Worries about him pulling some authoritarian move and refusing to step down the much more likely risk is a perfect storm not dissimilar to 2016 where polls are off in a certain direction and then that combined with the electoral system that already favors trump and his coalition by a few points, together puts trump close enough in battleground states where he can challenge the result in the courts and rerun the bush v. Gore playbook on its 20th anniversary. This is not some wild hypothesis. Donald trump has been explicit about that. I think its very important. I think this will end up in the Supreme Court. I think its very important that we have nine justices. I think its better if you go before the election because i think this scam that the democrats are pulling its a scam will be before the United StatesSupreme Court. And i think having a 44 situation is not a good situation. I think it will go before the Supreme Court. Thats what he says about the election. Thats the plan. Like trump said, it is part of the reason they are trying to confirm Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court and confirm her so quickly. He knows bush v. Gore laid the groundwork how to steal a president ial election. Whether you remember or not it was no question al gore had won more votes nationally but the outcome in florida was razor, razor thin and highly disputed based on ballot malfunctions and the notorious hanging chads and a brutal court battle whether to complete a recount that when completed might have shown gore pulling ahead. The conservative majority of the Supreme Court stepped in to actively stop a recount in florida before it might have shown a gore lead, and they did it based on a constitutional theory that was completely at odds with their own stated principles. They used the broadest possible reading of the equal protection because in the constitution, a reading that in the ruling itself the conservative justices had to go out of their way to say now were using this here but you cant use it for precedent. Its good for one ride only because they realized how ridiculous their own reasoning was. Thats how corrupt that decision was. And that is also how george w. Bush became president 20 years ago and it is notable that those people who participated in the bush v. Gore fiasco, those people who were the loyal foot soldiers of the conservative Movement Working to bring it about to put a president in office who lost the popular vote for the first time in over 100 years, a guy who probably lost the electoral college, too, those people are still around. Didnt go anywhere. In fact, a few of them are on the Supreme Court. One was john roberts who edited legal briefs produced each day by the bush team as the case was moving through the lower courts and played a crucial role in editing the final 50page Supreme Court argument prepared in just 24 hours. Good work, roberts. Justice kavanaugh was part of bushs legal team. Bush made him a judge at the u. S. Court of appeals. One was a young lawyer working for the Martin County republicans and they had a crazy situation. They were in a desperate attempt to make sure hundreds of absentee ballot request forms went out to households even though local republicans had actually removed the forms from the office of the supervisor of elections and added the required voter i. D. Numbers and sent them out. So they took them away from the election supervisor and, guess what, those lawyers did their job. They got those ballots to count. 673 would have been uncounted. In a state that bush won by 537 votes. If youre not good at math, thats the margin of victory. And as senator Amy Klobuchar pointed out today that young lawyer who helped make sure the ballots got counted was Amy Coney Barrett. Many argue that bush v. Gore, and back to your earlier work, hurt the courts legitimacy. If you are confirmed, the Supreme Court will have not one, not two, but three justices you, Justice Kavanaugh and chief justice roberts, who worked on behalf of the Republican Party in matters related to the bush v. Gore case. Do you think thats a coincidence . Senator klobuchar, if youre asking me whether i was nominated for this seat because i worked on bush versus gore for a very brief period of time as a young associate, that doesnt make sense to me. I know. You said you wouldnt recuse. That isnt what i said. Youre right. You said you wouldnt announce your decision on recusal and you wouldnt commit to recusing. But, again, the public has a right to know three of these justices have worked on the republican side on a major issue related to a president ial election. Is it a coincidence . I dont think its a coincidence. Participating in bush v. Gore, working to get the candidate who did not get the popular vote was the crowning achievement for an entire generation of Young Lawyers who then grew up to have plum assignments. This is a longstanding tradition thats only intensified. This current generation of Movement Activists are working hard to suppress the vote, to undermine the legitimacy and follow the president s marching orders to intimidate people at the polls and make it harder to vote. The Washington Post reports in a conservative Training Seminar