line, never been in a food pantry line in their lives. Thats the real truth here when an administration doesnt get their arms around the pandemic we all pay in so many ways but the Trump Administration never got their arms around this pandemic. I know im not popular with them because i said they didnt have a National Strategy six months ago, but to this day they still dont. We deserve better. Governor Gretchen Whitmer of the state of michigan, you can see on the love pillow behind her, a great pillow and a great state. Thank you for making time. Thank you, chris. Still ahead more than 9 million americans have already cast their ballot in the president ial election. Coming up new reporting on the behindthescenes effort from the Trump Campaign to undermine the election. If you have medicare, listen up. The medicare enrollment deadline is only weeks away. With so many changes, do you know if your plan is still the right fit . Having the wrong plan may cost you thousands of dollars out of pocket. And thats why i love healthmarkets, your Insurance Marketplace. With healthmarkets fitscore, they compare thousands of plans from National Insurance companies to find the right medicare plan that fits you. 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This was the scene in the possible swing state of georgia today, a state where republican efforts at Voter Suppression and mismanagement have led to legendary long lines. Local nbc reporter andy peroti spoke to a woman who got in line at 6 00 a. M. And still waited over five hours to vote. I think people are really ready to vote and it doesnt matter how long it takes. We will stand in line to vote. I think thats the most important part. Were voting like our life depends on it. Gwinnett county, which is near atlanta, a crucial election. It posts the wait times for voting online. This afternoon the shortest wait time was 90 minutes while the Elections Office location had an eighthour estimated wait. Now today was the first day and demand was high. Turnout was bonkers by historical standards. We will see how this develops over the next few days and weeks. Because even though we are in a pandemic and even though things are undeniably crazy, all signs are pointing to the highest level of voter turnout in modern american history. Right now anyone who wants to vote can vote safely. And if the polls are anywhere close to accurate, donald trump is losing bay lot. The National Polling gap between trump and biden hit its largest margin yet. Trump is down ten and a half points. The republican plan to counter those polls . Cheat, basically. Thats clearly been the plan for a while. But now theyre just coming out and saying it. The associated press, listen to this quote. Some trump allies say their best bet is to hope the elections look close Election Night before some of the mailin ballots are counted allowing trump to declare victory and have the results thrown to the courts. No, thats not how democracy worse. But that is not stopping the Trump Campaign from assembling an army of lawyers to undermine the entire election. 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People around donald trump know he is losing right now, even if trump is incapable of recognizing it. Trump is obviously dedicated to sabotaging the election and its legitimacy, but he cannot do it alone. Theres a whole Republican Party legal apparatus going along with it. As the New York Times reports, there is an extensive behind the scenes effort led by the lawyers and operatives on trumps campaign, claiming with no evidence that mailin voting is rife with fraud, pushing the boundaries of traditional poll monitoring in ways that Many Democrats amount to voter intimidation and putting legal pressure on states to aggressively purge their voter rolls. The times identifies operatives such as Trump Deputy Campaign manager justin clark, Trump CampaignGeneral Council matthew morgan, Trump Campaign staffer michael roman, and Trump CampaignSenior Adviser robert, paduchik. Remember those names and remember those faces. Those four gentlemen you see there, these are the people that are trying to make it harder to vote. These are the people trying to blur the lines between legitimate pursuit of a campaign a legal interest in courts and a fullfledged assault on the basic principles of free and fair elections. The plan is to twist the law to cheat trump to a second term. I want to bring in someone who is closely tracking those efforts. Ari berman, Senior Reporter for mother jones and author of give us the ballot the modern struggle for Voting Rights in america. Ari, i thought that quote in the a. P. Article, you know, 28 paragraphs down saying, yeah, hopefully it will be close enough and we can just throw it to the courts as if thats like the actual game plan here. But it seems clearer and clearer that is the actual game plan here. Yeah, its pretty amazing, chris. I mean Voter Suppression is not a new thing. Weve talked about it a lot on this show. It goes back a long way in the Republican Party, but its pretty incredible to me that the Trump Campaigns only strategy right now seems to be Voter Suppression, seems to be openly admitting that they cant win unless they prevent people from voting. And that, to me, is a dramatic escalation of what republicans have done in the past. Theyve spent a lot more time trying to suppress the vote than theyve tried to suppress the violence is where were at right now. I think that point about Voter Suppression to me too, theres