j. Cristhian adames urged the activists not to worry about the criticism that might come their way. Be not afraid of the accusations that youre a voter suppressor, a racist and so forth, adams says. Hes quoting john paul there. Another tape obtained from a training session. Im fighting every single day from now to the election. Im more optimistic about the president s chances. I think were going to do well with younger voters. The democrats shut down all these campuses. Foolish for them. It will remove ballot harvesting opportunities. And all their voter fraud they usually do on college campuses. Theyre actually removing half a million votes off the table. Please keep the campuses closed. Its a great thing. Whatever. We dont want those half Million People voting. That fine young man is charlie kirk, a member of the movement, a made man, so to speak. The first speaker for the Republican National convention in august. If i ask one thing 20 years from now, please, i beg you, spare me how we can trust him to be a fairminded member of the Supreme Court. To talk about the president s plan to push the Supreme Court, im joined now by brian fallon, cofounder and executive director, in 2016 served as the National Press secretary for Hillary Clintons campaign and Legal Correspondent for slate she wrote about the heartlessness of Amy Coney Barretts originalism. Brian, let me start with you because you have been in the trenches of the judicial fights for a while. Ive watched and seen how it radicalized you over time. I think you have appreciated the full scope of what the movement has built. Is that fair . What do you say when you watch a possible bush v. Gore lawyer possibly ascend to the court . This is the culmination of a 40year project. That began with the founding of the Federalist Society and the animating impulses that have driven this movement to take over the courts. Well, sure, it is about overturning roe and it is all about expanding the view of the Second Amendment and thats what helps build the foot soldier army at a Grassroots Level on taking over the courts. One of the other big things its about is about entrenching republican political power. I thought it was interesting though john roberts chose his spots carefully, departed from the conservatives on a certain number of cases, one of the places hes been remarkably almost 100 consistent in voting with the conservative bloc is when it comes to voting related cases, election law matters. Hes a consistent, reliable vote for the republicans and just this week as the hearings are going on while were participating in this charade and asking questions of Amy Coney Barrett that she has no intent to answer, its siding with the Trump Administration on this request to prematurely suspend the census so we can have a massive undercount of people of color contributing to the rigging of congressional districts for another ten years. So my point to democrat s is, w have to realize what were up against here. Donald trump is saying the reason he wants to shove this nominee through is hes intending to contest the Election Results and needs the fifth vote from Amy Coney Barrett because he doesnt even trust john roberts. Democrats approached as they would any other set of hearings and theyre missing the ball in terms of exactly whats at stake here. I think its democratic rule thats in jeopardy if Amy Coney Barrett gets on the court. One of the frustrating fictions is theres a concerted Legal Movement. Its not a conspiracy, its an out in the open project, and there are people who publish articles about returning the conception to the era prenew deal about what you can and cant regulate and theyre very open about it. Theres a project to do that and there are very smart, good writers who come up through the pyramid of this project. When they get to the top as a judge, the presence is they get this like men in black thing where they lose all prejudices and beliefs and put on the robe and they become blind justice. Its very hard for me to swallow. Am i too cynical . No, i dont think so. I just want to flag, because you said you watched brian get radicalized, i think ive gotten radicalized since the last time i saw brian when he couldnt get me to pledge i believed in structural court reform. Ive just been gone gobsmacked, chris, in what ive seen the last couple of weeks. I want to add two data points to your introduction and what you just said now. One is that weve heard leonard leo all week, Sheldon Whitehouse has been very clear about the machinery that you describe and how the Federalist Society is written off as a debate society. A benign place for likeminded conservatives to float ideas. In may it was revealed leonard leo actually were funneling money to this incredibly orwellian, creepy honest new elections project. This was sending money to an effort to suppress the vote in states and spending huge money moving from this judicial project to voter suppression. It goes right to your introduction, chris, theyve given up on selling conservative ideas, on grooming young conservative judges. Now theyre all out going to colorado and florida and michigan and spending money writing letters, threatening elections officials, ads saying vote fraud, people are cheating. Its suppressing the vote, and its anathema to what the Legal Movement was to say were going to give up and pour dark money at suppressing the vote. It suggests theyve given up on the project of persuasion and going all out for minority rule. Theres something fascinating about how all this works. I dont want to overstate the case. I dont know how Amy Coney Barrett will rule on the aca case. These are people that have a certain amount of intellectual vanity, they might have a certain amount of integrity. Theres lots of cases that dont have a clear ideological valence theyre asked to rule on so its not a perfectly predictable thing. One of the things you see happen, brian, everyone is associated with this moral kree cretant donald trump and he says i am putting you on the court to overturn roe, take away the aca and give mean the election. And if you point that out, everyone goes to the fainting couch. How dare you impugn the integrity of this wonderful judge. Maybe he has a better sense of whats up than everyone else does. Theres an utter contradiction to how republicans play this game. If youre coming up through the ranks of the Federalist Society youre encouraged tacitly to audition for these judicial vacancies by giving prominent speeches at the Federalist Society functions where you speak out on all the touch stone issues the Federalist Society likes to keep eyes on. Sobreak, sobreak, so brett kavanaugh, Amy Coney Barrett, its no coincidence they criticized john roberts. They had to get on Donald Trumps short list, get the eye of leonard leo. Then they become the dog that catches the bus. Then they go through these confirmation hearings and have to disown all their past statements and the republicans themselves campaign on the idea theyre going to insist on holding these judicial nominees to overt explicit commitments to overturn roe v. Wade. Hawley has been preening for a 2024 president ial run. He said he would only support somebody who said they thought roe was wrongly decided. Now hes in a position to square that with Amy Coney Barrett pretending she doesnt know how she would rule on roe. Mitch mcconnell has to down play the aca lawsuit that will be argued the week after november. He said no one expects the aca to be overturned. Thats what all these republican state attorney generals are in court arguing for. So its a total contradiction. Nobody should pretend this is on the level. Believe what they said the first time. The thing they want to say you take seriously our arguments, the ones were making in court, we would be monsters. That cant be the case. Thank you both for making some time with us. Appreciate it. Tonight, how did one texas county pull off a recordshattering first day of early voting . One of the central vig yofigure the Success Story tells us what went right, next. Ess story tell went right, next look here, its your very own allinone Entertainment Experience xfinity x1. Its the easiest way to watch live tv and all your favorite streaming apps. Plus, x1 also includes peacock premium at no extra cost. This baby is the total package. It streams exclusive originals, the full peacock movie library, complete collections of iconic tv shows, and more. Yup, the best really did get better. Magnificent. Xfinity x1 just got even better, with peacock premium included at no additional cost. No strings attached. It is day two of early voting in the state of texas and there are once again huge lines as people line up to cast their ballots. The turnout is record shattering. Here is the difference between this election and last election in texas. Its a graph comparing the first day of inperson early voting in six texas counties in 2016 and the first day of early voting in 2020. The numbers are pretty similar in dallas county, tarrant and barrett and travis counties but turnout doubled on day one in Denton County on the far right and nearly doubled in Harris County on the far left. Those blue bars, you see those . Nearly 5 Million People live in Harris County. Sit the Third Largest county in the entire country. It includes the city of houston. It used to be solidly republican. George w. Bush won that county handily in 2004 by ten points. In 2008 and 2012 the county went blue. Obama edging out a narrow, narrow victory both times. In 2016 Hillary Clinton absolutely dominated beating donald trump there by 12 points. The 2018 midterms you might remember orourke won that county by nearly 17 points. Clearly something is going on in Harris County, texas. They set a new record for early voting yesterday, over 128,000 people casting ballots. By lunch time today another 50,000 people had voted early. This means that in the first 1 1 2 days voters cast 14 of the total number of ballots cast in the entire 2016 election. Weve heard so many stories about voter suppression, local officials making it harder to vote. Harris county is what it looks like when a local government is devoted to making it easier to vote. Someone who has been fighting to make that possible is Harris County judge hidalgo im happy to have on. Judge, its great to have you become on the program. Ive been watching both the images and following lawsuits but looking at the numbers what is