two different ways this happens, right . I mean frontend efforts that we know theyre undertaking to make it harder to vote early and to make it harder to vote by mail and have to get an affidavit or to reduce the amount of dropin boxes, right . But the idea that after people have cast their votes that you would aggressively go into court to try to make sure ballots that are cast arent counted is a whole another level of suppression. Exactly. Its suppression at every level of the process. First you make it as difficult to vote as possible. Then that leads to all sorts of questions about whether votes are counted. Then you use the uncertainty over the counting of those ballots to then challenge those ballots. And then you litigate into the court, and then of course you appoint justices. This is the whole reason they want Amy Coney Barrett on the court so quickly. You appoint justices who will then hear those challenges. So youre really manipulating democracy at every stage of the process from the beginning to the end, trying to achieve the outcome that you want through antidemocratic means. You know, it does seem theres some evidence for a backlash effect with these efforts, and i thought the images we saw in georgia today were pretty interesting. At one level yet another administrative failure, it would seem, from georgia although many people noted that, look, it may just be demand is so insane. But also what you see there is, you know, these efforts do have a kind of backlash effect, right . I mean do we have evidence that that sometimes is what ends up happening when states take measures to try to restrain people from voting . Yes. We do have some evidence of that, and i think were seeing in georgia and other states that massive turnout can overcome massive suppression. And the question this year isnt really whether people will vote. We know that people are very motivated to vote. The question is will they be able to overcome the barriers that are put in front of them . And i think what were seeing so far is people are very motivated to try to overcome those barriers, whether its voting by mail early or voting early in person. Thats one reason why we saw record voter turnout in georgia because people want to vote early. They dont want to wait until election day so theres really big problems at the polls. I think were seeing evidence through nearly 10 Million People already voting that people are motivated to overcome the barriers that are in front of them, and i think that will be one of the dominant story lines if not the dominant story line of the election going forward. Yeah, i think there were 80,000 votes cast in georgia just today which is crazy when you consider its three weeks to the election tomorrow. Theres also this the texas story, texas and georgia to me, two of the most striking states. These are states that have generally republican control. These are states that never considered themselves to be swing states. They are states that now show essentially ties at the president ial level and very hotly contested senate races. And youve got efforts by state republicans to sort of make it harder to vote and also enormous registration increase in texas that could change how this election goes. What do you think . Yeah, and texas has the first day of early voting tomorrow, and were probably going to see major turnout, long lines in texas as well. But i think in texas and georgia, you have the Republican Party doing everything it can to make it harder to vote, to stop the changing demographics of country. But you also see those changing demographics, exercising political power in record numbers. I think in both texas and georgia, young people, communities of color are forming a powerful coalition to take on this kind of suppression. These are two states if they dont tip in 2020 are going to tip very soon. Thats going to change the entire political map and force the Republican Party to either double down on Voter Suppression or to change their strategy and get away from some of this stuff if it starts to backfire on them like it seems to be backfiring right now. I think thats the we and part of the reason the stakes are so high in this election. Above Everything Else is this sort of breaking point of when a Party Decides that these antidemocratic tactics are no longer worth it. Ari berman who does fantastic reporting on this as always, great to have you. Happy birthday nora, too. Thank you. That is all in on this monday evening. The Rachel Maddow show starts right now. Thanks to you at home for good evening, rachel. Good evening, chris. Thank you, my friend. Much appreciated. And thanks to you at home for joining us this hour. 22 days until the election. When election day arrives, again, just 22 days from now, when election day arrives and you wake up full of anxiety el you wake up full of anxiety about whats going to happen that day, in terms of the election results, when you wake up on the morning of election day, will you be able to say to yourself that morning, well, whatever happens, i know that i did all i could do . Im thinking of your Mental Health here. The whole country right now has collective anxiety, and frankly, collective dyspepsia over whats going to happen in the election, with the congress and a lot of states with the governors race, or the control of the legislature, with the allimportant control of the United States senate, and of course, with the president ial race. The only thing i can tell you to do to protect your