going on in your county . What steps has your county government taken affirmatively to make it easier to vote in Harris County . Well, thank you, chris, for having me. I think what were seeing is the best example of if you build it, they will come. We have been working i got into office about a year and a half ago and weve been working since day one to make voting more accessible. Weve invested over 30 million in election safety and accessibility. Compared to 2016, back then it was around 4 million. Thats what it is. It is tripling the number of early vote locations, drivethrough voting, mail ballot tracking. None of this sounds revolutionary but weve been at war with the texas gop every step of the way. Ultimately the community has come out and taken advantage and i hope that will continue. You tripled i want to make this clear, you tripled the number of early voting locations so part of what were seeing you guys just made it a lot easier to vote early like inperson early voting was expanded by 300 under your administration and then this drivethrough voting, which is fascinating and obviously very useful in covid times what is drivethrough voting, how does it work and up just have a lawsuit. Tell us what happened. So drivethrough voting, the first time its been done in texas. You show up in your car and you show your i. D. , same signature, same Verification Information as if you walked and voted by walking there and they then hand you a portable version of the voting machine where you cast your vote. I was just at one of our drivethrough voting locations talking to the election workers, and they were telling me down to a person pretty much everybody who is voting drivethrough, wow, that really was easy. And so it is just as secure as voting any other way but, of course, we had a lawsuit from the texas Republican Party just yesterday. The bigger point i want to make what theyre trying to do is have us focus on the ins and outs of the litigation. Ultimately if they dont win by winning the litigation theyre trying to win by confusing voters. And so what im trying to get across is drivethrough voting is going on, people are taking advantage of it, loving it, and that is where we are. Were going to continue fighting on that. Theres been a bunch texas gop sued you and lost at least in the first level of that. The governor issued an order saying you had 11 different places around your county, if im recalling this correctly, that people could hand deliver their mail absentee ballots. The governor said there could only be one. And thats being litigated. And then theres been a fight with the governor is it right you wanted to send every voter there an application for an absentee ballot and they tried to shut that down as well . We did. Everything you mentioned is correct. We wanted to send mail ballot applications and they wouldnt let us. State republican campaigns will send their voters applications but they wouldnt let us do that. Last year they tried to purge our voter rolls. The very first meeting of Commissioners Court it was january 2019, we began to make it so people could vote on election day. It used to be you had to somehow make it to your home precinct on election day and cast your vote. And the polls closed at 5 00 many days. Working parents, working people couldnt possibly make it before the polls closed. Weve had groups that credit where credit is due theyve been working hard in texas, in Harris County to come up with these policies. We had them but we didnt have leadership at the county that was willing to invest in them. So for the past year and a half, we said we have to do this. Its not done. We have days of early voting. Im heartened to see the voters in this county are standing up. Theyre not going to be intimidated. Theyre not going to be allowed this confusion to prevail. Instead theyre participating. There are so many places where local Election Officials are so devoted to the opposite and we see where that produces. Its amazing to see if you commit affirmatively to expanding access, and this is not necessarily a democratic or republican thing. The state of new york doesnt do it but this is a model for everyone. Thank you for making time tonight. Thank you for having me. Next, new reporting the Trump Administration is interference with the Coronavirus Vaccine process yet again as another vaccine trial is put on hold. We will sort through what we know next. Once again tonight the president on the campaign trail in des moines, iowa, without a mask before a mostly maskless crowd, boasting to hundreds of people hes now immune to covid two weeks after he tested positive for the virus. At least 28 other people connected to the white house also tested covid positive after a super spreader event in the rose garden to celebrate nominee Amy Coney Barrett. Today we found the president s teenage son is one of the folks who got covid. Melania trump writing on the white house website that barron tested positive. He is doing well and has since tested negative. The Trump Administration is once again pressuring the food and Drug Administration on a covid vaccine. First it was about vaccine guidelines and time line. Now its about vaccine branding. Reporting trump wants to rebrand as a, quote, prelicenseure because it would be viewed as a politicalization of science one Senior Administration said. There are currently 11 possible vaccines that are in phase three. The large scale stage of testing. Two trials by Johnson Johnson and astrazeneca are on hold, but all that said theres still a lot of confidence and optimism that a working vaccine will make it through by the end of this year and get approved. The question is what then . Approval is step one and theres a lot of steps after that. I want to bring in someone who knows all act what needs to be done right now, has worked on vaccines for a range of diseases for years, is working on a Coronavirus Vaccine right now. Dr. Peter hotez. The codirector of the texas Childrens Hospital center. Dean of the school of medicine at baylor. Its great to have you back on the program. Lets talk about where things stand with the various phase three trials and the news that a lot of people have seen that a number of them have been halted as they investigate upon illnesses. How normal is that in the process . Chris, we have about seven or eight vaccine that is will move through the pipeline warp speed including the one weve developed at texas childrens thats being scaled now in india producing up to a billion doses. Im pretty confident well have multiple vaccines by the middle of next year. The trick will be getting through these next few months both in terms of fighting covid and also going through all of the regulatory hurdles that we need to go to. In the u. S. Operation warp speed you have about four vaccines in phase three, various stages of phase three clinical trials, the pivotal trials you need for licensure, two have been put on pause which is different from clinical hold. Clinical hold is mandated by the fda, these are voluntary pauses put out because of unexplained illness. Its not that unusual. The way i like to phrase it is imagine a city of 30,000 or 60,000 people outside of new york, new rochelle or white plains on any given day youll have somebody with an unexplained illness or who gets sick. For unclear reasons. That, per se, is not so troubling. Its a matter of looking to see what the basis of it is. The problem with operation warped speed the scientific rigor is good, it has been preserved by the fda. The problem is the communication has been awful. No communication strategy deliberately, by intention. Its been left to the Pharma Companies and theyre doing a bad job at communicating problems or having a leak through investor phone calls. Or the stock dumping and the conflicts of interest. And thats eroding public confidence. That worries me. A couple companies are not traditional vaccine companies. Moderna and astrazeneca seem a bit tone deaf to understanding how quickly a vaccine can be voted off the island not because its a bad vaccine but the public is concerned by all of the crummy messaging. It seems like theres a lot of confidence well have something that is pretty effective and safe. And something emerging by, say, the end of this calendar year. You were talking mass vaccination happening middle of next year. If you have a number of these different vaccines, right, and theyve been cleared and you have billions of people around the world we should get this to, just talking about the u. S. , thats a big logistical issue. The Trump Administration hasnt been grade on logistics. Theyve been terrible and tens of thousands of people died unnecessarily because of it. What is the plan in the next administration to do logistically once youve got a few different vaccines to choose from . Yeah, i think youve hit on it. This is an extraordinarily complex undertaking. Different vaccines will do different things. Some may protect better than others, others wont prevent the actual infection but will reduce the severity of illness. Some of the vaccines if theyre less protected than others mean there will be companion technologies with existing Public Health control measures. Were still going to need masks and social distancing and Contact Tracing or some of the durability of protection will not be very long and theyll have to get boosted. Do we get boosted with the same vaccine or a different vaccine . Wait a second. I want there to be a silver bullet. Tell me theres some g. D. Needle i can put in my arm and go to my brothers wedding in may. Will i be able to go to my brothers wedding in may and not hearing what i want to hear from you. It sounds like what im hearing from you, this is not a silver bullet. These vaccines have various levels of production they may give us. And will probably need to be paired with some of the mitigation strategies, use masks and social distancing. What does that mean . And none is being communicated to the American People which adds a lot to the complexity. So we have to start that communication strategy now. To simplify this a little bit all of the vaccines including ours, the ones at operation warp speed, work by the same principle. They use different technologies but work by inducing high levels of virus neutralizing antibodies and tcell responses. For you to feel safe going to your brothers wedding, youre going to want to have virus neutralizing antibodies through a vaccine. The good news is that all of the vaccines will do that to some extent, some better than others. But the bottom line is, dont wait for a better vaccine to come along. The question i get asked a lot, of all these vaccines which one should i take . Thats the wrong question to ask. We dont know what will be available. Do whatever you can to take a vaccine that will give you virus neutralizing antibodies. That will protect from you going to the hospital, going into an icu. Later you may have to get boosted with the same or a different vaccine. Worry about that at the time. The key is getting through the winter. Its going to be a horrible winter. Thats a great note to end on. Thats my fear, we have 37,000 people hospitalized as of today. Thank you. Every time i try to do a positive covid story. Coming up, with less than three weeks to catch up with biden in the polls, candidate trump is focused and on message tweeting conspiracy theorys and mocking senior citizens, thats just ahead. Mocking senior citiz just ahead and now your copilot. Still a father. But now a friend. Still an electric car. Just more electrifying. Still a night out. But everything fits in. Still hard work. Just a little easier. Still a legend. Just more legendary. Chevrolet. Making lifes journey, just better. Introducing the new sleep number 360 smart bed. Making lifes journey, now temperature balancing so you can sleep better together. Save up to 1,000 on the new sleep number 360 smart bed and adjustable base. Plus, 0 interest for 24 months. Only for a limited time. People who spend too much time on the internet and twitter have a term they use for people like themselves which is extremely online. I think its fair to say we have an extremely online president. I recognize hes extremely online because i, myself, am extremely online and im not proud of it. I spend all day on the internet. Its probably doing to my brain what a pack of cigarettes a day do to your lungs. At least im partly aware of it. One of the big problems for donald trump they seem to have forgotten how to communicate with anyone who is not extremely online. Just take the president s twitter usage just yesterday, one day, he retweeted a qanon account suggesting joe biden and barack obama had s. E. A. L. Team six killed, which is pretty clearly not true since s. E. A. L. Team six is alive, one of its members, a trump supporter, spent all day swatting away conspiracy theories. Trump tweeted another conspiracy claiming Osama Bin Laden had been hiding in iran and was brought to pakistan for obamas trophy kill. Also totally insane. The president tweeting both of those. And then a president down by 20 points according to polls at a time people are dying by tens of thousands because the president has failed to stop, he tweeted this photo shopped image. I guess the idea is that elderly people who live in Nursing Homes are worthless garbage with Nothing Better to offer, consistent with the way he allowed the virus to ravage this year. The people who see that are like, oh, so funny, roasted, are like 14yearold boys who never leave the internet. Human begs who have not yet developed their emotional and find any frailty in the human form disgusting and contemptible. Those are not the voters President Trump needs, 14yearold boys who spend all day on the internet. His campaign believes that because their Troll Campaign in 2016 was successful they can troll their way back to reelection, but you actually have to talk to normal people to win an election. It looks like they have forgotten how. People who are extremely online call people who are not extremely online normies, normal people. And joe biden is running a hell of a normal campaign rather than posting weird images attacking seniors this is how he talks to them. He throws super spreader parties at the white house, republicans hug each other without concern to the consequences. How many of you have been unable to hug your grandkids in the last seven months . I have six of them. Two of them, my deceased sons, a boy and a girl, live not far from me. They can walk through the woods. I stand on the back porch and they stand down and i bribe them with haagendazs bars. Every single day i contact them. I cant hug them. I cant embrace them. And im luckier than most because theyre nearby. Theres a reason that joe biden right now is winning seniors by more than 20 points and is way up overall. You saw it when he spoke with seniors. This isnt just conjecture. A lot of people doing polling with normal people trump needs to win a National Election and they are completely done with him. One of the people doing those focus groups will join me next. Were helping change the future of Heart Failure. Understanding how to talk to your doctor about Treatment Options is key. Today, we are redefining how we do things. We find new ways of speaking, so youre never out of touch. Its seeing someones face that comforts us, no matter where. When those around us know us, they can show us just how much they care. The first steps of checking in, the smallest moments can end up being everything. Theres resources that can inform us, and that spark can make a difference. When we use it to improve things, then that change can last within us. When we understand whats possible, we wont settle for less. The best thing we can be is striving to be at our best. Managing Heart Failure starts now with understanding. Call today or go online to understandhf. Com for a free hf handbook. Just 20 days until the election. Joe biden still has a substantial lead over donald trump in the polls. Over ten points in the five thirty eight National Polling average. The president responds to those numbers with a flurry of rallies and right wing interviews which could hurt his election hopes. Trump is so deeply embedded in rightwing subculture, he appears to have lost his ability to speak to people outside of that bubble. So when he looks at polling numbers and sees hes losing a certain voter group, for instance suburban women, who he won in 2016, who are now breaking for biden, here is how trump tries to get them back. I ask you to do me a favor. Suburban women, will you please like me . Remember . Please. Please. I saved your damn neighborhood, okay . Jane coaston has some insight into this messaging. Shes a senior politics reporter for vox. Shes done a ton of reporting on trumps rightwing mindset. Republican strategist Sarah Longwell joins us as well. Sarah conducted a focus group last night and describes it this way. I did a focus group with women who voted for trump in 2016. Not a single one was planning to vote for him again. Sarah, let me start with you on this. It really is striking to me for all the insanity of 2016 that there was a kind of definable message and the message had some appeal to a possible median voter who is not like a hard core fox news eight hour a day watcher. What are you hearing from people that are in the kind of normie category who voted for trump before and are kind of fed up with him now . Yeah. Well, look, people are exhausted and theyre hurting. There is a pandemic. There is an check crisis. People have been furloughed. Theyre not going to their jobs. Their kids cant go to day care. I mean theyre looking for solutions. The personal consequences of the moment mean that people are genuinely looking for leadership. Theyre genuinely looking for a plan. And so when the president has a debate with joe biden and goes on and yells and interrupts, when he contracts coronavirus himself, which he has been downplaying, what hes not doing is talking to these people about the things that matter to them, about the things that are important to their lives and are going to improve them. So what ive been seeing is trump alienate these voters in real time. Ive been doing the focus groups since 2018. Ive probably done 50 of them, and since this summer, youve just seen him fall off a cliff with a lot of these women because, you know, before they said, well, the economys good. You know, hes hes doing okay. They didnt like the divisiveness, but now theyve had it. I had a group last night, noncollege women, you know, these suburban moms, and i couldnt find a single one of them who was willing to say they were going to vote for him again in 2020, and they all voted for him in 2016. That point, sarah not talking about anything in their lives is whats so striking to me about the president s rhetoric, jane, because hes so wrapped up in a series of like byzantine rightwing conspiracy theories and about what the Justice Department did and this fbi agent texted this person. None of it has anything to do with what peoples lives are, and youre someone i think i got this thesis probably from, which said hes trapped by his own immersion in picayune details of the rightwing, you know, extended universe. Right. Its interesting because actually just before we had this conversation, trump was speaking and told the audience, did you hear the news . Bruce ohr has left the department of justice. If youre in the trump rally audience, what are you thinking . Who the hell is bruce ohr . Because you have things to do. I think its such a fascinating departure because in 2016, part of the narrative that was constructed around 2016 as why this happened is that elites werent listening to what real americans, normal americans, Middle America was really concerned about and talking about. And i think in many respects, that was somewhat true. I think that the concerns of people in rust belt cities, the concerns of people in workingclass neighborhoods, obviously a certain kind of workingclass neighborhood, werent getting heard. But in 2020, its like forget all that. We care about the beautiful voters and the russiagate hoax that you need an advanced degree to explain to anyone and a conversation that is so focused on a very specific audience, which i think is me, you, and people who read townhall. Com, and it just is its so internecine. Its so focused on this messaging that he is getting and then he shares on twitter, and then people reply to him on twitter. And its a backandforth, but at no point is there an entrance from anyone else. Part of what this makes to me sort of fascinating to observe as someone who thinks a lot about politics and covers politics is there are so many ways in which trump sort of defied political gravity in 2016 and when he said the thing he said about john mccain, everyone said, well, thats not going to work, and when he bragged about the size of his genitalia, everyone was like, oh, thats going to be bad for him, and it never seemed to catch up with him. Then he won this improbable victory. One of the things i started learning when i started covering politics at 22, 23, is like you try to not be a jerk. You try to be kind of likable. You try to appeal to people that dont already agree with you. These are like basic tenets which he has completely overthrown, and it seems like its the revenge of those basic ideas now this time around. Yeah. Well, i mean, the difference is hes not running against Hillary Clinton. Right. I mean when i do these focus groups, heres what they say to me. I say, why did you vote for trump in 2016 . They say, oh, i didnt vote for trump. Right. I voted the against Hillary Clinton. And he just doesnt have that foil now. Right. And so, you know, the thing is joe biden is actually pretty popular. People like him. His favorables are pretty high. So, look, these are republican voters, and so theyre not in love with joe biden, but hes acceptable enough. Right. Hell do, especially when he seems like a nice, normal person and donald trump really sounds like a raving lunatic to them. I mean when i ask them how they think things are going in the country, they usually curse. Theyre very unhappy with how things are going. This is one of your voters after the debate saying, are we serious right now . Youre on live tv. Youve got every single social justice thing happening right now. Just come out and condemn it. This is about white supremacists. Is it for all the rednecks that youre not telling the kkk to knock it off . I had a wtf moment while that was happening. This is one of the people responding. And, jane, i thought this moment was amazing. Chuck grassley saying to donald trump on twitter, i suggest you use pocket card at podium with five short sentences on what youve accomplished, five things that differentiate you from biden, five things you will accomplish in the next four years. Focusing on these simple highlights will help your message and only take five minutes. Then say whatever you want. Again, this is being said to the president of the United States. But i wanted to point out a very specific moment from the debate. There was a moment in which trump appeared to go after biden for something having to do with his alma mater. That was a reference to a specific moment in which biden said he got his start at delaware state university. Right. Which is a historically black college, and people were railing against him, like, oh, he forgot where he went to school. Thats not exactly what happened. It had to do with his first campaign. But also who cares . Right. That was such one of those tiny little moments that if you cover or follow rightleaning conservative media, you heard about because it was referenced briefly by someone. Yeah. But it also was so disconnected from, like, hello . Theres a pandemic going on. Were in the midst of stimulus debates that you just pulled out of for no apparent reason because youve decided youre paul ryan now. Like whats happening . Whats going on . I think thats what a lot of people are starting to ask, even people who voted for him. Yeah. I mean the other thing about this, and sarah youve talked about this, like the background context here is the country is objectively in terrible shape and, you know, theres 800 people who died today. So theres 37,000 people in the hospital. I talked to a guy the other day who just in casual conversation told me his father passed away on saturday. Im like, that happens a lot in america right now. If you dont have something to say about that, you dont have something to say to american voters. Jane coaston and Sarah Longwell, thank you both for talking to me tonight. Thanks. That is all in for this wednesday. We do not have a show tomorrow night, so well see you back here on friday at 8 00. Now the Rachel Maddow show begins. Good evening, rachel. That was i wouldnt exactly call that a pregnant pause, but i would call it a very suggestive pause, chris. I have the day off. Thats what i have. Thats a very, very diplomatic statement from a wise colleague. Thank you very much, my friend. Much appreciated. Are you going to be with me later on to help me out this hour . I think so. Actually as im doing this throw, im like ive got to loop back with cory if theyre using me later. I think so, yes. Well, ill see you in a few minutes. We can talk about all of this and more. Perfect. We can talk about this and more. Thank you at home for joining us this hour. Much appreciated. Happy to have you here. You know, it was just over two months ago that former Vice President joe biden announced that his running mate, his choice to fill the job that he, himself, held under president obama, would be california senator kamala harris. In the nine weeks since that announcement, it feels like the world has gone around the sun several times. Bidens polling advantage over the president has only grown larger. The president , and we now know, his wife and his teenage son, were both infected with the coronavirus. The president was hospitalized for coronavirus. The president pulled out of the second presil